Mel and Linc goofing around.
Rhys had Maggie by the hand and was spinning her fast, catching her, dipping her, spinning her again.
Peals of carefree laughter rode through the air.
Joy. Joy. Joy.
Richard spun me, too, only he stopped me when I was facing away and pulled my back to his chest.
He held me there, rocking us slow, nuzzling at my neck. His lips brushed the shell of my ear.
Chills spread.
“Look at you, Violet Ramsey. So fuckin’ sexy in this dress. Stealing my breath. Stealing my heart. It always belonged to you, and I’m begging you to never give it back.”
His words spiraled around me, and I nodded my head and felt the thunder of his heart where it rampaged at his ribs.
Severity rushed around us.
Threading his fingers through mine, he curled my arms and pressed our hands against my chest, hugging me tight from behind. “Forever.”
Then he extended our left hands out in front of us and brushed his thumb over the bare spot on my ring finger.
Then I was choking over the affection that filled every crevice in my being when I saw what he held in his right hand.
The ring.
The ring that had been his grandmother’s. I hadn’t felt right keeping it, so I’d sent it certified mail to his mama rather than facing any of them to return it.
I’d felt the loss of it ever since.
“This has always belonged to you, Violet. Just like my heart.”
I exhaled a shaky sigh, almost as shaky as my hands, barely able to keep it together when he slipped the ring back onto my finger.
Then he spun me again and curled me into his arms. “You,” he said. “It’s always been you.”
Thirty-Four
Richard
I laid Daisy’s sleeping form on her bed, tugging the shoes she’d danced in all night from her precious little feet.
“She lived that wedding large, didn’t she?” I murmured into the dusky light that barely infiltrated her room, gazing down at the child.
Warmth spread through my veins.
Nothing but an intoxicating drug.
Wanting more and more of it. So reliant on it that the thought of not having it made me think I just might die.
Except this drug?
It wasn’t artificial.
It didn’t numb the pain.
It just cut me wide open and let me feel everything.
All this love that I’d been terrified to feel. To recognize. To hold.
I glanced back at the woman who hovered over by the door, wearing that sexy-ass dress that’d had me hard the entire fuckin’ day.
“I thought she was going to pass out right on the dance floor, she was so tired,” she whispered. “Mama tried to convince her to head back to the house with her, but she wasn’t having it.”
“She wasn’t about to miss out on a bit of the fun,” I murmured quietly.
“No chance of that,” Violet whispered, her sweet voice wrapping me in tendrils and ribbons.
Woman a straight shot of lust to my veins.
I glanced her way before I looked back at the child. “She’s incredible, Violet. Incredible because she has the most incredible mother.”
That fact lodged itself in my throat.
Heavy and dense.
Pushing out.
Knew I had to tell her.
Just fucking tell her.
The confession burned on my tongue, but I had no idea how the hell I would be able to let it out.
Her head shook, thunderbolt eyes striking in the darkness, her subdued laughter full of self-conscious adoration. “Half the time I don’t know what to do with her.”
“Pretty clear to me you know exactly what to do. She’s courageous, Violet. Feisty and sweet. Speaks her mind but also wants the joy for everyone around her. She’s a giver. She’s a fighter.”
“You mean she’s a handful.”
A light chuckle rumbled free. “That, too.”
Nerves had her chewing at her bottom lip, and her gaze caressed over the sleeping child. “I’m trying. Trying to do right by her. The only thing I want is for her to grow strong. To feel love. To know she’s secure.”
Her confession trembled on the last.
I pushed to my feet.
Violet stood across the room.
Black hair twisted in these flowy knots and curls.
Her silky skin glowing beneath that plush, rose dress, the plunging neckline teasing me with the delicious swell of her tits. But it was that ridiculously high slit that had nearly undone me.
My fairy girl was nothin’ but a miracle.
Magic.
My moonflower.
“So fuckin’ pretty,” I murmured.
The ring I’d put back in its rightful place glinted and shined in the spray of moonlight that slanted through the window.
Streaks of it lighting up her face.
“So fuckin’ sexy.”
I moved across the room with measured steps. Energy lit. A shockwave of electricity.
It was like the flick of a switch.
A shockwave that blinded.
Violets and grace and the girl.
Violet sucked in a staggered breath as I stalked her way, and I edged her out the door and into the hall.
Her back thudded against the opposite wall.
I took my fingertip and trailed it from her jaw, down her trembling throat, and let it trace down that lust-inducing line that dipped deep between her breasts.
“Do you get it yet, Violet? What you mean to me? That you’re everything? That everything I’ve done is because of my love for you?”
Her chin lifted. Those eyes on me. Letting me in. All the way down into their vast, staggering depths. “I trust you.”
A groan rumbled in my chest.
Wasn’t sure if it was because she shouldn’t, or because I was thankful that she did.
That confession burned on my tongue again.
Rancid, venomous fire.
I swallowed it down and let it fuel the flames.
Let it stoke the need.
I trailed the pad of my thumb across her sexpot mouth.
Girl a motherfucking fantasy.
Impossible where she stood with her back hooked to the wall.
A moan climbed her throat. I kept caressing my thumb along that lush bottom lip, gazing down at the girl who owned my world.
Possessed me with a glance.
Her heart beating this manic rhythm, mine picking up time.
I took her left hand and brought her ring finger to my mouth, pressed the glittering stone to my lips. “I love you, Violet Ramsey.”
“I love you,
