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“I didn’t think you worried.”
“For a long time, I didn’t. But I’m starting to learn how again.”
Her lips quirk into a smile. “And that’s a good thing? I think it’d be a lot easier if I never felt worry or fear or sadness.”
I move closer and brush my mouth along the inner part of her wrist, moving up her arm until I reach her neck. She smells delicious, like lilacs and sweat, and I want to breathe her in until she’s lodged so deep inside of me that there’s no difference between the two of us.
“No worry, no fear, no sadness. But also no joy, no happiness, no excitement. My life’s been a dull succession of moments and it’s like the world moves around me and through me, but I never change. I’m beginning to change now, Pearce.”
“Why me?” She asks the question I’ve been wondering all this time, and I decide to be honest.
“I don’t know.”
“What if it’s not me at all? What if this is just what you’d do on your own anyway and I just happen to be here? You might regret getting involved.”
“I hope I feel regret one day, but I don’t think it’ll be over you.”
I kiss her then, lips burying hers and she sucks in a breath through her nose as she kisses me back. I let it linger and for a moment the air is charged with want and desire and a hundred other emotions all whipping through me at once until I drag her into the bedroom, strip her down, and take her as my own. I take her again, and again, fucking her deep, making her sweat and making her beg my name until we lie spent in the sheets, breathing hard.
My body feels like one large, aching bruise, but I love it. She lies against me, kisses my chest, and props herself up on one elbow.
“I want to meet with my dad.”
“Pearce. This is strange pillow talk, if I’m honest.”
She swats at me, grinning. “I mean it. I want to meet with him. Maybe he’ll help.”
“Based on what you told me about the man, I doubt it.”
“He’s rational. He’ll see that it’s in his best interest.”
I shake my head and kiss her. “If that’s what you want.”
“I don’t want anything. Except to stay in this bed with you and let you experience every emotions you’ve ever dreamed of.”
His eyes blaze and a small smirk graces his handsome lips. “Even if it hurts?”
“Especially if it hurts.”
Chapter 15
Marie
My father agrees to meet me in Rittenhouse Park. It’s the most public place in the entire city, a small half-block-sized patch of trees, benches, and grass in the middle of the economic heart of Philly. It’s always crowded and cops roam the area, which means Dad can’t start beating the crap out of me if he gets too angry.
There’s still no guarantee he won’t try to hurt me, but I’m hoping he doesn’t turn outright violent.
I find him sitting on a bench near the back entrance. He’s wearing slacks and a button-down like he came from the office and scowls as I sit down beside him in the shade of a towering maple. Nearby, a busker’s playing guitar and singing a Joanie Mitchell song, even though nobody’s nearby to listen except me and Dad, and he’s never getting a dime out of my father.
“I almost didn’t come,” Dad says, glaring at me. “I almost decided this wasn’t worth my time.”
“I’m glad you did.”
“You ran away. Like a fucking child.” He’s seething already. He must’ve lost more clients since I last saw him, and I bet he’s been thinking about our conversation in the car this whole time. “You embarrassed me. Again.”
“I didn’t mean to embarrass you, I just had to get out of that car.” I take a breath and struggle to keep my emotions under control. I’m tempted to crumple here and now and let Dad tell me exactly what to do. He can get me out of this situation, and maybe his solution won’t be ideal, and maybe it’ll involve groveling and pain and humiliation, but don’t I deserve all that? I made a stupid, impulsive, selfish decision, and now an entire family’s suffering.
But no, no, I can’t go back to my old habits every time I see my father. It’s like the second I’m in his presence, I revert back to being a stupid kid again, ready to do whatever her daddy wants.
I have to remember that this is because of William. He’s the one that cheated on me. I didn’t do anything wrong, except for maybe sending those photos to Bella Baby, but even that he probably deserved.
“Why are we here, Marie? I don’t have long. There’s a line of annoyed clients at the office waiting to berate me for being stupid enough to annoy the Crawford family, and I need to sit there and take it with a smile if I want to keep their money.” That explains his sour mood then. “Why did you drag me here?”
