I forced her to look up at me. “You need to listen to me very carefully.” I tightened my grip around her wrists. “This ends today. You will no longer dwell in the past. You will no longer think of yourself as a victim so you can have a reason to doubt me, to doubt how I feel about you. Yes, you’ve been through hell. Yes, I didn’t do right by you in the beginning. Yes, you lost something. But I’m trying my fucking best to make it right. And this—” I grabbed her arm with the tattoo “—is a vow I had imprinted into your goddamn skin. This was my way of saying no more lies, just vows.”
“Castello—”
“Stop allowing the past to weaken you. Stop using it as an excuse to not trust what is happening between us. I love you. I love you so much it fucking hurts. Nothing will change that. You are mine, and you always will be.”
I leaned down, allowing my hand to travel from her neck to her breast, all the way down to her belly. “And now that you’re carrying my child, you have no choice.”
“I told you earlier, I choose to be here with you.”
“You did. But now I can’t help but wonder, is it because you want to be here, or because I managed to plant my seed inside you?”
I watched as her throat bobbed, her chest rising and falling. Her crying had stopped, and determination replaced the tears. “No more lies?”
I nodded, doubt momentarily rendering me incapable of breathing.
She sat up on her elbows. “The moment you killed your mother to save me, that was the moment you ripped my heart from my chest and made it yours.”
This time it was my turn to swallow hard, her words taking all the jumbled thoughts inside my head, forming one single, most important thought and decision of my life.
No more lies. Just vows.
“Marry me. Marry me, Tatum.”
And then she knocked my feet right from under me. Without a single moment’s hesitation, she answered a loud and clear, unmistakable…“Yes.”
With that one word, she had managed to make me feel like the most powerful man in the world. I had all the money one man would ever need. I had all the influence I needed to build an empire, yet with a single word she made all of it seem irrelevant.
I kissed her. I kissed her like a man in love. The need to possess her wasn’t there pounding against my ribs. The only thing I wanted to do was love her. I wanted my love for her to be present in the way I touched her. No toys, no whips, no chains or knives…only me. I didn’t want to hurt her. I didn’t want to make her bleed. The only thing that was bleeding was my goddamn heart.
The saltiness of her tears invaded our kiss, making me more determined to show her how she had managed to turn my obsession with her into a love that had the power to bring me to my knees. After all this time of me trying to own her, she was the one who ultimately ended up owning me.
I moved, settling between her legs. My cock was ready—not to claim, but to forge our bodies into one.
My lips travelled down her neck, my tongue dipping in the hollow below her throat. “Let me love you, Tatum. Let me love you for the rest of my life.”
She weaved her fingers through the hair at the back of my neck. “Only if you let me love you back.”
My mouth was back on hers the second those words rolled over her lips. A soft moan poured from her mouth to mine, our tongues dancing and seducing, refusing to stop.
The way her hard nipples pressed against my chest, her skin like velvet against mine, felt better than any whip or spanking. Better than any burn against my palm.
I tore my lips from hers and stared down at her, crystal blue eyes staring up at me. And as I slowly eased my cock inside her, I watched her eyes roll closed, her neck arching up as the pleasure consumed her. It was the best thing I’d ever witnessed.
Without taking my eyes off her beautiful face, I pulled out completely before gently sinking back in. This time I pushed deep, earning a moan that sounded like a melody coming from her lips. Her legs wrapped around my waist, her heels digging into my ass.
“I love you,” I murmured, continuing the slow rhythm of moving in and out of her.
“Say it, Tatum.”
“I love you.”
“No, I need you to say thatIlove you. I want to hear those words come from your lips.”
She opened her eyes, her gaze pinned on mine. I didn’t stop moving. I couldn’t.
“Say it.” I gave a hard thrust. “Say it.”
“You love me.”