“Wolfe. You can’t settle for that. They’d never treat you like that. I don’t see you like that.”
He stared at her. “When I’m with you, I don’t want to be that. I want to be more. But I’m not sure I can or I know how.”
“But you’ll try,” she whispered, realizing this is why he’d wanted her in his bed tonight.
“Watching you with Caleb in the playroom, I realized that I wanted that feeling of closeness with you. But it’s difficult for me.”
It was a punch to the gut. She realized then just how badly she’d hurt him. She’d done the worst thing possible.
She’d left.
“I’m so sorry, Wolfe.” More tears dripped down her cheeks. “I should have stayed. I thought I was doing what was best. Instead, I messed everything up. I can’t be trusted with decisions. Will you ever be able to trust me again?”
“You left to protect us.”
“Yes. But I hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you.”
“Caleb always tells me it’s okay to make mistakes, it’s how we learn.”
“He told me that too.”
“Perhaps he’s on to something. Don’t tell him I said that, though. He can be insufferable when he believes he’s right.”
Pot meet kettle. She had to bite her lip to hold in the smile.
“That’s better.” He ran a thumb over her cheek. “I don’t like when you cry, it means I’m not doing my job properly.”
“Crying is sometimes a good thing. Helps me get rid of a lot of pent-up emotion.”
“Hmm, is that so?” A calculating look came over his face. “Would you say you need to cry regularly to help release your emotions?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say regularly. . .” Where was he going with this? Because she was starting to get worried.
“A spanking could help you cry and release all those emotions. I could put one into your schedule. Maybe a weekly one. Or a daily one.”
He wasn’t being serious. Was he? Oh God, with Wolfe it was so hard to tell.
“No, no, I don’t think we need to schedule that,” she said hastily.
“Hmm, you could be right. With how naughty you are, you’ll be getting them regularly anyway.”
Her mouth dropped open. “I am not naughty!”
“No? So you didn’t just disobey me by moving around when I told you not to?”
Her mouth slammed shut. Then opened again. “You’re not going to spank me, are you?”
“Not right now. I think you’ve cried enough.”
Good.
“But it’s coming.”
Eek!
He stood.
“Wolfe? Thank you for coming for me, even though you hated me.”
He sighed. “Princess, I will always come for you. Won’t lie, I didn’t want to. I thought you’d hurt us again. I didn’t want that for Caleb or Aleki.”
“Or you?”
He nodded. “Or me. But I now know there’s no way I could have sat around while you were in danger. Guess that’s why I never turned off that GPS locater. I figured one day you’d need us to ride to your rescue.”
She gave him a mock-glare at that. “I’m not a damsel in distress.”
“And we’re not white knights.”
But they were. They might not be typical heroes, but they were her heroes.
“I know I’m not easy, Genevieve. I’m not normal—”
She opened her mouth but he held up a hand to her. She remained silent.
“But I’ll do whatever it takes to protect this family. To keep us all together. You just have to promise that you won’t leave. Not ever again. Don’t leave and I can deal with anything else that is thrown at us.”
“I promise. I won’t ever leave.” And she wouldn’t. No matter what.
He gave her a solemn nod. “I believe you. I might still have problems sometimes, so if you need some space, you have to tell me, okay? I know I’ve still got the GPS going but if I don’t have eyes on you, I get . . . antsy.”
She got it. To someone else that might feel stifling. But after his childhood, if he needed to keep track of where she was in order to be settled then she’d happily give him that.
“I get it. I won’t go anywhere without telling you.”
“And you’ll tell me if anything I do is too much. When it comes to you, I need you to show me the line. Doesn’t mean I won’t push that boundary, but I’ll always respect your safeword.”
“I know you will.” Because she knew he’d never hurt her.
He stared down at her, his gaze darkening. But for an entirely different reason.
“You’re naked.”
Oh. So she was. She’d completely forgotten.
How embarrassing.
She looked him over. He was wearing a pair of black, pin-striped button-up pajamas. The buttons were done right up to the top. The pajamas looked like they’d been ironed. Not a wrinkle in sight. On someone else, it might have looked weird or out-of-place. On Wolfe, it looked sexy as hell. Especially with those black-rimmed glasses.
“Fuck, I didn’t think it would go up after all of that.”
It? Up? Then it connected. Oh. She glanced at his crotch, which was pushing against his pajama bottoms. Right.
Holy. Hell.
Reaching down, he picked up a T-shirt off the floor. It was sitting next to a blanket and small bag that he must have brought in with him. He slid the T-shirt over her head and then carefully drew her injured arm through the armhole. It smelled like bergamot and mint. Like Wolfe.
“This is yours?”
He grunted. “When we sleep together, you wear one of my shirts, not theirs.”
It was the first hint of proper jealousy she’d seen and it made her feel slightly uncomfortable. “You don’t like me sleeping with them?”
His eyes narrowed. “When it’s their turn, that’s fine. As long as everyone gets their time alone with you, then I have no problem with it.”
Oh. Okay, that made her feel better.
“Just don’t want you in their shirts while I’m in bed with you.”
She could understand that. “I could wear my own clothes, you know.”
He grunted. “No. Wearing my clothes marks you as mine. Probably a caveman thing, but it makes me feel satisfied.”
She stared at him in shock. Was he admitting to a feeling? He seemed kind of surprised by that himself. And a bit confused.
She knew that he was about to withdraw from her, maybe walk out the door, so she quickly searched for something to distract him. The intimacy of sleeping together was likely a big deal for Wolfe.
“What’s the blanket for?”
A hint of red entered his cheeks. Her mouth dropped open. She quickly slammed it shut. Last thing she wanted was to embarrass him further.
It was just . . . Wolfe? Embarrassed? She hadn’t realized it was possible.
“It’s a weighted blanket,” he explained. “Caleb got it for me when I was having trouble sleeping after leaving the SEALs. I thought with your nightmares, I know that you like being held at night and I . . . you know what, maybe it’s a stupid idea . . .”
“No.” She stood and walked over to him. “It’s a great idea. It might be just what I need.”