Chapter 145

“You’re not a possession; you’re my soul and the most precious thing I have. I’ll make that up to you, I swear… We need to use it to our advantage in the meantime and take it one day at a time. When you see that all it changes are the things that benefit you, it may not seem so huge or scary. I don’t own you. I never will. Marriage isn’t about that for me. I’m not my cousins. You will always be the one who calls the shots, even if I like to pretend I’m in charge. You own me, London, heart and soul. I could never hurt you again. It would kill me.”

His words cause a lump to catch in my throat and my heart to constrict with deep emotion, all while soothing my frazzled nerves, bringing rational thought back, and I rest against him so helplessly. My temple finds the hollow against his collarbone, and I tuck my head under his chin like a child. Curling up small to take what I need from him when I feel like I’ve been cast loose on a stormy sea.

“This is all so overwhelming for