“Fuck this shit,” he said, striding towards her, ignoring theothers. “Becky, you are wanted.” Without further hesitation, Kelleypicked her up off the floor and carried her upstairs.
Much to hisrelief, she didn’t even put up a fight. Instead, she did what camenaturally, she curled up into his chest, exhaled and called hisname, “Kelley…”
“I’ve got you, love.”
“Thank God,” Crispin said, resting head back against thecouch.
“You got that right,” Dorian agreed.
“Fuck… that was intense,” Keegan added. “I’ll admit, though,she’s kind of growing on me as well.”
“Shut up, you!”
Chapter 35
Carrying herpast her room and directly into his, Kell didn’t let her go untilshe was safely resting on his bed. Even then, he left her side onlylong enough to close the door and take off his shirt. He pausedsimply to gaze at her shaky little form. She looked so small andhelpless sitting there, bathed in the blue glow of the moon.
Something aboutthis moment screamed for a little skin on skin contact. As ifreading his mind, Becky tugged off her own top and silently heldher arms out for him.
Needing evenmore than that, Kelley crawled into her embrace, swiftly undid theclasp of her lacy bra and tossed it away. He held her softness tohis smooth, hard chest and took a deep breath. She tensed for onlya few seconds before relaxing into his enveloping warmth. “Let mehold you, love. Just like this,” he murmured, running his fingerssoothingly over her back.
“Okay… but I don’t want to give you the wrong idea,” sheconfessed, still upset by the whole ordeal.
“Oh, love… stop,” he crooned, hugging her close. “I shouldnever have said those things to you. You didn’t deserve it. It waswrong of me. Please, forgive me.”
“You broke my heart, is what you did!” Unwittingly, Beckyburrowed her face into his smooth chest.
“Ugh… and in the process, I broke my own. Forgive me, love.”Smoothing his hand over her hair, he planted a kiss on herhead.
“Am I so terrible a creature?”
“What?”
“My mere presence in this house causes such strife, suchanimosity between friends.” She gazed up, blinking her bleary eyesat him.
“Becky, no… I was being stupid, jealous…” He pressed theirforeheads together and wiped her tears with his thumb.
“It’s true, even Gracie thinks it. She told me soherself.”
“Gracie? What the fuck does she know?” He gave her hair agentle tug backwards to better look at her.
“Apparently a lot more than I do. I’ve been nothing buttrouble. You should never have allowed me to move in here. Jax hadthe right idea. I’m not worth it. You were all better off withoutme.” Fighting her way back into his embrace, she sought thefamiliar solace of his warmth.
“Oh, Becky, have I fucked you up so badly?” He choked back asudden sob of regret while cradling her head against his chest.“All I ever do is hurt the ones I love.”
“Am I nothing more than a possible conquest for you? All ofyou? Have I no other value?” Too distraught to process any of hiswords, Becky continued to blurt out her own fears.
“Sweet thing, stop…” he pleaded, feeling helpless in the wakeof her self-destructive thoughts.
“I’m afraid I don’t know where I stand with you, Crispin orDorian anymore. Do you even care about me as a person? Do myfeelings matter?”
“Oh my God… I have royally messed you up, haven’tI?”
“Am I really alone in this world? Have I no true friends here?Please, Kelley, help me understand. I feel completely lost. I don’tknow who I am anymore. My granny’s gone and I have no one else totalk to.”
Renderedspeechless, Kelley couldn’t fight the gut wrenching pain in hisheart or the tears that stubbornly leaked from his eyes. The onlything he could do was hold her close and listen. What could he eventhink to say that would come close to doing any good at this point?The poor sweet girl was devastated and it was all his fault.
Exhausted bothphysically and emotionally, Becky let out a heavy sigh. As much asit hurt to put into words, all her skewed misgivings and concerns,the fact that she’d gotten it out of her system did her a world ofgood.
“Sh… rest your mind, love,” he eventually did say when she grewweary. “You’re worth more than you know.” Smoothing his hands upand down her back, he pulled her in impossibly closer. He even wentso far as to rest a heavy leg over her lower half.
She nodded,drying her tears in his hair before drifting off to sleep.
Lying thereholding her, Kelley realized that this situation required seriousattention. In mere months, he and his housemates had somehow takena beautiful sweet girl and stripped her of every ounce of herself-confidence. They’d made her feel ashamed of her very ownexistence. When in reality, it was their own insecurities that hadreared their ugly heads. His self-doubts and jealous tendencies hadhurt her first and foremost since it was he who she looked up to.She trusted him and he had let her down.
Well, thingswere about to change. No longer would he place his concerns abovehers. From now on, he would not allow jealousy to rule his heart.Hopefully, it wasn’t too late to build her up again to her formerspunky self. It wasn’t going to be easy. In fact, it was going tobe quite tricky and he’d be a fool to believe that he’d be capableof doing it all on his own.
Chapter 36
“So, there youhave it. We’re all a bunch of bastards,” Kell explained, sitting inthe garage, looking around at his devastated housemates. All werepresent even Keegan who had been warned with the threat of instanteviction, to listen and keep his opinions to himself.
“How do we help her?” Dorian asked with a painedexpression.
“Treat her like you normally would. Be yourselves. She wasquite happy until recently.”
“But where did she get this from?” Dorian asked at aloss.
“From me,” Kell admitted. “From Gracie, from all the fightingaround the house.”
“What’s Gracie got to do with this?” Crispin balked, glaringaccusingly at Keegan. “Everything was fine until hereturned!”
“Say what you want, but you can’t blame this one on
