You Know I Need You (You Are Mine #4) - Willow Winters Page 0,50

She utters my name softly but as it rings through the air, I hear the threat that comes with it. Her eyes pierce through me as she stares back at me.

“You’ll come back to me, every night. Every fucking night. You’ll message me back every time I text you.”

“I can’t text you back from my phone.” Her eyes narrow and I’m quick to come up with a solution as I offer, “But I can get another.”

“Damn right you will,” she answers me and I find the corners of my lips kick up in amusement. I love my wife and she loves me. Thank fuck.

Just as that truth begins to comfort me, she adds, “I don’t like you doing this.”

“I promise it’s almost over.”

“Evan, you better never do this to me again.”

“I promise, baby. I promise never again. Everything’s going to change from here on out. I promise.”

“We can get through anything, but never this again,” she whispers, and I know I have her. I have her back and I’ll be damned if I ever let her feel lonely again.

Chapter 23

Kat

“Talk to me,” Evan says again, and I want to. God, I do, but there’s so much to say.

“You want to hear what I’ve been wanting to tell you for weeks?” I ask and even to my own ears, I sound like I’ve lost it.

“Kat, you—”

I don’t care what he has to say, I’m going to lay it all out there for him and he can decide what he wants to do with it. I have a plan, I have needs. Either he’s in, or he’s out. I’ll accept either; I’m willing to give it a chance. There’s only so much that’s left of me, though, and he needs to be very aware of that.

“I’m exasperated. Just because you said sorry doesn’t take away everything. It doesn’t make it all just fine and back to normal. I’m still … feeling.” The spiraling that’s come over me day in and day out threatens to take me over now, and I let it happen. “I feel like someone’s run over my body with a truck and then backed up. My hips and back hurt. I can’t sleep. And that’s just the pregnancy.” With a deep inhale, I continue before he can interrupt me.

“You know, the baby you put in me? That’s still happening and by the way, pregnancy doesn’t just pause because things have been insane. So, I’m dealing with hormones, and I cry way too much for no reason. I feel sick and I can’t sleep. I’m paranoid and I’m so damn alone that I’ve truly been scared. I feel crazy and I don’t even know what part of this is normal and what part isn’t.” The words leave me in a fluid mix of emotions. Like a purge of everything I’ve been feeling, piling up until it drowned me. With a shuddering breath, I attempt to calm myself, not knowing how he’ll take any of it and very much aware I’m an absolute mess.

After a moment, he speaks. “I want to hold you,” is all he says. I’m caught, shaken and uncertain as I stand in front of him in nothing but a T-shirt in our kitchen. My God do I want him, but murder? People trying to kill him? I can barely handle normal life. “I want to make all the pain go away; I’ll take it from you. I promise,” he says in a deep cadence that washes a sense of calm over it all. Evan slips closer to me, wrapping a hand around my waist and I can feel myself falling back into the same trap. Because he does that to me. He makes the pain go away and he makes it so easy to give in.

“Stop,” I say, pleading with him. “It’s like history repeating itself.” My body and my thoughts are at war with each other. I’m brought back to every kiss we’ve had, every time he’s held my hand, every heated moment that’s left me consumed. The world is nothing without him in it and I know it, mind, body and soul.

“It’s not,” Evan says matter-of-factly to me, his voice begging me and my body persuading me to once again fall into his arms. Which is right where I want to be. The very thought tugs at every string wrapped around my battered heart.

“We have a baby coming and I can’t put this baby through what we’ve been going through, Evan,” I say, admitting my