She nods. “Yeah. I want to know everything.”
I’m not sure where to really start because it’s a long messed up story, but she’s part of us, so she needs to know. I tell hereverything from the start, she listens, eyes wide as I tell her what he went through, to his first love, to coming out and then training us to be the family we are now. How granddad started the family clinic, then made it into what it is behind closed doors.
It’s a lot to take in, but it’s better to tell her all in one go.
“He doesn’t sleep much. Hates hospitals. Carries pain like it’s his armor. Cain made sure the Pit was his, and it is. He runs it now.”
She exhales slowly. “So, you... you’re in that now?”
“Yeah. I kill people who deserve it,” I say it flatly. No sugar-coating. “Rapists. Traffickers. Monsters. The file Cain gave me... all the targets. All of them were connected to what happened to me in prison. That’s why he kept me busy. Gave me a purpose.”
Her eyes soften. “But it still broke you.”
“No,” I say, brushing her cheek. “Losing you broke me. The rest just reminded me what kind of world we live in.” I hated what she did to me, and at the time I thought she did break me, but now I know it wasn’t her, but the system, and money.
She leans into my touch.
“And now?” she whispers.
“Now I want to protect what I still have.”
Silence wraps around us again. “I don’t deserve you,” she breathes.
I lean in and kiss her forehead. “Maybe not. But you’ve got me anyway.”
She brushes her lips against mine, and I have to pull away. “As much as I love your lips on mine, and other places, you’re making it very hard for me not to take this any further, and there is no way I’m doing it under this roof for the first time, with my parents down the corridor.”
She smiles, kisses me once more, then bites her bottom lip a little, then breaks eye contact with me and looks over at the door and I laugh.
“I promise you, you won’t be quiet.” She slaps my chest and shakes her head. “What?” There’s one thing about Olivia, she’s always so easy to read.
She starts tapping her fingers on my chest. “The thing is…rumors around college…you’ve been with…and?—”
“First of all, I haven’t been with a lot of girls.” I lie, but this is a lie worth telling. “So, what else is on your mind?”
“I haven’t been with anyone,” she says quickly, then looks away again. I sit up, and face her, and snake her to look at me. “After what happened at prom, I’ve always been scared, and—” she takes a deep breath and exhales hard. “All I ever wanted was you, I always wanted it to be you.”
I lean in closer and kiss her, and she wraps her arms around my neck. “What would you do if this never worked out?”
Olivia lies back on the bed, and I lie on top of her, kissing the side of her neck.
“It was going to be one of two options.”
“And they were?” I kiss her jaw.
“Option one was to believe in true love, and that one day we would be together and until then I wait.” I hear a small moan escape her as I kiss down her neck.
“The second option?"
“I was going to become a nun and read my porn books.” I pull away from her laughing so hard I can’t stop. My hands placed on the pillow beside her shaking my head at her.
“You’d be one sexy as hell nun.” I lean back down to kiss her. “Tomorrow night we will go back to your room after we visit the hospital.” I could go home, but if this is her first time, I’m going to make sure she can’t even get out of bed for the whole day. And it won’t be just the once either.
I’m going to be making up for lost time, a lot of lost time with her.
Twenty-Nine
Hayden
