AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She nods, her fingers absentmindedly tracing the tattoos on my chest, and my heart stutters.
Fuck I need her. I want to wipe away the bad and give her something good.
“Yeah… But I can’t protect Christy from the truth,” she continues, forcing me to concentrate, to ignore my throbbing cock. “She saw this happening.”
“You don’t know exactly what she saw, Kate.”
“Enough. She sawenough. Tell me, Beast, how the fuck am I supposed to look her in the eye again?”
“She loves you anyway. You heard what she said. She understands.”
“She’s twelve, how can she possibly understand?”
“Because that kid has experienced more than most adults have in their lifetime,” I say, cupping her cheek and gently urging her to look at me. “You did the right thing.”
“I could’ve got Mary into rehab or something.”
I shake my head. “Then what? So she gets off the drugs, that doesn’t change the fact she’s an abuser. It doesn’t change the fact she beat Ford, cut him and burnt him with cigarettes. She wished him dead. Addict or not, I saw the intent in her eyes just as clearly as you did. That kid is better off without her.”
“Logically, I know that. I do.”
“As much as I fucking hate your dad, he did the right thing taking you from her, and you did theonlything you could in the circumstances. Hear me?”
She nods, and whilst I know she does hear me, I also know she won’t ever let go of the guilt because like it or not, Kate isn’t like the rest of us. She can’t compartmentalise the bad shit, lock it away and forget about it. Despite everything, she feels.
She always has.
Her dad saw it as a weakness. I see it as her biggest strength.
Tell me what’s more fierce than a woman protecting her family?
Nothing is. Absolutely nothing.
Resting back against my chest, Kate is content to just lie in my arms, and as much as my dick is eager to soothe her the only way it knows how, I don’t try to initiate anything more intimate. That’s not what she needs right now. What she needs is someone to be there for her when she’s feeling vulnerable. She needs someone she can be herself with, hertrueself with, and I want to be the man. I will be that man. Every fucking day for the rest of my life.
Picking up the bodywash resting on the ledge beside the bath, I pour some in my hands and slowly rub it over her shoulders and arms, the scent of blossom and honey lifting into the air as I soap up her skin. She sighs a little, relaxing as I wash her, but as much as my dirty fucking mind wants to I don’t grasp her tits. I keep things purely soothing, not sexual.
“Beast, what if I’m like them?” she confesses after a while.
“Like your parents?”
“Yes, what if I end up like them. Cruel, sadistic,evil.”
“It’s not possible,” I say with conviction, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
“You’re wrong,” she protests. “I shot Fitzpatrick without a second thought. I kneecapped one of his men at my dad’s funeral and had another man beaten to within an inch of his life for calling me by my real name. Less than an hour ago I blew my mother’s brains out whilst she was holding a doll that she thought wasme… I shot you, didn’t I? How can you say I’m not like them?”
“Because of this, right now. You feel remorse.”
“No, you don’t understand. I don’t regret any of it. Not even shooting you,” she admits quietly. “I’m sorry I hurt you, but I’d do it again in that situation because if I hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t be here now.”
“You had to do it. I understand that,” I say, and I do. I really fucking do. “Just like you had to kneecap that prick for disrespecting you at your dad’s funeral, and shoot Fitzpatrick for calling you out in front of everyone.”
“But they were selfish acts, I was protecting myself.”
“Protecting yourself isn’t selfish. It’ssmart. It’s a fucking necessity in this life, Kate.”
“That still doesn’t change the fact I’m capable of murder, of violence.”
