Page 41 of Sacred Vow

“Mom wasn’t happy there, either. All of her friends were here. She made a few at work, but then she got sick.” She sighs. “It wasn’t home. I just wanted to be home.”

“You mentioned the other night that there wasn’t much money after you sold the house.” I proceed with caution. She’d only given me that information because she was trying to get out of a punishment. I don’t want a fight with her. “The house we found for you was a good house, what happened?” They should have been able to sell it and make three times as much as we paid for it when we sent them down there.

“Mom’s medical bills were insane as it was with her insurance, but then she had to stop working when she got really sick and lost the policy. She tried to hide it from me, all the money problems, but when she passed away, I found out she’d mortgaged the house.”

“I wish she would have reached out to us.” There’s no way I would have allowed her house to be mortgaged.

“It’s my fault. She wanted to stop treatments, but I begged her to keep trying.” She shakes her head. “I wouldn’t let up until she promised she’d keep doing the treatments. I was stupid and didn’t know she’d lose her health insurance. I was only thinking about how much I wanted her to live for as long as she could.”

She’s been through so much loss.

“Whatever debt is still outstanding will be paid off by the end of the day.”

“You can’t just wave a magic wand and make it all better, Andrei.”

“No, but I can wave a checkbook. It works almost as well.” I smile, trying to coax one from her too.

“You always have the answer, don’t you?” She shoves the blankets from her and swings her naked legs over the side of the bed.

Her t-shirt barely hits the bottom of her ass when she stands. It snakes up with each step she takes to the bathroom.

I give her a moment of privacy, but once I hear the toilet flush and the sink turn on, I decide she’s had enough. When I enter the bathroom, she’s leaning over the sink with a tissue in her hand wiping away the residual mascara from beneath her eyes.

“You said you just wanted to be home; well, you are home now. This is your home. I’m your home.” I grab her wrist. “I should have been there to keep this from happening. And I’m sorry I wasn’t.”

Sending them away was the best option. I know that. I was too young, too unprepared to keep her and her mother safe from the fallout. I’m not now. And I won’t let anything happen to her.

She brings her eyes to mine. Anger sits on the edge, but there’s something else there now too.

“I shouldn’t have come back.” She presses her hip against the counter. “It was better to stay hidden.”

I reach out to her cheek, running the back of my knuckles along her jaw.

“Andrei.” She leans into my palm but quickly realizes what she’s doing and pulls back. “We can’t. Not again. Yesterday was stupid. I was being stubborn, trying to prove a point, and I shouldn’t have let it get that far.”

“We fucked because you were being stubborn?” I knuckle her chin until she brings her gaze back to mine. “You’ve always been stubborn. Are you telling me you fuck men just to show them how stubborn you can be?” I regret the question as soon as it’s out of my mouth. I don’t want to know how many men have touched her. If I know the number, I’ll have to start forming plans to rid the world of them.

“No.” She scrapes her bottom lip with her teeth. “But it doesn’t make it any less of a mistake.”

“No mistake.” I step closer to her, my toes overlapping hers on the bathroom tiles. “Not by me, and not by you.” I reposition my hand to cup her cheek, bringing my mouth down over hers. She melts into my kiss. My cock hardens as I remember the bliss it was to be buried deep in her pussy. To have her crying out my name.

“Fuck,” I growl when I break the kiss, pressing my forehead against hers. Moving my hands to her hips, I pick her up and put her on the countertop, wedging myself between her thighs.

“Andrei, we can’t…”

I cut her off with another kiss, this one less gentle. I’m not looking for sweet, and she isn’t either. I’m looking for possession. I want all of her, and when she wraps her hands around my neck, I know she does as well.

“We can.” I kiss her again, lifting her ass from the counter and scooting her closer to the edge. I need to be inside her. More than that, I need her to want me inside her.

Reaching between us, I find her pussy.

Slick with need.

“I can’t help it,” she says as though she needs to explain her arousal to me.

“Your body knows me, Izzy. It’s your stubbornness not letting me in.” I tap her temple with a fingertip. “Let me in, Izzy.” I yank down my pajama bottoms enough for my hard cock to spring free. Gripping my shaft, I run the head of my cock through her folds, gathering all of her arousal.

I grab her chin, raising it until her eyes find mine.

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