“I simply realized you were never the unworthy one. I was. I didn’t—don’t—deserve you, but I want and need you.” He cupped her cheeks, meeting her gaze with all the intensity she’d praised. “You are—”

A light tap, tap sounded at the door. “Judging by the moans and groans I heard, I’m guessing Bane has returned,” Zion called. “Now that you’ve got your reunion out of the way, come out and see the gift I have for you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The romantic getaway is over. Now what?

DAMN ZION’S POOR TIMING.

Heart like a freight train, riding his ribs like rails, Bane untangled from Nola and stood. Though he’d experienced complete satisfaction mere moments ago, his nerves were raw and exposed, the rest of him knocked off-kilter. He wanted her back in his arms. She was the center of the storm. His calm. But she was also the storm itself.

To resist primal temptation, he had to draw from a reservoir of strength he’d reserved for emergencies. Didn’t help that the beast wanted her back in his arms, too, and battered his skull in protest. Never had the fiend reacted this way to another. Hungry for a specific female, possessive of her and vulnerable to her. Totally out of control. Wild and fearful.

If anything were to happen to her...

Nothing will happen. I will protect her life with my own.

She stood and rested her head against his shoulder, as if she couldn’t bear to part from him. Pang. When he held her like this, he couldn’t regret the hardships that had brought them together.

To experience this time with her, he would gladly suffer anything.

“I hoped to cuddle you right this time,” he said, bending to kiss her nape. At the site of contact, goose bumps broke out.

“Okay,” she said. “What happened to my stoic grumble bear?”

Grumble bear? “He met you.” He cupped her beautiful face and brushed the tip of his nose against hers, then pressed a tender kiss to her puffy, well-loved lips. “I’m keeping you, Nola. Do you understand what that means?”

Her eyes widened. “I think I do. Maybe.” Water droplets clung to her lashes, and a flush stained her cheeks. “I mean, you’re looking at me like I’m your next meal, and you currently don’t want me going back for Meredith.”

“Currently?” She thinks I will change my mind?

Heat descended over his spine, quickly spreading to his limbs. “I will never want you going back.” Forgive me, Meredith.

When his wife needed him most, Bane had failed her. He wished she had lived, but even if she’d materialized right here, right now, he suspected things would be different between them.

The admission gutted him. The years apart had changed him. He wasn’t the man Meredith had loved, and she wasn’t the woman he...needed.