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That had to be it.
But something didn’t feel right. She sat up, trying to figure it out. She reached up to touch her neck. Why did it feel like something was there? Her heart raced.
It couldn’t be.
She touched the necklace, one that she hadn’t gone to bed wearing.
A necklace that she’d left in Escana.
She looked around, spotting the white roses on the bedside table immediately. There was only one person who it could be. Only one person who would dare sneak into her hotel room and put this damn thing on her neck.
Without. Even. Waking. Her.
“Where are you?” she demanded.
He stepped out of the shadows of the room. She drew herself back against the headboard.
“Owen.”
His arms were crossed over his chest, his gaze firm.
“Why are you here?” she finally managed to ask as he stared at her intently.
“You left.”
“Of course I left. I was arrested! Did you really expect me to stay? I came home. Only, it’s not my home. Because I don’t have one of those.”
“You have a home,” he rasped, stepping forward. His face had grown darker. Oh, was he mad?
Well, so was she. She was so damn mad at her entire life. At Jonathan, for betraying her. At the four of them, for not believing her.
But most of all, she was mad at herself.
Because she’d let her guard down. And they’d promised that she wouldn’t regret it.
Liars.
“No. I don’t. I lived in Jonathan’s home. But it was never mine. I was just there as his slave. Someone for him to exploit and use. But you probably don’t believe that. You think I was in on everything he did, don’t you?”
“No.”
Owen hated the bitter look on her face. That wasn’t how she should ever look.
“I don’t believe you,” she told him.
“You should believe me. I don’t lie.”
“But apparently I do.” She let out a bitter laugh.
Fuck.
“You need to leave,” she ordered.
“Not happening, baby girl.”
“Stop calling me that! You shouldn’t be here. There is nothing here for you.”
“You are here. That’s all I need.”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t want you.”
“Don’t lie to me.” He had a fierce desire to remind her how much she wanted him.
But he couldn’t give in to that.
“But that’s what I am . . . a liar. I lied to you all. So I don’t know why you’re here.”
He was done with this. He stormed toward her, jumping on the bed to straddle her lap, placing his hands beside her head as he held onto the headboard.
“I’m here because you’re mine. And you are not allowed to run from me.”
“Then you’re not allowed to believe terrible things about me.”
“Baby girl, I don’t.”
“Because the truth came out. Not because you believed in me.”
“I believed in you. I sent Caleb with that message and Amy Alpaca for you. You’re the one who didn’t believe in me. I was working to free you, even if I had to break into that place and steal you.”
She put her hands over her face. “You shouldn’t have come, Owen.”
“Look at me. Look. At. Me.”
She lowered her hands.
“I will always come for you. Understand? Always.”
“It won’t work. Even if you did believe in me . . . the others didn’t. I saw Judd’s face. Heard it in Beck’s voice. They thought the worst of me.”
“Maybe for a moment they did, but they had their doubts about whether you knew what he was up to.”
She shook her head.
“I promise you.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway, whether you believed me or not. I’m here now and you live there. And I’m not going back there.”
“All right.”
“All right?”
“Yes. So we’ll just move here. But not into this flea-ridden disgusting place. We’ll find a house of our own.”
“No.”
“Excuse me?”
Something dark filled Owen’s face. Shit.
“No?” he repeated.
“It’s not going to work. The others didn’t believe me. They don’t want me.”
“And I’m telling you that you’re wrong. They do want you. They do believe you. And even if they didn’t, what makes you think that I let them make my decisions?”
“You’re a family. I’m not going to come between you.”
“You aren’t coming between us. What they decide is up to them. But you are mine. And I choose you.”
She sucked in a breath. When had anyone ever chosen her?
“Not all of it was a lie, though. He did ask me to distract you guys.”
“So you didn’t want us? You didn’t fall for us? It was all fake?” he demanded.
“No! Of course it wasn’t fake!”
A sob threatened to break free.
Calm.
Cool.
“You are my entire fucking world. And no matter what, I will always come for you. Although, you are never to leave me again.”
“It’s not that simple, Owen.”
“It is.”
She stared up at him, a wealth of pain in her eyes. “You know it’s not. They’re not here.”
“Baby girl, if you don’t think that they’re just behind me, then you’re nuts.”
“They’ll come for you.”
