Page 116 of Devil's Due

It’s an ideal opportunity to take her outside and show her the new yard. I watch with interest as Max leads her around obstacles and stops at the steps we had to leave in place. Although the turf has yet to settle in, she notices the new soft grass under her feet immediately.

“You’ve made some changes here,” she observes.

“A yard. Grass, flowerbeds too. Flattened it all out.”

“For me?”

Yeah. “It needed doing,” is all that I tell her. “Theo’s going to be able to crawl around in the sun without getting hurt. And the furnace pit has been fenced in so there’s no danger to you or to him.”

“I’ve put you to a lot of trouble.”

“Want the truth? I needed something to occupy me, a hope to hang onto that you’d come back.”

Her hand fumbles for mine, I help her find it. “I was hanging onto the hope that I’d be back too, Beef. I couldn’t have stayed away. I kept telling myself, just until I testify, then I’d make contact again. I didn’t realise how hard it was going to be to leave you behind. Even worse than it had been leaving my family.”

We’re both silent, each deep in our thoughts. I hate knowing we’d both been as lonely as the other, but know it’s a good sign for our future.

A raindrop falls, hitting the ground with a splatter.

“Think that’s our cue to go inside.”

At her nod, I let Max lead her back into the clubhouse, watching as he accurately meanders his way around tables and chairs. Then I apply my hand to the small of her back.

“Come up to the room.” I want to say our room, but wonder if that’s presumptuous, wondering whether she needs more time.

“I’ll look after Max,” Ink offers with such an exaggerated wink, for once I’m pleased she can’t see.

Leaving the dog downstairs, we go to the bedroom. I’m touching her all the way, partly to guide her and partly as I don’t want to lose contact.

“Has anything changed?” she asks on the threshold.

Hastily I push past her and slide my rucksack under the bed. “Nope.”

She confidently steps around me and goes to the bed, sliding herself onto it and up until she’s resting against the pillows. Patting the sheet beside her, she requests, “Come here, Beef.”

She doesn’t need to ask twice. Kicking off my riding boots, I walk around the other side, and stretch myself out. “Christ, I’ve missed you babe.”

“Missed you more.”

Impossible.I slip my arm under her head and pull her toward me. We lie in comfortable silence for a few minutes.

“Beef,” she starts hesitantly. “What’s the matter? Don’t you want me anymore?”

“Fuck babe. What are you saying?”

Her voice is uncertain. “I thought, I hoped, you wanted, more. They didn’t get to do more than touch me, Beef. But has that turned you off?”

“Darlin’, how can you think that?”

She huffs a laugh. “You’re lying in bed next to me. You’ve not made a move on me.”

“I was giving you time. Fuck, babe. I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours. You’ve been pawed by men who wanted to use you, and I don’t want you to think I’m the same.”

Her mouth forms an O. “You didn’t think I wanted you to touch me? You didn’t think I wanted to feel your cock inside me, to know it was the man I love making love to me, rather than strangers who’d threatened to use me for their own selfish pleasure? Didn’t you consider I need you to take all the bad memories away?”

“Babe…”

“Beef, I need you.”

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