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“Gimme a minute to hold you, sweet.” Fin cups my jaw, his thumb feathering over my bottom lip that holds his brilliantly blue gaze in a way that I feel the caress down to the butterflies that flutter in my belly. “Then I’ll get you cleaned up.”
“And tacos.” My voice is just a whisper, the emotion sticking in my throat. His gaze flits up to mine and I know he sees the mist gathering there. I try to hide it, to blink the building tears away, but Fin has this way of knowing all the words that stick to my tongue and refuse to let loose.
“And tacos.” He nods in confirmation and slides on an easy grin that stretches his face. “I meant what I said before, Cedar.”
“What’s that?” I clear the frog from my throat and furrow a brow at him with a shaky sigh.
“You’re safe with me, sweet.Always.”
I let out a long and heavy breath, a release of tension leaving me along with it, my head nodding in knowing as I grip at his hair and drag him close enough to bring his lips a breath from mine. “I know, hotshot.”
And I kiss my man like my life depends on it.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Fin
Everythinghaschanged.
It doesn’t stop the drop to my heartrate when I notice Cedar’s mask fall back into place at times, but I find that the last two weeks have had me living for the moments when she takes the armor off and sets it aside just for me.
And waiting for that satisfying buzz of her tattoo gun.
She jokes, deflects shit she probably shouldn’t, but I still see the woman beneath the mask and I don’t think there’s anything on this planet that could stop me from finding her in everything around me.
Her scent between my sheets after I’ve shown her what it’s like to be treated right, that way she wants to be in the bedroom, and out of it.
She’s in the sunrise we stayed up long enough to watch, and the moon she admires most nights its clear enough to see. Even more so on the nights where it looks like one of those horror werewolf movies and the damn thing shines bright and is half covered in just the right amount of darkened clouds.
She’s in the way I now share my food because she never wants to order enough for herself for fear of judgment.
And she’s there in the soft touches in the middle of the night, or in the crowd of the day, where she no longer jumps at the contact, but instead smiles at me like maybe I made that fancy werewolf moon she likes.
I know there’s still a long way to go, but … we’re getting there. Together.
Now … it’s the smell of her shampoo filling my place after I ran the water hot enough for her to summon her demon friends from the pit of hell to join her and the itch of fresh ink on my hip, right along my Adonis belt.
Of a damn taco.
The first meal we shared, just us.
I snicker and pad my way across the now clean—ish—bedroom to the cracked open door where steam billows out when I push it open.
“Sweetness,” I call into the echoes of the water falling like pulsing streams and smacking off of skin and tile.
“Hotshot,”Cedar mimics a deep voice that makes hers crack and pulls a chuckle from my throat.
“I’m coming in,” I say to her silhouette that darkens the steam-covered glass I slide out of my way. “Hope you’re ready.”
Cedar smacks her lips and spins to me beneath the spray with wet skin and a grin she can’t hide. “It has not been ten minutes, liar.”
I shake my head and don’t hide my husky chuckle when Cedar’s gaze slides down my naked body.
Parts of me are still covered in cracking paint, the shit drying in places I’d rather not discuss, but none of it matters when her eyes slide easily over my torso to my junk that jumps at the attention and back up to my face with a smirk.
“Hmm,” I growl and push the door closed behind me to keep the rest of the hellfire warmth inside the massive shower with us. “Looks like my timing was perfect.”
Cedar’s tongue darts out to lick her curved lips that hides none of her wicked intentions. “Seems so, hotshot.”
