Page 36 of Facet

“That’s why you left after your mother died?” I hated that she’d had to endure those feelings and it made me want to kill her “father” all over again.

Her eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t let them fall—she blinked them away. “She’s dead because of me,” she whispered.

“What?” I wondered what the hell would make her think that. I rested my hands on her hips as I silently begged her to meet my gaze.

“That night, he worked late. I’d finally worked up the courage to tell her about it. When he got home, she confronted him. They argued and I hid in my room. I cried until I cried myself to sleep. According to the police, they had gone out and there was an accident. She was ejected from the car—it was his convertible. I think she would’ve died at the scene, but a nurse happened upon them and kept her alive until the paramedics arrived. My mother made it to the hospital, but she never regained consciousness. I had no proof, but I know he beat her and then used an accident to cover it up. Shealwayswore her seatbelt. He tried to say they had gone out and she was drunk and refused to put it on.” She shook her head with a faraway look in her emerald gaze before she continued.

“She drank a lot. That was true—it was her way of coping with him. So it was easy for him to say she was drunk. I mean, she probably was by then. He kept her on life support for three days. Three fucking days. Why? Probably so he could get sympathy from the world. It was during that time that I found out the truth about my adoption.”

She covered her faced with her hands. After a moment, she dropped them and continued. “The day they pulled the plug, I was a mess. Thankfully, I was able to get to the hospital to say goodbye before he made a production of pulling the plug. She died and he walked away with nothing but a few cuts and bruises. That night, after we got home, I went to my room. I was devastated. The last thing I thought I’d have to worry about was him coming to my room that night. I was so wrong.”

“Shh, you don’t have to tell me,” I tried to soothe her, but she shook her head.

A tear finally broke free and trickled down her cheek. It broke my heart.

“I hit him over the head with my bedside lamp. At first, I thought I killed him, and I was happy about it. Then I got scared. I felt a pulse, so I left him there, packed as much as I could in my backpack, and ran. I left my phone and my car there because he could track me with them. For about a week, I hid in a crappy hotel that I’d paid cash for. Then I made the decision to look for my biological parents. If they wanted nothing to do with me, then I’d figure my shit out. When I was told to come here, I bought fake identification with almost the last of my cash. I had enough left after that to get here. When I arrived, I went to the strip club because that was where the guy had told me to go. That’s where I met Cookie—Sage.”

“Damn, baby.” I sighed before I pressed a kiss to her forehead, and she leaned into me.

“I hate him so much. I think if I could kill him, I would,” she whispered.

Fuck. “So, um, you won’t need to worry about that.”

Hands flat on my chest, she pushed her upper body back to look at me. Confused, she stared up at me with a pinch between her brows . Yet I was reluctant to tell her exactly what I’d done.

“He is… uh… missing.”

“Missing?”

“Pretty much,” I hedged.

“What did you do?” she asked me, trepidation causing her words to tremble.

“Let’s just say that he’s missing and won’t ever be found.” Despite the little she knew about our chapter, I wasn’t ready to expose her to that side of me. To voice what I’d done might make that beautiful light go out from her eyes.

“Damien, you didn’t need to do that for me,” she murmured as she cupped my cheek in her soft hand.

“I can’t help it. Anything that hurts you, I want to destroy. You mean everything me,” I said, knowing I sucked at all this emotional shit. Instead, I tried to express the depth of my feelings the best I could and in the only way I knew how.

Resting my forehead to hers, I made her a promise. “I willalwayshave your back. You are my sun and moon. The sun because it symbolizes life, and you are my life. But also because it illuminates the world, like you do for me. And you are my moon because it symbolizes the goddess and you, my sweet, wonderful woman, are my goddess.”

Her hand cupped my face, and she nuzzled her nose along mine. “I feel like I’ve waited for you all my life. I was so afraid you would never see me.”

“Oh, I saw you. I promise you, I saw you. I was just a stubborn idiot. But now I’m worried.”

“Why?”

“I’ve been… rough with you—forceful. After what you’ve been through, I feel like I’ve continued that for you. I feel like shit.”

She lifted her head and sighed. “Damien, look at me.”

I glanced up, though my head still hung in shame.

“You haven’t done anything that I didn’t want you to do. You, my handsome, quirky computer nerd, are absolutelynothinglike him. You are kind and yet fierce, and I love that about you. Now kiss me. Show me how you treat your goddess,” she demanded with a soft, but playful smirk.

With my chest almost caving in with the magnitude of my emotions, I pressed my lips to hers and teased the seam of her lips until she opened for me so I could stroke her tongue with mine.

She tasted so damn good, and I couldn’t get enough of her. I reached between us and cupped her pussy, using the heel of my hand to circle over her clit. She dug her fingers into my pecs as she whimpered, and I swallowed her needy moans.

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