Page 237 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 5-8

Her mouth was trembling, her hands too. ‘I let them lie for me.’

Leaning back, he took hold of her wrists.

‘Look at me, Sydney,’ he said gently, but firmly. ‘I don’t know your brothers but I’m guessing they wanted to do that for you. And, yes, as a consequence they now have a criminal record for assault. But you didn’t make them run a chop shop, did you? That’s on them. And I won’t let them go to prison. Whatever they need, I will make it happen, okay? You don’t have to deal with this on your own any more, because you’re not on your own. I’m here.’ He softened his grip. ‘Have you talked to anyone else about your marriage, like friends or counsellors?’

She hesitated, then shook her head.

‘I went to a couple of DV support groups, but I didn’t speak. I thought speaking about it would make it all come back and I just wanted to forget about it. You’re the first, the only person I’ve told.’

Knowing that she had chosen him as her confidant made everything inside him spin like a pinwheel. ‘If you need someone more qualified—’

‘I don’t think I do, but thank you. It’s taken a long time but I can see now that Noah was the problem.’ She swallowed. ‘I think he knew his own limitations, and because of that he was angry at the world, and he took that anger out on me.’

‘He did. He was a bully and a coward.’ His gaze held hers, steady and direct. ‘But just so we’re clear, you did not deserve what he did to you. And you are not a nothing. You are brave and beautiful and loyal, and I am in awe of you.’ He traced a line along the curve of her cheek. ‘And, as you know, my opinion is the only opinion that counts.’

He pulled her back into his arms and held her tightly, and she tilted her face up to his and kissed him softly on the mouth. Then she pulled back and looked into his eyes and she kissed him again, this time with heat and longing.

‘We don’t have to.’

‘I want to,’ she said, finding his mouth again and pressing her lips to his. ‘I want you.’

He rolled sideways, taking her with him so that she was on top.

‘And I’m yours.’

Sydney stared down into Tiger’s beautiful face, the air leaving her body. He meant here, now, in bed. And that was enough, she told herself. He was enough. In some ways, he was too much. Like his nickname, he changed the world as he moved through it.

Look what he had done for her.

Noah had broken her and she had put herself back together but nothing fitted, everything jarred and, because it hurt, she was reminded of the ugliness and the pain and fear. And it wasn’t that she wanted to pretend that her marriage hadn’t happened, but she couldn’t move on.

But who couldn’t face their fears with a tiger by their side? Thanks to him she felt whole and strongest along her fault lines. Whole and strong and freer than she’d ever felt before. It was as if she were filled with a golden light.

Her gaze moved shakily to his face, her pulse pounding in her head because it was him. Tiger. He had pushed back the shadows inside her, his strength and certainty, so different from the kind she had known before, pouring into her, hot and pure and clean like sunlight.

She felt dizzy. Her heart felt soft and vulnerable, no longer just an organ beating blood around her body but a rose, petals bursting apart, because that was what love felt like. And she had fallen in love with Tiger.

But how? When? The answer to all those questions was the same. Who cared? She was in love.

‘Why are you smiling?’

She jolted back to him, glancing down at his gorgeous, golden face, feeling the press of his gorgeous, golden body, so gorgeous and male it made everything inside her feel sweet and honeyed.

Because I love you.

The words were there ready and waiting to spill from her lips, but how could she say them out loud?

They had known each other for such a short time that it could be counted in days. And he wasn’t looking for love or even commitment.

‘Because I’m happy.’

Small muscles creased around the corners of his eyes and he touched her face then, lightly, and, caught in his glittering gaze, she felt suddenly almost desperate to feel his mouth on hers, and his hands, and the hard length of him clenched between her legs.

Reaching down, she pulled her T-shirt up and over her head, feeling him still beneath her, and beneath the stillness a pulsing, predatory hunger that matched the hunger that was beating through her like a gong.

‘I’m happy too now,’ he said softly, and she laughed when she saw him smile, and she thought that if she could have one wish it would be that this moment would last for ever. Then he was reaching for her, stroking the swell of her breasts, and she was no longer capable of thinking.

They woke late again and took a long, warm shower together and then wandered downstairs. Smiling at two of the maids as they made their way out to the terrace, Sydney wondered if anyone could see the difference in her. It felt as if it should be visible because it felt like fireworks exploding beneath her skin. This was love, the thrilling, miraculous, absurd, mysterious, dreamlike, beautiful kind that was only supposed to happen in fairy tales.

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