Swallowing thickly, I give him my deepest fear. The one bigger than being afraid I can’t get pregnant and make our dreams come true. The one that plagues my nightmares. The one that haunts me even in the day.
The scars Cole created.The way he stopped touching me when my body changed. The way he sneered. The comments he made. The hurt. The insecurities.
“You’ve never even seen me naked, Logan. My body—” I gesture to myself as if it’s all the explanation needed.
He growls. The sound is deep and angry, and it goes straight to my sore, stretched-out pussy.God, that was so fucking hot. I haven’t even really allowed myself to reflect on everything we did, but damn, I won’t be walking right for a while.
Stop it, Shiloh. It’s not the time for that.
Tucking his chin to his chest, Logan shakes his head. “Fuck that guy. I should go back and kill him,” he mutters. “Fine. You wanna talk about your body, Shiloh?” he glances up at me through thick, red lashes. “I told you that I love your body. Have I not made that clear by the way I can’t stop looking at you? Touching you? By the way I repeatedly tell you that I find you so unbelievably perfect that I want to fill you with my cum and live out my days with my cock stuffed deep in your cunt?”
“Jesus, Logan,”I whisper-shout, my wide eyes dilating with every filthy word.
He lifts a shoulder, completely unbothered. “What? I meant it then, I mean it now, and I’ll still mean it after I see every inch of you. In fact—” He pauses, releasing a heaving breath. “I choose you,Shiloh Huxley. I choose you as my friend, my partner, my wife. You are the mother of my children, my future. I choose you now, and I’ll choose you, again and again, every day for the rest of our lives.”
Shiloh Huxley.
His hands grip my face. He stares down at me, hiding nothing. Letting me see every vulnerable, broken piece of him. The fractures and heartache. The anxiety, panic, and trauma. I see it all and what I see has my walls damn near crumbling completely. He’s beautiful.
“I choose you now before I’ve seen your body, and I’ll choose you again, after.”
My wife.
A tear drips down his face. The hands on my cheeks tremble. He squeezes his eyes shut and inhales sharply. Even now, he’s preparing for rejection. My walls tumble, crashing down into shards, breaking irreparably.
The mother of my children.
“I choose you.”
My words seem to shatter his composure. He exhales a breath that shakes his entire body. Another tear falls down his perfect face. A face that has seen wars and heartache. Unimaginable amounts of loss. A face that spends days outside, earning an honest living as he supports those he loves so fiercely. He’s agood man,and he’smine.
Be brave.
“I choose you, Logan Huxley,” I whisper, forcing myself to be strong, to not let thewhat ifsstop me from taking what I want. “I choose you as my friend, my partner, my husband. You are the father of my children, my future. I choose you now, and I’ll choose you, again and again, every day for the rest of our lives.” I shakily repeat his words, quietly sobbing as I speak.
His body shudders as his face drops to my neck. He buries himself there, and I instantly feel the wetness he’s trying to hide.My big, strong protector…is crying.My arms band around his body, holding him just as tightly as he’s holding me.
There, in the bathroom, we collide. Two broken hearts, not repaired, but healing. Two broken hearts that found each other in an ugly, damaging world, against all odds.
“I love you,” he breathes, his lips moving against my neck.
Three words.
Three tiny words that separately are insignificant. But together…life-changing
8 letters and every single defense I built up around my heart in a last-ditch effort to protect myself disappearcompletely.
“I love you, Logan.” He sighs a breath of relief, and like the calm after a storm, everything inside me settles. I made the right choice.
His mouth opens against my neck as he begins to kiss and suck along my flesh. His hands slide down, gripping the hem of my sweater. He lifts the material slowly, and I have a moment of dread that he’s going to see my stomach for the first time in such an unflattering position. Before I have time to self-sabotage our moment, he’s yanking my shirt over my head and tossing it on the floor.
Stepping back, his heated gaze glides down my body so intensely that it feels as though he’s touching me. “Fuck, Babydoll,” he murmurs, his voice filled with awe. He zeros in on my bra. It’s simple and black. There’s no lace or padding to push the girls up. Logan doesn’t seem to mind a bit as he adjusts his cock while staring at my boobs. “Need to see all of you.”
His mouth descends on mine as he reaches around my back and attempts to unclasp my bra. He tugs and twists but fails epically. I laugh against his mouth. Then laugh harder when he grunts in irritation. My laughter dies a quick death when he goes all Lumber-Hulk and rips the thin material clean off my body.
“Holy shit,” I moan, “that was so fucking hot.”
Logan barks out a laugh, adding the shredded fabric to the ever-growing pile on the floor. “Something one of those shifters in your books would do, huh?” My brows lift so high; I’m pretty sure they’ve disappeared into my hair. He grins. “What? I like to read, too.”