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I pushed my hips down hard as the feel of him took my breath away, grinding down on his hard length.

“Please,” I gasped, trembling on top of him. He reached between us, gripping himself and moving his tip back and forth over my entrance. “I won’t ever run again. I don’t want to. Just⁠—”

He slid inside me in one slow, sensual motion, and I threw my head back at the euphoria that saturated my system.

“Look at me,” he said huskily, holding onto my hips and fucking into me so damn slowly.

I let my head fall forward, meeting his eyes. They blazed with the fiercest emotions, and he ran one big hand up my back until he reached my head, cradling it in his palm.

He pulled out at an excruciatingly slow pace, and then pumped back inside me just as slowly.

“Bite me. Please. I want your marks on me,” he begged, cradling the back of my head and guiding me toward his neck.

Fuck.

I licked up his throat, closing my teeth over his pulse point. He moaned out a low fuck and when I sucked at the spot, he picked up his pace, thrusting into me harder.

“I love you,” he rasped, and just as he buried himself to the hilt, I leaned forward and took his lips in mine. He slid his tongue past my lips, the kiss becoming frantic as he began to fuck me hard, one arm wrapped around my waist. When he came, the feeling of his cum spilling inside me sent me over the edge. He buried his face in my neck, panting against my skin. “I love you, Whitney.”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t even if I had something to say to that. All I wanted to do was lie here in his arms and let him hold me. Let him tell me things like that. Let myself believe them.

I wanted him to keep giving me all his pieces so I could collect them, store them inside me until I was so full of them I had no choice but to give him all of mine in return.

He kissed my cheek, and I felt him getting hard again inside me. I squeezed myself to him as tight as I could. I wasn’t going to ever let him let me go.

“You were always meant to love me,” he murmured. “Can’t you feel it? Can’t you feel me in your heart?” He trailed soft kisses down my neck, across my shoulder, until his lips paused on my chest. “Right here. This is my home now.”

He wrapped himself around me so thoroughly there was no way I’d ever be able to escape.

Good.

TWENTY-SEVEN

I was home alone today.

Court and Cade were at work and Vincent had gone off somewhere with Brooks to go buy something.

It was the first time I’d truly been alone since they’d taken me in, and I hated it.

This past week with Court had been…

Well.

The best week of my entire life.

It was everything I’d ever told myself I never wanted. He was…

He was a pillar of strength and love and devotion that had come barreling into my life with the loudest display of adoration I’d ever been gifted.

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to live without him anymore. I’d never had any kind of memories I wanted to hold onto. Things that I wanted to stay with me forever, pieces of my past I could revisit when things got hard.

And now, every second of my time spent with Court was a precious moment I wanted to hold onto forever. An endless dream I’d be glad to stay trapped in.

I wasn’t questioning whether I deserved it anymore. Whether I was worthy or not. As long as Court was by my side, I was worthy. As long as I could see myself in his eyes that were so full of love when I looked at him, there was no reason to think otherwise.

We were going to Thorne’s estate in just eight days. The plan was still for me to reach the bunker via the vent, and to say I was nervous was an understatement. I knew the layout of that bunker like the back of my hand, but anything could go wrong at any point, and that had been giving me a lot of anxiety these past few days.

Court had given me back my knitting needles the other day, so I’d been working diligently on my potholder. I thought I’d give it to Vincent as a peace offering, but mostly because he was the only one who cooked. He pissed me off. I had no idea what to make of him—friend or foe or just socially inept and really crazy?—but the fact that Court and the rest of them trusted him implicitly was somewhat reassuring.