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“You don’t have to ask me twice, pet.” And she didn’t.

Ainsley

Iwas finally goinghome. It had been almost two weeks since I was stabbed and then attacked again by the same guy who was now dead. A part of me wondered if I should have felt some sort of remorse but I didn’t. Knowing what the guy had done, not only to me but to others as well, I didn’t feel sorry for him at all.

While Cyrus helped me gather the few items I had, I was practically vibrating with excitement.

“I can see you bouncing over there, pet,” he laughed.

I went up to him and wrapped my arms around him from the side. “I’m exhausted. Sleeping in a hospital is damn near impossible. I need your bed.”

Cyrus kissed me hard on the mouth. “Our bed,” he said with a growl.

I shivered, pulling away before I got caught climbing him. I had to take it easy, which helped when it came to someone like Cyrus. He was patient. Way more patient than I ever was. Especially now that he had told me he had a present for me. I tried getting him to tell me what it was, but he insisted on waiting and said it would mean more if he could show me.

“Are you sure it’s okay for me to move into your room with you?” I asked Cyrus when we were finally in his SUV. I rolled down the window a couple of inches, breathing in the fresh scent of the mid-afternoon air.

“It is. I already talked to Greyson.” Cyrus started up the beast of a vehicle and cupped my inner thigh. “Not many people live there, even though there’s enough space. Greyson and Eve live in the back part of the house. Tray and Zillah have their own home but also a room at the clubhouse for whenever they’re in the area. Same with Catch and Sara. Sammy and I have part of the basement but finally moved into our own rooms. He had that done up while you were in the hospital.”

“I look forward to meeting everyone.” And I did. Even though I was nervous about meeting new people, especially with my aversion to talking, but being with Cyrus helped me with that fear. Not completely but it was definitely better than before.

“I know they look forward to meeting you as well, but I need you to get your rest, so you can get stronger.”

“Do you think we can stop by my apartment first?”

“Actually.” He pulled his phone out of the inside of his leather cut. “Text Cheesy and ask him to grab anything you want. He and Locke are going to rent the apartment. They already talked to the ladies who run the center about it.”

“Really? But I thought it was for victims of abuse, human trafficking and things like that, only.”

Cyrus glanced my way. “It seems Locke fits the criteria.”

“Oh.” My stomach fell. “That’s sad.”

“It is, pet.” He squeezed my thigh. “But don’t worry about that. I’ll get you sorted.”

We drove the rest of the way to the clubhouse in a comfortable silence. I still couldn’t believe I was moving in with him. I had been excited before but after getting attacked, twice, I thought maybe it wasn’t meant to be.

“Ainsley?”

I glanced at Cyrus but not before I saw a large house off in the distance. “Yeah?”

“There’s somewhere I want to take you. In time. I know you don’t do well in large crowds or I’m assuming you don’t anyway. You were fine at the library that I took you to, but I imagine it’s because you were in your element. Am I right?”

“You are,” I said, wondering what he was getting at and why he wouldn’t look at me.

As the large house neared, Cyrus’s hand on my thigh tightened. “I...”

“Pull over,” I told him.

“What?” He looked at me then.

“Pull over and tell me what it is you want to tell me or ask me. If there’s something you need to ask me, do it while it’s just the two of us.”

Cyrus did as I suggested and pulled the SUV off to the side of the road. He turned on the hazards, put the car into park, and leaned his arm on top of the steering wheel. “I never thought I would fall in love. Ever. Sammy and I joked when we were kids that it would just be us two and we would have sex with random women for the rest of our lives and that was it. It was a shitty thing to think and made us sound like assholes but it’s how it was for the longest time.” He looked at me then. “Until I met you. But even before I met you, I realized that sex wasn’t casual for a lot of women like they made it out to be. Some were clingy and made it hard to end things. I don’t have a psycho ex or anyone you have to worry about though.” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “I’m rambling.”

I grabbed his hand, bringing it up to my mouth. “You’re nervous. Don’t be. Not with me. Never with me, Cyrus.”

“I want you to know that everything we do is consensual. If you don’t want to do something, if you don’t even want to try it, we won’t. If we do something and you’re not feeling it, we’ll talk about it. If there’s something that you absolutely refuse to try, we won’t even talk about it and skip right over it.” He paused, waiting for me to comment, but when I didn’t because I was curious as to where this was going, he inhaled a deep breath. “I love you and I realized it when I thought I’d lost you. I can’t live without you.”