44
The time for wild and ruthless is over. I made a promise.
Gently, I ease out of her. Her body shudders as she cries softly while I turn off our recording. I walk into the bathroom and then start the shower, turning it to hot, before I fetch my girl. She’s still in the same, awkward, used position. With a playful smack to her ass, I urge her to roll over. Then, I scoop her into my arms.
“My little girl needs babying,” I tease, dropping a kiss to her puffy lips. “Don’t you?”
She nods, clinging to me. I carry her into the walk-in shower and under the spray. Once I set her to her feet, I dote on her like she clearly craves. I wash and condition her hair first. After, I soap down every part of her sore body. My own body I wash quickly.
“What do you need?” I ask, hugging her to me. “This.”
I stroke my fingers up and down her back. “You make me fucking insane. So insane, baby.” “Yeah?”
“I go crazy with the need to destroy you so I can put you back together again.”
“As long as you always promise to fix me after you break me.” “I’ll try.”
She snuggles closer. “I’m going to fall in love with you, Win. It’s going to hurt, isn’t it?” Because she doesn’t think I can love her back.
“It’s going to hurt. Everything with me hurts.”
Her body trembles and she sniffles. “I like your brand of hurt.”
“I’ll never be a Prince Charming,” I remind her. “I’ll always be a villain both in and out of bed. I can offer you a bitter taste of sweet, but it’ll always be brief and fleeting.”
“You’re not as mean as you claim you are, Constantine.” “No, I’m much worse, brat. Much worse.”
We remain quiet for a long while, her clinging to me and me massaging her back. Eventually, I grow tired of standing and help the exhausted girl from the shower. It amazes me that such a simple effort, such as toweling her dry, has her gazing at me with stars in her eyes. She truly craves this gentle coddling after. I guess, in a way, I kind of like taking care of her too. Absolves some of the guilt for making her cry.
Once we’re dry, I tuck her into bed and then turn off all the lights. “Win?” my needy girl cries out.
“Yes, brat?”
“You’re still going to sleep with me, right?”
I chuckle as I finish locking up for the night. “All part of the deal, Cinderelliott.”
Crawling into the bed with her, I wrap an arm around her and bury my nose in her damp hair. I like how her small body fits in the curve of mine. My dick likes it too, hard again and pressed against the crack of her ass, but I don’t try for another round. She’d probably pass out mid-fuck. And as kinky as I am, I don’t want to fuck an unconscious girl.
“Win?”
“Go to sleep.”
She smacks my arm, and I grin in the dark. “What is it, precious?” I taunt.
“Don’t be a dick.”
“Stop mouthing and say what you have to say.” “Have you ever loved a girl before?”
I refrain from rolling my eyes. “No.” “Why not?”
“Because I don’t like people.”
“You like me.” “Barely.”
She laughs and twists to face me. I touch her hair in the dark, smoothing it from her face. My lips press to hers, seeking them out easily in the darkness.
“I really liked a woman,” I find myself admitting aloud. “When I was young.” She grows quiet. “Oh yeah?”
“I thought maybe I might ask her to marry me.” I scoff. “I was wrong.” “Why? What happened?”
“Dad said no.”
She gasps. “You didn’t ask the girl you almost loved to marry you because your dad said no?” “Yep.”
“What did your mom say?”
I try to extricate myself from her hold, but she’s like a fucking monkey, gripping on tight. I give up the fight and sigh heavily. “Mom had enough of my wallowing in pity and made it her sole mission to pull up every horrible thing Meredith ever did.”
“Meredith.” She says the name like she’s jealous of it, which amuses me. “What did your mom dig up?”
“Meredith had an abortion when she was sixteen. It was kept hush-hush. We started seeing each other when I was eighteen. During that time, Mother discovered Meredith had sex with Vincent Morelli.”
“No,” she gasps. “A Morelli? That bitch!” “You’re Team Constantine now, huh?”
“Through and through. Which Morelli is Vincent?” “Leo’s uncle.”
“Ew? She fucked an old man when she had eighteen-year-old you?” “Allegedly.”
“So your dad made you break up with her, and your mom drove a spike through your bleeding heart?”
“It’s the Constantine way,” I say with a dark chuckle. “It’s cruel.”
“Mother also obtained text records of Meredith plotting with her sister to accidentally get pregnant with my baby.”
“What?”
“Meredith just wanted my money. Dad knew, and Mom proved it.”
“I’m sorry,” she says. “Technically, I want your money too. Your mom is going to hate me.”
I stroke my fingers through her messy, wet hair. “But you’re a greedy girl. You want more than money. You want my fucking heart like it’s negotiable.”
“I’m tenacious.”
“Needy. The word is needy.”
“You like it,” she taunts.
“As long as you keep letting me whip your ass and then fucking it, I’ll tell you whatever you need to hear, baby.”
“For the record, Win, I can tell when you feed me bullshit lines and when you mean it. You mean it a lot more than when you don’t.”
“You think you know everything, little girl.” “I know enough.”
“Go to sleep.”
She’s quiet for a bit, and I almost fall asleep until she speaks again. “Whatever happened to Meredith?”
“She married Duncan Baldridge.”
I smirk as I think about how much hell I’ve put the Baldridge family through. Most recently, involving Leo Morelli by selling the Baldridge Plaza building.
“I hope she has a miserable life,” Ash says. “She deserves it.” “It’s quite miserable indeed.” I laugh. “It pleases me endlessly.”
Satisfied by my answer, she cuddles against me and soon falls asleep. I can’t relax, though. The last girl I slept with on the regular almost twenty years ago, I learned she betrayed me. I barely survived it back then. I certainly won’t survive it this time.
Because as much as I thought I cared about Meredith . . . It was only one tiny sliver of the way I feel about Ash.
This bratty, needy girl in my arms is going to destroy my life, and I’m going to fucking let her.
And Mother will rub it in my face once more.