Chapter Twelve
Pope buried his face against Summer’s throat as she writhed beneath him in tangled sheets, both of them already panting from the first round of sex and somehow racing straight toward another.
Her bare legs wrapped tight around his hips and he moved his hand slowly over her body like he couldn’t stop touching her even if he tried.
Which was true.
Summer gasped softly when his mouth closed over the sensitive spot beneath her ear again, fingers digging into his shoulders.
“Vander!” His name came out breathless and shaky.
That alone nearly finished him.
He lifted his head just enough to look at her spread beneath him in the dim bedroom light. Hair wild across the pillow. Lips swollen from his mouth. Bare breasts rising and falling harder every time his hands drifted lower.
Beautiful.
Completely his in this moment.
The realization hit him hard enough that his chest clamped around it.
Summer’s fingertips slid into the back of his hair and tugged lightly. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Trying to figure out how I got so lucky.”
He moved down her body and burying his tongue in her pussy. Her urgent moan drove him on, and he swirled his tongue around her stiff clit to the rhythm of her rocking hips.
He took his time with her because he loved watching her unravel slowly. Loved the way she went from soft and pliant to completely shaking apart in his arms. Every little gasp and shiver pushed him higher.
Her sweet flavor coated his lips and tongue, and his cock pulsed from the need to plunge inside her and feel her tight heat.
With a broken sound that went straight to his head, she arched and let go.
He issued a low groan, driving her on with soft flicks of his tongue. Her thighs trembled more with each wave of release that struck her. Squeezing his eyes shut on the feel of her pussy throbbing under his tongue, he drove her to the highest pinnacle.
When her fingers relaxed in his hair, he slowly lifted his head. Her head was thrown back, and her chest gave a final heave.
He pressed a kiss to her inner thigh that made her shudder before he slipped up her body. Hovering over her, he gazed at the stars shooting within the depths of her eyes. With a quiet noise, she gathered him against her, just holding him there for a long beat.
“I want you, Vander.” She parted her thighs in invitation, and he almost swallowed his tongue.
It would be so damn easy to slide home, to take her without any barrier, but they had rules that he couldn’t ignore.
He rolled off and reached for her nightstand drawer. Once he located a condom and had one rolled on, he started to shift over Summer again.
But she planted a hand on his chest and bore him back on the bed, kissing him with so much need that a growl escaped him. Gripping her hips, he guided her down on his stiff length.
Inch by inch, she took him, her cheeks flushed and eyes burning. When he bottomed out inside her, they shared a moan, and she began to move, churning her hips, rocking in slow, sexy twitches.
He cupped her breasts, tweaking and rolling her nipples the way she loved.
“Vander!” She tossed her head back and almost took the last of his control.
He lost himself in the way she looked and the sensation of her tight pussy squeezing his length with every plunge.
She rose and fell on top of him, driving them both to an end they both craved. She leaned forward, kissing him long and deep, their tongues tangling as their bodies took over.
A hard pulse at the base of his spine warned him he was close, and he brushed his thumb over her clit, determined to take her with him.
With a cry, she shattered with him. Afterward, they clung to each other for long moments, neither willing to let go.
Gathering her close, he rolled her to lie beside him. She stretched out, both of them still panting. Pressing a tender kiss to her brow, he climbed out of bed and went to clean up. When he crawled into bed with her again, she held out a hand for him.
Heart flexing, he took it and settled beside her. She rested her head on his chest, and his fingers drew lines down her bare thigh. Her skin pebbled, but he could feel tension running just beneath her skin.
Could feel it in the way her breathing changed too.
“If you’re still tense,” he murmured, “then I didn’t do it right. Let me try again.” He teased his fingers over her ribs, toward her breast.
She giggled and caught his hand before he got too ambitious. “I’m too sensitive for anything yet.”
Her smile faded too quickly after the exchange.
His chest tightened. “Your parents hated me, huh?”
She jerked her head up. “What?”
“Was it even worse than I thought?”
She stared at him, a throaty laugh escaping her. “Vander, my parents loved you.”
His brows pinched.
“They did,” she insisted. “My father was one RV brochure away from adopting you.”
That finally dragged a grin out of him, but the tension remained.
He brushed his thumb along her thigh. “Then what is it?”
Her lashes swept downward to conceal her eyes from him. If she was about to tell him—again—that this wouldn’t work, he didn’t know what the hell he’d do with the pieces of his heart.
He slipped his knuckle beneath her chin and lifted her stare to his. “Summer. Just say it.”
She issued a puff of air. “I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
His stomach tightened.
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing’s happened.” Her fingers twisted lightly in the sheet. “I mean…nobody’s threatened me again. Nobody’s come after me.”
Pope waited for more, unsure where this was headed.
“And part of me keeps thinking…here it comes.” She swallowed before finally looking up at him again. “I’m afraid the security team is going to decide the danger’s over and reassign you. Send you somewhere else.”
Christ.
Her words struck him hard because she wasn’t talking about security anymore.
She was talking about losing him.
He turned toward her fully and cupped her face gently until she looked at him.
“When I’m not working,” he said quietly, “I’ll still be here with you.”
Emotion flickered across her face.
“I mean that, Summer.”
Her eyes searched his carefully. “What if the team decides somebody else should take over?”
Pope looked away briefly before answering because honesty suddenly mattered too much to screw up.
“I was afraid they wouldn’t let me protect you in the first place.”
Her brows pulled together. “Why?”
Rhae’s voice drifted through his head, drilled into him from countless therapy sessions.
Talk it out.
Get things in the open.
If you really want this woman, stop making her guess where she stands.
Pope exhaled slowly and stared toward the ceiling for one long second before looking back at Summer.
“When your mom said I don’t believe I’m a good guy, it hit me hard. Because I was trained not to fail. But I did.”
She remained silent, watching him and waiting for more.
“I was guarding someone,” he said quietly. “A diplomat overseas.”
Summer didn’t interrupt.
“I didn’t save him.” The admission still scraped on the way out. “I failed.”
He stared at a spot over her shoulder. “The worst part wasn’t losing him. It was what came after.”
Summer’s expression softened.
“He had kids.” Pope rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. “Good kids. The kind who waited for their dad to come home.”
His throat tightened.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about them. About how one day they had a father and the next they didn’t. Every time I look at a kid now, I find myself wondering if they know how lucky they are to still have their parents.”
He let out a rough breath.
“That’s what sticks with me. Not the operation. Not the reports. Them.”
His gaze found hers again.
“Ben deserves to grow up with the people who love him. So does every kid.” Pope exhaled slowly and stared toward the ceiling for one long second before looking back at Summer.
Pain flickered across her face.
Pope swallowed hard. “When Carson approached me about joining the team, I wasn’t sure anybody should trust me to protect people anymore.”
Only the sound of the wind whispering at the edges of the windows filled the room.
Summer slid her hand slowly over his chest until it rested above his heart.
“But I won’t fail you.” His voice came out rough but he meant the words more than any he’d ever spoken before. “Anybody who wants you or Ben has to go through me first.”
Her eyes swam with tears, turning the depths brighter blue.
That nearly undid him.
Pope pulled her against him until her leg slid over his and she tucked her face near his throat.
“I’m not here because Ben thinks we should date, or your parents like me or Granny Helen decided not to shoot me.”
A shaky laugh escaped her. “Good. I’d hate to find out this was all for show.”
His mouth curved briefly before he grew serious again. “I really want to be with you, Summer.”
The words settled warm and terrifyingly real between them.
“I’m not gonna be done with you when I get assigned to another ward.” His fingers moved slowly through her hair. “Not now. Not ever.”
He couldn’t lock his emotions behind the walls he’d long ago erected—not after all they’d been through, or the path ahead he ached to explore at Summer and Ben’s side.
He had to say the words.
He brushed his thumb gently across her cheek. “I love you. If you’ll have me, I’m not going anywhere.”
Her breath caught and held for a throbbing heartbeat. Emotion moved across her face before her eyes softened like maybe some part of her had been waiting a very long time to hear those words.
Then she pushed upward, wrapped both arms around his neck, and kissed him like she finally believed him.
* * * * *
Summer dragged a breath into her lungs but it did nothing to steady the wild pounding of her heart.
She lay entwined with Vander, her bare breasts pressed against his hard chest. His words echoed inside her, punctuated by the soft drift of his fingers up and down her back in soothing strokes.
She loved him too.
The realization swelled inside her chest.
For years she’d convinced herself love wasn’t safe. It was unstable and temporary and one moment away from destroying everything she worked to build for Ben. Loving someone meant eventually being left to pick up the pieces on her own.
But Vander…
Vander tore down every wall she’d ever built after Michael disappeared.
And the most confusing part? He’d done it without empty promises or pretty speeches.
He’d done it just by being there for her, showing up at the bar just to make sure she got home safe.
At first they called it sex—scratching an itch. But it had become so much more.
She lifted her head to look at him in the pale moonlight spilling through the curtains. God, he looked amazing stretched out in her bed wearing the marks on his throat she’d given him. His eyes glittered as he stared at her.
She’d broken things off with him, but he refused to go for long. She always saw the ways it couldn’t work, but he showed her the ways it could.
And he loved her.
She stared at him for another long second. “What do I even have to offer you?”
His dark brows knitted. “Summer.”
She pushed herself up onto one elbow, the urgency to make him understand circling through her. “I’m just a waitress. I don’t own anything except a car with too many miles and a sofa I bought secondhand. I have nothing but trauma and a seven-year-old.”
The words sounded even uglier out loud.
Pain flashed through his eyes, but he reached up with extreme tenderness and tucked loose hair behind her ear.
“I love you,” he said again, so simply that it made even more sense. “Ben is a part of your life, not a burden. I want you both.”
Her heart squeezed hard at his assurance that Ben wasn’t baggage to be tolerated in order to be with her. He genuinely meant it.
She blinked fast to hold back her tears. “You’re coming into this late. What about things you missed with Ben? The baby years. The little kid stuff.”
“Like no sleep and diaper changes?” He cocked a brow in mock seriousness.
A laugh bubbled out of her before she could stop it.
“I’ve heard enough horror stories from the guys.”
She shook her head. “So you don’t want kids?”
The question settled between them, between what they had now and a suddenly visible future.
He cupped her face. “It’s your choice. If we have more kids later, cool. If not, so what? We have Ben. If we don’t add more someday, then we’ll still have a pretty great thing here. The three of us.” He held her gaze.
Tears threatened, and she didn’t want to cry, not when the world seemed so bright and filled with promise.
“Hey.” He slipped his fingertip under her chin until she looked at him again. “What’s going on in your head?”
A shaky laugh escaped her. “You don’t really understand what you’re doing to me, do you?”
Concern flickered over his rugged features. “Bad?”
“Good.” Her voice cracked on the word. “That’s the problem.”
She stared at him, dealing with the years of fear and loneliness and survival. “For so long it was just me and Ben. Everything depended on me. Every decision. Every emergency. Every bill. Every bad thing.” Her fingers curled into his chest. “I got used to believing that’s how life would always be.”
He brushed his thumb across her skin, grounding her enough to keep talking.
She sucked in a shaky breath. “But now I can actually picture a future with room for somebody else in it.”
Emotion shifted through the depths of his eyes like a turbulent sea.
“You made me believe that was possible,” she whispered.
His face twisted, and he pulled her down against him without another word. She melted into his chest and wrapped her arms around him tight.
After a long minute, she lifted her head and met his gaze. “I love you too, Vander. I think I always knew it would come to this.”
He brushed his lips softly over hers, the kiss tender and filled with so much feeling. When they broke apart, his mouth quirked in the bad-boy way that always got her.
“I guess you’re stuck with me now.”
She stifled her laugh but felt a rumble in his chest.
Somewhere deep inside her, all the fear and caution and old hurt she still lugged around had finally leaked away enough to let something else take its place.
Hope.