Page 34 of A Beta Protects

“What?”

“How I feel about you. What you mean to me.”

I stare at him, confused. “You hate me. In Missouri, you wanted nothing to do with me.”

It’s been adding to my confusion because here, in Wylder, that hasn’t been the way he’s been acting. He isn’t finding any and every excuse to get away from me. He’s helping me.

His hand tightens on the edge of my car door as he peers down at me with intense focus. “I didn’t hate you, Kira.”

“But you?—”

“Come here. I want to show you something.” He walks away, not waiting to see if I’ll follow.

Far too curious about what he intends to show me, I climb out of my car, trailing him into the house and up to his room.

He crouches in front of the dresser.

My confusion grows. “Dom? What are you doing?”

He opens the bottom dresser drawer. “I kept everything you ever sent me in your care packages. Well, everything except those cookies you baked and the snacks you sent.” He aims a wry smile at me. “Try as I might, those never lasted long.”

I look away, embarrassed. “Uh, the cookies were uneven and odd shaped. They?—”

“They were perfect to me,” he softly interrupts. “No one ever baked me anything before. Opening up your care packages was like someone giving me a hug. No, it was like you giving me a hug. I looked forward to each one and told myself not to in case I would never get another.”

My heart clenches at the emotion in his voice, and I want to drop to my knees beside him and give him a real hug. “But I don’t understand. Why did you make me think you hated me?”

His smile is sad as he closes the drawer and gets to his feet. “Because you were married, Kira. I thought you were happy. And stealing the woman you’ve fallen for from her husband would not be a good thing to do.”

My mouth is dry, and my voice is faint. “Woman you fell for?”

He takes a step closer, and the intensity in his gaze makes me gulp.

“Why did you think I kept sending you those postcards, Kira?”

I shake my head. “Because Aaron asked you to keep an eye on?—”

“I couldn’t trust myself to stay away from you.” He interrupts. “I went to fight wars and I could never get you out of my mind, no matter how far away I went. But I couldn’t have you, and I wanted you to know where you could always find me if you ever needed me.”

My eyes burn, the prickle warning tears are on their way. “But you didn’t say anything.”

“What did you want me to say, Kira?” His eyes dart to my mouth and my belly clenches in response. “That I wanted you so badly I couldn’t be around you without wanting to steal you from your husband?”

“You don’t mean that,” I whisper, shaking my head when that’s exactly what I wanted. Then. Now.

If he’d told me that back then, I’d have slid my ring off my finger, dropped it on the floor and gone with him.

No hesitation.

And I would have never looked back.

Because meeting Dom, liking him the way I did, made me realize whatever feelings I had for Bryce had died years before.

He grips me by the tops of my arms, and slowly, he draws me closer to him so only inches separate us. A brief flicker of amusement flits across his deep brown gaze. “Of course I mean it. Why else would I have struggled to find the lamest excuse in the world to take you out on a coffee date and buy you clothes?”

A date?

My eyes widen. “What?”

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