“There are several reasons, actually.  One, I know what she’s like.  Two, I can’t so easily forget the way she’s treated you. And three, she’s not you. I’m sorry, but you’re my first priority.”

“Even so, how could you have let her come here alone, knowing it’s not entirely safe?”

“Olivia, she’s a grown woman. She can do whatever she wants to.  And it’s not like she had nowhere safe to go. She could’ve stayed with her father.  She just didn’t want to.”

“I just don’t see how you could be so cold about it.”

“I can tell you how. This isn’t about Marissa. It never was.  It’s about you. Keeping you safe.  I’m not in love with her. I’m in love with you.  Can’t you understand that I don’t want to live without you?  That I can’t live without you?  What the hell would I do if something happened to you?  I couldn’t let you come here with her by yourself.  I couldn’t take the risk. I’ll never take the risk if the risk is losing you.  Never.  Why can’t you understand that?”

I’ve gotten louder in my agitation, which makes the silence when I’m done much more pronounced.

She doesn’t respond, but I feel the bed shift as she moves.  Then, I feel her hands on my stomach first, soft and warm.  “Cash?” she whispers.

“Yeah?”

Her hands slide up my chest and circle my neck as she stretches out on top of me.  She presses her lips to mine in a feather light kiss.  “That’s all you had to say.”

“You didn’t give me a chance to say it,” I mumble against her mouth.

“Next time, lead with that,” she says. I feel her lips spread against mine. I know she’s grinning.

Quickly, I coil my arms around her and roll her onto her back, settling between her spread legs.   She’s naked and it takes all of my self-control not to plunge right into her.  Her body beckons me like a warm bath on a cold night.  Her soul beckons me like a refreshing oasis in the dry desert. And her heart beckons me like a safe harbor beckons a lost ship.

“You mean lead with the fact that I’m in love with you?” I say as I tease her entrance with my already stiff and throbbing head.

“Yes. Always, always lead with that.”

“I’m in love with you, Olivia Townsend,” I whisper as I ease into her.  I feel her sigh and I echo it.

“I’m in love with you, Cash Davenport.”

I pull out of her until only my tip rests within her then I slide back in, a little deeper this time.  “Promise you’ll never leave me.  Stay with me, Olivia.  Come home with me tomorrow and stay.”

She pauses, but only for a second.  When she speaks, I can hear the smile in her voice.

“I’ll stay with you as long as you want me.”

“I’ll want you with me forever. I never want to spend another night without you. Ever.  I can’t stand the thought of something happening to you. I can’t stand the thought of us fighting. I can’t stand the thought of you being anything other than deliriously happy.  With me.”

“Then consider me deliriously happy.  With you.  Always.”

“Always,” I repeat as I cover her mouth with mine.  She sighs again as I move inside her.  This time, I breathe it in, her breath becoming a part of me as much as she herself has become a part of me.  And that’s the way I like it, because I don’t plan on giving either of them back.  Not now, not ever.

EPILOGUE

Nash

Between waking up in a strange place and the drugs that damn back-alley doctor gave me, I’m a little disoriented when I open my eyes.  The first thing I notice is that there’s a great smelling woman curled up against my side.  The second thing I notice is that her leg draped over mine has given me a raging hard-on.

Details of what happened and where I am come back in a slow trickle.  I’m not in much pain, which surprises me. I figured that bastard probably stuck me with a knife dipped in horse shit or something.  But I feel pretty all right as far as that goes.

Until I hear the familiar voice of my brother from the other room, that is.  He’s talking quietly on the phone.

“Did you do this?”

A pause.

“You know exactly who this is,” he growls.  “Did. You. Do. This?”

Another pause.

“Trust you?  You’re crazier than —”

I hear a sigh that turns into another growl before he mutters, “What the hell are we gonna do now?  I have to make adjustments to protect the people I love.”

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what he’s talking about—my little motorcycle accident.  Cash worries too much about everyone else.

But not me.

I have one mission. Just one.  And it’s looking more and more like my plans to destroy the organization that took Mom’s life will be a solo effort.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life since I left home seven years ago, it’s that I can trust no one.

And that includes family.