Until that moment, I wondered if I’d ever really known what devotion meant. As a kid, I had been too scared and broken and insecure to realize what she’d really needed was me.
“Because that’s what this place was always supposed to be. Ours.”
Didn’t care if it was some kind of blasphemy. A straight shot of betrayal sent Joseph’s way.
Fuck him.
After today? After seeing what he’d gotten them into? I couldn’t find it in myself to give half a shit about what he might want.
He’d stolen what was mine.
And I was taking it back.
My hands found the angled curve of her face, lifting it to me, and I stared down at her through the flood of moonlight that poured into the room.
Or maybe it was just the girl who was lighting it up.
“Do you remember?” I asked her. “The night you gave yourself to me? What I told you?”
“That you’d love me forever.” Her hands wrapped around my wrists. Her voice dropped.
Low with seduction.
Still, the girl was so damned sweet that it still managed to come out sounding shy. “I remember everything. The way you touched me. The way you loved me. But I’d already belonged to you, Jace. Just like I do now.”
I pressed her up harder against the wall, her back hitting it with a soft thud, an echo that wound with the promise that fell from my mouth. “I lost you once. I won’t let it happen again. I won’t let you go.”
“I don’t want you to. Don’t ever let me go. I need you, Jace. I need you to stay.”
My hands slid down the perfect curves of her body, landing on her waist and cinching tight. “Tell me again,” I demanded.
She lifted her chin toward my face, her voice so devastatingly soft, and still, the loudest thing I’d ever heard. “I’m in love with you. I love you so much it hurts.”
I was going to erase the sting.
Eradicate the hurt.
Touch her and please her until there was nothing but pleasure.
Protect her in a way that she would always know she was safe.
Softly, I brushed my fingers through her hair. “And you’re the only one who’s ever taken my pain away.”
“I guess maybe we’ve always just been better together,” she whispered in that soft accent that she wore so well. Goodness on her tongue and trust in her eyes.
“Together,” was my only answer, and then I was sweeping her off her feet and pulling her into my arms, cradling her like a treasure against my chest.
I carried her through the dancing shadows of the room to the massive four-poster bed.
The carved wood was dark and gleaming, lush in the light of the moon, the plush, satiny, cream-colored bedding screaming luxury in what had once been the master suite.
Luxury was fucking right.
There was no greater extravagance or indulgence than being inside Faith. No greater riches than holding this girl in my hands.
And I was about to get greedy.
Those slender arms clung to my neck as I leaned down and peeled the covers back.
I laid her in the middle.
Chocolate hair spilled out all around her, and that tight body arched.
I hadn’t even touched her, and she was already quivering with need.
Her breaths panted into the dense, dense air, stirring up the memories that were ready to stand and fight for a future.
I’d let her go, thinking it was what was the best for her. It had been the most foolish thing I had ever done.
No more.
I stepped back and stared down at her where she was laid out like a vision on that bed.
A fucking fantasy.
The girl I’d been dreaming of for all these years. A tease in my mind and a scar on my body.
My body that raced, muscles clenched tight, my dick begging at the seam of my jeans.
Mine.
Her hand fluttered up.
A whisper.
A plea.
“I don’t wanna be alone. Not anymore, Jace. Take it from me . . . that place that’s been achin’ for you for all these years. It’s always belonged to you, anyway.”
Lust roared through my veins. Pumped steadily with the devotion.
I set a knee on the bed and climbed up over her, hands planted on either side of her head.
I dipped down.
Kissed her.
Slow and tender and profound.
Gentle sweeps of my tongue and soft bites of my teeth.
Fuck. She tasted so good. Felt so right.
A glimmer of a warning glowed deep inside my soul.
She doesn’t know.
She doesn’t know.
I shoved it down where it belonged. Refusing it. Because it didn’t matter anymore.
My purpose had shifted.
My reason was her.
I set my palm on the side of her neck. Her pulse a needy drum, drum, drum.
Hard and fast and desperate.
It was enough to set me off. Make me dizzy. This girl filling my lungs.
Vanilla and roses.
My palm slipped down, gliding over the frantic beat of her heart, her body trembling under my touch. My fingers fumbled with the first button it met on her blouse, then the next, and the next, until the material was splayed open.