Total pages in book: 266
Estimated words: 250787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1254(@200wpm)___ 1003(@250wpm)___ 836(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 250787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1254(@200wpm)___ 1003(@250wpm)___ 836(@300wpm)
“Can I…?” My eyes drop to his Lords crest, trying to get the courage to ask what I want to know.
“Use your words, doll face,” he says, running his hand up and down my thigh that lies over his hip.
“What happened to your mother?” My eyes meet his.
He’s never talked about his mother or his father. But then again, Haidyn and I don’t have any conversations about his childhood. I don’t know what it was like, but I can guess it wasn’t pretty. I know what kind of man his father was from the one video Hudson sent me but nothing about his mother. So many secrets and lies have been uncovered in the last couple of weeks regarding my mother that I want to know about his. His father was such an awful man, but his mother had to have been good, right? For Haidyn to turn out how he did? To have a heart as big as he does.
“She left when I was ten,” he answers.
“Left?” like walked away from him and his father? That’s not an option. “The Lords regifted her?”
He rolls onto his back, and I run my hand over his hard chest, feeling the slow rhythm of his heartbeat. I go to move my leg off his waist, but his hand grabs my thigh, holding it in place.
“No. My mom was your typical Lady—did whatever my dad said and hated her life.” He sighs. “We had a house, but my father practically lived here at Carnage. All of our fathers chose this place over their homes. One morning, I woke up at our house, and she made me breakfast. Then she grabbed her bag that she had packed on the counter and just walked out the door.”
“But…in the Lords email I received, it said your parents were deceased.”
“My father treated her like shit,” he continues like I didn’t speak. “He wanted a big family of boys—an army, as he called it. I remember her being pregnant with their second child. I was so excited to get a brother. Complications during the pregnancy resulted in losing the baby. I remember words like hemorrhage and emergency hysterectomy. He hated her after that. Thought she was worthless.”
My chest tightens at his words, but I’m not surprised.
Turning onto his side once again, he reaches out and pushes a few strands of my hair behind my ear. “A part of me always thought that he killed her. He never seemed surprised that she didn’t come home that night. He went on with life like she was never there to begin with. I wasn’t sure until you told me that day in your kitchen that both of my parents were deceased. If the Lords know she’s dead, then my father killed her.”
I sit up, my chest aching. “Haidyn…I’m so sorry…I shouldn’t have—”
“Hey,” he sits up and places both hands on my face, giving me a soft smile. “Quit apologizing for something you had no control over, doll face.”
I swallow the knot in my throat. “I should have never told you—”
“I drugged you.” He interrupts me. “You couldn’t have lied even if you wanted to.” Placing his forehead on mine, he sighs. “I should be the one telling you I’m sorry, Charlotte.”
I shake my head, and he nods his. “Yes.” Pulling back, he searches my eyes and gives me a soft smile. “I’m sorry, Charlotte.”
“No,” I argue, not accepting his apology. I know what he did was wrong, but I also understand that this man saved me from a life damned to hell. Not all Ladies are as lucky as me. They don’t find a Lord who protects them, falls in love with them, would give their own life for them.
“No?” He chuckles, and I don’t understand how he can be laughing right now.
I frown, and he straightens his shoulders, taking in a deep breath. He pulls my face toward his, and his lips give me a soft kiss. “I’m sorry for everything I did, Charlotte.”
“I don’t care,” I say honestly. None of it matters. Not anymore.
He pulls back, and his eyes search mine as if to ask if I’m okay. How I can possibly dismiss it all. I love him. That’s what matters now. The why and how we got here doesn’t matter to me. It’s our future that does. Our marriage, our children, the life that we’re going to make.
“Charlotte—”
I cut him off by placing my lips on his, and he kisses me back without hesitation. He pushes me onto my back, and I spread my legs for him to kneel between them. My hands slide to his hair, and he lifts his hips as he adjusts his cock so he can fuck me.
Pulling my lips from his, I arch my neck and suck in a breath at the feel of his hard dick entering me. The growl from his lips vibrates my chest, and his lips go to my neck as I wrap my arms around him, clinging to him. “Please?” I beg, needing more of him.