Read Perfect Fit for Free Online Page B

the port he represented in the middle of her mental storm.
    Darius lifted his head, ignoring her sound of protest. And when she would have followed him, demanded he return to her, he pressed a thumb over her lips, denying her what she wanted most. The small, soft kiss he pressed to the corner of her mouth softened the blow of refusal.
    “Finish it,” he whispered, and the quiet command was like a lance to a wound. The pain, anger, and grief swelled and rush out in a torrential outpour.
    “I hurt him so badly. I hurt him,” she blurted, speaking so fast, the words tumbled over one another. She lifted her hands between them and placed them on his chest. She pushed, needing air, space…but he dropped his arms from her face and wrapped them around her to hold her tight. “I just wanted her to love me, to be nice to me. I couldn’t make Daniel like me. All I had was her, and she blamed me because Daniel wouldn’t give me his last name or pay me the attention he poured on Cindy. The only way I could make her happy was to reject Dad. She seemed to care then, to show me kindness. And I hurt one of the few people who loved me unconditionally.” She wept, fisting the front of his shirt. “I never told him how sorry I was. He died not knowing I didn’t mean those things I’d said. He never knew…”
    Harsh sobs racked her body, and she couldn’t halt the tremors that attacked her. One moment she stood in Darius’s arms, and the next her feet had left the ground and she was cradled to a hard chest. Soothing murmurs she couldn’t decipher barely penetrated the emotional tempest that swept her away.
    How much time passed, Rowyn couldn’t say. But when the jagged weeping quieted into shallow, rough breaths that scratched her burning throat, she was once again on the bench they’d vacated. A solid shoulder supported her head, and strong arms cuddled her close.
    She remained in Darius’s embrace, content. It felt as if a huge boulder that she’d carried for years had been suddenly hoisted from her chest. She felt…free.
    And probably looked like a hot mess with swollen eyes, puffy face, and slinging snot. As if hearing her internal list, Darius handed her a white handkerchief. Rowyn murmured a thank-you, then tried to clean up all vestiges of her breakdown.
    He didn’t speak, allowing her to gather her composure and thoughts, and she was grateful. God, she hadn’t realized all that guilt, grief, and anger had been caged in her like prisoners of war. Memories of her father and their short time together rose, and for the first time, she didn’t suppress them. Their first stilted lunch at one of the riverside cafés. She›d been so nervous, and so had he. But after an hour the walls had lowered, and they had tentatively reached out to each other, planning another lunch date.
    The images passed in a blurred succession. Lunch, dinner, shopping. Her twenty-second birthday. She touched her fingertips to the base of her throat. He›d given her the beautiful necklace with his native Korean engraved on the back. To my princess. Because she would never stop being his princess, he’d told her. He’d died three months later of a freak brain aneurysm.
    Another sob, less intense than its predecessors, surged in her chest. Damn, she missed that necklace. Her last link to her father, gone. Unless… Shit, she was an idiot! Why hadn’t she thought of it before?
    She jerked her head up and met Darius’s concerned, soft gaze. “Did you find a necklace at your place after I, uh, left?”
    He arched his eyebrow, and for once she didn’t experience the urge to rip it off. Now it seemed kind of adorable. “What?” he asked.
    Rowyn gripped his shoulder. “Did you find a necklace?”
    “A gold chain with a pendant?” Darius nodded. “Yes. You left it on my bedroom dresser.”
    Joy swelled and spilled over into a delighted cry. She threw her arms around him and squeezed him tight. With a startled bark of laughter, he clutched her to