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“Things were said in the heat of the moment.” Shaking my head, I tried to gather my thoughts. Find the right words to let him off the hook. “They meant nothing.”

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” he asked, stomping up on the porch. “I held you in my arms and told you I meant what I said. Was that not clear enough?”

I didn’t have words. He sounded so angry, and I wasn’t sure why. I wasn’t holding him to what he said. I was letting him off the hook.

Letting him off the hook? Or you?

“I fucking love you, Melissa!”

“What?” I whispered.

“I love you. You’re it, Princess. My queen. My future. My fucking happy ever after.”

Shaking my head, I pulled away. “No, you can’t.” I was confused. He was saying the words, but he didn’t mean them. He couldn’t.

“I left the club.”

My head snapped up and I turned to glare at him. “What?”

“Gave King my cut.”

“Why? Why would you do that?”

“Woman, are you not listening to me? I goddamn love you. You don’t want to be with a biker. Well, I’m not a damn biker anymore.”

I didn’t know what to say. How to respond. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you love me. Tell me you want me as much as I want you.”

Travis stepped in front of me. My eyes roamed over his face, looking into his eyes. Searching for any micro inflection that would tell me he was lying. He was a master at hiding his thoughts. Keeping his face blank so you couldn’t tell what he was thinking, what he was planning.

But right now, as I stared at him, it was like reading a book. The words were there in black and white. No metaphors, no hyperbole. Just truth.

“You left the club?” I asked, still unable to believe his words. “Why would you do that?”

“Because you’re more important than the club, Princess. I want you in my life and if I can’t have both, I will choose you every fucking time. The club was there for me when I needed them. I love my brothers as if we were connected by blood. But you’re my life. My heart.”

Taking my hands in his, he brought them up and kissed my knuckles.

“The night we met, you crawled your snarky little ass under my skin and for months, there was an itch that I couldn’t scratch. A sensation so debilitating that nothing I did brought me relief. Until a few days ago, when I walked out of church and saw you standing in the clubhouse. Suddenly, everything in my life was set right. I can’t let you go. I can’t live this life without you. I won’t.”

Tears slipped from my eyes. A feeling came over me, something unfamiliar. I should be happy. I should be jumping for joy that someone would give up everything for me, rather than give up on me.

“Go back,” I told him, shaking my head. “You can’t just walk away.”

“Jesus Christ, woman. Just tell me you love me!”

Inhaling a shaky breath, my hands went to his face, holding him in place while I looked into his eyes. “I love you, Travis.”

“Thank fuck,” he cried before lifting me off the floor and walking into my cabin. His lips were on mine as he walked down the short hall looking, I presumed, for a bedroom.

“On the left,” I directed against his lips, not wanting to pull my lips from his.

Travis set me back on the floor and our hands were frantic as we pulled at each other’s clothes. Hastily, I worked on his belt. Tugging at the leather, trying to free it from the buckle and loops that kept me from my destination.

Dropping to my knees, I pulled his jeans down. His cock bounced against his abdomen once it was free. Looking up at him from where I sat at his feet, I smiled. Wrapping my hand around his firm member, I leaned in to lick the head.

His hiss could have been mistaken for pain, except I knew he loved this. Squeezing the base as I wrapped my lips around him, he groaned and his hand landed on the back of my head.