I meant every word I said to Adley. She’s mine, and I’m not sharing. I’ll be damned if anyone thinks they have any sort of hold on her or over her. I won’t stand to see her manipulated or manhandled.

I start the car and ease onto the main road, coasting slowly through town before turning right at the intersection. She doesn’t bother objecting when I make the turn for my house instead of heading to hers.

Now that the adrenaline coursing through me has slowed, I feel the throb from my hand to my shoulder. I have decent form, so if I’m feeling it, Adley must really be suffering.

Good.

I can’t even think about him without my vision going hazy around the edges. I look over to find her eyes on me, but even that connection that hums between us isn’t enough to ease my nerves right now.

As soon as we pass under the train bridge, I pull off on a side road, then turn again into the storage units off Carnegie.

I throw the car in park, lock the doors, then unlatch my seatbelt in a matter of seconds.

I turn to her, desperate, my voice shaking as I make my request.

“Get over here. I need to fucking feel you.”

She wastes no time scrambling to undo her seatbelt, climbing over the center console as I move the driver’s seat as far back as it’ll go.

As soon as she straddles me, she sinks down, and I wrap my arms around her. I hold her as tight as possible, burying my face into the scratchy lace of her top as she shucks off my jacket she’s wearing.

“It’s okay,” she soothes, running her nails along the back of my head as I squeeze her even tighter. “I’m okay. We’re okay.”

A crushing sense of need slams into me then, and I have to pull her face down to mine and kiss her. I have an obligation to her—but it’s so much more than that. Taking care of this woman isn’t just my responsibility—it feels like my goddamn purpose. Never in my life have I wanted something for myself the way I want her now.

It’s disorienting. And disconcerting. But I refuse to fight it. I claimed her in front of a hundred people tonight. I told Adley she was my girlfriend. And yet I’m still not satisfied. I’m desperate to know that we’re on the same page. I’m determined to make sure she knows she’s mine.