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“But you went to him for me?”
“And I would do it again.” There’s no hesitation in the words, no regret or sorrow. He means them and wants me to know that he means them. “I would choose you every time, Charity.”
“Why?”
“What brought you back to Forest Falls?”
The change in conversation startles me. Realizing I had been leaning toward him, I straighten my back, shifting beneath the sheet covering most of my body. “I broke up with my boyfriend and needed some time to breathe.”
“Why?”
“Uh, because breakups suck?”
“No, why did you break up with him?”
Normally, I would tell him to fuck off and mind his own business, but the fact is this secret is nothing compared to what he just shared with me. “He was controlling, overbearing, and frankly kind of creepy. I tried to break it off a few weeks ago, but he kept calling and showing up wherever I was, and then he broke into my apartment when I was at work.
Eric trashed the place. He tore up all my clothes, cut up my mattress and my couch, and even ripped out the back of my refrigerator. By the time I got home, one of my neighbors had already called the cops on him for all the noise. He refused to leave, insisting the apartment was in his name, too. When the cops called the landlord in to corroborate Eric’s story, he brought the lease with him, and it showed, clear as day, Eric’s name was right next to mine.”
“But it shouldn’t have been.”
It isn’t a question, but I still shake my head. “No, it shouldn’t have been. It wasn’t when I signed the lease a year prior. I wasn’t even dating Eric back then, so there’s no reason his name should have been on it. I didn’t know what to do, so I got in the car and drove straight to the one place I knew he would never find me.”
“Does your brother know all this?”
“He knows some of it,” I shrug, not wanting to make more of a deal out of it than necessary. “I didn’t want him to worry.”
“Thank you for telling me.”
The sincerity in his voice makes me want to cry, but I refuse to do it. Eric was just a shitty guy with entitlement issues; he’s not worth my tears. “Thank you for telling me all that other stuff.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
“There are many things I’m sorry you didn’t tell me sooner.”
“What else should I have told you?” There’s genuine confusion in his eyes, and I can’t help it. I laugh. It’s loud and hoarse and honestly a bit unsettling. I can’t remember the last time I laughed like that. “What is so funny?”
Theo’s shoulders shake with his own, much smaller, laugh, and I try to explain, but the giggles won’t stop now that they’ve started. In lieu of words, I simply wave a hand at his crotch, still hidden behind the pillow. When his eyes snap from the pillow to my face, I nearly keel over with laughter again.
“Charity Lawson, are you laughing at my dick?”
“Definitely not,” I wheeze through uncontrollable fits of giggles. My eyes are too full of tears to make out Theo’s expression, but I feel him shift on the bed beside me. I’m faintly aware of the sheet being pulled away, but I don’t think anything of it until I’m being dragged across the bed by my ankles.
“Dickbag!”
“I believe that’s Daddy to you,” he reminds me, dragging my body beneath his. He’s so broad his shoulders completely block my view of the room around us. “And I’d appreciate it if you at least met my dick before you started laughing at it.”
“Oh, of course.” My mock-serious tone makes Theo’s eyes narrow, but the moment my hand slides between us, all joking comes to an end. “Were you hard the whole time?”
“Not the whole time,” he shrugs one massive shoulder before bending to run his nose along my cheek. “But I really like it when you laugh.”
His teeth close around my ear lobe, causing my back to arch off the bed. I can’t go anywhere with his chest pressing me into the mattress, and I groan at the feeling of being pinned beneath him. “What do you want, Viper?”
“Whatever you’re willing to give me.”
“You might want to reconsider that,” he argues, kissing a line down the side of my neck before gently nipping at my collarbone. “I could give you the whole world, and it wouldn’t be enough.”
I don’t know how to react when he says things like that, but Theo doesn’t pressure me to say anything. His lips close around my nipple, sucking hard enough to make me squeal and shove at his head. He chuckles against my skin, kissing the abused areola. His mouth moves across my chest as his hand slides between my legs.
