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Because I’d been unable to accept the last thing that she’d said to me—when she’d told me that she didn’t need me anymore.
This was temporary. I was here for one reason and one reason only. I was going to find my sister…then we were going to get the hell out of here. And we were never looking back.
This woman there was no way I could allow myself to have, but one I somehow couldn’t let go.
“Don’t need to worry about it? I am not here for you to take care of me. I already told you I’m not your responsibility, and I can take care of myself.”
It was best to end things then. Before it got messy. Before I cared.
“And maybe what you’re really desperate for is to find someone to save, and you’ve pegged me as someone who needs it.” It rolled out a challenge, gaze flashing in a torrent of blue, liquid fire. “And I can assure you, Officer Patterson, that I’m not in the market for someone to look after me. And don’t think I’m not grateful for what you’ve done for me because I am, but I am much stronger than you think.”
“Maybe I do want to keep an eye on you, Little Trespasser. Maybe I like looking at you.”
The truth that I did want to watch over her. Care for her. Help her. Not because I believed she needed fixing, the way she’d accused me of, but because I thought she might need someone to stand at her side.
“What you’re in. You can tell me if you need help. What you’re afraid of.” I still held her around the wrist, and I smoothed my thumb over the spot on her palm that had the number of the apartment written in black ink. “What you’re looking for.”
“I don’t need anyone’s help,” she said, and her jaw ticked in something that looked too close to grief. “I can handle things on my own.” “Of course, you can, but you shouldn’t have to.”
Because this girl was chaos. A disorder in the peace I was trying to find for my family.
I knew better than to get too close. To want. To even allow the tiniest flicker of hope to ignite. Because I knew full well no one ever truly cared. Knew they would leave me in the end. Knew they would never stay.
“Well, I care. You just…pushed me away when we were dancing like you couldn’t handle the sight of me, and now you’re asking me to come live a hundred feet from you? I don’t know what you want from me, Ezra.”
“Everyone deserves a safe place, Savannah. Let me be yours, even if it’s only for a little while.” His voice was rough when he issued it.
And I had that urge to cross the room and wrap her in my arms. Tell her I would protect her. But this time, I wanted to promise that I would never let her go.
“It’s called me taking care of the ones who mean something to me.” Ruined. This man was going to ruin me.
“I want you to consider this your home, Savannah. Your safe place. For as long as you want it.”
“She’s not a toy that you take possession of, Oliver.” Ezra raised his brows as he went to a high cabinet and pulled out a stack of plates. “Wrong, Dad, she’s mine.”
“I might not know all the details about you, Savannah, but there’s something about you that I recognize here.” I gathered up her hand and pressed her palm flat to the ravaging at my chest. “Something I feel. Something I know. And the problem is, I care too fucking much.”
Because I wanted it. I wanted him to mark me. Claim me. I wanted to know what it would feel like to have this man sliding into me more than anything I’d ever wanted in my life.
She wasn’t mine to claim, but fuck, I’d wanted to.
“Why do you think it was unlocked? Because I saw you out there. Because I wanted you. Because I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Look at you, Little Trespasser. Sneaking into all the places I’m not supposed to let you go.” His voice was rough and low, and a moan got free at his confession, at the heat of his gaze as he watched me.
“You stole my breath the second I saw you, Savannah Ward. The moment I shined my flashlight into your car and found those eyes staring back. It gutted me, looking at you. And now, seeing you like this? I’m afraid I’m completely wrecked.”
I shook where I knelt as he fisted himself and brought his head to my lips, and I knew I was done for when he said, “I like it rough, Little Trespasser. Are you good with that?”
Because I’d been afraid of putting my heart on the line. And now that I had? I wasn’t sure that I could ever go back.
“Who knew one sweet mouth could bring a man to his knees.”
“Because you’re the last person I want looking at me with pity. The last person I want looking at me and thinking that I must be consumed with grief.”
“Those kids are my life, Savannah, and I wanted to give them the safest home. One filled with love and security. And things were good for a long time. But after the boys were born…” Sorrow had him hesitating before he said, “Something inside of Brianna broke.”
“I’m here for you, Savannah. You’re holding the biggest broken part of me. I promise I’ll hold yours, too.”
“Caring only leaves you devastated, Ezra, and I’m afraid caring about you will end up being the type of hurt I can’t take.”
“Everyone hurts me, Ezra. They leave me. They abandon me. They fail me.” They fail me.
“I can’t imagine all that you’ve gone through. I’m so sorry. If I could, I would race out into this world and undo every wrong that anyone has ever committed against you.”
“You made me believe in something I didn’t know existed, Ezra. You made me believe in possibility. You made me hope again. And I promise you, you’ve given all of that to your children.”
“And when you get tired of me?” “I think that’s the whole problem, Savannah. I’m pretty sure there will be no getting tired of you. The problem is, I might want to claim you forever.”
