Chapter 26 #2
I saw the moment he gave in to what he was feeling. He held out his arm to me, and I moved toward them. Then Rhys was jerking Wolfe to him, their lips fusing together as I was pulled against them.
My heart swelled dangerously large. It felt as though it would break right out of my chest. My stomach dropped; every cell in my body was invigorated by what I felt for these two men.
Just like them, I was all in.
And for the first time in what felt like forever, I wasn’t scared.
Not of them.
Not of myself.
Not of my decisions or of what tomorrow would bring.
Not of the possession that I felt when they looked at me.
This was what I wanted.
It was vastly different than anything I'd ever known.
It was…
Perfect.
Rhys
I had never seen Wolfe like this.
Well, not when he wasn’t engaged in a knock-down drag-out, anyhow.
He was practically vibrating.
Wolfe ripped his mouth from mine, then gripped my head, holding me tightly, our eyes locked.
“Tell me,” Wolfe demanded.
I stared back, swallowing past the lump in my throat.
“Fuckin’ tell me,” Wolfe growled. “I want to hear it.” He shook his head. “No. I need to hear it.”
I knew exactly what he wanted to hear. And if I was honest with myself, the words were burning my tongue, desperate to get out. But I held myself back.
Fear gripped me.
Fear of what this would mean for me.
My entire life could be flipped upside down by admitting that I loved these two. Hell, admitting that I loved Wolfe alone could pull the rug right out from underneath me.
Could I do it?
Could I risk everything I'd worked so hard for?
For a chance at a life I'd always dreamed of, a love I'd never thought I would find?
“Fuck,” I grumbled as my heart pinched tightly, my abs contracting as a wave of emotion ripped through me, stealing my breath.
“No?” There was a sadness in Wolfe’s eyes, one that said he could read my mind, knew the war I'd waged with myself.
“You can’t say it?”
I didn’t move.
“Because it’s not true?” Wolfe questioned. “Or because you’re fuckin’ scared?”
Still, I sucked in air, my chest expanding as the breaths came faster.
“Because if it’s the latter, we’ll work on that,” he explained, his tone softening. “We don’t have to make every damn decision right this second. But goddammit, if you fuckin’ love us, Rhys … We. Have. To. Hear. It.”
I nodded. It was pure instinct. “I do.” My voice was a raspy whisper forced out of my body by nothing more than pure emotion. “Yes, damn it. I love you.” I looked at Amy. “I love you, too. I’m just…”
“Scared,” Wolfe finished for me. “We all are.”
We stood there, staring at one another. In that instant, words weren’t necessary. They meant little compared to what was obviously going on here. Whether we admitted it or not, this was where the three of us were meant to be. My entire life had been leading to this very moment.
“Goddamn,” Wolfe bit out, jerking me to him again, our lips slamming together.
And then he was moving toward the bedroom. Wolfe broke the kiss and turned to Amy, grabbing her, lifting her, holding her to him as he pressed his lips to hers. Her arms went around his neck as she kissed him back.
I could feel the energy swarming us. The tension was intense; the emotions were fueling every movement. Passion, need, and yes, love.
No one could predict what tomorrow would bring, but in this moment, with these two people, I knew there was no place I'd rather be. And if my entire world came crumbling down on me when the sun came up in the morning…
So be it.
Because, as I stared at them, I knew deep in my soul that nothing in this world would ever feel right again without them in it. Not my job, my house, my independence. None of it meant a fucking thing without them.
Wolfe turned back to me, and Amy’s eyes locked on my face. It was obvious they were trying to figure out what was holding me back.
“I love you,” I whispered, my eyes darting from one to the other as the words came out easier that time.
“Get over here, Sheriff,” Wolfe commanded. “And put your fuckin’ money where your mouth is.”
Well, when he put it that way…
Lynx
“What do you think she’ll decide to do?” Reagan asked me as I drove her back to Amy’s.
We’d dropped the detective off at the diner, waited until she got in her car and pulled out, before I turned my truck in the direction of Amy’s house.
“No idea,” I answered curtly.
During the drive from my father’s house, the two women had talked softly about what they thought would happen if Amy did go public with what had happened to her.
If I were being honest, I would rather we take care of the threat ourselves.
No reason we should sit back and wait for the bastard to make another move.
And sure, Amy could go public with her story.
But what would that do? Rile up the reporters?
Have them storming Embers Ridge with their questions and curiosity? I didn’t like that idea.
Nor did I like the idea of this bastard still walking around out there. He needed to be put in the fucking ground for what he did. Any man who put his hands on a woman or child out of anger deserved to be shot. Or hung. Better yet, shot while they were hung.
I must’ve been quiet for too long, because as I pulled down the drive to Amy’s, I saw Reagan turn toward me. I cut my eyes her way briefly. “What?”
“Are we ever gonna talk about what happened?”
I tapped the brakes a little harder than I should have, forcing her to throw her hand out to brace herself on the dashboard. I then brought the truck to a complete stop, my knuckles tightening on the steering wheel. “Nothin’ to talk about.”
“Oh, that’s horseshit and you know it,” she countered hotly.
Goddamn, the woman turned me on when she let her temper get the best of her. Fuck, every damn thing she did turned me on.
“You kissed me, Lynx.”
I cocked an eyebrow and turned toward her, dropping one hand to my lap. My dick was like an iron bar, desperate for this woman. All it took was one whiff of her perfume, one glimpse of her perfect fucking body and my dick took complete control of my thought process.
She was right, though. I had kissed her. But…
“That was ten years ago,” I argued. “And you were fuckin’ sixteen years old, damn it.”
That’s what I hated about that fucking memory.
Reagan Trevino had been mine for the taking, right there, sitting on the tailgate of my truck.
It had been the day of my mother’s funeral, and she was the only person besides my family who had come to check on me.
She had sat by the lake with me for hours.
We talked about growing up, about my mother specifically, about the memories we both had of her.
And before the damn night was over, I had kissed her.
I'd been eighteen fucking years old and had no business putting my hands on a na?ve sixteen-year-old girl. Didn’t matter if Reagan had kissed me back. I should’ve never done it.
So, I'd told myself I would wait until she turned eighteen.
“I’m not sixteen anymore, Lynx.”
No, she wasn’t. But she had a damn boyfriend—
Only she didn’t have one anymore. The day she finally quit that bastard, I had considered chasing her down and convincing her to give in to me, to give in to how fucking good we could be together.
The only thing that had stopped me was their history.
Reagan always took Billy Watson back. For nearly a decade, I had sat back and watched as Reagan took that dumb little fucker back every damn time, and I figured this time was no different.
“What about Billy?” I asked because I couldn’t help myself. If I was even going to consider putting my hands on this girl, I had to know that Billy was in her past, that he would never be in her future.
“What about him?” Her dark eyebrows angled down, her confusion apparent.
“You gonna take his sorry ass back?”
Her frown turned to a grimace and I could tell I'd pissed her off with that question.
“What does that have to do with this?”
I sat up straight. “Every goddamn thing, Reagan.”
She put her hands on her hips. “How?”
Lowering my voice, I decided to be honest with her. If she thought she could handle me, she needed to know exactly what she was dealing with.
“Because the second I put my hands on you, the instant my mouth touches yours … that makes you mine, Reagan.”
She huffed. “I belong to no man, Lynx Caine. You should know that now.”
“Then it’s a damn good thing I’ve never touched you.”
“No,” Reagan replied hotly. “You’ve only touched every other female in this county.”
Not entirely true, but yeah. I wasn’t a damn saint, and truthfully, I'd been fighting my need for this one woman for so long I could admit that I'd searched high and low for someone who could eliminate her from my thoughts.
I'd yet to meet that woman.
I doubted she existed.
As far as I was concerned, there was only one woman meant for me.
And she was sitting right there in my truck, her lips pursed, her eyes blazing.
And once again, I seriously doubted I would end up getting what I wanted.
Because as much as I wanted to think otherwise, Reagan Trevino was too hard to handle, too much to tame.
Reagan reached for the door handle. “Fuck you, Lynx. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.”
I didn’t say a word.
She turned to face me once she was out of the truck. “And it’s not like I wanted your hands on me, anyway. I’ve already had one bad boy. I damn sure don’t need another.”
I leaned over and smiled, baring my teeth. “Darlin’, you don’t know what a bad boy is. Billy is a dumbass who didn’t deserve to be in the same goddamn room as you.”
“But you do?” Her hand flew to her hips again.
“Darlin’, you can’t handle me.”
“Try me, Lynx.”
I shook my head and sat up, turning to look out the front window. “That’s the problem, Reagan. I’m not interested in a taste test.” I looked directly at her. “If I get my hands on you, it will be forever. And until you accept that—”
The door slammed and I chuckled as I watched Reagan and her cute little ass march right up to the front door.
One day, that hellcat was going to give in.
It was just a matter of time.