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And like that, everyone cleared out. Which only made Crew laugh all the harder as he colored a picture.
I had just taken the rolls from the oven and buttered them when Crew carefully removed the picture he had colored, and then jumped off the stool and ran over to Daemon.
Who had stopped mid-conversation to lean down in front of Crew.
And I could have sworn I had seen moisture in the big man’s eyes as Crew told him he had drawn it for him.
After I called out that it was ready, everyone filed in and then made their plates, and I knew Daemon was about to go off when the third person jokingly said they wanted me for their own.
So, all I had done was looked at Daemon and winked at him, and the big softie he was where Crew and I were concerned, calmed down. Just like that.
But it was Marcus who walked by each one who had said that and slapped them on the backs of their heads. And not lightly either.
Tonight, however, Crew was already in bed, and I was debating asking Daemon if he wanted to stay the night with us.
But before I could open my mouth to ask him, he spoke, “So, got a question to ask?”
I looked at him and said, “Okay?”
He sighed then ran his hand through his hair, “I’ve never done this shit before.”
“What? Watched a movie and drank cocoa?” I asked him with a teasing tone.
He shook his head and then chuckled.
“I’ve never been in a relationship with anyone. Never wanted to be. But… the thought of some other man being there for you and Crew. It… it’s like a knife to my heart. I don’t like it.”
I bit my lip, then I told him something that’s been on my mind lately too, “Yeah, I know what you mean. The thought of you with another woman, it’s… yeah, I don’t even want to think about it.”
“So, what can we do about that?” he asked me.
“Then I guess, before we take that step, we need to lay our truths on the table,” I said softly.
He nodded, then he told me about the day when he was nine years old, and that bastard had beaten the hell out of him. He told me about the five-year-old little girl, about her father, and then he told me that they made sure one of them always stayed in the room with him while he slept.
He told me about how after a football game, they asked him if he was okay if they fostered him and then they adopted him.
He showed me a picture of all of them from Christmas a few years ago and then I asked something that’s been bothering me, “Why weren’t you smiling? Why is everyone so surprised that you do smile?”
He locked his eyes with mine and said, “Never wanted to. Never had a reason to until I met you and Crew. Hell, I didn’t even know I could smile.”
Tears hit my eyes then.
But more slid down my cheeks when he said, “You need to know something else.”
I nodded, and then leaned into his hand when he wiped the tears away, and whispered, “What?”
“My birth mother let other men touch me. Thankfully, nothing more than that, but it took me years to be able to let anyone other than my family, William, Melanie, and Lily, be able to touch me and my skin not feel as though it was crawling.”
My heart broke for this man.
I wanted to hunt them all down and beat the ever-loving shit out of all of them. Bastards.
“You have murder on your face,” he told me.
I looked at him and then told him what I had been thinking.
Then he smiled, and then, he did something we’d never done before, he wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me in his lap, then he placed one on my hip and the other on my thigh.
