AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 84
Madden
“Hi.” Bianca blinks up at me through sleepy eyes when she catches me staring at her.
“Hi,” I murmur back, dipping my mouth to hers so I can taste her again.
She moans her approval the second my lips touch hers, and I swallow the sound. Before I can draw my next breath, the little thief has her hand in my briefs, stroking my cock.
“Madden,” she breathes.
“I know, peaches.”
I roll her onto her back and find my way inside of her, and that’s exactly where I stay for the rest of the morning. It’s a slower, softer pace than last night’s reunion. I take my time with her, appreciating every second. When I can’t make her come anymore, I kiss her instead. We keep that up until we’re both exhausted, and we inevitably fall into stillness beside each other.
She rests her head on my chest, and I play with her hair until she falls back asleep. I let her nap there, and I don’t move, content just to feel her against me.
I already texted Kieran this morning to let him know the situation, and he and Tori took the girls out with plans to return this evening. So, Bianca and I have time to just be right now, and I have a feeling we’re going to need a lot of these stolen moments together. We’ve spent far too much time apart over bullshit reasons, and I don’t want to lose another second with her.
She stirs, peeling her face off my chest to look up at me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
“I’m not complaining.” I brush my thumb over her jaw. “The view’s good where I’m at.”
She offers me a soft smile in return. “I still can’t believe we’re really here.”
Her words are a reflection of my own feelings, and as much as I want to live in this bubble, there are things we need to talk about.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Bianca?”
Sorrow takes over her features, and I feel it deep in my gut. Because I know as much as I want to, I can’t go back and take away that pain for her.
“There were a lot of reasons,” she confesses. “I was ashamed. I didn’t want anyone to know, but especially you.”
“Why not?” I press.
“What would you have done if I’d told you?” she asks.
“I would have slaughtered him,” I admit without hesitation.
“I know,” she answers. “And that’s exactly why I didn’t tell you. Your life would have been over. We’d never have a chance to be together. If you’d killed him, it would have killed both of us too.”
“Bianca.” I brush my fingers over her jaw and down to the beating pulse in her throat. “It’s my job to protect you. Not the other way around. I know circumstances were different then, but I need you to understand that I’m not going anywhere. If I ever have to handle something or someone, it will always be with you in mind. I’m not going to half-ass anything, and I’ll always do it in a way that ensures I come back to you. Because I’m not wasting another second of our life together.”
She swallows her emotion, nodding through her tears. “Okay.”
“Promise me no more secrets,” I tell her.
“No more,” she swears.
She settles into me, and I wrap my arm around her and kiss the top of her head, and we lay there for a while before she starts to tell me everything. The truth spills from her lips, and she purges her past while I try to hold back my rage as I listen and offer her the only comfort I can at this point.
She goes all the way back to the beginning, recounting her first rejection of Adam and how much it pissed him off. Then how he trapped her into a relationship by dangling the contracts with her parents over her head as bait. She talks about how he became more and more erratic over time, and how he’d made her look crazy to everyone she knew until eventually, she was so isolated, she didn’t feel like anyone would ever believe her.
When she gets to the parts of the story about her father, and how she discovered his lies, her despair turns to anger. She grieves for the sacrifices she made trying to save him, and I tell her the truth about him taking his own life. She doesn’t shed a single tear for him. That’s when I finally open up and admit the things he told me about her, and how foolish I was to believe them. Not only his lies, but Adam’s and everyone else who ever came between us. Bianca is quiet for a long time as she processes those confessions, but eventually, she comes back to me. Her eyes find mine, and there’s a peace in them I haven’t seen in so long, I almost forgot how beautiful it is. In that moment, I make a silent vow that she will only ever know peace from here on out.
