Page 94 of Give Me Perfect Love

I sigh, trying to figure out what to say here. Trying not to fuck this all up.

“You know I should have known. You kept your mom locked up in your house for days, keeping it from Jace. Hell, he didn’t even know you knew where she was. If you’d keep something like that from family, then why wouldn’t you have secrets from me?”

I step toward her. “I didn’t do this to hurt you, K. I did it to protect you. I didn’t know how far this relationship was going to go, and I didn’t want you involved if anything were to go wrong.”

She looks at me for a moment before looking to the floor.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” I tell her. “You were right to question my earnings from Red. I do very, very well from Red, but I make enough money from the basement to outlast generations after me.”

She doesn’t say anything. Her facial expression reads shocked, but I also see distrust swimming back into the picture, and that’s what bothers me.

We’ve come far, I don’t want this to set us back. She’s finally opened up to me. She’s finally given herself to me.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But I really thought it was for the best. What I do is illegal. I started out with off-track betting and then it grew from there.”

I stare at her, my heart in my throat with fear. What will she do?

“Say something,” I urge.

“What the fuck can I say?” She walks to the window and looks down onto the street below us.

“Tell me this isn’t going to ruin us. Tell me that we’ll be okay.”

She turns to look at me. “Are you going to stop?”

My back straightens, and I lift my chin. My knees nearly buckle, but I hold my ground.

“No,” I say firmly.

She scoffs, twisting back to the window, and then she shocks me stupid.

“Okay then,” she says.

“What?” I ask, walking closer to her to make sure I heard her right.

Looking back at me, she says, “Okay. If you won’t stop, then what am I to do about it? Do I like it? Fuck no, but you were doing it before I came along. Who am I to ask you to quit?”

I shake my head in amazement. “You’re constantly shocking me, baby.”

She exhales. “I’m not sure who I am anymore. Either I’m a different person or this is who I was meant to be the whole time.”

“What’s that?” I ask. “What are you meant to be?”

She looks up at me as I step closer to her. Dark eyelashes fan over winter-touched cheeks. “Yours,” she says.

I smirk before leaning down to taste her lips. Her hands instantly crawl up my back, while mine run over the curve of her ass.

She isn’t running.

She said okay.

I’m mind-blown.

I’m careful of her injuries as I lift her up, placing her on top of her dresser. She bends into me, our tongues dancing while my fingers trail up her shirt, running over ribs and soft skin.

I pull down her bra, rubbing my finger over her nipple. It’s faint, but I feel it when her legs shake. She lets go of my lips. Placing one hand on the dresser, she lifts herself and yanks down one side of her pants before doing it to the other.

I undo my belt, and once her pants are gone, I pull myself out and line up with her entrance. I stop there, looking at us before we connect, and then slowly, I push in a tiny bit.

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