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“I’ll help you,” Xavier swore. She clung to them both. He wished they could go back and help her. To shelter that young girl who went through hell.
“You didn’t tell your foster parents?” Brick asked.
She shook her head. “My foster dad worked for the father of one of the girls who bullied me, and she said that he would lose his job if I said anything.”
“So, what changed?” Brick asked.
“Reuben was still at school. His grandpa had died and left him this plot of land and some money. When he turned eighteen, he started investing it. And he did well, really well. He came to visit whenever he could, but it had been a few months since I saw him. I know he blames himself for that, but it wasn’t his fault.”
“No, it was theirs,” Brick said darkly.
“I hid my weight loss under baggy clothes. I tried to pretend everything was fine. But it wasn’t. And one day, right at the end of the year, I collapsed in class. I ended up in the hospital for a week recovering. I had to see more therapists. Reuben had his lawyer in the thick of things, and he somehow convinced his grandma to apply for custody of me. His lawyer didn’t think that child services would give him custody of me at that stage.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know how he did it. He’d just graduated high school, but he was scarier than everyone else. I felt sorry for my foster parents. I still keep in touch with them. I told them why I hadn’t said anything and my foster dad broke down in tears. It was awful. I wish I had been better to them.”
“Hey, none of it was your fault,” Xavier told her. Tears entered his eyes and he blinked, but one slipped free.
A look of amazement filled her face. “For me?”
“Sweetheart.” His voice broke, and he buried his face in her hair.
“Brick?”
“God, Duchess. God.” They hugged her tight.
Xavier could feel his insides breaking. Yeah, he’d known some of it, but not all the details. He hadn’t even met her until she’d already been living here a few months. When Reuben had gone to get her, he’d been packing to move to college.
But when he’d come back to visit Reuben during the summer break, there she’d been. Tiny and scared, clinging to her brother like he was her safety.
“Reuben took a year off to take care of me. He’d been doing college classes in high school anyway, so he was well ahead. He got me into school here, made certain that everyone knew that any slight to me was a slight to him. I think he scared the whole town shitless. Told me that he was my wolf. That he would harm anyone who hurt me.”
“Good,” Brick said, looking wrecked.
“I’m all right, Daddy. I promise.”
Xavier could tell that Brick was just as much of a mess as he was, his eyes red-rimmed and glassy.
“I really will kill them. All of them,” Brick swore.
“I looked some of them up, tried to stalk them online,” she told them. “Believe me, you don’t have to go after them. Their lives are hell. Not one of them was successful in life. They went on into bad marriages or poor business decisions. It’s like everything came back to bite them on the ass.”
Or Reuben had. But Xavier didn’t say it.
She let out a shuddering breath, and Brick stood, grabbing a box of tissues from the counter. He crouched, but instead of offering her a tissue, he held them out to Xavier.
Xavier took a tissue, then tilted up her face and carefully cleaned it. By the time he finished, she was bright red.
“I’ve often wondered if you were a Daddy,” she told him. “You’re always so patient and kind to me. But when I tried to ask Reuben once, he refused to say anything other than you weren’t for me.”
“Reuben introduced me to BDSM,” Xavier told her. “He took me to my first club. It was a way to relieve the stress of medical school, of my parents’ expectations. There, I could be in control. I could make the decisions. I enjoyed discipling naughty subs. I never went near the Littles area. Then one day, I saw a Dom comforting his Little. The way he held her, cared for her, you could see her blossoming under his attention. It struck me. I formed a friendship with that couple. The Little was a sweetheart. Her Dom was this huge guy. Turns out he owned a gym, and they’d been together for a while. Over time, they taught me a lot, but I never took it much further. I wasn’t sure why I didn’t feel like I could. Then I found out that you were a Little. And I had an outlet for my Daddy side. You. It’s always been you.” He brushed her hair back. “Forgive me for being an idiot.”
“I forgive you. Idiot.” She grinned as he mock-glared at her. “Does this mean you want to be my Daddy too?”
“How about your Papa?” he asked.
“I like that. Will you kiss me again?”
“Fuck, yes.”
