Chapter 387
[ 506 words ]
Chapter 387:
His self-blame was a declaration of love more powerful than any poem. It wasn’t about her actions; it was about his inability to have prevented them.
“I did it to protect you, too,” she confessed, her voice barely audible. “I didn’t want you to have to compromise yourself. To use your power and your name for something so… dirty. That’s your career. Your honor.”
She was protecting her father, but she was also protecting him. From himself. From the world that would judge him for acting on her behalf.
That was it. That was the final blow.
Something inside him, a dam he had spent a lifetime constructing, finally broke. The carefully controlled soldier, the stoic commander, was washed away by a tidal wave of pure, possessive, desperate love. This woman, bleeding and broken in a hospital bed because of a war she shouldn’t have had to fight, was worried about protecting him.
He didn’t give her a chance to say another word. He surged forward, his mouth crashing down on hers.
𝗔𝖽𝗱𝗂c𝗍𝗶𝘃𝖾 𝗻ov𝘦𝘭ѕ 𝘰ո 𝗀𝖺lո𝗼𝘷𝘦ls.𝗰𝘰𝘮
The kiss was not gentle. It was a raw, desperate claiming. It was punishing and cherishing all at once. It was the taste of rage and fear and a love so fierce it bordered on madness. It was an apology and a vow, a brand of ownership seared onto her lips.
Her eyes flew open in shock, but the raw honesty of his kiss bypassed all her defenses. She melted into it, her body going limp against the pillows. Her uninjured arm came up, her fingers tangling in the hair at the nape of his neck, pulling him closer. She was answering his desperation with her own.
He felt her surrender, her response, and the kiss deepened. He poured all his frustration, all his fear of losing her, all his adoration into that single, all-consuming act. He moved with a desperate urgency, as if he could somehow absorb her into himself, keep her safe within his own skin. He was careful, exquisitely careful, to avoid putting any pressure on her injured arm, his body a shield around her.
After an eternity, he broke the kiss, but only by a fraction of an inch. His lips still brushed against hers, his breath hot and ragged.
“Caroline Thompson,” he murmured against her mouth, his voice vibrating through her. He had never sounded so serious, so utterly solemn.
“You will never do something like this again.” It wasn’t an order. It was a plea, choked with the agony of what she had done. “And you will never, ever push me away again.”
He pulled back just enough to look her in the eyes, his gaze burning with an intensity that stole her breath.
“Your fight is my fight. Your family is my family. I am the one who stands in front of you. Do you understand?”
It was the fiercest vow she had ever heard. It was everything she had never known she wanted.
Tears, hot and silent, welled in her eyes and spilled down her temples. She couldn’t speak. She could only nod, a single, jerky motion.
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