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A woman who knew exactly what she wanted, and she knew I wanted it, too.

But I didn’t think she understood the true consequences of committing this sin. I knew she looked at her brother—at all of us—as heroes. Through a rose-colored hue because those were the only pieces we’d allowed her to see.

I wanted that to remain.

Didn’t want to erase it.

Her view was beautiful.

Precisely what this brutalized, mismatched family needed to get through the moments that felt like they would end us.

Her belief.

Her light.

The warm glow that reminded me that there was still a tiny speck inside myself that remained alive.

Something I hadn’t felt more than right then.

“Please, Trevan. I want to feel you. All of you.”

She started riding my hand. Grinding herself onto my fingers.

“Gonna take care of you.” The gruff promise vibrated between us. “Gonna make you feel good, baby. Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

Knowing eyes latched onto mine, and intensity murmured out when she said, “You’ve always got me, Trevan. You always have. I trust you.”

And maybe that was what terrified me the most.

THIRTY-FOUR

ELENA

“You shouldn’t trust me, Elena. Not when I have you like this.” The words scraped off Trevan’s tongue.

Coarse and severe and dripping with chains that held us hostage in the room.

I would question if this was really happening except there was no chance a dream could feel like this. No way to fabricate the flames that licked up my insides as he drove his fingers into me.

Not that or the pinpricks of pleasure that spiked through my being every time he swirled the pad of his thumb over my clit.

Trevan Niles was finger-fucking me.

Okay, it wasn’t exactly what I’d fully hoped for, but it was enough.

For right then, at least.

More than I ever dared to imagine would come to pass.

Believing it fanciful. An illusion that I could never get past.

But this was real.

He was solid and the most essential thing I’d ever felt.

Air that I drew into my failing lungs.

Touching me in a way that he never had.