I chuckled. “Well, I’d hope so!” I playfully nudged his chest.
He shook his head. “No, sweetheart. Last night was eye opening. You took me out of hell like usual, but this time, I was in control in a different way. I wasn’t commanding your body to do my bidding or to allow me to lose myself in you. Instead, you brought me back from the nightmare and reminded me of what I had to live for. When you asked me why I loved you, the millions of reasons rushed through my mind, obliterating every evil thought and replacing them with something beautiful. Something that was real, alive, and honest. My love for you.”
Tears pricked at the edges of my vision. “That sounds like a good thing.”
Wes chuckled and nuzzled my neck, rubbing his chilled nose against the skin there. I held the back of his neck, keeping him close. “Very good thing. And then, after yesterday, dealing with Gina…” He shook his head, and the words trailed off though his hold on me tightened.
“Tell me. It’s okay. I can take it. Remember…I’m strong enough to carry the load with you. Makes it lighter.”
He sighed and placed his lips near my ear. “Baby, they hurt her in so many ways. They tied me up and forced me to watch them gang rape her. So many of them. It was like an evil line of destruction. And sometimes, several of them would brutalize her at the same time.” He choked down the tears I could feel starting to wet the shirt at my back. I clung tighter.
“They would stand her up, tied to a beam at the ceiling, and two would fuck her at once. She’d scream so loud they’d tape her mouth shut so snot and tears would fall down her dirty cheeks. Eventually, she’d pass out from the pain. I thanked God for those times. When she was no longer conscious to feel what they were doing to her…” He coughed and hiccupped into my neck. Tears and emotion clogged up the words he was trying desperately to get out.
“Oh, God…Mia, they’d leave her hanging there for us to see. Blood dripping down her legs, pooling at her feet. Sometimes I wished they’d kill her, so she didn’t have to relive it time and again. They raped her every day. Every single day I watched a piece of her die at the hands of madmen. It’s the worst hell I could ever imagine. And she lived through that.” His fingers dug into my ribs as the memory haunted him. I pulled him close and hugged him to me in a vise grip, wanting to give him my strength and take away his pain.
Tears that I didn’t know I’d been shedding poured down my cheeks. I held Wes as he held me, and sitting on that beach together, we let out the devastation, the fear, the heartache that clung to every minute since he’d returned.
Drained in every sense of the word, I got to a point where the tears would no longer come. Wes leaned heavily into me, but I wasn’t even sure if he was awake anymore. His breathing was slow and steady against my chest. Some of my fingers were numb and others were tingly from gripping him so tight, and I was pretty sure I’d have finger-shaped bruises on my ribs where he clung to me. I’d wear them proudly.
Unraveling my arms, I ran my fingers through Wes’s unruly hair. After a couple minutes, he groaned and hummed into my neck. That noise fired up my libido in a second flat. “Do you feel like you can get up?” I asked him.
He snorted into my neck. “I’d rather lean on you for the rest of my life.”
I chuckled and kissed his brow. “You can, only not when we’re sitting in sand. Can we move this party to the bedroom?
His stomach growled, interrupting my plan to attack him physically. “How about we move this to the kitchen. I’m certain Judi is whipping up something amazing right now.”
The thought of one of Judi’s special homemade breakfasts had me salivating. Begrudgingly, I lifted off my man and held out my hand. He looked at it and then at me before placing his warm palm within mine. Then he stood and pulled me upright into a hug.
“You amaze me.”
I snorted. “How so?”
“I tell you something vile, the thing eating at my insides, and somehow you take it on with grace and strength. I don’t know how you do it.” He shook his head and held my hand.
“Easy. I have you to fall back on. That’s part of being us, I think. The good, the bad, and even the ugly can end up being something beautiful if we deal with it together. Apart, we have no chance. Together, we can survive anything.”
He tugged my hand and started walking toward our home. “I believe you’re right.” He lifted our hands and kissed the top of my palm. “With you, Mia, anything is possible.”
* * *
“Let me get this straight. You have to come up with the segment concept, write it, and tape it before next Friday?” Wes asked around a mouthful of homemade Belgian waffles.