Page 63 of Bound By Fate
“Now that you’ve let this out, do you feel even a little better?”
“I’m glad I talked to Ensley. That was a long time coming.”
“Good. Then it was worth it.”
“What, having a breakdown in the middle of your club? That’s a great way to show them how sane I am.”
I chuckled. “The only way to build ourselves up is to be broken in a thousand pieces. Then you work like hell to get them put back where they’re supposed to go.”
“You’re kinda smart,” she said with a bit of bite to it.
“Umm … does that bother you?”
She shook her head into the pillow. “It’s annoying.”
I let out a chuckle and saw for the briefest second her lip tip as well.
“We gotta talk about you and this punishment or penance whatever.”
She tried to roll and pull out of my arms, shutting down on me. Nope. We’d gotten this far, and we needed to keep on pushing. Get it all out there on the table because once we knew the problems, we could work at fixing them.
“Katie,” I said her name and got her attention. “You’ve had enough punishment to last a lifetime three times over. I could list all the shit you’ve told me you’ve been through that was the same thing as this punishment that you’ve inflicted onto yourself.”
A tear rolled down her face, and I swiped it away with my thumb. “You deserve to be happy. You deserve to live a good life. You survived all that shit from the time you were born until this moment here. Don’t you think it’s time to let all of that go and focus on the good instead?”
Loaded silence filled the room, but I said nothing, wanting her to really hear me. Take it in and ingest it. Feel it.
Her voice was so soft I barely heard her say, “I want to be happy. I just don’t know how.”
This crushed my heart. Her entire life growing up in that shithole no one showed my girl happiness. They were all pieces of shit. That whole fucking place needed to be burned to hell. “Then I’m gonna show you the way. Will you stay with me while we go on this path?”
“You really want me to? I mean, come on. You could find a woman with way less baggage than I have.”
“You’re the only one I love. The only one I’d do anything for.”
Tears flowed freely? and she moved cuddling into me, every part of her body touching mine. Her head rested on my chest and her hand on my abs.
“I’m scared to love you.”
“I know you are.” I kissed the top of her head. “Takin’ a chance on someone is always hard. After what you’ve been through it’s expected to be a bit harder. Just let me show you every day what I mean.”
Her hand got tighter on my chest, and we laid there together holding one another.
I didn’t realize how exhausted I was as we passed out and only woke to a banging to the connected door. Katie rolled over and then sat up, grabbing her head. “Why do I feel like I have the worst hangover in the world?”
“Because you had a lot of shit to get off your chest, and that’s hard on a mind and body.” She reached over for the pillow, grabbed it, and then swung it my way. Seeing it coming, I blocked it with ease.
Just as I went to tackle her, Micah yelled, “Dry! Need you, man. Cruz called!”
Fuck. I didn’t want to leave her especially with her emotional rollercoaster hangover. She was so damn important to me. Then there was the club. I’d been prospecting since Micah started and loved the sense of family and bond they had.
Making a choice between her and the club, I didn’t think I could do it.
“Go,” she whispered, turning to me in the bed. “I’m fine. Or I’ll be fine. Ensley’s here. Go do your,” her hand moved in the air, “club stuff.”
Damn, she was cute. So pure and innocent with what the world had out there. It was good I was going to be by her side through it all.
I sat up, leaned into her, and touched my mouth to hers. When a smile started to cross her lips, I swear to fuck the light got brighter as she was letting me in.
