He grins. “Fucking finally.”
“Shut up.”
“I won’t let anything bad happen to you, baby. I promise…”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Magnum
Ihold Damara’s body close to mine. I don’t want to let her go. She’s the perfect person for me in so many ways that she doesn’t even realize. It’s not just the physical side of things, which has only grown on me. I love having somebody who understands having a hard past and choosing to leave it behind. She’s smart and once the baby is here and we can have the grand opening for her business, I know Damara will thrive at running a team and being the queen of her own domain.
She has a maternal side too and I can’t imagine she’ll tolerate much nonsense in a child. I like that in a woman. She loves me, and she just confessed her warrants to me, but I feel the energy between us simmering with an unspoken something that I have the strongest urge to draw to the surface.
“What else is there, baby?”
“I’ve never toldanybodyabout this part of my past,” she says with an uncharacteristically shaky voice. “Not even Tamiya.”
“You can tell me your sins, miss pink hair.”
I kiss her forehead again and enjoy how gentle that forehead kiss makes her. Just treating her with kindness brings this softer version of Damara out that feels special and different from the woman that the rest of the world gets to see.
“I’ve killed before, Magnum,” she whispers.
The way her body freezes, I know she isn’t lying, but this secret is big enough to nearly knock me off my fucking feet. I was starting to get the picture of Damara’s rougher past, but murder wasn’t anywhere near what I suspected from her. I hold onto her and let her confession hang in the air for a moment.
“Okay, baby.”
Because I’m no better than she is. I’ve taken a life before. Several, in fact.
“It happened twice,” she says. “Both ex-boyfriends.”
It’s not every day the woman you’re head over heels in love with confesses that she killed not one buttwoof her ex-boyfriends. My throat tightens in a lump.
“And I was married briefly. So… Unfortunately, I killed my ex-husband too. But we weren’t married for long.”
While the news of Damara’s previous marriage is definitely shocking, it’s not the craziest thing falling out of her mouth right now. I’m not concerned at all with the length of this marriage.
“You killed three of your exes?”
For the first time since getting close to Damara, doubt creeps into my head. Three? I would understand if she killed one ex-boyfriend and I was willing to let a second one slide. But at this point, I’m not so certain that Damara won’t find a way to end my life eventually. She looks at me with concern at first which quickly morphs into disgust.
“Are you scared?” she snaps at me with annoyance and disgust. I get it. She’s confessing the darkest parts of her soul tome and I want to react in a way that supports the woman I love. And I’m not scared, exactly. I’m just absorbing the information fully that Damara appears to have a habit of ending the lives of the men she ends up with.
“No. Of course not, babe. I love you. Deeply.”
But Damara must know that this isn’t an easy pill for anyone to swallow. I touch her shoulders and lean in close to her again, reminding myself that Damara’s past doesn’t change the warmth of the woman sitting in front of me. She’s still pregnant with my baby. Still a damn good cook and even hotter in the bedroom.
My reassurance doesn’t work.
“I trust you. I swear.”
“So you don’t have any more questions?”
Is this woman out of her fucking mind? Of course I have more questions. Many parts of Damara’s dark past are fairly typical in my circle of outlaws. But this much murder from a woman is the furthest thing from what I would expect.
“I mean…”
“I knew you would overreact.”
