“I’m sorry!” The pouring rain battered the slick dock and ran in rivulets down her face.

I’d opened the door, expecting to cave to whatever Chyna wanted. I’d made my demands, but if she came back telling me that she still only wanted sex, I was going to agree to anything. I could not turn her away a second time. What I hadn’t expected was to find her standing at my doorstep, soaked to the bone, screaming at me over the storm.

“I’m sorry that I hurt you. I’m sorry that I treated you the way I did. I was scared. I was scared of you hurting me, so I hurt you first. I was afraid of being the woman my mother was, so controlled, so damaged by a man that she abandoned her children and never looked back. I’m sorry, Blaise.” Her voice was getting eaten up by thunder, but I could make out the words she was saying. “I’m so sorry for what I’ve done to you.”

Shocked, I just stood there.

“It was wrong.” She jumped when a flash of lightning struck too close to us and then looked back at me with fear in her eyes. “I can finish talking out here if you don’t want me to come in…”

I jerked into action and grabbed her shoulders to bring her inside. Slamming the door shut, I grabbed a towel from the load of clothes I’d been folding and wrapped it around her. She was shivering so much that her teeth were chattering.

“Thank you.” She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. “I can’t say that I’m sorry enough. I messed up. I was awful. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I have to tell you that none of it was because I don’t want you.”

“Chyna, I—”

“No, let me explain. Please.” She waited until I nodded to keep talking. “Cherry and I never knew the man who impregnated my mother. He left before we were born. My mom died. We were dropped off one day in this horrible orphanage run by this horrible woman who would tell us that no one wanted us. She was right, to an extent. We were shuffled off to many foster homes and, even then, they only tolerated us.

“When you showed up, I got scared. I have all these issues…Blaise, I was broken into a million pieces before I was even in kindergarten, and that’s what I am, broken.

I blinked at her a few times and had to clear my throat to get my voice back. I didn’t know where to start. I was angry at all the people who had hurt her along the way and made her so scared to open her heart to me. But mostly I felt shock and relief.

“Maybe I want the job of putting the pieces together.”

I clasped her shoulders and stared down at her, trying to read her feelings. Sure enough, I could sense her slowly opening to me, a tinge of sorrow, hope, even anger at herself. More than anything, I could feel her love for me. It burned hotter than anything I’d ever felt, and I wanted more.

“You love me.”

She blushed and looked away. When I thought she’d deny it, she met my gaze and nodded. “And you love me.”

I nodded. “Since the moment I laid eyes on you.”

“But…I wasn’t good to you.”

I moved my hand up to grasp the back of her neck. “I wasn’t good, either. I was an idiot. I didn’t think that I needed to change, and I was wrong. I’m sorry that I expected you to be a maid.”

“Don’t apologize. What I did was so much worse.”

I squeezed her neck lightly and pulled her into my chest. “I can feel you now. I’ve never felt anything like it.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Stop apologizing, mate. If you want me to feel better, you must feel better because I can feel what you feel now, and we can put the past behind us.” I hesitated. “Right? You’re here to stay?”

She pulled back enough to look up at me. “I have my own house.”

“Then, we’ll stay there, if you want.”

With a light laugh, she nodded. “It’s nothing like this castle. But, wherever we stay, we’re together now.”

I let out a whoop of excitement, startling her. And right after that, a loud peal of thunder rang out, rattling the windows. “Maybe we should stay here tonight?”

Chyna looked up at me with more of that hope in her eyes. “I think we should stay here for a few nights. We have a lot of catching up to do. We should talk at some point. We could cook for each other.”

“You want to cook for me?”

The sadness in her eyes finally gave way to joy and she smiled. “Well, to be honest, I don’t know how to cook, but I can order takeout.”

I could not stop smiling if I tried. “Later. I believe you came here earlier looking for something.”

She buried her face against my chest. “Ugh. I’m sorry.”

I lifted her into my arms and carried her to my bedroom. “No more being sorry. It’s time to focus on our future—the good stuff.”

“You didn’t forget how to be bossy while I was away, I see.”

I laughed before dropping her onto the bed. “There are just some places where I’m in charge, mate.”

I watched her nipples pebble through her wet shirt. I ate it all up and greedily wanted more. “Why do you get to be the boss?” She teased me as she moved up the bed, away from me.

I accepted the dare in her voice and, yanking my shirt over my head, I fully planned to rise to the challenge.