Page 42 of Beneath His Robes

It was no secret that I’d ‘tucked tail’ and run back here, but nobody knew the reason why.

“Wanna talk about it?” he leaned against the workbench, crossing his arms over his chest. I looked over, admiring his muscle shirt and the tightly corded muscles underneath.

Why can’t I love a man like him? A snarky bastard that can keep up with my dumbass. No, instead, I fall for a fucking priest.

I shook my head, wiping off the sweat from my brow and yanking off my shirt that clung to me like a second skin from the sweat on my body.

“Nothing to talk about. Just…tired. Been a long week.”

Travis hummed, unconvinced, trailing his tongue over his lips and admiring my body.

“Yeah? A long week of what? Fixing these beeters? Or running from your past, trying to ignore the fact that you’re still in love with the boy you went there to get back?”

I froze, my breath catching in my throat. I didn’t know my damn life was a billboard for all to see, but there it was.

The truth was stripped raw.

He didn’t flinch, didn’t look away, just stared at me with that cocky grin of his, a little too knowing for my comfort.

“I’m not an idiot, Ronan. You might be able to lie to everyone else, but I see it. I’ve always seen you. And I see that whatever happened between you two ain’t over. It’s like you’re fighting ghosts, man.”

He pushed his body up until he was sitting on my workbench.

“But I get it. You think if you leave, you can escape it. But that never works. You can run all you want, but you’re always gonna feel the weight of that shit if you don’t face it eventually. And don’t get me wrong. I am happy to see your fine ass workin’ on cars any day, but you deserve to be happy, man. Not just survivin’.”

The words hit harder than I expected. I was silent for a long moment, just standing there, feeling the weight of everything I’d been trying to hide. His eyes were on me like he wasn’t waiting for me to fix the car or myself.

He was just…there. And right now, that was all I needed.

Finally, I spoke, my voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t know how to fix it, Trav…he’s a fucking priest.”

Travis didn’t respond immediately, as opposed to his mouth dropping open wide enough for the horse flies to enter, but then he walked over to the shelf and grabbed a couple of tools.

“You don’t need to fix it all at once. You just have to stop running. Hell, we both know that’s the hardest part. In a weird way, it makes sense. A priest makes a promise to be the best person he can be so he can help others. It’s a sacrifice. You ain’t no different. Unlike us whores you don’t actually wanna be selling tricks. You sacrificed a lot to make others happy, too.”

I glanced over at him, catching the quiet sincerity in his gaze.

He wasn’t wrong.

I had been running, running from everything—especially from Elias. We had both made sacrifices to be who we were, and fate decided that the biggest sacrifice was our love. I knew I couldn’t keep going on like this. I would have to go back eventually to help my stupid mother if nothing else but…

“I’m not ready to face him,” I admitted, more to myself than to him.

Travis gave a small shrug, and his usual teasing demeanor softened for once. “You don’t have to be. But when you are, I’ll be here. Hell, I’ll probably be right next to you, throwing wrenches at whatever’s keeping you from it.”

I let out a soft laugh, the tension easing just a little, and for the first time in days, the weight on my chest lifted, if only for a moment.

“Thanks,” I muttered, turning back to the car, though I couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d said. Maybe he was right. Maybe I was fighting ghosts.

But my ghosts were real.

Elias may be the one with the collar, but I was clearly his bitch on the leash.

ChapterFifteen

Elias

After a week without Ronan, I already felt empty.

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