He’s talking about wishing he could go back to that night when he was a little kid and make those bastards pay.
We meet eyes, a sudden feeling passing between us. “I will always protect you,” he snarls.
“I believe you,” I whimper.
I couldn’t not believe him.
The possessive inferno in his eyes is undeniable.
“So you see? I had this hole in me all my damn life. It was the size of a goddamn shotgun blast. It left me feeling angry and determined, but also somehow empty. No woman could ever make me feel. It’s a terrible thing to admit, but I was only with Natalie’s mother because she became pregnant. A man doesn’t abandon his child.”
I nod, my body sizzling under the force of his words.
He’d never allow anything to threaten our family, I know.
“But she did. She ran out. She said she never wanted to be a mother. I let her go. As long as I could give our daughter the best childhood possible, fine. Later, when Natalie was a teenager, she wanted to find her mom. So I hired a private detective and learned that she’d OD’d. I was sad for Natalie, for losing her mother. But I felt cold, detached. She wasn’t my woman. She abandoned her kid. She wasn’t you, Kelly.”
I shiver and nod, my whole body alight as his words wash over me in lava-like waves.
Chapter Fourteen
Kaleb
“What about you?” I ask, cutting into my steak and staring at the bloodiness of it, the carnal beast inside of me awakening at the sight of it.
I’m a fucking monster waiting to unleash on my woman, and the story I told her about what happened when I was a kid only solidifies that. I’ve never shared that with anyone before, never dreamed of it, but she’s opened up parts of me I never knew existed before I felt her touch.
Fuck.
I’m rock solid under the table, staring at a dollop of sauce at the corner of her lips, imagining it’s something else, that her lips are soaked in my precome from where she’s been greedily sucking me before I take her sweet precious virgin hole.
I need to keep it civilized, to remember that Kelly said she isn’t ready yet.
Even if I want to make her ready.
“What about me?” she asks, dabbing at her lip before forking some pasta.
I love the way she eats, fully and sexily, fueling her curvy body for when I flood her with my seed.
She’s getting ready to feed our children when they’re growing inside of her, and each mouthful makes me more certain she’s going to be an incredible mother.
“Your artwork,” I say, “where do you want to take it?”
I focus on the taste of the steak in my mouth as I chew, but that only makes me feel even more primal, even more beastly, because I can imagine I hunted this meat while she was waiting for me back at my cave, my virgin prize waiting to be claimed.
I’d tear the world to pieces to keep her safe.
“I want to illustrate children’s books,” she murmurs. “I’ve done a few already. But I want to make it my career.”
“I’ll support you, however, I can,” I tell her firmly, taking a sip of my soda. “For starters, you can quit that cleaning job.”
She gasps, her eyes going wide. I should warn her to be careful of those sorts of facial expressions around me. It makes me think of how she’d look with my shaft buried deep inside of her, balls deep.
I force the lust-filled thoughts away.
“Are you serious?” she says.
“Deadly. Why should you waste your talents as an artist cleaning toilets? I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with being a cleaner. It’s a fine job if you need the money. But you don’t need the money, my queen. You’ll never need for money again. I’m going to take care of you.”
She turns her gaze away for a moment, frowning softly. “I refused Mom’s money the same way Natalie refused yours. I wanted to stand on my own two feet.”
“Of course,” I growl passionately. “And I respect the hell out of you for that. But taking money from your parents and allowing your husband – the man who owns you – to support you are two very different things. We’re going to be together forever. And I know, given the chance, you’ll make a career out of your talent anyway. I’m just giving you a bit of breathing space.”
She bites her lip for a moment, nodding. “I have been thinking of working on my own children’s book. I’ve got this idea… It’s nothing right now, just a little story about a girl who falls into a pond and ends up in this weird fantasy land. I don’t know. I need to iron out a lot of the details.”
“Exactly.” I reach over and take her hand, squeezing it softly, but with an undercurrent of supportive domination, I’m sure she’ll be able to feel through my touch. “And I’m offering you the time to iron out those details. You don’t need to split your focus. You don’t have to take me up on this offer, but I think it would be the best thing for your career, for your talent, for your life.”