Texas Heroes_ Volume 1(174)

Heartbreak filled her eyes. “I wrote you letter after letter from school in Switzerland. I sent them to your mother’s house. I wanted to understand why you did it, but you never answered.”

“I never got any letters.” He saw her eyes widen, then her brow furrowed. Dev’s gut twisted. “What did he tell you I did?”

She dropped her gaze and whispered. “You wanted money to walk away. It hurt so badly to know that, but I think I understand—”

The breath whooshed out of her as Dev gripped her shoulders and lifted her to sitting. “He told you I took money?” Rage roared through his veins. “He threatened me with jail, Lacey. He knew I wouldn’t take his money—I was working for him as little better than a slave because I refused to take one damn dime from him that I hadn’t earned. He made my family into a charity case, and he never missed an opportunity to rub it in my face that I couldn’t take care of them properly on my own.”

“You’re hurting me, Dev.” Her eyes were wide and dark, her face pale as water.

He let go instantly. “I’m sorry. God, I’m sorry—” He leapt from the bed and began to pace, scrubbing his hands over his face.

“I want to believe you,” she said in a tiny voice.

He whirled. “What?”

Lacey sat up, hands rubbing her upper arms as if she were freezing. “I said, I want to believe you.” She looked up at him, stricken. “But why would he do that?”

“Because,” Dev’s laugh was bitter, “as he said, I wasn’t good enough for his princess.” He clawed one hand through his hair, then exhaled sharply and went to her, kneeling at her side. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I held you too roughly. I wouldn’t hurt you for anything in the world.”

It was true. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt her. Dev wanted to shake his fists at the heavens. Instead, he stared at the floor, shoulders hunched in defeat. Would she feel better or worse to know that the man who had done that to them wasn’t her blood father?

He felt a touch on his hair so light he could have imagined it. “He was wrong,” she whispered. “You’re special. You’ve always been special.”

Her slender hands framed his face, tipping it up to the moonlight where he could see the gentle outpouring of something that made his heart seize. Slowly, reverently, she lowered her mouth to his, pausing less than a breath away.

“Don’t let him win,” she whispered. “Come back to this bed and make love to me.”

If he could have handed her the world in that moment, he would have done it. With fingers that weren’t quite steady, he caressed her jaw.

Lacey’s lips brushed his, and the moment felt holy. When she deepened the kiss, he fought to hold back the outpouring of years of longing, of the unshed tears of a boy who’d been too bad, too poor, too young to become a man soon enough to keep those he loved from suffering.

Lacey’s kiss was both balm and torture. He pulled her off the mattress and onto his lap, gathering her into his arms and wishing he could hold off the world.

He drank in the succor like a man long in the desert, but even as years of pain eased, his heart squeezed.

I don’t want to tell you. I don’t want to hurt you.

But he had no choice. With everything in him, he prayed he would do it right when the time came. Find the magic words to deliver the news without tearing her apart.

Then the sweetness couldn’t hold the fire at bay any longer. In seconds more, he could feel the lick of flames at his heels, hear the roaring of the inferno racing toward them.

She whimpered and squirmed in his arms. Dev bent over her to shelter her from harm, and took them deeper into the bliss.

It was everything, Lacey thought. This. This man. Dev, it was Dev she had waited for, Dev who’d been the reason that no one else was ever enough. Only Dev could ease the gnawing ache, fill the emptiness that had been her constant companion for years.

With that dawning of understanding, something inside her eased open like a flower in the light. Dev was her dark sun, her other half, the man who could finally make her whole.

And now Lacey burned, the long night of sweet torture teasing her nerve endings to screaming attention. Sliding her nails over his skin, she nipped at his lips, sought his tongue, pressed herself close enough that their skin could meld, become one.

Dev answered her with a power that flared through her like a starburst. His strong arms held her so close she could barely breathe, but she wanted desperately to be closer still.

“Dev,” she demanded, helpless against how he made her feel. “Now. Please…now.”