He doesn’t speak, but the tremor in his chest tells me he heard.
I press my lips against his throat, a desperate kiss, a vow. “And you never gave up on me. Not for a single second.” I swallow hard. “Jacob—I love you.”
His lack of response is deafening. But I can feel it in the way his grip tightens around me, in the way his chest rises rough and heavy beneath my cheek. He heard me. He just doesn’t know what to do with it.
I lift my head, force him to look at me. His eyes are fire and ruin, storms bottled in ice. He looks like a man about to come apart at the seams.
“I mean it,” I whisper. “I’m so deeply in love with you it burns my fucking soul.”
The muscles in his jaw flex. His lips part, close, part again. His hand slides up my spine, slow and possessive, curling around the back of my neck. He pulls me forward, crashing his mouth to mine. It’s not gentle this time. It’s punishing. Consuming. Like he’s trying to drown himself in me before the world takes me away.
I gasp against him, my nails digging into his shoulders, but he doesn’t stop. His tongue claims, his teeth graze, his growl vibrates through my chest. I feel myself unravelling, piece by piece, giving myself to him, wholly, completely. Mind, body and fucking soul.
When he finally breaks, his forehead presses to mine, breath ragged.
“Don’t you ever say that to me unless you’re ready to live with it,” he snarls, voice raw. “Because I’ll never let you take it back.”
I choke out a sob, half fear, half relief. “I don’t want to take it back.”
His eyes close, like the words are too much, too dangerous. When they open again, they’re darker. Hungrier.
“Christ, Summer….” His voice cracks around my name. “You have no fucking idea what you’ve just done.”
He doesn’t give me a chance to answer. His hands seize my hips, dragging me tighter against him. Heat floods through me at the hard press of him beneath the thin cotton barrier.
My breath stutters, body arching instinctively.
“Jacob—”
He cuts me off with another kiss, this one deeper, slower, but no less brutal. His hands roam, sliding under the hem of the pajama top, palms rough against my skin. Every touch is a contradiction—too harsh, too desperate, yet trembling with restraint, like he’s terrified he’ll break me if he doesn’t hold back.
I clutch his face, forcing his gaze to stay on mine. “You’re not going to break me,” I whisper against his lips. “You’ll never break me.”
Tears stream down my face, but I don’t care. I drag his mouth back to mine, kissing him deeper through the sobs, desperate and messy. He groans into me, the sound torn from somewhere deep and dangerous. When he finally pulls back, his breath scorches my lips. His eyes burn into mine—furious, starving, shattered.
“I need you,” I whisper, trembling.“And if you meant what you said earlier—if you want me to be your fiancée, then my answer is yes.”
His hand fists in my hair, dragging my head back so I have no choice but to meet his gaze. His mouth hovers over mine, dangerous and reverent all at once.
“You have no idea how many times I’ve dreamed you’d say those words.”
“I’m yours,” I breathe. “Only ever yours.”
His earlier restraint disappears, and he kisses like a man who refuses to let me piece myself back together without him. He releases me and drags his teeth over my throat like he’s branding me.
I moan, my body arching helplessly against his. My fingers clutch at his shoulders needing him closer even as he tears me apart.
“You own me, Jacob.”
His growl is from the depths of hell, like my confession is gasoline thrown on open flame. He shoves me deeper into the cushions,his weight crushing, his heat surrounding me until there’s nothing left but him.
“Say it again,” his words are guttural, straight from his heart.
“I’m yours,” I choke out, tears burning hot down my face. “I’ve always been yours. Deep down. I’ve denied it. I’ve hated you. But… I’m yours, Jacob. And I love you.”
Chapter 26
The Knife and The Noose
