Something shifted in him then. Not wounded. Fired up. Determined in a way that made my chest ache.
“You don’t know what it’s cost me to hold back around you,” he said. “I want you. I don’t deny that. But not because I feel sorry for you. Not because I can’t help myself. Because I choose you.Every single day. I’ve never set out to hurt a woman in my life.”
My breath caught, but I kept my face composed. “I can’t be sure.”
He held my gaze for a long moment, chest rising as he reined himself in. Then he nodded once. “Fair enough.” He stepped aside and opened the door. “I’ve got a few things to take care of before we leave.”
I walked past him, heart hammering, the space between us stretched thin and volatile. At the doorway, I stopped. “Chain?”
He looked at me, eyes dark, unreadable.
“I didn’t say I don’t believe you,” I said softly. “I just need to know the difference between a man who wants me and one who actually means it.”
He nodded. No promises. No defense. Just acceptance. “If you don’t trust me,” he said, “then there’s no way to prove it.”
I left before I could tell him the truth. That deep down I already did, and that the rest of me was still learning how to stop waiting on the fire.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
THE DOOR CLICKEDbehind her, but I stayed still.
My hands were fists at my sides. Not out of anger — not at her, not even at Roxanne — but from restraint. Every part of me wanted to follow Lark out that door, grab her by the wrist, press her against the nearest wall andshowher what the hell she meant to me. Not with words. Not with promises.
With my body. My mouth. My time.
But she didn’t need another man who took. She needed man to let her choose. One who was patient enough to wait for her to figure her shit out. But fuck, she made me feel like I was loosing my goddamned mind.
So I waited. Counted out five long breaths, jaw tight enough to crack.
Then I left the office.
Lark was by the front door, one hand braced on the frame like she needed the wood to hold her up. Her head was bowed, hair falling down her back, shoulders pulled tight.
I stepped up slow, boots loud in the empty room, until I was behind her.
She didn’t turn.
“I meant what I said,” I told her, voice quiet, soft. “I choose you. Every damn day. Not because I have to. BecauseI want to.”
She still didn’t turn, but her fingers curled tighter around the doorframe.
“I don’t need saving, Chain,” she said. Voice calm, but shakin’ under it. “And I worry that’s what you’re doing. Even if you don’t realize it.”
I stepped closer. Just behind her now.
“I’m not here to save you, Lark,” I said, breath warm against her ear. “I’m here toseeyou.”
She turned then — slow, like it cost her somethin’ — and when her eyes met mine, they were storm-dark and uncertain.
“I don’t know how to be anything but this,” she said.
“You don’t have to be anythin’ but what you are.”
“Even with me driving you crazywith my mood swings?”
“I’ve got calluses, darlin’. I can take it.”
Somethin’ broke behind her eyes, not weakness, not surrender. Just the need tobe believed.
