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“I’ll never fail you again, Tria—I promise.”
It was overwhelming, cathartic, painful, elating, and exhausting. By the time we had both spewed out everything we wanted to say, we were sobbing into each other’s shoulders and hanging on to each other as tightly as we could. I moved my hand up and down her back, feeling the warmth of her body under my fingers. I tucked my head in the space between her neck and shoulder and inhaled.
There was nothing better than the scent of her skin. Not pizza or sex or H—nothing compared to her scent.
I pulled back and used my hands to skim her cheeks, still wondering if this was real or not. I brushed aside the tears on her cheeks and kept my eyes on hers as I moved closer. Though I had intended the kiss to be soft and gentle, Tria grabbed the back of my head and pulled me roughly against her mouth.
Moaning into her, I reciprocated—moving my lips, mouth, and tongue together to make her mine again. At the same time, she claimed me, and I wanted nothing more than to give myself to her in any and every way possible. I was hers—completely and fully.
When we finally parted, I just held her and stared into her face for the longest time. Tria turned slightly to sit across my lap with her arms around my neck, and my hand graced over her side. Looking down, I moved my hand from her side to the center of her belly. Over the fabric of her shirt, I massaged the area softly.
“Everything is okay, right?” I whispered.
“Yes,” she said. “I mean, as far as I know…I guess?”
“You didn’t see a doctor yet?”
“No,” she responded with a shake of her head. “I asked the clinic how much it would be at, but I didn’t have the money. Yolanda’s going to loan it to me. Well, she was.”
“What the hell happened?” I asked.
“The police came to serve me with the subpoena,” Tria said. “They asked if I knew where to find you, and I gave them the address, and they said you weren’t living there anymore. I didn’t think they were right, so I went to look, like I told you, and there was that other woman living there.”
“I didn’t have enough money for rent,” I admitted. “The asshole wouldn’t give me a chance to come up with the rest, and…”
I trailed off, deciding I didn’t really want her to think about the rest of that shit. Stress wasn’t good for a pregnant woman, was it?
“I thought you would be working tonight,” Tria continued, “but when I got there, Wade told me you stopped fighting there. Then I saw Yolanda…”
Tria’s eyes hardened.
“She didn’t tell me! She got another fighter, and she never told me that you weren’t working!”
“What did you do?”
“I asked her what the hell she thought you were going to do for money if you weren’t fighting, and she said you weren’t her problem anymore, and that I needed to let go and move on.”
“And?” I prompted when she paused.
“And I punched her.” Tria snarled and her eyes blazed. “She fucking deserved it for doing that to you. How were you going to get to the doctor or therapy or anything if you didn’t have a job?”
“It was…difficult,” I replied. I didn’t want to tell her I hadn’t even managed to do any of that shit yet. I tensed until her face turned to mine, and her eyes softened as they focused on me.
“I didn’t know where you might be,” she said. “No one had seen you, so I called Michael. I thought maybe he would be able to help me find you. I never expected you to be there with him.”
“Long story,” I said with a shrug.
Another tear dripped down the side of her face, and her lip disappeared behind her teeth.
“Did you…I mean… were you…?”
“I didn’t do it,” I told her. “I wanted it, but I didn’t use again. I’m still clean.”
She let out a sigh of relief as she placed her head back on my shoulder.
“What do we do now?” she asked quietly.
My muscles tightened, and that horrible prickly feeling crawled over my flesh. I didn’t know if Tria was going to leave me again or not, but the thought of hauling her off to a deserted island where it was just the two of us was very tempting.
