“Not your time to go, pretty girl.” And when it was I would make sure I was by her side. I would be there and I would be everything she needed me to be, because the love I had for her was far more powerful than the fear I had of losing her.

“In the moment I wasn’t afraid at all. I knew I was doing the right thing, knew it was the best option but after—” she shook her head and her entire body quaked against mine “—all I could think about was how risky it was and everyone that I would have left behind.” She pulled back and looked at me, tears making her eyes shiny and bright. “The idea that I would never get to be with you, to touch you, to tell you I love you while we were making love, that hurt almost as bad as the sprained ankle and the sliced-open shoulder. I want you to know I love you always, not just when I’m worried I won’t get the chance to love you anymore.”

Her words wound their way into the parts of my heart that were held together by frayed strings and pulled the mangled thing back into some semblance of order. She made it beat the way it was supposed to. She made it hum with life and anticipation. She shaped it into something that was far stronger than it had ever been before her gentle touch.

“I know you love me, Dixie.” I took her precious and adorable face between my hands and kissed her until neither of us could breathe. I tasted every misstep and every triumph on the tip of her tongue as it flicked against my own.

“You wouldn’t have gotten on the back of my bike even though it made you nervous enough to shake if you didn’t love me.” I slipped a finger under the tie at her shoulder and lightly traced her collarbone. She sighed and lowered her hand so that it was resting on my heart and tapping along to the rhythm that was beating a love song she orchestrated.

“You wouldn’t have left your family, your friends, your dog and come on this crazy trip with me if you didn’t love me.” I pulled the dainty little bow loose at her shoulder and watched as the thin fabric uncoiled and released. She didn’t have a bra on and the rosy tip of her breast was immediately bared to my hungry gaze. The little peak pulled into a tight little pebble and goosebumps dotted the soft, pale globe as I visually traced a pattern across her freckles with my eyes.

“You wouldn’t have put my dick in your mouth without caring where we were or who might come across us if you didn’t love me.” I used a knuckle to brush that pink tip and bent so I could kiss her again.

“You wouldn’t have put up with Elma’s initiation and the hostility between me and Dalen while we figured out how to be brothers again if you didn’t love me.” I lowered my head so I could flick my tongue over the sensitive flesh I uncovered and feathered soft kisses all across her chest. I loved on each bruise, each mark that marred her perfect skin, as she tossed her head back and looked up at the trees that shrouded us.

“You wouldn’t have risked your life to save the people you know matter most to me if you didn’t love me. Everything you’ve done, every move you make tells me how much you love me, Dixie. I never doubted it, I just didn’t want to see it because I knew there was no way I was going to be able to not love you back. I loved you long before I almost lost you, pretty girl.”

I slipped a hand under the hem of her dress and slid it up the silky skin of her thigh. She shivered into my touch and her eyes encouraged me to keep on going with my words and with the deliberate caress. I couldn’t manhandle her in her current condition, couldn’t be rough and forceful. She needed a tender touch. She needed soft hands and an open heart. She needed to be loved, not fucked.

My lips quirked up into a grin that made her smile back at me as she tugged on the material of my T-shirt. I leaned back so I could pull the thing off over my head and bunched it up and put it behind her in order to keep the metal of the truck from rubbing against her bare ass as I hooked a finger in the side of her panties and started to work them carefully down her legs.

“I didn’t do it right because I was out of practice and it scared the ever-living shit out of me, but I loved you from the get-go.” Once I had the nothing scrap of fabric free of her feet I tucked it into my back pocket and put both my hands on her hips as I shifted my cock so that it pressed insistently against her center. Her good leg wound its way around my hip as she leaned back in my hold so that her good hand was free to trace over the muscles on my chest. She used the tip of a fingernail and roughly ran it over my nipple. The motion made me suck in a breath and had desire unspooling throughout my limbs. “And now I’m going to love on you because we are both here, together, and that’s something I won’t ever take for granted.” That was the main lesson I learned in all my mistakes and fuckups. Make the most of the time you had with the people that mattered because tomorrow wasn’t a guarantee and the memories you made with them could keep you warm or leave you out in the cold.

Everything with Dixie was warm. Her smile. The expression in her eyes. The skin on her hip and belly as it quivered under my hands and the touch of my tongue. The brush of her fingers as they wrapped around my dick when she finally wrestled my jeans out of the way. Her lips were hot as they landed on the side of my neck and she practically burned between her legs as my thumb slipped along the bend of her thigh and arrowed in on her damp opening. Her muscles clenched, her pussy fluttered, and pleasure soaked my fingers. I used my thumb to slip through silky folds and found her distended clit. I brushed the little nub lightly as she continued to nibble her way along my neck. I didn’t want to jostle her or move her any more than necessary. I was careful of her bad shoulder as I brushed the tip of my nose along the ridge of her good one. I whispered promises I was going to keep into her sweet skin. I growled all the dirty things I was going to do to her once she was better into her ear. I planned a future out between kisses as she panted in time to my stroking fingers and worked her hips slowly and carefully against my hand.