The Fragile Ties Series: The Complete Collection by Jennifer Bene

Author:Jennifer Bene [Bene, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781946722959
Published: 2022-08-16T04:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

Lianna

Even in his arms, being carried down the hall to the bedroom, she couldn’t shake her concern for him. Sure, he was strong, but physical strength wasn’t helping him right now. Whatever had happened inside his head during their argument had been enough of a blow to leave David unstable, uncertain. If anyone had asked her yesterday, or even a month ago, if he’d ever drop to his knees in front of her and apologize, she would have bet them her entire bank account that it would never happen. He had always been fearless, unapologetic, so single-minded that any obstacle in his path was doomed — herself included.

And, from the moment Jean-Luc had stood in her apartment, she’d known it would be the same with the Faures. A zero-sum game where neither of them could win, because his hate had always been what fueled him. It didn’t matter what she wanted, what she needed, because his hate was in the way. Before she’d even had a chance to explore her own feelings, her own thoughts, he’d drawn a hard line between them and the family she’d never known… and then she’d crossed it by going to lunch with Jean-Luc. Betrayed him, enraged him, brought all of that hate to the forefront where she was sure it would destroy them. And then he’d practically confirmed it when he left her. Walked out and gone to Harry like he always did when his life got too complicated, when being with her got too complicated. But the issue had been waiting for both of them when he’d come home. In that moment, when his rage had returned because Jean-Luc paid for the apartment, she’d been sure that the Faures would be the thing that finally broke them. A betrayal he wouldn’t — or couldn’t — forgive. And as angry as he’d been, for once she’d felt it too. Angry and so tired of his hate, of being part of it just because she shared blood with them.

So, after they’d argued, after she’d tried again and again to get him to listen, she’d done the only thing she could think of… she’d told him to get over it, be done with it — or leave.

For some reason that had almost broken him. Put a crack in the wall around him just wide enough to see through the hate, to choose her, to tell her that he loved her. It wasn’t a big crack, not enough for him to really open up, but it was enough. Enough for him to listen, to finally hear her, to finally let her say all the things she’d tried to say over their months together that had always resulted in an argument. A fight that they’d always diffused with their twisted games, with sex and violence. And now that the crack was there, she could see through the wall, see all the damage he hid layers deep. Under all the hate, the rage, the aggression, and the bravado. And while she’d loved him before, she loved him even more now.

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