Page 27 of Adoring Delaney

I couldn’t stop my hands from going to my hips and I knew my patience was gone.

“You’re not my man, Carter. And I don’t like being told what to do.”

“Yeah, ya do.”

My face heated.

I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was flaming red at the reminder of how he bossed me in the bedroom. Especially after I’d read a sexy romance novel and asked him if he wanted to try something new. Blindfolds had led to erotic spankings. I shivered at the memory. However, out of bed, he’d never spoken to me like this. He was sweet and gentle with me, if not a little reserved, always careful not to pass over a line he’d drawn, therefore he’d never stepped over it.

“I don’t know who you are right now. This isn’t—”

“You know me and right now I’m showing you the rest of me. The part I kept hidden because I knew if I didn’t keep it in check, I’d claim you and there’d be no going back.”

God, he was infuriating.

“Stop interrupting me. It’s annoying. I don’t want to be claimed. And I don’t like this side of you.”

“You will.”

“I will what?”

“You’ll get used to it.”

“I don’t want to! I want you to leave me alone. You think you have this all worked out. That you can come in here and tell me the past is over and we can hit some magical reset button and everything will be fine. But it won’t be. That ship has sailed. There’s no going back and changing what’s happened.”

“You’re right, there’s not. That’s why we’re not going there. We’re going forward. And I don’t think I have anything worked out. I know I do. I know because you were meant to be mine. I was born to be your man. Born, Laney, not made into. I was put on this earth to love you. No other reason. And, baby, that’s what I’m gonna do. We’re gonna dig all the bad shit out and we’re doing that by moving forward.”

We went into a standoff. I was staring at him with what I hoped he could read as a seriously pissed-off face, and he was looking back at me amused.

“You think this is funny?” I snapped.

“Not even a little bit.”

“Then why are you smiling?”

“Because you look cute as hell standing there with your hands on your hips trying to mad dog me.”

“Mad dog?”

“Yeah, Laney, you know, arrange that pretty face of yours into what you think is an intimidating stare. Fuck, but it’s cute as hell.”

“I give up.” I threw my hands in the air hotly. “You don’t listen.”

“I’m listening.”

“No, you’re not or you wouldn’t be here in the first place.”

“I’m not listening to the lies that are coming out of that sexy mouth of yours. I’m listening to your heart.”

“My heart is broken, Carter. Shattered. There’s nothing left for you to listen to.”

“Yes, there is, Laney baby, and it’s telling me never to let you go.”

I sucked in a breath and tried to figure out why I was being tortured. What had I done so bad in my life that I deserved this? I’d already lost the man I never really had, lost our child, nearly lost my life, and now Carter was proclaiming his undying love for me, something I’d always wanted but learned I couldn’t live through the pain of losing.

Not again.

Not ever again was I going to allow myself to feel that kind of pain.

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