London Bound: New Adult Romance (Chase Brothers) (37 page)

And regardless of what his father had said, she’d come back for him.

His hands shook. “I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again.”

“I need the truth, Alexi. I don’t want us to keep doing this. Please. Can you tell me?”

A harsh chuckle ripped out of him. “I’ve been so worried I was going to lose you when you found out, I ended up pushing you away by hiding the truth.”

“Your father didn’t run me off with what he said about you. The only reason I ran is because I couldn’t stand you lying to me, hiding from me. Nothing you’ve done can scare me off as long as I know that you’re open with me.”

He trembled.
No, it’s not true. She’ll leave, and when she does, it’ll break you.
No. He wasn’t going to lose her. Not for anything.

“Mum and Dad split up when I was about three or four. She started seeing someone else a couple of years later. At first, Silas was the television dad you see. Played games with us. Took us to the park for a bit of footie. That sort of thing. You’ve met my father. Even then, he wasn’t particularly warm.”

Lex ran a hand through his hair. He was desperate to get it all out so there wouldn’t be anything left hanging between them. “Everything changed when he asked Mum to marry him. Xan and I were ecstatic. We were finally getting a real father. Someone to love us. But that’s not what we got.”

Lex shivered as his memories weaved into the forefront of his mind. “Mum started working more international charities and traveled more, leaving us with the nannies and Silas.” His voice broke, and he loathed the weakness that he heard in himself. “She didn’t know that he used to sneak into mine and Xan’s bedroom at night and put his hands on us. When we fought back, he beat us. Never anywhere visible. He was apparently too smart for that.”

Abbie gasped and whispered, “Oh, God.”

“We had five different nannies in the fourteen months he was with my mother, each of them too scared to help two little boys who couldn’t help themselves.”

“Alexi—”

“No, Abbie, you need to hear it all. One night, while my mother worked downstairs, he snuck into our room. Xander ran away from him, and he was going after him to make sure he didn’t find the nanny or Mum. I knew if he caught Xander, it would mean another beating. I didn’t want him to hurt us anymore. I couldn’t take it. So I ran after him. When he caught hold of Xander’s T-shirt, I only wanted to get him off my brother. I—” His voice shook. He prayed that he could stop the pain, but he had to get it all out first. “We were at the top of the stairs, and I pushed him.
Hard
. With everything I had, I pushed him. I wanted him dead.”

Her voice was whisper soft. “Oh, Alexi.”

“And Dad was right. Even at six, I understood that what I’d done was horrific. I understood what I was. I knew they’d send me away, but I didn’t care.” He sniffed and wiped at his nose. “But instead they sent Xander away. We told them it was an accident that we’d heard him fall, but the way he protected me, they assumed he’d done it. He made me promise I’d never tell. He just stepped right in front of me and shielded—” His voice shook. “And I let him.”

Abbie placed both palms on his chest. “Enough, that’s enough. I don’t need to hear any more. I’m so sorry.”

He couldn’t meet her gaze. “I don’t know how you can stand to look at me. My own father can’t. I tried to talk to him then. He blamed us. We tried to make him understand, but as far as he was concerned, we’d tarnished the family name with the scandal of it all.”

“You were a child, protecting your brother. They were the adults. They were supposed to protect you. It was your mother and father’s job to protect you. None of what happened was your fault.”

“Mum didn’t know. I think after it happened, when they sent Xan to a string of therapists, she suspected, but she didn’t know the kind of man she was about to marry. She would have killed him. Dad, well, after the fact, he covered everything up. Xan was sent to boarding school. I’m pretty sure he looked into Silas’s background. He was so careful, he’d probably done something like that before.” He dragged in a shaky breath. “Xan and I never stood a chance. We’re completely fucked up.”

She placed a hand on his cheek. “Stop. You’ve grown into an incredible man who’s kind and loyal and smart. Don’t let those shadows take any of what you’ve become away from you. I will help chase them off.”

He blinked rapidly as emotion overwhelmed him. She really wasn’t running from him. He dared to hope, dared to hold on to the thread that she was his. “You really don’t hate me?”

“No, Alexi. I’m going to keep telling you how much I love you until it finally sinks in.”

Desperation dripped from each word as he held her close. “I thought I’d lost you for good.”

She clung to him, her hands threading through his hair. “I’m so sorry. I should have trusted you.”

“I didn’t think you would still want me after what he said to you.”

“Yes.” She kissed him softly, her full lips feeling like heaven against his. “I still want you. I’ve wanted you since you saved me from death by Mini Cooper. I wanted you that first time we danced. I wanted you at your party. I wanted you when you showed up on my doorstep. Even when the paparazzi were camped out on my lawn and making me miserable, I wanted you. There is nothing your father could say to me to make me not want you. There’s nothing you can do to make me not want you. There’s nothing in your past that can scare me off.” She shivered in his arms.

Lex crushed her to his chest, unwilling to let her go. “Abbie, I love you. I’m not even sure when I started falling in love with you. Maybe it was Brixton. Maybe it was the first time I saw you sitting in that massive puddle drenched and trying to save the camera instead of yourself.”

“I love you.”

The glowing warmth started in his chest and started to thaw the icicles. But he frowned. She couldn’t possibly love him if she knew what had happened. What he’d done. “Abbie, I—”

She pressed her fingers against his lips. “Shh. Do you think that I wouldn’t love you? That it matters to me? You were a child when it all happened, and you’ve been carrying that guilt all on your own for years. When you had nothing to feel guilty for.”

She pushed the braids out of her face. Just having her close, made the blood rush in his ears and he wanted to kiss her. She licked her lips, and he bit back a moan.

As if sensing the change in him, she whispered, “Alexi.”

“Shh, let me get you out of these wet things.”

First, he slid her sodden coat off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor. She followed suit and toed off her wool-lined boots. Right there, he peeled of the rest of her wet clothing and carried her naked, lithe form to his bedroom.

He swallowed around the lump in his throat as he drank in every inch of her soft flesh. He knew how she tasted, how she felt in every nook of her body. He knew her heart. Knew her fears. It was the first time he’d ever let himself know anyone. Let anyone know him. And it felt liberating. And terrifying. And right. “I love you, Abena.”

She pressed her body into him and every nerve ending howled to be inside her, to fit their bodies together and drive into her until they both found peaceful oblivion. He gently tucked her in to his bed, then stripped off his own clothes.

Unmistakable heat flashed in her eyes, and he couldn’t help a quick grin. Sliding in beside her, he tucked her against him so they spooned with his hand cupping her breast.

“Lex, what—”

“I’m going to hold you, if that’s okay. You know how much I want you.” He dragged in a sharp breath. “Hell, you can feel it.” His cock twitched against the soft globes of her ass. He paused and kissed her shoulder, gritting his teeth against the onslaught of lust as the satin skin of her backside wiggled against him. “But I need to hold you more than I need to make love to you.”

It took him an hour before he was able to fall asleep, but he hadn’t been that at peace in longer than he could remember.

* * *

Abbie moaned into Lex’s chest. She was awake enough to know she was having either the very best of dreams or one hell of a wakeup call. Lex kissed her as his thumb and forefinger rolled one of her nipples. Sighing into the caress, she let herself relax into the kiss. His expert tongue caressed and teased hers into playing.

God she relished what he could do to her body. The way he made her pliant. He never rushed her even when she wanted to hurry. He always took his time with everything, even kissing her, like they had all the time in the world. Like his erection wasn’t straining.

She loved kissing him. His lips were so soft and skilled and his tongue—every time he licked into her mouth, it made her shiver. When his hand dipped between her thighs, she parted them to ease his way. Skilled fingers stroked her cleft, teasing her, driving her crazy. She arched her back trying to angle her hips into his hand.

Alexi slid a finger inside her as his thumb caressed her clit and she cried out and sank her fingers into his hair. He grunted in satisfaction as her hips bucked then sucked on her tongue in time with his fingers sliding into her slick center. His heavy erection continued to press into her thigh and she moaned. She would never get over what he could do to her body. She’d never been so carnal, so aroused, so willing to give herself completely to anyone.

With a groan, he pulled back from their kiss and she mewled as she tried to follow his lips. His gaze scorched her. Dark and fiery, he stared at her under hooded lids. “Jesus, what are you doing to me?”

Her constricted throat made it impossible to speak, so she responded the only way she knew how—by arching her hips into his hand again.

He muttered a soft curse, and squeezed his eyes shut. As his fingers strummed her to the edge of orgasm, he chewed on his bottom lip. When he increased the pace of his questing fingers, Abbie held tight onto his shoulders. She rotated her hips around and around until he swore again and rubbed his thumb directly over her clit.

Her orgasm ripped through her, laying destruction to every nerve and cell. Unable to think, she threw her head back giving herself over fully to the sensation.

“Holy, fuck, you are so beautiful when you come.”

Still unable to speak, Abbie dragged in ragged breaths. If she hadn’t been fully awake earlier, she certainly was now. “That was a hell of a wakeup call.”

He slowly withdrew his fingers from her. “I’m not done yet.”

She smiled up at him expecting him go for a condom, but instead, he burrowed under the covers. His hands parting her thighs had her tensing. “Lex, wait, I—”

He drew back the covers so he could look at her. “I should have asked you last time. Is this something you don’t like?”

Oh god, he looked so concerned and worried about her. How the hell was she supposed to tell him? Embarrassment made her skin hot and flushed. “Before you, I-I—I’ve never done it. Or rather, I guess no one had done it to me before.”

His brows snapped down “You’re kidding me right?”

Abbie bit her lip as she shook her head. “N-no. I ah, Ev-uhm—no one’s ever wanted to.” She turned her face into the pillow too embarrassed to continue. God, she should have just kept her mouth shut. Now he thought she was some kind of freak.

With strong fingers, he turned her chin so she was looking at him. His gaze burned hot, the desire etched on his face was unmistakable. “Tasting you is so arousing for me. I love how you taste. But only if you’re comfortable.”

“I-uh…” Wow, he wanted to? “Yes. I’m comfortable.”

“Oh thank god.” His smile was lopsided. “I think I’d die if I couldn’t taste you.”

He slid back down her body placing kisses across her chest and belly as he went. When he reached her hips, he nibbled at the flesh on her pelvic bone, then scooted yet lower.

Dusting feather light kisses on her inner thighs, he paused when he got to her cleft. “So pretty. And so soft.” His first stroke of her slick center had her clenching her hands into the sheets. Oh God. He lapped at her, kissing her and exploring her with his tongue. He took his time like with everything else. He seemed in no hurry. When his tongue circled the throbbing bundle of nerves, Abbie flew apart in his hands again. A little embarrassed, she tried to drag him back up her body by tugging on his hair, but he didn’t let up. He kept stroking her. Kept lapping at her.

It wasn’t until he slid a finger into her moist sheath again that she lost all her inhibitions. If he was intent on killing her with ecstasy, then who the hell was she to argue. Finally relaxing, she let her thighs fall apart and he moaned, parting her folds and dipping the tip of his finger into her center. Her third orgasm rolled through her chasing the tails of the previous one, he didn’t let up until she lay limp.

He drew himself back up her body, pausing to nip at her hips again, then to suckle her beasts.

When he made it to her lips, he asked. “I hope you’ll let me taste you often.”

She shivered. He could do that to her any time he wanted. “God, yes. I don’t even know what to say.”

“How about saying you’ll let me taste you as often as I want.”

She giggled. “Be my guest.”

He shifted against her parting thighs with his. And she moaned when the tip of his erection nudged her cleft..

He squeezed his eyes shut tight as he entered her inch by inch. Abbie met him halfway by raising her hips. His jaw stayed tight until he was seated all the way inside her. He made love to her sweetly. Kissing her, holding her to him and looking into her eyes. “I love you Abena Nartey. I will never stop.”