“Hey. Sorry.” I clear my throat, my eyes raking over her. Her hair is damp, hanging over her shoulder, leaving a wet patch on the gray hoodie I left for her with the pair of sweats. She might be swimming in them, but fuck me, she looks damn good in my clothes. “I got distracted."
“Mhhmm,” she hums.
“So. Ah, everything good?” I ask.
She takes her turn eyeing me up. “If you mean the shower? Yes. All clean, thanks. Looks like you could use one yourself.”
I look down and huff out a laugh. My bare chest and jeans are covered in grease. “Nah, this is pretty much how I am most of my days.” I shrug. “Normally, I’m in my work coveralls.”
She nods, licking her lips as she wraps her arms around herself and looks away. She looks uncomfortable, and I fucking hate it.
“Nova,” I rasp and her eyes snap over to mine. She shifts from foot to foot. I know she wants to ask me something but she doesn’t. Nova is normally a feisty little thing who loves to sass back. Mostly to Nick, it’s their thing. But with me, she’s always shown her softer side. I thought maybe it’s because she feels safer with me, but I’ve never seen her so unsure before tonight. I hate it. I don’t want her to ever question how I feel about her or not feel safe around me.
She lets out a heavy sigh, and I see a spark flicker in her eyes. “Look, I’m not the kind of girl to beat around the bush or keep my mouth shut and let people walk over me.” She snorts out a laugh. “Let me rephrase that, I’m no longer that kind of girl. I’m done with lies, secrets, and being fucked over. None of thatit’s not like thatbullshit. So tell me, Will, what is it like? How does one stick their dick in their stepmom, huh?”
I flinch at her words. She thinks I’m trying to excuse my past, but I’m not.
Knowing Nova would hate herself if she kept going and said the wrong thing without understanding the situation, I hold my hand out for her. “Come here, Little Rabbit.”
She rolls her lips together, hesitating for a moment before filling the space between us. She takes my hand and I sigh in relief, pulling her into my arms.
I close my eyes and bury my face into her hair, inhaling her intoxicating chocolate peppermint scent. Something about her settles the noise inside me. Her touch, her smell, her voice, it fills the broken cracks inside me.
“Will?” her voice is filled with concern, and I realize I’m holding her too tight.
“Sorry.” I release her and take a step back.
“It’s okay.” She wraps her arms around herself again. I don’t like this distance between us.
Grabbing her by the hips, I lift her up onto the hood of my car and step in between her legs.
Tilting her head back, she looks up at me, and fuck, she’s gorgeous. Her blue eyes damn near capture my soul.
“Hey.” She lifts her hand, cupping my cheek. My eyes flutter shut as I lean into her hand, taking any strength she’s willing to give me. “Talk to me, Will. What's going on?” I don’t want to talk, just stay here as she lightly scrapes her fingernails along my jawline. Her touch makes me shiver and now is really not the fucking time to get hard. She just does something to me, something I can’t seem to control.
“Our life wasn’t easy,” I start, opening my eyes. “Our dad was a piece of shit and liked to remind us often that he owned us. We were his property. But it wasn’t all bad. For the most part, no one fucked with us, we were the prez’s kids. While Nick started to embrace the MC life and Ian adapted his personality to be able to fit in and survive... I didn’t. I wasn’t like that. I was always the quiet one. The one who watched and observed.” I shake my head, my hands going to her thighs.
“I didn’t think there was anything wrong with not wanting to be an aggressive person. I respected my elders, the women and the children of the compound. I even showed respect to my father’s men. Nick and Ian would talk back. They would get punished for it, a slap across the face, a punch in the stomach. But me? I’d take the blame for things I didn’t do, and apologise as if I was in the wrong. My father’s men loved to make jokes about how I was a pussy, that I was weak and had no spine because I wasn’t loud, or that I wasn’t ruthless. Most of all I wasn’t a fucking asshole.”
“So you were tormented because you were respectful and did what was asked of you?” Her brows furrow together, her face scrunching in anger. “That’s fucked up. Wouldn’t that be whatyour father wanted? Someone who did whatever he demanded, no questions asked?”
“You’d think,” I huff out a laugh. “ But he liked having a reason to beat us. Anyway, just because I was quiet and I tried to stay out of trouble didn’t mean I wouldn’t speak up when it was truly needed. I never stood by and watched the men abuse their women or children. Old ladies, sweet butts, didn’t matter. That included Julia."
“Did your father hit her a lot?”
I shake my head. “No. For the most part, my father acted like she wasn’t there. He fucked whoever he wanted and acted like he wasn’t married. Julia had old lady status so the men left her alone. My father would sleep with people, but she was only allowed to be with him. He hardly ever spent time with her. I never understood why they were together, why he didn’t just divorce her and be single. Maybe a single prez was a weak one? I don’t know, but they stayed together. She walked around and acted like she was the queen of the club, like my father thought the world of her when we all knew he didn’t.”
Nova shakes her head. “No one deserves to be treated like trash, but it doesn’t give her the right to be a shitty person. You said you and your brothers hated her. So why would you sleep with her?”
My gut turns and I want to look away, shame flooding me.
“She was horrible to Nick and Ian, always calling them out for being disrespectful, for talking back. She told them they should have been proud of the life they had, not take advantage of it.” I shake my head. “That wasn’t a life. It was surviving until we could leave, even though we knew deep down we would never escape him.”
“Wait, so she never treated you badly?”
My body stiffens and my eyes grow dark. “She did.”
Nova’s eyes flick between mine. “What did she do to you, Will?” she asks, but I can tell that part of her might not want to know the answer.
