Klaus is shocked by his father’s words but tries to hide it. I’m sure he’s overcome with the fact that he’s getting his position back into the club. He juts his chin out, daring anyone to disagree with him. “She stays.”
Deator shrugs his shoulders and turns away from us.
Klaus squeezes my hand and pulls me away from the crowd.
He doesn’t say anything as he sets me down on the back of his bike and drives us back to his house.
I hold on to him tightly and even when we get to his house, I still don’t want to let him go.
With my hands clenching around his stomach, he holds my hands there and we sit outside his cabin. Our bodies are breathing in and out in unison and even though we’re both dirty and bloody, I feel more alive than ever.
He peels my hands off him. “C’mon, honey, let’s get you inside and cleaned up.”
Reluctantly, I get off the bike and then follow him inside.
He opens the door and stands back to let me in. With his hand on my lower back, he leads me to the bathroom.
“Klaus,” I say to him as his eyes roam across my body.
His touch is so gentle, it’s almost as if he thinks I’m going to break. When he doesn’t answer me and continues to run his hands softly across my body, I grab him by the shoulders. “Klaus.”
He lifts his eyes to look at me, but looks away quickly. He goes over and turns the shower on, holding his hand under the nozzle to test the temperature.
He doesn’t talk to me, so I move toward him, crowding at his back, wanting to feel his heat against me.
I wrap my arms around him, my front pressed to his back, my hands curled into his muscled chest. “Talk to me, Klaus.”
He hangs his head and covers my hand with his on his chest. I feel his chest expand as he takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.
I walk around him, standing between him and the shower. He’s scaring me now, and I can’t just keep going like this.
When I’m to his front I wrap my arms around him, my chin resting on his chest. He looks almost lost with unshed tears in his eyes. “You’re scaring me. What is it?”
He rears back, putting me at arm’s length. “I lied to you, Mona. I promised you that Mandala would never hurt you again. I promised you I would be there for you. And I lied. I wasn’t there… I left you unprotected.” His voice breaks. “He had his hands on you. I let you down.”
I’m hurting more now seeing the way he’s torn up than from anything that Mandala could ever do to me. I lean up on my tiptoes and wrap my hands around the back of his neck. “You didn’t, though. You saved me more times than I can count now.”
He shakes his head, his hands covering my cheeks. “I didn’t though. And I know I should let you go. I know you deserve better than me, but I can’t, Mona. I can’t let you go. All I can do is promise you that I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
I know nothing I can say is going to take away his regret, the pain he’s feeling right now. So I kiss him. I clasp my lips to his, putting everything into that kiss. He may not realize it, but he’s saved me. He’s brought me from a life where I was just existing, trying to get by day to day. He’s showed me what the future could look like and I’m going to hold on to it and never let him go.
He’s stiff at first, but I persist, angling my face so I can deepen the kiss. Finally he opens to me, taking me in, and I put everything I have into that kiss. I want him to know exactly how I feel about him. I reach for the button of his jeans and he pulls back abruptly.
“Wait. The necklace,” he says, stopping me from unzipping his pants.
I push his hands away. “It’s okay. As long as I have you, I don’t need anything else.”
He digs into his pocket, pulling the necklace out and holding it out in his hand for me to see it.
I gasp. I didn’t see him get it and with all my worry for Klaus, I had completely forgotten about it.
He holds it under the spray of the water and then tells me to turn around. I put my back to him and he brings the necklace around my head, clasping it in the back. Brushing the hair off my shoulder, he whispers to me, “From now on, it’s not about my family or your family. It’s our family, Mona. The one we’re going to build together. You will always come first to me. I love you.”