“I… okay, I can give you that.”
“I don’t think I believe you.”
He frowns.“I can.But… I need to keep you safe.To know you’re happy and taken care of.I know you’re anxious about living so close to the cult, and I thought that always being around would put you at ease.I can see now that I was suffocating you, and I’m sorry.”
I feel bad.He looks so upset with himself.
“It’s not always a bad thing,” I backtrack.“Sometimes, it’s nice to know that you care for me so much.I just… I want to be able to make some of my own decisions.”
“Okay, I can do that,” he promises.
He looks so hopeful and adorable.The sun lowers behind the horizon, and I can feel the mating heat growing even stronger.
Abe leans away from me, and I realize he can feel it, too, but he’s holding himself back.Watching him deny his own needs so he can take care of me and make me feel safe and secure is so damn hot.
I think that’s the moment I fall for him.
“Let’s go home,” I say, my voice low and raspy.
I can hear the need in it, and I know Abe can, too.His body tenses, and my nipples harden in my bra as he closes my door and sprints around to the driver’s side.
I squirm in my seat on the drive home, and by the time he parks out front, I feel like I’m burning alive.
I’m so tired of fighting and waiting for the perfect moment to go after the things I want.
Abe parks and hops out to get my door.His eyes are dark as he stares at me, and I shiver as I meet his gaze.
“Kiss me,” I croak.
It’s as if his control snaps in an instant.
He cups my face, and then his lips are on mine.His mouth is warm and sure, the slightest brush of his lips stealing the breath from my lungs.For a second, I forget how to do basic things like inhale or stand upright.
My hands fly up, gripping the front of his shirt, needing that anchor as the world tilts.He groans softly, like he’s been starving for this, and the sound vibrates right through me.His thumbs stroke my cheeks, gentle even though the rest of him feels wound tight as a bowstring.He doesn’t devour, doesn’t rush.He kisses me like he’s honoring a promise instead of claiming a prize, coaxing my mouth open, letting me taste him slowly.
Heat coils low in my belly.The ache I’ve been trying to ignore flares bright and demanding, but there’s something else there, too.Safety.Rightness.That grounding feeling that Fern talked about.
I melt closer before I even realize I’m moving.Abe angles his head, deepening the kiss, but he still holds back, like every second he’s reminding himself not to push, not to take too much.
His forehead rests against mine when he finally pulls back for air, his breathing ragged.
“Tell me to stop,” he whispers, voice rough.“And I will.I don’t care what night it is.I don’t care about the mate bond.You come first, Roxie.Always.”
That cracks me wide open because he means it.Because where everyone else has taken from me, here he is… asking.Giving.
“I don’t want you to stop,” I breathe, my fingers curling into his shirt like I could pull him into my bones.“I just… need you.Not because of the heat.Because it’s you.”
His eyes soften, all that wild intensity gentling as he searches my face.Whatever he sees there must reassure him because his lips curve in a faint, reverent smile.
“Okay,” he murmurs.“Then we go slow.We do this together.”
He presses another kiss to my lips, sweet this time, lingering, before threading his fingers through mine.The contact steadies me, settling something restless inside my chest.For the first time since everything fell apart, stepping forward doesn’t feel like walking into a cage.
“Are you hungry?”he asks as we head up to the house.
“No.”
“Are you sure?I can make something?—”