Page 26 of Unlocked Desire: Vol One

But she needed to hear it all. Everything.

"It's okay. Her illness didn't last long. One day, Lip saw what she was doing and ran home and told his mom. Lori banged on the door and dragged me out of there. She called my father and told him that if he didn't do something about his wife, she would. My father dumped his wife, not 'cause he cared for me, but 'cause he didn't want to kill his political ambitions. It was a better story, a long-lost son he was proud of and loved. A cute kid makes for better photo ops over a pretty sexual predator, which was what Lip's mom would’ve told the newspapers if my father didn't put a stop to it all."

"Remind me to hug Lori the next time we see her."

"She's a good woman. Lip is lucky to have her as a mother. It's why he’s so stable, why he can show you love the way you deserve. Sometimes, I feel like I need to leave so you and Lip can be happy without all the baggage. But I'm a selfish man, and I can't let you go. The two of you are the only people of value in my life. I can't be without you."

"I would never let you leave us, nor would Lip."

"I'm no good, Joey. My genes are garbage. My DNA is corrupted. When my dad kicked my stepmom to the curb, I thought that was the end of it. I thought no one could hurt me anymore, but then my older sister came home from college. She beat me nonstop. She liked watching me cry. I was her personal punching bag, but I took it. I never said a word to anyone but Lip and made him promise not to tell anyone. She was nineteen and angry. I didn't understand why she was like that. She had everything anyone could want, but as I got older, I realized it was our genes."

"She beat you? If I ever meet the fuckin' bitch, I'm gonna bash her head in."

I touched the angry bite mark on Joey's shoulder, the one I'd inflicted. I saw the broken skin and my teeth marks embedded in her flesh. I turned away, unable to handle what I'd done to her. It wasn't the first time, and I knew it wouldn't be the last.

"Even when we fuck, my need, the biting, it's all messed-up shit from my fucked-up genes. I fuckin' marked you. This has to hurt. Why do you let me do it?"

Joey shrugged. Her fingers brushed mine as she glanced at the mark I'd left on her pale skin. "I like it. It's hot. You never do anything to hurt me outside the bedroom. It's hot knowing I drive you so crazy that you can't hold back. It's primal." She turned her eyes on me, the brown so rich, so warm. "I trust you. That's why I let you do it."

"You shouldn't trust me. I fuckin' don't trust me. Right now, it's biting, but who knows what else I'll want from you? What if I want something you can’t give?"

"Jack, stop this. I don't believe you'd ever hurt me."

"Until I do."

"You won't hurt her." Lip spoke from the doorway. He'd been so quiet that I hadn't even heard the door open.

"How long have you been standing there?" I asked.

Chapter 6

LIP

Jack was a fuckin' mess. I'd seen him look like shit many times, but this time it was different. Usually, his anger fueled him; he got sad or pissed. He went off somewhere and beat the fuck out of some asshole.

It wasn't the first time I'd seen Jack broken, but it was the first time I was scared he couldn't be put back together again. His head hung low, his hands formed into fists, and he looked everywhere but at Joey as her hands cradled his bandaged fists.

I frowned. "What the fuck did you do to your hand?"

"Got in a fight. Florence Nightingale here fixed me up." Jack pulled his hands from Joey’s and unclenched his fists. "See? Good as new."

I moved toward Joey, tucking her under my arm. "You okay?"

"Yes." She nodded. "Just a little sad."

I glanced at Jack. "You told her?"

"Yes, she knows everything. Now she can walk away, and the two of you can live happily ever after," Jack spat.

"You're such a fuckin' idiot. I've known you for most of my life. I've always been there. You think anyone who loves you is gonna walk away from you?"

"My own fuckin' mother abandoned me at four. Left me to that hell."

"What about what my mother did? Didn’t she prove that people love you?" I asked, frustrated at Jack's stupidity.

Joey gazed at Jack and then at me. "What did your mom do?"

"She adopted Jack on his eighteenth birthday. He'd already been living with us for two years. He emancipated himself at sixteen. My dad paid for the lawyer. Alison, his half-sister, had been beating him for eleven years. My dad couldn't take it anymore. Every other day, he was at my house with a broken rib, arm, or a black eye. She was a real piece of work. A complete fuckin' psycho. The bitch landed herself in jail five years ago when her ex-husband finally caught her beating the shit out of her kid with a sack of oranges."