“No. I think we need to talk.”
His heads hangs between his shoulders instantly. “It’s after one in the morning, Sydney,” he grates as I follow him inside and shut the door.
Throwing my purse on the counter, a bolt of anger flashes through me and I let it all out. “I don’t give a fuck what time it is, Javi. We’re talking about what happened tonight.”
“I’m not a fucking child. Don’t talk to me like you’re my goddamn mother,” he bellows back at me, turning to face me while his face grows fierce in the shadows of the light above the stove in the kitchen. It’s the only light on right now, casting an ominous glow over everything in the main part of the house.
“I know, but you’re acting like a child and I’m sick of it. I’ve been patient, compassionate, and earnestly waiting for you to tell me why you went to prison. I’ve desperately been trying to convince myself that it wasn’t a big deal, that I’m not dating a man that is capable of God knows what. But tonight, I got the story from your sister and now I have some questions.”
Javi’s eyes widen right before they squint into narrow slits. “Selena fucking told you?”
“Yeah, she did. And you know what, I’m glad!” My hands travel out far and wide as I emphasize my point. “It’s about time I knew, and part of it was her story to tell too!”
Javi’s shoulders fall now as he chest rises and falls. “Is that all?”
His response has me taken aback. “What do you mean is that all?”
He swallows hard, gaining his footing while he studies me. “You’re … you’re not leaving? You’re not scared of me?”
Those words, his questions—that’s the reason he’s been keeping this to himself. “Did you think that once I knew I’d leave?”
Javi doesn’t respond, he just continues to stand there, filling the room with his presence and the desperation radiating off of him.
My feet carry me toward him.
My mind has me searching his eyes.
But my heart has my lips moving to his, catching him off guard until he melts into my touch.
As our lips touch and I slide my tongue across his mouth, begging for entrance, our arms encircle one another simultaneously and we melt into each other.
This man has some of the roughest edges I’ve ever brushed up against. The scrape against him has stung from time to time, but it doesn’t take away from the beauty he holds inside, the robust stone his soul is carved from.
When we part, I grip his face in my hands and force him to look at me. “I’m not going to lie to you. I was scared earlier when I saw your reaction to that guy. But I didn’t know the whole story. Once Selena told me, it all made sense. I would never be afraid of you, Javier Montes. And no, I’m not leaving you. Knowing what you did for your sister, in retribution for what Jesus did to her, if anything, it makes me fall for you even more.”
His eyes close and in seconds he wraps me tightly to his chest, breathing me in deeply before blowing out a hot rush of air. “I was so fucking scared that you would see me as a monster, as a man who can’t control his temper. I didn’t want you to think of me that way.”
Staring intently into his eyes again, I reassure him once more. “I would never. What you did was instinctual, serving justice where it needed to be served.”
“I almost killed him, Princess.”
“I don’t blame you. Although, I’m glad you didn’t because then you wouldn’t be here.”
“You’re honestly okay with this? With my past?” Our eyes bounce back and forth as I brush the errant hairs from his forehead.
“I am. In some strange way, it makes me feel like you’d defend my honor too. And that’s all I’ve ever wanted from a man. Someone who would stand up for me in my time of need, someone that I feel I could depend on no matter what.”
“Fucking Christ, I don’t deserve you.” He presses his lips against mine with more intensity than before and then I’m flying in the air as my legs wrap around his waist and I settle into his arms. Javi walks us back to his room where he makes love to me before we lie there breathlessly in the dark, with no more secrets between us.
Chapter 29
Javier
To say I’m nervous right now would be an understatement. I’m more like, borderline about to pass the fuck out.
Last week at The Jameson forced me to admit my past to Sydney completely and she didn’t run for the fucking hills. Instead, she showed me love. She didn’t say the words, but goddamn, I felt them in the way she touched me, in the way her gaze never wavered from mine as I moved inside of her. This girl I thought I knew all those years ago has shown me the power of compassion, understanding, and second chances.
She is my second chance—a woman I never thought could be the one to heal me from the shadows I feel follow me around every corner. But with her near, rays of light break through and are exposing the brighter parts of life to me every day.
The one thing left for me to do is show her father that I am a man deserving of her, yet I’m not sure he’ll ever believe it—and truthfully, there are days where I don’t as well.
Sydney has been in minimal communication with her parents since her brothers’ graduation over a month ago. She’s blown off family dinners, cancelled lunch plans that her father tried to set up, and has ignored her parents’ calls as well. It’s sad that at her age she literally has to push them away to get them to listen to her, but
