Page 190 of My Ruthless Husband

And when she smiles, something inside me snaps.

Without another thought, I abort the call and stride toward her, desperation building inside me. I need her, need to feel her, need to drown out the chaos in my mind. My steps are fast, like I’m running out of time, like I won’t survive unless I touch her.

I reach her in a matter of seconds, bending low, lifting her into my arms. She gasps, but I don’t give her a chance to react. I pull her against me, crushing her to my chest like I’m afraid she’ll disappear if I don’t hold on tight enough.

I bury my face in the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply. Her scent—sweet, warm, comforting—hits me like a bullet in the chest. I breathe her in like I’m drowning. I don’t care that I’m shaking a little, that I’m feeling things I can’t explain. I just need this. I need her.

Her hands find my shoulders, and I feel her touch like a brand against my skin. My pulse quickens, but it’s different now—calmer. Softer. Like she’s taming the beast in me, making the anger and desperation subside.

I can already feel the change in me, my breath slowing, steadier now as I feel her heartbeat in sync with mine. Every tension from the day evaporates with her in my arms.

Her mere presence pulls me from the edge, and I can breathe again.

The storm in me isn’t gone. It’ll never be. But with her in my arms, I cansurviveit.

“Surprise…” she whispers, her voice sweet and light, a sound that slides straight to the center of me, cutting through every bit of hardness left from today.

I smile against her skin, something that has somehow become natural with her. She doesn’t realize she’s the only one who can coax that out of me. Before her, I didn’t even have a reason to smile.

I glance over at the floor to ceiling glass wall, catching our reflection. Her small frame dangling from my neck, feet lifted clean off the ground, dwarfed by the sheer size of me. I’m holding her so tightly it must hurt, but she doesn’t flinch, just molds into me like she belongs there. She does.

“I shouldn’t have come back to work.” My voice is gruff, hating that I even let her out of my sight today.

I feel her laugh, her shoulders shaking against me, her joy melting away the last traces of my grim mood.

Reluctantly, I ease her back down, letting her slip from my hold. But her hands linger on me as she looks up, those green eyes so trusting, so warm, like she’s waiting to hear anything I have to say.

She doesn’t know how close I am to grabbing her again, to saying to hell with everything else.

“I don’t blame you,” she says softly, her voice carrying that gentle understanding. “I know I can’t keep you chained to me forever.”

“Maybe I want to be chained,” I grumble. Her laughter spills out like music, and I can’t help but be drawn to the way her features light up. Her smile is radiant, her green eyes shimmering with a kindness I still can’t believe is meant forme.

She tilts her head, looking up at me with flushed cheeks. “I always wanted to do this… surprise you at work.”

My hand reaches up on instinct, tucking a stray curl behind her ear, my fingers lingering against her heated skin. “Then why didn’t you?”

Her expression shifts as she looks down. “Because I didn’t think I was allowed to do that.”

Allowed. Like she’s anything less than a queen.

She doesn’t get it. Doesn’t know that no one on this damn earth deserves her, least of all me. Not after everything I’ve put her through. When we married, I was so wrapped up in my own bitterness and distrust that I lashed out at the one person who had nothing to do with any of it. She was innocent, the only light in a world full of shadows, and I spent that whole year doing everything I could to dim it. I’ll never forgive myself for that.

Her smile was a rare thing back then, hidden under the weight of everything I’d thrown at her. I’d see the hope fade from her eyes when I came home late, silent, distant. I could see her struggling to understand why the man she’d married was treating her as if she were the enemy.

She took every harsh word, every cold look, absorbing my anger without ever fighting back. It’s only now that I finally see her for what she truly is—a piece of heaven I somehow stumbled into, someone far too good for the life I brought her into.

Hurting her was the worst mistake of my life. She’s the only person in this twisted world who’s never wronged me, who doesn’t deserve an ounce of the darkness I carry. And now, I finally understand that. She wasn’t part of the betrayal, wasn’t part of the deception that hardened me. She was an innocentbystander, caught in the crossfire of my own damn grudges and need for control. She deserved happiness, freedom, anything but the pain I threw her way.

But I’m a selfish bastard, because even now, I want her to be happy withme. Not without me, not moving on to some other life, no matter how much better that might be for her.

I can’t imagine a world where I’d let her go. I want to be the one who makes her smile, the one who gives her every bit of joy she’s ever missed.

These past few months have felt like a second chance, something I know I don’t deserve, but I’ve taken hold of it like a man starved.

You don’t get a woman like River twice in a lifetime, and I’m done making the same mistakes. I know her worth now, and if it takes my whole damn life to mend every scar I left, then that’s exactly what I’ll do.

“Um… I was thinking maybe we could grab lunch together?” she says, her voice a little unsure. “But if you’re busy—”

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