Tangled (Steele Ranch 3)
“I love you,” I said, leaning down so I spoke close to her ear.
She pulled back, titled her chin up to look at me. Tear stained, I wiped her cheeks with my thumbs.
“What?” she asked.
“I love you, Cricket. I’m sorry for being such an asshole, leaving you at night. I did it to protect you because I love you.”
A little V formed in her brow. “You leave me because you love me?”
I gave her a small smile, lowered my head and gave her a sweet kiss. “That first night last summer, in the hotel room, I had a nightmare. I hurt you. I won’t hurt you again.”
“You won’t,” she countered, seemingly sure that I wouldn’t.
I slid my hands up and down her arms. “You don’t know that. It’s killed me since then that I bruised you. Shit, you’re the one person I want to protect more than anything. I’m broken, baby.”
She shook her head, went up on her tiptoes and kissed me and not as sweet or gentle as I’d kissed her.
“You are a big, loveable idiot.”
I wasn’t sure about the loveable part, but the rest fit.
“You can’t make that decision for me,” she added.
One of the police cars backed up and left. I did a quick scan for Penny, saw she was sitting in a fold-up lawn chair someone had put on the grassy area in front of the apartment building. She had a water bottle in her hand and was situated in the shade. She was still on her cell.
I looked back at Cricket. “I won’t put your safety at risk. That’s a hard limit for me. I make decisions if it’s about your protection.”
“I call ‘red’ then,” she countered. “When we’re sleeping, we’re not playing. We make decisions together. You, me, Archer and Lee. All of us. I love all three of you and I’ll sleep with all three of you, and I mean sleep. I won’t be shortchanged.”
I smiled then and I felt…light. “You love me?”
She nodded, tears filling her eyes again. “I love you, Sutton. Just the way you are. And the nightmares, we’ll work on them together. Get therapy. Have Archer or Lee in bed with us. Whatever, but I won’t have you walking out on me, even if it’s emotionally.”
I nodded once. “I get it.”
“Good.”
I felt better than I had in…forever. For the first time, I felt hope. And love.
“Tell me what happened,” I said, switching to the big fucking elephant in the parking lot.
She shook her head. “Later. I just want to get Penny and get home.”
Home.
“And where is that?” I asked, sliding my hand over her hair.
“Wherever you are. Archer, Lee, too. As long as we’re together, I’m home.”
Fucking right.
15
LEE
* * *
“Cricket!” I shouted, bursting through the front door of the main house. It had been a long ride back from Buffalo, even though Archer had kept me updated and I knew both Cricket and Penny were fine.