Page 98 of His Wild Seduction

But the thing about sunshine was it cast shadow. So maybe that was why we belonged together.

You couldn’t have light without dark.

She was light, and I was dark.

But we belonged to each other.

Together, we were better.

She gave me so much. She gave a lot to everyone. The women and children she helped at the shelter. The easy smiles she gave Mario and his men.

She made the day brighter for so many people. I had to share her with the world. I knew that.

But I was greedy. I wanted all of her.

When I thought about what really happened all those years ago, all the time wasted, fuck, I got so mad.

I wanted to go back in time and kill Franklin myself. That piece of shit.

She was so strong, my wife. So brave.

To have gone through all that fucking shit. Having to deal with the trespasses of the only father she’d ever known alone.

Then, to take that painful experience and use it to help others?

That took a strength, a power, a self-discipline, and a heart I could only imagine.

Meredith amazed me.

I spent the whole night just holding her, going over everything she ever told me, wondering how she must have felt. Trying to put myself in her shoes, to see it from her perspective, was one of the hardest things I’d ever done.

Meredith had been eighteen, alone, and lost. Abandoned by me. Abused by Franklin. Made to feel alone, shameful, and unworthy.

I fucking hated myself for what I did to her. For not trusting her. And I hated that motherfucker.

What I hated most was that he’d died before I could deliver the end he truly deserved.

But I had to push my anger aside.

Today was not about that. Today was about starting our lives together. Our real lives.

As husband and wife.

As man and woman.

As Big Bad and Little Red, a darker part of me whispered.

When I saw Adrik and Marat with their wives clinging to them so openly, I’d been filled with envy. I wanted that for me.

But I had no idea how to seduce my wife into caring for me like that again. I really wanted her to love me.

Today, I was doubling down on my efforts. I didn’t just want Meredith to care for me.

I wanted her to fall for me. Like head over heels.

Because if there was one thing, one single thing I was finally man enough to admit now that I’d stopped and listened to her truth and faced how I’d feel if she left me, it was this.

I was completely in love with my wife.

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