Page 48 of Her Faithful Protector

At that moment, I see a different Ava.

“I like it,” I murmur. Damn, it was sensational for my cock. But this woman means everything to me, and I can’t go on without unraveling what’s driving her this way.

She continues sucking, but I gently withdraw, nudging her shoulders up so she’s face-to-face with me.

“Hey…” I settle her on my chest, feeling the rise and fall of her breath against my skin. “Ava, what is it?”

Her lips quiver, unable to speak. Her expression is coated with guilt.

I cup her chin softly. “This isn’t about me not liking what you’re doing.” I examine her glistening eyes, searching for the truth. I have to ask the question now. “Did he ever hurt you?”

She grimaces. I feel the significance of her burden. Last night, amid her distress, she desperately sought relief from me. Now, she’s desperate to please me because of a pain that has just surged from deep within her.

“Ava, talk to me,” I whisper as low as I can. With how helpless she is now, lying on me, I swear I’ll break her if my voice comes out just a little bit louder.

“I wanted to please you until you come. Don’t you want that?”

I brush my fingers against her cheek, “I do, as long as you enjoy it too.”

She inhales sharply, lost for words.

I probe further. “Did he force you to do things you didn’t want to?”

She lets out a sigh, her eyes closing with regrets. “At first, he used to hit me,” she confesses, her voice barely above a whisper. “But then, one day, when he broke my arm, I left him.”

A pang of pain surges through me, but I push it aside and focus on her. She shrugs as if questioning whether I want to hear what comes next. I stroke her, urging her to release whatever is tormenting her.

She continues, “He came to me, apologizing. He had gone to therapy to control his anger, and he swore he’d changed. I foolishly took him back.” Bitterness laces her voice. “Well, he did change. He didn’t hit me that hard anymore, and in bed… as long as I did it his way, he would leave me alone.”

“I’m so sorry you had to go through all that.” The pain inside me resurfaces, stronger and impossible to ignore. I’ll make it my commitment to keep that cockbag away from Ava forever.

“I stayed with him for the sake of Quinton. My pregnancy became complicated, and during my final trimester, I was mostly bedridden, so I needed him. I felt like I owed him for all the care he gave me.”

“Ava, Ava.” I hold her tightly, almost shaking her. I’m furious about the control Willem exerted over her, and I wishit had been me caring for her. “You don’t owe that man anything!”

“I know, I don’t. But at the time, I couldn’t help feeling that way. Willem became a devoted caregiver when he was in the right state of mind, and it was hard not to feel grateful. But when our wedding became inevitable…” She exhales, full of anger. “I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life with him.”

I draw a breath, making it audible to emphasize her safety with me. “Ava, I am not Willem. I love you, I care about you, and I want nothing in return. Even if you didn’t love me, I still love you.” I guide her hand to my chest, wrapping it with mine. “Tonight, I want to make love to you in a way that pleases you.”

Her finger moves under my palm and strokes my pec delicately. “I want to please you too.”

“I know. I know.” I rub my palm against the top of her hand. “The truth is, Ava Belle, I haven’t been in a long-term relationship. But I’m a man who can’t take pleasure in sex unless my woman is happy and content. It’s a man’s role to satisfy his woman. I don’t care what other people say, and I’m not talking about equality and all that stuff. It’s what I live by. You before me.”

She looks at me with a distant expression as though my words aren’t registering. I cup her cheek, bringing her back to the present. To me. My other hand coasts down her chest, passing the curve of her breast. I want her heart to take charge first, and only then can she let out her urges. That’s the only way she can embrace her true desires—not Willem’s, not her past.

“I love you, Jack,” she murmurs, crawling up on me and again planting a kiss on my lips. She presses firmly, her breath steady. “And I love you for what you’ve just asked me.”

“I never want you to hide from me.”

“I never will.” She shakes her head, feebly but clearly. “Willem did things I wish he hadn’t, but over time, I learned to create distance. It was like—I let him in, and he was in the same house as me, but I locked myself inside a room, out of reach. He knocked, he tried to kick the door down, he rammed into it, but it held.”

Pride fills me. I’m never wrong about her. “I know you have that strength.”

“He’s out of my life, but sometimes his knock sounds louder, his kick more powerful. It makes me wonder if the lock will ever give way. Just like tonight,” she says arduously. “In Clancy today—reading that contract, seeing his name on it, witnessing his cruel tricks—it was as if his force had made its way back into me. I don’t know what possessed me to unleash it on you. I’m sorry, Jack.”

“No, there’s no need to apologize, Ava.” I turn my face to hers, pressing our cheeks together.

“That lock still holds. The door remains shut,” she maintains. “No matter what happens, I’m still me, okay? Free, not chained. Yours, not his.”

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