Their Forever Home by Marla Monroe Page A

ever hurt me. That alone makes you winners in my world.”
    “We’ll make you happy, Vella. I promise,” Lance said.
    She looked up at Carver once more and saw what she thought might have been fear before it was gone. What could he possibly be afraid of?
    Is he afraid of not being able to handle Lance being a part of the family? Or is he worried that I’m going to decide I don’t want him as a husband?
    The idea that she had the power to make him worry, much less show that fear long enough for her to see it, only made him a little more human in her eyes. She wanted him and Lance. They were a pair to her, and one without the other just wouldn’t be the same. Plus, there was no way one of them could protect her by himself. Maybe once they reached the little community she’d named New Hope, one of them could keep her safe among the much larger group, but there were no guarantees. She wanted to feel safe again. She hadn’t felt that way in so long, she almost couldn’t remember anymore.
    “Vella?” Lance gently prodded. “What do you want to do, hon?”
    Tears burned the backs of her eyes as she struggled to keep them from falling. She wanted a family, and happiness, and to feel safe again. She wanted them.
    “I want the three of us to be together,” she said. “I want a family.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Carver realized he’d been holding his breath while Vella had been thinking. He’d never held his breath waiting for the outcome of someone else’s decision before. Nothing had ever really mattered enough to him until now. How had he gone from just getting her to the safety of the community they were looking for to wanting her as his ole lady? When had he changed his mind?
    It had to have been when he’d seen her with that bastard’s hands on her and the gun in his hand. Realizing that he could easily lose her in the blink of an eye had to have been when she went from someone to protect to his someone to protect.
    Yeah, right. I made the decision before I ever left the cave to find clothes for her. I just wasn’t admitting it to myself. What am I going to do when she finds out what I was doing up until a year ago?
    Because Carver knew she’d find out. Someone was bound to recognize him at some point. Plus, she deserved to know, just not before they got her safely to where they were headed, Once she was safe so that if she kicked him to the curb after she’d found out about his past then he would tell her. It left a bitter taste in his mouth to know that he might only have her in his arms for a short time. To top it all off, he would be sharing her with Lance. He wasn’t one to share.
    “We want that, too, hon. Right, Carver?” Lance was saying.
    He pushed his thoughts back to the present and what he knew to be fact right then. Vella wanted him—wanted them. It was more than he would have ever thought possible.
    “Yeah. We want that, too.” He looked from her face to Lance’s and nodded at the other man.
    Lance’s eyebrow’s lifted, but barely a second passed before he had latched on to the opportunity Carver had given him to be the first to touch, hold, and love their new wife. The other man stretched out next to her and pulled her closer until their noses were nearly touching. Carver wanted to walk away while they were together but knew that would be as good as admitting that he couldn’t do this. He forced himself to settle down next to them and watch. Participate? He wasn’t sure he could do that yet. Sharing was as foreign a concept to him as breaking the law would be to Lance.
    His eyes burned as the other man kissed Vella with passion but without the feral heat that he would have kissed her with. Which way did she prefer to be kissed? Was he too rough for her? He knew how to fuck, sex for sex’s sake, but this that Lance was giving her was entirely different. The man had to already be in love with Vella to be so gentle and careful with her.
    “You taste like heaven, hon. I can’t wait to get