AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I didn’t mean to cry all over you,” she said in a voice still thick with tears. “I just needed to tell you the whole truth, with nothing left out.”
The pain of what she’d experienced clenched in his gut. Yet he was grateful that she’d finally given him her trust, confided her deepest secrets. Each of the Mavericks knew just how deep into the darkness family secrets could drag you if you let them.
“Your guilt, your belief in your culpability—those aren’t the truth,” he said. “You’re not to blame, Tasha. Not for any of it.”
She blinked, slowly, finally looking up. “It is the truth, Daniel. Everything I told you.”
“Not the part where you load the blame on yourself, taking responsibility for not seeing through your father’s lies.”
His heart hurt for the loss of her illusions about her family. Hell, it made his chest tight just to skirt around the issue of possible bumps in the road between his mother and father, so he could understand how much her family’s long con must have devastated her. But to blame herself? He couldn’t accept that. He wouldn’t accept it.
“We’re not the products of our parents, with no ability to change. We don’t need to live with their stigma. And we don’t ever have to be like them. We can be better than they are and rise above our circumstances.”
Every one of his friends had come from a hell created by their parents. That’s why his mom and dad had taken them in. And still, the Mavericks had risen far above their backgrounds—and their bad genes, as Tasha had called it—not just in terms of money, but in their integrity, their loyalty, their kindness toward others.
“You wanted to see only the good in your dad.” He cupped her cheek, stroking her skin with his thumb, the contact necessary to his entire being. “That’s natural, even admirable. Children are born having faith that their parents will take care of them, watch out for them, love them. But if your parents blow it—that’s not your fault.”
“Can’t you see how weak I was?” she insisted. “Living in la-la land where everyone is good and no one ever does anything simply for their own gain and at the expense of others.”
“My mother always looks for the good in people,” he countered, “and she’s the farthest thing from weak.”
“I didn’t mean—”
He laid his finger on her lips, reminding himself of her sweet taste, how good she felt in his arms. “I know you didn’t mean anything against her. I’m trying to show you that it’s okay to give people a chance instead of judging them too quickly. Mom believes you have to see the good in people and everything around you. Or life is just misery. Even though she’s wrong sometimes—because not everyone is good—I admire that about her more than I can say.” He caressed the fine hair at Tasha’s temple. “And I admire that about you too.”
“I bet your mom never met anyone who did things as evil as my father.”
He almost snorted. “Oh yes, she has.” But he wouldn’t tell Tasha about Whitney right now. Or the other Mavericks’ parents. Or the selfish punk who’d run Jeremy off the road and left him with brain damage. This moment needed to be all about Tasha. The rest could come later. “You’ve got to remember that your father did those things, not you. All you did was miss the clues about him. That’s not evil. It doesn’t make you bad.”
“I just don’t know if I’ll ever see it that way.” Her words were harsh, full of pain.
And they broke his heart.
He couldn’t make her see the truth in one blinding flash, but he needed her to understand what he saw when he looked at her. “You’re loving and caring. You’re loyal. You still love your brother and believe there has to be a reason he took the actions he did.”
Tasha was a pure soul, even if she didn’t know it. She was Maverick material.
He leaned his forehead against hers. “My mom is my hero. You’ve probably already figured that out. And you have so many of the same qualities. She would adore you.”
Tasha shifted against him, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. “I’ve been so afraid of what you’d say when you learned the truth. How you’d hate me.”
He ached that her words clearly proved she still didn’t believe him. “I could never hate you.” He kissed her cheek. “I couldn’t care about someone who callously hurt others.” He kissed her eyelid, tasting the lingering salt of her tears. “I would only want to help someone who can’t resist rescuing puppies.” He kissed the tip of her nose and slid his fingers into her hair. “Not to mention someone who loves my do-it-yourself videos.”
She laughed softly, a sound he’d been desperately waiting for, and he took her parted lips with his. What he couldn’t make her hear with words, he tried to say with his kiss.
It was a kiss of acceptance and forgiveness.
A kiss to say he didn’t give a damn about her family or what they’d done.
Their first kiss had moved the earth like a 7.0 quake. Tasha’s finally opening herself up to him, so beautifully, so completely, had been more than anything he could have hoped for. Better than any fantasy.
But this kiss was beyond his wildest dreams—pure, sweet, unconditional emotion, laced with sizzling heat.
Tasha’s hands fisted in his shirt as if it were the only way she could remain on her feet as he cupped her nape in his hand and plundered her mouth the way he wanted to plunder her body. He forgot they were standing in the middle of her living room. All he desired was her body against his, to taste her, to show her with his hands, mouth, and soul that her past was immaterial.
Only the beautiful person she was inside mattered.
Her fingers loosened and she rose on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around him, her breasts pressed to his chest. She smelled like a fresh rain shower and tasted as sweet as fruit. Her hair fell in a silk web over his hands and arms, caressing him like the sweep of her fingers across his skin.
