Page 64 of Rock

She waited for him to say something else. She couldn’t tell if it was him or Jackson who’d lied to her. All she could do was wait for him to elaborate.Fuckwasn’t quite enough information.

His eyes grew watery, and she thought he might cry. His face was tight as he looked away from her, sitting more fully. Finally, his body slumped. “I did this. It’s my fault. Why the fuck did it never occur to me?”

She sat up and moved behind him. Something was terribly out of whack here, but she felt drawn to him anyway. She wrapped her arms around his neck from behind and flattened her chest to his back. She kissed his shoulder. “Tell me.”

He groaned. “I’m an idiot.”

“No, you’re not.”

He chuckled, but there was no humor in it. “Oh, yeah. I really am.” He suddenly spun around, grabbed her, and hauled her to his front so that she straddled him. His hands came to her waist, holding her in place.

She stroked his shoulders, waiting for more.

He took a deep breath. “I constantly worried that your brother would figure out I was in love with you. It scared me to death. I was afraid that if he found out, he would punch me in the face and tell me to get lost. Then I wouldn’t get to see you at all. I didn’t want anything to rock the precarious boat I was floating in. I wanted free rein to come and go from your house, see you every day.”

She nodded. He needed to elaborate. She still didn’t know where this was going.

“So I often told Jackson I had a date. I let him believe that I was with various women when I wasn’t with him. He didn’t ask who they were because I pretended they were with the MC. It was a precarious game I played so that he wouldn’t figure out the woman I really wanted was you.”

Her entire body stiffened as she sat up straighter. Suddenly, it all made sense.

Rock groaned. “Fuck. I guess he told you I was a player.”

She nodded, fighting back tears. He was fighting his own. They were staring at each other through two sets of glassy eyes. She licked her lips. “It was after that night. I was mopey when you left town for your internship. I didn’t want Jackson to know we’d been together, but I wanted to know anything I could about you, so I asked him if he’d heard from you as nonchalantly as possible. He chuckled and shrugged. ‘Nope. He’s probably busy with one of the sweetbutts.’ I didn’t have a clue what a sweetbutt was at the time, so I asked. Jackson told me it was a term for women who hang around the club. Various women you were probably sleeping with.” She let her voice trail off.

Rock gripped her firmly and set his forehead against hers. “He didn’t lie to you. I told him all of that, but it never occurred to me he would end up telling you about my fake sex life.”

She scooted closer to Rock, nestling her pussy against his shaft. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “Sorry for so many reasons.”

“Me, too, Baby girl. So very fucking sorry. I’ll never forgive myself for letting you go like that.”

“You have to,” she told him. “You have to be able to put it behind you, or we can’t move on. I don’t want us constantly looking at each other with sad puppy eyes because of what we didn’t have. We have to embrace the future and hold on to what we do have.”

He gave her a small smile. “Why are you so wise?”

She shrugged. “Years of practice.”

“We could have been together all those years.”

She leaned back and held his gaze. “Would you give up Atlas, Remi, and Kathy if you could?”

He winced. “No.”

She stared at him. “Then we have to assume Fate had a different plan for us. We’re walking our path now. I’m here now. The timing must be exactly right. Fate put me here to close on my parents’ house so I would run into you.”

He grabbed her hips, rose, and spun around so fast her head was spinning by the time he lowered her to her back. Her legs and arms were still wrapped around him.

He stared deep into her eyes. “You’re mine for the rest of our days. And we’re going to make up for lost time by fucking like teenagers four times a day until we die.”

She giggled. “Okay.”

He kissed her. “Not another word about leaving or stepping back, got it?”

She nodded. “There are other considerations, you know. Namely that I’m not sure how Little I can be.”

“I don’t give a fuck about anything but how I feel when you’re in my arms. I don’t even want to leave you to go pee. The rest will work itself out.”

“Okay…” She eased her fingers into his hair. “Maybe you could fuck me again while we’re figuring it out.”

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