Simple Perfection (Perfection #2)(17)

She sniffled. "I need to be stronger. I want to be stronger. I want to be tough."

Did she not realize how f**king tough she was? She had lived a horror story for sixteen years of her life that had ended even more horrifically. And she still laughed and found reasons to smile. She was brave enough to live life, even after enduring the monsters that had terrorized her in her room as a child. And they weren't pretend. She'd faced real monsters and she had survived. There was no one as f**king tough as this woman.

"Della, you are tougher than anyone I know. Just because you have to protect yourself sometimes and fade away from me doesn't make you weak. You're a survivor. You are my inspiration and I love you. No matter what, I love you."

Della clung tighter to me. My mother had upset her. I would deal with her. She wouldn't get close to Della again, even if I had to ban her from the club. This would stop. I was done with my family hurting what was mine.

We sat there in silence. Della let me hold her as close as I needed to. She let me kiss her head and hands and run my hands over her arms and back to reassure myself she was okay.

The knock on the door ended our peace and quiet. Della started to move out of my lap but I held her to me. I was going to ignore whoever it was. Vince should have been out there by now.

"Is everything okay, sir?" Vince asked from the other side of the door.

"Yes, we're fine," I replied.

Della tilted her head back to look up at me. "Did he see me?"

I nodded. I didn't want to lie to her, even though I knew she hated for people to see her when she was like that.

"He's going to think I'm insane," she said with a defeated sigh.

I grabbed her chin and made her look up at me. "No, he won't. You aren't insane. You are intelligent, lovable, and beautiful. But you are not insane. You lived through hell and you beat it, Della. Most people can't overcome something like what you've overcome. Don't ever think you're less than amazing."

A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "You just love me," she said.

"More than life," I replied before pressing my lips to hers.

Della

Woods hadn't left me alone since my blackout yesterday. I knew he had work to do. I also had work to do, but he was keeping me by his side at home. Every time I mentioned going into the office, he did something to distract me. Oral sex on the kitchen counter had been his first tactic, and it worked. I had forgotten about anything but the way he made me feel.

Then he'd caught me sneaking off to take a shower when he was on a work-related phone call. I mentioned that we needed to get ready, and then he'd taken me against the shower wall. After he cut the water off and carried me to bed, we'd made love again.

Now he was outside on the phone again. I knew he was dealing with work from home and it only proved my point that I was hindering him. My weakness was a weight on him, but I wanted to help him. When he opened the door and stepped inside, I started to tell him that we should really go to work. I was going to fight off any sexual advances he tried to use to keep me there.

"That was Vince. I have two board members in my office that my mother contacted about some things she knows nothing about. I need to go into work to deal with them. I should be back in two hours max," he said before the door closed behind him.

He wasn't going to let me go. "I could go to work, too. There are things I didn't get done yesterday."

"No. I've got to concentrate on this meeting, and knowing you're there will distract me. I'll be worried about you. Just stay here and I promise I'll come right back."

He pressed a kiss to my lips before walking to the bedroom to get dressed. I stood there and let his words sink in. He was taking my job away. He was going to keep me here again. He was afraid of my being at work and having one of my episodes.

I had been working so hard to be tough. To ease his worries. One bad day and he had me in a glass box again. This wasn't fair. I wanted to live. I loved being close to him and having a purpose, knowing I was helping him. Staying here all the time was lonely. I couldn't do this again.

He walked out of the bedroom dressed in a suit and smiled at me. "We'll eat at that Italian place you love in Seaside tonight," he told me, as if that made this all okay.

Instead of telling him how I felt, I just nodded and kissed him back, then watched him leave. I didn't fight back. I just let him decide what I was going to do. This wasn't tough. Blaire wouldn't have let Rush do this. She would have fought back. She would have turned Alabama badass on him and gotten her way.

I had to show Woods that I could do this. I'd had one slipup but I was bigger than that. I could keep working. He needed me there. I was helping him. I was good at it.

I went to the bedroom and got ready for work.

Facing Woods while he was in a meeting wasn't a wise decision. Instead, I finished the work I hadn't completed yesterday. I managed to schedule a stand-in golf pro, ordered new golf carts to replace two of our older ones, and met with the manager of the golf course, Darla, about using new vendors for snacks and adding some new beers.

It was three hours before I had a chance to meet with Woods. He hadn't called me yet so he wasn't even aware that he had gone over his two hours. Either he was still in a meeting or he was so swamped with work he had lost track of time.

Vince smiled at me with relief in his face when I walked off the elevator. "Miss Della, I'm so glad you're back today. You've been missed."