Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 170878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 854(@200wpm)___ 684(@250wpm)___ 570(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 170878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 854(@200wpm)___ 684(@250wpm)___ 570(@300wpm)
I tried to say it all in a flat tone, but my voice caught. Jack had started making amends tonight, but that didn’t wash away the past.
Beau was stock-still, face already a mask of fury. My overprotective man.
“Sometimes, a traumatic upbringing brings siblings closer together, when all they have is each other,” I continued. “Other times, it pushes them onto separate islands.”
Beau glowered in the direction of the guest room as if he wanted to shoot laser beams through the wall. “You are seven years younger than him,” he bit out. “You didn’t choose to be on any fucking island.”
I smiled sadly. “No. And he did what he could to protect me, but at the end of the day, he was a kid. And he left when he got the chance. He knew if he stayed where he was, with the people he was hanging around with, he’d end up in jail or dead.”
“And what about you?” Beau snarled.
“I survived.” I put down the moisturizer. “And I’m here. With you. So it all worked out.”
I meant it. Without all the struggle I’d gone through, I wouldn’t have needed to take a year off to finance nursing school. Wouldn’t have found my way to Beau and Clara.
Unthinkable.
I watched Beau’s jaw work in fury and frustration, mulling over what I’d said and understanding that in a way, I was right.
“I’d give up all the happiness you give me if it meant you got to live a life where you were protected, happy. Had a fucking good childhood.”
My brain short-circuited. I drew in a deep breath.
“I wouldn’t,” I said honestly. “I would go through what I went through ten times over to make my way to you. To Clara.”
Beau pushed off the tub, and in a second, I was in his arms. There was a dull clatter as various products fell into the sink.
“You better not have broken any of those,” I whispered, our mouths inches apart.
My body was already singing for him, desperate for him, despite the emotional subject matter we’d just discussed.
“I don’t give a fuck,” Beau grunted, easily lifting me with one hand while divesting me of my panties and shorts with the other. “I’ll buy you new ones.”
“You definitely don’t know how much they cost then,” I chuckled. But my smile was stolen by a gasp of pleasure as Beau’s finger entered me, setting my ass on the cool porcelain of the sink.
“Soaking,” he growled. “Good. I don’t have time to prepare you. I need to be inside you. To the fucking hilt after hearing you say that.”
I got no warning except for his words. After that, there was the rattle of his belt, and then he slammed into me, bottoming out.
His hand at my back kept me pressed to him, lips swallowing my screams of pleasure.
“Gotta be quiet, baby,” he murmured, hurtling into me again.
I sank my teeth into my lip to swallow a cry of pleasure. Beau was right. We’d been mindful but not overly worried about being heard by Clara, not with the music she played to sleep to every night and her sleeping like the dead.
My brother, though… My fucking brother was there, so we had to be quiet.
I was surprisingly turned on by the act of Beau covering my mouth with his hand to smother my cries.
It felt forbidden, but in the best way, playing into my dirtier fantasies. Beau, the older man, fucking me in the bathroom like a sordid secret.
Like he was going mad for me.
And I for him.
“I love you so. Fucking. Much,” Beau rasped in my ear, his words matching his thrusts.
I thought about it. Saying it back. I was almost brave enough. Almost ready to admit this was it. Forever.
That I was safe.
Almost.
But I let Beau’s kiss swallow my words.
Not yet.
Soon.
BEAU
Crisp air bit at my cheeks. Steam billowed from my mug of tea as I put it down on the wide arm of the chair beside me, my breath coming out in visible puffs.
Hannah had made me the tea before going to put Clara to bed. She used extra honey. She always did.
She’d quietly thanked me for the day—the one when I didn’t kick her brother to the curb. When I’d dutifully let my daughter show him around Jupiter, when I’d even let the fucker have dinner at the restaurant.
Hannah didn’t have to thank me. I would do anything to make my girls happy. Clara was ecstatic at having another member of the family. Of Hannah’s family. Hannah wasn’t exactly convinced of her brother’s newfound need for connection or forgiveness. Yeah, he’d made the right steps in admitting he was wrong, leaving a toxic woman, but she was tentative. As she should’ve been.
He could still hurt her. And although my first instinct was to kick the fucker out in the cold to ensure that Hannah wouldn’t get hurt again, I resisted. It wasn’t my place.