Page 124 of But For You

He froze.

“Come here.” I wiggled my fingers.

“What is this?”

“This is me, delirious to see you.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you.” I glared at him. “Now come here.”

“I love you too,” he growled and pounced, and I was in his arms, crushed in the iron embrace, his face pressed to the side of my neck as he shivered hard.

“Not leaving you; never leaving you. We’re good; we’re solid. But for you, where would I be?”

He just breathed me in.

“I don’t care who you loved or who loved you. I’m not jealous because look where you are. You chose me and our life, and you’re not going anywhere without me or the kids.”

“No,” he promised as he lifted his head and took my face in his hands.

I saw it in his eyes, the emotion surging through him, and then he was kissing me violently, completely, missing nothing as he devoured my mouth.

“Never”—he kissed harder, deeper, his mouth so hot and wet—“leaving you. You’re mine. You make it all work.”

I couldn’t think of anything better.

THIRTEEN

My torrid sex fantasy got waylaid by Sam and me having to go down to the police station to press charges against Mr. Parker, which took a lot longer than I’d thought it would. They asked me if he had yelled anything when he was attacking the car, but I lied and said no. I knew why he was enraged, and it honestly had less to do with my sexuality and everything to do with his ex-wife and his kid and pinning his anger someplace. Me being gay was not the issue; the issue was displacement. I was not the victim of a hate crime; I was the scapegoat because he had anger issues. And just because I didn’t want to think about it anymore, I deleted the video of him coming at me first with the bat and then the axe. I didn’t want to be caught in a lie, and saying that it was too painful to keep sounded plausible.

I wasn’t sure how things were going to work out for him. This was his second time in jail in days—Chaz and Pat had picked him up for breaking Kola’s finger—and he would not be arraigned until the following morning.

As we were leaving the station, I asked Sam what would happen.

“You heard what Officer Marion said. He told us that Mr. Parker confessed to finding out from his ex what day you would be bringing Kola back to school under the guise of apologizing, but instead, he ambushed you.”

“He won’t go to jail, will he?”

“That depends on his priors. We don’t know what the deal is with him and his ex.”

“I thought there would just be a lot of court-ordered therapy.”

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do,” I pressed him. “You were a cop for how long? You know.”

He turned his smoky-gray-blue eyes on me. “He’s lucky he was there when the cops showed up.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If he had run and tried to hide after what he did to you …” He took a breath. “Do I strike you as a reasonable man?”

“Yes,” I assured him.

“No,” he corrected me, shaking his head. “Get in the car.”

I followed directions, and the hand on the back of my neck hauling me close made me smile. Sam was just reminding himself, as he mauled me, that I was okay. I was not surprised that when he got me back to the loft, behind closed doors, he needed to be skin-to-skin close to assure himself that I was all in one piece.