More of You (Confessions of the Heart 1)

As if the stress of the day and the last few weeks had finally caught up to him.

As if, when he’d been sitting there at her side, he’d been struck with the same what-might-have-beens from this afternoon that had struck me.

The torment of something happening to my baby girl more than anything I could bear.

Was it wrong it felt like a gift that he might feel some of that, too? That he promised to love her as if she were his own? That I trusted him to love her and keep her?

Keep me?

How was it possible? After all these years?

How was it possible that the thought of losing him again felt like the cruelest sort of devastation?

Was I nothin’ but a fool for allowing myself to take that chance?

But not taking it was an impossibility.

My love for him was so intense, so big and overwhelming, that it felt like a swelling mass growing inside me.

Stunning and extreme.

Another of those waves coming fast.

It’d always been that way with him. My love had always been almost more than I could bear.

Seeing that wound on his head only brought it out into the open.

Because I could have lost him just as swiftly as I could have lost my daughter.

It shivered through me, locking my throat in the tightest ball as I stared up at the man who edged across the space.

Towering.

His presence so vast.

“Jace—” I started to mumble, to take us back to the moment back in that room where I needed to face what was really happening in my life.

Begging with him to answer that question.

What do you know? What happened to my husband?

Jace pinned me to the wall. “Shh . . . just . . . give us one day, Faith. One day to live. To be. Just . . . please . . . give me one day with the two of you.”

I choked over the despair that radiated from him.

A new kind of trepidation taking over.

Again, I could taste something vibrating in the air.

An omen.

A premonition.

He set one of those big palms on my face.

A plea on his.

“Please.”

Thirty-Seven

Jace

Heaven.

I woke wrapped in it. Floating on some kind of goddamned cloud. Comfort and grace.

Could only pray that it might be strong enough to hold us up, and it all wouldn’t come crashing down when I gave her everything.

When I shattered her heart all over again.

I was terrified of where those pieces might land.

I released a heavy exhale into those soft locks of chocolate hair.

Strands fluttered through the early morning light that streaked in through the window, her body so warm and right where it was tucked in the well of mine.

Hadn’t let her go for a second last night.

Coming to her again and again.

Addicted to the feeling of that connection. Needing her skin against mine. A promise that she was fine, knowing all of this was coming to a head, her safety right there in the palm of my hand.

Possession swelled. I would never let what happened yesterday happen again. We had to find these assholes.

I felt her stir, could feel the beat of confusion that rippled down her spine when she remembered she was lying in bed with me. I felt the force of her smile as she shifted closer.

Wrapped in the well of my arms.

I loved that it was her first response.

What came naturally.

One of those smiles.

Gently, I rolled her onto her back, the girl so fucking stunning with sleep still heavy in her eyes and the sting of my kisses still plumping her lips.

Couldn’t help but reach out and touch. Relishing in that instant burn that raced through my being.

“Morning,” I rumbled.

Shyness peeked up at the corners of her mouth, redness on her cheeks, those eyes tracing my face the same way mine had been tracing hers. “Best morning ever.”

She reached out, touch tentative as she traced her fingers across my lips. “It’s the first morning in my life that I’ve ever gotten to wake up lyin’ next to you.”

A growl tore out of my chest.

I couldn’t help it. The way her saying it made me feel. Like a goddammed king.

Grin riding onto my face, I scrambled to crawl over her, attacking her with a bunch of kisses all over her face.

Only thing I wanted to do was shower her with my love. With some reprieve. With some of the belief she’d always rained on me.

Faith squealed in surprise. Laughter climbed into the air and bounced off the walls.

Free.

Exactly the way I was determined to make her.

“Jace, what do you think you’re doin’?” she wheezed. Frantic giggles started to roll from her when I started tickling her sides.

I couldn’t resist.

Couldn’t resist from provoking that sound.

Joy.

“What do you think I’m doing?” I teased her, tickling her harder and smacking a bunch of kisses to her chin and chest as I did.