I didn’t know what to say. I barely knew where to start with my explanation. There was so much garbage, so much fog, clouding my perfect little life that I could hardly sift through it all. Daniel Bennett, my father, school, everything was a mess and I only made things worse by running away.

I moved to Miami in attempt to live for myself. To forget the expectations and pressures forced on me by my family and find out who I really was. Dex had been completely unexpected. The beautiful man with all of his passion and goodness completely trampled all over my carefully laid plans. Though he had yet to say it, he showed me more love and kindness than I ever felt or expected to feel.

In all of my eagerness to explore my newfound feelings of love and security, I outright refused to acknowledge my past. Choosing to forget all of the painful things I left behind. Hoping that, with enough willpower, all of my problems would disappear, leaving me free to ride off into a perfect watercolor sunset with Dex by my side.

It was becoming clearer by the second that wouldn’t be possible. I was naïve to think my dramatic past wouldn’t catch up to me sometime. But it had, much too soon for my liking, and with a vengeance that threatened to ruin my relationship with the only man I had ever felt some semblance of love for.  

I couldn’t hide it anymore. Couldn’t hide behind pretty smiles and coy deflections, Dex deserved to know everything. Every ridiculous, messy detail from my past that brought me to him in the first place.

“I…” I took a moment, pausing to get my bearings. “I don’t know where to start.”

“At the risk of sounding like an asshole, the beginning is probably as good a place as any. Why did you come to Miami?”

That one was easy. “I came to Miami because I needed a fresh start. Isn’t that why everyone moves to a new place?”

Dex chuckled humorlessly. “It’s more than that with you though. I can tell.”

“You’re right.” I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth, chewing on it furiously to keep myself from crying prematurely. There would, no doubt, be tears by the end of this conversation, but it was still too soon to fall victim to my emotions. “I was... Am. I am running away from something.”

Dex suddenly looked alarmed, I reached out to touch his arm, attempting to soothe him.

“Nothing like that! I wasn’t in any physical danger, I was just profoundly unhappy.” I knew it sounded terribly dramatic and childish but there was no other way I could explain it.

He stared at me patiently, his eyes dark and expectant but somehow still the most comforting things in the world.

“My father has... All of these plans for me. For my life.” I was fumbling with my words. It was the first time I had ever outwardly discussed the topic and I wasn’t entirely sure how to fully express my thoughts. “He’s a senator.” I spat out a laugh. “Completely unremarkable, but you’d never guess it by his ego.”

Dex’s dark eyebrows furrowed, confusion taking over his handsome face. “So you ran away because your father is some asshole politician?”

I shook my head. “No, I ran away because I was tired of him dictating my life, just like he dictates everything else.” The tears were coming now and I could do nothing to stop them. “Back when he was still a big-shot lawyer, my mother was his secretary. She was beautiful and young and so full of dreams and she fell in love with a total bastard.” I choked out a bitter laugh, this was a tale that seemed as old as time. It was almost too cliché to seem real.

“Long story short, she got pregnant and he refused to acknowledge me as his own until she died when I was seven. He took one look at me on the day of her funeral, spit some garbage about how I looked so much like him and carted me off to his mansion in the hills.”  

“From there it was all-girl’s boarding schools for most of the year and summers spent being carted around the south of France with Au Pairs, followed by my entrance to a well-known but not too prestigious university, and an internship at a small time law firm.” I was becoming increasingly angrier, almost unable to contain my contempt. “And of course the relationship with a well-to-do young man. All carefully planned and orchestrated by my father.”

Dex’s expression had gone from angry, to shocked, to confused in the span of a few seconds. “And you couldn’t tell him that you were unhappy?”

“He didn’t care.” My voice sounded desperate. “Christopher Reed doesn’t care about me or anyone else who dares to defy him.”

“So what about, Daniel? How did that happen?”

“I did what my father asked and met a man. Daniel is from a well-off family, one with connections and a bank account the size of a large country. We dated for a while and it didn’t work out. I broke up with him and the next thing I know, he’s kneeling down in front of me with a ring, talking about short engagements, and children, and moving to California to support my father’s reelection.”

I remembered the feeling I had when Daniel approached me that evening on my way home, the abject disgust I felt as he slipped the gaudy ring on my finger before I could get a word out. It had been the tipping point. The thought of spending my life standing at the side of Daniel Bennett, bearing his pompous little children, and forever being under my father’s thumb had me creating a half-cocked plan to move across the country and start a new life.

“I just couldn’t do it, Dex. Not anymore. So I left. I emptied my bank accounts, chose the sunniest place I could find, got my shitty little apartment and hauled ass.”

Dex stepped closer to me, softly touching me for the first time since he had confronted me about Daniel. His rough hands gripped my elbows, forcing me to uncross my arms and wrap myself around him. I breathed him in as he held me, his clean, musky scent comforting me endlessly. I was too tired to cry but somehow more at ease than I had been in a long time.

“So what now?” Dex’s voice rumbled and vibrated through me.

“What do you mean?”

“What are we going to do about this?”

I was confused. “There’s nothing to do, Dex. Now that you know everything we can just move on.”

“Rosie, sweetheart…” His voice was soft, like he was trying not to upset me. “We can’t just pick up where we left off like there’s nothing wrong here.”

“I don’t see why not. My father, Daniel, none of that matters.” I got my new start and now that Dex knew everything, I didn’t have to hide or be ashamed anymore, we were so close to everything finally being perfect.

“You can’t just expect your family to forget about you, baby.” He chuckled, his hand moving up to my smooth cheek, prompting me to look up into his gorgeous eyes. “I don’t care how much of an asshole your father is, there’s no way he’s just going to let his daughter disappear without a fight.”

He didn’t understand. Not fully anyway. Sure, my father never raised a hand against me but he never had to. His neglect, his lack of affection, his overall disdain for my presence in his perfect family was more than enough to screw me up.

Dex had an amazing family. A mother and father who loved and supported him, a beautiful unit of nuclear happiness, there was no way he could understand the messed up relationship I had with my father.

He was right about one thing, though. My father would come for me. Not due to any kind of fatherly concern or because he genuinely cared about my safety, but because he owned me. In his eyes I owed him for acknowledging me when he hadn’t had to and for giving me a life that most people coveted. The money, the education, the blessing of his family name. All of it came with a price. One that I had to pay with my obedience.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore right now.” I wasn’t sure how to make Dex understand, but things were becoming overwhelming again.

Dex sighed as I gently moved out of his arms. “Fine, but you can’t ignore this forever, Rosie. Not anymore.”

I nodded, turning back to the now room temperature celery on the counter. “Fine.”

He moved up behind me, his large hands clasping my bare hips, pressing his lips against the back of my neck. “You don’t have to do it alone, baby. I’m here now. There’s no way I’m going to let anyone take you away from me.”