“And … okay, well, you make me feel things that I have no idea how to process.”
He nods. “Yeah, Willow, likewise.”
“What?”
“Honesty, right?” he asks and waits for my confirmation before continuing. “A few years ago, I was at a charity function in New York for one of the local hospitals. They were opening a new cancer treatment center, and Kane Entertainment was one of the majority donors. That, Willow, was the first time in my life I felt something burn my senses into awareness. I couldn’t understand it. The spark against my skin, the tingles down my spine—none of it made sense. It wasn’t until about an hour into the event that I found out why … or I should say who had caused it.”
“What?” I gasp, knowing exactly what event to which he was referring.
He doesn’t speak, but when my eyes widen, he nods, letting out a soft laugh.
“Yeah. You. I didn’t know anything about you. I went to leave the table as soon as dinner was over, but that was when you stood from your table and left with someone else. I brushed it off because it was clear that you were spoken for, but I didn’t feel it again until that day at Buchanan’s firm. Thirty-five years and not once has someone made me feel like that, Willow. I still knew nothing about you, but there was no way I was going to ignore what my body was telling me. It confused the hell out of me. I felt protective of you. A stranger to me in every sense of the word, but it wasn’t just that foreign protectiveness that confused me. I felt as if I had finally found something I hadn’t even realized I had been searching for.”
“But … Jesus, Kane, I was a mess.”
“No, Willow, you weren’t.”
I look down at my now empty plate before leaning forward and placing it on the table. The buzz I had felt earlier ebbed, and I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with getting something in my stomach and everything to do with the shock his words caused.
“That day …” I pause, looking down at my hands. “Kane, I was without a doubt a mess that day. Emotional and a ball of nerves because I was having to deal with my jerk of an ex and my sister—two people who loved to see me suffer.”
“I remember, Willow, but I also remember seeing someone who, even though she was suffering through something hard, pushed herself through it.”
“I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree. I was there, Kane. Sprawled on the floor and seconds away from breaking.”
“I told you before that your eyes are like a window to your thoughts, Willow. I didn’t have to know you to be able to see the strength in those beautiful eyes. You just hadn’t realized it yet.”
I shake my head.
“Yeah,” he continues softly.
“You—” I start but have no clue what to say. He’s right, but he’s also wrong.
“Tell me, what did you feel when I helped you up that day?”
My skin heats when I think back to how that day played out.
“You were stuck in a situation I have no doubt was hard, Willow. I know enough from watching those two around you that it was painful. But when we touched … you forgot it all, didn’t you?”
I take a deep breath and nod. I hadn’t looked at it that way. I had always looked back on that day with great humiliation because he had witnessed so much of the torment I had lived with for too long.
“You looked at me, and when you forgot what was happening around you, that is when I got a glimpse of the strong woman you are. You forgot to be scared. You forgot you were hurting. You didn’t know it then, and hell, you might not realize it now because it took me a while to place it, but when we touched … your body recognized the bond we share.”
“Maybe I was just star struck?”
“No, Willow … I live that daily, women who are enamored by my celebrity status don’t come to life with one touch. They act like savage animals, but you, Willow, you tried to get away from me even though I know damn well you felt the same pull I did.”
“Kane,” I start but again can’t find the right words. It’s as if they’re all just floating around in my head, unable to form a coherent thought.
“Honesty, Willow. With me and with yourself.”
“How can you possibly say you were attracted to someone like me?”
His eyes flash. The crystal blue darkening and his full lips thin. “Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Talk down your beauty.”
I laugh, the sound coming out shrill and almost animalistic. “You have no idea what my life was like leading up to this moment. When I saw you the first time, I couldn’t see one appealing thing about myself. It’s been a momentous struggle to get to the point I am at now, and I still struggle. But I also know the type of woman you have been linked to in the past, Kane, and they are nothing like me.”
He sighs deeply, looking away, and his jaw ticks as he measures his response.
“Even now, after working as hard as I could, I still don’t see it.”
“Then I guess I’ll just have to show you.”
My eyes widen wondering what he’s going to do next.
“Christ, Willow, I’m not going to attack you.”
“I think it’s safe to say that even though I’m here, ready to take the steps toward something unknown, I’m still scared. I hate that I am, I do, but I don’t know how to flip that switch and turn it off.”
He had just lifted his wine glass to his lips when I started speaking. His eyes don’t leave mine as he takes a sip. Lowering the glass, he sets it on the table and takes one of my hands in his. The warmth of his skin against mine seeps into my chilled fingers, and a feeling of peace settles inside me when just seconds before my senses were fighting in overdrive.
Shifting, he moves so his face is closer, his breath dancing on my face, as he takes deep, calm, and measured breaths. “Trust me,” he whispers. “Trust what you feel when you’re around me. I meant what I told you yesterday, Willow. I just want a chance. A chance to prove what I feel is something genuine. Give me a chance to show you why I’m so bewitched. So I’m asking you, are you ready to let go and trust my lead?”
“What do you want from me?”
“I just want you.”
My grip tightens around his hold.