Page 126 of Wicked Minds
While one hand is pressed flat against his back, I bring my other one up to stroke through his hair in slow, tender strokes. “I don’t want you to think differently of me,” he confesses so quietly I barely hear him.
“Pretty sure I already know what an asshole you can be.” He huffs out a breath but remains perched against my shoulder,leaning against me for support but not putting any of his weight on me since I’d likely crumble beneath him.
I continue running my fingers through his hair, silence reigning between us. It’s not awkward or uncomfortable. However, itisfilled with all the things he is unable to say.
So I decide to help him out and say them for him.
“Does it have anything to do with the rumors that you… raped some girl?”
He turns to stone.
For long seconds, he doesn’t so much as breathe. Then, with stiff movements, he lifts his head from my shoulder and steps back so he can see my face, his expression guarded as he searches my eyes.
“How do you know about that?”
“I overheard two girls discussing it in the library before winter break. They mentioned your name. At the time, it didn’t mean anything to me. It was only when Logan brought me here, the day I woke up to you standing over me and he said your name, that I put the dots together.
“That’s why you asked me for my last name,” he croaks, shell-shocked.
I nod.
His hand shakes as he brings it up to swipe through his hair. “I don’t understand. You stayed. You… Why didn’t you freak the fuck out?”
“I did,” I assure him. “Came close to a full-blown panic attack until I forced myself to calm down and think. That’s when I realized it didn’t add up.”
“What didn’t add up?” he asks in bewilderment.
“The you that those girls described and the you that I’d gotten to know at the club. I couldn’t reconcile it in my head.”
He’s staring at me like I’ve turned purple and grown three heads. “James, I was a complete asshole to you.”
I give him a wry smirk. “I’m not saying you weren’t, but there’s a difference between being an asshole and… what they claimed.”
Taking a step forward, I hope he can hear the sincerity in my voice as I say, “You pushed my buttons. You tested my limits. You drove me right to the brink of my comfort zone, but not once did you push me over it. Every time I stepped out of my box, it was becauseIwanted to. Becauseyougave me the courage to do so. Despite the circumstances at the club, I never once felt uncomfortable with you. I was never concerned that you’d take things too far or do something I didn’t want.”
I slide my palm over his heart. “You gave me a safe space to explore my sexuality. You challenged and baited me, but not once did you force or coerce me into anything.”
“But…” he trails off, looking even more baffled than he did a moment ago. “You hardly knew me.”
I give a shoulder shrug. “I knew all I needed to know. You’re forgetting I know what it is to stare into the face of someone who would take advantage of a person that way.” Some of his shock gives way to red-hot hostility. “I know what it is to stare into the face of evil, and despite the impression you like to give the rest of the world, you, Royce King, don’t have an evil bone in your body.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, James, or are you forgetting that I spend my spare time beating the shit out of strangers? That I punched your boss.”
“You’re ruthless,” I counter, earning a small smirk at the mention of his fighting name. “But those men know what they’re up against when they step into the ring. And outside of it… you use your ruthlessness for good. I’m not scared by your violence. It comforts me.”
My eyes shift back and forth between his. “Your compass may be skewed, but unlike the Bertams of this world, it is far from broken.”
With another step forward, I close the distance between us. “And that readiness to destroy the world to protect me is why I’m not afraid of handing over my heart to you.”
His eyes are on mine, an indecipherable turmoil of emotions whirling within as his hands slide up my arms, across my shoulders until his fingers curl around my neck.
With his thumbs pressing beneath my jaw, he pushes my head back, the pads stroking across my skin in a tantalizing touch.
“I don’t know what the hell I must have done in a previous life to deserve someone like you, but I’m selfish enough not to question it. You’re mine, Riley James. Today, tomorrow, for the rest of our goddamn lives. And I’ll always be yours. Even when I piss you off. Even when you get sick of my moody ass. Whether I’m at your side or lurking in the shadows. I’ll always have your back.”
With tears threatening, I press onto my toes, and wrapping my arms around his enormous shoulders, I pull him down to me and seal his vow with a kiss.
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