Back in the Soldier's Arms by Soraya Lane, Karina Bliss

she could find fault with the way she’d ignored his feelings, or could recognize the cracks that had slowly shattered like a pane of glass within their marriage. She couldn’t understand how he’d been pushed far enough to be unfaithful.
    He stared into her eyes, not pulling away from her caress.
    “You’re still the same Daniel I met ten years ago, I promise you are.”
    “Then why do I feel like I don’t know who I am anymore? Like I’m losing everything?”
    Penny let her hand drop from his cheek, pushed her plate away for something to do.
    “All I know is that;d Ñnow is th I don’t want this to end,” he said, his voice low and serious. Deep and husky. “You and me, I gave up everything for us and I still would all over again if I had to. For our family. For our marriage.”
    Penny didn’t answer him. Couldn’t.
    “Penny?” he asked.
    She knew what he wanted to know.
    “I need time, Daniel.” Heavens, did she need time.
    His head moved from side to side. “We don’t have time, Pen. You fly out in less than five days, and then we won’t see each other for months again.”
    She knew that. Hell, didn’t he know that she knew that?
    “If we can’t survive now, if we can’t save our marriage now, then we never will,” he said. “I don’t know if I can be the husband you deserve anymore, but what I do know is that I’m not scared of trying. If there’s one thing you can believe, even if you don’t trust me, believe that I’ll try. I won’t give up, not until you tell me to.”
    There was an edge of finality to his tone that terrified her. Because she knew it was true.
    If she was home for good and Daniel said he was going out with a friend or with his brother, would she believe him any longer? Or would she always worry, have her thoughts betrayed time and again, that he was sneaking off to meet a woman? That he’d hurt her again?
    Would she ever be able to look into the eyes of this man sitting before her and trust that it was honesty shining from them? That the words falling from his pillowy lips were honest? Truthful?
    “Penny?”
    “Don’t pressure me, Daniel. Please,” she pleaded. “I’m not ready to give you an answer.”
    The waiter came, cleared the table.
    Penny was wondering how she would even stomach the main course, even though she’d been ravenous when they’d first arrived.
    “I’m sorry, Penny,” he told her. “I’ll say it a thousand times if it helps. Because I honestly, truly, hand on my heart mean it.” His chocolate-brown eyes bored into hers, filled with more emotion that she could ever believe could be held in a single expression. “I’m so sorry that it’s killing me. Even if we can’t work through this, even if it is over, I need to know you forgive me.”
    She looked up at him and took a deep breath.
    “I know you’re sorry,” she said. And she did. She believed him now. “But it doesn’t make it any easier for me, okay? One day I’ll be able to forgive you, because that’s the kind of person I am.”
    A flicker of hope crossed his face that she moved fast to stamp out. She had no intention of giving him false hope when she had no idea herself what was going to happen.
    “What I’m trying to say, Daniel, is that I’ll be able to forgive you because you’re the father of my child. What I don’t know is if I’ll ever be able to forgive you as my partner.”
    Silence stretched so tightly between them it could have snapped.
    “Can you honestly tell me that if I’d been unfaithful, if Iȁ stÑ if I)d done the same thing to you, that you’d ever be able to move past it? The hurt I feel, the pain.” She held up her hand to stop the conversation. To tell him it was enough. “I just can’t give you an answer right now.”
    It was as if she’d winded him with a fist to his gut, but he regained his composure within half a second.
    “Let’s enjoy our meal, shall we?”
    He gave her a tight smile. She responded by topping up her glass with