Happily Ever After: A Contemporary Romance Boxed Set

by Piper Rayne

  “I want to tell you my story,” he softly said still not looking at me.

  “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

  “It’s time. I’m falling for you I think, so you should know all of me.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to that, but if he wanted to talk, I wasn’t going to stop him. It took courage to open up to someone and I wasn’t going to be the one who said no when he tried. I would listen and try not to pity him. I hated that and wasn’t going to be that way to someone else.

  “Okay,” I said when he didn’t go on.

  “It starts for me when I was about five. That was the day my mom left us. At least that’s what I was told. I know she was there when I went to bed and when I woke up the next day she was gone. I would never see her again. Part of me was happy for her, but a bigger part of my child brain was mad.”

  “Why? Why did she leave?”

  “I’m not so sure she did now that I’m older. I was told she did, but I knew my parents were fighting that night before I went to sleep. I tried so hard to stay awake so I could protect her if she needed me, but I fell asleep. When I got up the next morning, the house was more trashed than normal, and she was gone. I woke my dad up, big mistake, to ask him where she went and that’s when I got this.” He lifted his shirt and in the middle of his chest was a round scar about the size of a cigarette butt. “He held it to me while I screamed and asked me over and over ‘you ever gonna ask about that bitch again?’ until I had nothing left to scream. When he let me up, I said I would never talk about her again. I kept my word but always wondered where she went or if he did something to her. I’m sure it was the second option. She wasn’t the best parent in the world, but she loved me and that was all I needed to know. Not having her there, he started to take the abuse out on me. I was small for my age, not hitting a growth spurt until I was close to fifteen, so it took nothing for him to overpower me. The drinking got heavier and he used me nightly as his way to relieve stress.

  I was almost twelve when he came home from who knows where. He was in the worse mood I had ever seen him in. The second the front door burst open; he was on the hunt for me. Locking eyes with mine, a terror filled me like one I had never felt before. There was something different about him that night. He staggered closer to me and the hate I saw back in his eyes was almost as bad as what he did next.”

  I touched Zane’s arm to bring him back to the present. He was getting too involved in the story and he was starting to relive it. His body trembled under the blanket and I wasn’t sure if it was the same little boy terror he was feeling or if it was the fact that his story, in his mind, could ruin whatever was starting between us. I hoped my touch would reassure him I was there for him.

  “He came at me with a bottle of booze held high in his hand. Holding it above his head, he growled, actually snarled, at me as he brought it down. It clipped the side of my head breaking. The sharp edge of the glass cut my ear taking a part of it clean off.” He moved his hair away from the side of his face and I could clearly see the top part of his right ear was gone. “That wasn’t enough for him though. He got mad at me because I was bleeding on his floor and only a slob would do something like that. He pushed me to the ground and, with the tip of his work boot, kicked me across the floor to get me to use my body to clean up my mess. Our wood floors weren’t finished, it was one thing my mom would get mad about. The more he moved me around, the more slivers entered my body. Any thing I did to stop him only made him angrier, so I stopped fighting. I let him do what he was going to do and when he wore himself out and passed out in the chair, I packed a pillowcase full of clothes and left. I turned twelve a few days later and my birthday present was not having to deal with him.

  I never went back and kept going until I was far enough away, I knew he wouldn’t waste his precious time trying to find me. When Akio found me, I was still covered in sores and about ten pounds under weight. He instantly took me in and the ones already here, they treated me like their little brother right away.

  To say it took me months for the nightmares to stop would be a lie. It took years. Don’t get so down on yourself when you have a bad day. If we all had normal parents and a normal life, we wouldn’t be here. None of us judge each other on our pasts, only on what we do in that moment.”

  He put his hand on my cheek and comforted me after telling his story. Tears fell off my face landing on the soft pillow as I thought about all he had been through and how amazing he turned out to be.

  “I’m not perfect, Sno, but I try every day to be better than he was. In the end, that’s all we can do. Don’t pity me or feel bad for what I went through. It’s because of that I can be who I am now. Come here.”

  I folded deeper into his arms and let him hold me tight. To feel him and know he could still love after that, made me admire him. It also made me want to try harder and that was what I was going to do.

  20

  I hadn’t told anyone what I thought but felt I could after what he told me. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and started to tell him my story.

  “I think my stepmom killed both my parents,” I blurted out. It was deafening in the silence of the room. I couldn’t look at him while I said it, but I felt him tense up at my words.

  “Both your parents? How?” he asked.

  I was younger, but I remembered seeing her in our house more than once around the time my mom started to get sick. I didn’t put all of it together until my dad started to show the same symptoms my mom had and was gone within days like she was. I think she killed my mom to get to my dad and, being in his grief, he fell for it.”

  “How did she do that? Is she why you ran?”

  “Yes. Once my mom was gone, she managed to get into our house. Once she did that, she tricked my dad into thinking she loved him, and she would take care of him. My mom was the only one for him though. I’m sure part of why he went along with her was so I would have a mother figure again. He worked a lot and wasn’t home much, so it was her, me and the help.

  Jasmine, the one who pretty much raised me, kept an eye on me when he was gone, and she was a good barrier between my stepmom and myself. She didn’t trust her either and tried to warn my father. I think Jasmine was secretly in love with him, but because she was the help, she never felt good enough for him. She would have been the perfect fit for our family since we lost my mom.

  It went on for about five years that she was there and running everything. My dad had a new will drawn up and things had been shuffled. I think he left her most of the stuff he owned, but he didn’t leave her with the cash she was expecting. He left a lot of that to me and he left the business to me too. When she found out about that, that was when he started to get sick.

  It was the same as my mom. First she started to get nauseous. Then that turned into vomiting and diarrhea. Their appetite disappeared, then they had a hard time seeing anything. Weak and disoriented, it looked like they ended up with some kind of flu or food poisoning. And I probably would have thought that too, but I found something in her room. She made me go in there and clean all the time. I was her little slave and had to be at her beck and call. I grabbed a little bit of it to hide for when my dad came home that night. If he didn’t know what it was, he would know someone who would. That was the night he got home late, landed on the couch and never got up.

  I went into his room after he was gone to get a blanket my mom had made him. She found me cuddled under it in my room and lost her mind. That was the night she let all the staff go she hadn’t hired. I never got to see Jasmine or to tell her goodbye. It wasn’t only my father I lost that night, I lost everyone I had ever cared about. The only ones left shared my stepmom’s attitude toward me. I was nothing to her but something that got in her way.

  For the next two years, she kept me in a room in the basement. There weren’t any windows and there wasn’t a bed. I slept on the blanket my mom made my dad and rotated out between two worn out dresses I had outgrown years earlier.
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  One day, she came to me and said I could start sleeping in my room again as long as I finished all my chores. If I started to get lazy, she would throw me back in the basement. I did whatever she asked to not have to go back in that cold, dark room. I tried to find the plant she used to kill my dad, but she had gotten rid of it. I remembered the piece I stashed and went to go get that. I found it and moved it to my closet to show someone later but she had other plans for me.

  The same night I went to go get the flower from where I had stashed it, she found me and stopped me from doing anymore cleaning. She said we had an important guest coming to dinner and I needed to get cleaned up. She drew a bath for me, made me climb in even though it was burning me, and scrubbed me until I had red scratches all over my body. When she was done with that, she put me in a dress I had never seen before. With a bra on for the first time and underwear that was more like extra scrap pieces, she did my hair and even put on a little makeup.

  I went down with her to meet our mystery guest and as soon as he walked in, I felt every hair on my body stand up. He was a lot older than I was and the way she pawned all over him, told me he was there for something I wasn’t wanting to give.

  I wasn’t wrong. She was selling me to him for a million dollars. They even made a deal with me sitting right there like I was a statue they kept in the dining room. He wanted to make sure I was ‘pure’ since she could have said that, he paid, and he got bad merchandise. She said he could try for two million. I was to sit there and not say a word as they negotiated the price for my body.

  In the end, she won. If I wasn’t pure, he would still take me, but pay the one million. If I was pure and he was the one to taint me, he had to pay her the two million for ruining me. Sitting there shaking at what was about to happen, she ordered everyone to leave us alone. She brought us into the smaller living room then into the study and shut the door to the rest of the house. She didn’t care what happened to me as long as she got paid.

  Before he tried anything he went on about how many of his kids I would carry for him before I wasn’t good enough anymore. Then he would send me back and she could have other men pay to get what he threw out. I couldn’t let him do that to me and if I was going to fix it, I had to get out and fast. I waited for the right time and ran. I ran so hard, so fast and so far, my sides felt like hot pokers trying to keep me from breathing.

  I found the spot in the woods where I thought I was safe and waited. The day you stumbled through there was the day I thought I was going to die. I knew she had a bounty out on my head, but I couldn’t stay. Running was the only way I had even a little chance to live. Trusting all of you is hard for me and it isn’t because of anything you did, but because money changes people.”

  “I know it does, but none of us here are looking for any of that. We’re happy with what we have.”

  “I know. I’ve seen it, but you can’t blame me. I was almost sold to the devil and I escaped for the time being.”

  I told him about the dream I had over and over about killing her and hearing a voice in the distance telling me to stop running. I told him that the voice in my dream sounded like his. Maybe it was more of a premonition than a dream and he told me there was no way I could ever do that to another person. That I wasn’t the same as her and I couldn’t take a life even if they deserved it.

  “You’re not a bad person, Sno.”

  “But the dream, it feels so real and so does the high that comes from killing her.”

  “It isn’t you though. I know the dream feels good, but in real life, it would eat you alive. None of us blame you for any of it or the way you feel. We’ve all been there and if the rest of them knew, they would feel the same way I do. What she did was wrong, and nobody should be made to feel that way. I know all too well what it’s like to be nothing but a piece of property for someone.”

  “Your dad was in the wrong too. Maybe he knows my stepmom.”

  “Maybe they’re family,” he joked back.

  We both gave a small laugh and it felt good after the heavy topic we had been on for the past hour. I learned more about him and told him more about me than anyone had ever known, other than Jasmine. He didn’t flinch at my past and helped me to tell the rest of it. He even believed me when I told him my suspicions about my stepmom. If I would have known him before, maybe he could have helped me stop her from killing my parents and losing everyone I ever loved.

  I had a new family though and I had to remember that. They took me in without even questioning me and had treated me like one of them from the beginning. I was lucky for that and I had to remember that sometimes, I would have to go through the darkest nights to get to the brightest mornings.

  We didn’t say another word for a long time. We didn’t have to, the silence wasn’t awkward or bad, we were enjoying having one person who fully understood by our sides. I curled up to him and listened to his breathing. His warmth felt good next to me and, as I closed my eyes, I took a deep breath in and was intoxicated by his rugged smell.

  21

  His hand grazed the side of my face so softly, I wasn’t sure I felt a thing at first. When he got to my chin. He scooped it in his hand and lifted it, so I was facing him. In the dim light of the small lamp behind him on the nightstand, I couldn’t make out much more than the silhouette of his head.

  He kissed my forehead and held his lips there for a minute. Soft, warm and tender, I closed my eyes to enjoy how he felt next to me. I put my hand on his arm and gave it a light squeeze. He let out a small moan when my fingers met his bare skin. He ran his hand slowly down my back stopping before he reached my butt and moved it back up again. I wasn’t sure what was wrong with me, but I was disappointed when he stopped. I wanted him to touch me and to feel him all over me. It was the first time I had felt that way about anyone and, while it excited me, it also terrified me. What if he didn’t want me back and he was only doing what he was to make me feel better about opening up to him? Not being able to see him, I wasn’t able to read what he was thinking.

  “Relax, Sno. I won’t hurt you,” he whispered in my ear.

  The air he let out on my ear sent shivers through me making me break out in goosebumps all over. It also made parts of me feel alive that I hadn’t noticed before. I wanted to feel his lips on mine. To see what he tasted like and how he felt against me.

  Like he could read my mind, his lips slowly pressed on mine and after a few seconds, I felt his tongue start to part my lips. I didn’t fight it and welcomed his touch. He tasted so sweet, like the apple pie I made for dessert that night. He was gentle with me and paid attention to my body movements to make sure he wasn’t doing anything I didn’t want him to.

  The problem with that was, I wasn’t sure what it was I didn’t want from him. My mind was shutting off and my body was waking up. Things I hadn’t felt before were racing around inside of me and all I wanted to do was to feel him.

  He slowly put his hand in my shirt so I could feel his skin against my bare back. It was my turn to moan when he did that. I moved closer to him and pressed myself against him. Wiggling a little, I tried to snake in as close as I could and prayed he would let me.

  He did and when I felt him move closer, I placed my hand on the back of his head and moved his mouth back to mine. Slowly we started to kiss until they became more passionate and desperate. He needed to feel loved and wanted as much as I did, and I knew it. As I put my leg over him, he moved his hand to the top of my thigh. Through the thin fabric of the shorts I had on; I could feel the heat coming from him.

  Stopping mid kiss, he sat up in my bed. Moving the covers off him, he stood and walked to the door. I sat there watching him and wondered what I’d done wrong. I waited for him to walk out and go back to his room when I heard the soft click of my door being shut. Coming back, I could see him a little better since the light wasn’t right behind him.

  He moved his shirt off him and took his pants off right as he got back to the bed. Standing there, naked in front of me,
I took him all in. He was so handsome I couldn’t keep my eyes off his chiseled chest and muscular abs. They led straight down his front to a perfect V where I could see all of him standing there looking back at me. His arms flexed a little as he stood there, and I saw his jaw clench then relax over and over.

  Climbing back in the bed and under the blanket, he reached for me. Putting his hands on my shirt, he slowly lifted up until it was over my head. Flinging it on the floor next to his clothes, he put his lips on my chest. Taking each nipple in his mouth and letting his tongue dance over them, I arched my back letting out a soft moan as wave after wave of tingles raced over me.

  Reaching down, he untied the front of my shorts and slid them past my thighs. Lifting up off the bed to help him get the last piece of clothing off that separated us, he tossed them on the side of the bed too. He moved the blanket off me for a moment and looked at me with the same hungry glance I had given him when I saw him standing there naked in front of me. He let his hand fall to the top of my chest just under my collar bone and traced a line all the way down to where my legs met each other. Pausing there, he drew little circles over my most sensitive area and, as I got ready to welcome him, he pressed himself up against my leg.

  Spreading them, he hovered over me using his arms to prop himself up. Slowly he moved down and in between my legs with his body. I felt him on the outside of me and I wanted more. I moved to press up against him and he took that as his sign to go on. Inch by inch I felt us become one and, once the pain wore off, I was taken to a whole new place of pleasure I had never felt before.

  He was slow, gentle and careful to make sure I was enjoying it as much as he was. With every thrust, I felt my body get closer and closer to releasing. As he got harder, he started to move faster. As I climaxed, I could feel him push harder. It wasn’t long and he let out his own moan, tossed his head back and shivered.