Lena's Happily Ever After (The Town of Pearl 3)

* * * *

Despite the pounding headache he had felt minutes ago, he was now aroused and in awe of the beautiful, young woman clinging to his body. His long thigh lay between her thighs, and he could have sworn he felt her hot, wet pussy against it. The thought made him hard as a steel rod, and he couldn’t fight the urge to explore.

With soft, gentle caresses to her backside, he maneuvered his hands under the waistband of her shorts. He was pleasantly surprised to find her wearing thong panties. He panted for a breath, releasing her mouth as his arousal threw him for a loop.

Lena grabbed on to his shoulders and held his gaze as he kept his palm plastered to her ass cheek.

“What’s going on, Bryant? You have me so confused right now.”

He reached up to caress her chin and avoid hitting her bruised cheekbone.

“I’m trying to thank you for saving my life, Detroit.”

She exhaled then attempted to sit up.

He held her tighter to him.

“You’re not leaving me, darling. Not tonight, not ever,” he swore to her in such a demanding and serious tone he thought he might have scared her into running from the room. Instead, her big aqua-blue eyes held his gaze.

“This isn’t like you, Bryant. You’ve been nothing but a nasty, mean son of a bitch, and you said some cruel, hurtful things to me today.”

“I was an asshole then, but I want to change, Lena. I want to change for you.”

She was silent a moment, and then she caressed her fingertips across one of his nipples.

“I don’t want you to change for me, Bryant. I want you to change for you and for the better. You scare me,” she admitted, and he grabbed ahold of her then rolled her to her back in one quick motion, wedging his thigh between her legs and holding her upper body and most of his weight on his forearms.

He looked into her eyes.

“Why do I scare you?”

“Because you can change in a matter of seconds. One minute you can be compassionate like with the snake in the kitchen and sneaking into my house when I was hit at the bar, and the next you’re calling me a whore, accusing me of having sex with your brothers, and saying that my food is shit.”

He felt even worse than before. “It’s my fault. You pinned me from the start, Lena. I’m hung up on my own problems, my damn crippled leg, and the fear I’m hiding inside.”

“You’re not a cripple, so stop calling yourself that. A real man is afraid sometimes, Bryant. Men that can’t admit that aren’t real men at all.”

He lowered his head and kissed her neck and under her chin and then across her lips. He couldn’t look her in the eyes when he told her how he felt.

“Can I tell you something, baby?”

She made a noise with her lips.

“After I said those nasty things to you today, I took your words to heart. Plus I looked around my house and thought that you would never come back in there again. It scared me and made me angry. Then I looked into the mirror, and I saw what I looked like. So I went upstairs to shave and shower. I was still drunk, Lena. It’s amazing that I didn’t slit my own throat. When I slipped and fell and then blacked out, I was scared, Lena. More scared than anything I felt in the fucking war, Lena. I was scared of never kissing you, seeing you, holding you, or making love to you. It was crazy that you showed up despite my fucked-up behavior after hurting you and you found me. As I saw you and knew that I wasn’t hallucinating, I thought it would be the last time I ever saw you and it killed me inside.”

“Are you asking me for a chance to prove what you’re telling me isn’t a lie?” she asked him.

“Damn, Lena, please don’t put me through this. I’m not the sappy, talking, groveling type, darling.”

Lena laughed, and he smiled down at her.

He lifted up slightly as she touched her fingertips to his forehead next to the bandage.

“You scared me, Bryant.”

“I’m fine now, baby. I swear, I feel good, especially with my little porn star lying underneath me,” he teased, and she swatted his shoulder.

“Quit saying that.”