were old-fashioned. We led traditional, to some, crazy lives because of it. But what Anna and Robert had done to Adam was disgraceful.
It changed my opinion of them, and of Anna in particular. I’d never really settled that well with her, because I knew, to her, I was an opportunity to make things right in the public eye.
She had goals, was ambitious. She wanted back into the political sphere, and the only way to smooth over her son’s shitty past was through me. But Robert? I didn’t get it.
I shook my head. “I’m surprised by your father.”
“Why?”
“Surprised he let you go through with this.”
“None of us had a choice,” he rasped, and while it might have been uncharitable to think he was weak, spineless for following through with his parents’ and Maria’s machinations, I saw then there was a strength to him. A resolve and an inner fortitude that made him the good and decent man I knew him to be.
Cain had wronged him in so many ways, yet here he was, trying to protect him. Still protecting him, even though there’d never be any thanks.
With my free hand, I tugged at my bottom lip. “We can’t see each other. Coach wouldn’t allow it.”
“I know.” He cleared his throat. “Trust me, I know, and I won’t do anything to jeopardize your career, Thea. I wouldn’t do that to you.”
Selfless.
It hit me just how selfless he was, and how selfish I’d been.
“I should have tried—”
“Tried to talk to me? I’d have walked away. There was no way I was putting this shit on your shoulders, and there was no way I wouldn’t have been able to the second we talked. Look at this. Look at what just happened between us,” he rumbled. “I can’t stay away from you, Thea. You’re in my blood.”
I knew exactly how he felt, and that was why, hours later, I fell asleep in his arms after he made love to me again. Yeah, I was sore, but I didn’t know when we’d have this opportunity again. Or if we ever would.
I woke up in his arms, got showered and changed with him watching me and me watching him. The bittersweet tang of knowing Maria had this right to him in the eyes of the law, a right I’d never have, was painful, but I dealt with it. I handled it because I had to.
He didn’t want her.
Didn’t want this.
Neither did I.
So we had to make do.
“Come here,” he rasped, when we had to go down to the reception area to grab our bus.
I didn’t hesitate, I let him embrace me, let him kiss me. I breathed him in, and he did the same, absorbing every stolen moment, and trying to imprint it on my soul to keep me going.
He’d have kept it light, wouldn’t have made it heavy, but I couldn’t. I needed him.
So badly.
I thrust my tongue into his mouth, not letting him soothe me with his hands, gentle me like I was some fractious horse. I wanted his passion, his desire. It made me feel real. Like these past few years hadn’t been as horrendous as they were at the time.
He groaned as I thrust my tongue into him, inciting him to the point where he shoved me around and pressed me into the wall. His dick burrowed into my belly, and even though I wasn’t ready for more, couldn’t have taken it, I felt it like the brand it was, and something inside me was pacified.
He was mine.
Every part of him.
She’d never have this, never have him in this way.
His hands grabbed mine, pinning them overhead, and he shoved me harder into the wall, letting me feel every inch of his hardness, letting me feel every inch of him.
He didn’t stop until I whimpered, panting against him, my body molten and melted against his.
Only then did he pull back, nipping at my bottom lip, pecking the top one, before he pressed his forehead into mine.
“I fucking love you,” he ground out.
I closed my eyes, because that would have to get me through. When he pulled away, I moved into him, running the edge of my nose against his jaw, over his, and whispered, “I love you too.”
It had to be enough, even though it wasn’t.
He left first, pulling away like he’d been scorched, and I got it—we had been scorched. Both of us.
We’d never be the same again.
I shuddered, leaning into the wall, feeling like I’d just found myself in the middle of