by Marie Force
“So sorry to miss that,” Grayson said.
“He’s being sarcastic,” Simone said as her mom steered her out of the kitchen.
“She’s adorable,” Mia said.
“She’s too cute for her own good—and ours,” Grayson said. “Now what can I do for you newlyweds?” With a good-natured grin, he added, “And way to get everyone talking about you by popping a surprise wedding on us, Wade.”
Wade grimaced. “Because you know how much I love being the center of attention in this family.” He reached for Mia’s hand. “We need some legal help.”
“Whatever I can do.”
Wade told the abridged version of Mia’s story, hoping to spare her from having to tell it again. “We’re wondering what our options are to keep Brody far away from her.”
“First thing, you need to report the assault. Right away.”
“Mia has the number for the U.S. attorney overseeing the drug case,” Wade said.
“I’ll start there. I’ll also ask about a restraining order to keep him away from you, Mia.”
“He’s going to be very angry when he finds out I got married,” Mia said softly. “Would it be possible to include Wade and his family in the restraining order?”
“I’ll see what I can do. Before we go any further, I need you to tell me everything. Start at the beginning and don’t leave anything out. Every detail matters. Tell me what you know about his operation, what they’ll ask you to testify about and anything that might help to build a secondary case against him.”
“A secondary case?” she asked.
“For domestic assault,” Grayson said gently.
By the time they left Grayson’s two hours later, Wade was completely drained from hearing the full extent of what Mia had endured. Brody had abused her physically and emotionally while isolating her from anyone who might be able to help.
Grayson had arranged for an officer from the state police and the prosecutor himself to come to Wade’s house in the morning so she could report the assault.
They drove home in snowy darkness that required all of Wade’s attention and focus.
After hearing more about what she’d been through, Wade wanted to find that bastard Brody and beat the shit out of him. But more than that, he wanted to put his arms around her and do everything in his power to make her feel safe and loved.
Yes, he loved her. How else could he explain why he’d thought of her every day since he met her, why he’d yearned for her during the long months with no word from her, or why he’d jumped at the chance to marry her, to bind her to him legally and every other way? If that wasn’t love, he didn’t know what else it could be.
“I’m sorry you had to hear all that,” she said in a tone he now recognized as shame.
It infuriated him that she felt ashamed of anything. She was a victim, and she had nothing to be ashamed of.
“You have no need to apologize, especially not to me.” He would keep telling her that until she stopped feeling the need to apologize for what had been done to her.
They arrived at his house after a long, tedious drive to find a box sitting right inside the mudroom door. They went through the now-familiar routine of removing boots and coats and gloves and hats, and then Wade took the box into the kitchen to see what it was. He found a note written in his mother’s familiar handwriting.
Wade and Mia, I thought you might appreciate not having to cook dinner on your wedding day. Dad and I love you very much. Mom
Touched by the gesture, and his stomach growling at the smell of his mother’s famous stew, Wade shared the note with Mia. “She always makes the all-vegetable version for me.”
“That’s very nice of her, especially since our news upset her.”
“That’s my mom for you. She may not agree with everything we do, but she’s always supportive of us.”
“That must be nice,” Mia said wistfully.
“Your mom isn’t like that?” Wade asked as he put the stew in a pot on the stove to heat.
“My mom had me at eighteen, and my childhood was somewhat of a slow-moving train wreck. She had no idea what she was doing and made it up as she went along. Sometimes I felt more like the adult than the child.”
“The older I get, the luckier I feel to have been born into my family.”
“You didn’t always feel that way?”
“God, no. They used to drive me crazy when we all lived at home. I was always a little different from the rest of them. I like my space and crave solitude, which is hard to come by in a house with eleven other people underfoot.”
Mia winced. “And now I’ve invaded your space and your solitude.”
Wade turned to her and put his arms around her. “I wanted space and solitude from the lunatics I grew up with. That’s the last thing I want from you.”
“Oh. Really?” She looked up at him, seeming uncertain.
“Really,” he said, kissing her.
“You might not say that after I’ve been here awhile and—”
“I will always say that. Having you here with me is ten million times better than wishing you were here, or wondering if you’re okay, or hoping I might hear something from you.” He kissed her again, lingering for a full minute this time with just his lips pressed to hers.
“Wade…” Her gaze zeroed in on his lips.
“What, honey?”
“I like when you kiss me.”
A low rumble of laughter shook him. “I fucking love kissing you.”
“Maybe you could, you know, do some more of it.”
“Is that what you want?”
She nodded and licked her lips with a delicate swipe of her tongue that made him instantly hard.
He set the stove to low, took her hand and led her around the island to the sofa. When she was settled, he tossed a few more logs on the woodstove and then sat next to her, drinking in the sight of her lovely face.
“You’re staring,” she said, flushing.
“I’m memorizing every little detail,” he said, kissing the mole above her top lip. “I had to rely on memories for so long. Now that I have the real you here, I’m probably going to be doing a lot of staring.”
“As long as I’m allowed to stare, too.”
“You’re allowed to do any damn thing you want.”
“That’s going to take some getting used to. It’s been awhile since I could.”
“Take all the time you need. I’m not going anywhere, and I’m never going to turn into someone who wants to control you. I promise.” With his arm around her, he drew her closer to him, moving slowly so he wouldn’t overwhelm her with the powerful desire he felt for her.
After hearing what she’d endured with Brody, Wade wanted her to have all the tenderness she’d been denied. He wanted to worship her, treat her like the precious angel she was and make her feel safe—always.
Being with her, being married to her, kissing her… It felt like a dream come true. The best dream he’d ever had was right here in his arms, eagerly returning his kisses while running her fingers through his hair.
Her touch had him trembling from the effort it took to go slow, to be gentle and careful with her.
“Wade…”
“What, honey?”
“Don’t hold back. I want you to kiss me like you did before you heard all the ugly details.”
It made him ache to realize his hesitancy had hurt her. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to do anything that’ll scare you.”
“I know I’m safe with you. You can’t scare me.”
He laughed when he wanted to groan. If she had any idea how badly he wanted her, she might indeed be frightened.
Her hands on his face brought him back for another kiss, her tongue tracing his bottom lip.
This time, he did groan from the sheer pleasure that made every nerve ending in his body stand up to take notice of what was happening. Whatever it was, it had never happened before. Not to him anyway. He’d never felt so consumed by desire or experienc
ed anything like the intense, sharp need she’d aroused in him from the start.
Now that she was here and in his arms, that need grew and multiplied with every kiss, every touch, every smile or sweet look or shared moment.
Her tongue touched his, and he moaned, the helpless sound seeming to encourage her to do it again and again and again, until he snapped out of the daze to discover he was on top of her, her legs entangled with his and her arms tight around him. She’d completely and thoroughly trapped him, and there was nowhere he’d rather be than right here with her.
“Honey, your ribs… Don’t want to hurt you.”
“Nothing hurts. I promise.”
The kiss became more desperate with every passing minute, until Wade had to come up for a deep breath or pass out. Leaning his forehead on hers, he kissed her nose and both cheeks and the lids of her closed eyes. Her lips were pink and swollen and damp… He’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life than the sight of her flushed with desire for him.
She raised her hips ever so slightly, pressing her heat against the hard ridge of his erection.
He gasped, so hard he ached with wanting her. “Mia…”
“I know… We probably need more time, and we shouldn’t do this, but I want to.” She opened her eyes and looked up at him, her every emotion shining through. “For so long, I’ve wondered what it would be like to be with you this way. And it’s so much better than anything I could’ve imagined.”
“For me, too,” he said, his voice gruff with emotion. “Sometimes I worried it was possible to die from wanting someone so badly and having her so far out of reach.”
“I’m not out of reach anymore.”
“Believe me,” he said with a huff of laughter. “I know.” After a long pause to get himself together, Wade sat up and withdrew from her out of self-preservation. If he continued to kiss her, they were going to end up naked, and he wasn’t sure she was ready for that. “How about something to eat?”
“Sure,” she said.
Was that disappointment he saw in her expression? “Mia…”
“Yes?”
“There’s no need to be disappointed.”
“I’m not disappointed.”
“I’m hungry, and I need to eat so I’ll have the energy I need for our wedding night.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh…”
“You might want to fuel up, too.” He kissed her quickly and got up to see to their dinner, pleased to have erased all signs of disappointment in her.
Chapter 8
“Don’t marry the person you think you can live with. Marry only the individual you think you can’t live without.”
—James Dobson
Mia ate the delicious stew his mother had left for them and drank the glass of wine he poured for her, but she might as well have been eating or drinking cardboard for all she knew. His reference to their wedding night had scrambled her brain, making it hard to focus on anything but going through the motions of eating so they could get to the next part of their evening.
But before they could take that step together, there were things she needed to tell him. She took a sip of her wine and forced it down over the lump in her throat.
“I… I want you to know,” she said hesitantly. “Since I met you, I never once did anything… with him… willingly.” She paused to take a breath. “Even before I met you, it had stopped being consensual. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to… with you.”
Wade put down his spoon and wiped his mouth before rolling the paper napkin into a wad that disappeared into his fist. “He forced you.”
She nodded. “I didn’t want to be with him. I wanted to be with you, and he knew I was looking for a way out, which made everything worse.”
“Why didn’t you come to me sooner?”
After a long pause, she said, “Before I met Brody, I had a good life. I had a job and an apartment and friends, and I took care of myself. Other than the very brief time I was married, I’d been on my own since my mom got married and moved away when I was eighteen. The worst part of what happened in the last few years is that he stole my independence. Before I met you, all I thought about was escaping from him and trying to get back what I’d lost. But then I met you, and all I thought about was you and how much I wished I had met you under different circumstances.”
She met his gaze. “I want you to know that it goes against everything I used to be to come here, to ask you to marry me, to ask for your protection. But as he became more desperate about his legal situation, he became fixated on making it so I couldn’t testify against him. I was afraid if I continued to refuse to marry him, he would kill me to get me out of the way. I’m beaten down enough to know I can’t fight this battle on my own.”
“You don’t have to. You’re an Abbott now. You’ll never be alone—unless you want to be.”
“That means the world to me.”
“And just because we’re married, that doesn’t mean you can’t be as independent as you want to be. Do what you want. I’ll never object to you following your dreams or seeing your friends or anything you want to do. As long as what you want doesn’t involve other guys…”
She smiled. “So you plan to be a jealous husband?”
“Extremely.”
“I can live with that.”
He took her hand. “I know it’s going to take a while to get past what happened with him and to regain your confidence, but I’ll be right here to support you every step of the way. If you want something, all you have to do is say so, and I’ll do anything I can to help you get it.”
She blinked back tears. “That’s very sweet of you. Thank you. And you’re right, it’ll take some time to unravel myself from the hold he had over me.”
“Would you consider maybe getting some counseling to help you deal with everything that happened?”
“That might be a good idea.”
“I’ll get you added to the company health plan tomorrow, and we’ll go from there.”
“Wow, all this and health insurance, too. I’ve never had it before.”
“Never?”
“My mom couldn’t afford it, so we did the pay-as-you-go thing and hoped for the best.” After a pause, she said, “She did the best she could with what she had.”
“What about your father?”
“He was never in the picture. She refused to talk about him.”
“Well, she raised a beautiful, sweet daughter. I look forward to meeting her.”
“She’ll like you.”
“You think so?”
“I know so. She hated Brody. She met him once and said once was enough.”
“Does she know what’s been going on?”
“Only that he was arrested and charged and out on bail, but not the rest. The last time I talked to her, I told her I was making plans to get away.”
“Do you want to call her and let her know you’re safe?”
“I will tomorrow.”
The phone rang, startling them both. Wade got up to answer the call from his sister Hannah.
“Wade! I just heard the news. Oh my God! She came looking for you—and you married her! I’m so excited I can’t even breathe!”
Wade held the phone away from his ear so her high-pitched shrieks wouldn’t deafen him. “Hello to you, too, Hannah.” He smiled at Mia, who could hear every word his sister was saying.
“I’m so, so happy for you, even if the circumstances aren’t entirely ideal.”
“Thank you.”
“When can I meet her?”
“Soon.”
“How soon?”
“I’ll let you know. I don’t want her hit with all the Abbotts at once, or she might change her mind about me.”
Mia shook her head.
“I’ve got to go, Hannah. My wife is waiting for me.”
“Wade… I just…”
“I know, Han. Love you, too. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“You’d better.”
Wade
put down the phone and started clearing the table.
“Is she always like that?” Mia asked.
“She’s one of the few people who knew about you, so I expected some excitement from her.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting her and the others.”
“Maybe we can go to Sunday dinner, if you can deal with meeting the Abbotts all at once. I’m not sure that would be the best idea.”
“It’s fine with me. I know your family is huge, and I’ve already met a few of them.” She brought the last of the dishes over to the sink and helped him load the dishwasher before wiping down the counter and table. They worked like they’d been living together for months rather than hours. Everything was so easy with him, and it’d been like that from the beginning. They’d struck up a conversation at the retreat that had flowed with the kind of ease she’d rarely experienced with a man. Right away, she’d had the inappropriate wish that she’d met Wade before Brody. How different things might’ve been for her.
When Wade slid his arms around her from behind, Mia startled.
“It’s okay,” he whispered. “Just me.”
“I’m sorry. That might happen for a while until my subconscious catches up.”
“If it happens another thousand times, it’ll still be okay.”
She relaxed into his embrace, loving the feel of his arms around her and the rich, woodsy scent of him.
“What I said before about the wedding night… I don’t want you to think I expect anything. I’d be perfectly content to hold you in my arms all night long.” His whiskers brushed against her jaw, sending goose bumps down her back. “I don’t want you to feel pressured or rushed or anything other than safe and comfortable.”
Moved by his sweet words, she said, “I do feel safe—safer than I’ve been in a long time.”
“But not comfortable?”
“Not entirely.”
“What do you need?”
“I seem to have this ache…”
“Is it your ribs? We can put some more balm on them.”
Holding back a laugh, Mia turned so she could see his face. “It’s not my ribs. This ache is a little bit lower.”
