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inside her she wasn’t old enough to understand. 
    Even though Kenyon was still the only one for her, she’d had it up to her neck in tradition. She, sick of the word and every implication from it, was tired of this misplaced sense of loyalty that always got her the same thing—a demand from Kenyon, a proclamation of his ownership over her. It wasn’t what she wanted from him. What she wanted was a thousand times more complicated.
    Love.
    Being away from Kenyon had solidified that notion, the one thing he’d never voiced, the one thing she wasn’t sure he could offer. As silly as it sounded, as movie of the week as it was in its madness, she wanted Kenyon to love her the way she loved him—all the way to the pit of her soul in a way which had nothing at all to do with traditions and tattoos, but had everything to do with two people who belonged together.
    “Fine.” Kenyon uttered a word she never thought she’d hear—an agreement. Setting his jaw and stretching his long legs as he opened the car door and stood, he looked more than a little dangerous, his golden eyes glowing. “You help me free my brother and you can walk away, but I want you to know one thing, Sage. If you walk away from me, I will not chase you. If you don’t want to be here, I won’t come after you.”
    “Fine.” It was her turn to say the word, to set her jaw in sheer determination. Grabbing her bag and flinging it over her shoulder, she closed the car door and steadied herself, straightening her shoulders, not letting him know how deeply his agreement had cut into her.
    It was what she wanted. Freedom. But it felt like a dagger in her heart.
    The breath Sage blew out should have been liberating, should have felt like freedom, but it wasn’t. It was crushing, lodging in her throat, cutting off her airways.
    “Fine.” She heard him mutter under his breath as he took off, his long strides leaving her in the parking lot as he headed toward the motel room.
    I was wrong! She fought the urge to take back what she’d just said, realizing how stupid she sounded in her own head. This was what she wanted—Kenyon’s undying love or freedom from the whole situation. She just never thought it would hurt this badly.

CHAPTER THREE

    Hot water had never felt so good, and Kenyon was the first to admit that the shower would have been a lot more interesting if he’d had company. Instead, Sage sat out on the full size bed, her phone in her hand, more than likely planning her next rescue mission, the one that would take place after she helped him free his brother. The one that would finally take her from him forever.
    He never should have agreed to let her go, but the steady set of her chin, the way her eyes all but pleaded with him, told him it was time. Every time she’d come back in the last several years, it had been because someone had needed her. Either her family or his had called her back. She had never returned because she missed him, because she wanted him. The truth of that situation felt like a knife deep in his gut, and there was no way to deny that he was in love with her.
    It wasn’t even his pride that kept him from admitting he was in love with her. Instead, it was something that went much deeper, like the way she pushed him away from her in one breath and pulled him back in the next.  He’d never been able to hold onto her for very long, and every kiss they had ever shared always felt like it would be the last.
    Wiping the condensation from the bathroom mirror, he looked himself in the eyes just to be sure he wasn’t lying to himself.
    “You love her,” he said the words softly, even though he could hear music drifting in from the next room. There was no reason to let her overhear his inner turmoil. “Fucking hell.” He rubbed the stubble on his jaw, realizing how wild he looked, how completely untamed. A guy like him would scare the hell out of any girl worth her salt with his piercing yellow eyes and the marks running all