no reason to be scared. You’re not the one in danger of losing body parts.”
“What?” She started to sit up but I tightened my arm around her and held tight.
“I’m kidding.”
I wasn’t, but I didn’t want to get into all the ways a human body could be dismembered—Jasper knowing all of those ways and how he wouldn’t hesitate.
“Before I start, was there something in particular you wanted to talk about?” I offered, sensing her discord.
There were a few beats of silence before I gave her a squeeze and told her, “You can be straight with me, Addy. Anything you have to say I want to hear. Especially if it’s scaring you.”
I let the quiet stretch and finally she relaxed—not much, but I’d take it.
“Why’d you look upset when you got back from The Station?”
I blew out a breath and didn’t hesitate. The only way to get Addy to fully trust me was to earn it. She would give me some trust to start with, but the rest—the real trust, I’d have to work to get. And I planned on having all of Adalynn. Top to toe. Heart and soul. Unbreakable trust. I needed that from her.
“Brady pointed out your dad was gonna have an issue with us.”
“My dad?” Gone was any minuscule amount of tension she’d released.
Fuck.
“I’ve got mad respect for your dad. It has nothing to do with him owning the company I work for, his time in the Army, or him being your father, and everything to do with the kind of man he is. I respect he loves his family, he’s protective of his girls, that he’d lay down his life for his wife. He treats the people around him the way a man should, with care and understanding. With all that said, I get why he’s gonna have a problem. I just don’t care.”
“Maybe you should explain that,” she said and jerked out of my arms. This time I let her go but only because I wanted to be able to look at her when I did as she asked.
But I didn’t allow her to get far and I communicated this by trapping her hand on my chest and tightened my grip on her hip. She was sitting up, mostly on her side, looking down at me. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail and honest to God, I had to use every inch of concentration I had to not let my attention wander to the graceful slope of her neck. Her pretty exposed throat, collarbone, and chest had me at a whole new level of alert. A place where my body was very aware of hers, but deeper still to a place where I was simply cognizant of her. Of all that she was, all that I had close, all that I wanted to have, keep, and hold for a lifetime.
Ultimately, my need for her trust and understanding won out over my desire to greedily drink her in before I did very filthy things to her. So I was able to hold her gaze as I explained.
“Jasper knows me. He knows as much as he can know about my military service, he knows I fucked up and almost killed his niece, he knows I just plain fucked up, but he also knows my reputation. And that I figure is going to be the black mark he hones in on. He wants better for you because you deserve better. I know that, too. I know you deserve the best, and I fall short of that in every way, but I don’t care about that either. I know I should’ve continued to protect you from me and kept my distance. I didn’t do that, but I can’t say I regret giving in to what I’ve wanted since I first saw you because that would be a fucking lie.”
I squeezed her hand resting on my chest. “I also wish I could blame what happened on something stupid like my control snapped, but it didn’t. I went to your house with the intent to make you mine. I did it willfully and fully aware it wasn’t right, but I didn’t care because I’m selfish as fuck and I know—knew it the very second I laid eyes on you—that you were the woman who was going to challenge me, frustrate me, push me, and I was gonna love every minute of it.”
She shifted, but I wasn’t done. “I knew, Adalynn, just by one single look that you were what