Chapter 21
Blake
Watching Juliet come apart for me sends my heart into overdrive. I’ve fallen way too deep for this woman, and it terrifies me to think this might be the last chance for me to feel her in my arms—I never intended to sleep with her today, but I’m too weak to refuse her anything she asks for.
She watches me roll the condom down my shaft, then grips the base of my dick.
“You going to ride me, pixie?” I ask, my voice hitching.
Licking her lips, she nods, rising to her knees to position herself over me.
My heart races as I grip her hips to steady her as she sinks down my length, humming as each barbell rubs against her opening. She rocks against me, and I damn near blow my load from how good she feels.
Curling my body up, I pull her chest flush with mine and crush my lips to hers. Every kiss with her lights my body on fire. The way her lips mould against mine, as if we’re made for each other, and the breathy little moans she makes as our tongues collide.
“Blake,” she whimpers, and it shoots straight to my chest.
I hold her to me with one hand, bracing my other on the bed, as she meets my thrusts with the rocking of her hips. Our movements are measured, unhurried, neither of us wanting this to end, both of us knowing that what comes next will change everything.
Her fingers tangle in my hair, and she kisses me deeply, her pussy gripping my dick like a vice.
I groan from the sensation, my balls tightening.
“Whoa, baby,” I murmur against her lips as I grip her hips tight, stilling her movement. “I just need a second.”
“Mm…” she hums, her head falling back as she tries to arch into me.
I run my nose over her exposed throat, breathing in her sweet scent. “You’re driving me fucking crazy.”
When I regain my composure, I flip us and hitch her leg up so I can push inside her, slow and deep, grinding my groin against her clit. I catch her sinful sounds with my lips when she cries out.
Her fingers trail down my back, and when she reaches my arse, she digs them into my flesh, the sting of pain causing my cock to pulse and throb inside of her. She knows exactly what to do to make me lose control.
I had every intention of drawing this out, but she’s determined to send me over the edge. Nipping at the sensitive skin beneath her ear, I murmur against her sweat-slicked skin, “You trying to make me come, pixie?”
“I’m close,” she gasps. “Please, Blake.”
My name on her lips is all it takes. I drive into her over and over again, my thumb finding her clit as my movements become sloppy. The base of my spine tingles, but I want her to come first.
“Tell me what you need.”
She arches her back and meets every thrust, her walls clenching and releasing. “Kiss me.”
I plunge my tongue into her mouth, kissing her hard as her orgasm peaks and she trembles beneath me. It doesn’t take long for me to follow, spilling into the condom as I rest my forehead against her, sharing her breaths as we both come down from the intense release.
Brushing her hair back off her face, I press kisses to her cheeks, her nose, her lips, every inch of her perfect skin. Her smile is lazy and satiated, and I hate that I’m about to kill it.
My dick gives one last twitch inside her as I grip the base and pull out. I head into her bathroom to clean up, laughing when I get back to her bedroom and see she hasn’t moved.
“Come on,” I say, holding my hand out to her. Her stomach rumbles, and I press another kiss to her swollen lips. “Go clean up, and I’ll make us something to eat.”
While Juliet showers, I find my way around her kitchen and take stock of what she has. There’s some left over chicken in the fridge and a loaf of sourdough in the pantry. Grabbing an avocado, some cherry tomatoes, and a lime, I settle on making us a couple of sandwiches.
After shredding the chicken, I mash the avocado, seasoning it with lime and some salt and pepper before dicing the cherry tomatoes and mixing them with basil and oil. By the time the water shuts off in her bathroom, I’ve constructed a pretty decent meal.
I carry the plates into the living room and set them on the coffee table just as she walks in, fresh-faced and beautiful.
She smiles when I tug her onto the couch next to me, wrapping an arm around her as I balance my plate on my lap.
Being with her feels natural, but I know all that’s about to change.
The thought twists my stomach into knots, and I pick at the food on my plate despite being hungry, while she scoffs hers down.
I’m warring with my need to hold on to what I have with her and knowing that once we have this talk, things are going to be different.
I’m scared she’ll want nothing to do with me when she finds out about my past.
“That was delicious,” she says, leaning over to place her empty plate on the coffee table. “Thank you.”
My lips tug into a grin. “It’s pretty basic.”
Her cheeks flush. “It’s been a long time since anyone did something like this for me.”
I nuzzle my nose against her warm skin. “It makes me happy to look after you. I’d do it forever if you wanted me to.”
She reaches up and strokes the side of my face with her fingers, the soft touch squeezing my insides. “What did I do to deserve you?”
“I’m trying to deserve you,” I tell her honestly, placing my half-eaten sandwich next to her empty plate.
When I settle back on the couch, I turn towards her, one arm stretched along the cushion, my fingers playing with a strand of her hair.
My knee angles towards hers, close enough that I can feel the heat of her even though we’re not touching.
Her brow furrows. I want to reach over and smooth it out, but I hold back.
“I don’t know why you think you don’t already,” she says. “You’ve done nothing but show up for me and Tinsley, even before we realised who we were. That means something to me, Blake.”
“Meeting you three months ago was the best thing to happen to me,” I say, needing her to know how important she’s become in such a short amount of time. “It might be intense, but it’s true. I’m not proud of the man I used to be, but since I met you, all I want is to be better.”
She slides her hand over mine where it rests on my thigh, threading our fingers together. “I’m scared of rushing this.”
“Me, too,” I admit. “But being with you doesn’t feel reckless. It feels… right.”
Her gaze drops to our linked hands, and she releases a shaky breath. “Edward and I got together not long after my parents were murdered.”
My stomach drops. I knew she didn’t have any family here, but I assumed they were in France, not dead. Worse. Murdered. She never said anything when I told her about mine.
Before I can say anything, she continues. “He preyed on my vulnerability, and I fell for it.”
I freeze. “You think I’m taking advant—”
“No!” she rushes out, reaching up to cup my cheek, her green eyes boring into mine. “No, not at all. I’m trying to explain what happened with him, so you understand what I went through.”
Swallowing, I nod for her to go on.
“Things moved quickly. I moved in with him and Everett after six months, and three months later, I was pregnant and engaged.” She takes a deep breath, dropping her gaze.
“The first time he hurt me, I didn’t know I was pregnant.
I felt sick, but I didn’t know why. Edward didn’t take too kindly to being told I wasn’t in the mood. ”
My fists clench on reflex, and she flinches.
“Sorry,” I murmur, forcing my hands to relax. “I’m so fucking sorry that happened to you.”
Tears glisten in her eyes. “I don’t want your pity.”
Tilting her chin so she meets my gaze, I shake my head. “I don’t pity you, pixie. Far from it. You went through that, and you’re sitting here today… I’m fucking in awe of you.”
She sniffs. “He apologised after that first time and bought me a diamond bracelet. His excuse was that he couldn’t control himself because he wanted me so badly.”
Rage simmers beneath my skin, but I force it down. I want to fucking murder the arsehole, but that’s not what she needs.
A tear slips down her cheek, but neither of us wipes it away.
“I wanted to believe him, and he didn’t touch me again until after Tinsley was born.
He spent the pregnancy doting on me, making me feel like a princess.
I didn’t realise until it was too late that he used that time to isolate me from Quinn and my friends.
Two months after we got home from the hospital, he forced himself on me again.
He’s a man who doesn’t like to hear the word no. ”
My thoughts drift to my old man, and things I saw that no kid should ever witness.
“When I tried to leave the first time, he said if I ever took Tinsley from him, he’d make sure I regretted it. I couldn’t risk him hurting her.”
Something cold coils in my chest, but I know she needs to tell her story, as difficult as it is for me to hear.
The parallel between her and my mother gives me hope she’ll understand why I did what I did.
The only difference in our stories is that she was strong and fought for herself and her daughter, whereas my mother gave up, choosing to follow her abuser into the afterlife instead of living for me and Tori.
“It got worse. More unpredictable. Every time Tinsley cried, I was terrified he’d take it out on me.
I was terrified of getting pregnant again, but the heavy bleeding I experienced after Tinsley’s birth caused scar tissue to form on my uterus.
It prevented me from falling pregnant, but that only made him angrier.
” Her voice cracks. “I tried to hide the bruises and muffle my cries, but Everett wasn’t stupid.
When his father wasn’t home, he begged me to leave.
To take Tinsley and go. But I couldn’t. I know he thinks I was weak, but I had to protect my daughter, and I didn’t want Edward to take it out on his son. ”
“Everett would never think you were weak,” I say, somehow keeping my voice level, despite wanting to scream and rant about how none of this was fair.
“He protected her. When she was old enough for her own room, he made sure I gave her the bedroom next to his, and he protected her. I’m so grateful to him for that.”
“How did you get out?”
She exhales slowly. “When Everett turned eighteen, he received his inheritance from his grandfather, and he hired a family lawyer without telling me. I didn’t know he’d been documenting things. Photos. Dates. Recordings when he could get them. He said if I wouldn’t protect myself, he would.”
A sudden surge of gratitude to my best mate floods through me. He did what he could to get her out of there.
“The lawyer helped us file for an intervention order first. Then urgent parenting orders.” Her fingers tighten around mine. “It wasn’t enough for criminal charges. There wasn’t proof of everything, but it was enough for the court to see risk.”
My jaw tightens. The system is fucked.
“After lengthy court proceedings, I was awarded sole parental responsibility of Tinsley, and he gets supervised visits every fortnight.”
“Has he tried to contact you?”
She shakes her head. “But that doesn’t stop him from trying to control me.
He’s careful about being seen to do the right thing.
He never misses his child support payments, and he pays for her school fees, with his only request being that she attends the private school in Beckford.
How can I refuse that when I want her to get a good education?
It will be the same with university, I’m sure.
There’s no way he’ll let her leave town, and I can’t afford to send her somewhere else.
He also won’t let me get a passport for her, so I can take her to visit my family in France.
They’re small things, but he does it to feel power over us. ”
“That’s bullshit.”
“That’s the law.”
With my hand that’s settled over the back of the couch, I brush her hair behind her ear and cup her cheek. “She’s lucky to have you. I hope you believe that.”
Closing her eyes, she smiles softly, nuzzling into my touch. “She’s what kept me going every time I was cowering in fear from his touch.”
Pain shoots through my chest. If only my mother could’ve felt the same, she’d still be here, not buried six feet under the dirt, lost forever in the darkness she was afraid of. Probably still haunted by the ghost of the man who drove her there.
When Juliet’s eyes finally open, they’re resigned and weary.
“My life is complicated, Blake, and that won’t change for at least another thirteen years.
I don’t blame you if it’s all too much and you want to walk away.
You have your whole life ahead of you. You’re too young to be caught up in all my drama. ”
Leaning forward, I crush my lips to hers, plunging my tongue into her mouth and kissing away the ridiculous notion that I don’t want every part of her messy life. Knowing all of this only makes me want her more. She’s a survivor, a fucking angel, and there’s no way I can walk away from her.
Which is why it’s going to hurt so much more when she walks away after hearing my story.