“Rebecca,” Bray says, and I open my eyes to see him staring down at me with a tray in his hand. “You need to eat,” he says, and puts the small tray of food on the nightstand beside me. He sits on a chair beside the bed, not joining me under the covers.

“We need to talk,” I say, because my head is bouncing everywhere and I need to know what’s happening here. At least enough so I can sleep tonight. With so many questions rattling around in my head I know I’ll never pass out, even as exhausted as I am.

“I know. Eat, then we’ll talk. Then I’m going to chain you to the bed, and fuck you until you can’t move. I’m going to fuck out every idea you have inside that pretty little head of yours about leaving me. Then when I’m done doing that, I’m going to eat your pussy until you remember who it belongs to.”

BRAY

I can tell by the widening of her eyes that she’s both terrified and excited by this idea. She doesn’t understand what she’s put me through these past months, and now that she’s back in my bed, I’m dead serious about holding on to her. No matter what it takes. She’ll never leave me again.

I pull the tray from the nightstand to my lap and move to sit beside her on the edge of the bed. “I’ll feed you,” I say, and spoon out some of the chicken soup I made for her. She gives me a strange look but some possessive part of me wants to do this. I want to give her what she needs, and I know in this moment I can.

She opens her mouth, licking her lips before taking the spoon into her mouth. My cock hardens at the innocent act. How can her eating soup turn me on so much? I know we have a lot to talk about but I feel like my body is on fire for her. I need to reassure myself she is here. Get myself under control, but first we have to talk.

“First, I want you to know that I love you, and I was wrong for putting work before you. Nothing is more important than you, and I think I was too scared to admit that, so I buried myself in work. The day you left, I realized that and I ran home to tell you how wrong I’d been.”

“Oh, Bray, I’m so sorry.”

“No. You don’t have anything to be sorry for. The past three months have been miserable and I made some changes. I retired and turned my company over to my vice president. He’s been looking to take over for years and I was more than willing to let it go. Also, you were right about Cindy. The manager I turned her over to when I left hated her voice, but also caught her selling client information, so he let her go and pressed charges.”

She gives me a smug look at that admission and I take it as a good sign and continue.

“I pushed you away and kept denying my feelings because I was terrified of what I could become.” She gives me a quizzical look, but I know I need to tell her. I have to explain my fears.

“I told you my parents died when I was eighteen, and only part of that is true.” I take a deep breath and tell her the rest. “My father was obsessed with my mother so much he sexually abused her as a form of control. That’s the reason I never had sex before you. I didn’t trust myself, and it was my way of controlling my fear.”

She nods her head in understanding, but I haven’t gotten to the bad part.

“When I turned eighteen, I had everything set up to take my mom and run away. I guess my father had sensed something coming and the day I graduated high school, he came home early from work. We were in the kitchen with our bags packed and about to leave. My mom tried to get in between us, but he wasn’t having it.”

I take a deep breath and continue.

“He tied me to a chair and choked her to death right in front of me. He made me watch everything. Everything, Tink.”

I hang my head in shame and she reaches out to take my hands.

“Chelsea and I had been friends since elementary school. She kind of knew my home life wasn’t good, so when I didn’t show up for graduation she knew something was bad. She walked in just as my father was untying me. I have no doubt he was planning on killing me next. But seeing her walk in the house caught him off guard and gave me enough time to grab a knife off the kitchen table and stab him in the chest.”

Rebecca gasps and puts a hand over her mouth in shock.

“He didn’t die right away, so I must have just punctured a lung. But I stood over his body and watched him die without a single regret.” I give the hand still holding mine a little squeeze and tell her the rest of the story.

“Chelsea is from money, and her family had a few guys who worked security for her. She knew one she trusted enough to help clean up the mess.”

“Who?”

“Hank.”

“Oh, Bray,” she says, and I see tears in her eyes.

“He’s been with me ever since. He helped make the scene look like they killed each other in a struggle, and Chelsea backed up my story about the years of abuse because of my father's obsession. When I got older and started making a lot of money, the story came back out in the news, and since then I try to hide away from the scandal as much as possible.

“I never realized the connection between the three of you.”

“I told you this story, Tink, because I need you to know how afraid I was I would become that man. Why I need control and order in my life. You blew up my perfect plan and changed everything about me, inside and out. I never saw you coming, and damn, did you make an entrance.”

She smiles a little at my joke, but it’s nothing but the truth.

“I love you, Tink. And though I have fear, I want you beside me every day for the rest of my life.”