Page 117 of Brutal Little Secrets
“I was stuck here this year. No more Juniors. No more NHL. And then my dad tells me he’s moving in his girlfriend and her daughter.” My smile is not nice as I remember them offering her to me like a present. “Imagine my surprise when the daughter was the girl who helped cause my accident.”
Evan doesn’t react. She’s got a great poker face, but she knows most of this. Nothing I’m telling her is new, but Evan also loves her mother. And I have to tell her the whole story if I want her to trust me going forward.
My hands tighten into fists, and I drop my gaze. “My dad’s brought other women around. Gold-diggers. Women who could never compare to my mother. He didn’t deserve to find happiness with someone less than her. Not after what he did to her.”
Evan shifts, and I jerk my gaze up to hers. She knows my thoughts on my mother’s death. The guilt and anger. But her desire and need to comfort me is laid bare on her face. The others hold her back. She doesn’t know I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve her.
“We were at a party, and I was still calculating how best to get revenge. I knew I had to get rid of the gold-digger, but she was bringing you into my territory. Giving you to me. I didn’t know who you were. You were an ant. Smart, driven. Dating Chase Chadwick. I saw you at the party and you didn’t fit in. Your hair up in a messy bun and a sweatshirt and jeans, hanging next to the beer pong table while your boyfriend ignored you.”
It feels like forever ago.
“It was before school started. Olivia wanted to talk to me, so I asked her about you. She waffled between calling you a prude and obviously giving it up to your boyfriend because everyone knew he got around. Like he wanted a good girl to clean up his rep.”
I tap my foot and look away.
“The plan was to get you to fuck around with us on your boyfriend. Take you from him and prove to everyone you weren’t the good girl everyone thought you were.” I meet her stormy blue eyes. “It would have hurt Chase, you, and gotten your mom to leave. It was everything I wanted.”
Her chest stops rising and falling like she caught her breath.
I laugh, but it’s bitter now. “It was so easy to convince my dad to use the room for the daughter my parents never had. The oneconnected to mine. Changing the locks was simple, and since he rarely comes into my room, he never noticed.”
I shake my head. “It shouldn’t have been so fucking easy. To get to you. To make you mine. Not if you were the good girl everyone said you were. I never imagined I was forcing an innocent to play my warped little game.”
I blow out a breath and meet her eyes, expecting to find disgust in them. But they’re almost silver. Her face is carefully blank. I wish I could read her right now. My heart thumps hard in my chest. I don’t know how, but if I’ve lost her, I’ll get her back. I’ll force her back into my bed and remind her how much she loves me.
She releases the others’ hands and stands. Will she leave me now? Have I lost the only good thing in my life because I was a vindictive asshole? I deserve it.
She crosses the floor to stand in front of me. I straighten and brace myself for the slap I deserve. The anger she should let loose on me.
Instead, she straddles me and sinks onto my lap. Her hands cup my jaw and she searches my eyes. Her breath spills onto my lips, and I breathe her in like she’s the air I need to live.
“Okay. Tell me what the plan is now.”
I rest my hands on her skirt bunched up on her hips and release the fear. She’s mine. Fuck, I don’t deserve her, but I’ll spend my whole life making it up to her, giving her everything she needs.
“To make Chase pay and to keep you safe.”
“And how do we do that?”
“Olivia falls.” I draw in her woodsy scent. “Chase gets punished for the party, and then he finds out he’s lost you. We make sure Jackson can’t get to you. You stay ours.”
Her lips press into a thin line. “What about my mom?”
Evan has defended her mom. I want to look away, but she’s holding my face and searching my eyes.
“I can’t lose you,” I say softly. My heart is torn. I want to keep Evan but send her mother packing. But that’s not how this works. I can’t protect my mom’s spot in my father’s heart. If he wants to give it to Heather, I can’t stop him. Because I can’t hurt Evan like that. I can’t force her out. She’s mine.
“Damon,” she whispers and presses a kiss to my lips. “My mom is just looking for love and happiness after loss. The same thing your father is doing. They know each other’s pain, and they respect the love for the person who isn’t here anymore. I can see it when they talk. I’m used to not having my mother’s full attention, but that doesn’t make her a bad person. And I don’t think she would have moved us in with your father just because he has money.”
I breathe out. “It doesn’t matter if she is. You’re here, and that’s all that matters. If it’s not your mother, it would be someone else. Dad is ready to move on. Even if I’m not.”
She slides her hands into my hair and rests her forehead against mine. “We’ll never be ready to let go of our parents. Your dad and my mom are just doing the best they can with the hand they’ve been dealt. They aren’t trying to replace or erase your mom or my dad. They’re just trying to continue to live.”
I nod, and she kisses me again. This time slow and tender until I want to sink into her so she’ll never get me out.
When she breaks the kiss, she smiles softly. “Do you have a plan to take down Chase or are we just improvising at this point?”
I slide my hands down to her bare thighs and slip under her skirt. “I would have shown him the videos of us fucking if he’d already seen the way you come. But he hasn’t and he never will. That’s ours.”
