Page 110 of Reins

“I like that you said ‘when’ not ‘if’,” he husks against the hollow under my jaw.

I find myself rolling in his arms so I can look into his blazing amber gaze. “I know I want them.” Touching him is my happy place. I give in to stroking his cheek. “You’ve taught me just how much love I have to give, that I never got to use. It’s scary but in a normal way. It isn’t bombs and torture.” The thought brings another shiver through me.

“No, Ros.” He cups my fingers to his jaw. “It’s hope. It’s the future that we get to pick.”

“Do you think if we—” I follow the line of his neck over his Adam’s apple. “—chose tonight, that we’d still be chasing evil in nine months?”

“Mmm.” The rumble that comes out of him makes heat condense into a throbbing ball in my belly. “I think no matter what I’d walk away from it forever. You are my priority, baby.”

My hand moves lower, threading through the gap between the buttons of his shirt to press against his skin. “Cade?” I nestle closer, my body begging for every point of contact. “Kiss me?”

A smile flickers over his lips before they crash into mine.

In a torrent of clothes, our mouths and limbs move in a whirlwind of frantic need.

It’s only as he hovers over me, the tip of his rigid cock poised at my entrance, that he pauses.

“Ros?” His panting bathes my throat. “I choose you, forever. If you want us to walk away from Montana tomorrow, I will. Baby or no baby.” He brushes his nose against mine. “You are my wife. Black Gulch left me behind a long time ago.” Peppering kisses over my temple and down my jaw, he raises again to meet my eyes. “We can leave for Texas in the morning. I just—” His belly presses mine when he takes a long breath. “—as bad as I want this, I don’t want you to feel like this is the only option for all the bullshit to end.”

My nails rake lightly over his ribs and I wrap my heels behind his thighs, coaxing him further. “It has to end, one way or another or they’ll never stop.” Rolling my hips sinks him into me. “But the hope of starting a family with you will give me the strength to survive it.”

His groan when he fills me removes any doubt that may have been clinging to the shadows of my decision.

And as he starts to move, every thrust builds me higher, lifting me to a pinnacle of the foundation he’s built with his patience and love.

Whatever happens tomorrow, I know that tonight, as we shudder in ecstasy while wrapped in each other’s arms, that the past no longer defines us.

Chapter 52 - Cade

The text notification rouses me from the tangle of Rosalyn’s limbs. Her thigh frames mine even as she lets out a tiny sigh when I stir, then settles back into the pillows.

Shit.

It wasn’t just one message.

Wade’s sent close to twenty.

Peeling myself away from the hot press of her skin feels like treason to tiptoe into the living room and call him.

“Cade, I could really use another set of hands.” He doesn’t even say ‘hi’.

“I wasn’t planning on being there. If my brothers catch me there, they’ll tan my hide before I can explain.” Rubbing my temples, I find myself pacing the small space as the anxiety starts to build.

“We haven’t found anything but the damn trucks are starting to roll in. Without knowing what in the hell I’m even looking for, it’s turning into a needle in a fucking stack of needles.” He muffles his end to bark orders to someone in the background, then comes back to the line. “I just don’t want to shut shit down based on an invoice from December when we don’t know if this is even the target.”

My teeth grit. It might not have been before but I doubt Eli or John will let this opportunity pass after it was announced. There’s gonna be thousands of people and my gut says there’s a serious threat.

When the bedroom door opens slowly, I catch Rosalyn’s grim set of her mouth.

“I’ll let you know in a few minutes,” I mutter into my cell.

“Cade. I need your help.” Wade’s voice cracks. “They’re my family too.”

I look directly into Rosalyn’s eyes. “My wife is the most important thing to me. I’ll let you know what we decide.”

Her tears well as she watches me hang up the phone. “Is it funny that it feels more real when you say it to other people?”

“Baby—” I meet her halfway, wrapping her naked body against mine. “—I’ll shout it from the mountaintops.” I kiss the top of her head, enjoying the press of her warm skin. “And you get a say in what happens today.” I pull back enough to look down at her. “Wade needs my help at the rodeo grounds. Between all the vendors and the people, they’re losing ground.”