AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That is entirely possible, but that’ll be up to the D.A. to present to a judge and me to make the case. Which is where your help would come in handy.”
“Okay.”
“First, I want you to tell me about what led up to you being here today. As much as you’re comfortable with, and if you need a break, just say so.”
Gripping Loch’s hands, Sage brought them snuggly around her waist. She needed stability to garner the strength to tell her tale. After waking up, she’d felt light-headed and confused, panicked even, when Lochlan hadn’t been there to ease her fears.
When Kirsten came in to explain she was going to get him and that an officer needed to speak to her, Sage wasn’t sure what was happening. She couldn’t collect her thoughts long enough to concentrate. After being told about the seizures, she’d become even more frightened than she already was. So when Lochlan entered the room, she felt better instantly. Calmer. It’s what he did for her.
Now, having to not only meet a new, larger man but also explain everything that had happe
ned in graphic detail, she was feeling worn out. Thankfully, he didn’t interrupt her tale often with questions she didn’t know how to answer. He was understanding and kind. The kind of man she wished she’d grown up around.
Sage knew he tried to hide his emotions when she’d explained about the snake pit, being forced to stand in front of the entire congregation nude, and how terrifying it was. His horror was plain to see. His anger appeased some of her own.
Her entire life she’d known nothing different than what her parents told her. Witnessing someone with such power and strength become emotional on her behalf emboldened her.
“Is it true? My father can’t force me to marry Morgan? I can choose who I want?” The question may seem silly to some, but for Sage, it was the most important detail. She had to know she had the freedom to choose love.
Frank’s soft smile tempered her worry. “Sweet child, everything you do in life is your choice. You make the call on who to love, who to marry, everything.”
Turning, she searched Lochlan’s eyes. “I choose you.” What she felt for him, it may not be love yet, but Sage knew in her heart it was becoming something much stronger than she’d ever heard described. It was so much more.
Lochlan’s face softened at her words; his hands were running through her hair tenderly. Closing her eyes, she melted into his touch, needing the contact more so now than ever before in her life. She’d been missing an intimacy so fundamental to her upbringing that it wasn’t until the brink of death that she even knew it was absent.
“You’re eighteen today, Sage.” Her eyes popped open in shock at his statement, not realizing how quickly the time had passed.
“I am?”
“Yeah.” His grin was disarming. “That means you can do whatever you like now. You don’t have to choose me because you think I’m safe.” His words killed her heart a little bit. The sadness in his eyes baffled her.
“But I want to.” Being with Lochlan was the only thing in her entire life that she ever had control over. The way he made her feel, the way he spoke to her. She wasn’t just some girl to him. At least, she hadn’t thought so. He’d always made her feel as if she were someone important. Maybe she was wrong. “Do you not want me now?” The insecurity in her voice was transparent. “I know I’m broken and scarred, and I have nothing but my shaken faith, but I thought…” She couldn’t even finish the sentence it was so distressing to put into words what she was losing.
“Look at me, Sage.” She couldn’t. Knowing there were two other people in the room listening and baring her soul to a man who may not want her fragile mind was hard enough to bear.
“We’ll be outside,” Kirsten’s soft voice said.
The padding of their feet followed by the soft snick of the door closing announced their departure, enclosing Sage in the room alone with Lochlan.
“Please, look at me, Sage.” She couldn’t deny the pleading in his tone. Their gazes met, and in his, she saw everything she felt. “I want you, Angel. From the first moment your icy blues clashed with mine, you’ve stolen my every thought. You’re all I think about.” Her heart fluttered. “I don’t want you to settle, though. I want you out in the world and exploring. I want you to be happy. Even if that is away from me.”
Reaching up, she gripped the sides of his neck in the same fashion he was holding her. “I choose you, Lochlan.” She couldn’t be more concise than that.
Bringing his face closer to hers, he said against her lips, “I choose you, too, Sage,” before kissing her again. She’d been startled the first time, unsure of what to do or how. Now, she was sort of prepared and knew she could relax into his hold, and he’d lead the way.
Having never kissed a boy before, she wasn’t prepared for the feelings it evoked throughout the rest of her body. She tingled in places she hadn’t paid much attention to before. Her belly fluttered with a thousand butterflies, and her heart raced like she’d run a mile.
With every touch of his tongue on her lips, she wanted to moan with pleasure. She ached to brush her fingers through his hair and hold him to her.
His hands ran softly up and down her sides, careful of the bandages covering her skin. “One day,” he says pulling back, “I’m going to show you all the wonderful ways I can make your body sing.” A shy smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “On that day, Sage”—he places a gentle kiss on her lips—“you’ll be my wife.”
Wow.
Chapter Eight
She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.
Sage was to be discharged in another day or so. With no more seizures having occurred, the doctors were comfortable moving her to a regular room the day before and felt confident that she was on the road to recovery. Loch had to be pushed out the door earlier that morning because he’d been negligent in his work, and Sage had been on the verge of tears when his eldest brother, Lennox, had explained how pissed off the customer was becoming.
