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He shook his head, giving her a fierce look. “I will always take care of you, Immy. You come first. That’s something Tobias and I agree on.”

“We do,” Tobias agreed in a low rumble.

“I think that’s another reason I find it easier to accept sharing you. Because if I ever started to act like him, I know that Tobias would put me on my ass. That he’d take me out before I could harm you. That gives me a lot of peace of mind.”

“Tobias doesn’t need to do anything to you, because you would never harm me,” Immy told him.

“I wouldn’t allow him to,” Tobias growled.

She glared at him. He was not being helpful.

“Having Tobias in the relationship helps. So does therapy. I decided that I no longer wanted my father to control me. That’s what he was doing. He was still controlling me from the grave. And it was making me miserable. Worse, it was hurting you. I didn’t think I deserved you, Immy. And when I thought about touching you, kissing you, making love to you, it would bring up memories of what he’d said to me.”

“Oh no.” Would he ever be able to touch her like that?

“But the therapist has helped me a lot. He’s shown me different ways to cope when the memories try to overcome me. I have coping mechanisms and I’m able to separate my Immy from what he said. From that Immy, who never actually existed. Does that make sense?”

“It does.”

“The therapist is also helping me to see that I don’t have to take everything on my shoulders. All the responsibility of taking care of everyone. That part is surprisingly hard. I’m ready to make you mine, but I’m not so sure I’m ready to let go of feeling responsible for everyone. However, I also don’t want to be this workaholic. So I’m trying to sort my head out. And my therapist is helping.”

“I’m so glad. I don’t want you to feel that you have to work yourself to death for us and I hate that when you looked at me, you saw whatever your father said about me.”

“It was bad. Really bad,” he said. “I’d wake up in nightmares. That was also the reason I’d sneak into your room at the cult. I was scared that he was going to follow through and actually do some of the things he’d said he would do.”

God. She couldn’t even imagine what he’d gone through.

“I thought it would be better after we left the cult and for a while, it was. Until my feelings for you started to change and develop and every time I got attracted to you . . . I felt like the worst bastard in the world. As though I was scum.”

“Jenner, no,” she whispered.

“Never thought I’d get the chance to be the man you deserve, but you take this chance on me and I will never hurt you again. I fucking hate that I ever hurt you. I will be the man you need. I know I should probably walk away. That might be the best thing for you . . . but God, I’d be fucking miserable for the rest of my life.”

“And so would I,” she told him fiercely. “Because I love you as much as you love me. And I need you in my life. Please, please don’t leave me.” A sob escaped her.

“I won’t, baby. I won’t. I’ll love you the way you deserve. Forever.”

He hugged her lightly and tears dripped down her face. Then he drew back and wiped her tears away from her cheeks.

“Yuck, I’m all snotty.”

“I don’t care.” Jenner grabbed some tissues to clean her up. “Not sure what my therapist will say about the sort of relationship we’re proposing, but I don’t care what other people think. All I care about is what you want.”

She glanced over at Tobias who was watching her steadily. “To have two of you . . . that would be amazing. A miracle. And way more than I could ever deserve.”

“That’s not fucking true,” Tobias told her fiercely. “You deserve to be happy every minute of every day for the rest of your life.”

“What he said.” Jenner winked at her and she smiled tremulously.

“So we’re really going to do this?” she asked. “Tobias? Are you sure this is what you want? That you can handle it?”

“I can handle it,” he said. “Not gonna lie and say I won’t get jealous because I don’t know what the future will bring. But I’ll do my best to work it out myself. Or with Jenner. We need to figure out how we’ll do this. A partnership. Where we both take care of our girl. I had thought to get rid of him. I was making plans to extract him from your life.”

“Nice to hear,” Jenner said dryly.

“Just the truth. We’re gonna do this, figure honesty and communication are going to be key.”

“Where did you read that? On the back of a cornflakes box?” Jenner asked.