Total pages in book: 181
Estimated words: 171979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 573(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 573(@300wpm)
“Shut up! I don’t want to hear what you and Livvy did!” Putting her hands over her ears, she couldn’t bear to hear the intimate details of their relationship.
Creed grasped her wrists and pulled her hands away from her ears. His body leaning over hers made her rear back until the mattress prevented her from moving any further away.
“I didn’t have any trouble walking away from her, either. I sure as fuck don’t miss having to brush my teeth numerous times so I can get the taste of her out of my mouth. When I started seeing you, I expected you to be the same as any other woman. I wanted you when I saw you in Matthias’ kitchen. I told myself all along I would be able to walk away from you … I didn’t expect you to walk away first. You want to hear a real shocker? I found out what that pain felt like. Let me tell you something else. I can fucking take pain that can put another man down.”
Creed’s piqued pride had her gaping at his loss of control. He was practically yelling at her, and he rarely ever raised his voice from his monotone level.
She watched, stunned, as he took a deep breath, and the angry glitter in his eyes returned to normal.
“With you, it was different. You swept the ground out from under me, and I’ve been digging myself out ever since.
“I love you, and I’ve never said that to any woman in my entire life. That’s the God’s honest truth. All I’m asking from you—if somewhere deep inside of you … if there is even a tiny part of you still in love with me—is to give our marriage a chance.”
She’d never expected Creed to tell her he loved her. She had no idea the Twister she had known had led such a chaotic life or been so deeply involved in the motorcycle club.
His sons. Finding out how hard their childhood must have been hurt her deeply. She’d been able to be there for Colby and Tinsley during Glory’s illness. No one had been there for Twister’s sons. They had been on their own, at the mercy of others with no familial ties to the three boys. She could only guess the terrible things the young boys had witnessed. It could have been horrific what they had been exposed to. Held hostage, their mother having to give birth without a medical professional, no one to hold them, give them a mother’s touch. She had a terrible feeling those were the least horrible things they had endured.
Fathers and mothers were the ones who taught their kids values, right from wrong, who were an example on how to have normal, healthy relationships. Creed and his brother hadn’t had those. They’d had outlaws.
Her hands came up hesitantly to touch his face, as if they belonged to another person. There was no doubt in her mind the man staring down at her was the real Creed. This man held a hint of cruelty plainly visible in the small lines next to his piercing eyes. Eyes that told her they’d experienced brutality and had survived. There were also secrets hidden in their depths of the ruthless man the club had created. The firm set of his lips gave her the biggest hint about his nature—a pitiless hardness of spirit of the man within who would rather die than break.
Her fingertips moved over the hard angles of his face with a softness meant to warm the man who had been left out in the cold for too long.
“Don’t you fucking feel sorry for me!” he snarled.
Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. “I can feel sad for what you had to go through without feeling pity for you. I feel sad for what Glory has had to go through, but I don’t feel pity for her. You carry your scars on the inside; Glory carries hers on the outside. Both of you have been hurt and have survived. How could I feel pity for something I admire?”
Creed’s hard expression didn’t ease. “Glory wasn’t the one who hurt you. I did.”
His forearms went to the mattress beside her to take his weight, his chest settling over hers as his mouth tentatively met hers, waiting for her reaction. One of her hands slide to the back of his head to bring his lips harder down on hers.
Tenderly, she kissed him, unable to hold back the love she felt for him. Yes, Creed had hurt her deeply. Yet real love, not made up in a fairy tale, wasn’t easy to be extinguished because it had been stomped on. Embers would remain underneath the surface until the final moment when there was nothing left. And there was one ember left burning inside of her for Creed. She could either let him tend the fire and bring it back to life or extinguish it completely.