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His grunt was possessive, and he dug his fingers a little deeper into my thighs as he wedged himself between them.

“Now that? That was out of this world,” he said.

Elation flapped through my senses.

“Life changing,” I murmured back.

All of it. The moments we’d spent together. Our confessions. I was still reeling with the information that he had a child. I knew there was so much more to unpack from that, that there were so many wounds carved into him, but he’d trusted me with it.

“Yeah.” Trevan’s eyes flicked over my face. Caressing and adoring. Then he sobered. “Nothing between us is going to remain the same.”

It was caution.

I touched the rugged edge of his jaw. The stubble was thicker this morning, and I scratched my blunt nails through the pokey whiskers. “I don’t want it to be. All except for the good parts that I already cherished.”

Because this man would always be my closest friend. Different than Brinley, of course. But he’d known me forever. Had been there through the most devastating moments of my life.

Had held me up when I didn’t think I would make it.

“Oh, the ways I’m going to cherish you.”

“I do like the sound of that.”

“You’d better.” He gruffed the playful tease as he inched even closer.

I wound both arms around his neck, and he slid his palms up my legs and around my waist.

Hugged me to him, his face burrowed in my neck.

The scent of him invaded. Overwhelming. Charred oak and butterscotch. An intoxicating, decadent drink.

I inhaled and he rumbled a moan, his confession buried against my skin. “Was worried I was going to wake up and none of it was going to be real. I tried to stay awake the whole night so I could hold onto you a little bit longer, but your sweet, lulling breaths dragged me under. Then I woke up to you in my arms, wearing my shirt, nothing else underneath.”

“And what did you think when you found me that way?” I asked it on a shaky exhalation.

“That I am the luckiest bastard in the world. Getting to love you and that you love me back.”

A shiver tickled my senses. “I’ve loved you for so long. It’s such a relief that I don’t have to hold it back any longer.”

“Can’t anymore, Lena. No more holding back.”

He pulled back, studied me like I was the painting on the wall above my bed.

Like I was art.

A treasure.

Something only he understood.

But that adoration was flanked by worry, and regret filled his voice. “I need to figure out how I’m going to tell your brother. Until then, we need to keep this between us.”

Dread bottled up at the base of my throat. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. His loyalty to Silas was fierce. To him, this was a betrayal.

“I will talk to him.”

Silas didn’t get to dictate who I could and couldn’t love.

Trevan’s head barely shook. “It has to be me. I know he’s your brother, but this isn’t about your autonomy. This is a club thing. An oath I took that I didn’t honor.”