“Of letting myself want this, just for you to leave again.”
I meet Asher’s eyes over her shoulder.
I’ve fed into her abandonment issues the same way her family has, and it’s my responsibility to make her believe I’m not going to leave her.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m here for the long haul, or did you miss the part about chasing you if you ever tried to leave?”
She huffs out a choked laugh, tugging a smile to my own lips. “Just because you’re all in right now doesn’t mean you will be forever.”
“You’re wrong.”
“You don’t know that. You can’t know how you’re going to feel in a month, or a year, or ten. This could just be a temporary thing for you, a forbidden tryst with your stepdaughter, and now that you have it, the appeal could be lost.”
Asher chuckles, because he knows more than anyone how all in I am with this woman, and my need to reassure her clashes with my attempts not to frighten her with the intensity of my feelings toward her.
“Hannah, I need you to listen to me right now, and I need you to listen well. You are it for me. I’ve known it for a long time, and I’m trying my hardest not to scare you off with my crazy, but I’m more than happy to lay it all out on the table right here and now.”
“Rowan,” Asher warns.
“Tell me,” Hannah says.
“If I thought you’d agree to it, I’d have a marriage officiant here in an hour and a doctor an hour after that to have your IUD removed. If I had it my way, you’d be wearing our rings and full of our baby before the sun goes down tonight.”
Asher sighs, dropping his head to her shoulder and holding her to him tightly, as if he thinks she might disappear.
Her breath stutters in her chest at the words, but it’s long moments before she can finally find the words to respond. “That’s…a lot.”
I chuckle. “It is. But I need you to stop doubting me. I get why. Believe me, I understand. But this isn’t a passing fling. It’s not a forbidden tryst. It’s the thing I’ve waited my whole life for and gave up on. Then I met you and knew that you would be my wife, you would carry my babies. I just had to wait to make it happen. But I don’t want to wait anymore.” I press a kiss to her throat. “As soon as you’re ready, I’ll make all of that happen.”
Silence follows, and Asher’s glare gets more intense by the second. He doesn’t need to voice the words for me to know he’s going to kick my ass if she tries to run again because I dumped all that shit on her.
But then she reaches back and takes my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I’m willing to give this a go if you promise there are no more lies between us. No more secrets. No more secret crushes. No more running.”
“Unless it’s through a forest so we can chase you,” Asher adds helpfully, dragging a giggle from our girl.
“Exactly.” She shakes her head. “Is that enough for now? If we just…try?”
I nod against her back. “More than enough, Hannah.”
For the first time in my life, the need for more no longer beats inside my chest, because I have everything I need right here.
Now I just have to make sure I can keep it forever.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
HANNAH
After living alone for years, living with Rowan and Asher is…easy.
Everything I could want or need is provided to me, often without asking. They pick up after themselves, know how to cook and clean, and the best part? I haven’t found the toilet seat up once.
Okay, so maybe the best part is that every morning I wake up pressed between the two of them, being held like I’m the most precious thing in their world, which I’m starting to believe I am.
Unfortunately, it turns out they were serious about me not being allowed to leave without one of them accompanying me, and as much of a fuss as I’ve put up about that very thing, I actually don’t mind it half as much as I make out I do.
The one bone of contention I have about the entire arrangement, though?
The lack of sex.
