Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 57099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
I cupped his face in my hands and brought him down for a soft kiss. “Rhys, I said it before but I want to repeat it. I never stopped loving you. Even when I hated you, I loved you.”
Pain, regret, and maybe hope flashed in his eyes before he captured my mouth in another kiss. Then he began to move, setting a rhythm that had my toes curling. Each thrust drove me higher, my body remembering his like no time had passed.
“Missed you,” he confessed. “Missed your softness.” Kiss. “Missed how you loved me.” Another kiss. “Missed everything about you.” Longer kiss. “Every…” A kiss with a wicked flick of his tongue. “Fuckin’…” Another kiss. “Day.”
“I missed you too.” I barely got the words out before he took my mouth in a hard, claiming kiss.
I wrapped myself around him, wanting to stay this way forever. His movements became more urgent, his powerful body driving into mine with increasing intensity. I felt myself climbing toward another orgasm, the pressure building with each stroke.
“That’s it, baby,” Knight encouraged, his voice rough with exertion. “Come with me.”
I shattered. Waves of pleasure crashed through me, my body clenching around him as I cried out his name. He followed moments later, his rhythm faltering as he buried his face in my neck and groaned a long, torturous sound that vibrated through my body straight to my clit. His cock pulsed deep inside me, filling me with his seed.
We lay tangled together afterward, his weight pressing me into the mattress in the most comforting way. The exquisite tenderness of the moment filled me with… peace.
Knight’s body covering mine, filling the empty spaces eleven years had carved inside me, felt like the missing part of my soul had finally been replaced. I clutched at his shoulders, nails digging into tattooed skin as we held each other close, still not moving.
When Knight finally rolled to his side, he kept me close, tucked against his chest where I could feel his heart hammering against my palm. Outside the window, the night blanketed the city. And for the first time in weeks, I felt something beyond fear and exhaustion.
I felt whole.
The air conditioner hummed in the background, raising goose bumps on my wet, cooling skin. Knight hadn’t moved his arm from around me. The digital clock on the nightstand read 10:42 AM. We’d been at the hotel less than two hours, but it felt like we’d crossed some invisible threshold into a different life. A life where we were together again, where the broken pieces of us had a chance of mending into something new. And we had our daughter whole and with us. Safe.
I turned onto my back, staring at the water stain on the ceiling that resembled a misshapen continent. Knight shifted beside me, his tattooed hand moving to my stomach, fingers splaying across the silvery stretch marks that marked Brynn’s growth inside me. His touch was reverent, tracing each line like he was memorizing braille.
“I should have been there, Lavender,” he whispered, his voice rough with regret. “For all of it. The morning sickness. The first kicks. The birth.”
I covered his hand with mine, feeling the hard ridges of his knuckle tattoos beneath my palm. “You’re here now,” I said, the words both absolution and reminder. “You’re here. Now. If you leave us again and push me away, that will be one thing. If you leave us through no fault of your own… you do not push me away.” I turned and stroked his whisker roughened cheek. “We do this together, as a team, forever, or we don’t do it at all. Make your choice now.”
His brows knit together in distress. I could practically feel how my words affected him. His arms tightened around me, and he held my gaze with his like we were fighting some kind of battle. “I swear on my Goddamned life, Lavender. I will never cut you and Brynn out of my life again. Never.”
“Not for any reason, Rhys. Not even for my own good, to keep me safe or whatever.” This battle absolutely could not be lost. “You trust your club?”
He gave me a confused look. “Yeah. With my life.”
“Good. Then if there is a question of my safety or whatever reasons you gave yourself last time, you will take it to your club. I know that’s what you do, right?”
He nodded, looking a little stunned. “Yeah. You trust my club enough for something like this? For them to look after you and stuff?”
“No.” I answered without hesitation. When he opened his mouth to respond, I put my fingers against his lips. “But you trust them. And I trust you. So, you don’t cut me out of your life. Your club will take care of me until you come home. And, make no mistake, if you have to leave for any reason, you will be coming home.”