Page 97 of Tamed

I’d always want him.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded shakily. “I thought you weren’t—”

“I made a mistake,” he interrupted. “I shouldn’t have let you walk away.” He’d always had a fierce, kinetic energy and now it was pouring off him, his expression taut.

I lifted my chin. “And presumably you remembered what I wanted in return, don’t you?”

His black eyes blazed and that was the only warning I got. Suddenly he closed the distance between us, his hands reaching for me, settling on my hips and jerking me close. “I remember.” His voice had deepened, becoming a growl. “You wanted my heart. You wanted my soul. You wanted everything.”

My mouth had gone dry, and I knew I should pull away, because having him touch me after I’d walked away from him was torture. Yet I couldn’t move. “I do,” I said thickly. “That hasn’t changed.”

“Good,” he said in fierce tones. “Because you already have them. I gave them to you a long time ago.”

It took me a moment to process the words and then when I did, I found my eyes full of tears, the pieces of my heart digging into me, jagged and sharp. “What?” I managed faintly.

“Do you know why I gave up Old Nick’s empire?” He stared at me as if there was nothing in the entire universe he’d rather look at. “It was because of you. Because you made me think that I could have better, that I could have more. You want me want that. You made me want to put the darkness behind me and you gave me hope. That’s why I’m here.” He lifted his hands and cupped my face, gentle despite the ferocity that burned in his gaze. “I love you, Isabel Fox. And you have everything of me. Everything I am. All of it. The darkness, the bad things, the good things too if there are any left in me.”

My heart was in agony, but the pain was sweet. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. “We all have little pieces of darkness inside us, Caleb. And pieces of good as well. You accepted all of mine, and so I accept all of yours. I always have. I just thought…I thought you couldn’t give that to me. I thought you didn’t want to.”

“I was wrong.” His mouth quirked. “And yes, you can record that for posterity.”

I hit him on the shoulder, I couldn’t help myself. “Caleb…”

He bent and before I could say anything, he kissed me, his mouth hot and tasting of scotch and him. “Ten gave me a talking to,” he murmured against my lips. “And we agreed that no, I don’t deserve you, but you deserve happiness, and that’s what I want to give you.” He lifted his head, looking down at me. “I want to make you happy, Isabel.”

“It’s not just about me, though. You deserve happiness too.”

“Maybe.” His thumbs stroked my cheekbones, his touch warm, easing the agony inside me. “I’m not sure I’ve earned the right to it.”

There was a sun rising inside me, like spring arriving after an ice-cold winter’s day, and I could feel more tears prickle in my eyes. “You don’t have to earn the right to be happy, Caleb,” I said huskily. “You just have to have hope.”

The fierce expression on his face changed, became warmer, more tender and I couldn’t believe that all of that was for me. “You’re my hope, little girl. You always have been.”

And at that, reader, I cried. I cried like the love-sick idiot I was.

But Caleb didn’t mind. He kissed me again, kissed all the tears away, and then he took me to bed. And he took the jagged pieces of my heart in his large, warm hands and he put them together, making me whole again.

It wasn’t going to be an easy road for us, and it wasn’t going to be simple. Our forever was going to be complicated. But I didn’t mind.

Caleb Cross was a hard man, a difficult man, but he loved me intensely and with all the conviction of his fierce soul.

He was my daddy, and he was worth it.

He was worth everything.

EPILOGUE

Zara

If you think I didn’t know what I was doing when I walked through that curtained doorway in Arcadia, wearing only a Red Riding Hood cloak, on the way to auction off my virginity to the highest bidder, well… You’d be wrong.

I knew exactly what I doing.

Isabel was worried for me, and I appreciated that about her, but she needn’t have wasted her energy.

They’d told me he’d be in the audience, even though he generally avoided the auctions at Arcadia, and that there would be no doubt he’d buy me. Having spent the past month researching everything about him, I knew they’d be right.

He’d be unable to resist.

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