He catches me up in his embrace, lifting me off the floor. I’m surrounded in his strength, and I let out a half whimper, half sob, my fear breaking as I wrap myself around him. “What happened?” I ask, my voice muffled by the fact that my face is buried in his neck.
I can’t help it. Being in his arms is where I find strength, where I’ve been finding myself and the person I want to be.
“A break-in,” he says, walking across the room. But he doesn’t go back to bed, but into the bathroom.
“A break-in?” I pull my face back then, looking at him, though he doesn’t meet my eyes. Instead, still carrying me, he flicks on the light, and then crosses to the large tub in the corner. Sitting on the edge with me in his lap, he turns on the taps. “I thought this building was locked down tight.”
“It is. Somehow, he bypassed the locks…”
“He?” But even as I ask, I know it was Sver. “What did he want?” Then I shake my head. “Never mind. Why would you know that?”
Ryker dips his head, his lips brushing against the spot where my chin meets my shoulders. “Whatever it is, I promise, I will do everything, anything to keep you safe.”
I hear the worry in his voice, but I feel the grit. The way determination hardens every muscle in his body. “I know.”
I pull his face up then, needing him to understand. In the bathroom light, I can see that his features are more haggard than I’ve ever seen. Is he worried? Exhausted?
Holding his face between my hands, I kiss his lips. “I need to tell you something.”
“What?” he asks, a muscle in his jaw ticcing.
“I love you,” I say, knowing that it’s probably a ridiculous thing to share now. But no one has ever tried to be a break wall for me, and those three words just summarize my appreciation, attraction, and commitment to him.
His hands fan out on my back and then he leans in, kissing me with a long, slow press of his mouth that is so sexy and intimate, he overwhelms me in every way.
He steals my breath as the steam rises around us, our bodies wound together. He leans back then, one of his hands coming to brush my hair back from my face. “I love you too, Sasha.”
I blink at him, my confusion evident. Of all the reactions I’d expected, that was the last one. “You don’t have to say that?—”
“I don’t say anything I don’t want to say, baby.” And then he kisses me again, standing as he does.
He breaks away, reaching for the hem of his T-shirt, to pull it up my thighs. It sails over my head, hitting the floor.
I’m in nothing but a tiny pair of panties. His eyes darken as his gaze slides over me. “I love how tiny you are, wife.”
“Really?” I ask even as his thumbs hook the string sides of the underwear, his large hands dwarfing my hips.
But he doesn’t answer as he bends down, sucking one of my nipples into his mouth. I gasp, arching into the touch.
He does the same to the other before he straightens again. “The very first moment I saw you…” He drags the underwear down my thighs. “I knew you should be mine.”
I’ve never heard him talk about that first night we met. The night my brother took me from my father.
Is he for real? Did he really know he wanted me then? “You don’t mean?—”
“I mean every word. I knew you were mine, Sasha. Some deep instinct understood you belonged with me, even if it took the rest of me time to catch up. One look at you and I just knew.”
He kisses my belly as he pulls the underwear off first one foot and then the other. I try to speak but my throat is too clogged with emotion.
I should be feeling fear. But instead, my heart swells in my chest. “Whatever else comes, I’m so thankful for this moment.” He shucks his boxer briefs down his own thighs. He’s so large that I just stare, taking him in.
Stepping out of the boxer briefs, he reaches for my hand, helping me into the tub. He turns off the water and then steps in behind me, sitting me down and pulling my back against his chest.
His arms wrap around me, his face pressing into my hair. “I’m thankful for it too, love.”
“You’re worried.”
He lets out a long breath, blowing my hair. “He won’t be back tonight.”
