Page 89 of Needing Your Love
The apology that had seemed so sincere?—
My brain shut off. Limbs rooted in place as Stefen appeared at the end of the aisle.
Kurt lifted his arm, shaking, and attempted to train his gun on the man’s chest. “I warned you, asshole,” he slurred while weaving on his feet. “Told you not tofuckingtouch her again!”
Sarah shrieked, and my lungs to seized along with the rest of my body.
I sat frozen.
A coward.
About to be the victim of drunken rage—again.
Chapter 33
Sutton
I’d gotten caught up in memories of holding Jimmy all night long, how he’d come apart for me countless times before I’d given him the dicking down he’d been begging for since I’d reddened his ass.
I burned the bacon while lost in my head.
Forgot to put the pot under the coffee machine and made a mess before I realized the mistake.
It wasn’t until the scrambled eggs began to cook in the pan that I remembered I hadn’t added any seasoning to the fluffy yellow bits Jimmy preferred for breakfast..
Chuckling to myself, I salted the eggs a little too late, poured two mugs of coffee, and hoped he didn’t mind the bacon crunchier than I’d learned he preferred.
I expected he would still be too blissed out from last night to notice, and if so, I could always make him sit on my dick while eating. That would preoccupy his brain from my first kitchen fail.
The doorbell rang, and grinning, I opened the door.
My lungs deflated, my lips flatlining at the sight before me that I never in a million years would have expected. “Darla?” Iblinked, sure my eyes played tricks on me. I hadn’t lain eyes on her in over a decade.
“Sutton.” She whispered my name like a prayer, like I was her only hope. Her blue eyes were hazy with tears, despondent. A bruise shadowed her hollow cheek, clear into her hair. The sweatshirt she wore draped over her thinned frame—the woman was no more than skin and bones.
My brow furrowed on instinct. “What the fuck happened to you?” As if I hadn’t already known. She’d been leaving me messages at work for weeks.
“C-Can I come in?” She attempted a smile that wavered and didn’t reach her eyes.
I stepped back without thought, allowing her into the home we used to share. Where we’d raised our only son. Where she’d lied and manipulated me out of every cent I’d had.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, keeping my tone low. The shower had shut off upstairs, and while Jimmy usually took an hour-plus to get ready for the day, we’d planned to stay holed up inside. I couldn’t decide if I wanted him to flounce down the stairs in nothing but lace panties or stay locked up in the bathroom while primping for me.
How the fuck would I explain letting this woman into our private bubble of happiness?
“I’m in a bad place,” Darla said, and I shut the door behind her, unable to deny my instincts, the need to keep her safe, now that she stood before me.
Ignoring calls had been easy, but seeing her broken urged me to be the caretaker I couldn’t help but be down to my bones.
Even after all she’d done to me, I held no bitterness like our son did. If I could offer her some sort of protection, I had to give it.
Tears streamed over Darla’s cheeks as she hugged herself, and empathy trickled in as it always did for someone hurting.
“Come here,” I murmured, and she fell into me, hands grasping at my shirt.
Thank fuck I’d put the damned thing on because of splattering bacon grease, otherwise she’d be pressing against and touching my skin. A shiver rippled through me—not the pleasant kind—while holding her close. I closed my eyes, fighting the desire to shove her back outside into the cold, and took shallow breaths so the stench of her unwashed body didn’t flood my nose.
A silent sob caused her to shudder her against me, and I clasped her tenderly, not sure where else she might be bruised and hurting.
