“Oh, Bryce. Oh, my love.” My heart breaks forhim.
“And do you know what my dad did?” Bryce asksme.
I shake my head, even though I have a pretty goodidea.
“He stood up, pushed the table out of the way and beat me. My mum didnothing. The next day at school a teacher noticed I was walking strangely. She lifted up my top and saw the bruises. I was taken into care that same week. My mum handed me over to the local authority like a piece of trash. She didn’t fight for me. She didn’t want me.” His voice breaks on the words, but he pulls the emotion back, breathing in deeply. I am so angry at his mum, his dad. I want to rage at the fucking world. Why are people so damn cruel? But my anger is not what Bryce needs right now. He needs my love, my compassion, and I will give it to him. Every day for the rest of mylife.
“Oh, Bryce. None of what happened was ever your fault. You were just a kid. Your dad was evil, and your mumtwisted.”
Bryce can’t look at me. My big, strong man is reduced to an emotional wreck in my arms. “I wish I could take the pain away. The hurt. If I could, I’d do it,” I say, pressing my lips against hisknuckles.
“I found out my father died five years ago. My mum is still alive, she remarried. I went to visit her a couple of years back. I got to the gate of her house. She was gardening, chatting to a kind-looking man who was standing at the door. She appeared happy, peaceful. A stranger looking in would’ve assumed she was a good person, but I knew better. I pushed the gate open, ready to confront her. When she looked up at me, I saw the recognition in her eyes even when she pretended not to know who Iwas.”
“Whathappened?”
“I pretended that my car had broken down and I needed to borrow their phone. She sent her husband in for the house phone and while he was gone she told me to leave. That I wasn’t wanted, that I was a part of her life she’d ratherforget.”
Anger fills me, but I push it down. “Go on,” I saygently.
“That was it. Nothing else happened. There was no remorse on her part, no apologies. She looked at me as though I were nothing to her, a nobody. I left before her husband returned with the phone. The aftereffects of her rejection stayed with me for a very long time. I guess it’s still in here,” he says, tapping a finger against hischest.
“Bryce, I am so sorry. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” I pull him into my arms, holding him against me like he has done for me so many timesbefore.
“Why didn’t she love me?” heasks.
“The same reason my mum couldn’t love me, because they were broken, Bryce. I know it hurts. I feel the same pain too. So do Hudson, Max, Nisha, Calum. We were all let down by our parents. But this pain I feel, it doesn’t hurt so much now I have you all, now we’re a family. One day you’ll get to be a dad, Bryce, and you’ll be wonderful. I have no doubt in my mind aboutthat.”
Bryce holds me close, his shoulders hunched over. I can feel his pain as silent tears pour from his eyes and burn against the bare skin of my shoulders. For long minutes we remain holding onto one another. I stroke my hands over Bryce’s back, soothing him, holding him like his mother should have all those years ago. After a while he shifts in myarms.
“Louisa…” he grinds out, his voice hoarse. He looks up at me and I take his face in my hands, my fingers lost in his beard I love somuch.
“Bryce…” I choke. The sadness I see in his eyes breaks my heart. I want to fix him. I want to love him. I want to take his pain away. In that moment, I understand him completely. I understand my men completely. To have to carry that kind of hurt with you always must be a drain. No wonder they sought escapism in the form of sex. It’s easy to see why they chose the lifestyle they had before I came into theirlives.
He stands, pulling me up with him. “I need to lose myself in you. Will you let me do that,Louisa?”
“Always,” Isay.
Bryce takes me by the hand and we walk up the steps to our bungalow. He slides open the door to our bedroom, leaving it open behind us. Standing in front of me, Bryce lifts his t-shirt up over his head, revealing his broad muscular chest and six pack. His jeans are slung low on his hips, highlighting his washboard stomach. Stepping forward, I press a light kiss against the dip of his throat whilst I unbutton his jeans, sliding my hands inside and around to his firm, muscular arse. I smile into his neck when I realise he isn’t wearing any underwear. There he was scolding me earlier for being naked under my clothes, and here he is butt naked too. His jeans fall to the floor and he kicks them off. I run my hands gently over his skin, smoothing my palms against his shoulders, his arms, across his abdomen, his hips and arse. God, I love his arse, I could hold onto it allday.
Bryce searches out my mouth and kisses me, the coarse hair of his beard adding to the sensation of his soft lips. He slides his hands behind me and unzips my dress, easing the straps from my shoulders. It falls to the floor and I am naked beforehim.
“Look at you,” he says, kneeling in front of me. “Do you know how much I fucking love you?” He presses his mouth against my stomach, then splays his hand over my belly, gazing up at me. “One day I will be a dad and you, sweetheart, will carry my baby inhere.”
“Come here,” I say softly, wanting him desperately. The thought that one day I could be a mum and this beautiful man the father of my child lifts my heart. In this moment, I imagine three gorgeous kids, a little boy with Max’s cheekiness, another with Bryce’s empathy and a little girl with Hudson’s stunning sea-greeneyes.
Bryce rushes upwards, cups my face with his hands and kisses me hard against the mouth. I press against him, flushed skin against flushed skin, groaning under his lips. He is hard for me and I am wet for him. His hands tangle in my hair. I feel him wrapping a length around his fist before he tugs gently, forcing my headback.
“Bryce,” I whimper as he brushes his lips against my jaw, his teeth grazing over the skin until he reaches my ear lobe, biting down gently just as his fingers tug at my nipple. The combination sends a thrill straight to my crotch. I let out a moan. Bryce twists my head back around, his fist yanking on my hair, a little more sharply this time. Our mouths meet; lips, teeth and tongues clash. My fingernails scrape against his back. My touch is urgent, demanding, and as his cock presses up against my belly I want nothing than to take it in my mouth. I push against his chest, and he immediately frees my hair from his grasp. Worry passes over hisfeatures.
“Sweetheart?”
I smile at him, letting him know I am okay. Then I trail my hands over his chest, lowering them to his cock, and fist him at the base. He intakes a sharp breath as I take my turn to kneel in front of him. Looking up from my position on the floor, I sweep my tongue across my lips, wetting them, then open my mouth, gently wrapping my lips around him. A low groan escapes his throat as my fisted hand begins to slide up and down his shaft. I pull him deeper into my throat, wanting to take all of him, wanting to free him of the pain he feels, and blot it out with ecstasy instead. I suck and swirl, sliding my hand in smooth, even strokes, repeating the action over and over. His balls tighten as he rocks his hips, and I know he is on theedge.
“Louisa, no more. I don’t want to come, not like this, not today. Right now, I want to love you, sweetheart,” he says, his hips stilling. A pool of desire fills my chest at his words, his control. I let him go gently, freeing him from my lips, and stand. He pulls me in for a deep kiss, then scoops me up into his arms and lays me on thebed.
“I love you,” he says softly, brushing his lips across myown.
“I love youtoo.”