Page 92 of Broken

Dirty glanced over to where Petal continued topace his bedroom. She had been doing that for the past ten minutes, and eachtime he thought to talk to her, he stopped himself. Her hands were pressedtogether, and every now and then she would randomly look up at him, stare for afew seconds, before going back to pacing.

He was supposed to be resting. This was not aproblem to him, watching his woman walk up and down. She wore jeans and ashirt, but he had taken his time to memorize what she looked like naked. He wasmore than happy to keep watching her. Imagine the sway of her naked hips andthe fullness of her tits. He would give anything to have her naked and wrappedaround him right now as he pressed his thick cock deep inside her sweet cunt.There was so much he wanted to do to her, but he held himself back and merely watched.That was all he could do for now.

“Do you have any idea that you could have beenkilled?” she asked.

“I wasn’t.”

“Dirty, you were shot in the shoulder, and forgiveme here, but it looks like it could have been close to your heart.”

He smiled.

“What are you goofy smiling at?” she asked, alongwith that sweet frown.

“You’re upset.”

“And you’re happy that I’m upset?”

“I’m not happy about it, but I kind of am at thesame time. You’re upset because you’re worried, and you’re worried because youcare about me,” he said.

Petal pursed her lips. “Care? Is that all youthink this is? Of course I worry, you stupid … man. I don’t just care aboutyou, okay! I love you. There, I’ve said it. I love you and I was worriedbecause we have not had the best start and that could have all been over today.Colt might have made it home, but there was a chance you might not, and that scaresme.”

He held out his hand. “Come here.”

She stared at his hand and this time she didhesitate for a mere second, and he waited. Slowly, she put her hand in his, andhe pulled her against him so she had no choice but to fall into his lap.

“I love you too, and trust me, this is nothing.Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry about it. Dirty, you were shot.”

“And I made it out alive.”

“What if … one day … you don’t?”

“And I could feel the same way about you workingat the diner, Petal, or going to buy gas. You were shot.” He pressed a hand onher stomach. “You nearly died. You were nearly taken away from me, and when youcame around, all you could remember was me asking that fucked-up question, andrealizing in that moment I had lost you.”

“You didn’t lose me,” she said.

“I did. The last few months have been unbearable.Worse than I could have ever imagined.” He stroked her hair back from her face.“And it was because I didn’t have you. I know this. I missed you so much.Missed you more than anything.” He gripped the back of her neck and pulled herdown to press a kiss to her lips. “And I regret everything.”

He saw the tears in her eyes.

“Don’t cry,” he said.

“I just … everything seems to have messed up,hasn’t it?”

“No. I messed up. This was just club stuff. Like Itold you before, this is not my first time getting shot on the job.” He forceda smile. “I want you to do something for me.”

“Anything.”

“Just go over to that chest of drawers there andmove the boxers out of the way, and you’ll see it.”

Petal frowned and moved across his bedroom,opening the top drawer and doing as he asked. She pulled out a velvet box.

“Come here.”

She came toward him and he saw that her hands wereshaking.

“I was wondering if I should save this for aspecial occasion, or for Halloween, maybe even Christmas, but the truth is,there is never going to be a perfect time. There is just now, and there is justus.” He took a deep breath and opened the velvet box. “Petal Hargreaves, thereis no one else I want to spend my life with. I am in love with you. I’ve beenin love with you for a very long time, and I will do everything in my power tokeep you. You are the love of my life. I want you to be the mother of my children.I want to grow old with you and have children with you. I want to get a dog andname it whatever you want to name it, and have it running in the yard. I wantto get a house with you and tinker with your car, or my bike. I want to scarethe shit out of our kids’ friends because their dad is a big old biker. I wantto be by your side through it all. Through your happy moments, your dullmoments, I want everything. I didn’t even realize how much I wanted until I metyou. Life was about fucking, partying, and club. Now, it has you, and you’rethe only woman I want to be with.”

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