I dab on lip gloss and press my lips together. “I’m saying my idea of a monster isn’t the same as yours. A monster to me is someone who causes harm to others through their actions.”
“Lying, cheating, and manipulation isn’t ‘causing harm’?” He’s adorable using air quotes.
“I hurt people,” I admit without going into detail. “I’m a monster.”
I hurt Braxton when I didn’t consider our safety. I hurt my brother and the crew when I overdosed on my mother’s drugs, and my father rained hell on them for not keeping a close eye on me. I hurt my mother when I kept her habit a secret from my father and Ty until it was too late.
Bobby is quiet for a few seconds before he asks a question Ty and Gage haven’t asked before. They never ask. All they do is level accusations at me.
“Did you learn from your mistakes?”
I swallow past the tightness in my throat, my voice hoarse. “I did.”
Bobby nods, this slow up and down of his head, like he knew he was right about me. Were he here, I’d cup his face in my palms and thank him for having faith in me.
“The monster in my life didn’t learn. This monster was a serial liar, cheater, and manipulator.”
“I’m sorry, Bobby.” Why do I have a feeling he’s talking about an ex-girlfriend? “Did you break it off with this person?”
“I did. She kept making contact.”
“That’s the reason you have the no-contact rule.”
Jaw clenched, sea-glass eyes darkening like a storm raging over the horizon, he answers with a slight dip of his chin.
“I see. Thank you for sharing.”
“Thank you for listening. Know that I won’t bring up my ex again, Ever.”
I was right.
I’m not jealous of his ex like I was when the women at the nightclub stared at Bobby. His ex was a monster, and I’m glad she’s not in his life anymore. It must’ve been difficult finding out the hard way that someone you loved and trusted wasn’t who you believed them to be.
“You’re mine, sweetness, and that means there wasn’t a woman before you. In my mind, you are the one and only woman in my life. Do you understand?”
I nod, left speechless by the intensity in his voice and the dark mask of possession on his face. I’ve seen that same expression before, in an old photo of my parents from before Ty was born. My father had looked at my mother just like that—with dominance and possession.
“At the club, you said you don’t believe in fairy tales, only fantasies. If you did, can I be the hero?” His mood changing from dark, dominant, and possessive one minute to teasing the next twists my insides with fear, something I haven’t felt since I took my mom’s drugs.
Anticipation courses through my veins, leaving me with the high of soaring through the clouds and propelling past Earth’s atmosphere. I’m weightless. Nothing is keeping me grounded. Not my guilt over my mother’s death or my regret for steering Braxton’s attention from the road to me with my happiness over the pitter-pattering of raindrops on the windshield. And most of all, my grief over the death of my first love.
I let go of the weight of guilt, regret, and grief and tease back the man who has faith that I’ve learned from my mistake.
“Don’t you know?” I ask with a smile.
“Know what, baby?” he asks in a low, throaty voice that strokes the place between my thighs.
“Some of us girls would rather be saved by the villain than the hero.” My father was never my mother’s hero.
He was always the villain, and she loved him more for it until he took things too far and murdered a man for staring too heatedly at my mom. That’s what the scary man with the scar transecting his face said when I caught him dropping off a plushie at our back door.
Bobby’s eyes widen before they sparkle like jewels in the light. “Of course you would, beautiful. Pray tell, explain. This conversation is going down an interesting path, and I am fully invested.”
I smile. It’s nice to have a conversation with a guy whose eyes light up rather than glaze over with boredom. “A hero looks out for everyone’s safety when dealing with high stakes. The villain doesn’t care. The only focus, what he’ll burn the world for, is the high stakes.”
“So, if you, Ever, were the high stakes, you’d rather have the villain than the hero coming to your rescue? Is that what I’m hearing, beautiful?”
I don’t hesitate. “Yes.”
