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“Maybe?” She pressed closer to me, tucking her body against mine. “I’d love to be your sub.”
I sat us on one of the ground-floor lounges before I fell, cradling her in my arms. “Even after what’s happened? That’s not something you need to decide now, or ever.” The collar stowed in my desk drawer could wait. Everything could wait while she healed.
“I’m sure, Rafe. He isn’t you. I trust you. And I’m hopelessly in love with you, which I don’t think I’ve felt for a very long time. Not—not in the sense of a relationship.”
I nodded. I’d gotten the impression that while she loved her late husband, she hadn’t been in love with him, but madeit work for her children’s sake. In rare corners of the shifter community, I knew it happened. It didn’t mean I had to like it. I fell for this woman who gave every part of herself to the ones she loved, and I was determined to make myself worthy of her every day.
“Let’s park the sub thing for a new day. I want to accept that with my whole heart, but let’s make sure tonight’s trauma is—” I cleared my throat again. Words were not my forte tonight. “I love you too.”
“I’m glad.” Willow nestled against my chest, burrowing into me.
Lux passed over a pile of thick blankets I arranged around us, and I waited for the doctor with Willow cradled against my heart.
Epilogue
Willow
My body healed slower than my heart. Rafe treated me like an absolute princess for the first time in my life. I knew I’d made the right decision when he turned up at my small apartment in jeans and a black tee, holding a posy of daisies I suspected he’d picked himself.
Better yet, he managed to lift all five of my boys, dangling from each limb on introduction, and held an entire conversation with me while tickling the lot. That protector streak of his suited children better than it did adults. A handful of homemade dinners later, and I knew he fit into our lives to perfection.
His form of romance changed, becoming the vanilla version I might have expected before I knew him, but now I missed that other side of him. He never brought up the issue of taking me on as his sub again, and for the next few weeks, he limited our activities to actual dates outside his club.
Until I had to ask, or burst, and hoped I wouldn’t ruin everything. I waited until the boys were down, and he kissed me goodnight at my door.
I wound my fingers around his wrist and tugged him back to me. “Rafe, wait.” I took a deep breath. He’d handed my attacker to the shifter community police, but I’d heard the man sported a few bruises that resembled Rafe’s handiwork. And he’d discovered that the girl who gave me the key that day slipped into the club when Killian wasn’t around. She shared Martin Lansdown’s fate. That made me more determined to beg him now, if that was what he wanted. “My body is healed now. And I’m not scared of you. Please. I’d like to be your sub, if you still want me?”
The breath I’d taken ran out. I stood in limbo, my ears ringing in the silence that fell between us.
Rafe stared at me, his eyes aglow with a dark light. He leaned forward and brushed his lips against my temple. “Tomorrow night. My office at seven.”
I nodded, my eyes wide as he stepped into the night and disappeared, thewhumpof large wings in a quiet night the single indication he’d left.
****
I knelt in Rafe’s empty office. He greeted me outside the entrance to Fray, kissing me soundly the moment I arrived. His hand wrapped tight around mine, he drew me through his club, marking me as his with touch and kiss as he greeted people and spoke to his staff.
He planted me in his office, slid my dress to the floor, and asked me to wait.
So I did.
I knelt in the place he left me, my back straight, hair brushing my shoulders. Every minute alone tortured my mind. I wanted him back, and I craved his touch. My imagination wandered, recalling every date, each kiss he gave me in the last week, each hotter and harder than the next. We’d abstained from sex since the incident.
The club didn’t scare me, or the empty room. Not even waiting.
What scared me was the possibility of his rejection.
I wanted to think his touches meant he claimed me in front of his community, but maybe I’d misread the situation. I hadn’t dated for so long I’d forgotten how it all worked.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
A slim strip of leather dangled before my eyes, swaying in a mesmerizing movement. My gaze drifted up to the manicured nails to his inked, muscled forearms and the rolled shirtsleeves.
He intended to get sweaty.
I’d learned what those rolled sleeves meant the fun way.
“Willow.” His breath brushed my temple. He placed a tender kiss there, then another. Unable to resist him, I tilted my head back and stared into the maelstrom inside his yellow and jet gaze where his eagle razed against his human form for dominance. Despite the storm roiling inside him, he kept his voice soft, seductive. “Read it.”
