As I gazed at the image, tears blurred my eyes. The dam I had so carefully constructed to hold back my emotions broke with the weight of seeing him. Before I could stop myself, I was sobbing. When Rev’s arms started to come around me, I pushed him away. I couldn’t stand his pitying comfort, nor could I afford to allow myself to be held by him. The safety and protection of his arms had once meant the world to me. “Why? Why did you come here? Damn you! I’d only just begun to put myself halfway back together again.”

Rev wore an anguished expression. “I had to come, Annabel. I had to tell you I was sorry for what happened.”

I shook my head furiously. “I don’t want your fucking apology. Your words mean nothing to me. I will never be able to forgive you for turning me away.”

“Even if I came here to make it right?”

After swiping the tears from my eyes, I stared suspiciously at him. “What do you mean?”

“The last four months have been the worst months of my life. I’ve spent most of them drunk off my ass, trying everything in the world to forget you.” Tentatively, he reached out to cup my cheek. Although I should have jerked away from him, I couldn’t bring myself to. “But you’re unforgettable, Annabel.”

Unforgettable. He thought of me as unforgettable.

His words caused the tears to come harder and faster. Rev reached out and drew me against him. My hands fisted the front of his tux as I clung desperately to him. “Please don’t cry. You break my heart when you cry, especially when I’m the one at fault,” he murmured, his words warm against my cheek.

“I can’t help it. You’re not the only one whose last four months have been miserable. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t forget you, either.”

Rev kissed the top of my head. “I’m so sorry. I never wanted to do anything to hurt you, but all my fucking good intentions just got in the way. I’ve never been so wrong about trying to do what I thought was the right thing.” Easing back from me, Rev stared into my eyes. “You were right that I freaked out about kissing you that night at the roadhouse. But what you didn’t remember was you also told me you were falling in love with me.”

I heard myself gasp. “I did?”

“Yes, you did. Although part of me was glad to hear you say it, I was afraid that you were just mixed up in the way you felt about me because of what you had gone through. But more than anything, I didn’t feel I deserved you.”

“How can you think such a thing?”

“How can I not? You’re this beautiful and intelligent woman who is unattainable to someone like me. Your grandfather was the fucking governor, while mine worked in a cotton mill.”

“You know that none of that matters to me—pedigrees, bloodlines, all that bullshit. You always knew how I felt about my parents and their world.” I motioned to all the grandeur inside. “This has never been and never will be my world.”

“But you deserve to have the finest things that life has to offer, and I can’t give you that.”

Shaking my head, I countered, “I don’t want any of that. None of that is important to me. I just want what you can give me.”

With a scowl, he said, “All I can give you is a sixty-year-old house and stakes in a pawnshop and a gym.”

“You can give me what none of the richest men at this party can.”

“And what’s that?”

“Your love.”

Rev’s blue eyes shone with a fierce intensity. “I do love you, Annabel. I fought it for a long time, but I know now without a shadow of a doubt that you’re the only woman in the world for me.”

My heart skipped a beat at his declaration. “You really mean that?”

He nodded. “Do you think that even after the way I acted you could love me again?”

I smiled as I brought my hand up to his cheek. I brushed the back of it over his smoothly shaven skin. I couldn’t seem to keep my hands off him. “I never stopped loving you. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard I wanted to.”

Rev’s response to my words was to bring his lips to mine. Every molecule in my body seemed to come alive as our lips pressed together. His mouth worked tenderly against mine, almost timidly, as if he didn’t want to spook me. But then I also realized it was the type of kiss you gave someone who you loved.

I pulled away to stare up at him. “Take me away from here.”

“Are you sure?”

“There’s nothing that I want more than to be with you. Your home, your family, and your club are in Georgia.” I smiled. “That’s where I want to be.”

Rev returned my smile. “You don’t know how thankful I am to hear you say that.”

Taking him by the hand, I started to lead him to the stairs. When he tugged on my hand, I stopped. “What?”

“Don’t you need to go pack?”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to waste another minute here when I could be with you. I can send for my things later.” The truth was I didn’t want to ruin this perfect moment by having a verbal altercation with my parents.

Rev laughed. “Whatever you say.” We then hurried down the veranda steps and around the side of the house.

“Annabel? Annabel, where are you going?” my bodyguard, Bradley, called out after me. He was breathing a little harder, as if he had broken into a run to catch up with us.

“I’m going home.”

Bradley’s blond brows furrowed in confusion. “I’m sorry?”