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“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He slams his mouth down on mine and I can taste the whiskey on his lips, on his tongue. I can taste it like I have many times in the past, when he maybe shouldn’t have tasted like that. I don’t think he has an addiction, but he certainly has a proclivity, one that I think is unhealthy.
I pull back, keeping my eyes on his face as I wrap my hand around the neck of the bottle. He watches me silently and doesn’t move when I slowly extricate it from his hand and pull it away.
“What happened to your mum is not your fault. The only person at blame is your father.” I close and roll the bottle away on its side. “You can’t put that burden of responsibility on yourself, it’s unfair. There’s nothing you could have done, all you can do now is be there for your mum.” Gently, I push him back so he’s the one sitting. I crawl onto his lap, one leg on either side of his and start pressing soft kisses along his jaw. He lets me, putting up no resistance to my lead and clasping my waist in his hands. “It’s so easy for you to take care of me, to look after me and make sure I’m okay. Sounds like you do the same for your mum and your sister.” I press my lips against his ear, rubbing soothing circles on his back and shoulders in tandem. “You have to find some of that same kindness and compassion for yourself, baby. You can’t give it all away.”
“I thought she’d be safe. She was supposed to be.”
He repeats it over and over again, mumbling the words against my skin while I hold him. Eventually, he stands, carrying me with him onto the bed. He lays me down next to him, his arm curling around my waist and pressing me against him.
???
Chapter 41
Tristan
Over the last couple of months, my alcohol intake has slowly gone down. Drinking wasn’t something I thought about anymore because I didn’t need to numb myself when I was around Nera.
I’d showed up toSambouronly once with liquor on my breath and Luca had offered a piece of advice that’d made me put the bottle away.
He’d told me, “a lot of chefs drink and for a lot of different reasons. I’m not judging you, I’m just letting you know that your palate is much sharper when you’re sober.”
He’d been right, and coupled with Nera by my side, I hadn’t had a drink alone since that day.
But when Tess reached out to me using a number that wasn’t hers, and let me know what our father had done, I’d needed the comfort of the emotionless abyss that was being black out drunk.
Now when I open my eyes, Nera is the first thing I see. She’s cuddled up against me, face pressed into my chest, and she’s sound asleep. Both of us are still wearing our clothes from yesterday.
I have no idea what time it is. All I remember is her holding me as I fell into a drunken sleep.
Strands of her hair have fallen in front of her face. I brush them away, tucking them gently behind her ear. She stirs, making a soft little whimper that has my dick instantly hard. Her eyes flutter open, those dark depths beckoning to me.
“What did I ever do to deserve you?” I wonder aloud.
She tilts her head up and kisses me, cupping my face with one hand.
“You saved me,” she whispers back. “That’s what you did.”
I shake my head, dropping my forehead against hers.
“You have that wrong,” I breathe, “You’re the one who savedme.”
“Maybe that’s why I chose you in that bar. Maybe that’s why you couldn’t just let me walk away. I think maybe we were destined to meet.” She cups my jaw. “To save each other.”
“Fate,” I say, translating her words.
She nods, kissing me again. She pulls back, giving me a smile with sparkling eyes.
“Fate,” she agrees.
???
I make arrangements to go back to London two days later. Fuck my father and his rules. We had a deal and he didn’t stick to his end of the bargain. Not only that, but his abuse of my mum was also far more brutal than it ever has been in the past. Tess says that she’s home from the hospital now, back in that cesspool of evil that is the home she shares with my father.
The purpose of my trip home is twofold; first, to make sure she’s okay, and second, to confront my father and put an end to this once and for all. I have no strategy, no plan as of yet, but the one thing I know is that when I come back, I’m telling Nera the truth.
