Page 125 of Marcus

Marcus would be her safe haven.

Always.

“It helped,” she repeated, “because it reminded me where I wanted to be the most. It didn’t matter that I was scared, or that it felt like every fear I had was coming to life all over again. None of that mattered because I was still willing to take the risk. I still wanted to be here. I needed to figure that out, but I couldn’t do that here with you. I’m sorry if you thought differently, but I didn’t know how to explain this over a phone call.”

“Well,” he drawled, pushing away from the door jamb to stand at his full height. It made her have to look up at him, even in her heels. His head tipped down as he moved closer to her, the small bit of distance between them becoming nothing at all in a blink. “You could have started by saying I love you because that was the thing I thought I had ruined that day.”

His body molded against hers, but Cella didn’t move away. Like this, his lips were close enough that all she needed to do was lean up for a kiss, and she would have it. Instead, she waited, asking, “And then what could I have done?”

“You could have let me apologize,” he murmured, “for trying to do too much; for letting my feelings cloud my judgment in a way that I put you and her in danger; for failing because I’ve never done that before, but I felt like I did with you.”

Cella shook her head. “No, you really didn’t.”

Down the hall, the music became louder.

“Except you couldn’t tell me that,” he said, “because you weren’t here.”

And she hadn’t called.

“But you waited,” she whispered. “For me to figure this out … to come back, you waited.”

“Of course, I did.”

“Even when you thought—”

“You’re mine, Cella. I will wait for you forever.”

“Promise?”

Marcus reached up to pinch her chin between his forefinger and thumb. Not that she wanted to look away from him, but like this, he didn’t give her a choice but to stay still. “I’m kind of tired of making promises of what could be because I’d really just like to give you whatever you want. If you ask for the world, woman, I will give it to you.”

“I really just want you.”

“I’m yours.”

That was all she needed to hear to propel her closer to him, taking away the little bit of distance so that she could finally do what she had wanted from the second the doors of that elevator opened and she found him standing at the end of the entry hall.

Kiss him.

Her lips found his, and it was like coming home again. Like finding the one place that would always be hers and was forever safe. The world around them that had felt like it was entirely off-axis suddenly tilted back into place. His lips swept over hers, soft and slow at first, tasting with soft flicks of his tongue against the seam of her mouth, urging her to open up for him. And when she did, when she took his kiss deeper, she tasted heaven.

Cella, still feeling as though she were floating, grounded herself by fisting the lapel of his blazer. She drifted the pad of her fingertips down his jaw as the kiss slowed, and his next words whispered over her lips.

“Say it—I’ve missed hearing it.”

She knew exactly what he meant.

Felt what he wanted in her soul.

“I love you,” she told him.

Marcus kissed her again. “Sempre—forever, Cella.”

Laughter echoing down from the hallway had Cella wishing she could catch her breath. “We better get back to the party.”

“Just long enough to say goodbye.”

“Marcus.”