Her spine stiffens as she breaks the kiss, a frown etched into her brow. “You were in Red Hook Penitentiary, right?”
Fuck, I didn’t expect her to piece it together so quickly. “Yeah.”
The cogs begin to turn in her mind and I see the moment it dawns on her, the realisation crashing over her like a wave. “My father was the warden there around that time.”
When I don’t respond, she must see the look on my face, confirming her suspicion and she chokes back a sound that’s a cross between a gasp and a cry.
“Oh myGod!” she cries, pushing off the couch. “No.No, tell me I’m wrong. Tell me I’m wrong, Killian.Please.”
“I can’t tell you that.”
A cry catches in her throat. “I can’t believe this…”
“I’m sorry, butterfly.” I’m not entirely sure what I’m apologising for. For her father being an asshole? For her finding out this way? Or sorry that the only reason either of us are here right now,together, is because of what her father did all those years ago? Maybe it’s a blend of all three.
“No wonder you hate my father so much. It all makes so much sense now.” She paces the living room while chewing on her thumbnail. Her eyes dart across to me. “Is that why I’m here? Am I your way of pissing off my dad?”
My heart lurches in my chest. I go to open my mouth but she holds up a hand to silence me. “Wait, don’t answer that.” She crosses the room and drops back down onto the couch beside me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m just lashing out.” She closes the space between us, resting her head on my shoulder while her fingers link with mine. “I know you’dnever do something like that.”
I swallow around the lump of guilt that’s lodged itself in my throat.
Tell her the truth.
Tell her about the photographs.
But I don’t.
I chicken out.
Because I’m not only a lying piece of shit, I’m also a coward too, afraid of losing her if she ever found out the truth.
I clear my throat. “I won’t lie and say that knowing he hates you being with me doesn’t give me a little satisfaction, because it does,” I confess. “But you and me? This is real. It’s the realest thing I’ve ever felt in my life. And it’sthatreason I told you what that monster did to me. I’ve never told anyone. Nevertrustedanyone enough.” I brush a strand of hair behind her ear as tears sparkle in her eyes. “I can’t tell you all of it, not yet. But I will.”
“You don’t know how much it means to me that you trust me enough to open up. It means the whole world.”
She shifts onto my lap, straddling me and my hands reach for her hips on instinct.
“What’re you doing, butterfly?” I ask, peering up at her.
She shoots me a seductive smile as she reaches for the buttons of her shirt, undoing them one by one. “I want to make you feel good. To make you forget.”
My hands skim up her sides as the last button pops open and I can’t hold back my groan when her bare tits come into view. I drag her harder against me, allowing me to take one of those rosy nipples into my mouth, my dick thickening in my jeans as she rolls her hips over me, her pussy grazing against me.
After carrying her upstairs to the bedroom, I strip her before making love to her, something I never did before her.
It’s slow and deep. I soak up each and every sound I draw out of her. Revelling in the expressions of complete euphoria that cross her face. Tracing every beautiful curve of her body with my hands, savouring every soft stroke of her tongue against mine, committing them all to memory. I want to remember this. Because I have this sinking feeling inside that something is coming.
Something that will bring both our worlds crashing down around us.
34
“If you want this tattoo to look good, gonna need you to stop squirming,” Killian laughs, his fingertips brushing my skin as he stabs me over and over with his tattoo gun and despite the discomfort, his touch is like a million tiny lightning bolts striking my skin.
A giggle falls from my lips. “I can’t help it when you’re touching me.”
I’m lying on my left side, my right arm draped over my head while Killian works on the tattoo he promised me, placed on the side of my rib cage, just below my breast.
“Glad to see I have such a profound effect in you,” he sayswith a smirk, his dark eyes lifting to mine briefly before returning to the image he’s outlining in ink.
