Page 118 of The Last Dance You Saved
Finally, I fully gave in, surrounding him with my arms and fisting the dress shirt that fit the Rafe I knew just as much as the T-shirt and jeans he’d worn at the ranch did. Rafe had so many sides, so many facets, it was like looking at a diamond and never knowing which side sparkled more, but they all came together to form the stunning whole that was him.
The warmth of his embrace allowed me to finally let the kaleidoscope of events from today that had merged with that awful time by the creek break away until I could see it clearly. Fallon had saved herself and me, but I’d stepped up and done the same. Like years ago, I’d gotten Mila away from Chainsaw, just as much as she’d saved me. Maybe that was what loving someone was all about. Not one person taking more responsibility than the other, but sharing it, protecting each other.
That was what Rafe had tried to do by sending me away. He’d loved me enough to let me go.
I’d take him back, take his apology, and try to push away his guilt at doing so because I loved him enough to want him free of those dark emotions. But it took too long for those images and thoughts to work through me, and he took my nonresponse as hesitancy.
He lowered his voice into a soft, sensual dare. “Ante up, Sadie. Play the game. I’m all in. I’ll put everything I own, everything I have, in the pot. Great-grandpa Alasdair won the ranch by keeping his hand and raising the stakes, but I’ll easily fold, easily give you everything I have as long as you promise to keep all of it. As long as you keep me.”
I stood on my toes, shoved my hands in his hair, and dragged his mouth to mine.
Thunder roared through my ears. My heart exploded. I was back where I belonged, blended with him in that place where the world faded away and there was just him and me and the white haze of love and lust. For two seconds, he let me control the kiss, let me make my mark on him, and then he was in the lead again. He slanted his mouth to take me in deeper and dove inside with a tongue that demanded acquiescence as he took back possession of my soul.
Whistles flew around us. And through them, from next to his new partner, Willy shouted, “Thatta way to do it, Sadie!”
I laughed against Rafe’s lips. He drew back, sparks flying in his eyes as he said, “I hear you have a house here in town.”
“Yep, we can actually walk there from here.” I grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the hall as I hollered over my shoulder, “Bar’s closed, Ted. Send everyone home. I have other business to take care of.”
Ted’s laughter joined that of everyone else’s in the bar. The parking lot was full, and I was turning down easy money, but I didn’t care. None of it mattered. Only Rafe. His mouth. His hands. The “I love you” he’d given me. The forever his words insinuated. The us I wanted more than anything else in my life.
? ? ?
I came awake with sunshine glimmering behind my closed lids and fingers slowly skimming my hip. When I opened my eyes, it was to see Rafe glaring down at the line his hand was making.
“Rafe?” My voice was clogged with emotions that only grew when he looked up, and I saw tears threatening to spill over his dark lashes.
“I’m sorry. So goddamn sorry. You’re marked. Your face. The leg you fought so hard to heal…” He choked on the rest of his words.
When we’d landed in bed last night, we hadn’t bothered with the lights. He hadn’t seen the bruising on my body as we’d lost ourselves to each other in the dark. We’d devoured each other sloppily and hungrily with no control on either side. Only instinct had reigned. Savage and raw and utterly human. Driving need focused on only one thing—claiming each other. When he’d driven into me, it had been with more whispered promises in my ear. When I’d welcomed him home, it had been with words of love.
The pain in my body from the bruising in my ribs and back and hip had been nothing. It was worth it to claim him. That pain guided us past years of heartache and loss and remorse to the love we’d earned, so when I’d finally cried out, trembling and gasping for air, it had been only from the pleasure of having ridden up and over the summit with him inside me.
But now, in the morning light, every dark bruise on my hip and back from slamming into the desk and floor, every kick I’d taken to my ribs, and every hit to my face was on display. My body hurt, but not as much as it hurt to see him torturing himself all over again.
I cupped his face, adding my own strokes to the ones he’d continued to gently coast over my wounded body.
“It’s nothing permanent, Slick. The bruises will be gone in a handful of days. But this…” I leaned up and kissed him softly. “Us… We’ll still be here. And you were right. That’s all that matters.”
“You’ll never face anything like this again. Never. And certainly not without me fighting at your side.” The vow wound its way into my heart almost as much as theI love youhe’d sent my way the night before.
“I’d thought I’d have a logical plan to present to you by the time you came to pick up Fallon on all the ways our lives worked rather than how they didn’t—” He cut me off with a finger to my mouth.
“We both have families and businesses that need us,” he said calmly, as if he wasn’t at all worried. “We’ll simply divide our time between Willow Creek and Rivers. But we do it together, Tennessee. You and me. Side by side.”
“Just like that? You’ll snap your fingers, and it’ll just happen like you say.”
He huffed out a chuckle I was relieved to hear after the anger and heartache of moments before. “Sadie, I have more money than I could spend in multiple lifetimes. I have a plane we can use to fly back and forth as often as we like. The carbon footprint it’ll leave behind won’t be pretty, but we’ll figure out a way to offset it. Hell, I’ll plant a tree for every mile we travel if I have to. The point is, we can easily come and go. I’ll have to be at the ranch quite a bit while we’ve got the renovations going, and I want to ensure Lauren has the support she needs during the transition. But after, we’ll spend more time here, finalizing plans for the performing arts center.”
My heart stopped for several long beats before it pounded into action again. “What?”
“I’ve already hired a firm to do a feasibility study, and depending on your designs, I’ve got an architect in mind.”
I shook my head. “No. That’s a beautiful idea, Rafe, but even if I had the money, I don’t need it. I thought it was the only way to leave a positive mark behind, a legacy with Carolyn’s name tied to it. But now, I’ve realized that leaving behind love, leaving behind people who will know what and who I was, is much more important than a building or a business or even a bank account stuffed to the gills.”
“It’s taken me these last two weeks to realize Marquess Enterprises was never really my dream either. It emerged from pure stubborn assholeness. I wanted to prove to my dead father and my brother that I didn’t need them or the ranch to achieve success. I wanted to rub it in their faces. But now that my brother’s gone, I realize I couldn’t give two shits about rubbing it in his face. I only wished I’d spent more time with him. I won’t make that mistake again with the people I love. I’ll hire a chief executive officer to keep the business going but only so it allows me the money and means to do what I really want, which is to spend time with you and Fallon, making your dreams a reality.”
I cupped his cheeks, meeting his gaze with a steady one, and asked quietly, “Who’s going to make sure your dreams come true?”
