AllFreeNovel
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Honestly, the real person to blame here is me. I grew up with a solid model of how a real man loves his woman, and yet I balked at the concept of such. My unwillingness to accept the truth of my feelings followed by countless excuses of why I needed to push her away has caused me to fail her just as much, if not more so than those other pieces of shit. Because if I had pulled my head out of my ass from the start, that wouldn’t be Lucian’s ring on her finger right now.
“Let’s go to bed, baby.” I pull back the covers, gesturing for her to climb underneath. She complies, scooching over as I slide in beside her.
Tomorrow’s a new day.
Tomorrow, we start our life.
***
The sun streams in though my curtains, warming the skin of our tangled bodies. Daph’s draped across my chest, her leg slung up over my hip. I glance down at her, my fingers massaging her scalp as I press a kiss to her forehead. It’s rare I sleep past nine, but it’s hard to find the strength to climb out of bed when I have her in my arms.
My hand drifts lower, fingertips lazily trailing up and down her back, appreciating the softness of her skin. She stirs, her body briefly coiling in on itself before stretching out like a satiated cat.
Her head rolls up to the side, her chin resting upon my chest as she squints one eye open at me. Daph smiles, the wrinkles on her forehead smoothing as any tension recedes from her face.
“How you feeling?” I stroke the hair from her face before tracing the slender curve of her shoulder.
“Surprisingly, not that shitty.”
“That’s good. You feeling up for breakfast?”
Daphne shakes her head, pushing up to a sitting position and covering herself with the sheet. “Can’t. I have to get home.”
“Wait.” My hand shoots forward, encircling her wrist as she moves to leave. Shit. I thought I’d at least have breakfast to spring this on her. “I need to talk to you about some stuff.”
“That sounds… ominous.” She chuckles, securing the sheet around her like one would a towel after a shower before dropping back onto her ass. “Okay. Shoot.”
“I—” The gentle humming of my cell vibrating against the nightstand interrupts me.
“You need to get that?”
“No.” The vibrations cut out after several seconds, allowing me to redirect my full attention to her. “Like I was saying—”
The humming resumes, the vibrations causing the phone to migrate close to the edge where it teeters, threatening to crash to the floor.
“Answer the phone, Nick. I can hang out a few minutes longer.”
“I’m so sorry. Let me just…” I turn over, reaching for the phone to find my sister’s name flashing across the screen. “Hey, J. Can I call you back?”
“Nicky!” her panicked voices shrieks over the speaker, stalling my breathing.
Daphne shoots forward, her face heavy with worry as she scrambles to sit beside me, her fingers latching onto my arm.
“It’s Maverick,” J continues over the honking of a car horn sounding off in the background. “He’s on his way to you. I told him about the baby, and he asked if you knew and I said yes and he lost it. He took his gun and he left and he’s coming to you!” Her words bleed together into one long run-on sentence.
“It’s okay, Baby J. Breathe. I need you to breathe.”
“Nicky, please don’t hurt him.” She cries, her words becoming difficult to hear through her sobs. “Please don’t.”
“I’m not gonna hurt him. I promise.” A part of me always knew this day would come. It’s time to atone for my sins. “How long ago did he leave?”
Climbing from the bed, I make my way to the dresser where I retrieve some jeans and an old graphic tee.
“I’m not far behind him. Just stay out of sight ‘til I get there.”
“How long, J?!” I slam the drawer, stepping into the legs of my pants.
“About five minutes ago.” She sniffles. “He’s on the bike.”
