The Secret Between Us novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Loft

The boathouse light was on.

I stood at the bottom of the outside stair with rain in my hair.

My heart was in my mouth, and I took off my coat before I climbed.

My left hand was bare.

I had never felt so naked in my life.

He opened the door before I knocked.

He'd taken off his jacket, and his shirt was open at the throat, and the little chain hung out over it.

He looked at my hand first.

Then he looked at my face.

"I gave it back," I said. "I told Pierce everything."

"Isla."

"I'm not doing this for a reason. I'm doing it because I want to."

He stepped back to let me in.

The room under the eaves was the same as it had always been, a narrow bed, a stove, a window over the water.

He'd kept the quilt I'd sewn him.

I walked straight to him and put both hands on his chest.

His heart was pounding as hard as mine.

"Three years," I said.

"Three years."

"I hate you."

"I know."

"Kiss me."

He took my face in his hands and kissed me.

It was not gentle.

It was three years of cold nights and typed notes and a ring against my breastbone, and he kissed me as if he'd been starving.

I grabbed his shirt in both fists and dragged him against me.

A sound came out of my throat that I had never made for anyone else.

He backed me against the door.

His beard scraped my chin, and his hand slid into my hair.

His other arm went around my waist and lifted me onto my toes.

"Say it," he said against my mouth.

"Say what?"

"Say you're mine."

"You're mine," I said. "You're my husband. I've been yours since the courthouse and you left me anyway."

"Never again."

"Prove it."

He lifted me.

I wrapped my legs around his hips.

He carried me to the bed and went down on his knees on the quilt with me in his arms.

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