Trapped (The Condemned Series #1) - Alison Aimes Page 0,73

see me...that’s how it’s always going to be if you stay with me.” He shook his head. “We’re not on Dragath25 now. You have choices.”

She should have known. But that’s what you got when you fell for a real hero.

She moved closer, pressing her body against his, her arms slipping around his waist. “It wouldn’t matter where in the universe we were. You are exactly what I want, Caine. You. No one else.”

He swallowed hard. His arms remained by his side. “If I’d been any kind of real man, there wouldn’t have been a deal between us from the start.”

His words hit like a punch. “I don’t understand.” She didn’t want him to regret their deal. Being with him was the only good thing that had come out of crash landing on Dragath25.

“I saw you. I wanted you. So I took. I told myself it was the Dragath25 way. It wasn’t right.”

Now, she understood. Guilt was eating at him. Making him question whether he deserved a better ending than a lonely death on Dragath25.

“Should I feel guilty, too?” she asked, her palms curling against his chest, the steady pounding of his heart comforting beneath her hand. “I didn’t know you, but I asked you to risk your life for me and my colleagues. I bartered on your good will and your loneliness. I took and took.”

“No.” His hands curled around her shoulders. “You gave me so much.”

“Then we’re even.” She stared into his eyes, willing him to see things her way. “It was a fair deal. Don’t make yourself out to be the bad guy when you weren’t. It was something good. For both of us. Don’t regret it.” Her voice cracked. “Please.”

A firm hand gripped her chin. “I could never regret being with you. Ever.”

Relief whispered through her. “I love you, Caine.” She couldn’t keep it inside for another second. She needed to tell him again. Needed to hear him tell her, too. Now. When they were off Dragath25 and anything was possible.

She held her breath.

He pressed his forehead to hers, his eyes crinkling in that sweet, sexy way. “I never thought I’d say that ending up on Dragath25 was the best thing that happened to me, but every single one of those miserable eight years was worth it since I met you.” He cradled her face in his hands. “You’re everything to me, fighter girl. I’d die for you.”

“But will you live for me, too? Will you fight whatever’s coming to be with me?”

“I told you. I love you. Plain and simple. If you want to be with me, I’ll do whatever it takes to be with you always.”

“So will I.” She ran her finger down the seam of her uniform opening, relishing the way his dark gaze locked on each bit of skin slowly revealed. Relishing the wonder and need he didn’t even try to hide. “There may be some challenges ahead, but I believe in us. There’s nothing coming so bad that we haven’t already faced on Dragath25. Together.”

He laced his palms with hers, drawing her close, skin to skin. “Wherever we are, Bella, wherever we go, you’ll always be my home.”

She hadn’t expected to find something so beautiful or perfect on Dragath25, but there it was. A thousand questions remained about Earth’s future, about Ava’s fate, about Caine’s sentence, but she knew they’d deal with them as best they could. She and Caine had been tested by Dragath25, and they’d emerged stronger and better. United by a bond that could never be broken.

From the seeds of destruction and danger, something miraculous had grown.

Epilogue

“Bella.” The furious roar shook the barrack walls.

Bella crouched low. Left up. Weight even.

A blur of movement streaked by her hiding space.

She leapt, her palms connecting with solid, warm flesh. By rote, her arm hooked round his throat—for an instant. Then there was only air.

Damn. He’d feinted left.

With a curse, she went sailing overhead, the hard floor coming up fast.

She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for impact. Only to be spared. Powerful arms hauled her close, twisting them both in midair. She landed with a grunt atop a hard body. Per usual, Caine had taken the brunt of the fall.

“I almost had you that time.” Breathing fast, she stared down at the bottomless black eyes she couldn’t do without. Her heart gave that same flutter it always did when she saw him, her skin beginning that slow burn. Nearly eight months later, Caine still drove her wild with just a look. He may