Page 39 of Secret Redemption

“Okay,” he answered slowly, “but one of them better not be abstinence,” he said cockily.

She frowned and swatted at his arm. “No Zack, I’m not an idiot. But I don’t share. If we do this, we do it whole hog. We are completely monogamous, or I cut your balls off. I understand you don’t love me, but that’s no excuse to not stay faithful.”

Her words were cut off as he grasped her chin and forced her eyes to his. The look in them could have frozen a volcano. “What the fuck does that mean?” he growled, and she wondered what she had said to upset him so much.

“I won’t share?” she replied hesitantly, not sure what it was Zack need to know.

“No. Not that, the bit about me not loving you.”

“Right. Yeah okay. Yeah, I understand you don’t love me.”

If anything, his eyes went even cloudier and had she been any other woman she would have cowered at the fierce look in them, but her father was Frank Drake, and Drake’s didn’t cower.

He turned to Ava then and pulled until she was sitting on his lap. "Ava," he said a deadly calm voice that she didn't trust. "Honey, do I look like a man that does anything he doesn't want to do?"

What the fuck was he on about, had the sex addled his brain? “Well no Zack, you don’t,” she said, sounding pissed because she was getting pissed. She had just had the best orgasm of her life, and now he was pissing her off.

“Good. So, do you think I would marry a woman I don’t love with my entire being, that doesn’t own me in so many ways it’s almost embarrassing if I didn’t want to?”

“Well no, but I didn’t say that.”

“Shut up Ava. I’m trying to decide if I should fuck you until you realise that you are the only woman I have ever loved and ever will love, or whether to spank your ass for being so dense and not seeing what’s in front of you.”

“Now hang on a minute—,” her outrage at being told to shut up fled as she realised what he had just said. “You love me?”

“Yes, woman, that’s what I said. I fucking love you. You own me. I’m whipped just like Nate and Dane.”

She looked at him then, and it was written all over his face, every ounce of love he felt for her was in his eyes.

“I think I loved you from the start and it frightened the shit out of me, but I knew for sure when I saw Zin holding a gun on you. In that moment, I knew I had found the woman who was my equal and better, and that I would die a thousand deaths and be tortured for a lifetime to protect you.”

Her heart cracked open and love like she had never known poured out. It was different than her love for Riley but no less intense. He loved her. Her dreams had come true, and she had the man of her dreams tell her he loved her back. Now they just had to stay alive long enough to enjoy it.

“I love you so much Zack,” she said, as she cupped his cheek in her hand and watched him lean into her touch. “Now, you said something about taking me to bed and fucking me or was that spanking?”

His eyes lit with instant desire, and he hardened beneath her making her wiggle. “Whatever my woman wants, my woman gets!” he exclaimed.

“Um, maybe both,” she giggled as he swept her up and took her to bed.