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I sigh and shake my head. “Honestly, Wilder, what do you want me to say? That I’m all right with the huge age difference between us? That I’m happy to spend the rest of my life with people staring at us wondering if I’m your mother—or your grandmother, for God’s sake? Some pathetic old woman hanging on the arm of a hot younger man,muchyounger man!”
“That’s not what this is about, and you know it,” he says, his eyes boring into mine. “I don’t care what other people think. I only care about what you think. And I know that you feel the same way about me as I feel about you.”
He leans closer to me, closing the distance between us. I can feel the heat emanating from his body, and it’s making me dizzy.
“Please, Maven,” he whispers, “say you’ll be mine.”
I want to say yes. I really do. But I can’t. It’s just too complicated.
I suck in a breath. I can’t deny him. “What will people think? The people here, your brothers?”
“Fuck what people think,” he growls at me. “Maven, listen to me, babe. You seeme. All of me. Even though I fucking kidnapped you and put you in a room, you were able to see beyond me being a criminal. A biker. Even beyond me being a super-hot biker, to see what’s beneath all that. The fact that you, the woman I love, can see that is the only fucking thing I care about. If anyone has a problem with that, I’ll tell them where they can stick their fucking opinions.”
I can’t help but smile at his sweet but gruff words. He’s right, but he’s also not the old woman in this relationship.
“Wilder, you’re young. You may want children someday. And a hot, young wife. And it would kill me to have you leave me once you realize you chose half a life with me.”
“Half a life? Seriously? Maven, babe, you make me feel whole when I didn’t even know there were pieces of me missing. Do you know how good that feels?”
“Incredible?” I ask with a hopeful lilt in my voice.
“Incredibly fucking amazing,” he says and presses his forehead to mine. “Soon enough, we’ll have plenty of ankle-biters around here, babe.”
I smile. “McKenna did skip the booze last night.”
“See? And Letty is meant to be a mom, so I doubt Shades will go too much longer without putting a baby in her. We’ll be up to our ears in babies.”
He’s saying all the right words, but I have to be sure. “And that’s enough for you?”
Wilder gathers me in his arms and nods. “Fuck, yeah, that’s enough. Is it enough for you? The road ahead of us is uncertain, Maven, but one thing that is for goddamn sure, I love you. I want you. And I want you to want me back. For real.”
My breath hitches at his words. “Oh, Wilder. The only thing I want for certain is you.”
“Yeah?” His smile brightens beautifully, and my heart soars that his man, this handsome man wants me.
I nod. “Yeah.”
“No more worries about the rest of the world and what they’ll think of us?”
I suck in a breath and let it out slowly, shaking off those negative opinions and stank-eye looks that I know we’ll get when we’re out together. I shrug off the haters and let the worry flow from my extremities until I feel strong and confident in my love for this man.
“No more worries. I’m ready to take this chance at happiness with you, Wilder. You are a good man, and you make me happy. You also fuck like a god. And you’ve shown me that my best years might not be behind me.”
He lets out a whoop of joy and sweeps me up in his arms, spinning me around. I laugh and wrap my arms around his neck. This may not be the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but it feels right. And that’s all that matters.
I bury my face in his chest, feeling light and free for the first time in weeks. “I really do love you, Wilder.”
“Does this mean you’ll finally go for a ride on my bike?”
“What about lockdown?”
“We can wait,” he says easily. “I have all the time in the world for you, Maven.”
Epilogue
Wilder
Ace sits at the head of the table for another session of Church with a serious expression on his face. This war is taking its toll on the club in terms of resources, both physical and mental.
