Holding Strong
Page 103

“I imagine you were as impressive then as you are now.”
He laughed without humor. Impressive? At the time he’d felt like a stud. Young, dumb, full of his own invincibility. “Dad was at the hospital for a long shift. I’d been out late the night before so I was still in bed.” Jesus, he hated reliving it.
Cherry’s small hand settled on his arm just above his elbow. She didn’t say anything, but then, she didn’t need to. He felt her silent support.
“She came into my bedroom. Naked.”
“Wow.” Her fingers slipped up under the sleeve of his T-shirt, touching the bare skin of his upper arm. “What did you do?”
Seeing it all in his head made him feel it again, too. “She was on me before I even realized what was going on. I woke up with her hand wrapped around my dick, her mouth on my neck.” Her naked body moving against me, her long hair sliding all over my chest. “She said she’d heard from some of my dates how big I was and she had to find out for herself.”
Totally deadpan, Cherry said, “Guess she needed it verified, huh?”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. Clenched and unclenched his teeth. “I had a boner,” he admitted. “She carried on, saying a lot of stuff—”
“Denver, you are big.”
“I know. But she took that for encouragement, carrying on like I’d gotten hard specifically for her.”
“Awkward.”
Was she teasing him? “Swear to God, Cherry, most guys wake up hard, especially at that age.”
Her hand slid up to his shoulder. “How did she take it when you told her to get out?”
Unsure he’d heard right, Denver flashed a glance at her and saw she was dead serious. No doubts in her big brown eyes. No recriminations.
He heard himself say, “You sure I did?”
She said softly, “Yes.”
Ah, fuck that felt great. Awesome enough that some of the suffocating pressure eased off of his chest, allowing him to take two big, cleansing breaths. “Thank you.”
“I trust you, Denver. Completely.” Her smile felt like a balm, but the words felt even better. “I’m sure at that age you were different, with a younger man’s perspectives and priorities. But you would never sleep with your father’s wife. That’s just ridiculous.”
“You can’t know me that well.” Could she?
“Maybe there are some things I still don’t know. But you don’t exactly hide the real you.”
“The real me, huh?” By the second he felt better, as if he’d just shrugged off several years’ worth of turmoil.
She nodded. “You can be really hardheaded. And God knows you’re sexist. Big-time sexist.” She scrunched her nose. “But in a nice way, like you want to take care of women.”
“I—”
“And in bed you’re a dominant force.” She shivered. “Combined with how you look, and yes, your size, it’s pretty hot.”
She’d totally sidetracked him. “Cherry...”
“You’re also pushy and way too autocratic, an alpha who always wants to run the show.”
“Go ahead. Don’t spare me.”
“No, I won’t. You can take the truth, and somehow I think you need to hear it.”
Funny, but the string of insults really did make him feel better. If Cherry knew his faults, then maybe she also knew of the loyalty that would keep him from ever betraying someone he loved.
Even though his father hadn’t known.
She wasn’t done yet. “As much as you might deny it, you have a temper. I felt the sting of it today.”
“We’re back to that?” Shit. He hated that he’d made her feel so bad. “If I could redo it, I would. There’s no good excuse, I know, but it was a totally fucked-up day, and with Pamela there and Armie with you and—”
She waved that off. “You’re usually fair, proven by your willingness to apologize.”
The praise was a little harder to take than the criticism. “Maybe I just want to get laid.”
“There’s that, I’m sure. You’re the most over-sexed person I’ve ever known.”
“No such thing.” He couldn’t get the smile off his face. “And if you weren’t so sexy—”
“But,” she interrupted, “it’s also that you have a lot of honor. When you’re wrong, you admit it.” She took a deep breath. “So I know if you’d done anything with Pamela, you’d take half the blame. Instead, you seem to hate her.”