Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
God, I just wanted to take that fucking pain away and make it my own. I wished she didn’t feel anything but fucking happiness.
“I thought you were going to turn your back on me,” she whispered.
I brushed her hair back from her face. “I’ll never turn my back on you, Reina. I don’t care how much we fight. I don’t care if you wake up one day and just hate my fucking guts. I’m here, baby girl. All you have to do is say the word. I swear to you, I will drop everything, even club shit, and come to you, you hear me?”
She ran her tired eyes over my face. “What made you change your mind about me—about us?”
I brushed my thumb over her cheek. “When I got hit, you were the first and only thing on my mind. I didn’t care that I was dying. I didn’t care that River and the club may have to find a new VP. All I cared about was you. I was terrified of your reaction and how this would affect you. And I realized right then that if I made it through that, if I survived, I was going to make everything right between us, and I was going to do right by you.”
“So, no other women?” And I hated that her voice trembled. I hated that I made her doubt me.
I shook my head. “The only woman I want, have ever truly wanted, Reina, was you. So no, no other women.”
She blinked back tears. “I’ve wanted this for so long,” she whispered, her voice cracking.
I leaned forward and brushed my nose with hers. “I know, baby girl. I know, and I’m sorry that I was a douchebag for so fucking long. It’s honestly a goddamn miracle that you haven’t booted me out on my ass yet, to be honest.”
Her lips quirked with a small smile. The pain in my chest eased. The roaring in my soul died down.
This was the effect Reina had always had on me. I used to think it was bad.
Now, I knew it was all good. She was my kryptonite, and I couldn’t give less of a fuck. She brightened my world, gave me a reason to live and fight. I was no longer just going through the motions. Now, I had a purpose.
And my purpose was her.
She shook her head at me. “I love you too much to do that.” My soul silenced, now basking in the warmth of her words. “Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, but I need you here with me, Samuel.”
God, I loved it when she used my full name.
“Call me that again,” I rasped.
She frowned. “What, your name?”
I nodded. That small smile tilted her sweet lips again. “I love you, Samuel.”
I leaned forward and covered her lips with mine in a soul-searing kiss. I made sure it branded her. “You’re my entire goddamn world, baby girl.”
She linked her fingers with mine. I brushed my thumb over the back of her hand. “Promise you’ll let me go this time before you decide to fuck around?”
I growled softly. “Baby girl, I’m never fucking around again. You’re it for me. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, in you, on you—”
She giggled and smacked my chest. I captured it with my free hand, holding that one as well. I brushed my nose with hers again. “No more games, baby girl. This is it. It’s only forward from here, and I’ll fight for you and to keep you until my last dying breath, you hear me?”
She nodded. “Loud and clear,” she whispered.
7
Sam
I shrugged my cut onto my shoulders as I slipped from Reina’s room. She didn’t sleep during the night, only during the day. So, to say that I was a cranky son of a bitch was a mass fucking understatement. Top that off with the shit my woman had gone through? It was a recipe for a disaster of the nuclear kind.
“She goes on lockdown,” I snapped at River. “She doesn’t go outside of these gates.”
River looked behind me at Reina, waiting for her to say something. I turned to look at her as well. She was wearing one of my t-shirts with a pair of shorts that weren’t nearly as short as she usually wore. I used to hate the way she dressed because of the way everyone always stared after her.
Now, I fucking missed it because it meant she wasn’t fucking coping.
Reina just nodded at River, giving her consent. I’d expected her to fight it. Or maybe I’d hoped she would, because then that would mean they hadn’t fucked her up as badly as I thought they did. But she just basically laid down and took what I was ordering without a single word of complaint.
It made me want to break something. I wanted a fight with her. And not because I wanted to fight, but because I needed her to be okay again. Didn’t make much sense, but I didn’t give a good goddamn about it.