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“I’m not as much of an avid reader like he is but I can appreciate the love for it. To slip into another world and escape your own for a couple of hours. It’s therapeutic.”

I nodded before I could stop myself. I had always been a reader but after being kidnapped and rescued, I fell into reading more. The center had a beautiful library that I lost myself in many times.

When we stepped in front of the building, I looked up and up.

“Come,” Cyrus said, tugging my hand gently, a wide grin spreading on his face.

He seemed to be almost as excited as I was with whatever this surprise was he had for me.

We walked up the steps. Cyrus let go of my hand to grab the doors for me and waited for me to pass.

As I stepped into the building, a gasp left me. It was a library. And not just any library. But an older one that you saw in movies. One I had always dreamed of going to but never thought I would.

Cyrus came up behind me, a single red rose coming into my vision.

My heart thumped, my eyes welling that he would do this for me. Me, a broken mess of a woman who never thought she would find any amount of happiness ever again. Especially not from someone like Cyrus.

I took the rose and brought it up to my nose, inhaling the sweet scent.

“My goal is to keep that smile on your face, Ainsley,” Cyrus murmured in my ear. “No matter what I have to do. Even if we fight, that smile is mine.”

I shivered as his deep voice washed over me. Turning toward him, I stood on tiptoes and placed a soft peck on his cheek.I can’t thank you enough for this.

“I can think of ways you can thank me later,” he offered, a sly grin spreading on his handsome face.

I laughed, shaking my head. He didn’t have to worry about that though. I already made it a goal to have him back in my bed. Now that we’d had sex already, we got that first moment of awkwardness out of the way. We could start enjoying each other more, getting to know what we liked and didn’t like. Cyrus had been gentle with me, but I found that it wasn’t something I wanted. Not always anyway. I would have to be patient, knowing that because of what I told him, he wouldn’t do anything to put me back in that place. To trigger a memory accidentally. But I wanted him to show me how he was and what he liked, so I could learn from him.

As we walked hand in hand through the library, I kept the rose at my nose and realized then that my feelings for Cyrus were blooming. Much like the flower in my hand.

***



















(Cyrus)

The smile on Ainsley’sface was something I vowed to always keep there. She was beautiful already, but she was absolutely stunning when her face lit up. I hadn’t seen her smile much and based on the little bit I got from Piper, she wasn’t a happy person. Understandably so with the shit she had told me.

I made a mental note to contact someone regarding what happened to Ainsley. She had said that some of the bastards running the trafficking ring had been killed, caught, or escaped. The ones who escaped were the ones I wanted to go after. But I wouldn’t. Not yet. Not until I knew that Ainsley trusted me enough to take her to the clubhouse and keep her there while I went after the fuckers who hurt her and everyone else they kept locked up.