Not ever.
She smiles and snuggles closer, trusting me completely as she drifts to sleep.
For the first time in my life, I don’t feel like a weapon.
I feel like a man who has something worth fighting for.
CHAPTER NINE
GEMMA
I’ve never felt more alive.
Or more terrified.
Dallas stands at the small motel window, already dressed, and already distant. Ready to go to war with whoever is threatening us. The man who held me last night, who made love to me multiple times and whispered my name like I was his, is gone.In his place is the one who eliminates marks with practiced ease.
He thinks I don’t see the shift, but I do.
He turns slightly, checking the parking lot again. Always scanning. Always calculating.
He’s leaving, and this time, it won’t be to grab breakfast. Once he delivers me to his brother Bronco in White Falls, he’s going to confront his boss.
My chest tightens. “Dallas.”
He meets my eyes but doesn’t move closer.“Yes, honey.”
The softness in the nickname almost undoes me. Tears sting my eyes like little needles.“You don’t get to tuck away last night like one of your weapons and then pretend it didn’t matter.”
His expression darkens.“It matters,” he says, low and rough. "That's... not what this is."
"Then what is it? Because it feels like this was only temporary. Like I’m temporary."
That hits him.
Good.Because I see him. I’mchoosinghim—if he’ll let me.
Dallas swears and stalks to me, pulling me into his arms. He presses his cheek to my hair and drags in an audible breath. "Going home," he rasps. "Facing people as the man I am. Not what they want me to be."
Oh.
I know what it's like to want to be loved for who you are, and how it feels when they don't. I wrap my arms around his waist and hold him close. "Trust them to see the man I do," I whisper against his chest.
"If they can't?" The pain in his voice breaks me.
"You'll still have me." I don't know if that's enough. It's all I have to give.
He crushes me in his embrace, bending down to bury his face in my neck. His lips tremble when he places a small kiss there.
"I love you, Gemma," he says, the words rough like they were dragged out of him.
My heart does a somersault in my chest, then beats so hard I can hear it in my ears. "I love you too, Dallas."
I don't know how it happened. Somewhere between a kiss over ice cream and making love to him last night, I found the man beneath the ice, and he's everything I've ever wanted.
He holds me for a few more minutes, then presses a hard kiss to my lips. "Let's go. Bronco is expecting us."
Dallas takes my hand and together, we drive to White Falls and an unknown future.
