“The doctors will fix him. Pretty sure from your scars, you’ve seen worse.”
He breathed out. “Maybe. Why the fuck are Arran and the others on their way back from Glasgow? Actually, forget that. Tell me everything that’s happened since last night. Don’t miss a thing.”
From the mansion, we’d taken country lanes then merged back onto a main road, safety in the flow of evening traffic. I knew from his checking the rearview that he was looking for a tail. I guessed we were in the clear, as Tyler kept to the speed limit. Safe and steady.
Emotion rushed in me. “I just…need a second. I was so worried about you.”
I inched to the edge of my seat and hugged his arm. I needed that warmth. The feel of him safe and unhurt. Tyler curled an arm around me.
With my forehead to his shoulder, I shook.
“I was so scared for you,” I tried again. “You were missing, and I didn’t realise it. I thought you’d left me. You said you’d find a way to do that. I’m so sorry I wasn’t quicker?—”
Tyler released a breath. “You have no idea how badly I want to stop this car right now.”
I clutched him tighter. Always, he delivered a sense of safety. I wanted to give that right back.
“I never wanted to leave ye. I said those words to give ye the choice because of how we started. I’m sorry I said it.”
“Forgiven.”
Tyler nudged me. “Ye told me something last night.”
I had. “Want a repeat?”
His voice came out rough. “Not yet. Let me get us to safety first.”
We blazed on into the night, out of the dark countryside and to the suburbs of Deadwater, the glow of light pollution welcoming us in.
The pink neon of the warehouse allowed me a deep breath for the first time since leaving my grandparents’ place.
The clubs had been closed early, and a number of crew vehicles waited around the building. A guard, protecting us. Tyler drove straight in, parked up, then rounded for my door. He lifted me from my seat and carried me into the building.
Inside, safe and secure, he ignored every face to bundle me into a side room. “Say it. Now.”
“That I love you? It’s true.”
“Say it again.”
“I love you.”
He groaned some kind of urgent sound. “I’m so in love with ye I can hardly say.”
I laughed, happiness flowing where pain had been. “Try.”
Tyler took my hand and kissed it, holding my gaze hostage with his. “You’re so fucking brave. I love that about ye. But that wasn’t why I fell. It was love at first sight. Obsession, I called it, but I didn’t know the difference. Ye were mine from the second I gave myself rules to manage the emotions.”
“I broke your last rule.”
“Don’t say ye regret it. I’m glad it happened.”
Our kiss took me down hard. It turned desperate fast. His fingers speared into my hair, the taste of him taking me over.
We grasped hold of the other. I had a lot to tell him but didn’t want to interrupt the moment. The world could wait.
But Tyler tore away to hold me. Full body mapping, his to mine. No space between us, nothing to disguise how much he needed me.
It was a promise for more. Of what we didn’t have time for now but needed hours to work over later.
