Lush Curves 6: Safe Harbor (A BBW Erotic Romance) Read Free Page B

rustling palm trees blocking my view of the house.
    “What do you want, Gavin?”
    I raised my eyes to his face. In the fading light, standing before me, the lines of his strong jaw and kissable mouth outlined by the last rays of the sun, he looked more handsome than I’d ever seen him. My heart ached to look at him, but I was no longer sure if it was grief or something else. Something only he could stir inside of me.
    “I came here,” he said, stepping close. “To apologize, although I don’t know if there’s a way to show you how deeply sorry I am, lass.”
    I wanted to roll my eyes, to tell him I didn’t believe him, but something in the tone of his voice, so low and s teady, made me realize he was totally sincere. He sounded like a man bearing his soul.
    “I acted like an absolute boor to you, Aolani. You gave yourself to me, and I held you at a distance. I didn’t treat you with the respect you deserve. The respect you still deserve.”
    I looked down, but his hand on my arm made me meet his eyes, now shining with emotion. I bit my lip, trying to keep it together.
    What was this? Was it really just an apology? Or did he want something more from me? Why had he come all this way?
    As if reading my mind, he pulled me closer and spoke again.
    “You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, Aolani. You made me feel things that I never thought I would again. You have to understand…  I never meant to hurt you. The promise I’d made…”
    I nodded and stared down at my feet. I couldn’t look at him. I just couldn’t. His promise. The promise that he could never give his heart to another woman. To me.
    “Please. Please just listen to me.”
    The urgency in his eyes made me look up again.
    “Are you going to explain yourself again, Gavin? Tell me you can never love me? Because I’ve already heard that little speech. I’m all set on that front.”
    The scathing sarcasm I’d been trying to muster fell flat as my voice shook. It hurt too much. Everything was still too fresh. The wounds too near the surface.
    I knew one thing, though. If he told me again that he couldn’t love me, I was going to scream.
    “No… God, no, lass. I… Oh, Christ, how do I explain? I’ve been such an arse. I understand why you’re upset. You have every bloody right to be.”
    He ran his hands over his face, and through that luxurious hair of his, hair I still wanted to run my fingers through after all of this.
    “The promise I made was after my first love, my fiancée Fiona, drowned. After she died, I promised I’d never love another.”
    I sucked in a breath. I don’t know what I’d been expecting, but that was definitely , not it. The sudden image of the ring in his drawer flashed in my mind. His fiancée. Oh, God.
    “She was my first love years ago. And although I’ve been with other women, I’ve never loved again.”
    He reached out and took my hand in his. I didn’t pull away, my small hand warming against his palm.
    “Until you, Aolani. You changed all of that.”
    Our eyes met, and I felt the tears rising up in mine. I tried hard not to let them spill over. “I didn’t know.”
    “How could you know? It was a secret I’d kept for so long—a pain I’d tried to bury for so many years—I wouldn’t have even known how to tell you. It seemed like a betrayal. All of it. But in the end, I couldn’t help how I felt.”
    He raised my hand to his lips and kissed my palm. Tingles ran down my arm, and I shivered beneath his touch.
    “I still can’t. I love you , Aolani Kahale. More than I’ve ever loved anyone else.”
    I stood, speechless, as he pressed my palm to his cheek, his eyes urging me to say something, anything, in response. This was what I’d wanted for so long. Hell, this is what I’d dreamed about so many nights as I lay beside him, feeling the heat from his body and listening to the rise and fall of his breathing. But now that it happened, all I could think about was that day in the Edinburgh