The Long Way Home (Corps Security #6)(37)

She hasn’t left the corner since, setting it up to perfection before she has to go to bed. Chattering softly to her doll as she goes.

“Drew,” she calls from her spot across the room.

“Right here, little princess.”

“Do you think she will be okay sleeping out here by herself,” she questions in a serious tone. She points one small finger toward the huge windows that line his space. “It’s a really, really long way down, Drew.”

I feel his laughter silently against my side where I’ve been relaxing and reading.

“Is she not yours?” he asks strangely.

“Silly, of course she is.” Naturally, she understood him when I didn’t.

“Way I see it, she’ll be more than okay since you’re the bravest girl I know. How could she not be too? And, my girl, you love adventure, so I bet she does too.”

At that moment, I watch with rapt fascination as Riley falls a little more in love with her giant. She looks at him with her all-knowing eyes, studying his silence and mulling over his words with a quiet of her own.

“You think I’m the bravest girl?” she questions a moment later, her tone full of wonder and amazement.

“Yeah, beanie, I do.”

Her melodic giggles echo around the room, and I have to quench the urge to cry over the beauty of this moment. I love this for her, oh my how I love this.

“Thank you, giant.”

She leaps from where she’s standing and lands in his lap. He grunts and looks over at me, and for a moment, my heart hurts when I see the expression on his handsome face. He loves Riley, no doubt, but the fear that he isn’t hiding from me squeezes my heart.

He’s been hurt, and while I may not know the depths of that pain yet, I know that it had to have been really bad for it to affect him in the way it has and continues to.

His arms stay held out, but only for a beat, then he wraps them around her tiny frame and hugs her close. At that moment, I know my heart will forever belong to this man. His eyes close, his face relaxes, and he hugs my girl with so much tenderness, something he rarely gives without making sure no one is around. He’s given it to me, but this is the first moment I’ve watched him give that to her.

It’s absolutely breathtaking.

“Do you want to play with me?” she asks, leaning back and looking him in the eyes.

He grunts a sound that must have been enough for her because she looks over at me with the whole world shining in her beautiful eyes—so light-green they almost look clear full of a happiness that I haven’t seen before. Which is saying something because my girl is one happy kid.

Content to watch this play out, I settle back in my seat and watch the giant and his bean.

My book forgotten at my side.





After tucking Riley into the guest room, we head back into the living room. It’s not the first time that I’ve stayed over here. Riley and I have been here a few times a week for the past couple of months. I’m not even sure when it happened—that moment that told my heart it worked better when we were together. It could have been Riley and him, watching them bond, but I know it’s more than that.

“Tell me about your family,” I request, noticing the shutters coming down over him as soon as I finish speaking. “I don’t want to pry, but honey … I want to know you.”

He moves around the room, turning out the lights as he goes so the only thing that is shining is the city well below the windows we’re sitting next to. His home may be white and almost sterile in its vast emptiness, but when those lights go out, we sit in the sitting area that he has behind the couches and living area. It was meant to be a spot to gaze out into the world beyond his high-rise. When he settles into the chair next to mine, I expect him to remain silent, but he shocks me stupid when he pulls my arm over to his lap and takes my hand in his.

“They’re gone.”

My chest hurts, knowing just how hard it is to lose a family member. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have no one left. I squeeze his hand and wait for him to continue.

“It’s been damn near two decades, and it still feels like I lost them yesterday.”

“I’m so sorry, honey.”

His shoulders come up as he silently shrugs. “Been a long time, babe.”

“Might be so, but you haven’t healed. You know you can talk to me, right?”

“Isn’t that what we’re doing?” he questions with a wink, one corner of his lush lips tipping up. There one second, gone the next, his face back to the stoic expression he had before. He takes a deep breath and holds it a beat before letting it out.

“You know what I mean.”

He gives me the slightest of smiles.

“Some things are best left alone, Liv.”

I pull my hand from his, not too gently, because he wasn’t ready to let me go and stand. His eyes track my movements the whole time. My feet take a few steps to stand in front of the chair he’s sitting in. His arms rest on the arms of the chair, head against the back, and his whole body’s held tight. He doesn’t even try to hide the pain in his eyes, not this time.

The driving need for me to ease his soul almost steals my breath.

I push my knee into the side of his seat, next to his thigh. His hands move to my hips just when my other leg joins in, and my butt hits his thighs. His breathing is harsh, but his touch tender. Reaching out, I dance my fingers across his cheeks until my palms rest against his bearded cheeks. I can feel the rapid beat of his heart from where my fingertips rest against his neck. The rest of him might as well be turning to stone.