Page 13 of Drowned By the Dreadnought

She curls her fingernails into my cheek and chin and slams her tiny fist into my shoulder. Her towel falls away, but I can’t look away from her expressive eyes to enjoy her naked breasts. “But you refused his help and said you never wanted to see me ever again.” She swings again and hits hard enough to make me wince. “You said I was too much trouble. Too spoiled and selfish. That I wasn’t worth it without your parents around.” A single tear spills from her lashes as she thumps my shoulder again.

I clench my jaw and work through the fury and anguish pounding through me, desperately clinging to my control. Her budding scent clouds my mind and the fury in her glare turns my cock to steel, but the pain lurking in her depths helps me focus on her words.

“You left me, Russt.” She aims lower this time, striking right over my heart. “You promised to always protect me,” She punches me again with surprising force, “and then you left me behind.” I grit my teeth. Her sharp knuckles dig deeper into my sore chest. “My mom died, and my father became a monster, and You. Left. Me.” She punctuates those damning words with jabs of her fist. “You hurt me worse than my father ever could.” Angry tears trail down her cheeks. I tighten my grip on my thighs and fight the urge to wipe away her tears. “Every time he hit me and you weren’t there to save me, I died a little more inside.” She thumps her own chest before filleting me alive with her tortured eyes and sharp knuckles as she punches directly over my heart again. “I trusted you, Russt. I wanted to be yours, but you discarded me like trash.”

I catch her wrist before she hits me again, unable to stand her pain, and engulf the back of her head with my hand. She gasps as I pull her face up to mine.

“I didn’t discard you, Morwenna, and I never wanted to leave you. Your father lied to you. I never said those things,” I growl, barely holding onto my control even with fatigue and pain weighing down every cell in my body. My mind rages at the injustices we’ve both suffered.

“Why would he lie to me?” she snarls through gritted teeth.

“To manipulate you. To break you down and make you easier to control. To hurt you. A wounded prisoner is easier to manage than one full of fire,” I say.

Tears glisten in her eyes. She grinds her teeth, still not willing to believe me.

“He lied to you, little mouse.”

She scoffs and jerks her wrist out of my grip before turning her face away.

“He lied to both of us,” I insist.

“Of course, you’d say that. You lied to me when you promised to protect me, and you’re lying to me now.” I reach for her chin, but she swats me away. “Next, you’ll say my father killed my mother, too,” she snarls.

I drop my hand to her hip and don’t respond.

The possibility always niggled at the back of my mind, but with her words hovering in the air, certainty flows through me. She stiffens and wraps her arms around herself as the silence stretches.

“My father would never hurt my mother. They were happy together,” she says to the empty room.

“Were they, little mouse?”

I know I’ve hit a nerve when her attention swings to my face.

She curls her shoulders and freezes as she feels her bare breasts. With her eyes holding mine, she slowly reaches for her towel. I can’t help but steal a glance at her rosy nipples and high, firm breasts before she covers them. I swallow and force my eyes back to hers. Despite the fear in her eyes, she meets my stare head on as I speak.

“Your mother came home with injuries all the time, and she always walked on eggshells around him, didn’t she?”

She swallows. I resist the urge to pull her closer and kiss the wrinkles off her forehead, electing to run my hand through my wet hair instead. The sadness growing in her eyes is too much to bear. Mixed sensations flow through me as my cock pulses and my heart aches.

“I’m not lying to you, Morwenna, but you have every right not to believe me.” Instead of dropping my hand to my thigh, I cup her hip through the towel, needing to touch and soothe her, but unable to trust myself. “I was wrong to believe anything that came out of your father’s mouth. I’m sorry.”

She pulls the towel tighter around herself and studies my face with skepticism, but the hint of hope sparking in her eyes reaches deep within me and firms my control.

“You don’t have to forgive or believe me, but will you hear me out?” I flex my fingers into her hip before sliding my hand up to cup her elbow. “I listened to you and accepted your abuse.” Alarm widens her eyes. I give in to temptation, weave my hand into her hair, and cup the side of her head. “I won’t hurt you, little mouse, not on purpose. I’ll never hit you. Never abuse you.” I run my thumb over her damp cheek and tease the corner of her mouth. “Never force myself on you again.” I shift my gaze from her lush lips to her eyes. “And I’ll never lie to you. I never have and I never will.”

Her breath hitches and she searches my eyes, but after a moment, she dampens the hope blooming within her and dons a leery expression.

“Let me tell you what happened. You don’t have to believe me, just listen,” I plead.

“Fine,” she says.

Even though she fills her tone with reluctance, relief pours through me. I inhale her decadent pheromones and wonder how I survived even a single day without her.

Dread mutes my relief, but her acquiescence means she doesn’t totally hate me. She hasn’t given up on us yet.

I was wrong to believe anything her father said. We wasted so many years hurting each other from afar, and now I have so much work ahead of me to mend the wounds between us. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, how hard it is, or how much of my pride I must sacrifice, I’ll do whatever it takes to earn her trust again.

Which means flushing out the truth from over a decade ago. It’ll hurt like hell, but we can’t let our past fester between us anymore.

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