Page 220 of Entangled

“You know my old man wouldn’t even help her out?” he says with a familiar bitter twist to his mouth. “I went to see him, and he kicked me on my ass. All he cared about was making sure I didn’t disturb hisrealfamily. Guess I wasn’t good enough for him either.”

My heart splits wide open.

“Jayk, you have to stop thinking like you’re not enough. You’re so talented and so smart. You’ve kept Bristlebrook running, the cameras working, you’ve defended your home and the other men andme. That’s not even to mention how you’ve been helping all of these civilians—can’t you see how fast you won them over?”

As I ask, he shifts uncomfortably under me, and I press myself closer. I’m sitting over his zipper now, where he locked himself away. He’s still half-hard, and I do my best to ignore that.

He needs to hear this, and I’ll do everything I can to make him believe it.

Not all wars are won with fists—I need to win this with words.

“Jayk, they adore you. I’ve been shunned all week because they thought I broke your heart,” I say in exasperation, and his brows slam down.

“Theywhat?” He scowls. “I’ll fix it. They won’t bother you again.”

I press a kiss against his cheek with a soft laugh, and it brushes away some of the darkness of the last few minutes. Jayk can go from threatening to wreck me with his cock to protective mother hen in ten minutes.

It’s rather... endearing.

If you look at it from a certain angle.

“My point is, they like you. They need you. So do the other men.” His ears turn pink, and I touch the tips. “And so do I.”

He sighs, dropping his head back against the tree, sounding so defeated my throat aches.

“Yeah, well, I’m still not enough for you, am I? If I was, you wouldn’t need the others.”

“Oh, Jayk,” I breathe, hurting everywhere. I press a kiss to his mouth, and he lets me, so I kiss him again and again, my eyes prickling with tears. “It has nothing to do with need—or being enough. I can survive without all of you. I think I’ve proven that. This has everything to do with love.”

Jayk’s arm becomes a hard band around my waist, and I ignore my nerves. He’s all defense now, and I need to push my advantage.

The roots of the trees press into my knees, and it’s too brisk for real comfort, but I’m still glad this is happening out here. Jayk has always felt like the outdoors to me. Wild and windswept.

“I fell for them, Jayk. The same way I fell in love with you.” Slowly, so slowly, he meets my eyes, his gaze guarded as heavily as Bristlebrook, and I stroke my fingers along his hairline. “I love every brash, rude, loyal, hard-working, careful, passionate part of you. I just love them too, for all the things that make them who they are. You’re more than enough, but I can’t help how I feel—not for any of you. And I’m not going to try anymore.”

He’s raw, broken open, but forever with Jayk, there’s a touch of belligerence.

“And what if I asked you to choose?”

“I won’t do it,” I say instantly. “I just won’t. Ican’t. Jayk, you don’t want that either. You don’t want me with you and constantly thinking about them. And I couldn’t be with them without thinking about you. I love all of you too much.”

The silence between us is heavy, broken only by distant rustles and the soft gush of the river. His eyes search my face, all that belligerence bleeding into something confused and vulnerable.

How many times has he let himself be soft with someone? Has he ever felt safe enough to try?

I think of all my years pasting on polite smiles against the cruel words people whispered behind their hands. I think of him, swinging fists against those same words.

Finally, in a gruff, tentative voice, he asks, “You love me?”

“Beyond reason. I love you so much, Jayk.”

His hand touches my face like he might break me. He doesn’t look like my hunter right now. He looks like I have him pinned and at his mercy.

“I don’t know how to do this.”

I kiss him, aching with the need to soothe and fix. He reminds me of myself, when I first met them, injured and on the run. I was so lost, souncertainthen. It was Beau who showed me how it might be different. Beau, so quick and certain of his feelings, right from the start, and Lucky right on his heels.

I’m grateful that they led the way. It’s the only reason I know how to give this to Jayk.

---