Page 62 of Sunshine
“The man—I didn’t even know his name. He didn’t speak English. He…” She swallows. “He wanted things from me…” Tessa turns her head, looking me in the eye and I can’t hold back.
I grab her, knowing she might push me away if I’m gentle, and wrap her in my arms tightly. “They didn’t protect you.”
“They didn’t believe me. The man told them I was a brat and had a temper tantrum, refusing to come out of the bathroom until they came back because he didn’t make me Kraft macaroni and cheese.” She huffs a humorless laugh. “That should have been a dead giveaway, I had never had Kraft macaroni and cheese in my life. Didn’t even know what it was.”
Stroking her hair, I encourage her to continue.
“They believed him. Even when I showed them the bruises from his attempt to force himself on me.” She shrugs, her back straightening, her jaw tight. Her walls are back up. “That’s when they dumped me on my grandmother. They told me I’d embarrassed them with my lies.”
I press a long hard kiss onto the top of her head before speaking. “Your parents were selfish bastards, but they never dumped you on your grandmother. Lily took you from them. They were here for another reason — money, I think. And Lily told them no, not unless they left you with her. Gave you up and never came back. She told me that.”
Tessa pulls away, rising from my lap. Her eyes, both hard and confused, find mine. “What?”
“Your grandmother wanted you.” I rise and grab her arms so she can’t make more space between us. “She loved you fiercely, and unconditionally, even though she barely knew you, and hated her own son for dismissing you like you were another piece of his luggage.”
Tessa swallows hard, her chest rising faster with quickened breaths.
“She never told me that. She told me they were going somewhere unsafe and that they wanted to protect me by leaving me with her. War-torn Rwanda and Zaire,” she says after taking a moment to recall, as if the place was the important part of the story.
Her eyes settle on mine again. “I knew it was a lie though, but I assumed the truth was they dumped me on her because I was just too much trouble.”
I knew right then why Tessa tried to be such a pain in the ass. She did it to push everyone away. I just didn’t know if she did it to test them, to see if they’d stick by her like her grandmother, or to avoid future hurt by forcing people to dismiss her before a relationship could ever start.
“You’re just the right amount of trouble, Tessa Harlow.” I shake her a few times before tugging her against me. “And nothing worth anything comes easy,” I whisper.
She relaxes in my arms. Reaching around, I wrap her hair around my hand and tug her head back gently, lowering to kiss her mouth. The sheet drops as her arms go around my shoulders and she pulls herself up onto her toes, deepening our kiss.
I moan at the feel of her taut nipples against my chest. Ignoring my phone which suddenly starts ringing, I release her hair grabbing her ass instead.
She ends the kiss and before I can rekindle it, she says, “You go ahead and get that, biker. Could be club business.” She smirks and the phone stops ringing. “Forget the coffee too, that kiss was fuel enough to get me home. Besides I can’t be caught fraternizing with the enemy.” She heads back into the small bedroom and starts putting on her clothes.
“It’s still dark, Tessa,” I say in a warning tone. “I thought we discussed this last night.”
“And I’m a big girl, Case.”
“No. Not a fucking chance. I told you I’m taking care of you now.” I grab my shirt and toss it haphazardly over my head.
Fully dressed, she turns to me. Her breathing quickens, her lips press, her eyes cut sharply to mine. They harden, but not before I notice the pain in them.
“We fucked, biker. That’s it. I’m not your girlfriend or your responsibility.” She shoves past me and out the door. She may as well have kicked me in the gut the way my breath sticks.
“I can take care of myself,” she hollers as the door slams shut.
The words hurt. She wasn’t just a fuck to me. I don’t fuck anymore. If I didn’t feel more for Tessa Harlow, I wouldn’t have let this happen. Not when I’d be living across the field with Reece soon. We didn’t need that kind of start. At the very least, I considered her a friend. And no, we didn’t start that way, andI didn’t intend to catch feelings for the brat, but I did. Especially after we’d shared such intimate truths about ourselves.
And that’s when it hits me. She feels more too, and that’s why she’s thrown up her walls. She’s afraid. It was all fine and well if she considered me a fuck, but when I showed her I cared? That made her too vulnerable.
She wasn’t pulling away, not a chance. I hadn’t let anyone in either, not for a long fucking time, and she wasn’t going to push me away so easily. I storm out after her.
Those long legs and her fear have her feet eating up the path, but I’m bigger and faster.
“Tessa Harlow, stop acting like a brat.” I grab her arm, spinning her.
She opens her mouth, likely to give me shit, so I yank her forward and toss her over my shoulder.
“Behave, Sunshine.”
She kicks and punches, even gets a few good ones in, but I hold tight.
