She heaved a breath, still clutching her chest. “So you really want to know what I see when I look at you? I see the man I want to spend my life with, and that is the truth.”
“Eden…”
“I know what you’re thinking, Trent. I saw it the second you realized what I’d done. But I was only doing the same thing you’ve been doing for your entire life. Fighting for the ones I love. And I love you. You told me you love me. That you’ll stay with me forever. Tell me you meant it. Tell me I’m a reason worth fighting for.”
Forty-One
Eden
That menacing, intimidating man panted in front of me.
A wicked temptation.
A beautiful wish.
Hungry eyes and trembling hands.
This gorgeous being. If only he could see what I saw.
“Eden.” He rumbled the grunt.
“I love you, Trent. With all of me. With everything. You are my light. The fire that burns inside me.”
His darkly beautiful brow curled.
I took a step his direction. I swore, I felt the Earth tremble beneath my feet. “There is nothing that could stand in the way of that. As long as you don’t allow it to. I see your demons, Trent. I’ve felt them, and I’ve fought them. And I’ll do it forever as long as you do it for me. You just have to make the choice to love me. Choose me, Trent. Because you and your son? You’ve become my reason.”
Energy lashed.
Shockwaves of intensity.
Strikes of need.
But there was also something else in his expression.
Surrender.
Like maybe he finally understood.
“Kitten.” A big palm cupped my face, and he exhaled. Heated and hard. “Tell me you mean it. Tell me you want this. Tell me I’m not dreaming. Tell me you’re mine.”
My hand covered his.
A quiver of chaos.
A perfect disorder.
My tongue darted out to wet my lips. “I think I’ve been yours since the first time I walked through Absolution’s doors.”
A lure and a trap.
The way I didn’t belong but there’d been nowhere to run.
Sooty eyes flashed, and we began to sway. “It’s not even a choice, Kitten. You stole my heart with a glance.”
“And you owned me with the first whisper of your fingers.”
His nose brushed against mine. “I want to be right.”
“You’re everything.”
He exhaled. “You and me?”
“Forever,” I answered.
His mouth captured mine.
It wasn’t sweet.
It was rough.
Hard and raw.
Darkly beautiful like the man.
I felt it like a landslide.
He hiked me up, pressed me to the wall. By the chin, he forced me to look at him as his hips pressed against mine.
He gazed down at me like I was the sun. “Little Temptress.”
But he was the hope of my eternity. “Sweet Warrior.”
Because that’s what he’d been all along. From day one.
He groaned as he ripped at the collar of my dress and exposed my breast. A moan clawed up from my spirit as he palmed it, as he devoured my neck, the man leaving a trail of sizzling kisses from my jaw down to my nipple.
He sucked and licked and whipped me into a bundle of white-hot nerves.
Desperate hands and a tangle of souls.
Greed and possession.
He tore free my underwear while I yanked at his fly.
Desperate.
“I need you…I need this,” I confessed.
“Never thought I’d get this again.” His was a lament. “Fuck, Eden, love you.”
“Forever.”
He stumbled with me in his arms, turning me until we were falling onto the couch.
Emotion swept.
Overwhelming.
Consuming.
All the pieces shifting to right, where they’d been meant to be all along.
This man had brought me back from the dead. Stoked to life a heart that had never truly beat. Now every beat would beat for him.
I fumbled to shove his jeans down his hips while he shoved up my skirt.
He thrust into me. So big and so incredibly deep.
The air raked from my lungs and a grunt tumbled from his mouth.
I struggled to adjust to the perfect feel of him while he frantically wrapped me in his arms.
“Gonna be right,” he whispered, brushing back the wet hair matted to my face.
“You already are,” I whispered back.
This beautiful, terrifying man.
The one I gave my heart.
My body.
My belief.
Because loving someone was worth the risk.
We didn’t know our days and we couldn’t control our histories.
But we had here. We had now. And every one of those minutes would belong to Trent Lawson and his son.
“Thank you.” Massive arms squeezed me tight.
A crush of affection and gratitude crested from the burly, brute of a man as Jud hugged me against his giant frame.
His words came as a low, tight murmur at my ear. “Thank you for fightin’ for him. For Gage. For saving him. Fuck…for saving all of us, really. You crazy, brave girl.” The last was a tease. An admonition.
I’d gotten lectured for about an hour straight by Logan and Jud not to ever do something so reckless again. I told them I prayed we’d never be back in that position.