Page 117 of Tangled in Vows

“I’m sorry.”

I close the distance between us. “Don’t be.”

“I will always be sorry for hurting you. Causing you pain is the last thing I ever want to do.”

I wrap my arms around his middle and press my head against his chest. His heartbeat is strong and rhythmic. Compelling. Just like this man.

“Hold?”

He envelops me in his warmth, pulling me as close to him as possible. He hums in question.

“What are we doing?”

His laughter is muffled against my hair. “Last time I checked, it was called hugging.”

“Stop it.” I smack his back and hide my smile.

Holden grasps my chin and tilts it, forcing me to look at him. “What is it you’re asking, Hurricane?”

I swallow, and the movement doesn’t go unnoticed.

His hand leaves my chin in favor of my throat, gently wrapping around it. Not squeezing, just keeping me in place so I cannot avoid his gaze. “Tell me.”

“I . . . I.”

Just spit it out already.

“Hurricane,ask me.”

His fingers flex infinitesimally, but it’s enough for me to gasp. And I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the only way my body reacted, but I won’t think about that now.

I lick my lips. “I want to know how serious you are about this . . . about us.”

Something flashes in his eyes, but I can’t identify it before he leans toward me. “You are my wife.”

He says it with such conviction, it takes me a minute to reply.

“But we . . .”

“There’s nobutabout any of this. I know nothing about our marriage is conventional, but to me, this marriage is as real as it gets.”

My throat bobs under his grip. “It is?”

“I want you with a desperation that borders on obsessive, but I wouldn’t want it any differently. From the second I laid eyes on you, I knew. I wanted to keep you safe. I wanted to take care of you. I wanted you happy. You. Are. Mine.”

He punctuates each word, drawing me closer until I’m only a breath away.

His free hand goes to my lower back, adding light pressure. “If you don’t want me the same way I want you, if you don’t feel the same about me as I feel about you, I need you to say something right now. Because I’m all in, Hurricane. Until death do us part.”

His words. The implications. The raw emotions in his eyes. The flutters in my stomach. The pounding of my heart. The buzzing in my veins.

It all leads to one thing: the only possibility for me if I think about it.

“I want to be the only one for you because . . .”

“Because what, Hurricane?”

After he told me he’d marry me, he quickly became my anchor. He made me feel safe and grounded and allowed me to grow into the person I am now. Yes, there’s been impossible heartache, but now that I know what happened, my feelings for him are right back to where they were back then.

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