Chapter 29
Sophia
The Demons
Grant carried me to the truck and settled me into the passenger seat, the muscles in my body weakened, including my heart. He picked everything up and drove us home, his thumb tapping away on his phone the only indication I wasn’t alone inside the cabin.
We didn’t say a single word, our bodies weirdly connected in a way that made it seem like no words were needed. When we got back, he brought me to the bathroom and ran the water, filling the tub as he held me close like a fragile doll. Only, I knew he didn’t see me that way.
He was caring for me because he loved me. Smoothing soap over my skin because he cared like no one ever had for me. He washed my hair, clearing the suds away before kissing down my neck and along my forehead because he didn’t want to leave me be.
And I didn’t want him to leave.
He held a towel up and waited for me to exit the tub. I got up on shaky legs and let him wrap the towel around me, but as he turned to leave, I reached for him, whispering the first word between us since we made love—
“Me too.”
Grant turned slowly as I dropped the towel to the floor. He drank me in with a heat that sent my heart fluttering to my stomach. We rushed for each other, becoming lips and tongues and moans as he lifted me and I wrapped my legs around his waist.
He carried me to the bedroom and pushed me against the wall as I worked to free his cock between us. I wriggled to line us up as we kissed, and the moment his head met my pussy, he let me sink onto him, groaning his pleasure into my mouth.
We made love against the wall, then fell to the floor in a pile of limbs until I crawled back over him and straddled his hips, sinking myself back down on his hardening cock.
We were endless—forgetting the world and our pasts, forgetting everything except how our hearts beat as one as we came together again and again.
The constant pull to each other like we couldn’t get enough became addicting.
That was the day I made a permanent home for Grant Brooks in my body, mind, and heart.
The whole day became a blur as the sunlight beyond the windows bled across the sky, turning to dusk.
We’d only paused out of hunger or thirst, our eyes remaining heated, but bodies keeping patient while we ate or drank before colliding into each other all over again.
It was like we had all the time in the world to do just this every day for the rest of our lives.
Like nothin’ else existed beyond the walls we’d erected.
We curled up together in bed that night, his arms the safety and warmth I’d always craved but never dared to dream of finding.
Never thought I’d be lucky enough to have.
It ended up findin’ me, instead.
I smiled contentedly against his chest, tracing the lines of his tattoos, ingraining every part of him I could take into my memory.
His breaths started to even out, eyelids growing heavy until they closed fully.
I waited for a few minutes, listening to his heart beating steady and his muscles relax beneath me, and that’s when I let the words out for the first time.
“I love you, Grant Brooks. I don’t know how we got here, but I do know this—I will always be yours, no matter what.”
“Help…someone…pl-please—”
The murmured, garbled words stirred me from my sleep. Warm muscles flinched beneath my cheek as large fingers jerked along my side.
“S-stop. D-d-don’t. Leave!”
It took me a second to notice the voice was Grant’s, and when I realized, I rolled on top of him and took his face in my hands.
“Wake up, Grant. Please. Please wake up,” I pleaded, checking him over as he jerked under me.
“Grant, please. I’m here.” Red-rimmed eyes shot open, the heartbeat raging beneath his ribs so loud it took my breath away.
I stroked his hair as he focused on my eyes, his breathing slowing as he held my hips.
“I’m here. You’re safe. You’re okay. It was just a dream. ”
“Peach,” he muttered, clearing his throat. “Hey.” The softness of his voice broke me further.
“What happened?”
He sighed and reached for my hands. “Nothin’, darlin’.”
I frowned. “You don’t need to hide it from me.”
He squeezed my hand. “I know.”
I thought for a moment, back to every morning we’d had together. This was the first time I’d woken up and he’d still been next to me, besides the time I slipped away the moment he drifted off.
“Does this happen a lot?” He gave a callous shrug and glanced away. I pulled my hand free from his hold and pressed it to his cheek, pulling his attention back to me. “It does, doesn’t it?”
“I’m okay, Peach.” His slight smile wasn’t foolin’ me. “It was just a dream, like you said.”
“Was it him?”
Grant shifted, almost like he was uncomfortable. “Who?”
“Your mom’s old boyfriend.” His jaw ticked against my fingers as he tried to glance away again. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“You know what, Grant. You’ve been open with me enough to admit how you feel about me, but you can’t tell me about your past?”
“Sophia.”
“You know all about me. You know about Walton. About my life”—I chuckled, feeling no humor—“and about Riyan and what he did to me, and here I was thinkin’ I was the only one with something too heavy to let out.
That Grant Brooks can just handle things better because he’s made of steel and doesn’t let shit affect him, but really, he just tells women he loves them and makes them fall for him all to never say a damn thing—”
“Sophia,” he groaned, trying to cut me off. But I’ll be damned if I let a man control me ever again.
“No, Grant. You don’t get to be the only one to lend an ear and take shit in. I’m a person, too. I can be here just as much as you can, but I don’t know where to start because you’ve been hiding it from me.”
In seconds, I was flipped on my back with Grant hovering over me, gathering my wrists above my head. I jerked and sneered at him while he remained unflinching to my efforts. He pressed his knee between my legs, settling his still-naked body between mine.
“You wanna know what I see when I close my eyes at night?” His voice was harder like the steel I accused him of being.
“I’ll tell you. I see my mother being beaten half to death, cowering in a corner.
Walking around with bruises she kept hidden or disguised as just playin’ around.
” His freehand roamed the sensitive skin along my inner thigh that used to be marred with purple and black—marks that Riyan was eager to put on me when I was dragged back home.
“I see my sister hiding in our bedroom, crying under our bed, knowing the day he’d turn his hand to her would come, hoping that would be where he’d stop.
” Grant’s jaw tightened as the back of his knuckles—the ones that spelled out REVENANT—stroked down my cheek.
“And I see the thirteen-year-old kid he used like a punching bag when he couldn’t get to either one of the ones he wanted.
Feel the snap of my ribs as a crack rings in my ears, over and over again on repeat. ”
“Grant.” I turned my face to kiss the gentle hand brushing up my jaw.
“You wanna know what I don’t see? What doesn’t haunt me every night when I close my eyes? What makes me so fucked up in the head?”
“You’re not fucked up,” I whispered.
“You’re wrong, baby.” He blinked down at me and cocked his head.
“I’m fucked up because not once have I seen my hands that end up covered in blood after I stabbed him with a fucking pencil in his neck.
Not once have I seen the light fading from his eyes, or any other’s.
” The corner of his lip lifted menacingly.
“I didn’t have to think twice about killing the guy who took you from the diner because I knew I wouldn’t lose an ounce of sleep over it.
I never do. Not even the short sentencing I had until they ruled it self defense made me give a damn about killing him, much less anyone else who hurts those I love. ”
“You were protecting them, just like you’re doin’ for me. Keeping us safe, keeping me safe, like you promised.”
“I’m broken, Sophia.”
“No, you’re not. You’re the strongest person I know.”
His voice lowered as he said, “Then why don’t I feel strong?” He ripped his hand through his hair. “Why can’t I get it all out of my goddamn head?”
“Angels ain’t immune to demons.” With his hold on my hands gone, I pressed my hand to his jaw, guiding him back to me as I finished the words he’d told me. “They just keep them on their shoulders instead of becomin’ them.”
His eyes searched mine. “The ones whisperin’ on mine are loud.”
“Then let me help silence them the best I can,” I whispered, spreading my legs further apart. “Please. Let me help.”
“Peach.” His hand trembled as he tucked a few strands of hair behind my ear. “Don’t you see? I don’t deserve to have anythin’ good in my life.”
“You do deserve it, and so much more.” I reached between our bodies, gripping his cock, making him hiss through his teeth.
His hips jerked as I spread the precum along his thickened tip with my finger before sliding him down to my entrance.
He thrust in slowly, easing his way inside me, both of us moaning at the feel of our bodies connecting.
He stared deep into my eyes, watching me take all of him in like the sight was too beautiful to look away from. I brushed my nose against his as his cock stayed deep inside me, unmoving. “I want you to fight your demons and use me.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded and slid my hands above my head, pressing them together at my wrists as if they were tied. “Yes. I trust you.”
Fire burned in his eyes as I gripped a slat of the headboard and shifted my hips, causing the piercing above his cock to rub against my clit.