Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
TUCKER
She’s sleeping soundly next to me, but I don’t drop her hand. That might have been the scariest hour of my damn life. I could hear the exhaustion and then the fear and panic in her voice, and I couldn’t get to her fast enough.
I want to destroy her father for making her life a living hell and giving her this trauma to live with.
She deserved so much better than that. She should feel safe, always.
When I pull in front of the house, I cut the engine, and Darby stirs next to me. She stretches her legs out, rolls her ankles, and then blinks her pretty blue eyes open and looks at me in the dark.
“We’re back,” I tell her.
“I’ll head to the cabin.”
Absolutely fucking not.
“I want you with me tonight, Duchess. Let me take care of you.”
She bites her lip and then nods in agreement.
Not giving her the chance to change her mind, I get out of the car and circle around to help her out.
She’s so tired that her movements are sluggish, as if her limbs are just too heavy, and when we get inside, I can see that she wasn’t lying when she said she’s covered in . . . stuff.
“You should have asked me to bring you fresh clothes,” I murmur as we walk inside. “You can’t be comfortable like that.”
“There honestly wasn’t time,” she replies and drags her hand down her face. “It feels like the last two days were on fast forward.”
“Funny. They were the longest two days of my life. Do you want to shower or eat first?”
“Can I just have a granola bar or something that I can walk and eat at the same time? Protein shake?”
I grab a few things for her to choose from, and she plucks a protein bar out of my fingers, and then I lead her upstairs to the bedroom.
She’s happily munching her way through the bar when I step into the bathroom and get the water running in the shower, but when I turn around, she’s almost sleeping standing up, the mostly eaten bar hanging down at her side, swaying on her feet.
I rush to her, wrap my arms around her, and she leans against my chest.
“Okay, you can’t be left to your own devices, pretty girl.”
“So sleepy,” she murmurs as I take the last of the bar out of her hand and toss it on the dresser, then lead her into the bathroom, where I take the hem of her shirt in my hands and she lifts her arms up as I tug it over her head and toss it in the hamper.
Goddamn, she’s beautiful.
Her breasts are full and will fit in my hands perfectly, her nipples puckered from the cool air. I unclasp her bra and it falls to the floor.
“You’re going to see my scars,” she whispers against my chest. She sounds so sad about that, and it makes my heart catch. “And I’m too tired to do anything about it.”
“You’re going to see mine too.” I kiss the top of her head as I work on her leggings and underwear, and she frowns at me, not understanding. “We can share scar stories later.”
I whip my shirt over my head and make quick work of my jeans and boxer briefs before leading her into the hot stream, where she groans as if it’s the best thing she’s ever felt in her life.
“So good,” she says as her shoulders sag, and I grab a cloth and soap and begin to work it over her.
She leans one hand on the tile, keeping herself standing as I wash her skin, from neck to toe. Her eyes are heavy lidded as she watches me, as they dip to the scars that run across my lower abdomen and down my right leg.
Blinking rapidly, her eyes move up to mine again, and she reaches up to cup my cheek.
“I’m fine,” I assure her. “Don’t worry about me.”
But seeing the concern and care in her beautiful blue eyes does something to my heart. It rolls in my chest as she swallows hard and looks down again.
“I need to get your back and wash your hair, baby. Are you okay with turning around?”
I see the little scars on her upper arms from the barbed wire that she told me about before, and it’s already fueled my agitation that she was hurt this way.
But I know I’m going to have to keep the fury under control that seeing her back will bring.
I haven’t even laid eyes on it yet, and I’m already pissed as fuck for her.
She nods stiffly and turns around, and I can’t contain the quick inhale through my nose at the sight before me. Jesus fucking Christ.
“I’m fine,” she says, echoing my own words, as she stares at the tile wall in front of her, and I know in this instant that I would gladly spend the rest of my life in prison if I could only have the opportunity to tear her father apart with my bare hands.
I’m not fine. I’m not fucking fine at all.
Her back is a crisscross pattern of deep scars, from the tops of her shoulders down to her butt and upper thighs. Some scars are smaller, like he took a razor blade and made tiny little cuts.
But there are many places that look like she was whipped, over and over again, and as I wash over her skin, the soapy water sluices through the scars like they’re riverbeds.
I have to grit my teeth to stop myself from growling.
When the soap is gone, I take my time washing her hair and then conditioning it before I turn off the water and grab a towel from the warmer.
“You didn’t wash,” she says softly, leaning against me.
“I had a shower a few hours ago.” I kiss her nose before I get to work drying her and then wrapping her in the towel, and then, to her surprise, I set her on the vanity. “Stay. I’ll be right back.”
“Yes, sir.”
I lift an eyebrow. “Now you’re just trying to turn me on.”
Not that she even has to try. I’m permanently hard whenever she’s around.
She smirks as I hurry out of the room and quickly swing into the closet to grab some gym shorts for me and a T-shirt for her, and then rush down the hall to where my sister used to stay and find her spare blow-dryer, then back to my girl, only to find her falling asleep sitting up.
“Hold on, sweetheart. I’m going to blow your hair dry so you don’t have to sleep on it wet.”
“Wow, you should have asked me out five years ago. This is princess treatment right here.”
“First of all, this is the bare minimum. Second of all, yeah. I should have.”
She offers me a small smile when I flip the dryer on and get to work on her long dark hair.
She watches me with droopy eyes as I work my fingers through the wet strands, the hot air swirling around us.
Her strands are thick and feel like silk in my fingers, and when it’s finally dry, she’s so damn sleepy, she’s leaning her forehead against my chest.
For all I know, she might be asleep.
Setting the dryer aside, I lift Darby in my arms and set her on the edge of the bed, grab the T-shirt I tossed on it earlier, and quickly pull it over her head before discarding the damp towel.
“I don’t need panties,” she says as she lets me help her scoot under the covers, and I join her, keeping the shorts on, even though I usually sleep nude.
Yes, I want to fuck her. Being this close to her, in my bed, is not easy on my libido. But she’s exhausted, and we both need to sleep.
I grin when she threads her bare legs through mine, and then she tucks her hands under her chin, facing me, and blinks owlishly, watching me in the moonlight.
“Why do you have scars, Hotshot?”
“Do you want to talk about this now, or wait for tomorrow?”
“Now.” She scoots her bottom half closer to me. “They’re—”
She bites her lip, and I reach up to tug it free with my thumb, then brush over the wet lip, enjoying the way she’s looking at me, so sleepy and curious and totally kissable.
I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want her.
“They’re bad,” I finish for her and she nods slowly. “When I was twenty, I was home from college for the summer. I went to Montana State on a full football scholarship. I even had pro scouts interested in me.”
Her eyebrows lift. “Xander isn’t the only athlete in the family.”
With a chuckle, I shake my head. “No, he isn’t, although he’s the most talented. I’ll deny it if you ever tell him that, though. His ego is big enough already.”
She hums, and I keep talking softly, with the quiet wrapped around us like a cocoon.
“Like Xander, sports were my life. I didn’t plan to go pro, though. I always knew that I wanted to come back here and take over the ranch from my father someday. I love it here. But when I was young, I loved football too.”
“What happened?” She moves her hand from under her chin and presses it against my chest.
“I was in a side-by-side, driving out to the herd where my father was. A horse had bucked him off, and we’d gotten word that he needed help. I was worried and driving way too fast. We came around a corner, and I rolled the vehicle.”
Darby presses her lips together, and her eyes fill with tears.
“Hey, I’m okay. I’m totally fine now, and I can’t stand to see you cry.”
She swallows thickly. “Tell me the rest.”
“I wasn’t wearing a seat belt, and I got jostled around until I was trapped under the frame.
My stomach and right hip and leg were a mess.
Miraculously, I didn’t sever a major artery, so I didn’t bleed out while help came.
I broke my femur and my hip, my gut was cut up pretty bad, and that was the end of football. ”
Darby burrows into me. She just moves right in, wrapping her arms around me and nuzzling her face into my neck.
“I’m so sorry, and I hate that you were hurt, but I’m so grateful that you’re okay now.”
“I was angry for a while,” I confess, with my lips in her hair. “So pissed that I couldn’t play, and frustrated because it took a long fucking time to heal. But I did, and with a lot of PT, I can do just about anything. I’ll probably have some pain when I get older, but for now, I just have scars.”
“I have salve,” she says, making me grin. Of course she does. “I’ll put some on them for you. I use it on my own scars. It helps them fade and loosen and not ache.”
That has me sobering.
“I wasn’t expecting—” I have to clear my throat, and she tightens her grip on me, as if she’s comforting me. “I’m so sorry, Duchess.”
“No one has ever seen my scars,” she confesses softly. “Not ever, Tucker. Even my family.”
“But you’ve been with men.”
“And I keep my shirt on. I can find excuses for that.” She shrugs and pulls back just far enough to look up at me. “And I wouldn’t have let you see them either.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “I don’t like that.”
“It’s something that I hate about myself, and—”
“No.”
I roll us both so she’s on her back, and I clear strands of hair from her cheeks as I stare down at her.
“No, baby. I don’t want you to hate anything about yourself. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I won’t have you thinking for one second that you’re anything but perfect, just the way you are.”
Her eyes well with tears again, and when they spill into her temples, I brush them away.
“I want you to show me everything there is to see, Duchess.”
“Well, you’ve officially seen it.”
“Good.” I kiss her nose and then her soft, plump lips before I reverse our position and arrange Darby on my chest. She sighs deeply and nuzzles closer, as if she just can’t get close enough. And I know the feeling. “Go to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
She yawns, and without another word, I hear her breaths even out as she falls into sleep.
And within moments, I follow her.