Second Nature (His Chance #2) - Alexa Land Page 0,6
of drugs. This time, I got to experience all of it, from the softness of his hair against my cheek to the clean scent of his skin and the warmth of his body. It felt unbelievably good.
“You’re right. I didn’t think of that.”
“You tried so hard to take care of me.” After another pause, I said, “That entire year, when I was so sad and miserable with that sadist who called himself a Dom, do you remember how you’d cheer me up?”
He whispered, “I’d do your makeup, or I’d let you do mine. It seems dumb now, but it was all I had with me, just a bag with a few cosmetics. I didn’t know what else to do to take your mind off things.”
“Those times with you were a light in the darkness, and they meant everything. It’s no wonder I have such a positive association with makeup, and why I gravitated to it as a career. It always reminded me of you.”
His voice broke. “I’m so fucking sorry, Riley.”
“For what?”
“For not getting you out of there sooner. It was a terrible situation, and that man was a psychopath.”
“You tried,” I said, as I held him more securely. “Don’t you remember? You spent months trying to convince me to leave, but I wouldn’t do it. That’s how lost I was to my addiction. As long as Mason Simeck kept supplying me with drugs, I stayed and let him do whatever he wanted to me. I wouldn’t let you help me until I terrified myself by nearly overdosing.”
“I always wondered if you stayed because you had a relationship with Simeck and he meant something to you.”
“That wasn’t it at all,” I said. “It was a business arrangement. One of his flunkies would bring me food or drugs or alcohol, whatever I needed, and I almost always stayed in that upstairs bedroom. The only time I saw Simeck was when he summoned me to his basement dungeon. He didn’t even provide aftercare. I think the reason he started sending you up to my room was because he didn’t want the responsibility of actually taking care of me.”
Gabriel sounded heartbroken when he whispered, “It’s even worse than I thought. I should have tried harder to get you out of there.”
“Like I said, you really tried, but you couldn’t force me to go until I was ready. I shouldn’t have left San Francisco without you, though. I was so scared I’d never find you again, but here you are. It feels like a miracle.”
“It does.”
I told him, “I went back and tried to find you a few months after I finished rehab, but you’d totally disappeared.”
He tilted his head to meet my gaze and asked, “You went to San Francisco?” When I nodded, he sat up and exclaimed, “I told you never to do that, Riley, because it’s not safe for you there! Simeck promised to find you and beat the hell out of you if you ever left. Don’t you remember the armed thugs he kept at his beck and call? They tracked me down months after you went away and tried to bring me to him, probably because his security cameras caught me sneaking you out of his house. I barely escaped, and then I went into hiding. Later on, I tried to go back to San Francisco and just lay low, but the city never felt safe after that.”
“I’m so sorry, Gabriel.”
“Why are you apologizing?”
“All of that happened because of me. I should have been strong enough to get out on my own, without involving you.”
He said, “You can’t blame yourself for the choices you made when you were struggling with addiction.”
“That’s good advice. You should take it too, and stop feeling guilty about not getting me out of there before I was willing to leave.”
A smile tugged the corner of his lips. “I’ll work on it.” It disappeared quickly though, and he said, “Wait a minute. Will’s about to go to San Francisco for three weeks. Are you planning to go too, since you’re working on the same film?”
“Actually, I’ll be there for six weeks. His part wraps earlier than the others, and I’m under contract until the end of the production.”
“You can’t go, Riley.”
“I have to, because I need this job,” I said. “Besides, it’s been four years. There’s no way Simeck’s still searching for me after all this time.”
“No, I’m sure he’s not actively looking for you, but you may still run into him or one of