Her past. He should’ve done something to stop that “past” back then. “Failed her.”
“No you didn’t. Kids shouldn’t be forced to make adult decisions. Reese was forced to do that and so were you.” She planted a hand on his stomach and he automatically sucked in his gut at the contact.
Her touch on his bare skin felt electrically charged. Like she could control his pulse with simply a touch. That same pulse started to pound somewhere it shouldn’t. Just from her warm, soft hand planted on his skin. From her big green eyes tipped up to his.
From her sinking her teeth into her plump, bottom lip.
He mentally groaned at how fucking tempting she was.
He thought if he could resist her last night when he was drunk, he’d be strong enough to resist her when he was sober. But maybe moving her into his room had been a bad idea. Because, as they stood that close inside the small motel room, his lust for her was spilling over into something more. Even though it shouldn’t, since the topic they were discussing should be a turn-off for anyone with a normal brain.
But, for fuck’s sake… Knowing she’d never been fucked by any of his brothers and he could be the only one to do so… was starting to fuck with his judgment. And his dick.
“You weren’t the only one with shitty parents. Our father deserted us because our mother was a damn drunk. He didn’t only leave her, he selfishly left his two daughters, too!”
Her words solved his fucking dilemma. They had the same effect as if he’d soaked in Morton Salt dissolved in a tub of ice-cold water.
“He was so fed up with her drinking, especially when she was pregnant with me, he simply decided to say fuck it and forget we ever existed. What kind of dickhead father does that? Decides to leave a bad situation but leaves his daughters behind?”
Rev had done the same damn thing… “I left Sarah behind.”
“You were sixteen, Rev!” she shouted, practically in his face. “How the hell were you supposed to take care of a seven-year-old? And do it without being caught and charged with kidnapping? How? I’m sure if you could have, you would have. Unlike you, my father was an adult who wanted us until he decided he didn’t. Then Minnie wanted nothing to do with me after I was born because she blamed me for her man leaving. Me! While I was in her damn womb. When it was she who was drinking while I was just floating helplessly in a sack of fluids inside of her.”
He cringed at that description, but it also pissed him the fuck off.
“Reese called our mother Minnie, or Minimum Mom, for a good reason. The woman had done the bare minimum to keep us alive. And once we were older, she stopped making the slightest attempt to do even that. Reese did everything. If she didn’t know how to do it, she figured it out. Did she screw things up? Yes, but at least she tried. Because of her sacrifice, I owe her everything in return. I am the reason Reese never had a childhood.”
“No. Your goddamn mother is. Your father, too. Ain’t your fault.”
“Just like it isn’t yours that you had to leave Saylor,” she shook her head and released a cute little snarl, “Sarah behind.”
Her fingernails dug into his flesh and she stepped even closer, until her bare toes were pressed to his. He held his breath because he was having a hard time not grabbing her hair right now and throwing her onto the bed. No matter who or what the fuck they were talking about wasn’t helping that urge.
“Reese did what she had to do for us to survive. You did what you had to so you could survive to be able to help your sister later, when you could. To me, you did the best you could, Rev. Be happy you have each other.”
He was struggling to stay on track, to cling to his anger at his parents. At hers. At that Warren motherfucker.
Instead, he was focusing on the way her mouth was shaped, the way her tongue darted out and moistened her bottom lip. The way her pupils had become wider. The heat of her body. The way she filled the cotton shorts and snug T-shirt she now wore. He was tempted to feel the contrast between how soft that cotton was and how hard her nipples were.
Just a touch. No one would know.
He needed to feel the weight of her breasts in his hands. The softness of her mouth on his. He wanted to draw a groan from deep down inside her until it filled his ears.
“This whole thing with your parents… You’re not upset or pissed, or whatever, over what you lost. You’re upset over what you never had.”