The Alpha Bodyguards Books #4-6

Epilogue

W ith her own brand of silent strength, she sat next to me as I pulled away from the cemetery. I was a fucking mess of emotions, but she was right. I’d needed to do this. I’d needed to visit the brothers I’d lost that fateful day on my last deployment. And I had, we had , together. Every one. All five of them.

Sergeant Sam Rollins was the last one.

He’d saved my life, and I was grateful, so fucking grateful, but I’d never gotten the chance to tell him. Until today.

And goddamn it, I missed him. He’d been my best friend, and I suspected he was Nash’s father because the timing fit, but Mercy had never admitted to it. She’d claimed she never knew who Nash’s father was, that it was a drunken one-night stand. But Rollins had come home with me one time on leave, and when I’d caught him eyeing her, I’d threatened to cut his balls off. He’d laughed, saying he couldn’t help it that women loved him. And they did, the fucker was smooth and always so fucking happy, like life was a damn gift. Jesus fuck, I missed him.

A lump in my damn throat, I took Ludeviene’s hand and kissed her freezing cold knuckles. “Thanks.”

She squeezed my hand in response, but she didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. She’d come to Ohio with me and trudged through snow-covered winter ground and she’d placed flowers on Rollins’s grave, just like she’d done on all the others. Then she’d stepped back and let me have my space. Four states, five graves, more miles than I could count, this woman had stood by me. Hotels, hours on the road, shit meals, great fucking conversations, laughter, sorrow, pain and healing, but the best fucking part, her in my arms every night.

I loved this woman.

But I hadn’t told her.

I was grappling with it. As every graveside visit concluded, and I unloaded more emotional baggage than I knew I was fucking carrying, a new fear had started to culminate. As I apologized to every one of my brothers for being the fuck who made it out when they didn’t, as I confessed every damn murder I tried to use to assuage my own guilt in their name, my trigger finger became calmer. But the weight of her presence on my heart had become heavier, and it scared the fuck out of me.

I’d needed the injustice of my brothers’ deaths to justify my actions and calm my survivor’s guilt.

But now I felt like I needed her.

Like I was replacing one addiction for another, and she was too damn good for that. She deserved more. She deserved someone whole.

And I needed to tell her that.

“I’m not good enough for you,” I admitted.

She glanced out at the snow-covered landscape. “Am I good enough for you?”

I gave her the truth. “Too good.”

“And how did you come to that conclusion?”

The tone of her voice conversational, I could tell where she was going with this. “I’m not playing this game, sweetheart. You know exactly what I mean.”

She turned in her seat to face me. “I’m not sure I do. If you mean that my family has more money than yours, or that I went to private schools and college and you enlisted at eighteen, then I can see where some people might have the impression that my socio-economic background is above yours, but I don’t think that’s what you mean.” She turned the heat up in the car. “You have skills I could never touch. You served your country. You take care of your sister and your nephew. You take care of me.” Her voice quieted. “And you spent years trying to right a wrong for your fallen brothers that no one else I know would have done. So, no, I don’t know exactly what you mean when you say you’re not good enough for a makeup artist who gave up all her clients and hasn’t forgiven her father yet. In fact, I think you may actually have your signals crossed, Mr. Asher.”

I scrubbed a hand over my face. I should’ve been pissed, but I wasn’t. Like she usually did, she had me hiding a smile. “You’re crazy to be sitting next to me, you know that, right?”

“I’m crazy to follow my heart?” she asked.

I looked at her.

Innocent as fuck, her cheeks red from the cold, a pink knit hat pulled over her gorgeous thick hair, she was so fucking beautiful.

I stopped the truck.

“Ty!” She half smiled, half looked worried as she glanced behind us. “We’re in the middle of the road.”

I didn’t care. No one was out here.

But she was. And that was the fucking forest through the trees that I was missing.

She was here.

Not someone else.

She was here because she wanted to be here. With me.

I took her face in my hands. “I am so fucking in love with you, Ludeviene Loic.”

Her eyes instantly welled. “Ty,” she whispered.

“Just listen.” I was done being afraid. “I know we don’t have time under our belts, but I don’t need it. I love you and I want it all with you. Marriage, kids, all of it, any of it, as long as you’re by my side.”

Tears slid down her face.

I swiped at them with my thumb, but I wasn’t finished. “I’m not fucking perfect, but I want to be your perfect.”

“I love you, Ty Asher.” Her voice broke. “I love you so much.”

Unhooking her seat belt, I pulled her onto my lap and slammed my mouth over hers. Then I kissed the fuck out of her. Frantic, desperate for her, I stroked through the sweet heat of her mouth and claimed what I’d already taken.

She was mine.

She had been since the first damn time I’d sunk inside her.

But kissing her right now wasn’t enough. I needed inside her. Pulling her hat and scarf off, I unzipped her coat. “I’m taking you right fucking here,” I warned.

Her hands everywhere, her lush hips already grinding on me, she moaned and reached for one of her boots. Yanking it off, she went for the button on her jeans.

Fuck yeah. “One leg off, that’s all I need, baby.” I unzipped her jeans, then mine, and fisted my cock.

Going to her knees, she sank her hands into her waistband, pushed her jeans and underwear down over her ass, then she kicked out of one pant leg. Her sweet cunt exposed, she went back to her knees and her hands found my shoulders, but then she paused. Looking down at me, her face flushed with desire, her hair everywhere, she smiled. She fucking smiled . Then she wrecked me.

“I want it all too, Mr. Asher.”

Growling, grabbing the back of her neck, I brought her mouth to mine and my cock to her cunt. “Show me,” I demanded.

She sank down on me.

“Fuuuck.” Tight, hot, wet, fucking perfect—my head fell back. “ Goddamn .” Inhaling, I tried not to come on the spot.

Her mouth, open and wet, landed on my throat and she swirled her tongue the same way I’d taught her to swirl around the head of my cock.

“You fucking do that again and I’m gonna come before you,” I warned, grabbing her hips and thrusting once, hard and deep.

She let out a sexy little cry, and my name crossed her lips in a breathless tone I’d come to crave. “ Ty .”

“Jesus Christ, baby.” I drove into her again and ground my hips to hit her G spot. “You’re fucking heaven.”

Gripping my hair, she let out a long moan and soaked my cock. “Oh my God, I love you.”

I fucking smiled. Then I grasped her face and winked. “You better, because I’m coming inside you.” She knew what that meant.

No birth control, no condom, no barriers between us, her small as fuck hands tightened their grip. “Are you ready to be a father?”

“Are you ready to marry me?” I countered.

She didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

Neither did I. “I’m more than ready.” My mouth covered hers and I brought it home.

I made her mine.