Page 58 of Broken

“Because of me?” she asks, tension sliding through her body.

“I told you I laid it out to Dragon, and I did. They’re fine, but even if they weren’t, I’d still choose you, Gabby. I think you understand by now that I’m all in on this thing between us.”

“What’s the family dinner about?”

“T is coming in with Lyla and the baby. I guess he just wants everyone to get together.”

“Oh,” she answers, and I can see her losing herself in her head.

“You should come with me. We’ll take a few days. I hear there’s a dinner train in Bardstown. We can do that together.”

“King, I love spending time with you, but there’s no way in hell that I’m going to a family dinner. I’d rather have a root canal.”

“Baby—”

“No, they’d probably tar and feather me. Just saying, I could do that here and it’d still be more enjoyable than trying to have dinner with your family.”

I fight my smile, but there’s no point. She’s cute, and she’s probably not wrong. “Point made, Sunshine.”

“I told you that you and I wouldn’t work. It’s already starting,” she replies solemnly.

I wrap my hand into her hair, tugging on it so that I can get her attention and get her out of her head. “I’m here with you. I’m thinking my decision is pretty damn clear. The only one who has ever been in doubt is you. I connected with you one night in a shit room sharing the crap we were dealing with. Straight up, baby, the topics of our conversation that night sucked ass, but that night is burned into my memory as one of my best. That had nothing to do with the shit we were dealing with, but the fact that we were connected and dealing with it together. Do you understand?”

Her pretty white teeth come down, biting into her lip and she nods. I try to ignore the way that simplistic action makes my cock stand up and report for duty. “Yes,” she breathes.

“I’d like a relationship with my family because I’d like to think jellybean might want grandparents one day as well as any other children we have. So, I’m probably going to this fucking dinner. That said, I’m not a fan of tar and feathering, but I’d probably prefer to be hung upside down by my toenails.”

“By your toenails?” she giggles.

“Yeah. While I’m totally naked.”

She bites her lip again, her eyes dilating and her eyebrows jerking up in shock. The look gets even better when heat hits her cheeks.Christ, she’s beautiful.

“That’s a picture,” she breathes. “I’m not sure I’d find that torturous though—at least from a bystander just watching kind of way. In fact, I don’t think that’s a form of torture invented and put on the Torture 101 handbook.”

“Easy for you to say. You’ve never been hung upside down by your toenails.”

“Can’t say as I have,” she giggles. Then, mirth leaves her face, and she looks at me stricken. “Oh my God, have you?”

I have to fight to keep my face solemn. “Yeah, I have,” I lie.

“Oh my God, King!” she gasps, touching my face as if searching for evidence that I’m okay. That sweetness hits me differently than the rest she’s shown me. It digs in a little deeper. I’ve felt it before, like when Gabby fills a travel mug of coffee for me in the morning. No one asks her to at all. I can get my own coffee. Yet now it’s my favorite thing in the morning. We share breakfast and as we get ready to separate for the day, Gabby takes a travel mug from the cabinet, fills it full of coffee—fixed exactly how I like it. Then, she brings it to me with the prettiest smile on her face and she goes up on her tiptoes, stretching to kiss my lips. The last few days that kiss has gottenhot and heavy—to the point I’d rather carry her back to bed than go help the club. Hell, at this point, my balls are going to turn permanently blue. I’ll survive, because every night Gabby gets more comfortable with me. “What happened?” she asks, getting my attention. I take a second to remember what we’re talking about. The worry on her face is another bit of her sweetness. I don’t want to worry her though. So, I figure it’s time to put an end to it—and hope the payout is the sound of her laughter.

“I got a concussion, but I survived.”

She frowns. “How did you get a concussion by hanging upside down?”

“Damn cock kept slamming into my head every time the wind blew,” I murmur, barely managing to keep a straight face. I watch as her mouth falls open, her eyes get big as saucers. It takes a minute, or hell, maybe it was just seconds. I can’t really say, because I was too busy watching shock turn into full-fledged Gabby laughter. Her head goes back and the joy on her face in that moment wraps around not only my cock, but my heart. That’s when I smile, feeling the tightness I’ve always carried inside me—before Shelby, but even more so after—loosen. Gabby’s happiness soothes me. It’s something I can’t remember having to this depth before and I take it in and somehow that calms me. It does because this moment with Gabby is sheer and utter perfection.

I’m in deep with this woman and I’m never letting her go. I don’t tell her that. I can’t. Right now just isn’t the space and time to do it. Soon, though, I will. I just need to make sure that when I do, Gabby feels safe enough with me to give me all of her because I want it. I want every single bit of her for my own.

And I won’t stop until I get it.

Chapter 28

Gabby

“My Gabriella.”

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