She might have walked out of all of this with a broken heart and a permanent rift with her father, but at least she had her family back. She called that a win.
Even if she stared at the ceiling for hours with burning eyes before falling to sleep from sheer exhaustion. Only to dream about a beautiful man with wolf eyes.
It’d been a week since she’d last seen Cain. Time. That’s all she needed to get over him. And she would. One day.
“Finally leaving for the evening, Devon?” Harry, the security guard on duty, called out to her.
She smiled at the older man. “Finally,” she said. “And there’s a Netflix binge with my name on it.”
He laughed. “My wife just watched that show starring the Superman guy. Except he has white hair like that elf fromTheLord of the Rings. She loved it. A little too much, if you ask me.”
Devon grinned. “Tell her she has great taste.” Waving goodbye, she exited the building, headed down the sidewalk toward the small parking lot. Tomorrow started the basketball tournament so she would need to arrive early to—
“Devon.”
She swallowed down a yelp and raised her fist, keys poking out between her fingers. But then she saw the man pushing off the brick building and taking steps in her direction.
Shock ricocheted through her, and she couldn’t move. Couldn’t do anything but stare at Cain as he approached her. Against her will, she scanned the starkly beautiful lines of his face. Met the gaze that never failed to send her pulse pounding. Her fingers itched to stroke the full, sensual mouth and the rock-hard line of his jaw. She curled those traitorous fingers into her palm.
“Cain,” she rasped. Paused, and cleared her throat. “What are you doing here?”
He slid his hands in his front pockets, the action stretching his shirt over his wide chest. God, she tried not to notice. “I’m here for you.”
Not “to see you.” But “for you.”
What did that mean?
Didn’t matter. She didn’t care—couldn’tcare.
“You need to go,” she said, injecting steel into her voice that she fought to feel. But with him standing there in front of her, the resolve not to touch him, not to get within five feet of him wavered.He hurt you, dammit, she hissed at her wayward, glutton-for-punishment heart. And as much as she longed to curl up against his chest, she refused to settle for scraps of his affection or love. “Really, just leave.”
“Devon,” he said, and after a brief hesitation, shifted forward. Under the light of the streetlamp, she caught the faint shadows under his eyes. They reminded her of how she looked in the morning after a sleepless night, before she applied concealer. “I don’t have the right to ask this but please, hear me out. And if you still want me to walk away and never bother you again, I will.”
It was the “please” that gave her pause. A man like Cain didn’t say it often. With a jerk of her chin, she nodded. But instead of talking, he lowered his head, studying the sidewalk. Finally, he released a soft, self-deprecating chuckle.
“I had what I wanted to say all planned out. It was going to be simple and straight to the point. Kenan has connections at Boston University and wanted me to come here with the marching band.” He lifted his head, and surprise rippled through her again at the sight of the true smile curving his mouth. As did the casual mention of his half brother. “But I turned him down. Even if they were going to play ‘I Will Always Love You.’” She rocked back at that admission, her lips parting on a wheeze of breath, but Cain continued. “I don’t need gimmicks to tell you I’m sorry. I’m so damn ashamed of how I treated you. It was unfair, assigning someone else’s sins to you. I, more than anyone, understand we’re not our parents. And you...” He huffed out a breath, his voice taking on a reverent tone that belonged to works of art, to prayers, not her. Especially not from him.
But it was there. For her.
“You’re the best of all of us. Beautiful. Kind. Selfless. So damn brave it terrifies and shames me. Loyal. Andmine.”
She stumbled back a step, rocked by that impassioned claim. Self-preservation made a last-ditch effort to save her from herself, and she raised her arm, palm out. “Stop. I don’t want to hear any more. I can’t...”
But Cain didn’t listen to her. He strode forward until her hand pressed to his chest. And dammit, her fingers rebelled again by curling into the dense muscle. He covered her hand with his bigger one, holding her to him.
“You were right, Devon. You deserve one hundred percent of a person. Their fidelity, their security, their protection, their passion, their heart. Their soul. And, sweetheart, you have all of that from me. You’ve owned me for so long, but I was too afraid to let you in, to risk you seeing the real me and deciding I wasn’t worthy enough. I was afraid to trust that my heart was held by the gentlest of hands—that it had found its home.You own me, Devon,” he repeated on a jagged whisper. “And maybe because of how I’ve hurt you, I’m not worthy of you, but I promise I won’t stop trying to be. You are worth the fight. Because I love you.”
Her body jerked as those three words jolted through her like an electrical current.
Her mind rebelled even as her heart nearly leaped out of her chest to throw itself at him. He couldn’t love her. He couldn’t because she wanted him to—so damn much. She wasn’t aware of shaking her head until he nodded.
“Yes, I do. I love you, Devon.” He lifted the hand not holding hers captive and stroked his fingers down her cheek. Then he reached into his pants pocket and withdrew a small gold key. He extended it toward her.
“What is this?” She accepted it but didn’t remove her gaze from his.
“It’s the key to a safety-deposit box containing all the information on my mother that you took from your father’s safe. I’m handing it back to you. There’s no one else I trust more to keep it safe. To protect not just me, but my family. You’re not your father, Devon, and I’ll never look at you and see him. I only see the woman I trust and love beyond reason or explanation.”
Her fingers curled around the key, pressing it to her heart. The heart that wholly belonged to him.
