Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
“Reina, baby,” I said gently, coming up behind her in the bathroom where she was running a brush through her long hair, “you can’t keep avoiding your back forever.”
I’d been trying to ease into the conversation for a few days now, but every time I tried, she shut me down. I knew if I wanted to talk to her about this, I couldn’t ease into it anymore. I just had to lay it out to her and hope for the fucking best. We might clash heads, but fuck, maybe she needed a goddamn fight. God knew I needed to see that fire in her soul again.
“No,” she snapped, her eyes clashing with mine in the mirror. They were lit with anger and defiance. It made blood surge straight to my dick, but I bit that shit back.
I pressed my hand flat to the middle of her back, spraying my fingers out. It was a possessive touch, my way of showing her that no matter what was on her back, she was still mine. Nothing would fucking change that.
I drew in a deep breath. Ink, Joey’s VP, was the best goddamn tattoo artist I knew. He had offered to tattoo her back if she wanted the scars covered. But I wanted her to face this first—needed her to. Tattooing wouldn’t ever help her heal if she couldn’t even face the horror of what had been done to her.
“Reina, you’ve got to heal, baby girl, and the only way to begin doing that is if you face what the fuck happened to you.”
She swung around to face me, her eyes glittering up at me with fury and an internal pain that fucking killed me as much as I knew it was killing her.
“You think I’m not trying to heal?” she snarled at me. She needed to be mad about this shit, and I was happy as hell to finally see she was. “You think I’m not facing this shit every goddamn time I close my eyes? I already couldn’t sleep at night because of Gregory,” she bitterly told me. I hadn’t known that, and I clenched my jaw. I thought she didn’t sleep at night because of this mark on her fucking back. “But now I can barely even sleep in the day. For you to accuse me of not facing this shit—”
I ripped the back of her shirt open and snatched her hand mirror off the counter. It was a good size one, one I knew she only used if she was fixing her eyebrows. I thrust it in front of her. “Look,” I snapped down at her. She shook her head, her eyes closed, her body trembling. I wanted to fucking throttle her. “Goddammit, Reina, look.”
She slowly opened her teary eyes, staring at the mirror in my hand that reflected her back to her. Her knees just about gave out beneath her, but I locked my arm around her, holding her up, being her strength when hers depleted.
“Sam—” she croaked.
I set the mirror down and wrapped my other arm around her, holding her tight to me. She sobbed, her hands fisting my cut. A heart wrenching wail left her lips.
“I’m ruined,” she sobbed.
I leaned down and smoothed my lips over hers. She whimpered into our kiss. “You’re not ruined, baby girl. Never ruined in my fucking eyes, you hear me? To me, that shit means nothing more than you being a survivor, a fucking warrior. You lived through something that would have killed a lesser person.” Her jaw shook as she stared up at me through her pretty, glassy eyes. I brushed my thumbs over her cheeks. “Now, I want to fix this my way. Do you trust me?”
She swallowed thickly. Her eyes ran over my face for a moment before she slowly nodded her head.
“I trust you,” she whispered. She had no idea how much those fucking words meant to me.
I pressed my lips to hers again. That was all the permission I needed to do what I had in mind.
Ink stepped into the clubhouse, Jesse’s hand wrapped around his. He nodded once at me before he leaned down and pressed a kiss to Jesse’s lips, releasing his possessive, protective hold of her hand.
“Where’s the little one?” I asked him, referring to their little boy.
“Joey offered to watch him while I rode up here,” he explained. He looked to the bar where Reina was pouring a drink for one of the men. “She ready for this?”
I shrugged. “We’ll see.” She looked up, sensing my presence as I walked over to her. I held my hand out to her. “You still trust me?” This was her chance to turn away from me. And I was going to allow it.
In answer, she just placed her hand in mine. Smiling softly at her, I led her down the hall to where her room was and eased her inside. “Take your shirt and bra off, place a towel beneath your chest and abdomen, and then lay on your stomach.”