Page 56

I scurry down the hall and get in front of him, placing my hands on his chest. “Stop it. Juststop it.Talk to me, will you?”

He shakes his head, and grips me hard behind my neck, guiding me back into the bedroom and slamming the mastersuite door behind us. “Don’t you fucking get it yet, Kat?” His voice is thick and dark. Heavy and dangerous. The power of his grip starts to short-circuit my mind.

“Getwhat?” I gasp.

“You. Me. Fuckingthis.” He yanks me up against him, pulling me close.

But I do get it. I get it in my soul. In my very being. The shackles he had on my heart as a girl are nothing compared to the vice grip around my heart now.

Tears sting my eyes and blur my vision. “I can’t let anything happen to you, Trent. I can’t. If I don’t have you, I don’t have anything.” My voice is shaking with emotion, but I don’t even try to stop it now.

He slides his hand up the back of my neck, softer now, drawing my forehead in close to his. “I fucking love you, Kat. Not ‘you’re my little sister’ love. Not ‘you’re my family’ love. None of that. I love you. Iworship you.You’re my fucking purpose.”

Tears spill down my cheeks as I hold him tight, keep him close. My brother, my lover, my everything. “I love you, too. With all my heart.”

“Ihaveto love you, you hear me? This love for you, it doesn’t let me sleep. It doesn’t let me breathe. But I can’t fucking live without it.” He takes a deep breath, his chest filling out the gray t-shirt with the word SEAL in faded navy ink. “Do you get that?”

“Yes,” I say, just a whisper. “I always have.”

“Sometimes I wish it didn’t exist. Sometimes I can’t imagine life without it. But you’re it for me. And you have been for all my life”

His words hit me like a crashing tidal wave. To have him say it, to hear it in his voice without hesitation, it’s as real as the breath filling my lungs.

He releases his grip on the back of my neck and pulls medown on his lap, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I need to know, right fucking now, if you are in this as deep as me.”

I wrap my arms around him, inhaling his warmth, his musky familiar scent. “You know I am.”

He growls at me, like he isn’t finished. “I’ve danced around this for years. But being home, finally touching you, finally being inside you. I can’t fucking undo this. And if you aren’t ready, then I’ll accept that. No regrets. But if you’re in, I need to hear you say it.”

My heart tumbles in my chest, like a runaway train. Everything has come down to this moment.

About him, I am sure. Sure as anything I’ve ever known. But I also know that this thing between us, it may be simple. But it’s also the ultimate taboo. “What will we tell people?”

“I don’t give a single fuck about anybody else.”

My gasp comes out as a laugh. “I know you don’t.” I sniffle away my tears and lower my head against his shoulder. “I know.”

He rubs my back gently, tracing my every curve and valley. “I’m lost in you like I’ve never been lost in anything before. And I can’t take another breath without knowing, without total fucking certainty, that you are in as deep as me.”

Deep as the deepest ocean. There is no love deeper than this. “I am, Trent. I am.”

His body softens, ever so slightly, and his embrace becomes warmer and more protective. Heat radiates from his body into mine, pulling me into him like a powerful force field.

He tips me back slightly so I’m able to look him in the eye. I watch the pulse in his neck pound as he shifts slightly, placing his thumb on my chin and staring deep into my eyes.

“I’ll always love you. I’ll always be here. But what happens next depends on you.”

Looking into his eyes, I see the face of that handsome teenager he used to be, leaning in through my doorway. The facethat was always there when I needed it most. To defend me. To love me. To protect me.

How many women in the world have a love like this? This history. This loyalty. This quiver in their belly?

“I’m here. I love you. I’m not going anywhere. Ever. As long as you’ve loved me, I’ve loved you. That will never, ever change.”

He nods, grim but pleased. “Good. So now listen. And listen close.” His fingers slide down the small of my back and he grips my hips and ass with his huge hands. “I need you to stay right here. In this room. Until I get back. No fucking bullshit. No grocery store runs. Luke and Edward are going to stay and keep you safe, but I gotta go out for a while. While I’m gone, you don’t fucking leave this room. You stay away from the windows, you don’t even so much asthinkabout going outside.”

A deep pulse of terror rips through my stomach, through my heart. “Okay.”

“Good. Because I need you to realize that your life—that my life—depends on your being safe for the next little while.”