Page 29 of Under His Embrace

He flooded me with his hot cum, jerking deep inside me—where he belonged.

Shaking and breathing hard from the rush of reaching my orgasm like that with him, I nearly slumped onto the floor. But, of course, he didn’t let me.

“Come here,” he urged gently. His voice was gruff from coming, but he was tender as he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me close.

I'd wanted to come to him so many times over the years, but until I could tell him what held me back, I felt like a fraud, a selfish, horrible person to want what I could never have.

His love, forever and unconditionally.

13

FRANCO

“So, you first met your ex in Santa Fe?” Romeo asked Chloe.

She nodded, pulling her lower lip between her teeth as she seemed to concentrate. “I want to say it was mid-April. Yeah. Mid-April. I was almost through my spring courses when we met.”

That was specific, and I appreciated how concise she was trying to be. Yesterday, when she admitted that an abusive ex had been stalking her, I wanted to burn the world down and hunt him until he cried for mercy. Chloe was too sweet, too innocent to ever warrant or deserve some asshole targeting her and wanting to hurt her.

Wes Morrison was his name, and he would pay for his sins. She told me a little more about him last night when we both suffered the same dose of insomnia, waking up in the middle of the night. Today, though, she was determined to shed her fear and shame and tell Romeo, Liam, and one of our best hackers more information so we could track him down.

“He came into Benny’s, the diner I was waitressing at, and started talking with me.” She glanced at me. “It was a diner near a strip club, and that wasn’t an uncommon occurrence with thelate hours of the diner being open. Men would walk from the strip club and still be in that, uh, mentality of seeking women. All of us waitresses would be hit on.” She shrugged. “He didn’t stand out at first, and he was really charming. That was his ‘thing’, to lay on the charm so thick that later, when he changed to being an asshole, you were duped. Like it was hard to believe that this super slick and sweet man could possibly be such a jerk.”

I shook my head, hating every second of her reliving this. She remained calm, though, with her hands folded on her lap in the big living room.

“Ihatemen like that,” Eva said as she sat and handed Chloe a glass of water.

My distant cousin, Dante’s niece, wasn’t always involved in these matters. She was a part of the organization, though, the princess of the Constella Family, and she wasn’t ever out of the loop. Liam suggested that she sit in on this chat in case Chloe would want the presence of a female.

“I think it’s fair to say anyone would hate any man or woman like that,” Romeo added.

“After a couple of casual dates, I could tell that Wes was interested in a lot more. He was really lovey-dovey, really trying hard to impress me, and given how…” She sighed. “Given how lonely I was, I was likely an easy target. He bent over backward to impress me and be sweet to me.” She looked at me, struggling for a moment. “I was very lonely.”

Her words hit me hard.Why? Why did you ever make yourself feel that way? I was here, available for you.

“I was working nonstop. When I wasn’t working, I was taking my classes. I left Beckson with a scholarship, but it only went so far. I still had to pay for expenses, and I refused to ask my parents for any money.” She licked her lips. “I went out of my way to go no-contact with them.”

I narrowed my eyes, trying to understand. “You left town and never spoke with them?”

She nodded, lowering her gaze.

Then why didn’t you come with me?If she left her controlling parents, why not come tome, come start a new life with me? I would’ve paid for her classes. I would’ve given her everything she wanted. The main reason that she split from me was because of her parents’ disapproval. If she burned her bridges with them anyway, why not do it to be with me in the end? This news stung an already open wound.

“They didn’t like that, though, which is why they sent Wes to find me.”

“Like a PI?” Romeo asked.

“No.” She sighed. “Wes was a cop who'd stayed in the force long enough until he went into politics. He doesn’t hold an office, but he’s affiliated with many influential people.”

At the wordcop, we all shared a glance.

“Oh, boy.” Liam raised his brows.

Romeo smirked as the hacker typed away, faster.

“Wes came from money, and that’s how he knew my parents. I’m guessing my father knew him through his job, as a judge, and they formed an acquaintance of some kind. They wanted to know what I was doing, and eventually, Wes came clean about how he knew them and tried to persuade me to come home and visit.” She scowled, shaking her head. “When I found out that he’d come all that way, stayed months trying to get in my pants, I was pissed. I dumped him on the spot, but he was persistent, trying to break me down.”

“Why did your parents want you to come home so badly?” Liam asked.

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