Page 14 of Acceptance
Her lip trembles. “But… he’s okay?”
“He’s great. Better than we imagined, and he’s a great big brother to his siblings. I suspect his instinct to protect them comes from wishing he could have done the same for his mother who chose shooting shit into her arms every day over him.”
“Promise you’ll always get to take care of my son.”
“Bitch, I have taken care of him since I met him. And he’smyson now. You have no one to blame but yourself for losing the best thing you’d ever done. Now, I’m going to leave because I’m pretty sure I’m inhaling forms of fungus that have no cure because scientists have not discovered them yet. This place is disgusting.”
She walks out and down the stairs as quickly as possible. The desire to shower in bleach has never been more overwhelming, and she tosses her keys to Venom as they step outside.
They take a deep breath of fresh air. “Who the fuck lives that way?” Venom asks.
“It kills me to know this is where they lived before they ran away. No child deserves a fraction of that house of horrors,” Lex says with a shudder. “And I need a shower. That was fucking disgusting.”
Chapter Six
Griffin’s Beach
Undertaker
The game, his girl, and sex afterwards. Life really can’t get much better for Undertaker as he sits with Jamie Pittman under his arm. Especially when he thinks about how he’ll strip her naked and make sweet love to her, either to celebrate his team’s victory or commiserate their loss. Either way, he wins.
Jamie seems just as happy as he does, but there’s still some lingering doubt for Undertaker. Besides the fact they’re over fifteen years apart, he knows he’s not an easy man to be with. She’s twenty-two and new to relationships, but she’s taken to his rules rather well.
He has three rules. One, he must know where she is at all times. Two, he must know who she’s with at all times. And three,if he doesn’t like someone, she’s not to associate with them. It’s simple yet so difficult for most women he’s come across to accept.
It makes him an obsessive and possessive asshole, and he knows it. He also never tried to hide any of this from Jamie when she pursued him. The plan was always to keep her at arm’s length, but she knew the right buttons to push to make him cave. Even more than the only other woman he’s loved.
Nina thought she could change him, but Jamie accepts him for who he is. Nina pushed the boundaries, and Jamie has made missteps but does her best to keep up with the rules. The love he has for both women couldn’t be more different, but he knows he’ll lose his mind if he ever loses Jamie like he did Nina. If she walks away, he doesn’t know how he’ll keep going.
His team scores, and he cheers. Jamie looks up from her phone and smiles at him. Sports may not be her thing, but she seems content to sit with him while she reads on some app.
Normally, it’s the girl who becomes attached when she gives her virginity to a man, but Undertaker hasn’t been able to stop thinking about this woman since the night he met her. And there will be few experiences to top the night she gave herself to him for the first time. She trusts him, and it feels good to have someone see him as a protector.
“Why can’t they have normal looking women in these commercials?” Jamie asks with a pout. “I mean, yeah, they’re more attractive, but it’s a commercial for a medication with side effects so severe the ailment has to be terminal. But, still. Just have normal women.”
“Normal women?” Undertaker asks with a smirk.
Jamie’s tall and thick, and he loves every inch of her. He damn near panted the first time he laid eyes on her, and he wishes she could see how beautiful she really is. If she could see herselfthrough his eyes, she’d never have those moments of insecurity. The ones that come fewer and farther between but still appear.
Frowning, she looks up at him, her dark hair in a French braid. “You know what I mean. People who look like me.”
“Baby doll, there is nothing normal-looking about you. If they looked like you, it would be nothing but a commercial filled with sexy as hell women.”
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”
“I’m serious. You have no idea how fucking sexy you are. Which is kind of good for me. Otherwise, you’d never have settled for me.”
“Now, I know you’re leading me on with that. Too far, sir. Too far.”
Sir. Oh, I kind of like that. We might have to play with that later.
He laughs and cups her cheek before lowering his lips to hers. “I’m serious about how sexy you are. I’m like a damned teenager with how often I walk around here with a hard-on.”
“I’ve thought about getting a gym membership. I should really start working out.”
Work with me, here, baby doll.“I’ll give you a workout.”
“Those muscles in question are already pretty strong, don’t you think?”
