Now, here she was with a man she had only known a short time, someone she should still feel like she was getting to know, and she trusted him with every fiber of her being. He meant every word that came out of his mouth. She could see it in his eyes when he looked at her. Feel it when he touched her.
He tucked her head under his chin as he stroked his hands up her back. “Don’t cry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” She felt his breath tickle the small hairs around her face as he rested his lips on her forehead.
The gentle way he treated her was enough to send those damn tears loose. “It’s not you.”
How could she explain the way he made her feel without sounding crazy and way too invested for the short time they’d known each other? “I just… I’ve never been with someone like you.”
He stilled under her. “I know.” His words were clipped, his voice quiet. His breathing was slow and steady, but his heart was pounding beneath her ear. “How did your marriage end up like it did?”
Her heart sank.
Did knowing her past make him question her? Her judgment? Maybe even her sanity?
Rolling off him, she tried to hide the tears of embarrassment and uncertainty as they trickled down her face and headed to the bathroom. She heard him behind her as he struggled up from the couch.
He grabbed the back of her shirt and tugged her back into his chest, wrapping his arms around her. “Don’t run from me angel. Please.” He littered kisses down the nape of her neck. “I want you to talk to me. I know it was a terrible time for you, and if you don’t want to talk about it with me just yet, I understand.”
He spun her in his arms and tipped her chin forcing her to look in his eyes. “But don’t run from me. Tell me you’re not ready.” He pressed a chaste kiss into her lips.
“It’s hard to talk about.” It was. Even after all this time. Did she know it wasn’t her fault? Of course. Should she be embarrassed? Hell no. Was she anyway? Absolutely.
“It’s hard to hear about.”
Her stomach twisted in knots. God only knows what he must think of her. She didn’t care what anybody thought of her. Until now.
She cared what he thought. The idea that her past could come between them made her sick to her stomach. The idea her ex-husband would ruin something else for her made her want to kick him in the nuts all over again. Well, nut.
“Hearing about someone hurting you, especially someone who was supposed to protect you…” He stood quietly for a minute, the small muscle in the side of his jaw twitching. “It’s difficult for me to handle.”
Fresh tears sprung to her eyes. He wasn’t judging her. “I just feel so…”
She sniffed into his chest, breathing in his scent, letting it soothe her fears. “I should have known. Should have realized sooner. I just… I don’t know how I ended up there.”
She’d never discussed the way the incident affected her. She’d relived the events more times than she could count. Cops, attorneys, juries, she’d explained what happened to them all. Telling the factual information was easy, dealing with her feelings about it proved much harder.
He crushed her to his chest. “How could you have known? People hide who they are Mina. The scariest people are the ones who are the best at it.” He rubbed her back as he held her. “Come on. Let’s go sit back down.”
He held her hand, leading her to the couch. He sat down, tugging her onto his lap. Holding her against his chest, he gently ran his hands up and down her arms. The softness of his touch relaxed her as she melted into him.
“I was married before too.”
What? A surge of jealousy ate through her body making her stomach clench. It was a ridiculous reaction, especially given she had also been married and had children, but the idea of Thomas proposing to someone, taking care of her, treasuring her made Mina feel a little crazy.
She tried to keep her voice casual, as casual as possible when you were considering murdering some poor woman simply for being the ex-wife of a man you were sort of dating. “I didn’t know that.”
She was dying to know what happened. Why they were no longer married. Should she ask? Could she ask? He had just asked her a similar question and had to chase her across the room as she fled in tears.
“Would you like to know what happened?” His voice was flat, emotionless. If she were a less experienced person, she would assume he was over what happened. But she had been through enough herself to know that tone meant something entirely opposite. He was still hurt from the end of his marriage. Maybe he wasn’t over her.
“Yes.”
That might be a lie. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. But she needed to know. What he had been through would color their relationship, if that was where this was heading. “If you want to talk about it.”
He sighed as he continued his slow stroking, now running his fingertips softly up and down her legs. “Mary and I were married three years. We split up two years ago. She had an affair with her boss and left.”
Mina was stunned. She sat up so she could look at him. “She just left? To be with him?” What in the world would possess a woman to leave a man like Thomas? Not just leave, but cheat on him and then leave.
“No. She didn’t want to be with him either.” He paused, taking a deep breath.
“I wanted a family. I was ready. She told me that was what she wanted too otherwise I wouldn’t have married her. Somewhere along the line, I guess she just changed her mind, changed her priorities.”
Mina searched his face looking for some clue of how he felt about all this. The pain in his eyes broke her heart.
It seemed like she wasn’t the only one struggling with the aftershocks of an awful marriage. Discovering the person you have built a life with is essentially a complete stranger shakes you to the core. It threatens every relationship you’ve ever had and will ever have, making you question the motives of every person you come across. You become suspicious and if you’re not careful, you will drive people away.
Is that what Thomas tried to do with her?
“Why didn’t you call me after I came to see you in the hospital?” She laced her fingers with his wanting to be sure he knew she wasn’t upset. “You disappeared. Went into hiding. Why?”
Thomas looked at her, his blue eyes fixed on hers. “I was scared.”
“Of?”
“You.”
Happiness swelled inside her. Grabbing his face she brushed her lips against his. The soft tickle of his whiskers brushed against her skin. His hands pressed into her back, forcing her body closer against his chest as he deepened the kiss.
She loved the way he tasted, the way he smelled, the way he felt under her hands. She couldn’t get enough of him. She wanted to see him tomorrow, and the next day, and every day after that.
He had been through so much in his life and came out on the other end a kind, gentle, caring man. A man who deserved to have everything he’d wanted for so long. She wanted to give it to him. Show him what it could be like to have a woman who loved him and would take care of him. Someone who would appreciate everything about him. Someone like her.
TWENTY
Thomas made the now familiar trek along the sidewalk and up the stairs. He hadn’t even hit the top step before Mina had the door open and was waving at Nancy as she drove away.
He had been to see her every day this week, and other than the day of his physical therapy appointment, had spent each day helping her finish little projects on her own house while she waited to be able to get back to work at the other house. Waking up every morning knowing he would be spending the day with her was almost as good as waking up next to her would be. He wanted so much to fall asleep with her in his arms and feel her against him through the night. He just had to figure out how to get there.
If she didn’t have kids, he would probably have already found his way into her bed, but this was new territory for him and he just didn’t know what would be the best way for them. Did they need to be married or at the very least b
e engaged before he stayed? Being away from her was getting harder and harder by the day.
Each day after she dropped him off on her way to pick up the kids he spent the evening doing his physical therapy exercises and wishing he was with her. Fixing dinner, playing with Charlie, helping Maddie with her homework. All his life he’d wanted what filled the house in front of him and now finally, it was within his reach. And he was tired of waiting.
He cleared the top step and gathered her in his arms, one arm around her waist, the other around her shoulders as he tangled his hand in her hair and pulled her to him. He covered her mouth with his letting his tongue slide between her lips, unable to wait a second longer to have at least some part of him inside her. He could still taste the little bit of sweetness she liked in her coffee.
She snaked her hands inside his open coat and wrapped her arms around his waist, trying to pull him even closer. He hadn’t even made it inside and he was already straining against the fly of his blue jeans. He pulled away from her. Her small sound of protest made it damn near impossible not to grab her again, but he had to stay focused.
It was getting more difficult not to act on his desires, but he had to lay it all out on the table because once he had her, he knew he would never want to give her up. “We need to talk about some things.” He ignored the dread in her eyes he knew a comment like that would bring and grabbed her hand, almost dragging her inside.
She moved stiffly beside him then leaned against the wall, her arms crossed against her chest as he closed the door behind them.
“I talked to some people who work at the city last night.”
The relief on her face was quickly replaced by confusion. ‘We need to talk’ usually meant one thing. From the look on her face, she thought that was where this conversation was going. If she really believed that, she wouldn’t be more wrong about his intentions with her, but that conversation had to wait at least a few minutes longer.
“About Don?”
He’d told her about his conversation with Don, and as he’d guessed she did tell Paul. She basically had to, she was his primary source of work and her being at a standstill affected his income as much as it did hers.
“Yeah. Turns out he was already on probation for something that happened earlier this year. They’ve opened an investigation into Paul’s complaint.”
Her eyes widened. She clearly didn’t realize the ramifications of reporting a city employee for bad behavior, especially one like Don. “Oh God.”
He headed to the couch needing to sit down for this conversation. He’d tossed and turned all night after his talk with his friend at the city. As soon as he hung up the phone he’d wanted to go to her house, make sure she was okay, but he knew that would be overreacting.
Mina wasn’t technically the one to report Don and it sounded like he knew that. Hopefully he was splitting all his rage at the situation between him and Paul and leaving her out of it.
“They’re going to be calling. They want to talk to you, hear what happened directly from your mouth.”
“Oh.” Her voice was right behind his as she followed him toward the couch. He stopped, remembering how sitting on the couch tended to go.
Changing directions, he went and sat at the table. Hopefully he could make it through the conversation before being distracted by the fact he could see the hardness of her nipples as they brushed against her shirt.
Propping his cane against the chair he watched as she sat across from him and folded her hands in front of her, blocking his view of her breasts. Thank God for that.
“I guess Paul told them this wasn’t the first time Don was out of line, so they’re going to want to hear it all.”
He watched her, trying to read her face, but it was impossible. Somehow she developed quite a poker face in the past five minutes.
“I was really hoping to never have to do anything like this again.”
“Like what?”
“Go to interviews where you have to recount things you don’t remember perfectly. Explain why you did the things you did, or didn’t do.” She stared across the room, her face drawn. “You end up feeling like they are questioning you too. Why didn’t you do this, or why’d you let that go.” She shook her head. “It just makes you feel like an idiot.”
He reached across the table, taking her hand. “Nobody thinks you’re an idiot. You handled Don the best way possible. He just wouldn’t give it up. You’d probably still be okay handling it if he hadn’t found out about us.” He stroked his thumb across the back of her hand. “I can go with you. It will be okay. I promise.”
She smiled weakly. He was regretting his decision to sit at the table. He wanted so much to hold her and kiss the look of worry off her face, but he had one more thing he needed to talk about before he could do that.
“Mina, I will take care of this. I’ll take care of you.” He took a deep breath. It was time to lay his cards on the table. “I want to always take care of you.”
Her eyes searched his.
He went on. “I’m not just killing time here. My priorities, what I want in my life, it hasn’t changed.” He wanted to say more, but held back not wanting to push too hard.
Just then, a buzzing came from the coffee table where her phone lit up and vibrated, inching across the surface. “I should get that in case something’s on fire.” She shot him a little smile over her shoulder as she sat on the couch and grabbed her phone.
“Damn.” Sighing she swiped her finger across the screen connecting the call. “Hello?”
Thomas made his way across the room to join her on the couch. He had a guess about who was calling and why. Whoever it was, she wasn’t happy to hear from them and he wanted to be there to lend support however he could.
“That’s fine. Tuesday is good. Okay. Thank you.” She ended the call and slouched back against the couch. “They sure aren’t wasting any time are they?”
He gently combed his fingers through the silky strands of her dark hair as she leaned into him, her head resting against his shoulder.
“They’re taking this seriously. Don’s been a thorn in their side for a while now and they need to deal with it before something else happens.”
“What is his problem anyway?”
Trying to explain Don’s issues to a woman was like trying to explain blue balls. Unless you had a scrotum, it sounded ridiculous. “He’s just insecure.”
She chuckled as she snuggled against him, swinging one leg across his lap. “I figured that out the first time I met him.” She tucked her face against his neck and he could feel her warm breath against his skin. “I mean, why is he like this?”
The feel of her wrapped around him in the quiet of the empty house had his mind miles away from the conversation they were having. All he could think of was everything he had to look forward to with her. Peaceful moments like this. Crazy times with rowdy kids running through the house like maniacs. Intimate moments…
“Thomas?” Her lips brushed his neck as she said his name snapping him back to reality.
Thomas sighed. “Don was a scrawny kid. I don’t know that anybody made fun of him for it. If they did, I never saw it.” He wrapped his hand around the back of the thigh she had draped across him pulling her a little closer. “Anyway, he ended up getting tired of always being the skinniest kid and started lifting weights in high school.”
“So he looked like he does now in high school?”
“No way. He didn’t get like he is now until a few years ago. Rumor has it he uses things he shouldn’t.”
“Steroids.”
“Probably. It would explain the bad attitude.”
“And the aggression.”
Thomas felt his body go rigid. What did she mean aggression? Had she not told him everything? “Did he do something to you?”
“Oh! No. I didn’t mean that. I just mean everything he does is aggressive, not necessarily in a violent way.”
Her voice was quiet against his shoulder. “Not that I ha
ven’t dealt with that before.”
He tried to avoid thinking about what happened to Mina, but it was always lurking in the back of his mind. Someone tried to hurt her and to a certain extent succeeded. She’d come out stronger on the other end, but that didn’t erase what happened. It would be with her forever.
He hadn’t known Mina then, but he still felt guilty he wasn’t there to protect her. He was now though. And he would make damn sure no one hurt her ever again. Especially not some meat head prick with a chip on his shoulder.
She held up her foot rotating it at the ankle. “Hopefully I still have decent aim.”
**************************************
She’d expected Thomas to laugh. She was kidding. In the self-defense classes she took over the past couple of years she learned there were much more reliable ways to take a man down.
He didn’t seem amused.
In fact he seemed to be more agitated. It didn’t make sense. What happened with her ex was over, this thing with Don was just starting. Maybe for guys a swift kick to the balls was no joking matter regardless of the circumstances.
She leaned up to look at him. His jaw was set, his mouth a hard line. “I’m kidding. I don’t plan to make a habit of kicking men in their balls.”
“Some men deserve it.”
Did he mean Don? Her ex certainly had.
She thought for a minute on whether or not to explain any more of what happened. He wasn’t lying when he said it was hard for him to hear about her past. Any time it came up, his mood immediately shifted. She didn’t want to keep bringing it up in bits and pieces so maybe putting it all out there was the way to go. “It ended up saving my ex’s life. He should probably thank me but I doubt he feels the same way.”
She waited for him to say something, but he just kept watching her, his eye twitching ever so slightly a murderous look on his face. Unsure what else to do, she kept talking.
“The people he’d been dealing with were coming for him. They didn’t want to risk him telling anybody anything. If he’d succeeded in…” Thomas’ hold on her tightened to the point it was difficult to breathe. She shifted trying to wrangle free from his grip with no luck. “If he had killed me and took off, they would have found him and killed him. Instead he ended up in the hospital, one ball lighter, but alive.”
Run (Never Waste A Second Chance Book 1) Page 16