“Lots of children have scoliosis.” Jared regarded her, clearly not understanding the gravity of her confession.
“Not like mine,” she denied. “I wore a brace for most of my childhood, and I’m not talking a Velcro number worn under my clothes.”
“The braces must have done the trick, Chelsea, because you have wonderful posture. I’ve always been impressed with the grace with which you carry yourself.” He ran his hands along her spine.
“Not just braces,” she pointed out when his fingers paused at the tell-tale ridge of one of her scars.
She waited for his nose to curl, his eyes to go cold, for him to push her away as if he’d touched something vile, all things Kevin had done when he’d discovered her imperfections.
Jared did none of those things. His fingers continued their path along her spine, but she didn’t see revulsion reflected in his eyes. Not even when he continued to explore her back and found the scarred areas beneath her shoulder blade.
“Say something,” she whispered, not sure he would even hear her above the sounds of the Gulf around them but needing him to verbalize his thoughts.
“Like I said, you’re an amazingly beautiful woman.” The way he said the words, the way he looked at her, made her almost believe him.
“You don’t care?”
“I care, Chelsea.”
She lowered her eyes. There for a second she’d believed…No matter, she’d known. Deep in her heart she’d known no one would ever truly love her. Her own parents couldn’t get past her flaws. How could she expect someone else to? Particularly someone as gorgeous as Jared?
“I care that you went through so much all alone.”
“I had Will,” she quickly corrected him, swallowing the lump of emotion in her throat. Her brother had always tried to lighten her load.
“He’s all you had, though, wasn’t he?” His arms tightened around her and she’d have sworn anger coursed through him.
She didn’t know how to answer, wasn’t even sure Jared expected an answer. He just held her to him, stroking his fingers along her spine with tenderness and comfort.
“So much makes sense now,” he murmured into her hair.
Still not knowing what to say, Chelsea remained quiet, her cheek pressed against his chest, her ear to his heart, listening to the steady beat mingle with the sea sounds around them.
“Never doubt your beauty, because looking at you takes my breath away. Always has.”
Dear Lord, he meant it. He’d felt her scars, seen them, and he still found her attractive. Emotion swelled inside her, threatening to burst free of her chest.
And then the perfect words came into her heart.
“I love you, Jared.”
“Don’t say that.” The warm fuzzy protective feeling Jared had been experiencing crashed and was replaced with good old-fashioned fear. Fear the likes of which he’d never known.
Chelsea thought she loved him.
She couldn’t. Not really. The only woman who’d ever loved him had been Laura, and look where that had gotten her.
“But it’s true,” she said, lifting her head from his chest to stare up at him. “I fell in love with you when I was seventeen.”
“That was a teenage crush. You said so yourself.”
“Then I never got over that crush. Because despite the fact I’ve tried to care for other men, even let myself get close to one, they never measured up to my memory of you.” Her gaze sliced into him. “After tonight, no man ever can.”
Sure, what they’d shared tonight had been amazing, but what they shared was chemistry. A strong attraction, he wouldn’t deny that, but sexual magnetism wasn’t love.
When that magnetism fizzled out, they’d be left with a mess. A bigger mess than they already had. If he hurt Chelsea, he’d have nothing but a bigger hole in his chest than the one already where his heart was supposed to be. The hole that Laura’s death left him with.
Because a part of him had died in that car crash with her and their unborn baby.