Vulnerable [Suncoast Society] (Suncoast Society #29)(65)

“I swear. I haven’t even been in that cabinet since…” She dissolved into sobs again.

Leo always insisted to Jesse that Eva had never lied to him. No whoppers, just the occasional little white lie, which he always easily spotted. That she could be closemouthed and noncommunicative, but she wasn’t able to lie to him.

He trusted Leo and hoped his partner hadn’t been seriously deluded by her all these years. Or that she was able to lie to him and not to Leo.

He held Eva against him and warmed the water even more as she painfully sobbed. He sank to the shower floor with her wrapped in his arms, holding her, rocking her, both of them soaked to the skin. He also looked at her foot, the cut not too deep and no longer bleeding.

“Promise me,” he said. “Promise me you will never lie to me. You lie to me, I’m gone, and I’m taking her with me.” He still wasn’t completely convinced of the legal weight of that argument, but all that mattered right now was that Eva believed its validity.

“I promise,” she choked out. “I swear.” She dissolved into more tears and he let his own flow as he sat there and held her. “My parents hate me,” she said. “They never liked Leo. They didn’t want me to marry him. My mom said last night I’ve wasted my life and ruined Laurel’s by marrying Leo. That I’m a horrible mother for letting Laurel spend time with Leo. They told me not to call them unless he…” More hitching sobs.

He got it now. He understood all too well having * parents. He also understood why Leo had agonized over his decision to leave her for so long before he did. Why he’d kept trying for so long.

But Eva was an adult. She was going to have to learn how to deal with this loss like an adult and not like a child.

The divorce was forcing her to fully grow up in a way she hadn’t needed to. First her parents ruling her life, probably, then meeting Leo and gladly letting him take the dominant role, even though neither one of them had ever realized it before.

Once her tears mostly stopped, he helped her to her feet and shut the water off. She looked a little wobbly. “Do I need to take you to the ER? You threw up.”

She shook her head. “No. That was before I passed out.”

He cupped her face in his palms like he had earlier that day. “I mean it. You work with me, or you are totally on your own and alone. Got it?”

She nodded, still sniffling.

“I’m not a Dominant. And I can’t be your Dominant. I just…can’t. I can be your friend. Family, even. If you need me to lean on right now, I know Leo wouldn’t mind it. But once we’re through this, you have to move on and find someone else who can be that guy for you. You don’t even really know what you want right now because you’re in too much pain to know what or who you need. And it cannot be the first guy who comes along and dots all the Is like that just because you’re hurting and afraid. Understand?”

Of course, as he said that, he realized the hypocrisy of his words.

That was exactly how it’d been between him and Leo when they’d met. He’d had enough experience under his belt, but then he’d fallen hard for Leo, too. Who was he to say what was right and wrong?

“Yes, Sir. I’m sorry.”

He hugged her to him, only his love for Leo and Laurel allowing him to shove his anger aside.

“Okay, sweetie. Clean slate from this point forward. Part of your punishment is you are going to clean this mess up. And you don’t ever lock your bedroom door again when we’re alone. Laurel came and woke me up to make her lunch. If you’d pulled this shit alone with her, what would she have done, huh? Been scared because she couldn’t wake you up? Or if you’d done this and left the door unlocked and she’d walked in on you like that. What do you think that would have done to her? What if I hadn’t been here and she called 911 and then ended up in state custody, because you were Baker-acted, huh?”

“It won’t happen again, Sir. I promise.”

“Damn right it won’t. You’re going to clean this up, and then you’re going to go out to the kitchen and dump every ounce of alcohol in this house. I don’t care what it is or how expensive it was.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“I’m going to get my shower. I expect to see this mess cleaned up, you dressed and cleaned up, all the alcohol dumped—leave the empties in the kitchen sink for me to see—and then you need to get Laurel’s room and bathroom put back together. Understand?”

“Yes, Sir.” Her muddy brown eyes were bloodshot. She would have one hell of a hangover later, if she didn’t already. Her breath was an acrid cloud of rum and puke and old coffee and morning breath.

“And brush your teeth.”

“Yes, Sir.”

He carefully stepped out of the shower, avoiding the mess on the floor, and stripped off his soaking wet shorts and briefs. He wrung them out over the sink and wrapped a towel around his hips to get himself back to his bedroom.

He grabbed clothes and his shower kit and peeked around the corner of the living room to find Laurel still in front of the TV, eating and watching.

“You all right, sweetheart?” he called out.

“Yes. Is Mommy okay?”

“She’s fine, sweetheart. She didn’t hear me knocking because she was in the shower. She’s okay.”