Addicted to Mr Parks (The Parks Series #2)(121)

“Is that why you want to control me?” I was slowly understanding his world.

“Yes,” he said firmly. “Because you’re mine. Not his. He wants to take you away from me, Evelyn, because he likes to hurt me. That’s why I told you to stay away from him.”

I felt guilty as sin. He had a damn good reason to ask me to stay away from his father, and I misplaced that trust. “Is he an alcoholic?” I asked.

“Yes,” he hissed.

I swallowed hard again, my eyes closing briefly as I remembered the way he looked at me when he found out I was an alcoholic. His repulsed reaction suddenly had meaning. “That’s why you acted the way you did when you found out about me?”

He couldn’t look at me. “Yes. I revolved my life around aspiring not to be anything like my father. Staying away from alcohol because I knew the pain it brought. Alcoholics disgust me.”

“Then you fell in love with one?” I cried. I could only imagine how he felt when he learned about my issue. What drives people like you to drink? he once said, all the thoughts of his childhood and abusive father hitting him suddenly when he found out. I felt sick, bile rising in my throat.

“But his discipline is still drummed into me,” he went on. “When I punish you, I’m no better than he is. I told you hurting women is not what I’m about. But it clearly is.”

“You’re not an abuser, Wade.” My whimpers were pitiful. I felt miles away from the strong woman I once was. “It’s not the same. It’s just the way you cope.”

He marched towards me and pulled me into the bathroom. Grasping my hips he turned me around in front of the mirror and I came face-to-face with red welts that had appeared on my buttocks. Slight bruising was also starting to appear, and the way my face paled caused Parks to get angry at himself all over again.

“You tell me how that’s good for you.”

Spinning around and moving away from the reflection, I pulled him back again. “I asked for it.”

“But this is what I have the desire to do when you disobey, Evelyn. You are a victim of child abuse. How the f*ck can I do something like this to you? I can’t. Ever again. The way I cope with things is going to kill us. I inflict pain to forget my own. I don’t want to hurt you, Evelyn. A sadist is not what I want to be with you. It’s best if you leave. You don’t deserve this.”


He picked up my dress and gently placed it in my hands.

“Princess, I’m not stable enough to be with you right now.”

My head was shaking, disagreeing considerably. “And I’m not stable enough to live without you. Please don’t take away my solace. You are my life. The only thing that keeps me sane. If you leave, I don’t know what I’d do.” He wiped away my tears, but they wouldn’t stop falling. My heart felt weighed down in my chest, making it feel empty.

“But it’s better than staying with me and getting hurt.” He pulled my dress over my head and took my hand, leading me downstairs. My body was fighting against him, trying to break free, but he wouldn’t let go.

“I will fight for you, Wade. I will fight until I have no air left in my lungs to breathe. Just like you fought for me.” I clung to his body. “I love you. I love you so much. Don’t you get that?”

He punched the security button on the lift, and my attempts to pull free were useless. He was so out of his control that the realization of his naked form being seen by security didn’t faze him.

“No,” I begged him. “You’re hurting, please don’t let me leave you when you’re hurting.”

The lift opened, and inside was a security man. The violent shaking of my head told both men I wasn’t going anyway. “No,” I sobbed. “You’re my remedy, Wade. I need you.”

“Get her out of here,” Parks ordered the security guy, who took hold of my waist and pulled me into the lift. Tears fogged my view as I watched his pain flow through his veins. I was fighting, trying my utmost to get out of the lift.

“Good-bye, Princess.” He whispered. “Never forget you belong to me.”

“But I belong nowhere when I’m not in your arms,” I cried and broke free from the security man’s grip. “Don’t do this.” I pulled him into me. “I’m begging you.”

He gently cupped my cheeks, his thumb stroked as my tears fell onto his fingers. Those green, vivid eyes I loved staring into my ambers were lost and wounded. “I have no choice, Evelyn. I’m doing it because I love you. I will never stop loving you. Let me deal with my shit by myself, if only temporarily.”

“Let us deal with it together,” I sobbed as security pulled me back into the lift just as the doors were closing.

“No.” He turned his back on me. “Good-bye, Princess.”