Page 69 of Guarded

“You don’t have to apologize. I just, I thought you were dead.” He says, pausing on the last word.

I pull myself out of the pool and sit in his lap. Wrapping my arms around him, I pull his bare chest into my naked body and hug him tightly.

His body stiffens before I feel his hands on my back. We stay there like that momentarily, our hearts aligned underneath the big Texas sky. There are no words I can say to make what happened to him disappear. I just want him to know I care.

That magnetic pull has our hands roaming each other’s bodies. I pull back slightly and run my hand over his beard. I hook his gold chain in my finger before I find the discolored scarring on his chest.

“Did she do this to you?” I ask.

I look up at him before I lean down and kiss the fading scars. The same way he had kissed my tears the night I gave him all of me. He looks at me dumbfoundedly, his eyes locked on mine.

“She did. She did a lot of things to me. Physically and mentally.” He cups my face and pulls me back into his chest. I rest my head there as his rough hands caress my back.

“The worst part was always the emotional abuse. I remember the day she did this to me. I was forced to lay there in the tub, my body trembling from the shock. She poured hot water from a kettle on me. It was fucked up. I didn’t understand why she hated me so much. Why she was laughing while I was crying.”

Anger lodges in the back of my throat as he continues telling me about his mother. I hug him tighter, my eyes press closed to ward off the emotions arising in me.

“I have never known love Ari. I can never give love because I have never known it. She’s dead, and I am still suffering from what she did to me.” His voice cracks, and I pull back to cup his face between my hands. Tears stream down my face, thinkingabout how that woman has broken the kindest of souls I have ever known.

“Don’t cry for me, Maniká,” Nero says, wiping away the moisture on my face.

“I can’t help it. I want to go back and hug that little boy and tell him everything’s going to be okay. I want to punch your mom in the face.” He lets out a small chuckle and kisses my cheek.

“She’s dead now. I’m not worried about her, and you don’t have to worry about me.” I pull what emotions I can back together.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I say, and he shakes his head.

His hand reaches out and palms my neck. His thumb trails over the fullness of my lips, causing heat to rise in my core. I close my eyes, but my mouth has its own plans.

“What do you need from me?” I whisper into his lips.

I open my eyes again and find his on mine. I lean in until our foreheads are touching, and my hand roams over his chest and abs. I run my fingers over the elastic of his briefs.

“Ari- “he hisses.

I let my hand slide down farther and grab his erection. Another growl escapes him.

“That’s what you do to me. Whenever I’m around you, I can’t think of anything but how much I want to be inside you.” He whispers into my ear.

I stroke my hand up his long length through the fabric of his briefs.

“I want to slide between these lips and paint these tits with my cum.” His thumb rubs over my bottom lip before his hand falls to my breasts.

He pinches my nipple, and I arch my back, squeezing his cock in my hand in response.

“What do you want, Princess?” Nero says, pinching my other nipple.

I’m unsure how to express the urges that consume me. Since the night he used the orange dildo on me, I have been eager to show him how quickly I learned. Desperate to earn his approval and hear the praises fall from his lips as, I gratified him with my mouth.

“Tell me.” He commands.

“I want to taste you.” The confession makes me feel like a whore, and for some reason, I wanted to be just that.His whore.

Chapter 21

Nero

Five words.