Picking Up The Pieces: Book 1 of the Broken Series

by Sienna Grant

  We pull up on the drive, his house looks huge, especially compared to my little flat. We get out of the car, and he unlocks the door and stands aside so I can enter the house with Grady. We walk up the hallway, and he shows me to the lounge.

  “Go and sit down if you want to, I just need to let out Max, and I’ll be right back,” I nod to him and enter the room.

  The room is decorated modestly with greys and whites, he has a black leather three-piece suite and a glass coffee table, dark curtains and French doors the other end of the room. I walk over with Grady in my arms and look out, the doors lead onto a huge deck with patio furniture, and I can see a canopy above sheltering the furniture and the deck because of course, you can never tell with good old British weather!

  I hear feet pounding on the hard floor and not seconds later Max comes pounding through the door towards us. I hear Blake shouting to him, but he isn’t listening one bit, I chuckle and bend down to pat him, “Hello boy, he’s fine, don’t worry.”

  I put Grady on the floor, and Max sits. Grady touches his nose, and he giggles, Blake comes over and shows Grady how to stroke him, Max licks Grady, and he chuckles again, but Max loves the attention because he’s rolled over onto his back so Grady can rub his belly.

  “Are you ok?” I nod my head, he grabs my hand and gently pulls me towards him, he kisses me again, “I can’t get enough of you, you know that gorgeous girl? I love kissing you,” I blush because I feel exactly the same, I don’t know what he’s doing to me but I know I want him, and I also know that I want to be with him.

  “What’s going through that beautiful head of yours, huh? Tell me,” I look down so I can gather my thoughts and he lifts my chin, “Don't hide from me, you can tell me.”

  “I was just thinking what a beautiful house you have,” I capture my lip between my teeth and push my hair behind my ear and look away from his intense gaze.

  “Thanks, but that’s not what you were thinking, you know how I know that?” I shake my head in response, “You bite your lip when you’re thinking, and you get a little crease here between your eyes,” he touches the crease as he’s talking and just that innocent touch has my heart beating rapidly.

  “So tell me,” I frown at him a little wondering how he’s caught on to my little quirks so quickly, I decide to go for it.

  “I was thinking how much I really like you, and I was thinking how much happier I’ve been over the last few days I suppose, it’s hard for me to open up. I was also thinking how much I like you kissing me, and how safe I feel when I’m with you,” before I get the chance to look away from him, he’s captured my face in his hands and plants his lips on mine.

  Before I know it his tongue is demanding entry. I open up to him, but this time, he kisses me deep, deeper than any other time, his hands moves from my face. One hand goes into my hair, and the other one travels down my ribs and around the back of me until his hand his resting on my bum, and he pulls me closer to him. I can feel his erection pressing against me.

  I slow the kiss down as Grady is here and if I don’t I’ll demand he takes me to his bedroom right now – but that can’t happen, not while Grady’s awake anyway.

  I pull away from him and lick my lips, he does the same, he pecks my lips again and gives me the sexiest smile I’ve ever had directed at me. I look down to see that Grady is still playing with Max, thank god, I see Blake re-adjust himself, and I smirk at him knowing I caused that, he raises his eyebrow in amusement and shakes his head at me.

  “I’ll go get us a drink.” He turns, and I watch that sexy arse walk away from me.

  BLAKE

  I walk into the kitchen and go straight to the sink, fuck, I run the cold tap and cup some water in my hands so I can splash on my face. I could do with an ice cold shower right now, but this will have to do. I grab my dick with my hand and beg it almost to go away, I try to think of things that may work to kill it off.

  After a few minutes, it starts to soften. Thank fuck for that! I can hear Max bounding around and Grady chuckling, they must be playing together.

  I open the fridge door to grab us both a bottle of water, I open mine, and I take a long gulp from the bottle, once I’m a little more refreshed I go over our conversation, she said she likes me, and how safe she feels when we’re together. I feel a smile pulling across my face and vow that she’ll never have to worry about not feeling safe because I’ll always protect her - from this day forward.

  I want her so bad, but I want her heart too. I want to be the one she calls hers, and I want to be the one who breaks her walls down and hope she feels for me, the way I’m starting to feel for her. I go back into the lounge, and she’s got Grady on her lap.

  “You okay baby?” I ask her gently.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” she replies smiling shyly. “Grady’s tired, I think Max has worn him out. They’ve been running around here like lunatics,”

  “Yeah I heard them,” I reply as I rub my fingers down her face. I hand her a bottle of water. She takes it from me and thanks me, I watch her wrap her lips around the top of the open bottle, and I can feel my dick getting hard again.

  I look away to rid my mind of the dirty thoughts going through my mind right now and peek at Grady, I can see he’s falling asleep.

  “Grady’s going to sleep what do you want to do?”

  “Can you take us home, I can put him to bed and maybe we can have some time to ourselves then, what you think? If you don’t want to, that’s fine, or, if you’ve got something else…” I cut her off from her rambling with a hard kiss on her lips, I’m not going to have her start feeling insecure now when she’s finally starting to open up.

  I cup her chin in my hand, “I’d love to come back to yours and spend some time with you; just you!” I loosen her chin, she looks away from me, and she gets up with Grady in her arms. I lock the back door, give Max some clean water then we head to the car and make the ten-minute journey back to Lex’s place.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  ALEXIA

  I’m sitting in the front seat of Blake’s car, I look out the window watching the scenes fly past me, I’m stuck in my own space at the moment, thinking, worrying, I play with my bottom with my thumb and forefinger.

  Am I doing the right thing, I really like him? He’s sweet, understanding, patient; he knows I have insecurity and confidence issues. What if I’m not enough for him and thinks I’m not worth the hassle after all, we haven’t known each other long! What if we’re rushing things by spending all this time together?

  Grady likes him too I can tell, he doesn’t have many people around him…what if I make the wrong decision and it doesn’t work out and then Grady will suffer again. I chew on my lip thinking of all the things that could go wrong.

  “Hey, what are you thinking about over there?”

  “Hmmm, oh nothing...really. I’m fine,” I answer, still looking out the window.

  “Are you kidding, princess, I can hear your mind working from here,” I frown out the window not knowing what to say to him. I feel him take hold of my hand and entwine his fingers with mine and rest our joined hands on my leg.

  “Princess, what’s wrong. Please tell me,” I look across at his handsome face, he looks so concerned, it’s not fair for him to worry about me all the time. We’re just starting out and already he’s had me crying on him twice with my pathetic issues.

  Blake lifts my hand to his lips and kisses my hand. I swoon a little as I feel the car come to a standstill. We stay in the car for a little while in the quiet, Grady is fast asleep so I move to get out of the car, but Blake holds me in place.

  “Lex,” I turn my head so I can see his face. “Listen to me, we’re going inside then we’re going to talk about what’s worrying you, okay?”

  I don’t answer I just nod my head slightly, so he knows I’ve heard him. He loosens his grip on my hand, and I step out of the car, I go around to Grady’s door, I get my flat keys from my bag and hand them to Blake.

  “Can you open up
the doors please and I’ll get Grady out,” I open his door, unfasten his harness and carefully lift him out and I place him gently aagainst my chest so his head is resting my shoulder.

  Blake locks the car and walks on in front and opens the doors for us, I take him straight to his cot, I manage to strip him of his shorts and shoes while he stays asleep but leave his t-shirt on. I kiss him on the head and say goodnight to him, turn off the light and leave the door open.

  I stand with my back against the wall and rest my head back and will myself to walk in the lounge, I know what’s waiting for me, and I don’t know whether I’m ready to share everything yet, I don’t know whether I’m strong enough.

  What if I tell him that Paul raped me and he doesn’t want me after all?

  I breathe in through my nose and let a shaky breath out, not a soul knows about that. My hands are shaking, I close my eyes and do the same thing over again about five times. I open my eyes, walk to the bathroom and take a long hard look at myself.

  “You can do this, be strong, it’s just Blake,” I whisper to the mirror. I open the bathroom door to see Blake standing the other side leaning against the wall.

  “Sorry, do you want to use the bathroom?” I must have stood out here longer than I thought, shit!

  “No, I came looking for you, I figured you had a secret door or something that you were going to try and sneak off into and hide from me,” he smiles a crooked smile, which also makes me relax a little.

  He wraps his arm around my shoulders and brings me in close to him, he rubs his hand up and down the tops of my arms, kisses the top of my head and leads me back towards the lounge.

  We enter the lounge, I ask him if he wants a drink, I go into the fridge get a bottle of rose wine for me, a glass, and a beer for Blake and head back into the lounge.

  BLAKE

  I knew when she had been gone for so long there was something wrong, especially after the way she was in the car. She doubts herself again, but I think there maybe something more to it. I watch her walk into the kitchen to get us a drink when she walks back into the lounge she has a pensive look about her, I need to reassure her that I’m not going anywhere, no matter what!

  I hold my hand out to her, she puts the drinks on the coffee table and clasps it in hers, and comes to sit next to me, she tucks her feet under her and leans into me. I wrap my arm around her and sit in the tranquil quiet of the room. I’m still holding her other hand, fingers entwined together, I lift her hand and kiss the tips of all her fingers.

  Opening her dainty hand out, I kiss her palm, then her wrist…I glance sideways very slyly so I can see her, her breathing is quickening, and her eyes have glazed over, she’s watching my mouth and every touch that I give her.

  “So do you want to talk?” I ask still gently kissing up her arm. “Not really…but I suppose we have to,” she answers quietly.

  She turns the television on, maybe to create a distraction, she’s absentmindedly flicking through the channels, back off in her own head space. I take the remote control and turn the telly off.

  “Why did you do that?” she looks at me frowning, I reach smooth out the crease in between her eyes like I did earlier. I turn her to face me and take hold of her other hand for support.

  “Come on, out with it, I’m gonna sit here until you give me something. Princess…I know it’s going to be hard going back through everything, but I think you need to, keeping it inside here isn’t working.” I touch her temple softly and rub my index finger across her scar, I put my hand on her cheek and rub my thumb across her cheekbone, and she leans her face into my hand, I lightly kiss her lips. “But you also need to know, I’ll be here for you, for Grady. I want you to trust me, I promise I’ll listen, I can’t promise not to get angry, though, the thought of anyone putting their hands on you and hurting you makes me want to find them and fuck them up.”

  The tears slowly start to trickle down her face, and she roughly wipes them from her face, I kiss her salty tasting lips and then her forehead, I tuck her head underneath my chin, if I can make her feel safe that’s a start. She burrows her head into my chest and takes a breath and starts talking.

  “We’d been married 3 months when everything started to change. It started with cutting remarks; I could handle that. I just brushed them off. Paul was having trouble at work, he was stressed so I didn’t say anything, I thought it would be better if I kept my mouth shut. He was controlling – always needing to know where I was going, what I was doing, I met him pretty much straight out of school. I told you I met Becka at school, well neither of us wanted to go to college we just found jobs doing pretty much anything. After being with him for 18 months Becka and my parents saw a change in me, they said I should get rid of him…but I thought I loved him and told her she was being silly, not long after she met Mason and we drifted a little. My parents never liked Paul – but I was 18 and knew everything – or so I thought. Anyway, things progressed, his mood never really changed, even when work picked up, it was as if I was the one that made him miserable. We went through the motions for the next 12 months or so, he started insulting me, as if that would make it better. He’d say it was my fault he was that way, I didn’t actually listen to him at first, but it got worse. We both worked all hours, so we didn’t see each other much really, I picked up overtime wherever I could, so I didn’t have to see him. He was out all the time, and I never said anything to him about it. In all honesty, I really used to enjoy the peace, until the one night he came back, and he was completely smashed. He stunk of booze, it was gone midnight, I didn’t have a clue where he’d been. I stood to confront him when I heard the door open, I’d had enough. I asked him where he’d been and he told me it was none of his business, I went to speak again and crack, he hit me, right across the cheekbone, I was stunned, to say the least.”

  I hear her sniff, she looks up at me to see if I’m still listening, the tears are streaming down her face, I wipe her tears away with my fingers, and she carries on.

  “It got worse from there, it became a regular occurrence then. It was like he stepped over a line and couldn’t go back. I vowed I’d leave, but I couldn’t find the courage. I made excuses all the time for him, I believed it was my fault for so long, he’d apologise at first and be nice to me, I tried not to poke the bear at all, but it didn’t matter, because nothing changed.” I feel her shrug her shoulders. She leans over to the table to get her wine, has a long drink and puts it on the floor.

  “The time passed without me realising, Becka begged me to leave him, my parents couldn’t get through to me either, I wouldn’t admit to them what he was doing, I didn’t want to hear ‘I told you so’. I carried on as if nothing was happening, he never left bruises where they would be visible anyway so it was easy to play down.

  I stopped doing my hair, putting makeup on, I was the oldest Twenty-two-year-old ever I think. He went out more and stayed out later, I know he was screwing someone else, he used to reek of nasty perfume, I’m not stupid, I just didn’t care. One day when I got up the nerve to finally leave him, he was worse than ever, but he didn’t hit me. Instead, he wrapped his hand around my throat and pinned me to the wall and told me if I ever tried to leave him, he’d kill me. That day there was a change in him, I don’t know what it was, he scared me, Blake,” She looks at me, I can see the fear in her eyes and hear the it in her voice just from retelling the story. She settles back into the spot she was in and carries on.

  “I stayed, things between us calmed down a little; mainly because I tried not to piss him off by talking to him, he still threw the insults at me, thought it was funny. He got a new job driving a lorry, and he seemed happier. We even started talking again, a lot more civil than we had been anyway. I thought we’d turned a corner, we were a couple again, kind of. I then found out he just did that to get his end away, I had to stop taking the pill due to severe headaches, and he knew this; he just wanted a baby, that’s all I was to him. There was no emotion, no love there, all I felt was indifferen
ce, it was then I realised, I hated him. I found out I was pregnant with Grady three months later, I’d had no symptoms, my periods had stopped through stress the doctor had said.” She starts to cry now so I hold her tight.

  “He seemed happy when I told him I was pregnant, but not long after that, he went back to his old ways again. The abuse never stopped, he even hit a few times while I was carrying Grady – it was usually with the four-week period in between my appointments with the midwife. So any bruises or marks would be gone, he hurt me other ways too, he’d put me down, call me ugly, fat, useless, by the time I had Grady my self-confidence was at an all-time low, I hated myself, I hated him for what he’d done to me. I couldn’t see a way out of it. When I had Grady and was back to normal after the birth it all started again the physical abuse started again but the mental abuse got so much worse, and that’s what hurt most. You can recover from bruises, but it’s the words that leave the biggest scars, they stay with you forever, no matter how much you try to forget. When Grady was three months old I thought about ending it all, I had pills by the side of the bed, he beat me so bad I just wanted out, but I couldn’t do it. Grady opened his eyes and focused on me, and it cut straight to my heart, I then realised that I was all he had and we had to get out, his family were as bad as him, and there was no way my baby was going to end up with that scum. By the time Grady was 6 months old it was so bad, Becka tried to get me to leave but I wouldn’t even though I needed to, then something happened, and I had to get out. It was actually after I bumped into you in the café, I shouldn’t have been there, but I’d had enough of being controlled by him. That six months was me focusing on Grady and not him – he didn’t like it.”