“Normally,” he says slowly, “this is the part where I’d ask.”
My stomach tightens.
“Ask what?”
“If you want this.”
“If you want to be with me. Be a part of my world.”
His hand comes up again, gripping my chin lightly, forcing me to look at him.
“But you don’t get that choice.”
My breath catches.
“I already made it for you.”
“You stay.”
“Because I’m not letting you go.”
“I wanted you for years,” he murmurs.
“And now that I have you…”
“I’m never losing you again.”
My heart is racing, my thoughts spinning. But the craziest part? I don’t pull away, I don’t fight it.
Pierce made the choice for me.
He’s the only one I’ll belong to.
He’s the only one I need.
EPILOGUE
PIERCE
Nine months.
That’s how long it took for everything to settle into something… real.
Harley lives with me now. Not because he has to, because hechoosesto.
That matters to me more than anything.
There were moments… moments when he looked at me differently. Where the weight of who I am, who I truly am, what I’ve built, pressed down on him a little too hard.
I saw it in the quiet pauses, in the questions he didn’t ask out loud, in the way his fingers would tighten slightly around mine when certain conversations drifted too close to the truth.
I didn’t push him, didn’t rush. I just waited, because this needed to be his choice.
And eventually…
He made the choice. And he stayed.
Not because I told him to, but I was also considering it, not going to lie.