Page 100 of Love Me Fierce

When I nod, he settles into the corner opposite me.

“The person who spray painted your car and I have a history,” he says.

I hug my shins. “Shawna.”

“Yeah. It wasn’t serious, and it didn’t last long. She manipulated me, lied to me.” He releases a heavy sigh. “I brokethings off over a year ago, but things got ugly. Her coming after you like that is my fault. I’m sorry.”

“Did she break in here?” I ask.

He gives a slow sigh. “She denies it, but until we can work out a few kinks in her story, we can’t rule it out.”

A chill walks down my back “Where is she now?”

“At the station.”

That she would do something like this is crazy. “How can she function with such a distorted mind? Like what was her end game? To drive me away? Does she think you’re going to want her back after something like this?”

“I don’t know, and I honestly don’t care. As long as she leaves us both alone from now on.” His face twists into a grimace. “I shouldn’t have acted the way I did this morning, Vivian. I thought, maybe, things weren’t as they seemed. That you’d been lying to me.”

That’s why he came at me like that? I blink at the rain-streaked window as the hurt pulls my rib cage tight around my heart. To think I’ve been lowering my walls and letting him inside brick by brick, and now he’s leaving me out in the cold? “That’s not fair.”

His eyes turned pained, and he swallows hard. “You’re right. I’ve been asking you to trust me, when I’ve done nothing to earn it.” He moves closer to me. “I’ve been afraid of my feelings, Vivian. Afraid to trust myself.”

“Just because of Shawna?”

He glides the edge of his thumbnail down the top of his thigh “Teresa too. And…my parents.”

I frown. “Your birth parents?”

His earnest gaze is like a cobra strike to my heart. “Let me hold you. Please?”

He takes both my hands from where they’re wrapped around my shins and draws me toward him. I climb onto his lap. The contact of our bodies sends a pulse of warmth through me. But it’s more than something physical. Being connected to him right now is softening the edges of us. It’s also giving me room to breathe.

“They used to fight about us..” Everett tucks a wisp of hair behind my ear. “One day, they just left.”

“Oh, Everett, that’s awful.” I caress over his shoulders.

“Even though I know there’s nothing I can do to bring them back, I think trying to rescue women like Shawna has been my way of trying.”

“But instead, you just get hurt even more.”

“I thought I was doing the right thing by being more careful this time.” He presses the heels of his hands into his eyes. “But that’s obviously backfired too.”

“It’s okay to be careful.”

“Not when it hurts you.” He shakes his head. “I’m ready to trust what I’m feeling inside.” He takes my hand and cradles it against his heart, his big, soft heart, the steady rhythm tapping my fingertips. “In here.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

EVERETT

She cradlesmy face and presses a soft kiss to my lips. A bolt of anticipation fires through me. I kiss her back, my hunger spiraling faster inside me. Her mouth is perfect. Soft and warm. Sensual. A little bit reckless. I caress up her thighs to her waist and up and down her sides, to make sure this is real. I can’t hold back from this woman anymore. I won’t try.

I grip her thighs so I can pull her closer. Her body’s heat and having her scent all around me twists my cravings another notch.

She rocks against me, making me groan. I stroke the bare patch of skin at her low back, savoring the tremors rattling down her thighs.

I tug her t-shirt up and she helps me by raising her arms. Her simple cotton bra has a tiny little bow at the center that I’d like to take time to admire, but I’m too busy getting the clasp open. I watch her face as I slip the straps free.

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