Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 92812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Where she belongs.
“Are you going to say anything?”
He heard the wobble in her voice and swallowed a few times to get his emotions under control or his would mimic hers.
“I love you.”
Guess the wobble is still there.
“Phillip.”
He turned her face so he could kiss her. “Fyre, I almost lost you. I will not let another day go by without you know how much I fucking love you.”
“I—”
“I want you to rest.”
“Cara.” She closed her eyes. “She is dead. Mr. Olden killed her.”
Arms around her, but making sure she wasn’t hurting from his touch, Phillip nodded. “I know. We know.”
She shifted to look at him again. “What happened?”
So he told her while he held her. Told her about the plans between Mr. Olden and Cara with some men on different islands who wanted to bring slavery back to this one. As well as Mrs. Olden. Told her about the loss he’d suffered with the property, and the house.
He fell silent and she rested her bandaged hand on his arm. “I am so sorry you lost everything, Phillip. Will you be going back to England?”
“I did not lose everything. I lost some of the fields and the house, but the most important thing, I have right here in my arms now.”
“You are holding me.”
“I know, baby.” He closed his eyes, hiding the tears that threatened. “Believe me, I know.”
Fyre sat there in his arms, never so grateful to have them around her as she was this moment.
Fragile was how she felt. And it wasn’t a feeling she enjoyed. The pain was momentary, it came and went, but the thought of never seeing him again…that had been more than she had been ready to face.
She sat still, just soaking up his touch as she ran over everything he had told her. He’d lost it all.
“It was my fault,” she muttered.
“No, Fyre. This was not your fault at all.”
Phillip squeezed her gently and she knew he was being mindful of her injuries. The doctor had gone over all of them with her. The scar on her head from the bullet was healing but she would always have a mark. The injuries to her hands were from her putting out the flames that had found her skirt as she’d tried to crawl away.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
There was a brush of wetness against her skin, but he wouldn’t allow her to turn to him. “I am sorry, baby. I tried to save him too, but I could not.”
“Elonne.” Her heart cried out in pain.
“He got you to me but I was not in time to get him out after you were safe. I can only hope one day you will forgive me for this.”
“Phillip,” she whispered. “Look at me, please.”
He did and she held his face, his tanned skin so much darker than the pale gauze around her hands. “As angry as I know you were with him, you would not have left him to die. You did what you could and I never have to forgive you for any of it.” She used the side of the bandage to wipe away his tear and nibbled on her lip briefly.
“Do the children know?”
“I told them.”
“I guess I am all they have left now. Both mom and dad gone.”
“No. They have us, Fyre. You and me.”
“No one will say anything when you look somewhere else for a countess.”
“I do not have to look anywhere else. I told you this already. You are that woman.”
“What about the ruined plantation?”
“There are plans to rebuild the house. Everyone made it out, and they are staying with family and friends or in town in lodging there until they can return to work.”
“You did not fire anyone?”
“I am not going anywhere, Fyre. Not unless my wife and our family are with me.”
She finally understood that she was where she needed to be. He was the only man for her, and he would protect her.
“I love you, Phillip.”
His smile warmed her completely.
“Four words I will never tire of hearing from you, my love.”
He pressed his mouth to hers, gentle but not holding back any of the emotion she knew he wouldn’t show to others. He was hers and she wasn’t ever letting him go.
Epilogue
Phillip stood beside Lucien. The men watched the workers as they built his new home. The fire had damaged a large portion of the main house at Hawk’s Cove. Knowing about its past and what it had symbolized to the people of this island, people he considered family, he’d had all of it torn down to rebuild anew. This was a new beginning, for him and for Fyre.
They would start over. New home. New lives. Together.
The scorched earth still held signs of the beating it had received, but like him and Fyre, that wasn’t all. There was new growth pushing up through the soil, bringing green back to this lush paradise. The salt air had even begun to feel familiar to him. This was where he belonged.