Contentment is a feeling that has eluded me my entire life. I’ve lived in solitude, never truly connecting with another human being.

I’ve never needed company or companionship to keep myself entertained. All it took was a quick trip to the club to watch a scene and get off, or maybe find a stranger for the night that I would never think about again after I walked out the door.

With Temperance, everything has been different from the beginning.

I didn’t know I could want or need someone so badly. In the past, I would have worried about whether having a woman of my own could be turned into a weakness that could be exploited. But watching Mount and Keira has shown me that the right woman can make a man even stronger. Even more purposeful and deadly. Because there are no lengths to which he won’t go to protect her.

Regardless of what happens next, we will be fine.

It’s with that thought I doze off in my bed, my limbs tangled with Temperance’s.

We’re on top of the world. Not a damn thing or person can come between us.

Or so I think until I wake again.

The side of Temperance’s face is pressed to my chest and she shifts, opening her eyes.

“Give me a couple hours, and I’ll have the strength to go get your stuff from your apartment and move it here,” I say as I absently stroke her hair.

She stills. “What?”

“Your stuff. You’re moving in. The warehouse is yours, anyway. Might as well use it. Plus, it has everything you need to work, and I’ll get you anything else you want.”

She rolls off my chest and props herself up on an elbow. Her dark eyes look too serious.

“What’s wrong?”

“We need to talk about a few things first.”

“Like?”

“The fact that I don’t want to move out of my apartment again so you can keep me locked away from the world until you deem the threat has been eliminated.”

My thoughts had been exactly that. “I won’t compromise on your safety. You can’t expect me to.”

“Then I guess you’re moving in with me, because I’ve decided that I’m going to live for real this time, which means not being shut away from the world.”

Fuck. Of course she would want that, and I’m not going to stand in her way . . . but with one stipulation.

“I can’t move in with you. What will your friends think? The guy who killed your brother and came back from the dead? That’s not going to happen.”

“First, did I ask you to move in with me?” She tilts her head.

“Temperance—”

She interrupts me with a laugh and a smile. “I’m kidding. I am asking you to move in with me, and you don’t have to worry about the rest.”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t tell anyone anything.”

I blink at her several times. “What?”

The humor fades from her eyes. “I wasn’t exactly functioning, and even if I had been, I wasn’t going to tell everyone how stupid I’d been. Keira said she didn’t know who you were. So, I assume that means only Mount does, which means . . . you can move in with me. You can have a life outside the shadows too, Kane.”

The realization stuns me.

A life outside the shadows. That’s not something I’ve ever tried. Keeping to myself was always the easiest solution, and everything else presented too many problems to deal with.

But for Temperance, I would find a way to solve every single one of them. I wouldn’t have to watch her live, I could do it with her. It was like someone handed me the keys to a kingdom I never contemplated entering before.

“Okay.” The word sounds rough, but so are my emotions.

She smiles. “You can also have the warehouse back. And the cars. I don’t want them.”

I think of how I watched her start for the gas can in her anger and pain. “You were going to burn it down.”

She nods. “So let’s agree that you need to take it all back.”

“If lighting this entire place up was going to make you feel better for even a second, I would’ve let you.”

Her smile disappears. “It wouldn’t have made me feel any better. Probably worse.”

“I know, princess. That’s why I stopped you.”

Her eyebrows go up. “Not because you wanted to save the cars?”

“They don’t mean a damn thing compared to you.”

Her face softens, and she leans against me once more.

“How about I make you a deal? I keep the cars here, and you and I both work here. But when you’re done, we go back to your apartment at night.”

Temperance’s eyes go wide. “You’d do that?”

“Mount’s the only person who knows I was the one who shot your brother. The witnesses would describe the disguise.”

“Yes. Good.”

“And even if that weren’t the case, I’d find a way to make it work. Because, apparently, you haven’t gotten the message yet that I’d do anything for you.”

She presses a kiss to my chest. “Thank you.”

“But I need you to do one thing for me.”

“What’s that?” she asks, once again finding my gaze.

“Tell me you love me again.”

When she said those words, it felt like my heart was going to explode. No one has told me they love me in over fifteen years, and to get those words from Temperance, with all the promise in her eyes, was a miracle.

“I love you, Kane . . .” Her lips flatten as she trails off.

“What?”

“I don’t know your real last name. Can I know it?”

Only two people know that Kane Savage is still alive, and giving that information to Temperance is also handing her the keys to bringing down everything I’ve built.

Considering I’d hand her a gun to put a bullet in my head if she asked, it’s not a tough question to answer.

“Savage. Kane Savage.”

Her eyebrows shoot up. “Seriously?”

I nod.

“Your name is Savage?”

“Formerly Sergeant Kane Savage of the United States Army.”

“That’s a good name. A strong name.”

“My father was army too. Didn’t make it home from Vietnam.”

“I’m so sorry.” Temperance’s expression turns introspective.

“Thank you.”

Her mouth moves like she’s debating how to ask another question but can’t find the right words.

“You can ask me anything.” When I say it, I’m surprised to find I mean it completely. Whatever Temperance wants to know, I’ll tell her. I’m done keeping secrets.

“How did this all start? What you do? I know that’s not part of the army sniper program. Or is it? Do you work for the government still?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Do you have somewhere to be?”

“Nowhere but with you.” That’s also the honest truth, so I start at the beginning and tell her about my past.

An hour later, Temperance is staring at me, dumbfounded. “You did this all for your mom? To keep her safe?”

I swallow the lump in my throat that always crops up whenever I think of Ma. I’ve kept close tabs on her over the years through the one person I trust who knows I’m alive—Jeremiah Prather, the owner of Bulletproof, and the one who probably saved my life by calling Mount in—but it’s not the same.

“If you want to get down to it, yes. I loved being a soldier. It was a good life. I loved it. Gave me purpose and a cause. Knowing that I was doing what I did for the greater good. I didn’t care that I could make a better living by pulling the trigger for different reasons.”

She cuddles into my side. “Do you wish you were still in the army? That you’d never walked this path?”

I tighten my arm around her and stroke her arm. “No. Because then I wouldn’t have you.”