She doesn’t need the pack. She doesn’t need me.”I shot to my feet. “That’s not true,” I said hotly.He tilted his head a little, his eyes meeting mine. His eyes softened. “I misspoke,” he said in a steady voice. “She doesn’t need me to make sure she has enough food or a place to live-that is my privilege, but she doesn’t need me to do that. She doesn’t need me to keep her safe or to make her a whole person. She doesn’t need me to do anything except love her. Which I do.

It was like being leaned on by a very heavy, warm brick. A sexy brick.

Stop that, Anna scolded him. You don’t need to hurt because I do.But I do, Charles replied, more honestly than he intended.

Almost-Sister, you picked a real catch.”“It was I who caught her,” Adam said softly. “It took years.

I need you to survive, he answered me without speaking, without looking at me. I need to know you survive.

You are a remarkable man, Charles Cornick.”He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and put his chin on the top of her head. “I know,” he confided lightly. “And often underappreciated by those who don’t know any better.”She poked him with a finger and looked up at him. “And funny—though I expect that is another facet of your character that goes unappreciated even more often than your remarkableness.”“Some people don’t even notice,” he said in a mock-mournful voice.

She crawled on top of him, naked and warm and soft, smelling like a miracle that had saved him from a lifetime of aloneness.