“Seems so.”
Dare put his hands to his face and rubbed his eyes with a groan.
“I can’t believe we’ve both been so oblivious. And so dumb.”
“Hey!” I exclaimed. “We’ve had our reasons. You were betrayed and I…well, I don’t know that I was ready for a relationship. Not after what Victor put me through.”
Dare put his hand on mine again and gave it a squeeze.
“I’ve been afraid to ask,” he whispered. “But did he…”
“He was abusive. Verbally, physically, mentally. Yeah. He was all those things, and it took a lot to figure it out. You always think it will never happen to you. That you will see the signs. That the first time he raises his hand, you will nope out of there, but it doesn’t work like that. It doesn’t happen like that. It starts slowly. They dote on you. They love-bomb you. They make you fall for them, and by the time they raise their hands, you’re so dependent on them you believe them when they apologize. When they say they didn’t mean it. He spent a week making it up to me after the first time. A week.” I sighed and closed my eyes, repeating my therapist’s prescribed mantra over and over in my head.
It’s not my fault. It’s not my fault. It’s not my fault.
“I hate that guy. I hate him so much,” Dare said. He dropped to the floor in front of me, and cupped my face.
“Me too. Now. It took me a long time to hate him, but I do now.”
I raised my hand and placed it over his.
“I promise I’m never going to hurt you. Never,” he whispered and I stared into his beautiful green eyes.
“I know,” I whispered back. “I know you won’t.”
I believed him. I didn’t want to, but I did. It was one of the reasons I hadn’t dated much since Victor. Because I didn’t want to fall victim to more lies, to more disguised manipulation. To more love-bombing.
But I’d known Dare for a while now. I’d gotten to know him over the past year, and even more so in the past few weeks.
I might have had a little flashback from the way he reacted after we slept together, but that wasn’t on him. That was on me. Because even when he had given me the cold shoulder there had been no malice behind it. No ulterior motive. No evil.
That wasn’t Dare. He might be rough around the edges sometimes and he might be a little reserved, but he was sweet. He was kind, caring and hard-working. He was honest and protective.
He was Dare.
The man I’d fallen in love with the day he walked up to my truck and ordered a coffee.
“Can I…can I kiss you?” he asked.
My heart thumped in my chest as if I’d been waiting all my life to be asked.
“Yes. Yes, you can,” I said.
He narrowed his eyes and watched me for a moment or two, as if waiting for me to change my mind, and when I didn’t, he closed the distance between us, and reclaimed my lips.
TWENTY-THREE
ZACH
Atorrent of emotions burst inside me the moment our mouths reunited, and I had to take a deep breath in order to compose myself. Not that my composure lasted long—how could it when I was being kissed by Dare.
He pushed his tongue into my mouth, initiating a messy, intricate dance with mine while my hands wrapped around his strong shoulders and pressed him close to me.
The deeper he kissed me, the tighter I held on. I spread my legs so I could cradle him closer. My cock got hard. Harder still when I pulled back and watched him stare at me with need and desire in his eyes, while on his knees in front of me. His lips quirked to the side in a cheeky smirk, and I dragged him back to me with a growl.
He covered my face with both hands and held on to me for dear life as our lips turned red and sore from all the friction, yet neither of us stopped, neither of us pulled away. We sat there, tangled together, savoring each other.
I could have stayed there forever and I wouldn't get tired. I'd been craving this for so long. Too long. And not only had it happened once already, it was happening again. If it were up to me, it would happen infinite more times.
