Page 25 of Colt’s Betrayal

Her eyes move over me, checking harder than she probably realizes. “Anywhere else?”

“Nothing worth worrying about.”

Then I kiss her. There is nothing careful about it. I get one hand behind her neck, the other around her waist and pull her into me while every mile of Blackwater, every gun pointed our way and every second I spent listening to Raze talk about her burns out in the feel of her mouth.

Jayne grips my cut and kisses me back just as hard. When we finally separate, she's breathing against my lips.

“You came back.”

“I said I would.”

Kane passes behind us on his way toward the clubhouse and stops long enough to look at Jayne.

“Happened exactly as you said it would.”

She turns toward him and Kane doesn't dress it up. “You saved three brothers tonight.” Jayne's eyes move briefly to Judge, then back to me. Something in her face changes. Not relief that she has been accepted. She was never asking for that. Relief that the thing she risked herself to do mattered. Kane gives her a nod and walks inside.

I take her hand. “Come with me.” The second we're inside my room, Jayne turns and puts both arms around me. I hold her and there's no talking for a while. I don't need it. Eventually she leans back enough to see my face. “What happens now?” I run my hands down her arms.

“Twelve years ago, I wanted you to stay and didn't say it because I thought loving you meant respecting whatever you decided, even if it tore me apart.”

Jayne's expression grows serious.

“I won't do that again,” I tell her.

“You're going to stop respecting my decisions?”

“No.” I pull her closer. “I'm going to stop pretending I don't have an opinion about them.”

That gets a smile.

“If you ever decide you don't want me, tell me. I'll hear it. I can't stop being what I am, and I can't promise there are no risks. But we talk about it if it ever becomes an issue again.”

Jayne rests her hands on my chest.

“I have a house.”

“Keep it.”

“I have a life outside this compound.”

“I know.”

“I'm not giving it up.”

“I don't want you to.”

She studies me for a moment. “You're making this annoyingly difficult to argue with.”

“I can say something stupid if it helps.”

“It probably would.”

I laugh and slide my hands around her waist.

“What I want is you, Jayne. At your house. Here. In my bed when you want to be, kicking me out of yours when you're sick of me. I don't care what it looks like as long as we stop losing years because neither of us says what we mean.”

Her eyes shine.