Page 18 of Heartthrob

“Will be retrieved for you by your new bodyguard, Rachel.”

“Bodyguard? Am I a prisoner now? Are you just going to keep me hostage until I agree with you? Because I won’t. I’ll never agree just to be some walking womb for someone. I’m not built that way.”

“And you think I don’t understand how you would feel about a child given your parents' death?”

She gasps and looks at me like I might be a sorcerer. “How did you know about that?”

“The first night we slept together after you went to sleep, I stayed up and did some searching on the woman who was going to be living with me. I have excellent detectives willing to put in the work at two o’clock in the morning.”

“You… found out about my mom and dad.”

“I wouldn’t have asked you and brought up all the bad memories if I could help it.”

She swallows visibly. “It’s…hard to talk about anyway.”

She turns to stare out the window as we drive back to the beach house. I don’t have to be a sorcerer to understand she’s probably trying to fight back tears. I give her the ride back to gather herself.

When we pull in, I don’t let her feet touch the ground before I have her thrown over my shoulder and back into our home. I don’t put her down until I can throw her down on our bed and watch as she bounces.

“Linc, I…,”

I hold up my hand causing her to halt, “Two nights. Two nights I’ve been worried sick about you.” I wheel away from where she’s sitting in the middle of the bed to pace. “What if someone recognized you and tried to kidnap you because of my money or fame? What if you got hurt or killed? What if something happened to you because I put you out there for the world to see? Two nights! Of pure hell! All because you thought I was some douchebag that would use you - use your body - for my own personal twisted urges.”

She winces but I can’t stop now. Now that she’s back with me.

“Two bloody nights of not having you by my side because you thought I would do something so….stupid…”

“You’ve been giving me prenatal vitamins. What was I supposed to think? There aren’t a lot of good reasons just to give someone those.”

“Because eventually, I would make you fall in love with me! Eventually, I would make you see…how much you mean to me.”

Her mouth falls open…speechless finally.

“Eventually we would start a family and I didn’t want to take a chance of it hurting you while we tried.”

“I…I don’t understand. You...you want me to love you?”

“Uh yeah! I want you to love me like I love you. I want you to need me like I fucking need you! Which is real damned bad if you haven't realized.”

“You…you love me?” Tears have pooled in her eyes, and she looks at me with a mixture of hope and caution in the wide depths.

“Do you know what I call you when I think about you?” She shakes her head no. “I call you my little thief. Do you know why?”

“If I had to guess it has something to do with the fact I broke into your house, used your things without asking and that is the first impression you have of me.”

I give her a lopsided grin and step closer to her. She’s come to the edge of the bed and gotten to her knees making her almost the same height as me. I cup her cheek and watch as she nuzzles into my touch.

“I call you my little thief because you stole my heart the first time I saw you tiptoeing through my house on the security cameras.”

Her eyes widen and she looks at me with new understanding.

“You…saw me.” This time I nod for her. “Why did you…? You knew I was in your house.”

I give her another nod. “And felt my heart start beating for the first time. You came in and stole it before I even realized I had one truthfully. All of this…,” I wave my hand around us, “the parties, the house, the money. It doesn’t mean anything without someone to share it with. And the night you broke into my house is the night I realized I was looking at that person.”

A tear escapes and trickles down her cheek and onto my hand. I kiss her cheek and then her closed eyes and then our lips meet. All of the pent-up worry and fear that we had been living with pours out into need for one another.

She’s pulling me down to cover her while I’m trying to pick her up so I can strip all of her clothes off. I win out and she ends up in my arms with her legs wrapped around my waist. I have her shirt over her head and her bra off before she can come up for air.

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