Tempted & Taken (Men of Haven #4)(58)
“What happened?”
Pulling in a long bracing breath, Knox met her stare head on. “When the principal called us on it, she said I’d coerced her into the affair. That I’d threatened her with physical force if she didn’t comply. Not quite a rape allegation, but close enough things got dicey for a day or two. The cops were even called in to investigate.” He pursed his lips, the memory just as bitter now as it was all those years ago. “In the end, she graciously opted not to press charges. Mighty kind of her, right?”
“She betrayed you.”
That she had. And he’d vowed the day he walked out of that school he’d never let anyone else close—a vow Axel, Jace and the rest of the guys had practically taken a battering ram to get through.
Funny, having said everything out loud, his reasons for acting the way he had seemed silly. Like the act of sharing with Darya had shone a huge spotlight on his shadowed closet and found nothing but empty space and cobwebs where he’d though a host of skeletons rattled. “I guess if I’m fair, it wasn’t just her that did me in. I was ripe for disappointment. I told you the only homes I knew were foster placements, but everyone I went to I hoped I’d find a place. A family. When Tami gave me all the affection I’d ever wanted and talked about long-term, I gobbled it up.” He scratched his chin and huffed out an ironic chuckle. “Pretty sure there’s some psychobabble analysis a shrink could have a heyday with in all of that. Confusing the need for a mom with intimacy and all that.”
“Our past makes us who we are. Yours made you appreciate the family you earned later and strong enough to accomplish more than most people ever dream of.” Softly spoken, her words were still thick with emotion and loaded with the protectiveness of an alpha she-wolf. She lightly trailed her fingers through his hair along one side. “Thank you for sharing your story with me.”
He caught her hand in his and laced their fingers together. “You know I’m going to ask the same thing.”
Fear flashed in her eyes and her body tensed.
“Easy.” He tucked her head against his chest and smoothed one hand down her spine. “It doesn’t have to be tonight. Not tomorrow or next week, but someday.” He paused enough to let her focus and really hear what he had to say next. “I want to earn your trust. For you to figure out I won’t judge you no matter what your story is and let me keep you safe.”
She nodded, but didn’t look up.
Maybe he shouldn’t have brought it up. God knew, he hadn’t skipped into sharing his details whistling Dixie. What he could do was get shit back in lighter territory and take a stab and being a regular guy without a fuckload of hang-ups. “So, I’m new to this whole normal relationship routine. Any idea what we do next?”
Her giggle was the prettiest sound he’d heard in ages, second only to the sound of his name on her lips when she’d come around his cock. She lifted her head and bit her lip. “You could feed me.”
The temptation to follow it up with a saucy quip about fucking her afterward danced on the edge of his tongue, but that was his usual MO. After all the hurdles he’d put them both through, she deserved better. “You okay with pizza? Momma McKee usually keeps us stocked with decent leftovers, but the way Beckett works through food, my guess is there’s not much left.”
“Chicken supreme with jalape?os?”
“Sweetheart, you could ask for anchovies and I’d say yes. Which, if you knew how I felt about anchovies, you’d know that meant I’d also walk through hell for you.” He tugged his phone out of his back pocket and thumbed up the nearby pizza place he kept in his favorites. “What else should we do?”
She cocked her head. “I still haven’t seen Airplane.”
“I think I could swing that.” He punched the call button and tucked the phone between his shoulder and ear. “On one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“We eat it and knock out the movie just like this.”
She cocked one eyebrow. “At your desk?”
“No. Spread out on the couch out front, but with you close.”
A lady answered his call and rattled off the name of their establishment, the racket in the background promising they had at least an hour’s wait ahead of them.
“No distance,” she whispered.
He smiled at that. Leave it to his woman to sum things up the most precise way possible. He held the mouthpiece away from his lips and murmured against her lips, “No distance. Those days are over.”
*
A deep, rumbling voice and a soft but firm nudge to Knox’s shoulder jogged him out of sleep. He cracked heavily weighted eyelids. The monster TV mounted on the wall beamed the main menu of his movie library back at him, pooling soft white light on him and Darya and the brown suede sectional where they’d spent their night. The rest of the room was dark.
Darya lay curled sleeping against him, her head heavy against his chest and her bare legs tangled with his. He grinned at the sight of his T-shirt almost reaching her mid-thigh. Never in his life had he let a woman wear his clothes, but seeing her pad from his bedroom after their massive pizza annihilation in nothing but the soft navy blue cotton was hands down one of the most gratifying sights of his life.
He closed his eyes, ready to let the blackness pull him back under.