“Oh, God.” She started trembling and Luke pulled her into his arms, holding her tight. He stroked her hair.

“He’s done for. I’m sure his bail will be revoked, and he won’t get it again. He’s not getting out this time. You’re going to be safe.”

She clutched Luke’s shirt, not sure she’d ever feel safe again.

“Thank you,” she mumbled against his chest. “Thank you for coming.”

“I’ll always be here for you, Emma.”

She closed her eyes and held on to that.

“You need to come in with me and make a statement so we can do a report. Are you up for that?”

She nodded. “That’s fine. Let me put the dogs up.”

He took her hand and they walked inside. Nothing looked disturbed, but she still shuddered.

“I hate that he was in my house, touching my things, walking on my floors.” She looked at Luke. “Where did you find him?”

“In your bedroom closet.”

She shuddered again. “I should have just gone in and shot him. Then I’d be rid of him forever.”

“You are rid of him forever, Emma. Do you know how many laws he broke tonight? Not only violation of the terms of his bail plus the restraining order, but breaking and entering, attempted kidnapping. He’s going away for a long time, and he’s not getting bail this time.”

She still didn’t feel safe. But she went down to the police station and made her statement, as did Luke. She had a cup of coffee—decaf this time. Her nerves were already on edge, and she didn’t think she’d need any caffeine. Her parents came down and sat with her while she finished up. Luke said he’d be a while, so her parents drove her home and stayed with her until Luke showed up. When he did, they both hugged and kissed her and left because Luke promised them he wasn’t leaving her alone that night.

She took a shower and they sat on the sofa, her back to his chest. She stared at the wall in front of her, thoughts of the past coming forward to assault her.

“For so long, he controlled everything about me. How I dressed, what I ate, how I was supposed to behave. In the beginning, I confused that with love. I was young and he was older, more worldly. I thought him paying that much attention to me was love. After a while, I was just too weak to fight it. Then, at the end, I plotted ways that I would escape from him. I’d lie awake at night and think of how I could get away from him. I guess I had never really escaped. I was never really free of him.”

Luke stroked her hair. “You were free the moment you walked out of his house and never looked back. Vaughn’s problem was that he couldn’t let you go. That was his problem, Emma, not yours. He’s the one that’s sick and twisted. There’s nothing wrong with you.”

What Luke said made sense. “I guess you’re right. Sometimes it’s just so hard to let go of the mistakes you’ve made, especially when they keep coming back to haunt you over and over again.”

“I think we’re all haunted by our pasts to some extent, until we let them go.”

She turned to face him. “Are you still holding on to your past?”

He picked up her legs and wrapped them around him. “I was. I was so dejected and humiliated when Becca walked out on me and divorced me, and I was determined to show the entire town that I didn’t give a shit. I convinced myself that I’d never fall in love again, that no woman would ever matter to me again. It was so easy to go through one woman after another, disregarding their feelings. In fact, it felt kind of good. Like payback, you know?”

“I’m sure it did.”

“Until I met you. You were the wrong kind of woman for me, a woman who I knew was the relationship type. I knew you weren’t a one-night-stand kind of girl, yet I was drawn to you anyway. It was like I couldn’t help myself.”

Her lips curved. “I know the feeling.”

“So I threw myself heart first into this fling with you, and this fling turned into a relationship, and this relationship turned into love.”

Emma’s heart squeezed. “It did?”

“Yeah, it did. So here I sit with you, Emma Burnett, on your sofa, in love with you, when I didn’t set out for this to happen. But it did. And I know you didn’t want it, either, especially now when you just had the worst night of your life. But love isn’t always convenient, and I felt it needed to be said.

“I’m laying my heart out for you, and you get to decide what happens next.”

Emma’s chest tightened. This was exactly what she hadn’t wanted to happen. And now it had. She had not expected that declaration of love from Luke. Not after the night she’d just had.

So what was she going to do now?

She looked up at him, at the honest expression of love on his face. He’d never hidden anything from her, had never been anything other than who he was. And he had never held any expectations of her, hadn’t tried to control her or tell her how she was supposed to feel. He’d laid his heart out to her, and put the ball in her court.

Night-and-day different from her past. There was no comparison.

It was time to leave the past where it belonged, and embrace her future.

She cupped the side of his face and dragged her palm over the rough stubble of beard that always intrigued her and turned her on. Her skin tingled as it always did when she touched him.

“The one thing I’ve learned throughout all this is that there’s a bad kind of love and a good kind of love. When someone loves you in a bad way, they take away everything that’s good in your life, strip you of your family and friends, and want you only to themselves. Because they’re afraid to share you, afraid to share the love they have for you with anyone else. That’s a love they don’t trust, a love that couldn’t possibly last because it’s tainted with darkness.

“The good kind of love—the kind of love I feel for you, and the kind of love you feel for me, is an open and trusting kind. I sent you away because I was afraid, and yet you were still there for me when I needed you. You shared me with your family, and allowed me to share my family with you. Our kind of love is an all-encompassing kind, filled with kindness and compassion, with friendship, laughter, warmth, passion, and forgiveness. It’s an endless kind of love, a kind of love I’ve never had before.”

Luke swept the tear away that had slid down her cheek.

“I love you, Luke. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you.”

He pulled her onto his lap and threaded his fingers through her hair, then just looked at her.

“I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you, Emma.” Then he kissed her, oh so thoroughly kissed her, until everything that had happened earlier in the night was utterly forgotten, and all she could think about was the way it felt to be in this man’s arms, to know that he loved her and cherished her, and would protect her in the way a woman would want to be protected, and she in turn would protect him, too.

Clothes were shed in a hurry, and when he was inside her, the two of them locked together, staring at each other as he moved within her, Emma could only marvel that this hot, sexy, oh-so-honorable man was in love with her. And when he touched her and brought her right to the brink, then over, she clutched his shoulders and took him with her, both of them crying out as they climaxed together.

She laid her head on his shoulder, and he stroked her back.

“Do you think you and Boomer would like to move in here?”

He lifted his head, studied her, then smiled. “Yeah. Boomer and I would like that.”

Contented, she kissed him. “Good. Daisy, Annie, and I would like that, too.”

They were going to be a family. Or at least the beginning of one.

One step at a time. One day at a time. And this was a great start, with a man she loved, dogs she loved, in a home she loved.

In the town she’d always called home.