The affection in his eyes was my undoing. And I knew what I would do next. What I had to do next. I had no idea what tomorrow would bring. I could not predict the outcome. But I could take charge of tonight. I could show this perpetually broken man that he was no longer alone. I was here.

I was still his wife.

Rider watched me with rapt attention, his eyes flaring as I nervously lifted my legs to straddle his thighs.

My breathing was erratic as our gazes locked. Rider swallowed hard, showing me that he was equally as nervous as me. “I want this,” I reassured him. I took hold of his hand and brought it to the hem of my dress; the long garment had already lifted to my knees. Rider’s warm hand landed on the back of my thigh, pushing the material aside.

“The chains,” I said as the metal pulled harshly on his wrists.

“They don’t matter. We’ll work around them.”

My eyes fluttered closed as his fingers moved over my skin, making lazy circles that brought shivers to my spine. The heat from the humid air kissed my bare arms. Opening my eyes, I lowered my gaze until it collided with Rider’s.

His previously pale cheeks were filled with warmth, his breathing labored with need. Looping one arm around his neck, I lowered the other between our bodies. I pulled on the waistband of his pants to take him into my hand. Rider hissed as I found his hard length. My nerves fell away with the light breeze that passed through the barn.

“Bella,” he whispered, and I smiled as his eyes closed in pleasure, my name a prayer on his lips. His free hand landed on my other thigh and began moving my dress upward. Heat built at my core. I moved my center over Rider’s hardness, and gradually lowered myself down.

As Rider pushed inside of me, I brought my hand to his shoulder. I held on tight as I dropped myself all the way down . . . until Rider and I were fully joined. Until there was no space left between us. And he knew I was going nowhere.

“Bella,” Rider rasped as I lifted myself up. I never moved my eyes from his as I sank back down. My nails dug into his skin. I let out a soft moan as the feel of him filling me brought a lightness to my heart.

“Rider,” I murmured. He groaned and tucked his forehead into the crook between my shoulder and neck. My hands left his shoulders and threaded through his hair. As I increased the speed of my hips, I brought my mouth to his ear and whispered, “I am here with you. You are no longer alone.”

Rider’s growl of response brought fire to my veins. He thrust up inside me, taking control. One of Rider’s hands dropped to grip my hip and the other cupped the nape of my neck. Heat flooded between my thighs at the fierce look in Rider’s eyes, despite the crude feel of the taut chain pressing coldly against my spine.

“Fuck . . . Bella,” he murmured as he guided the pace of my movements. Rider’s olive skin glistened as we moved faster, and the pressure that I had only felt one time before began to gather at the base of my spine.

Rider’s length twitched in my channel, hitting something inside that made me shiver with pleasure. “Rider!” I cried out in surprise and his heavy-lidded eyes clashed with mine. He bit his bottom lip as pushed his hips up to meet my own. My eyes rolled as the beautiful feeling of him within me became almost too much to bear.

His hand on the nape of my neck pulled me closer. Rider smothered my lips with his own and plunged his tongue into my mouth. The sensations were almost too much. He was everywhere—his taste in my mouth, his hands on my skin . . . his soul in my heart.

Rider’s tongue dueled faster with mine. His hips increased to a maddening speed, and just as I could not bear the pressure filling me, a burst of pleasure rocked through my body, so intense that I cried out against Rider’s mouth. Rider stilled as my back arched, and we swallowed each other’s moans of release as he filled me with warmth.

We gasped for breath, hands roaming over backs and arms and skin. I wound us down, slowing the rhythm of my hips until I had rocked us to a halt. I tore my mouth from Rider’s and our foreheads met. My fingers combed slowly through his long hair, and I let myself feel this moment in all its glory. In all its sweet, beautiful purity.

When I opened my eyes, it was to see a look of such peace on Rider’s face that it sewed the broken pieces of my heart back together. “You are a good man.” I repeated the words I had uttered to him before we joined.

Rider was silent in the aftermath. I drew back my head and raked damp strands of his long brown hair from his face. Rider closed his eyes under my touch, and I knew that what Maddie had said to me tonight was true.

I loved him. Somehow, miraculously, in all of the madness, stress and grief of the past few weeks . . . I had given my heart to this man. A man whose spirit was just as fragile as my own.

And I could save him.

I was determined to redeem him of his wrongs.

As my fingers soothed the worry he was holding inside, a smile of contentment tugged on his lips. That one action of happiness spurred me to make a plea, to beg for a promise from the husband I loved. “Come back to me.”

Rider tensed, and his brown eyes rolled open. He searched my desperate gaze. Moving his hand to my face, he delicately ran his fingertip over my lips. “I have to go, Bella. I have to help those who helped us. And I have to try and save the people. I cannot let them be killed because of Judah’s pride. Only I can do this . . . it is down to me now. I need to do this.”

“I know,” I said reluctantly. And I knew it was true. It did not mean that I did not wish it was different. That somehow we could all forget the past and simply rejoice in the fact that we were free.

But we were not all free. As long as Judah lived, the elders lived, Rider would never be free. Yet, at the same time, I did not know the impact losing Judah would have on Rider’s heart. Even now I could feel that he still believed he did not deserve my love. He did not deserve to be around people that wanted him for the kind soul he truly was. I worried that he would completely break when he finally rid the world of his twin.

“Just . . . return to me,” I begged again. “I . . . I need you to survive. I need you to return home.”

“I . . . ” Rider went to speak, but his raw voice cut out. “I . . . I have no home,” he said sadly.

Taking his hand from my face, I placed it over my racing heart. “Yes you do. Your home is right here.”

Lost for words, Rider leaned forward and took my mouth with his lips. He kissed me hard and long and deep. “You should go before you are caught. I could not bear for you to be hurt over this,” he said.