Page 100 of Coerced

I swallowed hard. “I understand, Paxton. If I were you, I wouldn’t want anything to do with me, either.”

“I don’t know where you’re getting this, Aria, but Inever said I didn’t want anything to do with you,” he corrected me.

Right. I should have expected that much.

“Okay. Well, I guess I don’t expect you’re the kind of man who’d cut me off completely. That you’d remain a nice neighbor, because it’s just in your nature. But I understand that the romantic relationship we had is over.”

The silence that followed was so heavy, it was a wonder the floor didn’t crack beneath us.

Finally, Paxton asked, “Why would you say that?”

My bottom lip quivered. “At the very least, because I couldn’t be honest with you from the start. But mostly because I’m no better than the men you rescued me from today. I’m no better than my father. I stuck around for a year after I learned the truth and continued to paint, even when I knew what my paintings were being used for.”

As a single tear rolled down my cheek, the pain in my heart grew unbearable. Paxton lifted his hand to the side of my face and used the pad of his thumb to swipe at my tear. Then his fingers drove back into my hair and settled at the back of my skull.

“I hate that you never felt confident enough in me and who I thought the two of us were becoming together to feel like you could trust me with the truth sooner. But if you think that me learning the truth how I did is a reason for me to walk away, you’re crazy.”

I jerked my head back in surprise, Paxton’s fingertips pressing in deeper. “What?”

“I have no intention of ending this between us, Aria.”

“You… you don’t?”

He shook his head.

“But… but I’m… I’m?—”

“The woman I’ve fallen in love with,” he declared, cutting me off.

The feeling that washed over me was like nothing I’d felt before. It was warmth and butterflies and hope and understanding and patience all wrapped up in one. I wanted to burst into tears at the relief and utter joy I felt.

Paxton wasn’t finished. “I don’t care that you were thrown into a situation you had no control over beyond the deception you experienced over it. I hate that for you. I hate that you didn’t have a choice in that. And I understand why you stuck around for a year afterward. I understand that you’re a good woman who loves her family unconditionally and wanted to find a way to fix what was happening. Why would I ever want to walk away from a woman who has the power to love the people in her life like that?”

My heart.

My poor bleeding heart.

“You love me?”

The corners of his mouth tipped up. “I do.”

I’d been telling myself this for weeks, but there was no arguing it now. Paxton was the greatest man I’d ever met. Nobody compared to him.

I stared at him, wondering how I’d ever be able to tell him how much he meant to me. I struggled to come up with the words he deserved to hear, but I realized there were far too many to express that I might not ever finish. So, I went with what I thought was the most important.

“I love you, too.”

Paxton seemed to be caught off guard. “What?”

Maybe he needed clarification, like I’d needed on just about everything he’d shared with me tonight. “I knowyou heard me telling the officers not only what happened over the last several years, but also what happened tonight. Despite being kidnapped and thrown into that room with my family. Despite untying them and sharing the truth about what was going on with my mom and sister, not one of them thought I was worth figuring out a way to get out of it. None of them cared that it would cost me my morals, my dignity, to paint again, especially for such nefarious reasons. They are who they are, and I can’t change them. I figured it was best to get myself out and try to find a way to love them from afar. But then they stopped that. They stopped me from escaping. My sister yelled for those men to come in and stop me, and my dad held me down while they tied me up. Maybe my mom didn’t do any of that, but she didn’t stop them, either. She didn’t even untie me once we were alone again. That’s when it hit me, and I felt so guilty. I was loving people who didn’t care about me, while I hadn’t been honest with the one person who’d shown me what real love is. I was terrified that I’d learned just how much I felt for you when it was already too late.”

Paxton scooted closer to me on the couch, wrapped his arms around me, and urged me toward him. I happily went, and Sasha chose that moment to hop down off my lap. Maybe she realized how much I needed both of my arms, so I could wrap them around Paxton.

He tightened his arms around me, the feel of his embrace undeniably reassuring. “It’s not too late, Aria. We’re just getting started.”

With my cheek pressed to his chest, I squeezed him back. “Thank you for coming to rescue me.”

I felt Paxton’s lips kiss the top of my head and lingerthere when he whispered, “I’ve never been so afraid as I was tonight.”