Page 113 of Breaking Conviction

Wes laid her out on the quilt and Naomi grabbed his shirt collar to pull him on top of her, kissing him with fervor. Wes broke away and stroked her dark auburn hair back before locking his icy blue eyes onto hers. All she wanted in the moment was to tell him how she felt.

“You’ve changed my life, you know.”

He chuckled and gave her a peck. “You’ve changed mine too, you know.”

“No. I mean...” she sighed, unsure if she’d ever be able to fully show this man how appreciative she was that he’d always been her champion. “Ilovemy life right now. I love helping you find those missing women and I love working at Sasha Saves, even if it is remotely right now.” She gave him a teasing, pointed look for his protectiveness.

“I mean, can you blame me on that one? I’ve got an ex-teammate that’s working with the enemy-at-large and you’ve got an ex that was just let out of jail on a GPS ankle monitor and God knows who was rich and powerful enough to convince the judge to let him go in the first place, let alone pay his bail. It’s safer if you’ve got backup and we don’t know who we can trust these days.”

His eyes shadowed with pain as he spoke and Naomi’s heart clenched. She knew Phoenix’s betrayal had wounded him to his core.

“I don’t blame you. I get it.” She blew out a breath and rubbed his arms. He hooked his arms underneath her back and rolled them so she straddled him. She grabbed his hands and held them. “I love how safe I feel for the first time in my life. Just... thank you.”

He tilted his head. “For what?”

“I don’t know if I’d have had the courage to leave Dean, if I didn’t have you. ToprosecuteDean if I didn’t have you as my rock to lean on.”

The day Dean had organized the bombing and tricked Naomi and Nora, he’d been arrested for violating a protection order at first. Police were trying to compile a case to charge everyone involved with bombing BlackStone, but neither she nor none of the BlackStone Crew were holding their breath.

Jules had explained the process and it’d take awhilebefore anything in the legal system actually came to fruition. But she wasn’t changing her mind. Naomi was going to make sure he finally was held responsible for his actions, stayed the fuck away from her, and got the help he needed. Even if it was court mandated.

“I probably would’ve put up with everything he did to me if you hadn’t come along. Maybe even until I couldn’t anymore.”

Wes’s eyes searched hers. “You helped me, too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I thought I was a monster before you. I’ve gone to therapy off and on for years. Afraid that what had happened to my mom had damaged me. I was scared that one day my switch would flip and everyone around me would be in danger. But I realized when you stopped me from going too far with Dean that I could stop. That I would never hurt you, no matter how angry I got.”

She nodded. “I’m never in danger with you.”

He smiled and she felt the warmth down to her core as he spoke. “Never.”

She bit her lip, finally mustering up the courage to tell him exactly how she felt. “I know what I feel is crazy. We’ve only even known each other for a few months and I was with another man for part of that. But you said a month ago that you were ‘all in’ with me. Well... I’m all in with you too, Wes. And everything that means.”

“Yeah?” he asked, and the boyish grin on his face made her heart light with emotion.

“Yeah.” She leaned over to kiss him and got lost in his lips before she whispered. “I’m all in.” She’d forgotten his hands were still in her grip until he squeezed them three times. She squeezed them back four.

I love you.

I love you, too.