Page 32 of If You Could Only Believe
He was standing before me in three long strides. He placed his hands on his hips and matched my stance. Staring down at me he said, “You were excused from that party. Your supervisor caused drama by approaching our table. Hell yeah, you went home with the HR Manager, who wasn’t going to give you a choice, I might add. As for the countless things done nakedly? Well, take those off your list, because we’re going to keep doing them. Your supervisor is a raging bitch, so it wouldn’t matter if you were perfect or an outright fuckup. You didn’t ruin the luncheon, since it was foryou, anyway. And as far as pissing me off? Baby, it doesn’t take much. I’ve also looked over your employment files, at the rate you’ve been working, we probablyoweyou a year’s worth of sick time and vacation time,” he countered.
His chest was heaving by the time he was done with his little rant and the only thing I could focus on was when he said we were going to continue doing naked things together.
I was such a loser.
I blinked back up at him. “I’m not fired and we’re still going to do naked things together?”
Relief swamped his face. “No, you’re not and I sure as fuck hope so,” he breathed out.
I dropped my hands from my hips-no longer feeling sassy-and stepped into his body, wrapping my arms around his waist. His arms immediately circled me and were pretty much crushing me to death. “I’m so sorry,” I mumbled into his chest.
His voice sounded pained. “For God’s sake, what for, Sophia?”
“Upsetting you,” I answered plainly. I mean, I was sorry for whatever it was I said that made him throw a freakin’ chair across the room.
Michael untangled my arms from around his waist, took my face in his hands and bent his knees so that we were half-ass at eye level. His green eyes looked so damn sincere, it was a little bit heartbreaking. “Do you know what it was that set me off, Sophia?”
“No,” I whispered. “I just know it was something I did.”
His gaze fell to my lips, and that one little microsecond act had my body tingling with memories of the weekend. “It’s when you said you’d only embarrass me if we dated, Sophia,” he informed me. “That’s what set me off and…well, my temper is not one to treat lightly.”
I scoffed. “Ya think?” The corner of his lip lifted, and the dimpled smirk was almost enough to make me forget what we were talking about.Damn the man.“But, Michael, it doesn’t make what I said any less true,” I reiterated. “I mean…have youlookedat you?”
And then he said something that would have knocked me on my ass had he not had my face in his hands. “Yeah, baby,” he whispered. “I’ve seen me, and I see a body riddled with so many scars, I couldn’t escape how fucked up I am even if I tried.”
His words broke my heart. The idea that this beautiful human being who had money, status, family, power, stunning looks and a big dick (I did do some minor research in penis sizes) could feel like that about himself absolutely broke my heart. “Michael, you’re not fucked up,” I replied, but added, “Of course, I don’t know you that well, so you could very well be a complete nutcase, but I don’t think so.” Michael let go of my face, straightened to his full height, threw his head back and started laughing. I slapped at him. “Quit laughing at me.”
He looked back down at me and his face was pure joy. “I’m not laughing at you, Sophia. I swear,” he quickly replied. “You’re just so damn refreshing, baby.”
“Are you still mad at me? Do I still have a job? Does your family hate me?” I realized that just because Michael found me funny, didn’t mean his family did.
Michael smiled down at me and I almost scolded his dimples again. “I was never madatyou. Of course, you still have a job. And my family loves you blindly, no questions asked.”
I shook my head. “You guys are weird, Michael.”
“You have no idea, Sophia,” he chuckled.
Chapter 18
Michael~
Sophia looked so razzled, I had to smile. I knew she hated me smiling at her, but I couldn’t help it. I had been so terrified that she was going to want nothing more to do with me, the fact that she was allowing me to be in her apartment with her was a huge victory for me.
“Can we sit down, Sophia?” We needed to have a serious heart-to-heart about what was going on between us. I also needed to explain my temper to her. She needed to know what she was getting herself into, because she was in…I wasn’t going to allow anything less.
“Sure,” she said, already heading towards the couch.
Once we sat down, I angled my body so I could look at her. “My father used to beat us,” I started, figuring I might as well rip off the bandage. She gasped, but I ignored her shock. I needed to get this out. “Mason’s biggest struggle wasn’t his beatings, so much as…he couldn’t protect Aiden, Gabe and me as much as he wanted to. He carries that burden heavily. Plus, my father, Harold, knew Mason would take over one day, so he did his best to straddle the line of keeping Mason in check without crossing the line. Aiden’s always been a good dude, so he didn’t do much to warrant many beatings. He fell in line behind my dad unless a situation found us choosing sides. Well, then, we always chose Mason. Always.”
Sophia placed one of her dainty hands on my left knee and leaned forward. “Michael, you don’t have to tell-”
I put a hand up to silence her. Hell yeah, I had to tell her. She still didn’t get that we were going to be her family now, so she needed to know us. “Gabriel and I…well, Gabriel wasn’t home much. Gabriel and Justice met when we were 15 and Gabriel fell in love hard and spent as much time with her as he could. They recently got married, but they’ve been together since they were 16 years old.” I still can’t believe Gabe waited so long to marry Justice. Anyway…“I was the last of my father’s…toys…”
“Michael…” Sophia whispered, heartbrokenly.
“It’s okay, babe,” I assured her. “It’s been years since my father put hands on any of us, but unfortunately, his physical, verbal and mental abuse made their marks. And, for whatever reason, I got the worst of it. I don’t know why, and I never asked, but Harold beat me the worst. The scars on my body are the only way you can tell me apart from Gabriel. The scar under my eyes is the only way anyone paying attention to us would be able to tell the difference. Even our tattoos are the same.” I had to smile at that one. “Well, they used to be until Gabe and Justice got matching tattoos.”
Sophia’s eyes widened and then she blew me the fuck away with her next words. And just when I thought I was getting used to her…“Did you want to go out and get matching tattoos to match your brother’s and sister’s?”
