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Sawyer faked a dry heave. “You could’ve asked me to leave,” he muttered. “Just saying.”
Hayden chuckled at that. “I’m sure her ideas are entirely innocent.”
Sawyer paused for a moment, his eyes growing fixed. “I am happy for you, brother. Happy you’re happy.”
Hayden felt a knot build in his throat, something that was happening all too often recently. A part of him had always worried if he’d shown emotions, if he’d acted the way others did… that maybe they’d respect him less. Even his brothers.
He was a fool to have ever thought that.
“Thank you, brother.”
Sawyer grinned and nodded, then headed for the door.
“Oh, Sawyer?” Anna called. He turned to look at her. “My ideas were not innocent in the slightest.”
Hayden bit back a laugh, gripping Anna tighter with the hand he rested on her waist.
Sawyer sighed, pulling the door closed behind him as Anna let out a devilish giggle. Then she turned to him, eyes filled with laughter, somehow lighter than they’d been just a few days earlier.
“How does it feel to have finally gotten your revenge?” So much had been going on, they’d never even gotten the chance to talk about it.
“Nowhere near as good as getting you,” she sighed. “Though if you ever tell anyone I said that, I’ll totally deny it.”
He grunted, then pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “I’d expect nothing less.”
Her smile slowly faded, eyes falling to the side. “Are you… okay? With what happened? I know he was awful, but he was still your father, and—”
“He was nothing to me.” He pushed back the strand of hair that had fallen over Anna’s forehead. “My brothers are my family. My people.” His hand cupped her cheek. “You.”
The small curve returned to her lips. “And you’re mine.”
He pressed his lips to hers once more, the feeling of contentment nearly overwhelming him.
? ♥ ?
Hayden drove the stolen UNR cruiser while Anna stared at the trees flying by. She couldn’t help but focus on the way his hand squeezed her thigh, the way it promised so much, even though it shouldn’t.
That hand, or arm, she should say, was supposed to be in a sling, but it turned out that Hayden wasn’t all that great at following rules. “It could hinder my driving ability and put us both in danger,” he’d insisted. Yeah, it sure seemed that way.
She rolled her eyes and smiled. She’d been doing a whole lot of that lately. Really smiling. Something that seemed so foreign to her just a few short weeks ago.
“Are we almost near that last cabin we stayed in?” she asked idly.
“Close.”
She nodded, continuing to stare off at the trees.
The car slowed, pulling off into the woods, and anticipating curled in her gut. In a few more minutes, they’d parked the car, standing up and stretching their sore limbs as the cool winter air blew her hair into her face. She really needed to cut it…
“This is where you fell into the freezing water,” Hayden murmured.
Anna gripped his hand in hers, pulling him toward the cabin. “It is.” It was also the first place she’d seen his emotions, his humanity. The place he’d held her close and warmed her frozen body. The place he’d shown complete restraint, never once allowing his eyes or hands to stray over her while she was naked, vulnerable.
The place she’d first learned to trust him. The place he earned her trust. Simply by being himself, by being the amazing man that he was.
Cold? Yes. Reserved? For sure.
But for her? He was fiery hot. She just had to inspire him a bit to get him there.
