Page 93 of King of War

I nod. “Even then, baby. I never for a single second stopped loving you, even though I tried. I really fucking tried.”

She gives me a sad smile. “Yeah, I tried too.”

Tried? Like she didn’t succeed. I roll on top of her, holding her jaw in my hand while she holds my heart in hers. “I love you, Rayne. There has only ever been you, and there will only ever be you.”

She caresses my cheek. “I love you too, Enzo.”

I have never wanted or needed anything in my life more than I need her to stay with me, and so, for the second time today, I beg her. “Stay with me, Rayne. I can’t lose you again, baby.”

She presses her lips together, her eyes shining with tears. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes. With my fucking life and my heart and my goddamn soul. Yes.”

“Will you always be honest with me?”

“Yes.” The answer comes easily, even as I know I’m still keeping a huge secret from her. But she’s never actually asked me about that. She made assumptions that day too. So I’m not lying, merely…not disclosing something. And I will tell her—if she stays. I’m not going to tell her as a cheap ploy to make her stay.

“I want to believe you won’t hurt me again.” A solitary tear rolls down her cheek and I kiss it away. “But I’m not sure if I trust myself around you. You scramble my senses.”

I kiss her other cheek. “I know I can’t erase what I did, no matter how badly I want to. I have no way of proving that I won’t ever hurt you again. But I can promise you with every fiber of my being that you will always be my priority. I will spend every moment of the rest of my life being the kind of man you deserve. But if we’re going to make this work, I need you to take a leap of faith with me, baby. Please?”

She takes a deep breath. “I’ll stay.”

My heart soars.

“Not forever.”

And bottoms out in my chest...

“It’s not not forever though.” She screws her eyes closed like this is painful. “I’m not explaining myself very well.”

“It’s okay,” I assure her. “Take your time and tell me what you’re trying to say.”

She takes another breath. “I told you being around you scrambles my senses,” she huffs.

“Baby, I can barely think straight whenever you’re anywhere near me, so you’ll get no sympathy from me in that regard.”

She rolls her eyes, my sassy little vixen.

“You were saying,” I urge her, holding my breath for her answer and focusing on the fact that her first response was she’s staying and that’s good.

“I mean, I’ll stay and we can see where this takes us. But this doesn’t mean we pick up where we left off six years ago. Baby steps. Okay?”

That she’s staying is all I’m focused on. I nod my agreement. “Baby steps.” Baby steps all the way to me putting a ring on your finger and fucking my babies into you until we fill a house with them. Just like we dreamed of.

Chapter

Forty-Five

RAYNE

2 weeks later

I’m sure I must be dreaming because the sight that greets me as I walk out of the gallery is a work of art. If I had my camera with me I’d take a photo, choose the right lens to capture the perfect contrast to his dark silhouette against the gold ribbon of the early-afternoon sun lighting up the sky. It would make a beautiful framed print. Perhaps I’d hang it on the wall in the den. Enzo says he loves my work, and from the way his eyes light up when he looks at my photos, I believe he means it and it’s not a line to get into my panties. Not that he’s spent much time at all out of my panties these past two weeks. I swear I’ll get a permanent UTI if we have any more sex.

Thankfully, at least for my poor lady parts, he had some meetings he had to actually leave the penthouse for today. He also set me up a meeting with Tonya, the fabulous gallery owner I just met with. I left her some samples of my work, and she said that it’s just the kind of art they’re looking for. She’s confident she can get me an exhibition set up in the fall. I made him promise not to influence her decision and he swore he wouldn’t, and as we’re working on rebuilding trust, I’m choosing to believe him.

Enzo is leaning against his bike, a helmet on the seat beside him and another on the ground.