Uh, okay.
“Because I love you, too, Cale. I love you so much. And when you were bleeding out on that ground, I felt like my world was ending.”
He ignored the pain and reached for her, pulled her against him as best he could and kissed her.
Her lips parted for him. Her fingers pressed to his cheek. He could taste the salt of her tears.
And the sweet promise of their future.
“I don’t want my world to end,” Cassidy whispered. She pulled back a bit to meet his stare. “Cale, I want my life to start again, with you.”
He couldn’t imagine a life without her. Things between them had developed so quickly—maybe too quickly, but he didn’t care. He knew what love was because he’d lived too long without it.
“Whatever we have to do, I’ll do it,” she promised. “I want to be with you.”
He kissed her again. The nurse cleared his throat. “You seem...uh...pretty okay in here. I’ll just...step outside a bit.”
Cale held tight to Cassidy. Plans, ideas, were racing through his head. Cassidy needed a home base, a place where she could feel safe.
He wanted to give her that—wanted to give her the world.
He would. He’d give her everything. “There’s this little town,” he whispered. “I mentioned it before, in Texas...”
“Your home.”
It hadn’t felt like home to him for years, but now, when he thought of her... “Let’s take a visit there.” See what happened. How she liked it. What she liked.
Because he’d go any place with her—London, Rio, even Whiskey Ridge, Texas.
Wherever Cassidy was happy, that was where he wanted to be.
But Cassidy laughed, a light, husky sound that skipped right through him. He loved it when she laughed. He’d make sure she had plenty of reason to laugh and smile in the years to come.
She was smiling then, flashing the little dimple that he just had to stroke.
“Oh, Cale.” Her hand lifted and brushed back his hair. “Don’t you understand? Home for me—it’s going to be wherever you are. As long as we’re together...”
They would be. Together for the rest of their lives.
“Then I’m happy,” she finished.
He gazed at her, completely lost for a moment. His society girl, his fierce fighter.
His.
The woman he’d cherish for the rest of his days.
“I love you, Cassidy Sherridan.”
Her smile widened.
Protecting her had been the best assignment of his life. He’d owe Mercer for that, for connecting him with the woman of his dreams.
Cale was sure Mercer would come collect on that debt. The guy always did.
But that didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered—she was in his arms.
The place where he always wanted her to be.