“Hey, baby.”
“Hi.” My eyes were locked onto his chest as I absently said, “Colleen is here.”
“Why?” He moved closer—close enough to touch. All I had to do was reach out and trace the path the water took. I could follow it with my tongue, all the way down to where it disappeared beneath the towel.
“Your mo—” I stopped. “I mean, Darcy is staying at Maureen’s tonight. I offered Colleen the room I had been using. I hope that’s okay.”
“Of course that’s okay.”
When he stepped closer, crowding into my space, I reached up and let my fingertips do what my tongue wanted to. I didn’t think I was ready to be that bold, but I needed to touch him.
“I want you, King.”
“I’m right here, baby.” His hands held my hips, but he didn’t pull. He was waiting for me.
I looked up, tears filling my eyes again. “I don’t know if I can.”
“We don’t have to do anything, baby. I just want to sleep next to you. I want to hold you in my arms. Can we try that?” My eyes dipped down to focus on his lips. Lips that just a week or so ago were all over me. I nodded, but I wasn’t sure what I was agreeing to.
“Let me put something on.” He went to the dresser and pulled out a pair of boxers. I thought he’d go into the bathroom, but instead he turned his back to me and let the towel drop. I bit my lip, hoping to hide the whimper that escaped. He’d done the same thing with his jeans the first time he slept in my bed. “Go change, Grace.” He spanked my ass lightly, and I chuckled. It sounded foreign but good.
It was progress.
I wasn’t ready to undress in front of him. Most of the bruises had faded, but there were still some cuts that hadn’t fully healed. I slipped into the bathroom and stared at my reflection.
“You can do this,” I whispered to the girl in front of me. “He’d never hurt you.” I didn’t need to tell myself that, but I needed to tellher. I needed to tell my mother. Her voice had been constant in my head ever since the waterfall. To the point I almost made an appointment with Haizley because I felt like I was going crazy.
Maybe I was.
Was it crazy to want him so soon? It had been less than two weeks since my assault, but King wasn’t some random man I’d gone on a date with. He was the other half of my soul. He was the only person who could make me whole again.
Still, I hesitated.
When I opened the door wearing his shirt, I saw the hunger in his eyes. When he lifted his knee, I knew it was because hethought the idea of his dick hard beneath the blanket might scare me.
And it did.
But it also called to me.
I wanted him. I wanted him to love me. I wanted him to make love to me the way he did in the shower the morning everything happened. It was the only way I’d survived that day. That memory was what kept me sane while it happened.
I loved what we did the night before, too. The way he took me without asking. The way he dominated me. But I wasn’t ready for that. I hoped someday I would, but not tonight
He lifted the blanket, and I crawled in next to him, laying my head on the hand that covered his heart. He wrapped one arm around my back and the other behind his head.
“I don’t think my mother was who she said she was,” I whispered, stalling, but also not wanting to push him about his own family dynamics.
“Reaper thinks you might be related to his mother.”
“That’s what Donna thinks too.”
“Popeye’s the only one who has the answers.”
“Popeye?” I asked, looking up at him.
“Uncle Stephen. He’s retired, but he was once the VP of the Soulless Sinners.”
“So my fatherwasin a club; I just had the wrong club.”
