Once we’re both done in the shower, I dry him off first then myself. He leads me to his bedroom, a room I’ve never been in before.
I look around at the beautiful room decked out in grays and steel coloring. The room is simple, manly and sexy- just like Beast. I wouldn’t have expected anything less from him.
“Top drawer,” he advises then sits on the bed.
I go to his top drawer to fish out his boxers. I hand them to him for him to get himself dressed.
“Bella, I’m so fuckin’ sorry,” he says again. “You have to know you’re not a piece of ass to me.”
“Will you quit apologizing?” I snap. Each time he apologizes is like he did it again. I can’t stand it. I can’t stand the constant reminder of the hurt I’ve felt the past two weeks locked up in the motel room.
He nods.
“You have to answer some questions or I’m leaving. Do you understand?” I barter.
Beast’s eyes dilate making his pupils look smaller. “Yeah. Never seen you so forceful.”
I ignore that. “Who’s room is that?”
He bows his head. “It would have been my kid. I got some chick pregnant in college and she had an abortion without telling me. I couldn’t live with myself for not saving the baby. I fucked it up.”
Why would he keep a room to remind himself over the heartbreak from that? “Why…?”
“Why keep the room?”
He must have asked himself that question before. “Yeah,” I reply.
“It’s a reminder of what could have been. I could’ve been a father, a husband to some chick who just wanted a Yale graduate on her arm. I could’ve been something completely different than who I am today.”
Now that I think about it though, he’s very well spoken. Holy shit. Have I been blind this whole time?
“Yeah. I have a degree in business.”
“Why aren’t you-“ I don’t finish because I don’t want to hurt his feelings anymore than they already are.
“Why didn’t I get a job in business?”
Is he plugged into my mind?
“Yeah.”
“Corporate life isn’t for me. I’m a Diablo. I live for them.”
“Do you only want me for my dad?” I hastily ask.
He shakes his head then winces. “Bella, I could give two fucks about your dad. I need you. I want you. If we don’t find your dad, I’ll get over it. I need you.”
Tears spring to my eyes.
“Are you going to tell me about that nightmare you had when you first came here?” He asks me.
Tears roll down my face and there’s no way to stop them. “I didn’t have the childhood everyone thinks I had. Everyone thinks my dad was absent most of life. I wish that were the case.”
He holds me tightly, rubbing my back. I burrow my face in his freshly washed skin. “Oh, baby. That fuckin’ prick hurt you like that? I’m gonna fuckin’ kill him worse. When did…”
“My mom walked in on it and started cussing him out. Told him she was going to take him to court and get his rights terminated. Come to think about it, that’s probably why he killed her…” I hedge. I knew there was something more than just he not liking her. There had to be more.
I just never looped everything together until right now.
