I’m free. He’s gone, and the only reason I’m still alive is because someone cared enough about me to reach into that car and pull me out.

“Oh my god,” I rasp as the realization hits. “Your shop. Murph...I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t give a fuck about my shop.” The cold bite in his voice shakes the worry out of me.

I look at him, my eyes wet and my cheeks flushed. He’s holding something back. I can see it in the way he’s grasping his hands together over his knees. Leaning forward like he wants to touch me, but hasn’t yet.

“I was so worried about you. When I saw that car flip, and I thought you—” He’s getting worked up, so he leans back and rubs his hand over his beard. He’s calculating his next words before he leans forward and takes my hand.

Then, I figure it out, what’s different about him. It’s fear. It’s the fear he’s showing. I was so convinced that he wasn’t afraid of anything, that nothing could bring him to his knees, that every arrow that flew toward him only broke on the surface, but this Murph has terror in his eyes. It’s hard to see, but I love it.

Looking down at our fingers entwined, he speaks, his voice thick with emotion. “I’ve made a lot of bad choices in my life, Savannah. Usually, I think that if I’m not hurting anyone else, then it doesn’t matter. Then, you came along, and I didn’t want to care about you, and I sure as hell didn’t want you caring about me.”

His beautiful green eyes lift, and I shutter in the intensity of his stare. Then his next words break the glass box around my heart into a million pieces, shards of discarded pain slicing apart everything I’ve built up between us.

“Savannah, you own my fucking soul.”

My next breath is a gasp, tear-soaked, rattled. He seems almost bitter about it, and it’s clear, more than ever, that Ian Murphy never really wanted to fall in love.

Well, neither did I. But here we are.

I can’t speak as he continues. “There was no stopping my feelings for you, no matter how hard I tried or how much of a dickhead I was. I actually thought I could walk away from us and forget that it all happened, but it tore me to shreds. Watching that car flip...I wished I was in it, Savannah. With you.”

“Please come here,” I whisper when I feel his hands shake. He’s actually nervous that I won’t feel the same, that I’ll reject him. I couldn’t reject him if I tried.