Page 103 of The Vow

“Yes,” I mocked, curling my fingers—the ones he’d kissed—and brought them to my aching chest. “That’s all you want—all you’ve ever wanted. To protect me without caring what I want.”

The cords of his throat roil against the fabric of his collar. “You were right, Robber. What you deserve is to be free of me. Free of the threats my world has created. You deserve the fullness of a life that being married to me has kept from you.”

“So, you don’t want me?” I choked out the words, feeling whiplash from the sudden change in him.

Damon snarled as he regarded me, his eyes the very deepest midnight pierced by only a shard of silver. “You’re my wife, Robyn.” The tenderness of his voice is simultaneously shocking and strong. “I will want you until my heart no longer beats. Until my skin is dust and my name is nothing more than a footnote to history. I will want you until the end of this life and in whatever happens beyond.”

I squeezed my eyes shut to chase away the burn of tears. “And still, you’re leaving.”

“Because I need to protect you.” A stillness came over him. “Because I’ve realized no matter what I do or who I kill, you will never be safe as long as you’re mine.”

My anger threatened to char my skin, and it should’ve kept me from going closer to the man who kept burning me, but it didn’t.

“Don’t leave.”

His groan quaked his entire form. “I have to. Another taste of you, and I won’t be able to let you go.”

I followed him to the door, my hand reaching for his shoulder.

“You deserve better, Robber,” he said in a low voice, keeping his head facing the door like even one more look would sink his restraint. “You’ll realize it once this is over. Once I’m gone. You’ll move on and realize I was right.”

The lock clicked open, and the truth exploded from my lips.

“I love you, Damon.” I sucked in a breath, my fingers tightening on his shoulder. Or maybe it was his muscle swelling against my hold. “Even when I hated you, I never stopped loving you.”

He spun then, so quickly, the rush of air made me teeter backward, but only for a split second before his palms claimed my face. His hard exhale scorched my cheeks like a flame, and his gaze tracked every twitch and shiver and movement on my face.

“You’re my husband, Damon. Mine.” I echoed his words back to him. “No matter what you do, I will never let you go.”

His gaze was wild. Feral as it bored into mine, the true depths of his possessivenessfinally visible.

“Robber…” he ground out, his breaths coming in chaotic bursts.

“Don’t ask me to stop loving you,” I said huskily, my last confession hurtling over the ball in my throat, “because I will never stop. I will never stop loving you.”

Something raw broke through the steel of his chest, a sound of anguish and surrender just before the sweet savagery of his mouth crushed mine.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Robyn

Damon plundered the depths of my mouth, his tongue licking and stroking paths of fire and ache, waking the gnawing memory of what it had done to the lower parts of me last night.

I didn’t want him to stop. I didn’t want him to ever stop.

My hands rose to his shoulders, finding purchase just as he spun my back to the door and crowded me with his big body. Flush to his front, I felt every lethal edge of his muscles as expertly hidden under his bespoke suits as the ferocity he hid under his charm.

I locked my arms around his shoulders, wrenching him to me like that would stop him and his foolish reservations from walking away. I wouldn’t let him. I wouldn’t let him sacrifice himself once more to the darkness in order to keep me safe.

“I tried to warn you,” he rasped against my lips, his teeth nipping at their corners. “To protect you.”

As he teased the angle of my jaw and then the sensitivelobe of my ear, his hands worked at my clothes. The silk of my top cried as he split it, my bra popping open easily to avoid the same destructive fate.

“I don’t want to be protected from you,” I said, shuddering as he cupped my breasts, the tips hard and aching for his touch. My head lolled to the side, welcoming the assault of his teeth on my neck. “Promise me.”

His mouth latched to my skin, sucking hard as though he wanted to drink heartbeats straight from my pulse.

I slid my hand to his nape, gripping his soft hair and forcing his head back. “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid for me again.”

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