Page 99

43. Cameron

My eyes felt heavy as they fluttered against the light. As I drifted into consciousness, I wondered why my heart rate was so loud in my ears. Then I became aware of the warm, hard surface beneath my cheek.

Turning my head, I looked up and saw Forde’s handsome face relaxed in sleep.

I’d slipped down the bed, my head on his chest. It was his heartbeat in my ears.

I loved that sound.

Last night, this man had come to my rescue.

I wasn’t a fool. I knew how close to death Donal and I had come. There was a huge possibility the wind would have blown us so far off course, the LSLS wouldn’t have found us before either rough water took us out or the freezing cold did.

But Forde had found me and I knew deep in my heart that he wouldn’t have stopped looking.

Tentatively, I sat up to study his face. I reached out, needing to touch him, stroking the back of my knuckles across his bearded cheek. He had a tiny scar that was barely noticeable at the corner of his right eye where he’d cut it when he was sixteen and I was thirteen. We’d been quad biking and we’d hit a rock buried in the fields. We’d tumbled off and Forde face-planted against a small rock that had sliced near his eye. It was a miracle it hadn’t taken his eye out.

Uncaring of his own injuries, he’d jumped to his feet, blood trickling down his face, expression frantic as he’d rushed over to check if I was okay.

Precious cargo.

I smiled as I remembered how he’d refused to take me quad biking for weeks after that until I wore him down with my annoyingly incessant pleading.

While I’d had a crush on him from the moment I’d laid eyes on him, I knew for Forde that attraction didn’t happen until I was a much older teen. But I knew now looking back that I’d always been important to him. That there was a bond that snapped into place when we were kids and it had evolved over the years. It had been put under immense pressure by his insecurities and lack of self-belief.

And I wasn’t blameless in the years we’d spent apart either. I’d let my pride win instead of pushing him to admit there was more between us. For someone who was so good at pushing others out of their comfort zone, I’d been too afraid to make Forde stand still with me and acknowledge my love because I’d been scared that maybe he didn’t love me like I loved him, after all.

I knew better now.

And my stupid fears at the Lantern came crashing back, making me self-flagellate.

Because I’d been on the brink of repeating the same damn mistake again.

Last night had reminded me … life was too short for that bullshit.

Though I’d been dead on my feet last night, I still remembered his gentle hands washing my body in the shower, brushing my hair, blow-drying it. My smile softened with tenderness at the memory of him dressing me and putting me into bed.

Taking care of me. Like I was precious to him.

I loved Forde.

With everything in me and I always had.

I didn’t care who said it first.

He deserved to know he was loved.

Overwhelming emotion mixed with arousal as my gaze roamed over this strong, beautiful man in my bed. I shoved down the duvet that was covering us and then slipped my hand beneath his boxer shorts. My fingers coasted over and wrapped around his cock. I looked up at his face as he shifted in his sleep and began to harden in my hand.

Heat throbbed between my thighs as I stroked him until he swelled hot between my fingers.

Forde’s eyes flew open. I felt too much to even smile my usual cocky, flirtatious smile as our gazes locked.

“Baby …” He groaned, flexing his hips as he reached for me. “Get up here.”

I didn’t care about morning breath or any of the rules of romance that were absolute rubbish in the face of this kind of need. I crawled over him, crushing my lips over his, as I kissed him with everything I felt. He wound his arms around me, sitting up so I was straddling him.

When I finally let him up for air, Forde searched my face in question.