The Secrets She Must Tell - Lucy King Page 0,60

dogged by what had happened for the rest of her life, never happy, never normal? She couldn’t run for ever. She didn’t want to be that person, constantly in fear of the present and the future, continually up and down, vulnerable and helpless. She wasn’t that person. She wouldn’t be. She had to face up to it.

Starting now.

What was she doing? she asked herself urgently, taking a step back from the lift, away from the edge. Where was she planning on heading? Was she really going to walk away from Josh? From Finn? Who claimed to love her? Who maybe did love her?

In the still quiet of the hall, the only sound in her ears the hammering of her heart, Georgie thought about the calm, steadfast way he’d countered all her accusations. About his strength and resilience in the face of her increasing panic. About everything he’d said and done over the last few months. If she accepted that she’d been in the grip of paranoia and doubt caused by her illness then she also had to accept that his version of events was the right one.

And God, she wanted it to be. She had to take a chance on them. She wanted to take a chance on them. Because she loved him back. He was the man she’d imagined him to be. She hadn’t got that wrong. The happiness she’d felt hadn’t been an illusion. Nor had any of the feelings she had before she’d left Paris. Everything had been real. Her hopes and dreams still lay within her grasp if only she was brave enough to grab them.

She would take control of this thing winding its wicked tendrils around her thoughts and emotions, she promised herself as she blew her nose and set her jaw. Come hell or high water, she would beat it. She’d seek help and go back on the medication. She should never have stopped taking it in the first place. What had she been thinking when she’d even been warned of the dangers of doing exactly that? She was going to fight for herself. And fight for Finn, for them, just as he’d asked her to.

With determination powering through her, Georgie spun on her heel and retraced her steps, only to slam to a halt a moment later at the sight of Finn striding down the hall towards her.

‘This is not happening,’ he said with a fierceness on his handsome face that heated all the places that had been so cold lately. ‘You are not leaving me. You are not leaving Josh. I love you and you don’t get to run away. I won’t allow it. I know it’s complicated but we’ll figure it out. Together.’

‘Yes,’ she said simply, the emotion pummelling her on the inside practically wiping out her knees. There was much, much more that she wanted to say but her throat was so tight and the emotion so thick that she couldn’t. All she could do was throw her arms around his neck and pull his head down to hers and kiss him with everything she was feeling.

With a harsh groan Finn whipped one arm around her waist and the other around her shoulders, pulling her tightly against him as he kissed her back with equal heat and need and desperation.

‘God, Georgie,’ he muttered when he eventually lifted his head, his breath ragged, his heart pounding against hers.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, hearing the catch in her voice and swallowing hard. ‘I had a relapse and panicked. I convinced myself that you weren’t who I thought you were. I’ve been so confused. So lost.’

‘So have I,’ he said passionately. ‘But we belong together. We belong to each other.’

‘I don’t want to live without Josh. Or you. I love you.’

He rested his forehead against hers and she could feel him shaking with emotion. ‘I think I fell in love with you the moment you walked up to me in my club and asked me if you could join me. You were dazzling.’

‘I’m not that person any longer.’

‘You’re all that and more.’

‘I still need help.’

‘We’ll get it,’ he said, stroking his thumbs over her cheeks to smooth away the tracks of her tears and the remnants of her fears. ‘I will always be there for you, Georgie, whatever happens.’

‘And I’ll always be there for you.’

He kissed her again, this time more gently, more deeply, and by the time he lifted his head, the sense of peace and hope and joy that had been