Page 14 of Bowser (Dragon Riders MC 2)
“That’s a very intuitive way to look at things.”
“So, unless your biggest secret is that you just kissed me—”
I pointed. “Yep. That’s it.”
She barked with laughter. “Then, I want your second darkest secret. Unless you want me to talk with my sister.”
I sighed. “This is sheer blackmail, you know.”
She winked. “And I’m very, very good at it.”
Part of me wondered what else she was good at.
“If I tell you, you have to promise me something.”
She nodded. “I can do that.”
“Promise me you won’t tell a soul. Ever.”
She blinked. “Is it that serious?”
“To me, it is.”
She licked her lips. “Then, you have my word.”
I tipped my drink up to my lips and chugged the rest of it down. I’d need the liquid courage for this conversation, and there was a damn good chance I’d lose any shot I had with Hope after I told her. But if this was what she wanted, then I’d give it to her.
I prayed with all my might she wouldn't look at me differently, though.
“I was engaged once,” I said.
My eyes slowly hooked to Hope’s as she furrowed her brow.
“What happened?” she asked.
I clicked my tongue. “She died.”
“Oh, Bowser.”
I set my empty drink on the table. “She was my high school sweetheart. We dated… fuck me, I don’t know how many years. Well after she left for college. I was just a prospect with the crew back then, but the part-time work gave me enough money and shit for me to go back and forth between my place and her dorm room whenever she wanted me there.”
“That sounds really romantic.”
I snickered. “It was. I mean, we were, you know? We had some time where we split, though. Just before she entered her junior year. She called me up one day and simply… ended things. No explanation. Nothing.”
“What the fuck?”
My eyes fell closed. “I took my broken heart and kept trucking, telling myself I’d never love another woman because of what she did. But a couple of years later I ran into her around Christmas time in a grocery store around here. I mean, there she was, shopping for shit to bake a cake. And she had what looked to be a two-or-so-year-old child in the cart.”
Her jaw dropped. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. Not one bit. I was stunned, at first. In my mind, I figured that’s why she left. She cheated, or some shit, and got pregnant. But it was even worse than that.”
“Wait. The kid wasn’t yours, then?”
I shook my head slowly. “No. She was raped on campus.”
She gasped. “What the fuck?”
My hands trembled with anger. “She was raped, and she was so emotional from the trauma and from figuring out she was pregnant that she shoved everyone out of her life. It was… fucked up in ways I can’t even express. But after talking, crying, hugging and—well, other things—we decided to give ourselves a second shot. Her, the kid, and me. All of us, together. Like the family we wanted in the beginning.”
“You said she died.”
My eyes slowly opened. “Yeah. In a house fire.”
The memory ripped me back as her voice echoed off the corners of my mind.
“Bowser!”
I coughed so hard I wretched. “Sweetheart. I’m coming!”
“I’m in James—his room—Bowser, the flames!”
Something soft fell against my knee. “Bowser.”
I swallowed hard. “There was uh, a uh—an electrical malfunction behind the walls of the place where her and James were staying. That’s the uh—”
She nodded. “Baby, yes. A baby boy.”
My lower lip quivered. “I heard her screaming for me. I came over to visit and saw the flames mounting and I ran right in. I heard sirens in the distance before they were swallowed up by the roar of those fucking hot ass flames. She even told me where she was, you know?”
“Bowser! I can’t get out into the hallway!”
I stared at the flaming beam that had fallen into my path as a door cracked open in the distance.
“It’s okay. I’m right here,” Hope said.
I settled my hand over hers. “There was this beam in my way. And the only thing I could think about was getting around it to get to them. The damn apartment complex wasn’t worth the shit it had been built with, and the fire only grew. The roof caved in. I heard her just screaming.”
“Bowser!” she shrieked.
“Sir, you have to come with us.”
“I heard the firefighter’s voices in my ear, but I fought them every step of the way. It took four men to pull me out of that apartment, but no one got—”
I closed my eyes and forced the tears to stay at bay as Hope scooted her chair closer to me.
“Did anyone get out of that fire, Bowser?”
I sniffled. “No one except me.”
Her arms draped around me as she straddled my lap. She sat against my thighs with the warmth of her body and the tears fell anyway. She held me close. My arms cloaked her back as I pulled her against my chest. With her lips peppering soft kisses on top of my head, I cried into her breasts. Into the comforting bosom of a woman that had opened up a part of me I thought was lost in that fire. I clung to her clothes, my body trembling as her hands slid up and down my back. She whispered sweet nothings into my ear, trying to get me to calm down.
