Page 107 of Dearest Protector

“What in the hell possessed you to come over here at this time of night just to tell me that you loved me?” I asked as I buried my face in her silky hair.

Not that I was complaining that she’d finally put me out of my fucking misery.

I’d gotten both of us naked and had collapsed onto the bed with her in my arms, pulling her closer so I could spoon her body into mine.

She sighed as she stroked one of my forearms that was resting around her waist. “I couldn’t wait any longer. Maybe I don’t remember exactly what happened after that taxi hit me, but I know how close I came to dying that day, Ben. I don’t ever want to be that close to dying again and know that I never told you how I felt. I’ll always choose you, and I had to let you know that.”

My arms tightened protectively around her body, and I closed my eyes, grateful as fuck that she was here with me now.

Not only was she here the way she was always meant to be, but she fucking loved me, too.

I felt like the luckiest asshole in the world.

I couldn’t even think about seeing Ariel like that again, so damn close to death that I was afraid her next breath could be her last.

It had nearly killed me the first time.

A second time would totally destroy me.

“Not. Happening,” I growled against her hair. “I do remember what happened, and it scared the shit out of me. I knew from the moment I saw you on stage that night that you were supposed to be mine, Ariel. I don’t think I’ll ever understand how I knew that, but I should have been more careful. I shouldn’t have let that happen to you the first time. I should have never jumped that curb, and I sure as hell should have done more to help you get through your injuries after the accident. I can’t change what happened, but I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you never get hurt like that again.”

She turned in my arms until we were face-to-face before she said, “None of the accident was ever your fault, nor were you responsible for my welfare. We’d never even officially met in person, Ben.”

“Didn’t matter,” I said bluntly. “I knew I needed you, Ariel. Why in the hell do you think I was so damn eager to get to that afterparty to meet you, even though I thought you were already involved with Chris? I wasn’t a guy who believed in fate or love at first sight. Hell, I’m not sure I believed in romantic love at all. I was totally blindsided, but I couldn’t ignore that instinct to find you once I’d seen the woman who I just somehow knew would make me the happiest guy on Earth. Unfortunately, I never even got the chance to try to steal you away from Chris.”

She brushed a lock of hair from my forehead as she asked softly, “Was that your plan? To try to steal me away?”

I nodded. “Hell, yes, I was going to try if I thought you weren’t deliriously happy or completely serious about that relationship. I had to know. Unfortunately, I never got that chance. I ended up being the asshole responsible for your accident, and I thought you were in much better hands being with someone you cared about after it happened. Had I known that you and Chris weren’t a couple, and that no one would be there for you, do you think I wouldn’t have been there beside you through every step of your recovery?”

A small smile formed on her lips. “Honestly, you’re so stubborn that I’m sure you would have been,” she murmured. “Not knowing me well certainly didn’t stop you from stepping in that night on your mother’s patio with Leland. It didn’t stop you from giving me everything as a friend, either, or trying to protect me from everything bad that could have happened because I lost my job.”

“There wasn’t a single day after we met here in Florida that I didn’t want to be more than your friend, Ariel,” I confessed. “But I didn’t think you were ready for anything more, and as much as I wished I could tell you what I really wanted, I didn’t know how that would work out. How was I going to explain something I didn’t understand myself back then? All I wanted was to be close to you, and if friendship was the only way to accomplish that, I was willing to wait.”

“You were that certain I was going to fall in love with you?” she asked teasingly.

“Hopeful, maybe,” I admitted. “But I was never sure of how things would turn out. I fell harder for you every single day, sweetheart, but I knew I was digging myself into a hole by not telling you the truth about what happened the night of your accident. Have you really forgiven me for that?”

It killed me when I saw a tear leak from her beautiful blue eyes.

She nodded firmly. “It was one omission out of a sea of truths we’d told each other. I was confused, but I realized that you’d never do anything to intentionally hurt me. How could I not know that after everything you’d done for me? You made me believe in myself again, Ben. You made me believe I could still take my life back and be happy after I’d lost myself because I couldn’t dance anymore.”

I swiped the tear from the side of her face before I took her hand and rested our conjoined hands against my heart. “Are you happy now, Ariel?”

“More than I ever thought possible,” she replied immediately. “I found myself, and I found you. Maybe sometimes it’s still hard to believe that someone like you fell in love with me. I mean, you are Ben Blackwood, the hottest and the most eligible billionaire on the planet.”

I grinned. She didn’t give a shit about my billionaire status. She never had, which had only made me adore her more.

She saw me, and I saw her.

I couldn’t explain that connection if I tried, but Ifeltit every single day.

She continued, “I knew you probably had gorgeous women hitting on you all the time.”

“I haven’t noticed another female since the day I saw you over a year ago, Ariel. I was too busy being obsessed over the one I’d lost, over the opportunity I’d lost. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was that taxi hitting you, over and over again, and how fucking brave you were right after the accident.”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I was probably brave because you were there with me,” she said earnestly. “If everything I dreamed about that night is true, I connected with you in some waythat night, too, Ben. I can’t really explain that, either. You were a stranger to me, yet you…weren’t. In my dream, I trusted you instinctively. Even when we met here and became friends, there was always something familiar about you. Something drew me to you. That attraction was there for me almost immediately, and it wasn’t just your hot body and your gorgeous face that sucked me in.”

I lifted a brow, interested in everything she’d felt back then. “But you still wanted me?”

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