Jacked Up (Bowen Boys #4)(92)

She blinked, her stomach dropping, and tried to backtrack. “I didn’t say I love you.” Her tone wasn’t too convincing, she knew, but she found it difficult to lie to him. And she loved him, so much. Her heart had broken when she’d left the hospital, but telling him that wouldn’t heal her wounds. It would make her more vulnerable than she already was. And she’d never made herself as vulnerable as with Jack. Ever.

“Yes you did, pet. And you can’t take it back. I won’t let you, because I love you too.”

“You do?” she asked, her eyes welling, her voice breaking.

He nodded and spoke against her lips. “I’ve been in love with you since the very first moment I laid eyes on you. Just too f*cking stubborn to admit it to myself. I was pretty out of it, but I recall telling it to you then, before you know…”

He didn’t finish the sentence. Didn’t have to.

“You were dying. I thought you were delirious.” Heck, she’d been delirious too.

He cupped her face. Brushed her lips with his thumb. “I was not going to die without telling you.”

Tears rolling down, she hugged him, so damn hard her arms hurt. “I love you too, Borg.”

She felt the tremors going through his body at her words.

“Why did you leave me at the hospital?” he whispered against her lips.

“You’d made it clear that you didn’t want anything to do with me.”

“At Exxum’s, I told you I’d go to hell and back for you.”

Elle shrugged, uneasy. “I figured that’s what all the heroic types do for everyone.”

Jack let out a soft snort. “No, pet, they don’t do that for everyone. Nor get a hole in their stomachs.”

“You talking about the ulcer I allegedly gave you, or the bullet?”

Jack barked out a laugh, tightening his embrace. “Both.” She caressed his scratchy beard and spoke with a barely-there voice. He deserved the truth. “I left the hospital because I didn’t want to be pushy.”

“You are pushy.”

“You don’t like pushy,” she said, feeling awkwardly embarrassed.

He kissed her softly. “I love your kind of pushy, pet. Never doubt that. For the record, we aren’t a good fit.”

She froze at his words. “No?”

“No. We are a f*cking perfect one.”

Jack took her into his arms and kissed her long and deep. At some point, she heard the patrons at Rosita’s clapping and whistling, but she didn’t care. Her Borg was home.



Jack would have trailed after Elle like a puppy the whole night, gladly, but Tate took pity on him and pushed them out of Rosita’s.

Not a word was uttered as they walked to Jack’s truck, or all the way to Elle’s house.

Once they had a closed door between them and the rest of the world, he cupped her face, kissing her, feeling more complete and at peace than he’d felt in the last four weeks. Heck, in his whole life probably. “I want you.”

Her eyes said yes, but her expression was hesitant. “You’re injured.”

Jack cracked a smile. “Not badly enough, pet.”

“I want to see it.”

“Why? You’ve seen it before.”

“No, you dork. I don’t mean your cock.”

She grabbed his T-shirt, bunched it up, and with trembling fingers, proceed to caress the angry red scar on his side, her eyes welling.

Jack put his hand on top of hers. “It doesn’t hurt, pet.” Which wasn’t totally true, but in comparison with the pain he’d endured without her in his life, this little scar was nothing.

She glanced at him, her voice quivering. “I’m so sorry that the biggest scar on your body is related to me. All the other wounds seem insignificant.”

“This is the most important of all of them,” he corrected her. “This I wouldn’t trade for anything. This says I saved the woman I love. I know I’m not the easiest man to be around, but I love you with all my heart. No one will ever love you more than I do. I’d give my life for you.”

“You almost did that,” she whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“And I’d do it again. In a heartbeat. I’m sorry I wasn’t brave enough to take you on and I walked away from you. Honestly, it all but destroyed me. And every time I think that it almost got you killed, I feel furious with myself.” If he’d admitted his feelings to her and himself, neither Exxum nor Maldonado would have ever gotten within a hundred feet of Elle, much less kidnap her and threaten her life.

Elle hugged him tight, speaking against his chest. “That wasn’t your fault. You saved me.”

As far as he was concerned, she’d saved him.

“You cut your hair,” he mumbled after a long silence.

“Yes, I hated how it had hindered my movements,” she replied, lowering her gaze. “Plus I decided I needed a change. Why? You don’t like it?”

Her sudden confrontational tone brought a smile to his face. Fuck, he’d missed her. Her wit. Her warmth. Her smart-ass attitude. “I love it.”

“Good. You said some pretty hurtful things when you left me. Not to mention that you left me.”

Jack flinched at the pain in her eyes. “Fucking sorry, pet.”