For perhaps the tenth time that night alone, tears watered her eyes. Confusing emotions warred with one another in her heart as he spoke, his words ripping her insides and cutting her deeply, as well as pushing her to soar. For so long, she had held her love for him like a secret kept to her chest. Never could she have ever fathomed that her feelings, a childish infatuation that grew into a real love, would ever be reciprocated. Scrambling, she took hold of his face and turned him back to her in a desperate bid to make him understand.<br/><br/>“I thought it a torment because I had believed you kissed me out of duty, out of obligation, and that would have broken my heart. Don’t you understand? Never, in all of my life, would I have ever imagined you would say such sweet words to me.” She brushed the backs of her fingers against his cheek, her eyes red and watery as she looked imploringly into his eyes. “You may have just come into your realization, Cam. But I have always loved you.”<br/><br/>She pressed a small kiss to the corner of his lips, but feeling as if she did not deserve even that, she looked away, embarrassed. “I’m sorry,” she murmured under her breath, “I’ve hurt you.”