Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 223(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 223(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
She falls apart around me, babbling my name.
"I love you," I growl, fucking her through it. "I've loved you every goddamn minute since I met you. Three years didn't change that. Nothing will. You're in my skin, Paisley, branded into my fucking psyche."
"Ridley," she whimpers, already clenching and fluttering around my cock again. "Please."
"You think I could walk away from you again, baby? I barely survived the last three years. I wasn't living. I was in hell, imagining you happy with someone else. Imagining you giving yourself to someone else like this," I growl, slamming into her again. "And then I found out how badly I fucked it up. I let you go for nothing. You weren't happy. You weren't living. You need me the same way I need you. You know why?"
"W-w-why?"
"Because you're mine, the same way I'm yours. I love you. Every piece of you. You can't push me away, Dimples. I won't fucking let you." I nip her shoulder, my heart pounding. "Where you go, I go."
She shatters apart again, her legs giving out beneath her. I follow her down, still driving into her, determined to get her there one more time, to make sure she damn well knows that I mean every word.
"It doesn't matter how hard you fight me. It doesn't matter how scared you get. It doesn't matter if you bite and claw and try like hell to push me away. It doesn't matter if the whole state watches you throw a fit. I'm not leaving you."
She falls apart for me again, screaming so loud her voice breaks, and I know she can't take any more. She's split open and fucked raw, gasping for breath beneath me, more beautiful than she's ever been.
I roar her name, driving into her a final time before I give her everything I have, spilling into her again and again. And I hope to God that I get her pregnant, that I tie her to me in a way that nothing will ever undo.
I want to leave a little piece of me growing inside of her, so deep she can't ever get me out again. Maybe then she'll realize. Maybe then she'll know. I'm fucking hers. I always have been.
Neither of us speaks as we come down, trembling and shaking. I roll her on top of me, holding her tightly. Her face is still damp with tears, but she's calmer now.
"You really aren't leaving?" she finally whispers.
"Not unless it's with you," I murmur, brushing hair out of her face.
Her wide eyes meet mine.
"If you take the job in Los Angeles, I'm going with you. That's what you heard today, Dimples," I say softly. "We were talking about my plan to follow you to LA."
She bites her lip and then drops her gaze, her head bowed. "I'm a jerk."
"You're scared."
She nods solemnly. "I've been waiting for you to ask me to stay."
"I couldn't."
"Oh."
She doesn't ask why, but I hear the question echoing in the silence between us. "You've already lost too much, Paisley. And you've worked too goddamn hard for me to be selfish and ask you to give up anything else just to be here with me. Your dreams matter to you." I dry her cheeks with my fingertips. "So I'll go wherever they take you."
"I want to stay here," she whispers.
A grin tugs at my lips. "I know. That's why I went to talk to Alexa Warner today."
Her brows furrow like she remembers the name but doesn't understand the significance of it.
"She's a prosecutor with the DA's office."
Paisley's eyes widen. "W-what did you go to see her about?"
"A job." I tip her head back with a finger beneath her chin. "That's what I was worried wouldn't work out. Not us, the job."
"Oh," she whispers against my lips.
"We're going to work out, Paisley. We would have three years ago if we'd just talked. And I'm so fucking sorry that I messed it up back then, baby. It kills me that I hurt you. I can't go back and fix that now. I wish to God that I could, but I can't," I whisper. "What I can do is promise you that it won't happen again, baby. I won't ever walk away again. I won't ever let you down again. But if you have fears or doubts, I need you to come to me with them, not run from me because of them. I can't address them if you don't share them."
"I don't like secrets, Ridley," she whispers. "They make me feel like I don't have any control. I need to feel like I have some control, or I freak out."
"Because of what happened between us last time," I mutter.
"No." She rolls slightly, folding her arms together on my chest and then propping her head on top of them. "Because of Pierce. His mission was classified. We didn't even know where he was going until after…" A shadow passes across her face. "Well, we didn't know. Even before that, I spent a lot of years and a lot of time not knowing where he was, if he was okay, or when he'd be back. All I could do was worry. And then, one day he just…didn't come back."