Page 62 of Finally Mine
If Harper could find the guts to confront Luke when he came home, even if it meant jeopardizing her home, her job, and her relationship, then Gloria could march right up to Aldo’s face and let him have a piece of her mind.
Ignoring the doorbell that she’d personally cleaned the cobwebs from yesterday, she lifted her fist and pounded on the door.
“For chrissake, Ma, use your damn key,” Aldo bellowed from inside.
Gloria was not Ma, but she did have a key that she hadn’t bothered returning yet.
She let herself in, glaring left and right, but the first floor was empty.
“I’ll be down in a minute,” Aldo groused from the second floor. But Gloria was already on the stairs.
She pushed his bedroom door open so hard it bounced off of the wall, and she had to shove it again to walk inside.
Aldo was speechless…and gloriously naked.
She sucked in a breath that sounded like a wheeze.
He was sitting on the edge of his bed, his prosthetic leg in hand. She’d seen him shirtless before. Had memorized the muscle and ink that covered his torso. He was leaner now, she noted. His cheeks more hollow above what was turning into a beard. There was an exhaustion in the slump of his shoulders. But he was still her Aldo.
It wasn’t the brutal red scarring covering his knee and what remained of his left leg that drew her eye. No, it was the glimpse of long, girthy cock between his legs.
Holy shit.She’d only seen one other penis live and in person, and it wasn’t even half the size of Aldo’s…member. She felt a little dizzy. And a lot distracted.
“Jesus! Gloria?” he choked her name out and dove for his bedsheets.
From somewhere in her cock fog, Gloria noticed that he was more concerned with hiding his leg than he was his hypnotic penis. It was that glimpse of humiliation she saw in his eyes that had her turning around to face the open doorway.
“I have something to say,” she told him, or rather the hallway.
There was a clunk behind her as his prosthesis hit the floor. Aldo swore under his breath.
“I’m happy you’re home and that you’re safe,” she began.
He made a noise like he was going to interrupt, but she cut him off.
“Shut up. I’m not done. I’m glad you’re home, but I’m very angry and disappointed with you. You made me feel like you saw a future with me. You let me get excited about that possibility. You made me think you believed in me…and now you want nothing to do with me. No explanations. No apologies. Just done.”
“Gloria,” he began quietly. She could hear the resignation. Years of dodging tempers had taught her how to be a reader of people.
“I don’t know what’s going on with you,” she pressed on. “I don’t know if you met someone else while you were deployed or you decided I wasn’t what you wanted. But either way, you owe me the courtesy of an explanation. I deserve better than you having your mother slam the door in my face or you yelling at me when all I did was something nice for you. I expect you to be brave enough, man enough, to tell me why I’m not what you want.”
She chanced a glance over her shoulder and found Aldo covered from the waist down in the sheets she’d washed for him. He was looking appropriately shamed, refusing to meet her gaze.
“Aldo,” she continued softly. “You made me feel like I was nothing to you.”
The sigh that rose from his chest seemed to take all his effort. “You’re not nothing.” He gritted out the words like they caused him pain.
“I’m done letting people do that. I’m not nothing. You’d be damn lucky to have me. Anyone would.” She choked on the last word and cursed herself. She would not cry. She wouldn’t be the victim here. Nope. She would go home and blubber like a baby. But she would not give Aldo a glimpse of the fresh hurt he’d caused her. Her newly rediscovered pride wouldn’t allow it.
“What do you want me to do? Hop after you?” The bitterness in his words arrowed straight to her heart and broke a piece off.
“That’s the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard you say,” Gloria snapped, and good Lord did it feel good to finally speak her mind. He didn’t need her pity. He needed someone to slap him upside the head, give him a good shake.
He brought his head up.
“You don’t know anything, Gloria.” He spoke quietly and without heat.
She absorbed the words the way she would a blow. Waited for the burn of shame. But her anger, bright and sharp, shielded her.
