Page 37 of Absolution
He cups my cheek. “You are the only real thing in my world. You’re all that matters to me. I was wrong to put the tracker in you. I can see that now, and I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry I disrespected you like that.”
Just as hope buds in my chest, his jaw tightens with determination. “But I can’t take it out. I will never put you at risk. I have to be able to find you if you need me. I have to know you’re safe.”
“I don’t want that kind of protection,” I protest.
I don’t want to think about how dark things were between us when he kidnapped me. This new revelation is stirring thorny issues that I haven’t wanted to deal with.
Like a fool, I followed my heart and married my stalker. We’ve never really discussed what he did to me, even if he has apologized.
“You could’ve been killed today,” he growls. “I won’t let anyone take you from me.”
My heart twists. It’s always about what he wants.
He’s warned me so many times about his selfishness. I’ve never acknowledged the full, horrific extent of it.
“If I wanted to leave, would you even let me?”
His features turn stony, and his eyes flash with something like panic. “Do you want to leave me?”
“I want to be together,” I confess through my constricted throat. “But I can’t if you don’t respect me.”
“I do respect you,” he vows. “How can I prove it to you? I understand that I’ve wronged you, but I have to protect you. I don’t know how to fix this.”
He looks…lost. My wickedly clever Dane doesn’t have an answer to a problem, possibly for the first time in his life.
I consider him for a long moment. If I think about the situation rationally, I have to acknowledge that I probably wouldn’t be alive right now if it weren’t for the tracker. He was able to get to me in time because he knew exactly where I was.
But I can’t abide the imbalance between us.
“You will get one too,” I declare. “If you know where I am every second of every day, I will have the same privilege. I mean it when I say we’re equals. This is how you prove it to me.”
For a moment, his jaw drops in shock, and I worry that he’ll refuse.
Then his sensual lips twist in a wicked smile. “Are you that obsessed with me, little dove?”
I scoff. “Are you really teasing me about this? I’m serious, Dane.”
“So am I,” he replies, voice dropping to something more solemn. “I will gladly have you track my every move. I want you to be able to find me too. You can come to me anytime you want.”
I cross my arms over my chest and raise my brows expectantly. “Do it right now.”
His smile tilts. “My queen is so demanding.”
I flush at the new term of endearment. He’s never called me that before.
He brushes a kiss over my knuckles, every inch my white knight. “Anything for you, Abigail.”
I keep my shoulders straight. I won’t let him distract me with his charms or his perfectly beautiful face.
“Are you going to order one or not? I don’t know where you even get something like that, but I’m assuming you can do it again. I want to see you order it.”
“I have a better plan,” he says with that impossibly handsome, cocky smirk. “How about you inject it into me right now?”
I gape at him. “You have another one?”
He shrugs. “I wasn’t sure if the first one would work. I have a backup.”
The admission that he was so determined to track my every move should cool my affection for him. But he’s offering for me to do the same to him with such eagerness that my fears are allayed.
