Page 93 of Taming You

“He’s my son,” she tries to argue, but I shake my head.

“He’s not.”

“And he’s yours?” she says in outrage.

I take a step closer. “He is. I will die before I let you try to take him or walk into his life, only to abandon him again.”

Her entire demeanour changes as disgust fills her expression, and she looks at Matt. “You know what, I only gave this a shot because I was in town and you were a decent fuck, but it’s not worth this. You can keep your psycho bitch and the kid, I’m heading back to Winnipeg next weekend anyways.”

I raise a hand and take a step towards her, but arms wrap around my waist. She laughs at me. “Go,” I say. “Before I give you what you deserve.”

She rolls her eyes and leaves the building, and it takes everything in me not to go after her. The arms drop from around my waist, and I take a deep breath, turning and tucking the strands of hair that fell behind my ears. I drag my hand downward in front of me as I close it in an attempt to centre myself. When I open my eyes, the three of them are staring at me. Liv looks worried, Josh looks kind of impressed, and Matt, I can’t pinpoint the look.

“You good?” Liv asks, and I nod.

She hugs her brother and whispers something to him before Josh shakes his hand and they head back inside, leaving Matt and me alone.

CHAPTER 36

Matt

The second Josh and Liv are through the doors, my lips are on Zoey’s. I kiss her as if my life depends on it, giving her everything, every piece of me. She grips the front of my suit with one hand as the other finds the back of my neck, and I walk her backwards until her back is pressed against the wall.

I’m breathless when I pull back. I stare into her eyes, and I know I’m madly in love with her. If everything before tonight didn’t already tell me that I was, I know in this moment, without a doubt, that Zoey Williams is the only woman I want to spend my life with.

“Can we get out of here?” I ask in a whisper, and she nods.

“I just need to tell Maggie and Henry that I’m leaving.”

I nod and kiss her one more time before interlacing our fingers and following her as she leads me back inside and to Henry and Maggie’s table. She kisses them each on the cheek, and I shake their hands before we make our way out of the venue and to my car.

I feel like I’m shaking as I navigate the streets back to my place. It’s taking everything in me to not just blurt the words I love you. I need to tell her how I feel.

We get inside, and Zo makes her way to the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water before she turns to me. “Are you okay? I know I may have overstepped back there, and I’m sorry if I did, but?—”

“I love you,” I blurt, cutting her off, and she stares at me, mouth open. “You can’t be that shocked, can you?”

She gives her head a little shake and closes her mouth. “No, I guess not, just not what I thought you were going to say.”

I round the kitchen island, needing to be close to her. I need to touch her in some way. Her breathing picks up the closer I get, and I love that just my proximity brings this reaction out of her. I stop when I’m in front of her and cage her in with a hand on the counter on either side of her.

“Zoey, Bug, I’m hopelessly, madly, life-alteringly in love with you.”

“I didn’t overstep?” she whispers.

I shake my head, my hand coming up to cup her cheek. “No, Bug, you stood up for your family. You did what you thought you needed to do to protect us. I’ll never fault you for that.”

She rolls her bottom lip between her teeth. “I love you, too,” she whispers. “I love you both. In a way that I don’t know how I’d live if anything happened to either of you, a scares me shitless kind of love.”

I grin so wide my cheeks hurt. “Good.”

She chuckles. “Good?”

“Yeah, good, because then when I ask you to move in, I know you might say yes.”

She stares up at me, shock evident on her face. “You’re asking me to move in?”

I nod. “Do you really think I picked this house without thinking of you moving in? This kitchen is because you said you wanted one that had plenty of storage. You said you wanted a dining room large enough to host your family and a large walk-in closet you could try to fill.” I lean down and kiss her. “All the bedrooms is because I want us to fill them.”

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