Captain stood up and kept his heated gaze on me. He wasn’t smirking now or looking like he was about to say something else snarky. It was the first real expression I’d seen on him. “I’m not trying to upset you. I’m trying to show you that not all men are what they seem to be. No one is, sweetheart. I’ve seen it too many times. And the first time I looked into your eyes, I saw a pain I understood. Before you opened your mouth and enchanted my hard, bitter soul, I wanted to protect you. I can’t help that.”

I didn’t have words. He had to go. This was not an innocent lunch. “Leave, please,” I said, pointing at the door.

He didn’t argue. He simply nodded his head, turned, and walked out.

I stood there staring at that closed door for several minutes. He was dangerous. I couldn’t let him get near me again. I didn’t want his honesty. I didn’t want his truths. I just wanted Mase.

Mase

Something was bothering Reese. From the time I’d picked her up this afternoon, she had seemed off. Her smile didn’t meet her eyes. She also seemed clingy. Not that I was complaining. But she didn’t let me get far from her. We had showered together and had sex on the bathroom counter before moving to the sofa and curling up together.

She was currently sitting in my lap with her arm around my shoulders and her head on my chest. The guilt about last night was still digging at me. Was that why she was acting so differently? She was worried I’d leave her again? Did she think she had to hold on to me? I fucking loved it when she clung to me, but I didn’t want her doing it because she felt like she had to.

I wanted her to know I was always hers. No need to cling to me. I wasn’t going anywhere. I trailed my fingertips over her bare thighs, thinking about all we’d been through and how far she’d come.

She had grown so much, and I would never forgive myself if my stupid actions took that away from her. She was mine, but I was just as much hers. No one else would have me this way.

“I love you,” I whispered into her hair.

“I love you, too,” she replied, and traced a heart on my chest with her finger.

“I won’t leave you again,” I told her. I needed her to believe me.

She didn’t reply. Instead, she continued tracing that heart on my chest over and over.

“You own me, Reese. Know that, baby. Know that I’m yours.”

She stopped tracing on my chest and tilted her face up to look at me. “What if, one day, you’re not mine anymore and you can’t help it?”

What did she mean by that? “I can swear to you that you will always be it for me. No one fits me like you. No one makes me feel whole. No one else ever will.”

She smiled and pressed a kiss to my chest. “I want to believe that.”

Well, fuck me. I wanted her to believe that, too. I thought she did. Had my one stupid mess-up last night made her doubt that? Doubt me?

I cupped her face and held her so that she was looking directly into my eyes. “Do you see me? This man in front of you will love you until the day he dies. You’re my one, Reese. My one.”

She relaxed in my arms and leaned into me. “OK.”

OK? Ha! That was all she was going to say? OK?

“Does that ‘OK’ mean you believe me?”

She nodded. “I believe you. I always believe you.”

Pulling her tight against my chest, I held on to her. This was my home. She was where my home would always be. It was time I took the next step and proved to her that I was all in. Forever.

Reese was talking to her father on the phone this morning. She didn’t have to go to work until nine, so she had called her dad to catch him up on things. Checking in with family wasn’t something Reese was used to doing. I expected him to want her to come visit again soon, and I needed to prepare the ranch for my absence. She wasn’t going without me again.

“Yes, I love it there. Piper, my boss, is really great. And I learned to brush down the horses,” she said, chatting away happily.

Just hearing her made me smile. I hadn’t been sure how I felt about him walking into her life like he had at first. I’d been afraid he was out for something. But he hadn’t been. He’d honestly wanted to know his daughter. Reese had needed that more than I even realized. The horror from her past seemed to be fading away for her, though I knew it would always be a part of her in some way. She just wasn’t letting it define her life. She didn’t use her mother and her stepfather as excuses not to achieve more. Reese believed in herself.

After I dropped Reese off at work, I went to Momma’s. I hadn’t talked to her since the Aida thing. I knew Aida’s truck was gone, but I didn’t ask about it. Seeing her gone was more of a relief.

Major’s truck was still there, though. He’d been gone all day yesterday, but apparently, he hadn’t left town. I parked my truck and headed inside.

Major was drinking a cup of coffee and eating again. “What do you think this is? A bed-and-breakfast?” I grumbled, walking inside to go kiss my momma and get myself a cup of coffee.

“Don’t be hating. There’s plenty for you, too,” he said with a mouth full of food.

“Good morning, son,” Momma said.

“Morning, Momma.”

“Reese at work?” she asked.

I nodded and took a sip of the hot liquid.

“Did you tell her your cousin has the hots for you?” Major asked.

If we hadn’t been in Momma’s kitchen, I’d have put my fist in his face.