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Rowdy cleared his throat before I could fall too deep down the rabbit hole.
“I have something I wanted to ask you.” He sounded uncharacteristically nervous, making me suck in a break a moment before his arms slipped around my waist, anchoring me to him.
Whatever Rowdy wanted to ask me, he wasn’t certain my answer wouldn’t be no. He wanted to assure himself I couldn’t run away—as if being stuck in a hot-air balloon with him wasn’t enough.
“So, ask,” I said with more confidence than I felt.
Rowdy pinched my butt and tightened his hold when I tried to turn around. “I like you, Dream, more than I’ve ever liked anyone. I think about you all day, and even when I try to stop, I just wonder if you’re thinking about me too. I love making you smile, and I’m obsessed with making you come. I have no intentions of stopping anytime soon, so running away from me is a big fucking problem. I’d rather spend that time giving you what you came to Idlewild looking for.”
I stiffened in his arms as my heart began to race. Did he know about the letter?
No.
He couldn’t know.
“I want to give you shelter and be your peace. I want to take care of you, Dream. I want to be yours. I won’t ask if you like me too because I don’t waste time with stupid questions. Instead, I’ll only ask one.” I held my breath and waited even though I already knew what his question—and what my answer—would be. “Can I be your boyfriend, Atlas Ilana Beck?”
My heart stuttered in my chest at the same time that a startled laugh broke free. “Um, don’t you mean will I be your girlfriend?”
“No.”
When he didn’t elaborate, I sighed. “Explain.”
“Aight, it’s simple. You were mine from the very first day. From the moment I tried to fire you, and you begged me not to. Deny it or reject it—it makes no fucking difference. I’m the unshakable truth that will haunt you forever.”
I stared out at the gorgeous mountain peak that seemed so close yet so far away.
That was the reality of Rowdy and me.
We were soclose to something real yet still so far away. Our foundation was still building and could crumble at the slightest wind.
“Even if I turn you down?”
He was quiet for so long I was afraid he wouldn’t answer—or say something crazy and ruin the moment.
And then he spoke.
“I thought fucking you would be enough, but I was lying to myself. I started to enjoy the chase a little too much, Dream. Suddenly, I had this endless patience like I’d follow you forever until you said yes, and I knew I wasn’t running you down just to fuck you. I was looking to make you mine. I kept forcing myself inside your head, not knowing I was pulling you into mine. His lips brushed my ear, and then he whispered, “You own me.” My lips parted, and I couldn’t quite catch my breath after his quiet confession. “You temper this animal inside of me, Dream, but you match it, too. My obsession with you…it’s violent and ugly, but it’sreal. You’re the most honest thing I’ve felt in a long time, and I’m begging you for one more chance. We can’t go back in time, but we can change our future. Ask me not to let you go again, and I promise I won’t.”
My stomach dipped and my breath left me in a rush as relief flooded my veins and silent tears ran down my cheeks. Everything he’d confessed to…I’d felt it too.
I’d been obsessed with him ever since I found his picture waiting for me. I knew I was coming to find him even before I read the letter.
I came to Idlewild forhim.
Rowdy’s arms loosened enough to pass a soothing hand over my stomach as if he could sense my inner turmoil, and the truth I’d hidden even from myself.
“Fucking you, taking care of you, coming home to you every day…I haven’t felt this passionate about something since I fixed my first car. I can’t stop, Atlas. I willneverstop. I need you to claim me too.”
I sucked in a breath when that same hand traveled beneath my dress, finding my panties with ease and slipping inside…
Remembering we weren’t alone, I grabbed his wrist. His next words loosened my grip, however, before I could stop his fingers from finding my clit and stealing away every rational thought until there was only him.
“You think this will end with you in love and alone, but what if you’re wrong?” His fingers sailed through my wetness, dipping lower until he found my entrance. He circled my wet hole, taunting me until I whined, and then he pressed inside. Rowdy filled me up until my hips answered, winding to get him deeper.
“You always said you hated how I treated the women I’ve fucked, but you never asked me why,” he continued. I gasped when he added a third finger. “It’s because of you. I didn’t just wait my entire life for you, Atlas. I saved all my kisses and compliments. I swallowed every promise. I guarded my loyalty…for you. I kept my heart hard as stone so that when the day came I found the woman I couldn’t hold any of that back for, I’d know without a doubt that I’d found the one.”
“Oh, Owen.”
