Page 60 of Forgotten Vows

So fucking beautiful.

I reach for the rope still tied to the headboard, and her eyes widen. "Lachlan?—"

"Shh." I undo her left wrist and bring it to my chest. Right over my heart. "Feel that?"

She nods, her fingers splaying against my skin over the tattoo.

"I tattooed it on myself the night after I left. The machine and needles and ink were the first thing I bought, before I even got food. I needed you with me more than I needed to eat. It fucking hurt, with how busted up my hand was, but nothing hurt as much as you being gone."

Her eyes fill with tears, and she traces the letters with trembling fingers. "Lachlan?—"

"I've dreamed a hundred times about marking you the same way," I murmur raspily. My cock twitches and starts to rise again, just from saying it aloud. "Putting my name on your body so that every time you look in the mirror, you see it and remember who you belong to. Who belongs to you."

She stares up at me, and I can see the conflict in her eyes, the fear and the desire warring with each other.

"Say the word," I murmur. "Say it, and I stop. But if you don't say it, I'm going to mark you, Adriana. I'm going to put my name on your skin, and you're going to wear it for the rest of your life."

The silence stretches between us, heavy and charged. And then she whispers, "Where?"

My heart stops.

"Where do you want it?" My voice shakes. This is real, this is happening. She's saying yes.

Every fucking fantasy I've had in the last ten years is coming true, one after another, and it feels too good to be real.

But right now, at least, it is.

She's quiet for a moment, and then she touches her hip, just above the bone. "Here," she says softly. "Where only you can see it."

I close my eyes, and I have to take a breath. The rush of possessive satisfaction that floods through me is almost overwhelming.

"Don't move," I tell her, and I get up, grabbing my phone from the nightstand.

I send a text to Rian. It's three in the morning, but I don't give a fuck.Need you to bring something to the penthouse. Now.

His response comes back almost immediately.What?

Lachlan:Tattoo gun. Clean needles. Black ink.

There's a pause, and then:

Rian:Are you fucking serious?

Lachlan:Dead serious. And I need it in the next twenty minutes.

Rian:Jesus Christ, Lachlan.

But he doesn't argue. He knows better.

I turn back to Adriana, and she's watching me with wide eyes. "You're really going to do this?" she whispers. I can hear a mixture of fear and anticipation in her voice.

"Only if you let me." I move back to the bed, sitting beside her. "You say the word, and we stop. Right now. No questions asked."

She looks at me for a long moment, and then she nods. "Okay." She looks dazed. "I… you were right," she whispers. "I forgot, but I feel it now. Now that you've been inside me again… there's so much that's still wrong about all of this, Lachlan, but I am yours. Nothing can ever change that. No matter what happens next."

The words hit me, and I have to kiss her, have to taste her, feel her mouth against mine. She kisses me back, desperate and hungry, and when I pull away, we're both breathing hard.

"I love you," I murmur against her lips. "I've loved you since I was eighteen years old, and I'm going to love you until the day I die."