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I drop to my knees beside her and curl my hand around her neck, bringing her to me.
She pulls away, and sniffles. “Don’t, Brady, please.”
“Fuck!” I hiss air through my gritted teeth. “Please, baby. Tell me what’s wrong.”
She looks up at me, her eyes swollen and rimmed in red. She wipes the tears clean from her cheeks. I can’t fucking stand it, and I’m wracking my mind to remember what I might have done to hurt her.
“When I was with Jake…” she starts, but then begins sobbing again.
I pull her to me, and this time she doesn’t resist. I stroke the side of her head and wait, trying my best to soothe her. I can’t push this. I try to stay calm, but I’ve already made an assumption about what she’s going to say, and it has me biting steel. I should have kicked Jake’s ass years ago.
Tears finished, she starts speaking again in a low and heart-wrenchingly painful voice. “I’d caught Jake once before the night with Savannah. I was walking the beach at dusk, and I saw his car in the parking lot.” She begins hiccupping, and for a second I assume she’s started crying again, and then I realize it’s actual hiccups. She smiles as though to apologize for the interruption. “I was so excited to see him. I thought he was there for me.” Hiccup. “When I got closer, I knew something was wrong.” Hiccup. I want to laugh because even her hiccups are lovely, but I hold it in. “I opened the door, and there he was.” Hiccup. “With some slutty girl’s head in his lap.” Hiccup. She plugs her nose with her fingers and holds her breath.
I want to tell her Jake doesn’t deserve her tears, but she needs to let it out. Get this piece of her past off her chest so she can move forward with me. When she’s finally redder than a tomato, she lets go of her nose and releases her breath. Surprisingly, the old trick works. As soon as she catches her breath, she continues telling me how the asshole shattered her heart.
“When he came to apologize, he told me that oral sex wasn’t something I was any good at. He needed it, so he found someone to do it right. He apologized and promised to teach me how he liked it if I stayed with him. He said he didn’t mean it and that he’d make it up to me. I was young, trusting, and in love with him, so I stayed. His teaching was more yelling and belittling, and eventually I flat out refused to do it anymore.”
“Fucking prick!”
She calms me now, rubbing my knee with her hand.
“I assumed he was getting blowjobs from other people, but I kept living in my little bubble of denial. The night I found him with Savannah was my breaking point. I was appalled he did something so awful in front of our friends. I was humiliated. My bubble had finally burst, and I let him go. He took my dignity and my heart when he left.”
She leans back and looks up at me. The pain on her face is agonizing. I hate that he did this to her.
Anger is flaring, building to a full-on inferno. I tamp it down and steady my breaths so I don’t tear out of here and hunt Jake down. “That fucker didn’t steal anything from you.”
“Maybe, Brady. But he wrecked me. Look at me? I want to do this for you, and you want me to, but I’m not sure I can.” Tears start falling from her eyes again, and I cradle her back to my chest.
/> “Shhh…hush, listen to me.” I pull her back so he has to look at me. “You don’t ever have to do anything because you think I want you to. Being with you is everything to me. Intimacy requires unwavering trust. It’s obvious you didn’t have that with Jake. But I promise you, you have it with me. I would never welcome you to a vulnerable place and then degrade you the moment you arrived.” I grab her face in my hands. “Don’t waste another breath worrying about what he thought of you. He’s not worth it.”
“I want to get past it, Brady, but it eats away at me.” Her lashes are wet with tiny beads of tears. I swipe my thumb over her eyelids to remove them because they belong to him, and I can’t fucking look at them. She falls back into my arms and I wrap her in my embrace.
“I understand wanting to get past things. But it doesn’t have to be right now, in this instant. I’m not going anywhere. We can just let things happen naturally and do what feels right, not what we think the other person expects.”
“Thank you, Brady.”
As I watch a smile reach her beautiful blue eyes, I silently vow to do everything I can to repair her confidence. And if I ever see Jake again, he’s getting the ass beating I’ve always wanted to give him.
I tilt her chin and give her a quick peck on the lips. “For the record, Sunshine, there is no such thing as a bad blow job. Your ex is just an asshole.”
She laughs, a full, beautiful laugh. It’s genuine and grateful, and I would do anything to hear her laugh this way every day of my life.
I stand and lift her off the floor, holding her in my arms. “Now, it’s bath time.”
She giggles and lays her head on my shoulder.
Chapter 20
Tori
Brady sets me down gently on the bathroom counter. The tiles are cold against my skin. The shower door squeals open, and Brady starts filling the tub with water. He pours bath oil under the stream. I grip the edge of the countertop, lean forward, and smile as I admire his backside. He steps in and holds his hand out to help me in. Body weak, I hop off the counter and take his hand. We slip into the steaming hot water together, and I sit in front of him with my back and head against his hard chest. The hot water and the aroma of the bath oil are soothing. I’m sore from the top of my head to the tips of my toes – the most delightfully sore I’ve ever felt.
Brady scoops water into his hands and pours it over my shoulders while he talks. “I need to be the one to tell my parents about us. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to speak with them. In the meantime, you need to wait to talk to Liv or anyone else.”
“Can we hide out here until you talk to your parents, then?” The mere thought of attempting to hide something as big as this from Liv makes me nervous. Aside from what a snoop my best friend is, she also knows me well enough that she’s going to sense it.
His soft lips kiss the top of my shoulder. “You only have to keep it a secret for a little while. I promise. I have to figure out the best way to drop the news on my parents.”
