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And he loves me.
But I’m still afraid that this is too good to be true. Or more than I deserve.
Savage parks his SUV outside the ranch house, and I smile at the gorgeous log cabin. Pleasant memories from our time together fill my mind and heat floods my body.
“Stay right there,” he says, and gets out of the car.
“Why?” I call out.
Savage circles the vehicle, opens my door, and offers me his hand. “Because you shouldn’t have to open your own door.”
I laugh, but it dies in my throat as he lifts me out of the car and carries me toward the front door. “What are you?—?”
“I love you,” he says, and puts me down on the front porch. “I want you to know how important you are to me, Princess.”
I lose my breath.
The way he’s looking at me, how tender he’s being, it’s everything.
“I have something to show you,” he says. “Two things.” He unlocks the front door and stands back to let me inside. The hallway is covered in roses. Beautiful red roses, the edges of their petals so dark, they’re almost black, are arranged in crystal vases all the way down either side of the hall.
I’m speechless.
Savage places his hand in the small of my back and guides me inside.
The hall isn’t the only room filled with roses.
The living room is occupied by them too. We walk down the hall together, between the beautiful flowers, and Savage stops beside the closed door that leads into the library.
“So,” he says, “the first thing I wanted to show you was these flowers, Princess.”
“They’re beautiful,” I say, choking the words out.
“They’re for you.” He kisses my cheek. “I bred them for you, and named them after you.”
My jaw drops. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. I feel like you need to know how much I care, Hannah. I’m not going to hide how I feel any more,” he says. “And the way you’ve been with me has given me an idea.” He takes my hands and kisses them. “There are a lot of women in this country, this state, who need support. Women who are alone or who have been abused or hurt. Single mothers. I want to start an initiative to deliver flowers to new mothers in hospitals. In honor of you, of Charlotte, of strong women everywhere.”
I burst into tears and throw my arms around him. “That is amazing, Carter. That is so amazing.”
“I love you,” he says.
And every time he says it, it’s like a balm for my soul. “I love you too,” I whisper into his chest, grasping his shirt. He’s so solid, and my love for him is implacable. I don’t know how much longer I can survive this. I am so scared of getting hurt, but I am so into him it makes me dizzy.
“And there’s more,” he says.
“More?”
“Yeah.” Carter pulls away and holds my upper arms, smiling down at me. “I want you to know how serious I am about you, Hannah.” He clears his throat. “You love books, you’re a librarian, so I don’t want you to take this the wrong way.”
“Uh oh, what?”
“Well, remember how I donated those books to the library?” he asks.
“Yeah?”
“There was a second reason I did that, Princess.” He opens the door to the library, and my heart turns over in my chest.
