Page 171 of Severed Heart

“You did, you were, you did, Soldier. You know you did,” she finally says. “I saw you.”

“You saw a lost kid who reminded you of yourself, and I was, but that’s not all it was. I know that now. Do you?”

She nods, continually tracing my tattoo.

“I fell in love with the woman you gave me glimpses of. The woman who still had life inside her, but I also fell in love with the woman who was in so much pain that she drowned herself inside it because I felt that same pain every day. My soul searching right along with yours.”

Another tear splashes my chest.

“We might have come together because our scars matched, and we recognized we were missing the same thing, but we fell in love because we became the thing we bothneeded for one another,and that’s a sense of security, ofhome.” I swallow. “I knew you thought the worst of yourself for giving in that night. I was prepared to fight you on the morality of it all, especially after reading the letters, knowing you knew exactly what it was like with Alain. But when you pleaded with me to let go because you didn’t want any more reason for them to hate you, I released you immediately because deep down, I did know they were your only true weakness. Dom especially.”

I continually run my hands down her hair, which feels like heaven between my fingers.

“When I knelt in front of you weeks ago, all those years later, I saw you searching my eyes for the place we created. I saw that we were both lost because we’d lost the peace, security, and place we had found in each other when we parted that morning.”

Another tear, and then another.

“I saw you recognize the boy you bonded with had become the man he hoped and promised you he would be, and then I saw your eyes dim because you didn’t think that boy recognized home inside you anymore. But I did, Delphine. I saw it, and I still loved you. When I drove away from your house, I couldn’t think of a reason for either of us to be without that peace anymore.”

“You became that soldier, that man, Tyler.”

“I became the soldier I swore I would be because it’s all I’ve truly had since I lost that peace a second time. Even though I tried to make myself hate you for it, your voice helped me through some of the worst fucking days of my life. Even in your absence, you were still with me. You would find me in the black. I would hear you so fucking clearly.” My voice breaks as the memory seeps in. The pop of bullets, the helplessness I felt, the sheer terror in the eyes looking to me for guidance.

Open your eyes, Tyler.

Breathe. One. Two. Three.

See it. Envision a way out. Do you see it?

“But you see, even if I got close to forgetting you, writing what we had off, and trying to put it in perspective, I couldn’t. Because during the times I thought I escaped you—during my missions, through the worst of them, blood covering my hands, dirt beneath my fingernails, so fucking terrified, you were there. You were there with me, reminding me,” I croak, “and you saved me, us, all of us, so many,” I rasp hoarsely. “So many fucking times.”

Finally wrapping my arms around her, I allow the truth to pour from me. “But I didn’t come to you tosave you,Delphine.” I pull her tighter to me. “I came tothank you, to appreciate you, tofucking loveyou for the woman you are, not try and change you into some version of a woman I want you to be. I came back that day to spend time with the woman who recognized and embraced my darkness, as I did hers, and shaped me into her soldier. The woman who now and forever harbors the only place inside her that I will ever know that peace, home,” I whisper in the otherwise silent room.

“But if you lift your mouth to mine. If you offer me whatever you have to give, I’m going to fucking take it, and I’m going to keep it and protect it. But I warn you now, if you do, there’s not a thing on this fucking earth I’ll allow between us ever again. Not even you—especially not you.”

She instantly lifts her mouth to mine.

Chapter Forty-Five

DELPHINE

TYLER’S LIPS CAPTUREmine in a kiss that steals my breath while setting my soul alight. Moaning my relief into his perfectly parted lips, I instantly open with the demanding swipe of his tongue. Inhaling his exhales, he thrusts it into my mouth. Years of excruciating longing and emotion meld together with every languid swipe as our flames reunite. Lost in the sensation, his consuming kiss frees me to roam, and I thrust my fingers into his hair just as he turns me on my back without losing any of our connection. The transition is so smooth that I only realize I’m wrapped around him when he pulls away. Our eyes lock as we wordlessly gaze at one another for several long seconds before his declaration hits my parted lips.

“This is it, Delphine, there’s no going back,” he declares with certainty. “There’sno going back.”

“Soldier, I don’t ever want to,” I affirm, taking his mouth more forcefully and sinking easily into the most erotic, most beautiful kiss of my life. Just after, emotion takes hold as elated tears glide down my temples. Pained exhales leave us both as we erase the years between us as he delves again and again. My return kiss is fueled with all I feel as I free myself to map every inch of his muscled skin, soaking it up with my fingers while worshipping with my palms as we feed incessantly. His touch is just as fevered as if we’ve both been starving all this time—the intensity of each kiss eradicating what space remains. When he finally pulls away, we continue to share breath, our lips so close, our eyes bolted.

“Tyler,” I whisper as I stare straight into the molten desire and warmth that I’ve been begging God to restore. Though his room is dark, I can easily see it everywhere in his expression as I palm his jaw. “Soldier, God, how I’ve missed this look,” I whisper. “How I prayed for it—prayed foryou. Je suis désolé,”I’m sorry, “please, forgive me. I was such a fool.”

“Shh, not tonight.” He shakes his head, negating all possibilities for arguments of the past as he recaptures my mouth. This kiss turning far more carnal as I start to squirm beneath him, pressing myself against him more urgently. Gripping my hair, he gently pulls, exposing my throat before covering it in tongued-filled kisses.

“Plus s’il vous plait,”more please, I cry out, my entire body drawing as I lower my hand toward his briefs. Just as I near the waistband, he stops it, pulling my hand between our flush bodies to run his lips along my fingers.

“We,” he exhales, halting all movement. “And ... I can’t fucking believe I’m saying this, but we can’t gotheretonight.”

“It’s only asuggestionto wait twenty-four hours after wax,” I sigh, “now I wish I had not”—my neck heats—“I was not expectingthis.”

“Fucking hell,” he groans, dropping his forehead between my breasts as he laces our fingers together, pinning them next to my head. “You’re making things a lot worse,” he whispers, his voice filled with desire. “But that’s not the type of wait I’m talking about. It’s just too soon to tax your body this way, and you know it. You’re still struggling with fatigue day to day. And fair warning, if I so much asglimpseyour freshly waxed pussy tonight,we’re both going to die.”