Page 100 of Thaw My Heart

Tears fill my eyes as I sink deeper into the bed. My heart feels like it’s breaking, falling apart as his story pours out of him.

“I even bought Dakota an engagement ring, like an idiot. Hoping to surprise her on Christmas morning, but when I walked through the door… she was with someone else.” He shuts his eyes for a moment. “And that was all I could take. I’ve hated Christmas ever since, and everything about this time of year.”

I pat the bed, gesturing for him to sit beside me, needing to close this space between us. “I’m so sorry,” I say as he sits beside me. “I can’t even imagine.”

It all makes sense now.

How much he hates the mechanical Santa at the bar, the reason he always wants to be alone, Christmas music, his trust issues, his jealousy… all of it.

“I want to trust you, Sadie. I do. But I’m terrified one day you’ll get bored with me. That I won’t be enough.”

My heart clenches. How can he think that? “If anything, you can be too much sometimes,” I try to lighten the mood.

He huffs a laugh, wiping tears from his cheeks.

I turn my body towards him, grabbing his shoulders. Forcing him to look in my eyes, so he can see how much I care about him. “I would never do that to you, Kit. That’s not who I am.” And I could never hurt him that way.

He smiles, but it’s half-assed, like he still doesn’t believe me.

“Look, the minute my body doesn’t feel like it’s going to light on fire when you look into my eyes, I promise I’ll let you know.” He truly laughs this time, with a sexy smile in the corner of his perfect mouth. “Besides, it’s much more likely that you’ll get bored with me first,” I admit.

Or sick of me, or both.

He shakes his head and gently pushes me down on the bed, hovering inches above me. My body comes alive with his radiating warmth, and the faint whiff of pine trees and rain that envelops me. “Do you really believe that?”

“Well, there are plenty of other women on this ranch who’d love to be with you.” Like Leah. “And probably more than half of Aspen Hollow, too.”

He smiles, and it makes my heart flutter. All the butterflies come alive with the way he looks at me. “Yet my eyes are on you. They’ve always been on you.” Shallow breaths escape my mouth as his gaze moves to my lips. “I’m really sorry, Sadie. You are not a weekend getaway, and I’m going to prove that to you. Starting now, seeing as by the next minute you might not want me anymore,” he teases.

“That is not how I meant it.”

“I know.” And then his lips are on mine. Consuming all my thoughts as he presses his body against me. “So, you have a brother?”

“Let’s not talk about that now.” I pull his mouth back to mine, needing more.

Our clothes slowly fall to the wooden floor as moonlight drifts in, highlighting Kit’s torso. His hands stay on my hips, holding me tight while my legs are wrapped around him. Sitting in his lap while I rock into him, fucking him slow as he spreads soft kisses to my breasts.

This moment is so hot and heavy, yet everything around us is so still, as if it’s only Kit and me and the warm breaths escaping our mouths in the inch of space between us.

I’m naked and wrapped in his strong arms when I fall into a deep sleep, forgetting about my fears. Forgetting about everything except how good and safe it feels to be wrapped up in him.

Sometime in the early morning, I’m wide awake. Full of bliss while Sadie’s bare ass is pressed against me, and there’s no better feeling than being beside her. Than being the man who gets to wake up next to her.

I should’ve trusted her yesterday. Shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions, letting my hurt and fear almost ruin our relationship. But as much as I overreacted, I’m happy she knows the truth. It’s a relief I don’t have to hide the pain anymore. That I can be open and honest about the past. It’s something I’ve never had before.

Openness and trust.

I brush the hair from her back, softly, slowly, so I don’t wake her. Memorizing her freckles and the feel of her soft skin under my lazy hands. The feel of her perfect curves… but the minute my eyes land on the scars on her upper back, my entire world goes black.

Are these… burn marks?

Between her shoulder blades are permanent scars from a cigarette burned into her skin. And not just a couple, but so many that I feel like I’m going to be sick.

My hands tremble when I think of the way she flinched when my hand grazed her back in the bathroom, the way she described being with someone for a long time. Going somewhere deep inside her mind on our first date. The way she questioned me when she caught me smoking.

But if I’d known someone fucking tortured her…

I slip on a pair of jeans, debating on grabbing my gun from the barn and hunting down the man who did this. I’m not a violent man by any means, but I would gladly burn off his balls and make him eat it.