Awakening Book One of the Trust Series(85)

Declan lifted her chin and raised her face to look into his. He wiped the tear from her cheekbone with his thumb as he spoke to her reassuringly. “It’s okay. We’re alive. That is all that matters. You got us out in time.”

Her mind raced with what she could have done differently. “I should have been quicker to return. I should have done more, I should have-”

His finger landed on her lips, effectively silencing her. He lifted himself and her to their feet, and he stared into her eyes. The voice he used was stern but still caring. “You did everything you could do. Lionel probably did not even get out alive.”

“We can’t be certain of that.”

He shook his head. “No, we can’t. But nevertheless, you were amazing.”

People were always trying to convince her of that, when she felt anything but. When her only reply was continued silence, he pressed his lips together in a thin line. His voice, that was usually so filled with confidence and intensity, took on a softness that she had never heard before. “What is it going to take to convince you of that?”

Caitlyn did not have an answer to his question. She noticed him wince slightly. “Are you sure you are going to be okay?”

Her eyes finally left his gaze as she did another quick assessment on Declan’s body. She had arrived just in time to see Lionel attacking Declan. Dust now marred his usually perfectly messy dark hair, and his shirt, which was now wrinkled and tattered, was ripped on the upper right arm. Her fingers traced several cuts on him that would mend easily with a healer, before her hand rested gently on his arm. She was amazed that was the only physical signs of the assault. She knew Lionel’s attack was brutal, relentless, and excruciating for Declan. She also knew it could have ended much, much worse than it did.

“The question should be are you alright? Lionel took a direct shot at me, and you jumped in my way to save me. You’re crazy, you know that? You could have taken the brunt of the blast. I thought you were dead… I-” his voice cracked slightly. “I thought he was going to kill you and there was nothing I could do about it.” His hand reached up and tentatively caressed her cheek. “You shouldn’t have done that. Not for me.”

She couldn’t help but lean her head into the warmth of his palm. It was comforting, but more unsettling to her was that it was wanted. She was very aware of his slight roughness of his palm against her face, the way his fingertips rested on her right temple. “Declan, of course I should have done that. I would do that again in heartbeat if it meant saving you.”

“What? Why would you risk your life for me? I couldn’t have lived with myself if something happened to you.”

“Because…” Her breath caught as she finally admitted what she knew all along, “I don’t know… I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t okay.”

His eyes locked onto hers, piercing through her soul with a burning intensity that reminded her of that night when something in their relationship shifted, the comfortable friendship turning into something that she had not been able to define.

She had ignored those developing feelings, suppressing them deep inside, pretending they did not exist. But now, as her heart pounded in her chest, those feelings came bursting to the surface refusing to be ignored. Not as long as he had his hands on her and was looking at her like this.

His hands trailed down of their own accord to her still nervous ones, entwining his fingers with hers. She looked down for the briefest of moments at their fingers interlaced, letting the butterflies that fluttered anxiously in her stomach gain intensity before she went back to his deep gaze.

He took a step closer. No matter how hard she tried, Caitlyn couldn’t think. In that moment, she could not deny the truth that was laid out in front of her. She felt like everything in her life had led her to this, to this moment right here with him. And then it happened.

Declan closed the small gap remaining between them, his lips crashing to hers. She moaned at the warmth of his touch, the urgency at which he kissed her, returning the kiss with equal fervor. Her heart, her racing heart, felt as if it would explode out of her chest if she did not get closer to him. Caitlyn needed to be closer to him.

Declan must have felt the same because he grabbed her body urging it nearer to him, pulling her hips flush to his, trying to get impossibly closer. She knew at least in this moment, that this was where she was supposed to be, in his arms, as his. She couldn’t deny the truth any longer that they had so expertly hidden from each other, from themselves, for all these months.