Page 33 of What We Broke

“I told you I needed twenty-four hours to convince you that this could be more,” he states. “If I do that correctly, then you know it doesn’t matter what happens when you walk out the door, because you know, whenever you want to, you’ll be able to walk right back in.”

I run my thumb across his bottom lip. “You know nothing about me.”

“And only you can change that,” he challenges.

“I don’t have a family,” I blurt out, purging my deepest darkest secret first. If I tell him the ugly things first, it’ll give him a chance to leave without investing too much time into this. We would only be losing tonight.

My heart cinches at the thought, but I ignore it. My heart and I had lived through much worse.

“My parents are alcoholics,” I reveal. “They’re mean drunks who struggle to do anything else but hate me.”

His face softens at my admission, silently comforting me enough to continue. “Their abuse wasn’t physical, but it hurt all the same, and when I turned eighteen, I got myself the fuck out of there. I have never looked back and I don’t have a single regret.”

My voice is shaking now, but I can’t seem to stop the words from tumbling out. “I am truly the happiest I’ve been in a long time,” I confess. “But it doesn’t mean that every now and then it still isn’t a struggle.”

If Jesse wasn’t on top of me, this would be the moment that I bolt. That I drop the news and run. As if he can sense my unease, he just kisses me.

And every time it’s like the first time.

A new way to kiss.

A new way for our mouths to talk.

A new way for all the unsaid words to come out.

My hands find the edge of his t-shirt and I slip them underneath, holding his hips to me, feeling his skin.

My hands travel from his sides and slide beneath the waistband of his sweats. He’s bare underneath and my hands cup the perfect globes of his ass and press him to me, feeling his cock thicken against mine.

The kiss deepens as our arousal heightens, but Jesse and I don’t rock against each other. We don’t seek the friction or chase the high.

With his lips on mine, we just exist.

One man confessing his truth, the other one absolving him of the burden.

I know, in this moment, with this kiss, there will never be another man in my life like Jesse. Whether we extend our twenty-four hours or not, the damage is already done.

I am irreparably changed.

And I know he is too.

CHAPTERSEVEN

leo

NOW

“And your carhas been taken to the impound,” the attorney Gio called for me says. “You’ll be able to pick it up after your hearing.”

Sobered up and nodding, I sign my release papers and pick up my belongings. I slip my wallet and phone into my back pocket and fold the handful of papers that hash out the consequences of tonight’s events.

My head is pounding. I need to drink a gallon of water, shower this disgusting place off me, and sleep for a good two days straight.

We exit the processing area and the attorney adds, “I was told your husband is waiting for you.”

“Oh, no, he’s not my…” But it is Jesse there waiting for me. Not Gio.

I want to be mad at Gio, but the look on Jesse’s face pushes everything else to the side.

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