Page 136 of Broken

“I know,” she croaks out.

I’m suddenly reminded of the torn drawing. Of the offer for her to go back to San Antonio. There is a choice to be made. One for her, and one for me. If I tell her what mine is, will it affect hers?

I’m out of my comfort zone, if I don’t try right now, I’ll regret it.

“Last time I saw him, I told him I want out. I want to live my own life free of the club. Not be owned by anyone.”

It’s wishful thinking. Nero isn’t stupid. What he gets from me, he wouldn’t get elsewhere. At least not the same caliber.

“I want a normal life. For the first time since…” I pause. I don’t want to use Gwen in this moment.

“What does normal mean to you?” she whispers.

Now or never.

“Not looking over my shoulder. Not waiting to get a phone call to say I’m needed on some job. Having to leave the shop to go work for him. Not being a grumpy as fuck asshole all the time.”

I’d hoped to get some kind of response to that, but her expression never changes. Lowering myself on to my knees, I sit up taller so I’m at eye level with her.

“You.”

Calli swallows. “Me, what?”

“When I went to that meeting with Nero, before I knew about the man I’ve been searching for years for, I was going to talk about you.” Her brow creases in confusion. “Protecting you, Calli. It’s what I’ve been trying to do from the moment we met. Why do you think I kept pushing you away, or saying stupid shit to piss you off?”

“If they were attempts to get me to stay away, they were pretty lame.”

My lip twitches but I don’t give a full-blown smile. Doesn’t seem like the right moment.

“That’s just it. They were, and it wasn’t only you. I couldn’t stay away either.”

That hangs between us.

“I’m not the kind of man who uses pretty words Calli. Or tell you what you want to hear to make things better,” I move closer so my hips press into the mattress. “After all this, anyone in their right mind would tell you to walk away. So, call me fucking crazy, because I’m not in my right mind.

“I don’t want to walk away. All I want to do right now, is put you on the back of my bike and take you away from this. To make you mine. You feel like you’re mine, Vixen. There is nodenying how I’ve changed, what you’ve done to me over the last few weeks.”

“Meaning?”

God, she is making me work for this. I would expect nothing less if I’m being truthful. It’s one of the things I love about her.

“You broke through the wall I’ve put around myself. You made me feel things I’ve not felt in years. I’ve shared stuff I haven’t been able to open up about. You never judged me. You never ran from me. It pissed me off how you challenged me. Drove me fucking insane. Turns out that is the way to make me trust you.”

“How do I trust you? You lied to me, about so many things.”

“I tried not to draw you in, but you got under my skin. When I called before, when I heard him getting in here, I almost lost my mind. If anyone ever hurt you…”

“You hurt me.” Her eyes are sad when she lifts her head to me. “I don’t know how I feel anymore, Garrett.”

My gut churns. I’m still me, under all this emotion and revelation. I’m not a man to give up on what I want. I reach up and cup her jaw, spearing my fingers in the back of her silken hair, careful to avoid the cut. Her back arches. From the look on her face, against her will. It gives me confidence to know she isn’t immune to me, or my asshole ways.

I’m mindful of what she’s been through. The shit her ex did to her. Handling people with kid gloves isn’t my forte.

How do I get across to her I understand all of that, but I’ll be fucked if I let her go without a fight?

As has been my way for too fucking long, I choose to go with what I know. I don’t use words.

Her lips part in shock when I press mine to hers. It gives me the opportunity to roll my tongue between them, to find hers and touch them together. Calli gasps and her hands come up.

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