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“Believe in what?” I say, telling myself to calm down, to think before I let my true feelings come spilling out.
“In…”
Love, love, love.
I know that’s what she was going to say. I can hear it, despite her silence.
“In true romance, I guess,” she says. “In fairytales. I know I probably sound like an idiot.”
“No.” I almost snap. Moving closer to her, I lower my voice. “No, you don’t. You sound like the woman I…”
I need to stop. To think about this. To draw up a plan.
I can’t just say it.
But keeping it in is going to be even more difficult, and it’s going to cost me even more.
“Jessie, you’re the woman I’m going to spend the rest of my life with. You’re the woman who’s going to be the mother of my children. I’m going to support you, now and forever. Because you belong to me. I own you. As much as you own me. We were made for each other. I knew it the second I laid eyes on you.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
It all just came out, quick and fierce and unplanned.
Jessie stares up at me, her mouth falling open, as I realize I’ve made a terrible mistake.
Chapter Seventeen
Jessie
My mouth hangs open as I stare up at him, trying to make his words fit into my mind. It’s like he’s read my deepest desires and thrown them right at me, tempting me to believe that dreams really do come true.
But I can’t accept it, not even as I read the truth in his intense glimmering azure eyes.
The thought that this must be a trick strikes me. It hits me hard, feeling like it slams into my chest and causes my heart to stutter.
“Jessie?” Jaxon says, with an uncharacteristic quiver in his voice.
“I… What did you say?”
Surely I must’ve misheard him.
Maybe I’ve been working harder than I realized and I’m imagining things, having full-blown hallucinations. This sounds crazy, but is it really crazier than Jaxon freaking Walker threatening to turn my wildest fantasies into reality?
He smirks, but it vanishes almost immediately. Leaning down, he wraps his arms around me, moving closer so all I feel is him, all I smell is him. My world becomes Jaxon, his scent and the warmth of his body.
“I said you belong to me,” he growls, with a note of resignation, as though he thinks I’m going to try and run away the first chance I get. “I know it sounds insane. But I felt it the second I saw you. All my life, I’ve been searching for a woman who’d make me feel. A woman I’d know was the one for me. And it’s you, Jessie. It can only be you. I… I want you. I need you. You belong with me.”
His voice rises, turning savage as I let out a whimper, my heart daring me to believe as my reason cautions me to take it slow.
“The thought of another man touching you makes me want to fucking roar. The thought of you wanting another man… I can’t even think about that. You’re mine, Jessie. Now and forever.”
A long pause stretches between us, as we gaze into each other’s eyes. I try to think of something to say. But it’s so much so fast, making me feel like I’ve got whiplash, even if this is what I want, what I need.
“Aren’t you going to say something?” he asks a little gruffly.
“I don’t know what to say.”
He lets me go and strides to the other side of the roof, ruffling rose petals as he goes.
Standing at the opposite railing, he cuts an imposing figure in the candle and mood-lighting, his broad back outlined enticingly.
“I shouldn’t have said anything.” He sounds like he’s ready to snap the railing, or just snap full-stop. “I knew you’d think I was insane. And hell, it is an insane thing to think, to say. But I don’t know what to do, Jessie. I feel it in my bones, in my heart, in my goddamn soul. If you can’t belong to me… shit, I don’t know if I can handle that.”
“I feel the same,” I whisper, but my voice is quiet, too quiet to carry across the distance between us.
“I’ve been thinking about how you’d react, warning myself to slow down. It’s too much. Isn’t it, Jessie? It’s all too damn much.”
Even if I’ve just been thinking the exact same thing, hearing Jaxon say it causes a rebellion to trigger inside of me. My womb – my desire – spurs my legs into action and I walk across the rooftop, to him.
“No.” I don’t know I’m crying until I hear the tremor in the word. “It’s not too much, Jax.”
He spins, expression incredulous. “What?”
“I’ve had the exact same thoughts.”
I laugh, sounding a little unhinged, but maybe that’s what we both are. It doesn’t make this any less special.
