Part 20 (1/2)

Her eyes were drawn back to his like magnets to steel. His smile remained, urged her to really listen. He was telling her that she was his glue. That he considered her a person close to him. That, even after she'd run scared the night before, he was still here.

Rosie felt the moment heave between them, draw breath and wait. Her world, her universe, her past, present and future felt as though they were teetering on her next words.

'Cam,' she said on a release of breath-and the smile that had been hovering on the corner of his mouth broke free, beaming as bright as morning suns.h.i.+ne, until all she could do was bask in the glow.

'Yes, Rosie?'

'Actually,' she said, 'I don't so much mind if you call me Rosalind.'

His brow furrowed, and she didn't blame him. She wasn't sure where she was heading either. Her mind was a blank page, untinged by history or expectation. All she could do was anchor herself in the warmth of his hand wrapped around hers and give him as good as he'd given her.

She snuck a foot beneath her and faced him. 'I am Rosie. Rosie who camps out in a van, loves comfortable boots, clothes with a past, and sleeps when regular sorts are awake and vice versa. But since I met you...'

Her voice caught.

'Since I met you, Rosalind-the girl I was, the version of myself I kept at bay all these years-came back. That part of me craved affection, wanted nothing more than to feel special, wanted to know what it was like to be the centre of someone's attention. Rosalind isn't afraid to hope.'

His other hand lifted off his thigh. She held a finger near his lips. He held his breath and stared at it. Though she had no idea what was coming next, all she could do was let the flood of words carry her til she found land.

'Since I met you, since I met your friends and your family, I finally knew what it must be like to have kins.h.i.+p-be a part of a collective spirit, of something enveloping, warm, vital. Watching you, Meg, Dylan and Brendan mucking about with your dad's cake, I would have given my left leg to have been allowed into that inner sanctum for just one more day. I hope you understand, I had to, have have to, walk away. Taking it away from me any later would have been too much to ask.' to, walk away. Taking it away from me any later would have been too much to ask.'

'Who's asking?' he asked, his voice deep, warm, encouraging.

Then the edge of his mouth kicked up into the whisper of a smile. His thumb found her palm and began running up and down the centre, sending goose b.u.mps all around her body, inside and out.

She closed her fingers around his thumb and twisted it away. 'I...I'm not exactly sure what you're intimating. In all honesty, I'm kind of hazy about a lot of things right now. I've been up all night. I'm wearing someone else's pyjamas. I haven't showered.'

He took her hand back in his, turned it over and pressed his warm lips upon her palm. 'You smell great.'

A slow build of warmth settled low in her stomach. 'I smell like milk-bottle lollies and mothb.a.l.l.s.'

'You smell like you.'

The warmth began to seep into her limbs, into her head, giving her ideas that maybe, just maybe, the only thing she'd left behind at the party had been him.

'Cameron,' she breathed.

He held up a finger to her lips, not stopping short, letting the calloused tip brush against her soft mouth.

'Rosalind,' he said, her name rolling off his tongue as poetically as it was meant to be. 'One of the many things I have long since found so irresistible about you is that, while you are such a champion of human frailty, you are determined to deny your own.'

'I don't. I-'

'Shush. Really. For your own good. It's my turn again.'

He took a deep breath and let it out through his nose, and Rosie realised that he wasn't just tired-he was nervous. He was wide open and unguarded. She opened her ears and listened.

'The night I suggested we slow things down...' He waited for her to nod along, his hand again holding hers tight. 'I was following a pattern I had followed time and time again. A whiff of getting too close, I put on the brakes. But when you left I realised it wasn't you getting too close that panicked me, it was me me. It was so unantic.i.p.ated that I took a long, hard look at my life without you in it and I didn't much care for what I saw.'

Just to make sure she was right there with him, he reached out and cupped her cheek. But she was there; she was all there.

'I had thought heading into the bush in the middle of the night to find you was enough of an admittance of my feelings, and that all I had been trying to do was protect you from every possible harm, including myself. I look back now and wonder what time and anguish I could have saved had I just had the guts to tell you straight. Like last night...' His eyes burned, as though he'd been sliced with a red-hot poker. 'I should never have let you walk away before we'd managed to have this exact conversation. Thankfully this week I've learnt not only how easy it is for all men to make mistakes, but how easy it can be to forgive them.'

He slid his hand into her hair, caressing her ear, drawing her closer. His beautiful blue eyes smiled into hers. Her heart danced. Her liver forgot itself. And the rest of her insides skipped and tumbled, and hoped more than they'd ever hoped in their life.

'Forgive me,' he asked.

Her voice shook when she said, 'I never gave you a chance. Forgive me me.'

He slid his hand into her hair, drawing her closer. 'Since we are both extremely adept at complicating the heck out of everything, how about I try something new and make things really simple?'

'It's worth a try.'

'Rosalind,' he said, his voice almost as shaky as hers. 'My Rosie. I need you to know that I am very much in love with you. That I have loved you for some time. And I have no doubt that I will love you as long as I can draw breath.'

The second he'd said her name, warm tears streamed down her face, but she couldn't possibly lift a hand to wipe them away. She thought she might have to resort to using a shoulder when Cameron leaned in and kissed them away, one side then the other.

Before things kept moving in the direction it was obvious they had to, she stilled him with a hand at his chest. She looked from one eye to the other, until she was certain she had his attention completely. 'Last night, watching you wield the kind of strength that most men don't even know is possible, I knew I loved you too.'

His eyes glinted, his chest swelled, and the hand in her hair drew her in. 'Funny way you had of showing it,' he murmured.

'As it turns out, I am a funny girl.'

He grinned. 'Lucky me.'

And then he kissed her. She melted into his arms as he pressed her back against the couch. Her delighted hands slid up the back of his s.h.i.+rt, her legs entwined with his, and she kissed him until she saw stars; she was lost. Wholly and completely and beautifully lost. The sensation filled her, overwhelmed her, and didn't scare her in the least.

For she had not actually lost something, she'd finally found herself again in him.

Eons later, when they pulled apart, Rosie's lungs burned, her lips were hot and swollen and her whole body felt heavy and languid. Cameron on the other hand had admirable strengths. He lifted her back upright until she was sitting across his lap.

His s.e.xy eyes narrowed as he asked, 'You did say that you loved me, right? That was one h.e.l.l of a kiss, and could have been enough to have made me imagine it.'