Page 170 of Piece You Saved

“You don’t know the peace you gave my wolf, Saige. For that, I would give you everything you ever asked. But for the peace you give Aden, the laughter, of having them both back home, of clearing shadows from Kade’s eyes, I would carve the world in two for you.”

I blink, and a tear splashes on my cheek. “I don’t need a world carved in two. Just one thing. That’s all I want.”

He stares down at me through reddened eyes. “Anything.”

I grip his jaw with both hands and lean into him. “Stop locking your wolf away. As someone who knows what it is to be chained, your wolf doesn’t like it.”

He nods, just once, and I smile faintly. “Alphas may know how to apologize after all.”

I’m not sure I forgive him completely, but this is a start.

“This alpha has barely started.” Dariel grips my hips and lifts me onto the edge of the sink.

My eyes widen in alarm. “What are you doing?”

He goes to his knees in front of me. “I promised you an apology,” he rumbles, stroking his hands up my legs. “A big one.”

Perched on the sink with Dariel on his knees in front of me, his apology looks to involve one thing and one thing only.

I grab desperately at his hair. “That is not an apology.”

Amusement flickers across his emerald gaze. “I could tell you I’m sorry for thinking the worst of you, for misjudging you constantly, for lunging at you, terrifying you, for not being worthy of your love—and Iamsorry for all those things. But…” His voice trails off.

I clear my throat, wanting to cry at the naked regret shimmering in his eyes. Enough that if he could go back in time, I think he would go back and change that moment. “But?”

“But I still want your love, anyway. Sometimes words aren’t enough. Sometimes you have to show someone what they mean to you,” he continues.

“By going to your knees?” I raise my eyebrow to communicate my disbelief, hoping he can’t hear the way my heart is smashing inside my chest.

He strokes his palms up my thighs, lifting my towel. “Among other things,” he murmurs, lowering his head and kissing the sensitive skin of my inner right knee.

My breath catches, and my fingers spasm in his hair. “What other things? You’ve given me flowers and truffles and other things.”

“Things you like.” He places a soft, lingering kiss on the inside of my left knee.

I force myself to loosen my hands on his hair as his kisses start having less of an effect on my racing heart and more between my thighs. “Like?”

“An audience when I come to your room and wake you this way.”

He kisses higher.

“Starting tomorrow. Today, I want you to know what to expect.” He kisses a little higher, and I swallow a moan. “So I don’t startle you.”

My eyelids flutter closed. “Audience?”

“He means me,” Kade responds.

My eyes fly open to clash with his.

He’s leaning one hip on the doorframe, his gray gaze heated as they pierce me. “Though I could be wrong.”

Arousal punches me, stealing more of my breath. If there’s one thing I’ve always liked—scratch that, loved—is having Kade’s eyes on me. As if he knows exactly what effect his attention is having on my insides, one corner of his mouth kicks up in a smile as he grips the bottom of his shirt and eases it over his head.

“How’s this, angel?”

Dariel kisses a path up my inner right thigh, then his breath whispers over my core.

I release a soft, breathy moan and clench my fingers in his hair.

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