“I meant the club.”
I took a moment to reply, choosing my words carefully. “I want the best for you.”
It was such a corny response, and he knew it.
“Just give them time,” he implored. “Give them a chance. Forget all that Leo whispered in your ear—”
“He didn’t—”
“No, he did,” he replied, knowingly. “Your view is tainted.”
“I’m not trying to judge them incorrectly,” I assured him. “I’m down with getting to know them.”
He kicked the stand down and stepped off the bike. He removed his helmet and looked down at me as I sat there, now clutching the seat with my hands. The black void was absent from his eyes. He was my Hunter, bare and vulnerable.
“If you don’t like them by the end of spring, I’ll quit,” he vowed suddenly.
The air whooshed out of my lungs in surprise. I gawked at him, wide-eyed. “What?”
He looked certain. “I will leave the Warlords while I still can—”
“You’ve never been so happy, Hunt.”
He gave me a look of disbelief. “I’m happy because you’re here, Skye.”
“But the way you are around them, it’s like they give you purpose.” I couldn’t believe I was now defending them. What? But in truth, I just wanted him to be happy. I didn’t want to ruin another good thing.
Hunter came to me, dropping his head to look me straight in the eye. “Yougive me purpose.”
I shook my head, throat closing up. “Hunt…I don’t want to hold that kind of power over you. Please, don’t hold me so high.”
Hunter smiled, but his eyes were solemn. “If you disapprove of them by the time you go, I will leave the club and wait for you.”
“That’s not a way to live.”
“It would be no different to how I’m living now,” he explained, softly. “I would wait forever for you, Skye. Forever even if it meant I could grab small moments in the quiet like this.” He nodded, more to himself. “I would wait eons with a smile on my face because I love you. I’ll never stop. No matter what.”
I blinked back tears. “I don’t deserve you.”
I didn’t.
Nuh-uh.
I hated this.
I hated this dynamic.
Suddenly, I wished—
I sucked a breath in, holding the shocking thought in before it flooded my brain and festered. Instead, I repeated breathlessly, “I really don’t deserve you.”
Hunter brushed his thumb along my cheek. “Funny, I’ve always felt the opposite.”
There was a pain in his expression, and it was wrecking me. “Why are you looking at me like that, Hunt? What are you so afraid of?”
His eyes fluttered closed for a moment, his lips turning down in a frown. “On the contrary, Skye, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m savouring this. Us. For however long it will last—”
“It will last,” I eagerly said, though my voice wavered as I demanded, “Won’t it?”