Page 105 of Saving Grace

“Joel.”

Motherfucker.

“He been harassing you?”

“I don’t—I mean, I’m not sure. The dream, it felt so real.”

“What happened?”

Jesus, I’m repeating myself, butfuck... I need to know.

“He was hurting you. You were...” She runs her bottom lip through her teeth, her eyes tightening with devastation.

“You’re okay, we’re both okay.”

She sniffs again, setting her shoulders back. Tears start again, and she lets them fall. I have an idea of what is coming.

“We were here. But I went out to feed the horses. I came back and he had you tied down. And—” She chokes through a breath, but her eyes stay on mine. “He was hurting you, with a knife. As well as the poker from the hearth. Over and over again. I was helpless. I couldn’t help you. Save you. I was watching him kill you slowly. An—all I could think of—” A sob cracks through her words, but she wrangles it back. “We never even had a chance at a life together.”

“Fuckin’ hell. Come here, gorgeous.” She sinks into my lap, clawing at my neck, sobbing into my chest. “Shhhh. It’s okay, we will have everything we want together, okay? I promise you. That fucker isn’t taking a single damn thing from you ever again. I promise he won’t ever hurt you again.”

“I’m not worried about me, Mackinlay.”

I huff a strangled chuckle into her hair. “Of course you’re not. You’re the sweetest, most caring woman who ever lived. And I will spend the rest of my life making sure you’re never alone or scared again. You hear me?”

I cup her face with my hands and tilt her head back so she meets my gaze. She nods and I plant a kiss on her forehead. Her fingers trace patterns over my chest, and my cock swells. I ignoreit, pulling her into a hug and laying her down on the pillow. She rolls over, pulling my arms around her. Her ass grinds into my hard cock and I moan her name into her neck before pulling her tighter still. “Get some sleep. I’ll keep watch. Promise to wake you up sooner if it happens again.”

“Always protecting me, Mackinlay.”

“Where would I be without you, gorgeous?”

“Still sulking in a mountain of laundry detergent, probably,” she says with a giggle.

Brat.

I dig my cock into her ass cheek and bite her neck playfully.

She laughs. “Hey!”

“Sweet dreams only this time, okay?”

“Keep up that boner, and I’ll be having wet dreams.”

“Sounds like an upgrade, if you ask me.”

“Absolutely,” she breathes.

I hold her until she relaxes and is sound asleep. Wide awake, I lay and watch the sun come up with the love of my life in my arms. I have never been so damn grateful I made it home than right now.

I toss Grace’s phone onto the floor. My heel comes down on the cracked iPhone screen a second later. Her eyes grow wide in horror as I destroy the only way that asshole has to infiltrate her life from afar.

“Mackinlay,” she whispers, brows knotted low. “Shit.”

“Nope. He doesn’t get the chance to make your life hell. You’re done with the asshole, Grace.”

“That’s my phone. My only means of communication. With the world. Withyou.” She runs a hand over her head. “With work!”

“I’ll buy you another one. This one is trash.” I bend down and swipe up the smashed phone and toss it in the kitchen bin to drive my point home. She stares at me, her bottom lip worrying through her teeth as she folds her arms over her chest.

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