I didn’t hesitate. I ran to my room. Screw the consequences, the potential outcomes, the talks we still needed to have, and anything else. I missed my husband, the love of my life, and I couldn’t stand to be apart from him for another minute. Most of that was probably my hormones talking, but I’d work through it after.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Positive,” I told him as he stripped himself of his clothes while I removed mine. My body wasn’t the same anymore. Having a baby changed a lot, but the one thing it didn’t sway was my belief that Ridge found me absolutely beautiful anyway.
“You are so much more beautiful than the last time I saw you,” he insisted, as if he could read my mind. I had faith that he felt that way and just like that, he proved me right.
“I don’t want to talk right now, Ridge. I want you to make me feel again.”
“I can do that,” he agreed as we moved to the much smaller queen-sized bed I had in my apartment. We were both used to a California King, so there wouldn’t be as much room to move around, but that was okay. Our first night back together wasn’t about acrobatics and how many positions we could find ourselves in. It was about reconnecting, and the desperate need for intimacy with one another again.
“Lie here,” Ridge demanded as he kissed my lips softly then trailed those same feather-light kisses all over my body. He started at my head, in the spot where I had only a few months of hair growth strategically covered with some of my other hair. My belly tingled with butterflies as he did. Then he trailed more kisses down my face and across my body before he added so many to my once broken arm. I was still in physical therapy, but it had been out of the splint and sling for a while.
He kissed back toward my center and trailed his lips longingly over my belly. It had firmed quite a bit since having Liam, and I was nearly back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Still, there were harsh stretch marks that marred the lower portion of my stomach.
“Each one of these lines is like a finger,” he suggested. I thought maybe he’d gone mad until he finished the sentiment as he continued to kiss over each one. “See here, there are five predominant lines and it looks as though you had an extra hand to help carry our son when I couldn’t be there to hold you both.”
Tears burned my eyes as they blurred my vision. It was a sad, yet beautiful sentiment and a reminder that he had missed so much. I couldn’t bear to let that woman take another moment from us. We might not be fully healed, but we would get there.
“I need you to make love to me before you make me cry,” I said. Ridge slowly made his way back up until his body hovered over mine and he could kiss me again.
“I love you, Violet. Never stopped. Never will.”
“I love you, too, Ridge.” I didn’t bother to tell him I never stopped. It was a given. I had been angry, betrayed, and so damn confused but one thing I never lost was the love I had for the man who had been my everything for more than a decade.
Chapter 28
Ridge
Three weeks later, I found myself in another therapy session with Violet. We started going a few days after I busted up her date with another man. Like hell was I going to sit back and watch my woman date someone else while I still had a pulse.
We agreed to counseling to help us work through the damage Fiona had done to our relationship, as well as the stress that my work and lifestyle put on us. Part of that stress was in dealing with the constant turnover of employees that led me to ignore Fiona’s first come-on. It had been the first crack in communication in our relationship. That was what our therapist said anyway. The further cracks arrived when my wife tried to surprise me with a party. She said my subconscious had probably remembered that I hadn’t been honest with my wife about Fiona’s offer. It was why when Violet’s behavior changed, it was easy for me to believe the worst. Not that I ever wanted to do anything with Fiona. It was just the residual guilt of not telling anyone, especially Violet, about Fiona’s inappropriate behavior because I didn’t want to have to go through another employee.
We both understood the concepts even if it sucked to rehash them.
“Tell me, Violet, how do you feel about what happened in court this week? It feels pretty significant.”
Fiona had admitted in court that I never led her on, that I never tried anything or was inappropriate with her at all. She also reiterated that the only time we had ever been intimate was when I was passed out and she took advantage. When questioned about her motives, things took an uglier turn, and Fiona pointed the finger at her father. As it turned out, he was a small-time music producer who wanted a chunk of my business for himself. He thought if he had his daughter seduce and baby trap me, that it would be easier.
When it became obvious that I wouldn’t cheat on my wife, they came up with a different plan to force the issue. The problem was that neither of them knew about all the surveillance I had in my office. They also severely underestimated the love I had for my wife.
“Ridge already told me they were never together in any other circumstance,” Vi announced in a bland voice. “At first, I didn’t know if I believed that.” I flinched back from my woman as she admitted to not trusting me. “That was a long time ago, though. The first night, when he came home,” she added. “I don’t think he remembers our conversation from that night because he was still heavily under the influence of whatever drugs that woman dosed him with in addition to the alcohol he consumed.”
“And now? In recent times, have you spoken about it again?”
“Yes,” Violet answered. “I have faith in Ridge. He already told me everything, and I believe it all.”
Our therapist, Sandy, turned and faced me. I hated when she put me in the hot seat. “And you, Ridge, how do you feel?”
“I’ll be glad when this whole thing is over and she’s behind bars. I know it won’t be forever, but it will be for long enough that we can move on with our lives.”
“And what does moving on look like? Do you think you’ve built a solid enough foundation to support furthering your relationship.”
“I think so,” I answered.
“Have you ever apologized to Violet for what she went through?”
“Yes,” I turned to Violet and saw how pale she got. “I know I did at some point.” As I thought back, I couldn’t remember ever saying the words, though. I talked around them, but hadn’t come out and said how truly fucking sorry I was for… “You will never know just how sorry I am for everything this situation put you through. It started with my own selfish desire not to have to go through another employee and then I was drugged, raped, and both our hearts were broken. You were left to deal with a pregnancy on your own because you couldn’t trust me with her still in the picture. You didn’t know for some of that time that she was holding a supposed pregnancy of her own over my head, and for that I’m sorry, too. It must have looked like the worst possible outcome. Like I was okay with what she did to me - to us.”
