Page 62 of Dark Surrender

“That’s okay. You don’t have to. Trust is earned, and it takes time to get to know someone. All that matters is that you’re okay.”

“I’m not. None of this is okay.”

“It will be.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’ll make sure of it.” I step closer to the screen door and look into her eyes, so she can read my face when I say what I need to say. “Sweetheart, listen to me. I don’t have all the answers. I never have. I never fuckin’ will. But what I do know is that you don’t know who you are any more than I know who I am. We’ve spent how many fuckin’ years pretendin’ to be people we’re not? A fuck ton. I’m not gonna act like my shit hasn’t hurt the people I love. It has. More times than not. But I’ve spent the past… month? Month and a half? Something like that… In my ex-wife’s house, lost… and somethin’ tells me, you feel the same as I do.”

Pressing her lips together, Iris dips her head.

My idiot heart gives a thump.

Yeah. She gets it. I knew she did.

Maybe… just maybe, we can be lost together.

‘Cause together is damn sure better than alone.

I reach for the door handle and pull it open.

Tilting her head back, Iris blinks up at me. “There’s a place for me?”

“Just for you.”

“The back of my truck is full of plants, and probably dirt, now that I slammed on my brakes. It’s gonna be such a mess.”

Offering her my hand, I grin at how fuckin’ adorable she is. “Then let’s get your plants home and your truck cleaned.”

“Y-you’re sure?”

“Yeah, sweetheart. I’ve never been surer of anything in my life. Let’s do this.”

“Okay. But just remember, I don’t like men.”

“Roger that.”

“I’m not sleeping with you.”

“Agreed.”

“I mean it.”

“I know you do.”

“Just because you look like that.” She gestures to all of me, raking her gaze from head to toe, never pausing on any specific spot, which is good ‘cause I’m getting hard from the attention. My anatomy digs Iris. Oh, he digs her very much. But I’m a gentleman. Or I can be. And she’s the last person I’d ever hurt.

“Doesn’t mean I want to have sex with you,” she finishes with fire in her eyes and a sultry grit in her voice that seeps into me, damn near making my knees buckle just so I can worship at her feet.

Christ.

I’m a mess.

Now let’s get the fuck outta here before she notices the erection.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

For hours, I follow Dark on his motorcycle. Its rumble, mixed with the sound of the road, is oddly soothing as I cry. Just when I think the tears will stop, I think of my sister, and not seeing her for however long she needs, and the bastards start all over again. My shirt is wet from wiping my face with it, so I don’t run off the road. I can’t believe I’m doing this. Following a man on a Harley to a new place, a place I’ve never been. Not to do a job. Just to… be.