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“I love you, Delilah.” He holds me under my chin,his hand snug against my throat. “You’re not an easy target. You’re not naive. And there’s nothing about you that isn’t worth protecting.”

His words knock the rest of my defenses down and when he places my glasses back on my face, my heart twists.

“I remember meeting you that night,” I tell him quietly.

“Yeah?”

“Mhm. And I know why I asked you for a hundred dollars.”

“Why?”

“I needed it to apply for my apartment with Indigo.” I sniff, wiping the last of this batch of tears. “I didn’t know the flowers I bought for my dad were going to cost that much. I met Indigo two days after you.”

“She gave you the money?”

“No.” I laugh. “We were both broke. That night, I found ten thousand dollars in my father’s safe I don’t think even Wes knew about. I memorized the code when he used to make me sit in there with him all day. I was surprised he didn’t change it after all those years, but it worked out. I had enough to get my apartment and get settled before I looked for a job.” In a way, I got at least a fraction of an inheritance.

Istillhad to rely on Weston as a co-signer because my credit was nonexistent at the time. Hell, Iwasnonexistent. When the apartment complex did a background check, they thought I was committing fraud because of how new my identity seemed.

“I knew that little minimum wage job wasn’t paying your bills,” he scoffs.

“Itwas.” I snort at the disbelieving look he gives me. “Not all of them but it was enough for me.”

Adonis flexes his fingers around my neck before dipping his head to kiss me again. Then one more time.

“You never have to work again if that’s not what you want to do.” He stares at me so intently my eyes water from trying to maintain his gaze. “You never gotta doanythingyou don't want ever again, baby. This is your world, Delilah. I’m just happy I get to live in it. Let me make it easy for you.”

“You can’t fix me, Adonis.” Even though I appreciate the effort, I have to be honest. “I’m going to have a lot of days like this.”

“I don’t want to fix you because I don’t see you as broken, Delilah. You already saved yourself, I just want to make the rest of your life calm. That’s it, that’s all I want.”

“I’m not a calm person, Adonis.”

He smiles. It’s reluctant, just like that first day but no less mesmerizing. “You think I don’t know that? You’re a menace, but you’re mine.”

My nose scrunches at his deadpan expression and he runs his thumb over my cheek.

“You shot me and I’m still here. Safe to say I lack any sense of self-preservation when it comes to you.”

“Adonis, please. That bullet barely scraped you.”

“Victor had to give me stitches.”

Laughter chases away the last of my tears and I find him looking at me with tender affection covering his handsome face.

“I can’t wait to show you how good it can get.” His fingers trail over my hairline, pushing back the strands that had fallen in my face. “Just give me a chance to prove that to you.”

Chapter 44

What Now?

DELILAH

Ithought finally getting my G.E.D meant I would wake up and know exactly what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

That didn’t happen.

Turns out, my aspirations in life are to be left the fuck alone and to hang out with my boyfriend’s dog all day.