39
PARKER
Isabella was hot and wet, her inner muscles contracting around me as she came. I watched her as her face contorted and then relaxed again, so close to surrendering to my own orgasm that I was already feeling those familiar tingles at the base of my spine.
I couldn’t let go just yet, though. I wasn’t ready for it to be over, but then I remembered that this time, she wouldn’t be leaving me again after. We were in her house, in her bed, and she was mine. She wanted me to stay. She fuckinglovedme.
Strangely, or maybe not so strangely, it was that thought that pushed me over the edge. I’d been making love to her for hours, but I would still never get enough of her, and now, I didn’t have to.Because she fucking loves me.
While there were still so many things I didn’t know, I did know that I was going to love her forever and she was going to let me. I roared her name into the crook of her neck when I came, holding her in my arms after as we lay back on the bed.
My heart was hammering and I was covered in a layer of sweat, but I’d never been happier or more comfortable. Closing my eyes, I stroked my fingers through her soft hair and mentally thanked Colt for reminding me that I’d had one card left to play.
As it turned out, telling her that I loved her had been the winning hand, and now I’d never have to play any games ever again. I’d won the heart of the only girl who had ever mattered, and that was it for me.Forever.
“Parker?” Isabella murmured into the darkness in the room. The only light was filtering in from outside, but it was enough that I could see the anxiety on her features as she looked up at me to check that I was awake before she broke down and her story spilled out of her.
“I’m so sorry I’ve made things so difficult,” she started. “I didn’t mean to, but I realize that I did it anyway. The thing is, work has always been my safe space. It’s what has kept me together when all I wanted to do was to fall apart.”
She released a shaky breath. “My parents loved each other, but things went sideways when I was four. They started fighting more and more often, but I still don’t really know why it happened. All I know is that my dad started drinking, and he was a mean drunk. Things really started going downhill after that.”
Her voice caught in her throat and I could hear the emotion in it, but I didn’t interrupt her. She already knew she didn’t have to tell me any of this if she didn’t want to. I’d been pretty clear about that earlier.
“My mom started smoking, but when the nicotine wasn’t taking the edge off anymore, she moved on to harder stuff. Whatever she could get her hands on eventually.” Isabella shivered, and I pulled her closer to my side, holding her tighter than ever. “They began leaving me at home alone all day. Our neighbor noticed. She used to take me to her house and give me sandwiches to eat.”
“When they started leaving me alone at night too, the same neighbor called the police. My parents tried fighting for me at first, or I think they did, but I was placed in foster care. Supposedly only for the time being, but they never came for me.”
Fucking hell.I rammed my free hand into my hair, breathing through the rage swirling around inside me that anybody would do that to their own kid.Who the fuck leaves a four-year-old alone at home? And don’t even get me started on the rest of it.
“My first few foster families were nice, but it got worse as I got older. No one ever touched me, but a few of my foster brothers tried. They told me that no one but them was ever going to love me and that if I wanted to stay, I had to make them happy.”
“Names,” I demanded quietly. “I want names.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to fucking kill them. That’s why.” Not able to stay still any longer, I sat up and brought her with me. It was only as I was already starting to get out of bed that I realized I had to stay put.
She was at her most vulnerable right then, opening up in a way I didn’t know if she had ever done before. I couldn’t leave. Not even to go rip someone’s head off.
Breathing out, I lay back down and Isabella twined her fingers together on my chest, resting her chin on top of them and looking up at me. “Eventually, I realized that I didn’t want or need anyone to love me. All I needed was to get out of there and the only way to do it was to work hard. So I kept my head down and I studied. Day and night. I took every course I could and stayed at the library until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore.”
Silent tears spilled down her cheeks, but she kept her eyes open and on mine. “People started calling me antisocial and weird. I got bounced from home to home until I ended up in a group home. It wasn’t so bad, but I couldn’t trust anyone there.”
“That’s why you didn’t want to open up to me?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “It’s scary for me to put my trust in someone else, to rely on them. At times, it felt like my very survival depended on being a one-woman fortress. The only thing I know how to do is work hard. It’s what got me a scholarship that was good enough that even my housing during college was covered. I had a meal plan too, but I tutored for extra money.”
“God, I was such an asshole to you. It never even crossed my mind that you might be so focused on your career because of something like this.”
“No one could’ve seen something like this coming,” she said, reaching up to touch her fingertips to my face. “You weren’t an asshole to me. You just didn’t understand, and how could you have?”
“Well, I understand now and I’m sorry I haven’t always taken things seriously, but I want you to know that you can depend on me. You can rely on me. I’ll always put you first, but you need to do the same for me if you can.”
“I can,” she replied, wiping her tears away and nodding. “I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to trust that you’re not just going to walk away from me, too, but I’m going to try.”
“What happened to your parents?”
She sighed. “My dad went to prison for assault. He got into a fight with the wrong guy at a bar, and he got sent away for it. When he got out, he came to see me once or twice, but then he got a job opportunity somewhere on the west coast and I never saw or heard from him again.”