“I bought them after that last night we were together.” His voice seemed far off in the distance as I read that one word over and over again.
Montana. Montana. Montana
That night we were last together was the same night he told me he wanted to take me away. I had thought he was frantic to get inside of me that night. To claim me as his own. I thought he had just missed me and that’s why he wanted to take me away from it all. I still didn’t know what had been riding him that night.
As if he was reading my thoughts, he stepped closer to me and answered my unvoiced question.
“While we were out of town, I think Chris had secured your father completely into his criminal activities. He knew about our affair already and I think he was trying to punish me as much as he was going to punish you.” I could hear the tension in his voice as he told me his story.
“He made sure to talk to me a lot while we were gone. Looking back now I see how odd it had been. I was supposed to be his bodyguard but we never really spoke more than necessary.” He huffed a humorless laugh at the thought. “I couldn’t stand the little prick so I always tried to keep our interactions to a minimum.”
My eyes became watery as I continued to stare at those tickets. I ran my fingers over the indented folds and crinkled edges. How many times had he taken these out of his wallet to think about the what-ifs? To think about me?
“I think I hated him, not only because he was a snooty asshole, but I hated him because he had you.” His swallow was so thick I could hear it as if it came from my own body.
“The whole two weeks we were out of town I came closer and closer to killing him. He made sure to sit right next to me when he spoke about you. He would brag to all his coworkers about his hot wife waiting on him to come home and fuck her.” I didn’t have to look into Leo’s eyes to tell there was an intense rage in them.
“He would brag about the little noises you made right before you would come. And the demeaning things he claimed you liked. I knew none of it was true. I believed you when you told me you stopped sleeping with him years before. But he always would nudge me on the arm while he would say things about you. Like it was his way of rubbing it in that he was the one that owned you.” He stepped into my space now.
He grabbed my chin in his fingers and pulled my face up to look at him. He was blurry through the tears gathered in my eyes. The look on his face was full of so much emotion it was almost painful for me to look at him.
“When I came back to you that night in the motel, I had to remind myself you were mine, not his. After I left you that night I drove to the airport and bought the first available tickets to Montana. I had planned on telling you about them the next time we went to the motel. I was going to steal you away from him.” The desperation in his eyes was so thick I felt as though I would drown in it.
“But, I was too late. You left without a word. I had no idea where you went. You changed your number and your last name. I used every single one of my resources and I still couldn’t find you. I even begged your parents to tell me where you went but they wouldn’t tell me.” His story made my chest ache.
“I didn’t tell anyone besides Tanner.” When I finally spoke my throat felt raw.
“I didn’t realize Chris had fooled us all until today. He played his cards extremely well, I’ll give him that. He wanted to punish you as much as he did me. He knew if he made it seem like I was the one to betray you, it would shatter you and you wouldn’t want anything to do with me. Neither of us would walk away happy.”
All the pieces of the puzzle fit together so nicely. I was disgusted with myself for ever believing anything Chris had said in the first place. If I hadn’t been such a fucking coward, I would have confronted Leo immediately. Maybe we wouldn’t have lost so much time.
Leo shook his head. “I never asked why you didn’t leave him for me. I was honestly so in love with you, it didn’t matter. I thought you wanted the life he could give you so you didn’t want to leave. It’s pathetic, but I would have been your lap dog for the rest of my life just to have a slice of your attention. I would have waited for you forever.” He searched my eyes for, what, I wasn’t sure. I choked on the emotion clogging my throat as I tried to calm the storm that brewed beneath my skin.
“I tried.” My hushed voice seemed so loud to my ears. “I tried to leave him before I ever even knew you. He wouldn’t let me.” I closed my eyes as my shame washed over me. I’d been so weak. “He … hurt … me so bad after I asked for a divorce that I never tried again. I couldn’t even leave the house after what he’d done to me,” I finally admitted.
The look of pure unadulterated rage flickered in his eyes at my admission.
“One of my biggest regrets is that I was too blind to see what he was doing to you. I would have strangled the life out of him if I knew. I still might,” he promised, his voice deathly calm. I believed him.
Even though I had moved past that part of my life, it still haunted me from time to time. I couldn’t imagine if something like that ever happened to someone I loved and I wasn’t given the chance to make it right. I grabbed his hand in mine and rubbed my thumb against the back of his hand, willing him to continue.
“When I finally found you, I flew to Florida as fast as I could. I just wanted to see you again. To find out what I did to make you leave. Damon was an old friend of mine from the academy before we went our separate ways, so I asked if I could stay with him while I looked for an old flame. This was before he was dating Jill so he happily let me crash in his spare room. I went with him to some bar, The Sand Dollar, or something like that. He ended up ditching me to make out with Jill in some dark corner that night.”
He smirked at the memory but as he mentioned the name of Heath’s bar, my heart tripled its beats. That was the night Kate had finished her first manuscript and we had gone out to celebrate. Fate was a cruel mistress it seemed.
“But then I saw you dancing. It was like fortune smacked me in the face that night and said, ‘Here, you idiot, go get your girl.’ There you were and there I was at the same time in the same place. I started to walk toward you but then when I truly looked at you I saw how different you looked. You looked so young and flush with joy and … you were happy.” I felt my tears flow down my cheeks as I watched him relive that night.
“Of all the times we had been together, I had never seen you so carefree. I hadn’t realized how miserable you truly were back then. I hated myself for not being able to see it then. I walked away that night. I just knew you were better off without me. But then destiny proved to be an even bigger bitch than both of us could ever know and brought us back together anyway.”
I closed my eyes and let every revelation spoken here tonight wash over me. My head swam with all the information it was taking in. Everything Leo said sounded true. As tangled as it all was, it made complete sense.
I had been a complete fool to believe the three people in this world who had always treated me like shit. Why had I ever taken the word of an abuser and two neglectful parents over the one person that proved their love for me time and time again?
I dropped the flight tickets from my fingers and grabbed both sides of Leo’s face. I stretched up on my tiptoes and brought his head down to me. Placing my forehead against his, I looked into those honey eyes that showed me the truth I had always been looking for.
“I’m sorry,” I spoke around the emotion still clogging my throat.
His eyes closed as he gripped my hips, pulling himself closer to me. I shook my head.
“I am so sorry I just left like that, Leo,” I cried.
His eyes sprung open and he lifted me against him.
“You are so fucking strong, do you know that? You found a way out of an abusive relationship and lunged for it. Don’t you dare apologize for that,” he murmured to me as he carried me to bed. He cradled me to him as he laid us both down on the soft duvet. He brought those lips down to my cheeks and kissed away my tears as I held the sides of his face.
“I should have given you the benefit of the doubt. I should’ve asked you outright if you had truly wronged me. I never should have run from the only man to ever show me the type of love I needed,” I admitted. “I loved you and I believed an abuser over you.” I sobbed. I wanted to tell him I still loved him but I couldn’t get the words out. I didn’t deserve his love after what I’d done.
“No, Emy, don’t cry. It shreds me up,” Leo begged me as he kissed my lips. His lips were soft but firm as he gently dominated me.
The tears continued to leak from me as I kissed him back but it was a cleansing thing. The overwhelming regret that lurked in my heart was quickly overshadowed by the joy I felt spreading in my belly. I was finally where I was meant to be. In the arms of the man I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about for years now. I was in the arms of the man I hadn’t been able to stop loving.
I let my hands flow down his sides as he ate at my lips with lazy kisses. My fingers deviled between the towel and his waist. Leo growled against me as he pushed his hips into me. His cock perked up to attention.
I moaned into his mouth as he thrust his tongue in, begging mine to move with his. I licked into him as I pulled the towel down, revealing his taunt ass to my waiting palms.
“You’ll be sore,” he murmured against my lips.
“I don’t care,” I whispered back as I tried to shove my hand between us. I wanted to feel his thick length in my hand.
He chuckled as he pulled out of my reach. I frowned up at him with a pout on my lips.
“I do, Princess. As much as I love you and I would love nothing more than to take you right now, you need a break from that part of me.”
I continued to frown at him as he pushed up away from my mouth. I almost begged him until he started to kiss his way down my body. He held my eyes with him as he pushed my robe open, revealing my breasts to his hungry gaze.
“I thought you said I would be too sore,” I teased before he leaned down to lick my puckered bud. I arched into him as I watched that wicked tongue lap at me.
“I said you were too sore for my cock, I never said anything about my tongue.” His deep voice vibrated straight to my pussy as he continued his descent.
He played, licked, and sucked my breasts until I was all but begging for more. The vision he made as he spread my robe wide was enough to fuel any wet dreams I would have for years to come.
When he reached my navel he stared up at me before he dipped his tongue inside. I squirmed under him at the unique form of torture. I was so hot for him, I nearly begged for it.
He kissed the rest of the way down until I felt his moist breath fan over my most delicate area. He used his hands to spread my thighs further apart. He stared at my pussy with such lust in his eyes I shivered under his scrutiny.
“This is the prettiest, pinkest, sweetest little cunt I’ve ever tasted. Even if I died tomorrow, I would still be able to taste your sweet cream on my lips,” he breathed before he ran his middle finger down my cleft. I jerked as he grazed my clit before going lower. He dipped his finger into my weeping hole, groaning at the wetness he found.
I winced a little as he gently fingered me. I wouldn’t ever admit it to him, but he was right, I was sore.
“All I want to do is sink into this heat right here and feel you squeeze my cock until I can’t breathe. And this,” he said before he withdrew his finger and traveled even lower. His wet finger rimmed my asshole and I sucked in a surprised breath. “Oh, I’m not even going to talk about what it will feel like to sink into this. You will snatch my very soul when I fuck this little asshole.”
As if to drive his point home, he pushed that big finger until the tip slipped in. I moaned at the taboo feeling. I could feel myself getting wetter the longer he teased me. My hips undulated themselves as he pushed into me in slow tantalizing passes.
“That’s it, Princess. Use me to fuck yourself.” His words urged me on. I rolled my hips faster as he thrust harder.
I watched him as he became entranced in what he was doing to me. The love and heated lust in his face lit me up. Something was building inside of me I had never felt before. It was foreign but delightful all the same.
I dug my heels into the mattress and moved with him unashamed. When he sank all the way in, his groan of satisfaction sent a surge of feminine pride through me.
“That’s my good little Princess. God, you’re throbbing around my finger. You love this, don’t you?” he growled as he spoke, like what we were doing was speaking to that primal part of his soul.
I nodded my head as I panted.
“I love everything you do to me. Please, lick me,” I begged as I felt sweat break out along my brow. I was so close already, I just needed a little push. My clit was throbbing so hard it was almost painful.
“Just because you asked so prettily, Princess. Come for me,” he rasped before pulling his finger out, lighting up every nerve I didn’t know existed, before pushing back into me. I gasped at the sensation and shook uncontrollably as I felt the orgasm crest over my head.
Leo leaned down and used his other hand to pull up on the hood that covered my bundle of nerves. Just exposing it to the cool air was enough to hurtle me over the edge. I screamed as I came. Feeling every muscle I owned clench and seize as the orgasm gripped me.
“That’s my good girl,” Leo groaned right before he brought that scorching mouth onto me.
I bucked into his mouth as he sucked at me. Screaming so hard my throat felt like it was on fire. I had never felt an orgasm as intense as this in my entire life.
Leo never let up. He fucked his finger into my ass fast now as he continued to pull on my clit. When my release started to subside, he would bring me back to the top again just to crash me back down. I was shaking my head back and forth by the end. No longer able to take any more.
“I can’t!” I panted. “No more!”
Leo released me from his lips but didn’t stop pumping into me. He smoothly added another finger and that building sensation started all over again.
“You will,” he replied harshly. “One more, Princess. Come for me,” he ordered right before he pinched my clit and I went flying again.
I squeezed my eyes closed as euphoria cascaded over me. The blood rushing to my ears blocked out all sounds, even the ones I was making. I saw stars behind my eyelids before I felt strong arms wrap around my spent body.
Leo pulled me to him and rolled us so we were spooning. He closed my robe as he wrapped his big body around me. Smoothing down my hair before hugging me close.
I felt his hard length against my ass and pushed back against it. I moved my arm around to grip him but he stopped me with a grunt.
“What about you?” I asked.
He kissed the side of my temple as he whispered to me, “We can take care of that needy bastard later. I just want to hold you,” he admitted as he kept his lips in my hair. The deep breaths he inhaled pulled at my heart.
“I love you so fucking much, Emily. If you let me, I will prove it to you every damn day of my life until I die.”
I twisted my face toward him and nodded. I let my kiss against his lips be my answer.