“You don’t have a say in what I do anymore.” Tara crosses her arms but makes no move to pick up her weapons or call off her dog.
I don’t move my gaze off of her. “Demon, Reed, it’s been great, but it’s time for you to leave.”
“I’m—” Reed starts but I cut him off.
“Leave! Now,” I say loudly and firmly. “You can come back tomorrow. I promise you she will be here.”
Demon stands, grabbing his stuff without saying a word. On the other hand, Reed has to get the last word in before he leaves. “Tara, please don’t leave. Let us explain everything, and we will help you get the revenge you are looking for. I promise you. We all love you and you are very important to us.”
When neither Tara nor I say anything, he mumbles assholes before stalking off. I wait until I hear the front door slam before speaking. “Call off the damn dog Tara. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Fuck you.”
I step out from behind the table, moving toward her. I’m so close that I feel the breath of her dog on the back of my hand, but I’m not backing down. “A year ago, I should have marched back into that bar, thrown you over my shoulder, and brought you back here. But I was blinded by what Lindsey had done, and I let you down in the worst way ever. I said things I didn’t mean, and you suffered because of those words. I can’t take back what those assholes did to you, but I can take the pain that I caused away.
“I will gladly let your dog tear me limb from limb if I have to, but you aren’t leaving me again. If you think you aren’t important to me, tell me why I spent a whole year searchingfor you. I never gave up because I knew in my heart you were alive. I’ve walked around like a fucking ghost because you were gone. So either call off the dog or be prepared to watch him kill me, because that is the only way I’m letting you go. Do you understand? Only in death can I let you go.”
“Tallone.” The moment the word is out of her mouth, the dog sits, and my hands circle her waist, bringing her against me. At this moment, my once-shattered world starts piecing itself back together again. The pieces are jagged as they slide together, and the tape holding them is fragile, but finally, after a year, the picture is whole once again.
I lay my forehead against hers and take in a lung full of her smell mixed with the scent of rain. I hold my breath, afraid that if I let it out and she leaves, I won’t ever find that smell I’m addicted to again. “God, I’ve missed you.” My voice is barely louder than a whisper.
“Gabe,” Tara sighs, her eyes slowly shutting. Her body hasn’t fully relaxed like she is still on the verge of bolting out of here. “I’m not the same person I was a year ago.”
My hands tighten on her hips as I pull her closer against me. “I know you’re not. What you went through… god Princess, that would change anyone, even the toughest of people. I loved who you were, and I love who you became. Do I wish I could go back and save you from everything you went through? Fuck yes, I do. But I can’t, and neither can you. All I can do…” I move a hand from her hip and use it to tip her head up so I can stare into her beautiful eyes. “Is give you whatever you need to burn the world down and destroy everyone who had a hand in hurting you.”
“You would do that?” Her intense gaze bores into me, searching for something I don’t know, but I hope that whatever she finds is what she needs to stay here with me.
“If I thought it would help you, I’d burn it down for you, but I know you need to be the one to do this. I see that now. So yes,I will hold your hand and be proud to stand by your side as you take back what they took from you. Please Tara, I?—”
She silences me with a kiss. I feel a warmth spread through me all the way to my toes. The feel of her lips moving in sync with mine turns that tape holding my life together into concrete. She wraps her arms around my neck and hops, not worried for one second that I won’t catch her. I let her down once, and I swear on my life that I won’t do that ever again. She pulls back, breaking the kiss before I can deepen it.
“You say you want to help me. Then replace the feel of their hands with yours.” Her eyes turn sad briefly, but the second seems to last longer and is like a knife to my heart.
“If I move, will your dog attack?”
“His name is Reaper. Rimanere,” Tara says, and Reaper lays down on the floor.
“Fuck, is it sick that the sound of you commanding a dog in that tone turns me on,” I say, using my hands gripping her hips to move her pussy over my erection. Tara shakes her head and presses her lips to mine again.
Now that I know I won’t become Reaper’s dinner, I head toward the hall and up the stairs. Tara licks my lips, and I open up, groaning as our tongues meet. I want to take my time with her, making up for all of our lost time, but I’m already on the edge. This is going to be quick, dirty, and fast. At the top of the stairs, I turn left and head into the bedroom I haven’t been able to walk into for the last three hundred and sixty-six days. My maid cleans the whole house once a week, so the room doesn’t smell musty when I kick open the door.
I waste no time throwing Tara on what was once our bed. As soon as her back hits the covers, she pulls at her clothes. I stand, rooted to the floor, watching her shirt, bra, boots, socks, and jeans disappear. My eyes land on the small, rounded scar on her side. The skin is a darker shade of pink and puckered. Thesight of it makes my blood boil hotter, and I want to abandon our plan and hunt down the fucker who pulled the trigger. But it gets worse when my eyes fall to her pussy and see multiple thin, jagged scars crisscrossing it.
I fall to my knees, grab her ankles, and pull her to the end of the bed. Without saying a word, I lower my mouth and kiss each one. After each kiss, I apologize out loud to Tara. I might not have been the monster who wielded the knife, but my stupidity led to this outcome. Tara’s hands push my hair back gently. “Il mio cuore,” she says.
While my sperm donor was of Italian descent, I never learned to speak the language, and right now, I’m kicking myself because I have no idea what she just called me. I move back and look at her face. “I’m so fucking sorry.” Before Tara came into my life, I had never cried. Not when my mother abandoned me, not when I got hurt as a dumb kid, but the moment Tara was reported missing and then dead, I cried so hard I threw up. And now, tears fall from my eyes, but I refuse to be embarrassed by them.
“No, no, no,” Tara says, grabbing a fist full of my hair. I move with her because I really don’t want her to pull out my hair by the root. I let her move me back until I’m sitting on my calves, and she is standing above me, looking like a beautiful, albeit naked, warrior. “I’m sick and tired of letting what those assholes did cause anyone more pain. We aren’t doing this. Not now. Not ever. This is not what I want, I don’t want you crying.”
“What do you want?”
“Undress,” she orders me, using the same tone she does for Reaper. My dick, which had gone soft at the sight of her scars, perks back up. Tara lets go of my hair and rests her hands on her hips, waiting for me to obey.
Obey, I do. I stand up and remove all my clothes as fast as she did. “Wh?—”
Tara places her finger on my lips and shakes her head. Her eyes travel down my body, and a tremor races through me as her eyes heat with lust. “On your back.” Usually, I love to be in control when it comes to sex, but Tara needs this. She needs to take the control back. The thought that she has been with someone else over the year we had been apart never crosses my mind.
Once I’m situated with my head on the pillows, I watch my girl slowly turn around to face me. Her eyes devour me, and I love the feeling of her eyes on me. My dick twitches, begging for her attention. She smirks and starts trailing a finger along her collarbone. Goosebumps erupt on her skin, and I’m dying to trace the exact path with my tongue.
