Page 69 of Give You Up

“Exactly.” He scoots back his chair, picks me up under the arms, and suddenly, I am on top of him on the bed, looking down into eyes filled with earnestness, heat, and a flare of anger.

“Did some bastard tell you the bleeding is your fault?”

“Yes. He said I was weird. That he shouldn’t have brought me home. That I was too small for him. Um, he was the same exact build as you.”

“Shit.”

Jaw clamped, he interlocks his hands behind his head. I rest my chin on the tops of my hands that is resting on his chest. We stare at one another. He shakes his head.

“I don’t like speaking of other guys you’ve been with. The thought of you with anyone else kills me, has me wishing them a rough hit to the balls, but the thing is, you bleeding isn’t your fault. Maybe I went too deep. If I hurt you, tell me to stop. I never want to hurt you, Syn.”

He doesn’t think I’m weird. Doesn’t believe I am at fault for the bloodstain on his shirt. He accepts me for me, including my compulsion to plan my life down to color-coding it. He also trusts me to tell him when I hurt rather than lie there and take thrusts that go so deep, I swear my ovaries bounce.

“Will you do that, babe? Tell me when something I do or say hurts you? Or makes you hate on me? Or makes you want to give me up? I don’t ever want you to give me up. But if I give you reason to, I want you to give me the chance to explain. For us to talk through your concerns rather than running away from me.”

Everything he just said is everything I imagined him saying over and over in my head had I gone to him and told him what my mother confessed on her deathbed. That who I thought was my dad wasn’t. And that my mom led a secret life as an escort.

I press a kiss to his mouth. “Yes, I’ll tell.”

“Thank you, Syn. That is all I ever want from you. Is for you to give me a chance even if you never tell me where you were those months you left Mossy Rock.”

That’s the thing. I do want to tell him. Have to tell him what part Hunter and Rhett played in my life.

“He’s your ex-boyfriend? He convinced you to have a threesome with his cousin? What a prick.”

Taron didn’t call me a slut. Did not accuse me of being a cheater when I told him Rhett and I went back on our word to Hunter and slept together right after Hunter and I were done having sex. Two men. Same sexual encounter. What he says next gets me hot and bothered. Is the reason I am so turned on by him.

“If I were him, I wouldn’t share you for jack shit. Even if a guy offered me a million dollars to have a night with you, I’d tell him to fuck off. You are mine, Pixie Dust. I don’t share. Ever. What your ex did is crazy stupid, and he deserved what he got.”

I tell him the next part. The godawful part. Something I have never told anyone because what Hunter did shredded my heart to pieces. Unable to look him in the eye, I toy with the collar of his T-shirt. Tug at his sleeve. This is the part that I didn’t get closure from. Instead, I did what I do best. I ran away and ghosted Hunter.

“I gave Hunter your rings, Taron. It was my olive branch to him. To get him to forgive me by showing him I would do anything for him.”

Taron smooths his hand over my hair, as though comforting me. “What’d he ask for, Pixie Dust?”

“He asked me to watch him have sex with a girl I thought was my friend.”

“Fuck. Shit, babe. I’m sorry.” He tugs me up under my arms and kisses me breathless.

After what seems like minutes of endless pecks and devouring kisses, we break apart. His eyes are glazed over with desire. I look at him through hooded eyes. His gaze dips to my mouth. I run the tip of my tongue over the strip of metal hugging my bottom lip. He groans, the sound stroking my core and shooting heat to my girl parts. I want him. Want his thickness stretching my inner walls. Want his hot and capable mouth on my sex. But we have more to talk about.

I rest my head in the crook of his neck. Run my palm over his broad shoulder. He is so solid. A good guy, his attention never leaving me at the nightclub, from the dance floor to the table I sat at with Hunter and Rhett. I have never felt so safe in my life, including with Dare.

“That’s not the worst of it,” I tell him, needing him to understand this part of me. “The worst part is he asked it of me even though he knew I was pregnant with his baby. I lost the baby, Taron. Lost my way too. I went crazy after that. Slept with any guy who looked my way. It lasted for months until Bounce found me. He took me home to San Diego and helped me straighten my life.”

“Then I owe him. When do I meet him?”

“Tomorrow night.”

“That’s right. I saw his name and Gunner’s in pink. Stood out when there’s only two pink bars for the month.”

Two pink bars. Pregnant? Yes. One bar, no. Taron’s mind must have wandered down that path too.

“Pixie Dust, if you ever get knocked up with my baby, we are locking it up, and you will be mine for life. For life, baby. But only if you want to. I have a crazy temper. Will fuck up any dude who dare look at my girl with hunger in his eyes. Won’t ever ask you to fuck me and any damn cousin of mine.”

“Because you don’t share?”

“Because you’ll be such a big part of my life, there won’t be room in it except for you, me, and everyone and everything that is important to us, Syn. We decide who we let in. Who and what takes up valuable space in our lives.”

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