Page 122 of Sacrifice (Corrupt Empire 2)

“What I said… I didn’t mean anything by it. I mean I did, but not in the way you’re thinking.”

She sighed.

“Fuck. Why is this so hard?” she muttered.

I wanted to reach out to her, tell her it was okay. If she didn’t mean she wanted to get married, then what had she been trying to tell me?

“You keep telling me you don’t deserve me. It’s frustrating. I can’t seem to convince you that’s simply not the case. It’s not about who deserves who. I want you. I need you… I fucking love you and that’s not going to change. You can hurt me a thousand times over and I’ll still be here. I’ll still love you.”

I sucked in a breath. That’s what all this was about?

“I won’t deny I want a future with you and I hope it will include marriage one day, but I don’t want it to cause this distance between us. This isn’t moving forward, it’s taking a hundred steps back.”

Fuck. I’d been such a fucking idiot thinking she wanted to get married right now.

“I’m lonely, Aiden. I miss you. I miss us.”

Each word sucker punched me in the gut. I got up and went to her, unable to stay away any longer. I turned her around and wrapped my arms around her. Burying my face in her shoulder, I breathed in her familiar scent of coconut. Fuck. I loved this girl so much. And I’d missed us too.

She exhaled slowly and wrapped her hands around my back, holding me close.

“So you don’t want to elope?”

“I hope that’s a joke.”

I smiled, tightening my hold on her.

“I’m sorry, princess. I meant to talk to you…”

“But you got freaked out by the prospect. It’s okay. Honestly, my head is all over the place right now and everything that happened with… him. It all just got too much for me. People keep calling me, Miss Daniels. I hate everything associated with my family, including my name. It’s the one thing which still ties me to them and their sick legacy. It’s like having it dangled in front of my face on a daily basis.”

I had no idea she felt that way about it. Why hadn’t she just told me? I would’ve understood. Hell, that’s why I was fucking glad my mother gave me her last name rather than his.

I pulled away, staring down at her. There were still things I should say to her, but I found I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell her how terrified I was about Rick taking her away again. How enraged it made me feel that he had the audacity to stick his fucking nose into my life when he’d left me alone all this fucking time.

“When this is all over… We’ll talk about the future. We need to make sure we have one first.”

“You’re right, we do.”

She shifted up on her tiptoes and kissed me, her hands curling around my neck. Fuck. I’d missed the simple act of having her kiss me. Having her pour out her feelings in this way. I felt the connection between us deep within my chest. Her heart and soul bound to mine.

There was a whistle behind us. I pulled away from her, finding Ben in the doorway looking a little worse for wear. I gave him the middle finger and he just grinned at me.

“Deb and Grant are going home, but if you want to meet him, you can,” he said, shrugging.

Avery took my hand, her face eager, so I nodded. We followed Ben out of the waiting room and down the hall.

“Can I start calling you Uncle Aiden?” she whispered to me.

I rolled my eyes.

“Please don’t.”

“Spoilsport. It’s the only time you’ll ever be an uncle since neither of us has siblings.”

Ben was family to me even though we weren’t blood-related.

“I’m not good with kids.”

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