Page 79 of Cutter's Hope

“I’ve been doing a damn fine job of that today,” I said bitterly.

“We all reach our breaking point, Baby. You, me, your sister sure, but I like you…welike you and raggedy ass bunch of misfits or not, you take a look around at each of us and we all got one thing in common, me, you, Reave and Li’l Bit here… any one of my boys…”

“Yeah, what’s that?” I asked softly.

“We don’t give up. No matter how high the shit piles on, we don’t quit and Ineeda woman like that, a woman likeyouin my life to help me keep these fuckers in line.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead and I swallowed hard, my heart giving a sharp ache where it felt fractured and splintered.

“Yeah, but why me?”

“You’re beautiful, you’re challenging, and mm, I’d be lying if I said your pussy wasn’t some of the sweetest I ever had,” I choked and laughed.

“Way to ruin it, Casanova.”

Cutter smirked and chuffed a slight laugh, “I’m a rough-around-the-edges bastard.”

“Me, too,” I said and tipped my face up for a kiss, which he gave me.

Reaver cleared his throat, “We good? This mean we can eat, because I’m fucking starv – owe! Hey!” His little Mrs. was slapping him in the chest and shoving at him playfully like I had Cutter the moment before. I searched Cutter’s eyes by the dim light from the boat and he smiled.

“Isn’t there a rule against feeding the animals?” I suggested, arching a brow.

“Yeah, but I don’t really live by civilian rules,” he said and his look held meaning, carried weight.

I dropped my voice and self-consciously glanced at the other couple who were going about getting the gas grill reheated and straightening the place settings from our impromptu sail.

“I busted down the door with the lot of your men and murdered a bunch of human traffickers something like two days ago. I think we’re way past pretending I play by your so-called ‘civilian’ rules at this point, don’t you?” I asked. Cutter smiled broadly.

“Wine with dinner?” he asked.

I scowled, “You asshole.”

He laughed, long and loud and deep and Reaver and Hayden turned to us smiling, their own banter forgotten for the moment. We had a nice meal, and some good conversation, my eyes drifting to shore and just having that house within sight, it did amazing things for my frayed nerves. It really did. Cutter held my casted hand beneath the table, his fingers finding the spaces between mine, like they were always meant to be there. I still couldn’t fathom that this man wanted me but his grand gesture had left little room for doubt. I think it was the thing that tipped me hopelessly over the edge, pitching me into the yawning chasm of being utterly in love with him right back.

I mean if what they say is true, if love means seeing someone and what a mess they can be, how moody they can get, and can handle you no matter how hard you can be to handle? Still wants you in their life anyways? Shit, then whatever was happening was the real deal now wasn’t it? I needed to stop poking at it, stop waiting for the other shoe to drop I mean, I’d earned this a little hadn’t I? Being loved by someone, loving them back, even with the major shit storm of fucked up going on around me and my little family of three?

Cutter shook my hand a bit and I looked up into his warm brown eyes. He smiled then, and in that smile it held such warmth and laughter and light and it said to me,yes.Unequivocallyyes,and I knew then right there that in Cutter I had found my match, my soulmate, if there was such a thing… and I would be damned if I was going to let that go. No, no, no, no, no.

38

Cutter…

“Hey Reave, let the girls deal with clean up, I need your help man.” I waved him over and opened the storage hatch. I was gonna let him and Li’l Bit have my cabin. It was a nice night, we were in sight of the shore and I figured Hope was tough enough to spend the night under the stars with me. Still, setting up the hammock was much easier with two sets of hands on deck rather than just the one.

Reave set down the stack of plates he was handling and came over. Li’l Bit smiled behind his back and gave me this look with this deep romantic sigh that plainly communicated her love for her man and her happiness for me. I gave her a smile back and caught Hope, watching the exchange, her deep, dark eyes calculating, considering. Finally, she locked gazes with me, and face still neutral, gave me a nod. She was still trying to come to grips with Li’l Bit and what she may or may not mean to me and that was okay. She was doing a pretty fucking stellar job all things considered.

“Come on. I’ll wash, you dry.” Hayden smiled at Hope and led her below decks while Reave and I wrestled the canvas open and laid it flat. The hammock was a big bastard and meant for two and when hooked up right, between the two masts, stable enough to fuck on. I’d done it. I just didn’t want any tonight. No, tonight I wanted to try intimacy with my woman. I think she needed something a little deeper than a few inches of my dick in her puss.

Laughter accompanied the sound of running water out my little galley window and it did my heart some glad.

“She’s kind of a hot mess, you sure?” Reaver asked, but he was smiling, his mannerisms affable.

“I’m sure,” I said, steady and on an even keel, that’s what I felt when I was with Hope. Like there wasn’t anything that could stop us and I was pretty damn sure there wasn’t. We evened each other out, I think. Give and take, push and pull, I was the water to her shore. It was comfortable, even when it was crazy. Okay, it’d been crazy from the word go but I really wanted to see how well we’d mesh when the shit finished dripping from where it’d hit the fan. I saw such a wild potential in ‘us’ and I really wanted an ‘us’ to happen but I’d have to get through those walls first. I could do it. I’d already made it through the first gate.

Reaver and I finished setting up the hammock talking easy about life up north as I caught up with all of the goings on up there.

“Red have her baby?” I asked. Reaver grinned and Li’l Bit squealed from the hatch.

“Oh my God, I forgot to show you!” She came tromping over, bare feet slapping the deck and Hope hung back a little dubious. She wasn’t used to the easy familiarity Li’l Bit exhibited. The casual touching and cuddling us three, Li’l Bit, Reave, and I were into. I held out my hand to Hope and she came to me, almost reluctantly. That hurt a bit. She peered down at the phone with me as Li’l Bit scrolled through pictures of Rev and Red and their little bundle of joy in what appeared to be her pink stocking cap.

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