Page 40 of Snagged By Hook

“The woman who took us, sold us and raped us. I was fucking her how she liked, how she instructed me to do it, and I slit her throat and watched her die before I got dressed and ran from that house and never looked back.”

The look of shock that took over her features was expected. The pity was not. Hook set her off him and stood. “Don’t fucking pity that woman. She was a vile creature who got what she deserved.” He whisper-yelled so as not to disturb June.

“I don’t pity her,” Nova denied.

“Then that’s for me?” He pointed to her eyes. “Don’t you dare pity me. I couldn’t live if I thought you pitied me.” His voice turned pleading.

“I don’t, Hook. Not like that. I feel sorry for the child who died that day.”

“What?” He was truly confused.

Nova stepped toward him, placing her palm against his heart.

“You, Jeremy. The little boy you were, who had to do something like that to survive. The child that was no more after having to protect himself because no one else was protecting him like they should have.”

She placed a sweet kiss on his lips before cupping his cheek with her other hand. “I don’t pity the man who stands before me. The man who grew from the death of a child who never should’ve experienced what he did. A man who is fierce in his loyalty and generous with his heart despite where he started. A man who took on a fathering role to a kid he barely knew and enlisted his entire club to protect her. A man that little girl loves to the moon and back.”

Hook reveled in the circular current of her love. He could practically feel it flowing out of his cheek where she cupped his face, through her, then back into his heart where her other hand rested.

Closing his eyes, he absorbed all he could. Tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed, especially since he planned to find Brent and end him. Casey or not, the man needed to die. Then he’d find Casey and end him. He’d kill every fucker out there to protect what was his.

“And her mother? How does she feel about me?”

Asking was a double-edged sword; he might not get the answer he wanted, but he might. She could declare her love again, only to have it sour when she had to live with the aftermath of what he did. However, he decided he would take one night as a loving family with everything out in the open, rather than none at all.

“Her mother feels the same as her daughter…to the moon and back.”

Hook groaned.

He’d longed for the words. Nova had been the only person to ever speak them to him without it being a manipulation tactic or something vile.

“Please.” He gripped her face and brought them nose to nose. “I need the words, Nova. I need to hear them again.”

“I love you, Jeremy Waters.”

Fuck, five words never sounded so amazing before. He couldn’t put words to the euphoria he was feeling. It was the most amazing feeling. Even better than when she’d said it after sex. Although he’d never tell her that.

It sounded different—they weren’t naked and riding high on endorphins. It wasn’t because he’d brought her pleasure. It was because she fucking loved him.

Him.

“Are you really going to leave me hanging again?”

“No, babe. I’m not. I’m just enjoying the feeling of it, that’s all.”

He kissed her. It was deep and connecting, but he tried like hell to not make it sexual. After all, June was in the bed so he would control his body. That was something he had learned from the mess of his past that he didn’t block out.

Nova ended the kiss.

“Ahem. Still waiting.”

Hook laughed at her feigned look of impatience and outrage.

“Nova Grace Harper?—”

“How do you know my middle name?”

“Really?” He raised an eyebrow. “You want answers, or do you want me to say it?”

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