“Aster.”
It was acclaim.
Energy crackled, and he slowly moved my way.
“It was to protect me.” Coarse adoration filled the sharp edge of his voice. “That night, everything you said was to protect me.”
I could barely nod around the sorrow in my throat. “It killed me, Logan, standing in our special spot and telling you the greatest lie. It destroyed me all over again to cause you that pain. But it was so much better than the alternative.”
Emotion bottled in my throat. The truth and the secrets and the pain.
Reaching out, he tipped up my chin. Logan’s jaw was set, and his heat flamed in the space between us. “For years, I hated you, thinking you’d taken the easy way out. That you’d married a man with a name and power. That you realized I wasn’t worth the trouble.”
“I was the one who brought you trouble.” Soggy affection blew out with the wheeze.
He inhaled a shaky sound, then he leaned in and pressed his mouth to the spot where my shoulder met my neck.
“Little Star,” he whispered at the sensitive flesh. “I should have known. I should have known. But somewhere deep inside, my soul knew.”
Logan’s gaze deepened, locked on mine. “I should have fought for you.”
“And what would have happened then? It would have brought more tragedy.”
“You were worth the fight, Aster. Whatever it would have cost.”
“I didn’t believe it then,” I admitted.
“Tell me you do now. Tell me you understand the treasure that you are,” he demanded. His fingers gripped me by the chin, harsh and tender. “Tell me you understand you are worth the fight.”
“I know it now, Logan. I see it in your eyes.”
He edged back and slowly turned me around until I was facing an ornate, full-length mirror.
I met his reflection, the stony ferocity that rippled through his gorgeous features. “Beauty. My heart. My poetry,” he murmured as his fingertips fluttered down the slope of my neck.
“You are every word I’ve ever written.”
I could almost see the scattering of stars strewn around us. As if each call of my heart had been hung in the sky.
Logan whispered, “Wait right there. Do not move, Little Star.”
Through the obscured light, I watched Logan’s silhouette move across the room. In the far corner, he pulled back a drape that revealed a massive safe, and he entered a code and pressed his finger to it.
Nerves skidded through my body. This sense that we’d tripped into a new place. That we both finally understood.
Anticipation filled the room.
His and mine.
Mine and his.
It coalesced.
Convulsed and intensified and came alive when he rummaged around for something protected within.
Significance filled the atmosphere.
Thickened and deepened.