From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(122)

“I can’t,” he admitted. “I did know.”

None of this made sense to her. “You let a potential serial killer into this club. Big Tag let it happen. How am I supposed to feel safe here again? He killed women like me and Sarah.”

His eyes were tight as he continued to stare straight at her. “Yes. But I knew it wasn’t Jared and I stayed close to you. I never meant to hurt you. I wouldn’t do that.”

And neither would the Taggarts. It was so confusing. Only this morning she’d gotten a hearty lecture on how she and Sarah were supposed to stay safe at Erin’s house until everything got sorted out. These men were protective. So why the hell would they put everyone at risk?

“I can see all the questions you want to ask,” he said quietly. “I can’t tell you.”

“Because you promised Ian Taggart you wouldn’t.”

“Yes. I love you, Kori, but I can’t stop being me. Ian told me earlier today that I could tell you if it would make a difference between keeping you and losing you. I’m standing in front of you. I’m offering you everything I have. Will answering that one question make you love me again?”

She shook her head. “No. It won’t.”

His face fell. “All right then.”

“Kai, I never stopped loving you. Not once. I got worried and anxious and about a million old fears hit me at once.” She had made her decision and it was so much easier than she’d thought it would be. It was logic and faith. Kai wouldn’t hurt her. Therefore if Kai had done something to put her in harm’s way, it had to be for the greater good. There had to be meaning. What that meaning was didn’t matter. A sense of peace came over her because she let that fear fly away. She didn’t need it anymore. “I don’t want to know. There’s only one question that matters. Do you love me?”

“I love you more than you can imagine.”

She either believed him or she didn’t. He couldn’t open his soul and let her read what was written there. She stared at him for a moment because maybe she could. A little. Before the last week she’d never looked past how beautiful he was, how stunning his eyes were to stare into. Kori took a step up. Kai remained still as she brought her fingertips up and brushed along his jawline. He hadn’t slept. She would bet on it. He hadn’t shaved either. He’d likely gone straight from the police station to here. There was weariness in those green eyes of his, but there was something else, too. She was there, reflected in them. She’d spent the first part of her life defining herself by how other people saw her. And then she’d rejected it utterly. She’d pulled into herself and the pendulum had swung so no one really mattered. She could say she loved her friends and it was true, but she didn’t love herself until the moment she realized not only was Kai the one…she was his one, too. She was the one who could pull him out of his shell, who could tease and torture him with pranks and affection. If she walked away from Kai, he would be alone. She would be alone.

She didn’t have to be alone. She could choose, and choosing him didn’t mean leaving herself behind. It meant being a new Kori, a Kori who risked and loved. Who leapt and embraced the ride.

Kori took a step back, and she saw the moment his face fell. He thought she would leave. She’d spent so much time worried about Kai breaking her heart that she hadn’t thought for a single moment she could break his.

She had to prove that he was safe with her, too. In their language.

She sank to her knees in front of him, the position once so familiar lit with new meaning now. It meant she was his. It meant she was vulnerable to him and only him. It meant she trusted him to love and cherish her.

His hand came out, covering her bent head. That hand cupped her, sending almost palpable emotion flowing from him to her. One gesture was all it took for him to say that he was hers. That he was vulnerable only to her and he would protect and cherish her gift.

One gesture turned them from separate to together.

“This is forever, Kori. I won’t accept anything less.”

Forever was all she could ask for. Forever with this man. “I think you’ll have to find me a very nice collar, and that might not be the only jewelry I want from you.”

The words were easy now because she understood him. He’d hesitated to talk about commitment for her sake, not his. Her walls had been thick, but she didn’t need them anymore. Not with him.

His hand came down, lifting her chin up so she could look at him. “Don’t tease me. I would marry you tomorrow.”

No. She was only going to do this once and that meant doing it right. Her Master wasn’t getting away with a quickie Vegas wedding. “I’ll need six months to plan.”

“Then I’ll take six months of filthy sex with my fiancée.” His face went hard, the Dom coming out in an instant. “Take the clothes off quickly or I’ll rip them off you.”

Though she’d spent way, way too much time in these particular clothes, she didn’t want to parade around in whatever she might find here. It would make the trip home far too interesting, and she’d seen enough of the DPD to last a lifetime. She hurried to get out of those confining clothes, tossing them off because he hadn’t told her to be careful.

“Those are beautiful marks, baby,” he said when she turned to him. He stared at her breasts and brushed his fingers over the marks from the sadisticks. The little matchsticks were barely pink now, but he could see them. He ran his fingers down to her nipples and rolled one between his thumb and forefinger. Over and over. Very gentle.