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Ground rules? A distant memory rang. She’d wanted those before.
“Rule one. No more staying in the shadows for you. You don’t get to be my creepy but hot protector.”
Creepy. Wonderful. He winced.
“Instead, you get to be in my life. One hundred percent in. You get to be my hot and dangerous boyfriend or, maybe one day, my hot and dangerous husband.”
He could not move.
“Am I jumping ahead? I’m probably jumping ahead.” She snatched her hand back. That hand immediately fisted on her lap. “You said you loved me, and I love you, but I shouldn’t jump ahead. You just got out of the hospital. Your bar is gone. And I’m rambling and telling you things you don’t want to hear.”
He wanted to hear everything that she had to say. “I told you not to do that.” He reached over. Unfurled her fingers. Stroked lightly over the half-moon marks that she’d made in her palm. “I never want you hurt.”
“I don’t want you hurt, either.” Tears filled her eyes, but Avalon blinked them away. “There was fire all around you. I didn’t know how to get you out.”
He smiled at her. “Sweetheart, you drove a Jag through the wall.”
“I didn’t know if that would work or not. It didn’t the first time. I had to hit twice.”
“You got me out.”
“If you’d died…” Her gaze fell to their hands. “I would have been lost.”
That’s how I will be without you. “You should have a good life, Avalon. No, a great one. One without some messed-up guy like me dodging your steps.”
Her head whipped up. “Did you miss the part where I said I love you?”
His back teeth clenched.
Her lips parted. “You’re afraid to believe me.”
He was. Because he wanted her so badly. If he thought he had her love and he lost it…lost her…
“Oh, Beau.” She jumped to the seat beside him. Her body brushed against his. “I love you. I love every single part of you.”
No, she couldn’t. Some parts were dark and twisted. But he’d work on them. He’d tried before and he’d do it again.
“Every. Part.” Both of her hands rose so that her fingers pressed against his cheeks. “My dark protector. My badass, bar-owning boyfriend. I love you. When I think of my future, it’s you. You are what I want. What I need. You walked through fire for me.”
“You drove through it for me.”
Her lips curled. Those gorgeous dimples of hers winked.
He loved her smile. Loved her.
“Ground rule two.” Avalon cleared her throat. “We fight for what we want. What I want? It’s you. What do you want?”
“I’m staring at her.”
Her dimples flashed again. “Then nothing else matters. We’ll forget all the other rules. It’s you and it’s me. And we’re going to be together. Nothing will break us. Nothing. We’re stronger than fire.”
He needed her mouth. Needed her. “We’ll go slow,” he promised because he was still afraid to hope too much. “If I scare you, then?—”
Her laughter stopped him. “You can’t scare me. We’ve been over this, remember? You’re the one thing that doesn’t scare me.” But her laughter died away. “You didn’t ask for help.”
His brow furrowed.
“When the fire was around you, you didn’t yell for help. Anyone else would have. You told Royal and I to get out. That is not what you do in a fire.”
