His Lover to Protect - Katee Robert Page 0,44

her bleed out poison that must have been accumulating for a long time. Nothing he said could fix this, so he didn’t even try. He just held her through the fury of her grief.

She kept talking, her voice barely above a whisper. “For the longest time, I was sure there was some mistake. The cancer should have taken me—not her. She would have known what to do with the second chance, and I’ve been floundering.”

Cancer. Jesus Christ. He’d known there was something, but it’d never occurred to him that it could be that. Luke gathered her closer, wanting to deny the words coming out of her mouth, to shield her from the pain she’d so obviously been living with for far too long. “Alexis—”

“I was wrong. I realize that now. Even if there was some devil’s bargain to be made to bring her back and take me in her place, she never would have wanted that. And…it’s time to admit that I don’t want that, either.”

He’d thought her a spoiled princess when they first met, and the time they’d spent together had been slowly eroding that image. With this final confession, she blew it away until the only thing that remained was the real Alexis. Survivor. Stronger than she gave herself credit for. Too many things to put into words. Luke kissed her temple and held her, letting her cry it out.

He wasn’t sure how much time passed, but the guide had nearly everyone back on the bus by the time she lifted a tearstained face off his shoulder and sniffed. “I’m so sorry.”

“Darlin’, you have nothing to apologize for.” He smoothed his thumbs along her cheeks, catching a few more tears. “You’ve been holding that in for a long time.”

“There was never time to… For any of it.”

No time, and it was hellishly hard to face certain facts when a person’s life was falling to pieces around them. Hell, they had so much in common, it wasn’t even funny. They’d taken different paths to reach where they were, but both of them were on their own roads back to the land of the living. He smoothed her hair back. “How do you feel now?”

She swallowed. “Better, I think. I…” She looked away and then seemed to force herself to meet his gaze. “Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it.” For all his affected nonchalance, Luke couldn’t help thinking that the balance had shifted between them. It had started in Norway, but they were rapidly reaching the point of no return. If he was going to be honest, they’d already flown straight past it.

He wasn’t sure he could walk away from her now, even if he wanted to.

Chapter Fifteen

Alexis made it through the rest of the tour without any more embarrassing breakdowns, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something more profound than tears had happened back there by the gazebo. It had been like saying good-bye to Mom all over again, but this time, it felt…clean. There was no taint of sickness or the dawning horror of a family who had barely had a chance to say good-bye before they lost their rock. Maybe it was because she and Dad had been so happy here, or maybe it was because the family had survived. They kept living. Hell, some of them even flourished. Avery certainly had.

And as was becoming more and more clear, she hadn’t done too terribly for herself, either. Yes, it seemed like the world was ending in the last few years, but she’d survived.

I survived.

She wasn’t magically cured and moving on with her life, but it felt like a step in the right direction. More than that, something shifted between her and Luke back there. She kept catching him shooting unreadable looks in her direction—probably because she was doing her fair share of looking at him. Waiting for him to react to what she’d confessed.

But he didn’t.

When he put forth the idea to come to Salzburg, she doubted he realized he was signing on for a complete emotional breakdown. Except he hadn’t stood back at a safe distance. No, he’d been there to hold her up when she felt like her entire body was about to break apart. He’d held her through the storm and stood as her own personal bastion.

“What do you think about getting some food?”

She responded before her mind caught up with her mouth. “I’m not really hungry.”

“I’ll bet.” He touched the small of her back in a move he’d been using most of the