Author: Jaci Burton

“And he chose her.”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “Lucky her.”

“Do you see them at all?”

“Oh, hell no. I’m not going back there. Once I left for college, that was it. I wasn’t going back there ever again.”

“Don’t you at least wonder how your mother is?”

Her shoulders slumped.

“I tried, Gavin. I tried to get her away from him, tried to get her to come visit me, because I sure as hell wasn’t going back there. She refused, said Daddy needed her and she couldn’t come.”

“So she chose him over you.” He swept his hand over her hair. “I’m sorry, honey.”

She batted back the tears that threatened. It had been too many years since she’d cried over what she couldn’t change. Never again. “She made her choice to put up with him and his demands. She has to live with it now. That doesn’t mean I have to.”

“So you never went home after you left for college?”

“No. Never. I was free and I wasn’t going back. I was on full scholarship, and I worked during school. I had no reason to go back.”

“So they never once came out to see you?”

“No. I’m sure my father was afraid if my mother left the state, she’d somehow escape him and he’d lose her. He was happy keeping her in that little town, and obviously she’d do whatever she was told.”

“She never called you or wrote?”

“Oh, sure. She’d call and ask me to come home at the holidays or during summer. Whatever Dad wanted her to say. After I said no enough times she stopped calling.”

He didn’t speak for a while. She knew what he was thinking. “You think I’m a cold-hearted bitch, that I abandoned my mother.”

“That’s not what I’m thinking at all, Elizabeth. You weren’t supposed to be responsible for her. Your parents were supposed to be responsible for you.”

“They were. They fed me and put a roof over my head. I got a decent education and I wasn’t abused.”

She heard his soft laugh and tilted her head to look at him. “What?”

“Come on. You’re smart, surely you know.”

“Know what?”

“Elizabeth, your father was an abuser.”

She shook her head. “No, he was a prick and a controller. But he never hit my mother or me.”

Gavin turned in the swing to face her. “Honey, an abuser doesn’t always hit. Abuse is emotional, too. Don’t you think that’s what your father did by controlling your mother, by forcing her to live in what was essentially a prison?”

Talking about it made her relive it, and she didn’t want to go back there ever again, had sworn she wouldn’t, not even in her mind. And she’d already spent way more time there tonight than she’d ever wanted to. She shrugged off the blanket and hopped off the swing. “I’m tired, Gavin. I had a long day and a long flight, and I’d really just like to go to bed.”

She walked away, didn’t look back to see if he was following, just headed straight for the bedroom, stripped off her dress, and crawled into bed without turning on the light.

She had to shut it all out, to forget, to shove the past where it belonged so it couldn’t come back and haunt her again.

Within a few minutes Gavin joined her, his body chilled from the cold air outside. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. She resisted at first, but he wouldn’t let go of her until she relaxed her body against his.

He didn’t ask for anything, didn’t say anything, just stroked her hair. The silence and his breathing finally calmed her, and she was able to shut her eyes.

But she couldn’t shut out the memories. She’d never be able to make them go away.

NINE

RAIN AND WIND BATTERED THE DECK AND WINDOWS, coming down so hard Gavin couldn’t even see the chairs.

The rain kept them shut inside. That was bad. No game today.

No sunshine, nothing to do but stay inside.

That could be good.

While Elizabeth slept during the morning, Gavin went to the store and bought food. He intended to cook for her, felt bad about making her talk about a past that was obviously painful for her.

She’d had a rough childhood. A very rough childhood with a father who’d been abusive to both her and her mother. And yet she’d managed to escape and grow up to be a strong, independent woman, which said a lot about her strength and character. He wanted to talk more about it, but it was clear she wasn’t ready yet. Maybe she never would be, and it was her right to decide that.

But he admired her more for what he knew now about her. There were facets to Elizabeth he’d never known about, things about her that made him appreciate the woman she’d become. She’d done it all on her own.

Despite the game being rained out, he still had work to do. Workouts with the trainer and indoor batting practice with the batting coach. He left a note for Elizabeth telling her where he’d be, hoping she’d still be there when he got back.

He was gone most of the day. He had spent several hours on physical training, then batting practice, trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with his swing. The verdict—nothing was wrong with his swing. As he figured, it was mental. The mechanics were all in place; he just had to connect bat to ball. And he would, as soon as the rain stopped and he got the chance to stand at the plate and swing the bat again.

He had to do a few media interviews late in the afternoon, then he was cut loose for the day and on his way back to the beach house. He wasn’t sure why he was surprised to find Elizabeth’s car in the driveway, but he was glad she was still there. When he went inside, she was curled up on the sofa, a steaming cup of something on the table in front of her, her legs crisscrossed over each other and her laptop sitting in her lap. She wore a sundress and a sweater, had her hair in a ponytail, and didn’t have any makeup on. She looked so young, almost like a teenager, when she lifted her head and smiled at him.

God, she was beautiful.

“Hi, honey. How was your day?”

He grinned and flopped onto the sofa next to her. “Just great. How was yours?”

“Productive, actually. Nothing like a rainy day to help one catch up with paperwork and phone calls. I got a lot done. You?”

“Workouts and batting practice and a few interviews. Trying to figure out why I’ve been oh-for-everything the past few games.”

She frowned. “You have? Why?”

He shrugged. “No clue. My swing is fine. Mental block I think.”

She leaned forward and kissed him. “Too much sex weakens you.”

“I haven’t had any sex. You were gone. That’s probably the problem.”

She gaped at him. “Oh. I didn’t know we were being exclusive.”

“I believe I mentioned that the first night we had sex.” He arched a brow. “Tell me you didn’t go around screwing everything with a dick while you were out of town.”

She laughed. “I’m the one with the two-year drought, remember.” She laid her hand over her heart. “I’ve been totally faithful to you.”

“Ditto.” He swept his hand behind her neck and pulled her mouth to his for a searing kiss that made his dick hard in an instant. God, he’d missed her, had missed fucking her last night. But last night she’d needed to be held, not fucked.

Now, though, as she climbed onto his lap and her breasts pressed against his chest, Gavin felt the warmth of her and inhaled her scent, and he didn’t want to wait. He needed her. She was a fire in his blood and constantly on his mind. She made his balls quiver, and all he could think about was sinking inside her.

He shifted her underneath him, spreading them both out on the sofa, positioning himself on top of her. He nudged her legs apart and positioned his cock against her sex, feeling the heat soak through her underwear and his jeans.

“Five whole days without sex, huh?” she asked, lifting against him with a wicked smile.

“Six now. It’s killing me.”

She swept her fingers across his goatee, then slid her hand down his chest and between them, cupping his hard cock. “Poor baby. How you must be suffering. We should take care of that right away.”

“Yeah, we should. How about right here?”

She gave his cock a gentle squeeze. “I’m just lying here waiting for you to get this inside me. I’m ready, Gavin. I’m wet and my pussy’s throbbing. Fuck me.”

He sucked in a deep breath, raised off of her only long enough to lift her dress up and take her panties off and unzip and remove his jeans, and then he was between her legs again, falling into her welcoming arms.

His mouth met hers at the same time his cock slid inside her. Unsheathed, he felt her, hot and slick, tightening around him as he thrust inside her.

He swirled his tongue around hers, and she wrapped her hand around his neck, her fingers diving into his hair. She lifted her hips and tightened her legs around him. He’d never felt anything like the sensations bombarding him all at once. His mouth on hers, his cock inside her, and his whole body pressed against hers. He fisted her dress, pulling the strap down on one side to reveal her breast.

No bra. He liked that. He bent and took her nipple in his mouth, feeling it harden against his tongue as he sucked.

“Gavin,” she whispered, arching her back and feeding her nipple to him, still holding on to the back of his head and keeping him there. Her body was fluid motion as she moved against him, and he was caught up in a tight ball of tension, ready to skyrocket into an orgasm that he’d held back for all these days.

All he’d done was think about her—how she looked, how she smelled, how soft her skin was. He popped her nipple out of his mouth and looked down on it, then dragged his tongue up to her neck and grazed her throat with his teeth, watching the goose bumps prickle her skin.

She smelled like vanilla, like sugar cookies, and he loved the taste of her. She was like his favorite candy—hard on the outside but a soft surprise on the inside.

She was his Elizabeth, and he didn’t think anyone knew her like he did. He didn’t think she’d ever let anyone know her like he knew her. And that made her a treasure. His treasure.

He lifted up on both arms and looked down at her. She was painfully beautiful without her makeup on, her hair pulled loose from her ponytail, all messy and perfect. He lifted and thrust into her, watching her eyes when he rolled his hips over her to grind against her clit.

She might keep secrets from him about painful parts of her life, but here, when they were connected, there were no secrets. She was fully open to him and she let him see her pleasure, how much she enjoyed sex, how much she enjoyed what he did to her.

She wound her arms around his neck. He pulled her up. Her legs were still wrapped around his hips as she slid right into rhythm with him, moving against him, riding his cock as she balanced her feet on the edge of the sofa, held on to him, and rocked against him, taking him right to the edge so fast he had to pull back to keep from climaxing.

But she wouldn’t let go. She tightened her grip on his neck and rode his cock, rolling her pussy over him and dropping down onto him, rubbing her ass against his balls until sweat poured down his face. He grabbed her ass then, gripping her tight and lifting her on and off him.

“Yes, like that,” she said, keeping her focus on his eyes as hers went dark green. “Make me come for you, Gavin.”

He dug his fingers into her ass cheeks and lifted her faster and faster, up and down on his cock. “Yeah. Come on, baby, come on me.”

When she tightened around him and he saw her jaw drop, he let go, shoving inside her with the force of his orgasm. She cried out and came, and the convulsions around his cock intensified, sending him spiraling out of control. He wrapped his arms around her and let his orgasm rip through him. Both of them shuddered against each other as he poured everything he had into her until all his limbs were shaking and he was breathless and spent.