I stared at Lexi through the window. She couldn’t see me, not with the light inside and the darkness out. But I saw her perfectly. I saw everything that made up my life when I looked at her, that made me feel whole once again. It was her that brought me back from that ledge. Although I’d always be dark, always keep to myself, she was the only one that I would ever open up to.

We were one and the same, she and I.

She is mine.

My woman.

The woman I love more than life itself.

My wife.

She’d always been mine, and she always would be.

We’d gotten married months ago. It hadn’t been anything fancy. Hell, we didn’t actually have family or friends that could have attended if it was anyway. No, we did the whole courthouse thing, and our honeymoon was staying in bed, naked, exhausted from fucking, for an entire week.

God, that had been incredible. We’d fed each other, been sweaty from making love numerous times a day, and when we weren’t being together, we just talked.

We talked about anything and everything.

A sigh of contented happiness left me.

I liked having her to myself, and us being out here alone.

If anyone were stupid enough to try and take that from me, to try and get between us, they’d find out exactly how possessive I was about her. If they tried to hurt the one person I cared about more than fucking life itself … they’d find out I wasn’t afraid to break bones and shed blood.

I didn’t care if it was extreme.

I didn’t care if it was obsession that drove me.

I fucking loved her, and that would never change.

I grabbed a few logs for the fire and made my way back into the cabin. It was starting to snow again, and the weather was frigid. It was already a cold fucking winter, and it would only get worse over the next few months.

I got inside, went over to the fire to add more wood and stoke it, then turned and stared at Lexi.

Mine.

She was still looking out the window, the wind now picking up and casting ice and snow against the glass. I lowered my gaze to her belly. She was five months along now, my baby growing inside of her.

Pride and possessiveness slammed into me, with a good dose of protectiveness.

My woman.

My child.

I went over to her and pulled her into my arms. For long seconds I just held her and rubbed my hand over her back. “What are you thinking about?” I asked. I inhaled deeply, smelling the sweet scent of the shampoo she used. My cock punched forward, but then again, it didn’t take much for the fucker to get hard where Lexi was concerned. All I had to do was think about her and I was ready to breed her.

“Just thinking about how far we’ve come this past year.”

We had come far. “But you’re happy?”

“Of course.”

“And you don’t regret any of it?”

She shook her head, and the softest, sweetest smile covered her face.

I leaned down to kiss her. “Did you ever see yourself here?” I placed my hand between us on her belly. She nodded.

“I wanted to, Dillon.”

I kissed her harder. “What did you see, baby?” I cupped the back of her head and brought it to my chest. She rested it there for long seconds before speaking.

“I saw myself not being alone.” She pulled back and looked at me. “I saw myself with someone who was just like me.”

God, this woman could bring me to my fucking knees.

“I saw someone who was an outcast, who had no one on his side, and I wanted to be the person that gave you something more. I wanted to be the person that had more.”

I did fall to my knees then, pushing her shirt up and exposing her growing belly. I kissed her stomach over and over again before resting my forehead on it. I closed my eyes, not sure what a fucker like me had done to deserve a woman like Lexi.

“You’re the one that made me the person I am today.” I didn’t care how sappy any of this shit was. This was the truth, and I’d say it until I had no air in my lungs. “You’re the only one who could break through me and ease that feral quality I held tightly to me like armor.”

She ran her hands through my hair and shook her head. “You and I both know I didn’t tame any of your wildness.” She smiled and kept running her fingers through the strands on my head.

But she had tamed me … partly. I might be one possessive and territorial bastard where it concerned her and the child she carried, but before her I hadn’t given a shit about anyone or anything. Not even myself.

“Before you I was just surviving.” I placed a hand on either side of her belly and kissed her skin. She was warm and so soft. “You made me want to live,” I whispered against her stomach. “I want to be a good man for you, and a good father for our baby.” Before Lexi I’d just been a shell.

“You’ll be the best father, Dillon, and you’re already a good man for me. You’re the best.”

I rose up and hugged her, keeping her close, making sure she knew she was safe.

Because of Lexi I became a man.

I became a real man with a purpose.

* * *

I wanted to smile at the protectiveness that came from Dillon.

He carried the car seat that held our son, Rowley. He had this scowl on his face as we made our way through the grocery store.

It had only been three months since I had our son, and this was the first trip down the mountain and into town. It was monthly supply stocking time, and although Dillon would have been happy to keep the baby and me at home, I wanted to come.

This had been my home, after all.

“I can put the car seat in the cart, you know?” I chuckled when I saw his knuckles turn white on the handle as he held the baby carrier tighter.

An older woman with her husband purposefully moved to the side for us, and Dillon grunted.

This might have been my home at one time, but not anymore. My home was where Rowley and Dillon were. I’d left this all behind, made a life for myself away from it all.

And when our children were old enough for school, were old enough to decide what they wanted, then we’d take that step. We’d do what was best for us and not what others thought.

We went to check out, and I felt eyes on us from all directions. And I lifted my head and looked at each and every one of them. I could have said something, anything to them, but they didn’t matter. Nothing mattered aside from Dillon and our son.

Mary was working the register, and I wish I could have taken a picture of her face in this moment: wide eyes and a look like she was a fish out of water. I remembered all the shit she’d talked about Dillon when he came in, and I wanted nothing more than to say something smug. But I was better than that.

Dillon wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close, the proprietary mark being made known.

That made me feel so good, so loved. It also made me feel like a woman owned.

Dillon leaned down and whispered in my ear, “Because I do own you, baby.”

I felt my face heat. I’d either said that out loud, or he knew me too well. Either way I wasn’t embarrassed.

I was pleased.

When we left the store, I felt everyone still watching us.

“I want to go back in there and really give them something to stare at.”

We put the baby in the back, and I turned and faced him. “Let them stare. Let them talk. They’ll never have what we do.” He had me wrapped in his arms a second later.

He kissed me in front of everyone, and all I did was hold on as he took possession of me. “No, they’ll never have what we do. No one can ever have what we have, Lexi.”

That was the truth.

When I moved back, I saw Dillon had gone tense, his focus on something behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw a man standing there, a cigarette between his lips, his focus on me.

There hadn’t been many times where Dillon’s possessiveness came through concerning an actual person since we lived away from people, but right now I knew this was what truly living was about.

He was jealous and wanted to stake his claim.

I felt Dillon move his hand down the length of my spine, over the small of my back, and finally along the curve of my ass. Truth was I liked this caveman attitude he had going on. I loved that he wanted it known I was his. The look on Dillon’s face was pretty dangerous, and if I’d been that guy my man’s focus was on, I would have hauled ass inside.

Dillon’s attitude right now screamed “mine” in every single way.

The guy finally looked away after a second and made his way inside the store.

All I could do was smile and let those butterflies in my belly continue to warm me.

My man loved me to the ends of the earth.

He gave my ass a smack, and I chuckled. Of course he had to get that last thing in.

We got in the vehicle and headed back to our home. I couldn’t help but stare at the man that had opened my eyes to so much, to a world that was unlike anything I’d ever imagined. What we had might not have been conventional to some, and people might talk. But when you have the love of a man, and the knowledge that he’d move heaven and hell to make sure you’re happy, there was nothing that could ruin that.

He pulled me closer, and I rested my head on his shoulder. The baby made little grunting noises, and I smiled.

“I love you,” I said softly.

Dillon made a low sound. “And I fucking love you, baby.”

Yeah, perfection was what we made of it.

It was the love of a man, and the feeling of your child in your arms. I knew that just because things were dark, that didn’t mean it was bad. It just meant the light hadn’t reached it yet.