“I know.” I nod. “When I confronted him about it, asked why he did it and explained that it made me uncomfortable...” Emotion pricks behind my eyes. “He told me that he didn’t even enjoy sex with me. That he couldn’t feel anything when he used a condom. That I was too...” I shake my head, hiding my face as white-hot shame rushes over me. “Loose.”
Weston’s body tenses beside me. He rears back, creating distance between us—recoiling. Like he’s been slapped.
I’m terrified to look at him.
“Willow,” he breathes, sighing deeply, as if gathering his composure. Weston adds, “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry he put you through that. I’m sorry that—Can you look at me?”
I shake my head, burying my face in his side. “Not yet,” I murmur. “That was the most humiliating thing that’s ever happened to me, and I’ve never spoken those words aloud. Not to anyone. Not even Allie. I’m too afraid they’re true. I’m afraid of anyone else knowing something like that about me.”
“I understand.” His chest moves as he nods. “I need you to know it’s not true, though. Farthest thing from it.” He plants his lips in my hair, running his arm down the bare skin of my back. “I know I’m not an expert, but even with high school level biology and basic sex education, I know that’s not how the female body works. And...” He huffs a laugh. “I can now speak from experience that sex with a condom can absolutely feel good. Perhaps Parker was overcompensating for his own issues.” He shrugs. “Regardless, those things he said were a poor attempt at deflecting from what he did to you because he’d been caught. They were an abhorrent effort to justify his actions. That does not make them true.”
“He was so quick to say them. Like he didn’t even need to think about it. The words naturally fell from his mouth.”
“Honestly, Willow. He probably considered the chance you’d realize what he’d done—first hoping that you would choose not to address it, and second, having a perfect excuse on hand in case you did. The kind of reasoning that would create the very insecurities you’re struggling with now, so that he could continue assaulting you that way and even coerce you further without your consent. Ensuring you were too humiliated to confront him. Too insecure to leave.”
I finally lift my head, emotion pooling behind my eyes when I look at him.
Weston’s face is twisted in devastation, but he cups my cheeks with both hands, tipping my chin upward. “You’re so strong, though. My brave, resilient girl. You broke free, and soon, you’ll heal too.”
“I don’t want to let it define me anymore,” I murmur, tilting my head and kissing his palm as one tear spills over.
“We won’t let it.” Weston catches my tear with a thumb and swipes it away, taking my shame with it. “I want to erase your pain too,” he whispers, echoing my words from last night.
“When you touch me, it kind of feels like that.” I smile softly, mimicking his.
Weston guides my mouth to him, kissing me languidly. Like he’s got his entire life to do it. Those long, slow kisses morph into fervent exploration of each other’s body. My tongue tasting his jaw, his teeth nipping my neck. My hands on his chest and tangled in the strands of his hair. His sliding over my breasts, grazing my nipples and teasing my skin.
Weston ends up hovering over me, nestled between my legs. His blazing eyes study me like I’m his next meal, gaze sparking heat in my veins. His hard cock throbs against my lower belly, lighting a fire in my core.
“You heard the medic,” I say on a breath. “No rigorous activity. Plus, I only had one condom.”
He laughs, dipping his head to kiss me tenderly. “I just wanted a taste of what it’ll be like.”
“What?” I ask.
“The next time we fuck,” he says roughly, the words filtering from his lips and into mine. “I want it just like this. I want to see you writhe beneath me while I cage you in. Watch your pretty tits bounce with every thrust inside your perfect fucking body. I’m going to revel in the way I make those big blue eyes roll back as you claw at my shoulders. That’s how I’m going to take you, Willow.”
Heat rushes over me like a fucking tidal wave, breath hitching with a splintered gasp. “I think I’d like that.”
“Oh, love. I’ll guarantee it,” he rasps, kissing me again.
CHAPTER 30
WESTON
Iam addicted to Willow Graham.
After getting cleared on Monday morning to return to light work, I gradually resumed my regular training schedule over the remainder of the week. Monday evening, I fucked Willow exactly as I promised I would, and the days that followed have become a flurried frenzy of our mingling bodies.
I woke early this morning, but since it’s Sunday, I didn’t have training. Deciding to surprise Willow with pancakes, I threw on a pair of joggers when I hopped out of bed and strode directly into the kitchen. Just as I pour the first dollop of batter onto the griddle, she saunters into the kitchen in nothing but my T-shirt.
Pride and possession flood my veins, and my atoms buzz with need at the long, tanned legs that seem to go on for miles beneath the hem. The way her nipples are just visible through the fabric, and the fact that Iknowshe smells like me.
It’s intoxicating—watching her sleep in my bed, seeing her face when I open my eyes for the first time each morning, her voice the last thing I hear each night.
“That smells good,” she croons, hiking herself onto the counter before plucking a strawberry from the bowl beside her and popping it into her mouth.
“Are you wearing panties, Trouble?” I ask, cock achingly hard at the sight of her.
