Chapter 28 Everett
EVERETT
The shape of Aurora’s body beneath the covers is captivating.
She’s lying on her side, facing me, completely vulnerable. Eternally mine.
I can’t look away. The rise of those luscious hips follows the dip of her waist.
The way the blanket rests on her ass, her legs, her calves.
Every inch of her skin pulls me deeper.
Pink nipples peek out from under the covers, begging to be bitten.
That untouched curve of her breasts, I have to taste them. Mark them.
Claim them.
She’s gorgeous, from the inside out.
And…I’m infuriated. Not by her. Jealousy scalds my chest. How dare these covers touch what’s mine.
Aurora silences the guilt, the hate, the rage…and fans the fire in everything else.
I’m hard. Frustrated. Hungry.
It feels wrong to crave anything but vengeance for my family.
But here I am. My priorities have shifted, the cadence of my rotten heart twisting with hers.
Killing Winston isn’t about my parents or my sister anymore. It’s about the bruise marring Aurora’s cheek.
My fist tightens. My shoulders tense.
Then I refocus on her.
Her softness, her beauty. Her soul.
That’s what matters.
My existence is pointless without Aurora in it.
I learned that the hard way. When she ran away, first, then over the week that I’d been keeping my distance. When I didn’t have the one thing I needed the most.
And she took me back. Demanded to have this fucked-up, emotionally damaged man.
With her smart mouth and fierce will, she weathered the storm of me. Stood tall, even after everything I put her through.
She fought for me.
Later, I’ll go to hell and back for her. I’ll slay her demons one by one.
Tonight, I’m overcome with the need to have her.
Unable to hold back anymore, I drape my arm over Aurora, pulling her to me.
Being in bed with her, naked in the dark, I’m clinging to this moment like a lifeline.
As if summoned by my thoughts, Aurora’s hand reaches out to me in her sleep.
Her eyes remain closed while small, gentle fingertips brush the sharp edges of my jawline. Searching for me, almost.
I take a deeper look, and yes, she’s asleep.
Her relaxed expression is unbearably sweet.
For one second. The next, her nose scrunches. Eyes squeeze. Her breasts rise and fall faster than before.
Is it me she’s afraid of? God, I hope so. I hope to possess every part of her.
Always.
Time slips by as I watch her, every second feeding the obsession.
Her very existence shreds my patience into jagged, bloody pieces.
My lungs burn, raw and punctured with impatience.
In the dead of night, silence hangs heavy around my neck. A chain. A burden.
Aurora. I want her awake. Need it.
The longer I wait for her eyes to flutter open, the harder my temples throb.
And the darker my thoughts spiral. I don’t just want her awake, I want her speaking to me. I want every word, every secret, every mundane detail she’s ever held back. Everything I’ve been denied.
“Aurora.” My hand flattens on the curve of her spine, drawing her closer. “Wake up.”
Not close enough. My cock jerks when I grab the back of her thigh, hiking her leg on top of mine.
“This isn’t a request.” To drive my point home, I yank her so her pussy is pressed to my hard cock. “I’m ordering you to look at me. Talk to me.”
She flutters her eyes open, staring at me in the dark.
Profound, visceral pain is what I find in them.
Pain that my belt, hand, or collar didn’t put there.
The throbbing in my head transforms into something violent. Vicious.
Murderous.
“Talk to me.”
She tips her face up to get a better look at me. “Talk about what?”
“About whatever it is that’s bothering you. You have something to say, you say it.”
“Fine.” Her determined gaze is goddamn adorable. She sucks in a deep breath. Holds on to my cheek as if I could ever walk away from her. Not anymore. “Who was she?”
“She’s none of your concern.” I don’t mean to snap or glower at her. I don’t mean to resurrect this wall between us.
Aurora doesn’t see it that way, and it’s my fault. My ribs crack when she flinches at the change in me.
I wish I could give her what she needs to ease her mind.
I wish I didn’t feel so dirty, airing out my family’s secrets.
“I’m your wife.” Her breath trembles. “Your secrets are mine too. That’s why you keep pushing me away, isn’t it? Because of them. And…it’s more than that.” Her lashes flutter, her mouth pulling down. “My gut says I’m connected to you, your secrets. You have to tell me.”
My defenses snap into place, hard and instinctive. I’m no longer a man unraveling. I’m a sardonic bastard wrapped in spite and fear.
I know exactly what I must look like to her, just as I know what my hand feels like when it curls around her throat, firm and possessive.
“Cute.” I squeeze, needing her, hating that I do. “Pretending we’re equals. Daring to demand I open up instead of giving me what I want. What I deserve.”
She screams when I crush my mouth to hers. It looks like a kiss, but it’s not. It’s sweeter, sharper.
This is war.
This is Aurora, strong, gorgeous, fierce. She bites my lip to draw blood. Her nails rake down my arm, desperate to mark me.
All it does is make me want her more.
I change the angle, taking her lip between my teeth as I do.
A groan slips out of her, rough with pain and need.
I kiss her harder, claiming her pain and body as mine.
She moans into my mouth, her hips grinding into me. And yet her small fist pounds against my chest.
She’s a contradiction in motion. She’s alive, and she’s mine.
When I pull back, it isn’t so she can catch her breath.
I need to see her. What I’ve done to her.
Her bright eyes breathe fire. A thin strip of blood on her bottom lip is the evidence of my brutality. Fuck me, I’ve never been this hard. This famished.
“I could kill you in your sleep for this,” she growls, punching me. “For hiding shit from me. No, I wouldn’t kill you. I couldn’t. What I could do is—is—”
“You could do what, princess?” Apparently, I’m not done being a bastard, not done fucking with her. “Steal my wallet?”
She gasps, slapping me across the face. My cheek stings.
I flip her over onto her back, holding her by her throat as tight as I can without choking her.
Every breath, every swallow, hums against my palm.
They’re mine.
“Fuck you.” Another slap. This one centers me. This one wakes me the fuck up. It brings me back to her, to the quivering chin. The pain rolling off her. “Fuck you. Fuck. You. Everett.”
Fuck me, indeed.
What was I thinking? Snapping at her like that? Once again, I let my past come between us.
“I’m sorry.” I release my hold on her throat by some, turning us back so we’re both facing one another again. “I’m sorry, Aurora.”
She’s taken aback by it. Doesn’t breathe a word.
Her eyes watch me, but it feels for all the world like she peels the flesh from my bones. She picks me apart with her gaze, her lips pinched. Brow furrowed.
I don’t have to ask her what she finds there.
It’s obvious.
I’m damaged goods. Undeserving of her.
Yes, she thought I was worthy before. This, though, this last outburst had to have been the last straw.
Whether I’m right or wrong, the outcome stays the same.
Aurora belongs to me. My property. My salvation. My penance.
I’ll lock her up in this bedroom. If that’s what it takes to keep her, that’s exactly what I’ll do.
Until she accepts my apology, I’ll keep touching her.
Keep begging for her forgiveness.
By cupping her cheeks, I tell her, I’ll mend the broken pieces of you. I’ll make you feel whole for the first time.
By stroking her new bruise, I say, I won’t rest. You will smile. You will laugh. You will come back to me, even if it’s just to call me a bastard before you spread your legs and let me in anyway.
What actually comes out of my mouth is another, “I’m sorry.”
Aurora’s eyes flutter closed. I press my lips to each one. Her eyelids are hot, and it’s not long before tears roll from them.
My heart twists. More apologies come out of me when I kiss and lick them off her pretty face.
“That’s what secrets do, Everett.” When she finally looks at me, a scowl pulls at her lips.
Not for the first time, I notice that she’s way too serious for someone her age. Unfortunately, I’ve learned the hard way that pain doesn’t discriminate. It just is.
“They mess you up.” She doesn’t stop. “They mess us up. I can’t reach you when you shut me out like that, when you won’t let me prove I’m not the person you’ve built up in your head. Without the truth, we don’t stand a chance.”
She’s absolutely right.
I’m absolutely wrong.
But old habits die hard. Sturdy walls are nearly impossible to tear down. It takes time for them to crumble. Effort. Patience.
Staring into Aurora’s blue eyes, I search for a sign. Any sign that she’d at least give us another chance.
I get more than I bargained for.
Determination shines through her blue eyes.
Yes, she’ll do that for me. She’ll stay by my side because she wants to.
She’d rip me apart, piece by piece, and I’d welcome it.
Until that happens, I start by changing the subject altogether. Ask about something far more interesting than my crushing past.
The question I woke her up for. I have to know everything about her. “Why don’t you start by telling me about yourself?”
Seconds tick by. Seconds during which Aurora says nothing.
Maybe she’s considering my question. Maybe it’s the feeling of my thumb running smooth paths over her bruise that renders her silent.
Or maybe this is just her getting back at me for…
Well, for everything.
I wouldn’t blame her.
“Okay.” A few blinks, and the look in her eyes shifts. Softens. Despite the condemning evidence against me, Aurora’s inner court has ruled in my favor. “What would you like to know?”
The first question that comes to mind has my muscles tensing. Teeth gnashing.
My body readies itself to absorb her response. “Has Winston always been this way?”
Her breath hitches. Whatever memories I’ve evoked, they’re bad. I’ve dug a knife into scars that never really healed.