“You’re not.” I pulled her up into my arms. Slippers hissed and darted off the bed. I’d have to make it up to her later.
“You’re so smart and capable and beautiful.” I pressed kisses to her temples, cheeks, lips. “I love you. Just the way you are. I love you, Keelie.”
She wrapped her arms around me so tightly I nearly suffocated, and she sobbed. “I want him to go away. I w-was h-h-happy.”
I stroked her hair and her back. “Being with you makes me happy.”
“He w-w-won’t stop.”
She cried, and it broke my heart. I wanted to cry, too, and my head ached. I clenched my jaw and held her, trying to soothe her.
Spent, she rested her cheek against my shoulder. “I’m sorry I keep messing up your life.”
“Look at me.”
When she did, her eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot. Her nose and cheeks were blotchy.
“You make my life better,” I told her. “I need you to understand that. Your father’s a nuisance. Well, more like a total asshole. Butwe’lldeal with him. Okay? We’re going to start with a new phone and a number he doesn’t have.”
She studied me for a long time before she nodded. Her breath puffed against my neck. “Okay.”
“I love you, Keelie.”
She lifted her hand and cupped my cheek. “I love you, Cormac. So much.”
Chapter50
Keelie
The next morning, I woke up in Cormac’s bed. I smiled as I stretched, languorous, as Cormac kissed his way down my belly. He glanced up, his expression filled with heat.
“Lift your hips.”
When I did, he slipped my panties off as he raked his teeth across my hipbones. I closed my eyes as he continued the slow path downward.
“I love you, Keelie,” he murmured. He kissed each inner thigh, flicking his tongue against the sensitive skin.
“Cormac!”
“Tell me you love me. I need to hear you say it.”
“I love you.”
“And you won’t keep secrets?”
“I won’t. I promise.” My voice broke as he nipped the sensitive skin of my inner thigh.
Pleasure receded as my mind processed what he’d said. Oh.Oh. Cormac had mentioned his own demons. Shannon must have made him feel as if he wasn’t enough—good enough for her world. I wriggled out from under him and molded my body to his. My arms wound around his neck, and I kissed him, pouring all my love, all my devotion into the kiss.
He stared at me. “I need to help you.”
I relaxed. “Okay.”
“I need you to talk to me when you’re scared or worried.”
I nodded.
“And…”
