Page 105 of Adored
Rufus stripped that steak in record time, and was gnawing on his bone as they ate their meal too.
Poe immediately recognized that Gamble was silent, and that worried him.
“What’s on your mind, Mate?” he asked.
Gamble went there.
“We’re likely going to have to leave here, Baby,” he admitted. “You heard what Elizabeth said. Will you really be okay taking a hiatus from the Dukedom? I know what you said, but still…”
Yeah, he could stop there.
“Mate, I’d rather be Poe Seville the therapist than the Duke of Gordon. This title is not important to me. This place can sit empty until one day if we choose to come back. What’s most important is being with you, and finding Von Donore for what he’s done to my family. I owe that to my parents and Hemmingway. My brother would fight for me if the roles were reversed.”
Gamble let him talk.
“I don’t know why I was spared, but I’ll make sure I balance that scale. I’m in on this fight, and I’ll help Elizabeth Blackhawk and The Hunters take him down.”
Yeah, someone was in the anger phase of grief, and that was good. Poe would work through the levels quickly. He knew he would.
Now, Gamble was honest.
“I know why you were spared,” he admitted, willing to answer his statement.
Poe looked at him.
“Why, Mate?” he asked.
He shared.
“For me. You were put on this earth and spared for me. The powers that be knew I’d need someone like you to make me whole again, and to learn that love didn’t have to hurt. Sometimes, I’m taken aback how easy love really is when it’s real. It was never easy before for me. It never felt comfortable and like this.”
That surprised him.
Gamble was sweet, gentle, and a decent human being. That someone didn’t want to love him like he did was shocking, to be honest.
Poe was curious.
“It wasn’t?” he asked. “I’ve never been in love before,” he admitted. “So I can’t give you a point of reference personally.”
The Marine continued.
“All of the people I’ve been with were just to waste some time, or to just feel something. I’ve seen a lot and done even more things I wish I hadn’t. The biggest being Storm. If I could go back, I wouldn’t have had a child with her. I should have seen the signs that she wasn’t healed and damaged beyond repair. Wanting to fix her…that bit me, and my child, in the ass.”
Since he brought them up, Poe was curious.
“Are you serious about children again?” he asked. “I know the pain you lived, and I would never want to do anything that hurt you.”
To be honest, that one took some thought. Since he was asking questions, Gamble had a few of his own.
“Would you ever use our child together to break me like she did?”
At his question, Poe put down his fork.
“I’d never hurt a child to begin with, but our child would be my utmost concern. I’d die for our children, not kill them. I’d lay my life down for them, and you. I may never have maternal instincts as a man, but I’ll have paternal ones. I’ll cherish any child we decide to bring into our family. They will be ours.”
Gamble never believed he’d be able to trust another person with a child of his, until there was Poe. This was a good man, and he’d do everything he said.
No.
