False Start (Red Zone Rivals, #5)

by Kandi Steiner

“I know you don’t need me,” he said, cutting me off. His eyes flashed with something achingly familiar when he added, “But I need you.”

“You calling me trash, Robbins?” “If you’re trash, then I’m a dumpster diver.”

“The only reason I’m letting you live is because I care enough about that woman to do what she asks me to,” he said, and when his finger pointed right at me, I felt it like a bolt of lightning to the heart. “But slip up even one time,” he continued, shaking his head as a damn near evil smile spread on his stupidly handsome face. “And I will risk it all. Understand? I will risk it all.”

“I’ve got you,”

“Let me touch you, Mads,” he begged, teeth sinking into my shoulder. “I want to hear my name on your lips again. But this time, I want to earn it.” He bit the lobe of my ear, making me hiss and roll against him. “Let me get you there. Let me hear the way you moan when you come.”

“And then I realized that the only reason I could hate you was because I couldn’t see you, couldn’t touch you, couldn’t remember what it was like to be in your presence. And the moment I was around you again, all that was eviscerated. Because the truth is I can’t do anything but love you.”

“You don’t have to do this alone. Not anymore. Not ever again. You’re mine, Mads. You always have been. I lost you then, but I refuse to lose you now. Whatever you need, I’ll give it to you. Whatever we have to do, we’ll do it — together. No more letting anyone or anything get between us, you hear me?”

But I’ll be fucking damned if I ever let you go again. I’ll lay down my life before I let you walk alone. I’ll walk away from everything else if I have to — Seattle, the team, football, my family — but never you. Do you understand me? Never, ever you, Mads.”

“Have me in every way you want, Kyle, because I’ll only ever belong to you.”

There’s no one who could ever make sense. She’s it for me. Period. End of story. She is… everything.”

The only name I want to hear coming from these pretty lips is your future husband’s.”