Page 50 of Twisted Tate

I stare at her, and I know she is the most real thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.

“I will always fucking catch you. There isn’t a place you could go or a thing that you could do that would keep me from getting to you.”

She looks up at me for a moment like she wants to say something, but then she kisses me instead.

I’ve spent my whole life being the weapon my family needed. I’m the enforcer, the one who does the dirty work without flinching. I never thought I could be something soft for anyone. I never thought I’d want to be.

But she’s looking at me like I’m her safe place. Like I’m the one thing in the world she can count on. And I want to be that. I want to be whatever she needs, even if I don’t know how.

I pull her down onto the bed with me, settling her against my chest. She curls into me immediately, her fingers tracing the lines of my tattoos.

“You need to get some rest, baby girl.” I kiss her temple. “If you were nervous about meeting my brothers, then you are going to need all the sleep you can get to face my father.”

She jerks her head so her eyes meet mine.

“It’ll be fine,” I say, comforting her. “He will just want to resolve all of this. He’s on our side.”

I hold her tighter and listen to her breathing slow. She falls asleep within minutes, her body curled against mine. I hope she’ll stay that way, that she can have a night without the nightmares before everything that will come tomorrow.

I stay awake for a long time just staring at the ceiling.

Fox pulled me aside earlier and asked if I loved her. I didn’t answer him, because I didn’t know. I’ve never loved anyone outside my family. I didn’t think I was capable of it.

But lying here with her in my arms, feeling her heartbeat against my chest, knowing I would kill anyone who tried to take her from me—I’m starting to accept that this is probably pretty close to what love is supposed to be.

I know it’s what Fox feels for Ivy, and what my father feels for Whitney.

I’m not ready to call it that. Not yet. But I’m not running from it either.

Chapter 8

REESE

The Sinclair estate is exactly what I expected. It’s at least fifty acres and a main house that belongs in one of those architecture magazines. But it already feels different than my father’s house ever did.

Tate’s hand rests on my thigh. His thumb traces circles on the jeans that Ivy let me wear so I didn’t have to meet Dane Sinclair in baggy sweatpants.

I just keep focusing on Tate’s hand. The thought of meeting his father makes me unable to sit still, and even though I’m nervous as fuck, my body responds to him. He ate me out as soon as we woke up and then again before we left. You’d think I’d be satisfied, but I press my thighs together and try to focus.

He glances at me as he parks. “It’s going to be fine, baby girl.”

I am about to meet the man who runs the Talons, one of the most powerful members of the Council, and if he wanted, he could make me disappear in two seconds.

“He could decide it’s easier to kill me.”

“He’s not going to kill you.” Tate turns off the engine and faces me, his green eyes dark. “He’d have to go through me first. And my father is smart enough to know that’s not a fight he’d win.”

The certainty in his voice does something to me. He means it. He would go against his own father, his own family, the entire fucking Raven world, for me. Not because he owes me anything. Just because I’m his.

No one has ever chosen me before. Not this way. Not once in my entire life.

And I realize what I’ve already suspected. I love him. I love Tate Sinclair.

Tate’s hand slides higher on my thigh. “I thought I reminded you who you belong to this morning.”

“Yes.” My breath catches as he brushes his fingers against my covered pussy. “You did.”

“Don’t think I won’t eat my pussy in my father’s driveway.”