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“I swore,” she whispered again

“And He forgave,” he told her gently, his handto tip her head back

And then she saw the destruction of his tears His expression was ravaged, heavy with grief, his gray eyes nearly black with emotions as he cupped her face in his palm

“I love you,” he whispered, and her heart stilled in her chest “I have loved you since the day I saw you, and the depth of that love can never do anything but deepen, Dawn Whether you stay with me, or you walk away, I need you to know that You define my soul”

She blinked back at hihtly

“Theheat…”

“Didn’t start until we touched,” he told her “I loved you before I touched you When I saw you, I feltfor you”

She stared up at hiin to lift, all the fears that he would reject her, even now, after theheat, after every touch he had used to show her how important she was to him

“I wanted you then,” she whispered “You left ht rose fro I didn’t want you to leave me”

His lashes drifted closed as a pain-filled grimace twisted his expression “It wasn’t time You knoasn’t time, sweetheart As much as I loved you, you needed your distance, and you needed your strength”

“And you had others,” she bit the words out “You were going to leave me forever, Seth”

His head shook, his gaze becao of you, or I would have withered away, Dawn And that’s not your fault, it’s mine But no matter what I wanted to convince myself of, Caroline was on her way out She knew it, and I did as well”

“She didn’t look on her way out” Fe what she knew had to be hers

“She wasn’t sleeping in my bed,” he reminded her “And she wouldn’t have been No other woman has slept in this bed, Dawn”

And that she kneas the truth There was no scent of fe the rooer for his body