Page 104 of Love Without Control

“Oh, baby,” I said softly, kissing the tip of his nose like he always did to me. “Of course he is, and that’s not a bad thing.”

Dane made a scoffing noise in the back of his throat. “I hate him.”

“I don’t,” I said simply, and his eyebrows lifted in shock. “Damiano saved me first.”

“Eden,” he started, and I could hear the argument in his tone.

“I love you too,” I told him before he could finish. “I love both sides of you—Damiano and Dane—because both of you have saved me in so many ways.”

My breath whooshed out of my lungs when Dane grabbed me and crushed me against his chest. With our height difference, my knees no longer reached the ground, so I lifted my legs and curled them around his waist.

“I should have told you. I should have said I loved you that night in the sauna. I’m so sorry, baby.”

“Shhh,” I soothed, resting my cheek on his shoulder as he buried his face in my neck. “I already knew. What you said to me that night was so much more than three little words. My god, Dane. You have no idea how much you touched my soul with what you said. You bared yourself to me.”

“I meant all of it,” he wept, dampening my flesh with his tears as my own dripped onto his shirt.

“You don’t have to tell me for me to know that. You told me with every night you held me on the veranda… every cupcake… every nose kiss.”

When he pulled back to look at me, there was the slightest hint of a smile on his face. Then he tapped my nose with his lips. “You deserve to hear the words anyway. I love you, Eden.”

“I love you too, Dane.”

And then our mouths crashed together in a mind-bending fusion of desperation and adoration. We were in a frenzy of tongues and lips, teeth, and hearts. Dane held the back of my head and tilted it a little to go deeper, and I felt his kiss all the way to my toes.

Our heartbeats pounded a staccato rhythm against each other’s chests as we slowed into a more sensual slide of mouth over mouth. I loved this man with every cell in my body.

“What?” I asked when I felt him smiling against my lips.

“I love you,” he said again, a soft laugh breaking through. “I’ve been so scared to say it, but now it seems so easy. I love you, Eden Osbourne, my wife.”

Dear god, help me. My heart…

I pulled back a little and smoothed his hair away from his beautiful face. “I love you, husband.” His grin widened at that. “I’m sorry for how I acted early on. I was scared, and didn’t know what to do with all my feelings. You were the closest target, but I want you to know I was never afraid of you.”

A shadow crossed his face. “I killed four people, Eden.”

My fingers twisted in his long hair. “For me. You did that for me, even before you knew me.”

“I think I started falling for you the first time I saw you. In that video with your middle fingers held up.” Then his fingers drifted over my cheek like he could still see the bruises left in the aftermath of my defiance. “I have zero remorse, Eden. I’m not good enough for you.”

“Don’t start that shit. You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” I teased before turning serious again and telling him my truth. “I’m glad Ethan and Felipe are dead. I didn’t really know the guard or Guido, but they would have caused us harm, so I’m not sad they’re dead either. That means, if you’re a bad person, so am I.”

Dane pushed to his feet with me still wrapped around him like a koala. “You, my sweet, are not a bad person. You are the best, kindest person I’ve ever met.”

“Even when I call you Dillweed or Dark Lord?”

He arched one eyebrow. “I rather like when you call me Dark Lord. In fact, you can call me that in bed.” Easing me to my feet, he said, “Stay right here for a second.”

I watched his back as he walked across the room and rummaged in the pocket of his small suitcase. Then I watched his front with equal attention when he returned. He was a gorgeous specimen of man, coming or going.

“What’s in your hand?” I asked, focusing on the fist Dane held against his thigh as he approached me.

“So impatient,” he scolded playfully, though I could read the wariness in his expression as he took a long pause before speaking again. “Eden, I know you didn’t ask for any of this. Neither of us did. We didn’t have much choice but to be a married couple.”

I felt my eyebrows furrow together. “So, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying…” He swallowed hard and then wet his lips with the tip of his tongue. “I’m trying to say that I know we were put together by circumstances, but I want you to know that I like being married to you.”

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