Page 81 of Echoes in the Storm
She simply smiles, her hand tracing the side of my neck as she watches it with a dreamy look in her eye. If I can give her reason to look that way day in, day out, then my future is in her hands. Where she goes, I’ll follow.
“I missed you so much,” she whispers. “It was hard at the start.”
“Babe.” I kiss the woman to bring her back to the present, soft and slow. “Don’t take yourself back there. Let’s just look forward, okay?”
“No.” She frowns. “We need to get it all out there so we both understand.”
This is where we differ. As much as I recognise that the past has shaped who I am now, I’ve realised that the future is entirely dependent on my attitude, whereas Cam places so much stock in what’s gone by, as though the failures of her past dictate the choices of her future. It doesn’t have to be like that.
“I didn’t handle things well, Duke.” She clings to the front of my shirt, her brow set in a hard line. “I got drunk; I did stupid shit.” She laughs, bitter and short. “A few nights after you left, Susie and Bevan took me to the pub to try and loosen me up. They left me there with the little brother of a girl I went to school with.”
“Cam …” If this is going where I think it is …
“I have to tell you, Duke.” She closes her eyes and shakes her head. “Hear me out, please.”
This woman realises I know how to kill without remorse, right?
“He brought me home.”
I pry her hands off me, taking a step back. “Don’t.”
“Helped me get to bed.”
“Stop it, Cam!” I pace back to the HQ; the engine is still running.I could go. Just get in and go before she says it.
“Listen to me, Duke!” she counters. “He put me to bed, offered to stay, and you know what I said?”
I don’t want to hear it. I can’t. “If you’ve got any ounce of respect left for me,” I warn her, “you won’t tell me.”
“I said he should go because I’m in love with someone else.”
What?
“Did you hear me, Duke?” she says, her footsteps approaching. “I said I love you. I’ve known since then that there’s no getting over you, just learning how to live without you.”
She gasps as I spin and grab a hold of her sweater to pull her to me. “Tell me again. Tell me to my face.”
Cam twitches a smile, inching closer. “I love you, Duke.”
“Fuck, Cam. I’d be stupid not to tell you that I love you, too.” Her eyes fill with unshed tears as I take her face in my hands. “I knew that the second I walked back up your driveway in the dark, no light, to write you that damn note.”
“No torch at all?” she asks.
“No torch.” I trace her cheekbones with my thumbs, memorising everything about her in this moment. “I was so focused on you, on saying the right thing, that I didn’t care. Didn’t think twice about it.”
She laces her hands behind my head and pulls me to her, but it doesn’t take much; I was thinking the same thing. Her kiss has more vigour this time, more urgency, as she runs her tongue across mine. Her taste, her smell, her touch—they all overload my senses as I bring the moment I’ve thought about to life in vivid colour.
We’ve made it through the storm. We’ve followed the echoes and found each other in the midst of all that chaos.
She’s my oasis amongst the rage and anger. My safe place.
“Tell me,” I say, pulling away. “Where are you going?”
“Huh?” Her hands slip to my chest.
“The house—you sold it.”
“Wesold it.” I see the regret in her gaze, and yet what makes me proud is the determination that also shines through in her words. “I bought a place a half hour from here. Smaller, but everything I need.” She smiles, her gaze lifting to meet mine again. “And you know what? I’m actually looking forward to doing the whole redecorating thing again.”