The Fire in Ember - DiAnn Mills [84]
Bert straightened, and he noted her pale face. “What did you say?”
He swallowed hard and stepped closer. “I said I acted like a jealous fool.”
“You don’t know what you’re sayin'. There are too many bad things you don’t know about me. I tried to get you to listen the night you decided to chase me down.”
“Anything you might have done was taken care of when you became a believer.”
“But the past doesn’t disappear. We both know that.”
John found himself swimming in the depths of her brown eyes. “I want to earn your trust … be your friend … build a future together.”
Tears pooled her eyes, and he ached to hold her. “John, we have no future until those who chase me are gone. Maybe not even then.”
He gathered her into his arms. She winced, and he wished he could eliminate the fear in her eyes. “Let me help you. No man should have that much power over a woman. Who is he? Who are they?”
At first she trembled and buried her face into his chest. Her quiet sobbing was all he could hear. He refused to let her go, and slowly she relaxed. “This is where you belong, Ember. Not running. Not hiding. You belong right here beside me.”
“Everything I touch or care about is destroyed.”
“Someone has filled you with lies. Trust me, please. Tell me who is after you.”
She lifted her tear-stained face from his chest. “I can’t,” she whispered. “Because all of you will be killed. You have no idea the people he’s killed … they’ve killed. I should leave, but I can’t. Am I weak? Am I selfish for wanting to stay with you and your family?”
John could only draw her closer to him. He had no answers. He’d prayed for guidance but God hadn’t responded. Or maybe John wasn’t listening hard enough.
She pulled herself away from him and stepped back. “You’d best tend to things outside. I need to finish supper, and I can’t do that with you here.”
John noted her stubborn stance, how her jaw tightened and the way she pressed her lips together. “All right. I’ll leave you alone. But someday we’re going to talk about us—you and me.” He reached out and rubbed her shoulders, wanting to draw her into his arms but knowing he needed to abide by her wishes.
Her stoic look didn’t match the pleading in her eyes. But what did that mean? He shouldn’t push her because she might run like before. Taking a deep breath, he turned and forced one foot in front of the other to the door. He grasped the latch and watched his knuckles turn white while the ache inside him for the woman he loved increased. As selfish as it sounded, he was tired of always doing things for everyone else and not following his own dreams. God help him if his thoughts were wrong, but he couldn’t let this moment pass without speaking his heart.
John whirled around and captured her gaze. “I can’t go.”
“What do you mean?” She glanced at the stove and wrung her hands. “I have things to do.”
Courage rose stronger than anything he’d ever imagined. “Nothing could be more important than what I feel for you.”
She gasped and he took quick steps back to her. Taking her into his arms, he let his thoughts find their way to his lips.
“I love you, Ember Rose. I can’t imagine another day of my life without you. Guess I’ve known it all along. Tell me we have a future together. I need to know now.”
Her pale face might have stopped other men, but not John Parker Timmons. He waited. Her body finally relaxed against him.
“I’m not sure I can answer you.”
He rested his chin atop her head. “I need to know.” His heart continued to pound against his chest, and he waited.
“I do love you, John. I have nothing to offer you but a horrible past, but I do love you.”
She trembled in his arms, and he held her until she calmed again. “Your love is all I need, all I ever need.”
She lifted her head, and he could resist no longer. He found her lips and drank deeply, firmly committing his love to the tiny woman in his arms. Whatever the future held, they’d face it together. Nothing could come between them. Nothing.
CHAPTER 39
John and Wirt rode up to a small stone house on the narrow road leading out