Page 7 of Dirty Little Vow

Bella makes me happy.

He’ll have a plan to destroy her, because her demise is my demise.

I have to protect her. I have to find out what devious plan my father has for me and do so now. With a flip of my wrist, I down my drink and refill my glass. The pooch whimpers for my attention, and I give her a rub. Damn, I love this dog. How did I go from alone and liking it that waytothis? Of course, Bella is the reason.

As if she hears her name in my mind, she shifts in the bed and rolls over, her hands reaching for me before she murmurs, “Tyler,” and sits up.

“I’m here,” I say, and she blinks into the darkness.

I know the moment her vision adjusts to the darkness and her eyes land on me. It’s damn near impossible to believe just how much I feel for this woman. How aware I am of her, not just physically but emotionally.

“I see,” she murmurs softly.

“What does that mean, Bella?” I set my glass down on the table next to me.

It’s empty, of course, but I’m no alcoholic. Dash tried to shove me into that box, and so did Bella at one point, but I couldn’t even find peace in a mind-numbing addiction. There was no escape, until I found Bella. No, until Bella became mine. Years of knowing her and not daring to touch her about drove me insane.

Literally, I almost lost my mind a few times.

She throws the blanket aside, settles her feet on the floor, and my T-shirt she’s taken to wearing every night slides down her body. There’s something about her in my shirt, as if she needs me touching her at all times.

I sure as fuck want to touch her, to lose myself and all this bullshit by burying myself inside her, but damn it, it’s not that simple. Not tonight. Not when there’s a clawing sensation inside me that tells me that I’m going to hurt her, or she’s going to get hurt because of me. Logically, I know this is my father screwing with my head. He was a pro manipulator, and I was his favorite victim. My hands press to my thighs, and I silently curse in my mind, that’s all about the maze I’m navigating with an invisible game board.

Bella settles on her knees in front of me, staring up at me with those sky-blue eyes that can’t be muted by shadows when they’re imprinted on my mind. “Hi,” she murmurs.

Normally I’d say “Hi” back and tease her about a greeting right here in our bedroom but right now, her raspy, sleep-laden voice slides through me, and it is, as she is, the light in the darkness that is the soul of my father’s son. How could my soul be anything but dark when my father was a monster who is still my flesh and blood? But whileyes,Bella is the light that I desperately needed in my life, darkness eventually devours the light, and that means her.

Bella’s hands come down on my legs, and I’m already hot and hard, with nothing but a pair of sweatpants and my T-shirt between us.

“Tyler?”

There’s a question in her voice now, which says she knows me as well as I know her. Hell, she’s the only person in my lifetime who has really known me. And she’s aware I’m not in a good place right now. She also knows to let me talk when I’m ready. That’s why the question.

But I’m not ready.

Tension knots my shoulders and the muscle in my jaw pulses.

I can smell her. I can damn near taste her, and the need I feel for this woman possesses a living, breathing life of its own. How do I walk away from Bella when she’s this much a part of me?

That question represents the proverbial crocodile infested waters my father wanted to leave me to swim in after his death. It’s all about the torment my father would want me to feel.

Chapter Five

TYLER

“Bella,” I murmur softly, and every emotion I feel is laced in that one word, inher name.

Her arm lifts and she reaches for me, and I find myself consumed by a sense of anticipation no other woman has even come close to creating in me. A moment later, her palm settles on my cheek and her touch is like a cool breeze in the burning hell that is my father’s making. Or maybe it’s my own. I let this happen. I didn’t have control. And the truth is, I was never worthy of Bella, but it doesn’t seem to matter.

I lean into her touch. I’m greedy where Bella is concerned, proven by the fact that I ever touched her in the first place when I had no right. She was my employee and Dash’s sister, but she was always so damn close, so damn out of reach, and yet so tempting. And that’s how I fell in love with her. I got to know her long before I ever touched her.

As she starts to pull back my hand covers hers, not ready for her to move it, not ready to allow her to leave. The day she does, the day that nightmare becomes a reality, will destroy me. “I should never have pulled you into this, Bella.”

“You didn’t pull me in, Tyler. I came willingly and you know it.”

“If I’d never touched you—”

“We werealwaysgoing to end up here. Because this is where we belong. Together, Tyler, and we will be okay.”

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