Tears well in my eyes at his words. “Ty…”

“Sin’ll die for what he did, not because he made you a victim, darlin’, but because he took something he didn’t have the right to take.” He kisses my neck and I tilt my head to give him better access. His lips trail up the column of my throat, sending shivers through me. Just as I’m getting into it, he pulls back.

“Go and shower,” he says in a soft voice I barely recognise. “Then we’ll go back up to the hospital to be with Lily-May.”

“I’m not broken,” I tell him, needing him to know that, needing him to see me as strong. I can’t stand being with him if he thinks I’m this damaged little girl.

“I know.”

“I mean it, Tyler. I’m not broken,” I repeat, my words snarling out of me. I don’t want to be seen as weak. I don’t want what happened to me to be the first thing people see when they look at me. “I survived what he did to me, and I came out the other side a different person, but I’m tougher now.”

I don’t know if I’m saying the words to convince him or me, but speaking them helps ease some of the tightness in my chest.

“I see that.”

I push off the bed and snag my tee off the floor. “Do you?”

He moves too, his hands coming to land on my shoulders, stopping my frantic movements. “I don’t see what he did to you. I see you, being strong, getting your shit together for our daughter. You should never have had to go through that alone. I’m sorry you did, because I should have been there with you. I would have been there with you.”

I close my eyes for a brief moment, pain lancing through my chest, before I peer up at him. “I should have let you, but after… fuck, I was a mess. I couldn’t deal with anything. Sin made me believe you’d never listen to me, that you wouldn’t believe a word I said. I shouldn’t have let him get in my head like that.”

“I get why you did, but you shouldn’t have shut me out, but now that you’re back you have to know I ain’t going anywhere.”

I peer up at him as I scrape my teeth across my bottom lip. “I don’t want you to go anywhere.”

He closes the space between us, capturing my mouth and I melt against him as his fingers thread into my hair. I want to have him inside me, but that tingle of fear bites just on the edge of my awareness. Losing control again scares me. Keeping it is key.

“Get on the bed,” I order him.

“Sash…”

“Get on the bed,” I repeat.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“I don’t want him to take anything else from me, especially not this—not us.”

He lets out a breath, and then reluctantly climbs onto the bed. I move slowly towards him, my heart pounding. This isn’t Sin. It’s Tyler, and I know he won’t hurt me.

I push that bastard out of my head and focus on the beautiful man lying on the bed, his jeans low on his hips, his inked-up chest staring back at me. I move to his belt and slowly undo it. He watches me with heated eyes and lifts his hips as I tug the denim down his legs. I remove his motorcycle boots, tossing them to the carpet, then I pull his jeans the rest of the way down, pooling them on the floor next to his boots.

His hands interlace behind his head as he watches me crawl back up his body to his boxers. I meet his gaze. He’s watching me like a cornered animal, as if he expects me to lose my shit. I hate that he is, but we’re both going to have to find our way through this mess. I take a steadying breath, before I pull the material down his legs again and off the end of his feet. His cock springs free, the length hard, long, veiny and beautiful. I wrap my mouth around the shaft, my hand holding the root as I swipe my tongue over the slit. He jerks his hips, his breath ripping out of him. I grin and move my tongue again over his end, tasting the salty precum that’s starting to leak from the head.

Tyler moves my hair aside, fisting its short length in one hand as I hollow my cheeks out and take his cock further down my throat. He growls a curse.

“Babe, you keep this up, I’m going to come in your mouth.”

Ignoring his words, I swipe my tongue over the head of his shaft, feeling triumphant when his hips twitch again. I suck harder, moving my hand at the base of his dick in a slight twist that has him cursing under his breath.

I mix it up between twisting, licking and fondling his balls until he’s writhing beneath me. Then his hips flex once more and he shoots his load into my mouth. I take it all, everything he has to give, swallowing it down, the saltiness coating my tongue. When he stills, I peer up the length of his body and see his arm is draped over his eyes and his chest is heaving.

“Fuck,” he mutters.

I smile when he drops his arm and looks at me through glazed eyes.

“That was… I forgot how good it could be between us.” He starts to move, grabbing my hips to pull me closer, but I shake my head.

“Ty…”

I’m not ready for more yet, but I will be, in time.

He leans forward and pulls me to him, then he kisses my forehead.

“We’ve got forever, sweetheart.”

And this is why I love this man, because he gets it. He gets me, and you can’t buy that kind of understanding. Tyler says I’m his, but that works both ways. He’s mine and I’m not letting go of him either.

25

Ravage

“I should get in the shower. I don’t want to leave Lily-May too long.”

Sasha’s warm breath tickles my chest, making my muscles quiver. I don’t want to move yet. My mind is still blown from the feel of her lips around my cock, but I understand her worry about leaving our daughter alone. I don’t like the thought either, especially with Sin still out there.

I brush the hair from her face, the soft strands trailing through my fingers, as my gaze roams over her features. How did I last three years without her? She’s beautiful and she’s mine. I should never have forgotten that. I want to kick my own arse, drag her father back from the grave to hand me the punishment I deserve for turning my back on his daughter. After she left, I should have looked for her. I should never have given her up so easily.

Darkness claws at my heart when I realise what my pride nearly cost me. I have a daughter. I may never have found out if she wasn’t sick and that thought tears at my heart. It also pisses me off. I may never have found out who and what my brother really is either. The dagger he has lodged in my back has been twisted deeper over the years. How many other women has he gone too far with? Is Sasha his only victim? Are there others he’s abused? The thought makes bile rise in my throat. We aren’t good men. The darkness claimed us a long time ago, but it’s a rule cast in iron that we don’t hurt women.

My thoughts scatter as Sasha dips her head and takes my mouth. It’s a soft, wet kiss that has my dick twitching. Then again, everything about this woman makes me hard. The urge to claim her fully is a battle, but I can’t. Not yet. She’s not ready, but she will be soon.

I hope eventually my touches will erase his, that I’ll consume her until she can only see me. I hope that she’ll know she belongs to me and only me.