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Blinding white light pressed against my eyelids, making me force them open. He’d forgotten to close the blinds again.
“East,” I groaned, patting his side of the bed only to find it cold and empty. Sitting up, I noticed he had dressed me in one of his big shirts. “East?” I called again, and he stuck his head out of the bathroom, shaving cream on his face. He grinned.
“Ready for more already?” He winked and ducked when I threw a pillow at him. “How about after breakfast?”
“Why aren’t you in bed with me? We should be sleeping and having sex all day,” I moaned, watching desire pool in his gaze for me.
“Tempting, but I have work.”
“Speaking of, you still haven’t told me about it.” I got out of bed and raised my arms above my head, stretching the stiffness out of my neck and back. His shirt lifted up, exposing my bare butt, causing him to groan.
“I’m sure they won’t mind if I’m a few minutes late. Come shower with me, Harley. Let me make you sing one more time.”
Because I couldn’t resist this man, I took his invitation and sang his name like it was my greatest prayer.
At his kitchen counter thirty minutes later, he was guzzling down a cup of coffee while I picked at a bowl of cereal under his watchful gaze.
“Have you thought about therapy?” He wasn’t looking at me as he voiced the question I’d been dreading.
“I tried it a few times,” I whispered, dropping my spoon in the half-full bowl and pushed it away.
“Did anyone ever go with you?” He was gripping the counter now, his intense gaze on me.
“What do you mean?” I stood, taking my bowl to the sink and tossing the soggy cornflakes.
“Has anyone ever supported you, Harley? Your mom? Dad? Friends?” I opened my mouth to tell him to shove his question up his ass, but then I saw the concern in his features.
I sighed. “No. They ridiculed me. Mom yelled; the therapist yelled. Everyone just didn’t understand.” He nodded, taking the bowl from me and putting it in the dishwasher.
“Will you go with me? Will you try again with me?” Sniffling, I scrunched up my nose and blinked away the tears threatening to fall.
“East, you don’t have to do this. Really.” I hugged myself, trying and failing to be in control of my emotions.
He stepped into me, backing me against the counter. A tear slid down my cheek, and he kissed it away. “Except I do. I’m not letting you suffer alone. You aren’t alone anymore.” He brushed his lips with mine. “You have me.”
Chapter Twenty
EASTON
“You really don’t have to do this,” Harley whispered, fidgeting in her seat in the waiting room of the therapist I found for her. It wasn’t easy to get this appointment, but my parents built the home of the therapist, and it helped me skip the line. I still had to tell Harley about them; it was quickly becoming another secret between us. And we didn’t do secrets.
I wasn’t sure how she would react, given how her parents had treated her. I didn’t want her to think that I had something she didn’t, when, in reality, I’d grown up without these people. I hadn’t needed them then, and I sure as hell didn’t need them now.
Dropping my hand on her bouncing, jean-clad knee, I squeezed her small leg. “I’m not doing anything you wouldn’t do for me,” I reminded her, and she sighed in irritation.
“Really, East? This isn’t funny. I am freaking out.” She rested her head on my shoulder. I longed for her to suck my strength straight from my body. She needed every ounce for what she was about to do.
“It’s going to be okay. I promise, it’s all going to be okay.”
“And if she can’t fix me? If I’m so beyond repair? What then, Easton?” she whispered, panicked.
“You don’t need to be fixed, Harley. That’s not why we are here. I told you I’m not here to fix you. I’m here to heal you, little bird. You are not broken. Do you hear me?” I grasped her chin between my fingers, tilting her head toward mine.
Brushing my lips to hers quickly, her bouncing knee slowed, and then her name was called.
“Harley Cole?” a middle-aged woman in a pair of navy blue slacks and a white, ruffly, button-up top called her to the back. Harley stood, and nervously, her eyes darted between me and the lady.
“Can he come with?” she tentatively asked, reaching for me.
