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I snuggled up closer to him, wrapping my arm back around him and resting my face against his bare chest. He grabbed my hand and entwined it in his. “Remember when I told you my father was abusive?” he started cautiously.

I nodded against him.

“Well, the night he died he’d come home blind drunk. I still remember everything as if it happened yesterday. Chiara was sleeping over at a friend’s house, Liliana was in her room, Annabelle was already asleep and Gabby and I were hiding in my room playing with a dead mouse we found in the backyard earlier that afternoon.” He lightly chuckled and gave the hand he was holding a gentle squeeze. “Before you get all grossed out, I’ll remind you that I was only ten, and the mouse was already dead when we found it.”

I smiled and kissed his chest.

With a deep breath he continued, again serious. “So, my father came home. We heard the shouting from upstairs and ran to the top of the stairs to look. Mamma was on the ground crying, covering her face…” I felt every muscle in his body tense. I tried to calm him by giving him light kisses on his chest, reminding him I was there for him. “He was standing over her with his hand raised. It was clear to me, even at my age, what was going on. Gabby has always had a defiant attitude but she’s also fiercely protective. I’ve never seen her back down from anything. Hell, she’s only a year older than me and she’d stood up to our father more than any of us ever had. He couldn’t stand her and she knew it.”

Hearing Ryan say those things about Gabriella made me appreciate her a little more. I just hoped one day we could be friends. “So, Gabriella said something to him?”

“More like shouted. Gabby raced back into my room and came rushing out with the dead mouse. She ran half way down the stairs and threw it at the guy. Dad, of course, lost his mind. He started shouting at her and tried to race after her. He managed to grab her just as she reached the top of the stairs. He
punched
her, Evangeline. He fucking punched his eleven year old daughter in the face!”

Oh My God.
My gut twisted and my throat went dry. What kind of sick asshole did that to their child? Ryan was shaking and breathing heavily. I opened my mouth to tell him he could stop if he wanted to but he continued before I had the chance. “Gabby was still screaming at him and trying to get out of his grip. I wanted to help her but I was scared shitless. I couldn’t move. All I could do was watch as he beat the shit out of my sister and my mother screamed at him to stop. Then he picked her up and threw her against the wall like she was some ragdoll.” His voice began to crack.

I let go of his hand and hugged him tight. “I’m here, baby,” I whispered.

“Gabby finally stopped screaming but she wouldn’t get up. She was just lying there. I thought she was dead, Evangeline. I thought the bastard had killed her. Something inside of me snapped, I ran at my father and pushed him as hard as I could. All that was going through my head was that I wanted him to die; I wanted him to suffer for hurting my family. He lost his footing and fell down the staircase and hit his head on the tiles. When the police arrived Ma told me to go to my room and pretend I didn’t see anything. She told them that Dad beat up Gabby and then turned back for her but because he was drunk he slipped and fell down the stairs.”

“Oh my God,” I gasped.

“Ma suffered a fractured eye socket and Gabby was in a coma for two days because of the knock to her head. She suffered multiple fractures to her face and her right hand was broken.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said, lifting my hand and cupping his face. It felt wet. Knowing he’d been crying made my heart ache. I gently wiped his cheeks with my thumb.

“You don’t think I’m a monster?”

Did he honestly think that’s what I’d thought of him? “Ryan, listen to me. He was a horrible, horrible man that deserved what he got. None of that was your fault. You were just a child.
He
was the monster. What your mother had to go through for so long, and what your poor sister suffered… It’s in the past now, he’s gone. You have a beautiful, loving family. No one thinks you’re a monster.”

“What about you?”

“What do I think?”

I felt him nod his head in my hand. This was my chance to try and make him smile again. The poor guy had been through so much, it was the very least I could do. He still needed to seek professional help to help him deal with it, but at this moment, I wanted to do whatever I could to make it hurt a little less for him. “Well…” I started, reaching up to find his lips with mine. I let my hand drop and slowly made a trail down his chest with my fingernails. “I find you extremely arrogant. You constantly drive me crazy and you’re so in love with yourself,
but
you’re also the most delicious piece of meat I’ve come across so I put up with you.”

I felt his chest shake and a light chuckle escaped him. “‘The most delicious piece of meat’, huh?”

I smiled, continuing my torturous tease of his body. When I reached the top of his boxer briefs, I slipped my hand inside. A sharp hiss escaped through his teeth as he instantly hardened with my touch. Grabbing hold of him, I traced my thumb over his tip then glided my hand down to his base. “The only
monster
I know of, is this guy right here,” I teased, giving him a firm squeeze down there.

Using his hand, Ryan cupped my chin and tilted my face up to his. He reached down and kissed me, our lips somehow finding each other in the dark.

Suddenly, a low whining sound came from the foot of the bed before a heavy lump got up and jumped off the bed. Both Ryan and I froze. Realizing that we’d completely forgotten that Duke was still in the room with us, we burst out laughing.
Poor Duke.

“Shit, sorry buddy,” Ryan said sitting up. I sat up with him. “Guess he wants out.”

“I don’t blame him.” I chuckled. Feeling the bed rise I added, “Be careful of the broken pieces on the ground.”

“I guess I should clean that up, huh?” He said walking away from me.

“We’ll do it tomorrow. Right now, there’s something more important I want to do.”

I heard the door open and close, and before I knew it Ryan was bouncing back on the bed, only this time he took hold of both my wrists and held them above my head. I wrapped my legs around him, forcing him to settle in between with his hard bulge pressing against me. We were nose to nose. If I really wanted to, I could reach up and kiss him, but I had something else to say first.

Ryan tilted his head and kissed my cheek, then pressed another one closer to my ear before nibbling on my earlobe. I let out an involuntary moan.

To my surprise he then licked the side of my face. “Ryan!” I giggled. “That’s so gross!” Trying to turn away, I was met with another quick lick, which got my nose. “Stop it!” I added trying to stop from laughing.

He chuckled, before showering my face with multiple tiny kisses. “Better?”

I pouted even though I knew he wouldn’t be able to see it and shook my head from side to side. “I know what would make it better,” he purred.

Letting one of my wrist’s go, his hand travelled down to the spot between my legs. “You want me in there, don’t you?” he said tracing circles on the outside of my underwear.

I took a sharp breath in and closed my eyes.
Wait!
There was something I had to say to him. My eyes shot open. “Ryan, wait!” I whispered.

Ryan stilled immediately. “What is it?” he replied in a worried tone.

“I just wanted to say that, I think I’m in love with you too―”

I didn’t have time to say anything else because Ryan’s mouth slammed into mine. There I’d said it. Somehow a messed-up girl like me managed to find the perfect messed-up boy. We both shared dark and terrifying pasts that were always going to be there, but now instead of trying to battle against the darkness on our own, we had the love and support of each other to help us through it.

CHAPTER 22

I woke up the next day naked and nestled in the arms of a guy who was wearing the biggest grin on his face. It was the chirpiest I’d ever seen Ryan. But I wasn’t complaining, it was just good see him this way, especially after everything that had happened last night.

I helped to clean up the broken statue pieces in the bedroom before we met the rest of the family downstairs for breakfast. I was expecting to find the girls upset or even angry by what had happened last night, but instead I was stunned to find them staring at us in surprise as we walked in together, and Ryan was laughing at a story he was telling me about one of his teammates. Although, I had to admit I blushed when my eyes met Serafina’s proud, beaming face.

We had to make our way back to New York shortly after breakfast. The girls― including Gabriella ― all came out to say goodbye and promised that they’d all be at their brother’s game later tonight.

“Are you coming tonight, Evangeline?” Annabelle asked, her big, hazel eyes begging me to say yes.

I looked over at Ryan but he was deep in conversation with his mother to even notice. “I guess it depends if Ryan wants me there,” I replied with a shrug, turning back to face her.

“Of course he does! Why wouldn’t he? We’ll all be there, and plus, he’s going to be away for the next two and a half weeks. Shouldn’t you guys spend as much time together as possible?”

Annabelle had a point, but it wasn’t as simple as that. Somehow, I got too carried away with telling Ryan how I felt last night, and I’d forgotten to bother asking what this meant for us. Were we ‘officially’ together or not? It seemed like a stupid question considering Ryan admitted to having only slept with me since and because we confessed our true feelings for each other. Wasn’t confirming a relationship status supposed to take place before those things? Was it important to label what we had?

“Leave the poor girl alone, Annie!” Chiara chimed in, lightly pushing her sister to the side. “It was lovely to meet you, Evangeline,” she said looking at me with a smile. Then her face fell and she added with a low voice, “I’m so sorry about everything that happened last night. I know it must’ve been hard and you’re probably thinking we’re one big messed-up family, but in the end, I think you did the right thing by staying. I honestly don’t want think about what would’ve happened if you decided to leave last night.” She leaned over and hugged me. I hugged her back. “Thank you,” she whispered in my ear just before she pulled away.

I smiled at Chiara, trying to force myself not to cry.
Why am I getting emotional again?
“And are you okay, Annabelle? It’s just that was a lot of information to throw at you last night… I’m worried about you.” The words barely came out. I thought she hadn’t heard me but Annabelle lifted her head and gave me a small smile and nodded, indicating she had.

“I’ll be okay, thank you, Evangeline,” she replied in a quiet voice before throwing her arms around me.

I was glad to see her smiling. If it were me, I’m not sure how I would’ve handled hearing what she had last night but Annabelle was exceptionally smart and was well loved by her entire family, if anyone could pull through from something like that it’d be her, I was sure of it.

“And I owe you an apology.”

Pulling free from Annabelle, I turned around to face the sister I was most dreading: Gabriella. But instead of seeing her face plastered with a mean sneer, the girl looked uncomfortable. “I’m sorry for everything I said to you. It almost killed me to see my brother that way and if I’d known that was going to happen, I wouldn’t have said anything.” Gabriella’s gaze dropped to the ground for a moment before lifting back to me. “I shouldn’t have said anything at all, and I’m thankful my family didn’t fall apart last night. I’m also grateful you were there to help him, Evangeline. My family means everything to me and I can now see how much you mean to Ryan. Please take good care of him.”

“I can’t begin to imagine what you went through, Gabriella. It was a brave thing you did protecting your family. And I don’t hate you for acting the way you did last night, you had every right to be cautious,” I replied giving her an honest smile. That was the truth.

A small smile crept up on her face and the next thing I knew she was hugging me. I wasn’t sure how to react at first, unsure whether to hug her back or not. I definitely wasn’t expecting the gesture but eventually I hugged her back.

“Ready, Evie?” Our embrace was cut short when we both looked up to find Ryan and Serafina making their way over to us.

“Just give me a chance to say goodbye to this beautiful, young lady first, Ryan.” Serafina reached for me and took hold of my wrist, pulling me over to her. She threw me into her arms and kissed both my cheeks. “My son couldn’t have found a more perfect woman if he tried,” she whispered softly into my ear. “I thank you from the bottom of my heart, Evangeline. Whatever you did, it worked. Seeing the look on his face this morning is something I’ve waited so long to see. He’s finally happy.” Taking a small step back, she held my face between her hands and reached up to kiss me once more on the forehead. “Take care of yourself dear. I won’t see you at the games this weekend but you are welcome back here any time you hear?”