Page 113 of Cowboy Bull's Promise

“Love you too.”

I know the future for us is precarious, but right now it feels sure. It feels strong.

And for the first time in a long time—maybe ever—I wonder if all that shit my mom and stepdad said about me, about the Rut and being like my piece of shit sire, is exactly that. Bull shit.

My Bull is as clueless as I am about the truth of it. But there is one thing we both agree on.

And that is Arliss.

She completes me in ways I never imagined a mate could.

Maybe that’s why the Fates are the ones who match us up from the get go.

Whatever happens, I mean to keep the promise I made to myself.

Arliss is the only one for me, and the very idea of being untrue makes me sick to my stomach.

I said I’d eat a bullet before I touched another. I meant it then and I mean it now.

For me, there is no one else but her.

This sweet, beautiful woman.

Mo Chroí.

Chapter Twenty-Four-Arliss

I guess I expected something from Kian when it came to me tending bar tonight.

Maybe a growl.

A possessive scowl.

Some dramatic no woman of mine is gonna go back to work at that shithole moment.

Instead, what I got was this.

I sigh as I look around.

This is so much better than any over-the-top display I could have ever imagined.

I wipe down the bar and pop the tops off a couple of beers for my customers and I smile.

Bob’s Bar isn’t fancy. Hell, the lighting is dim, the jukebox hasn’t worked right since ever, and the floors still creak like they’re narrating a ghost story.

But tonight, it feels like a kind of home.

Jezebel and Emmet are tucked into one of the high-top tables, laughing about something. She’s drinking milk and Emmet’s arm is slung protectively across the back of Jez’s chair like he can’t bear not to touch her.

Across from them, Avery is blushing like a schoolgirl as Dante leans in, whispering something that makes her swat at him with a napkin.

And then there’s Kian.

Sitting at the end of the bar.

His broad frame relaxed, elbows resting on the scarred oak.

Golden hair tousled from the wind.

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