Page 42 of The Anti-Bachelorette (The Anti-Bachelorette 1)

A few minutes later, Alaric walks out in nothing but some basketball shorts. My eyes are immediately glued to his chest. He comes around the other side of the bed and gets in and turns off the lamp so the only light is coming from the TV.

I glance at him again. “Can’t you put on a shirt?”

Alaric rolls his eyes and sighs. “I’ve literally been inside you.”

I cross my arms over my chest and narrow my eyes at him. “Yeah, so? That doesn’t give you a right to anything.”

Alaric sighs again and runs his hand down his face. “I never said it did Emory.” He lays down and rolls over so his back is facing me. My eyes immediately scan his back, which is just as sexy as his chest. I can see every corded muscle. Even though we’ve had sex twice, this is the first time I’ve been close up to his back before.

I am still checking him out when I notice what looks like burn scars on the back of his shoulder. My hands reach out of their own accord, and I run my fingers gently across them. “How did this happen?” I whisper.

Alaric flinches underneath my touch. He just grunts out. “It’s from more than one occasion.”

I realize it must’ve been something his brother did to him when he was younger. My hand rubs over his shoulder to try to somewhat comfort him, and then I pull away.

My curiosity gets to me though, so I whisper out. “Why is he doing this to you?” I pause then add. “Why is he still doing this to you?”

Alaric rolls around so his eyes meet mine. I don’t know what I was expecting, but him explaining things was not it. “He blames me for our dad leaving.”

I lower my eyes for a moment taking in what he said, and then I look back up at him and he continues. “My dad left a couple years after I was born. A short time later, my mom got really into some hardcore drugs. She didn’t have a job and always had sleazy guys hanging around the house. A lot of the time was because she was prostituting herself for more drug money.” He cringes at that memory and then continues. “Jeremy was old enough to remember what life was like before when my dad was around. We weren’t rich or anything, but my dad always had a job, and we were pretty much a normal family. Everything changed for Jeremy when my dad left, and he blamed me. Said I was too much work and cried too much. That I made my dad leave.”

Alaric looks away, and it almost looks like he does blame himself. I reach out and touch his arm. “You know that’s not true right? It’s never a child’s fault how a parent acts. That’s on them.”

Alaric looks at me more seriously, and then I add. “That’s what my dad always told me. You know. When my mom left me with him.”

I don’t talk about my mom much and for good reason. I usually never even think about her. There will be days though when she’ll be on my mind, and it still hurts knowing she abandoned me like she did. I look back up at Alaric, and I can feel the tears pricking at my eyes.

Alaric reaches out and brushes some hair behind my ear. For a moment, I almost think he is going to kiss me, but then he just gives me a small smirk. “I’d abandon your bratty ass too.”

My eyes pop open wide, and my mouth drops open. “You asshole!” I punch his arm and then push him away and roll over.

I hear him laugh, and I can’t help the small smile that forms on my face. Somehow I know that was Alaric’s strange way of trying to comfort me. I reach over and grab the remote and turn the TV off, so then it is just me and Alaric and darkness. I hear him chuckle one more time. “Goodnight princess.”

I just smile into the night. “Goodnight asshole.”

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