Ainsley froze, like he’d just walked into the center of a storm. He turned slowly, and met Eloise’s eyes with a kind of heaviness in his chest that felt like it might crush him. Without speaking, he stepped close and reached out….one hand cradled her face, the other slid over her eyes as if shielding her from the world. His palm was rough and warm.
Then he gently lifted her hand and pressed his lips to the back of it. The kiss lingered. It was possessive, quiet, and full of emotion he couldn’t voice. “You don’t see it, do you?” he said in a low murmur. “You’re everything I ever wanted. Everything I didn’t believe someone like me deserved. And yet here you are, right in front of me, real and impossible at the same time.”
Eloise stood rigid beneath his touch, too stunned to pull away. Her
