Page 18 of Breaking the Alpha (Serpent’s Tongue Ink #2)

“I always wanted to be blonde,” she said softly, dipping her fingers into the water and smoothing them across his bicep, over the small burn marks and scars.

“All the beautiful girls with the perfect lives were. When I was in high school, I would see them smiling and laughing, and they were so cool. So confident. So powerful. But I had no money of my own, and there was no chance my foster family would spring for a professional dye job. So I snuck into their laundry room, stole a cup of bleach, and did it myself.” She let out a quiet laugh.

“It was so bad and my hair was so damaged, I had to chop it off all the way up to my chin and I spent senior year with this wild bob I had no idea how to control.”

He tried to picture her stunning locks as being anything other than the cinnamon he adored and came up blank.

“It ended up being one of a long list of things I did to try and be anyone but who I was.” He watched her pull her unruly mane back into a ponytail and reach into the water with both hands.

“I had this tattered fashion magazine I took from one home to the next. It was filled with perfect women with perfect lives and perfect skin and perfect hair. They represented everything I could only dream about being.”

“Yeah, right. Perfect,” he scoffed. “One of these days I want you to join me on a shoot. It takes a full day to get those perfect shots. And even then, everything is touched up on computers.”

With a smile, she poured handfuls of water onto his chest. “I knew that even then. But from my perspective, those models represented confidence and freedom. Like they needed no one. And I wanted that life more than anything.” Her fingers trailed along his tattoos, moving from his pecs to his shoulders.

“It took me a long time to realize that it wasn’t their beauty that made them strong and perfect.

Once I started looking for the imperfections in their untouched photos, I realized that those imperfections were what made one beautiful woman stand out against another, were what made each powerful.

They were special. One of a kind. It was the first time I fully understood the importance of noticing flaws and appreciating them for their uniqueness. ”

While she spoke, her hands moved along his own imperfections, the marks of his childhood hidden unless you knew where to look, what to search for.

And just like her words, the gentle caresses of her fingers along his skin were sending the message that she didn’t see the scars as something to fix, didn’t see them as defects.

And so, just as he did every time she was near him, he started talking.

“I wasn’t an angry kid,” he opened, sliding a fraction lower into the bath.

“After my mom took off, Birch and Winter did a damn good job of keeping things going considering they were kids themselves. They kind of stepped into the parental role while our dad worked and drank and did whatever the hell it was he did that kept him away for nights on end. I knew it wasn’t a normal household, but it didn’t seem all that bad.

Life would be kind of calm, then Dad would return, smack us around a bit, eat all the meat Birch had stocked, leave, and we’d return to business as usual. ”

She reached over and turned on the faucet, rejuvenating the hot water and bubbles.

“When I was around eleven, I saw Winter take a belt beating for scratches on the kitchen table I’d made while cutting up a watermelon.

A few months later, our dad shoved Birch’s head into the wall because Grey’s toys tripped him up in the middle of the night.

And that’s when I figured out that Birch and Winter were not only making sure Grey and I were fed and clothed and on time for school, they were taking on our dad so Grey and I didn’t have to. ”

Angelina remained silent as she turned the water off and her body pressed against his arm dangling over the edge of the tub.

“It sort of flipped a switch in my head. I had some serious hero worship going for my brothers by then. Winter was twenty and working full time at a gas station up the road. Birch had dropped out and was working too, but he would always walk me and Grey to and from school, looking all cool and tough while he paid attention to us instead of the girls who’d hang around waiting for him to notice them.

” Warm water trailed along the nape of his neck and he closed his eyes.

“I decided I wanted to be on their side of our family, be one of the protectors for Grey. Except I wasn’t smart enough to know how to go about it.

“In my fourteen-year-old head, I figured if my fuckups were worse than Winter’s or Birch’s or Grey’s, our dad would turn on me and lay off them.

Except all it did was make them work doubly hard to keep me out of the line of fire.

By the time I realized I was only making shit worse for everyone, my dad had been called to pick me up from the cop shop for spray-painting the water tower.

” A shiver ran through him as he recalled that night.

“He didn’t say a word on the way to the house.

He was a yeller, so I should have known then that it was going to get real bad real fast.”

He moved his right arm and felt her fingertips on his bicep, grazing one of his more gnarled markings.

“Compound fracture,” he muttered, ignoring the hint of an ache he felt in the bone every time he thought about it.

“I don’t think the front door was even closed before he threw me into the glass coffee table, hollering about the cops tracking him down and the trouble my bullshit was going to cause him.

I didn’t even know my arm was snapped until Birch and Winter came tearing into the room and Birch went super pale. ”

She rested her head against his arm, her warmth stilling the tremor rippling through him as he recalled Winter’s expression, the rage and determination in his eyes.

“I don’t remember how it went down, but right after that, Winter killed my dad.

He took the nineteen-year sentence because I wanted to prove that I was strong enough to be like him and Birch, that I could stand up to that asshole and take everything he threw at me.

” He chuckled dryly. “This is probably stupid to say right now, but Windy Leigh is the only person outside my brothers I ever mentioned this to—once, when she asked about a few of my scars. I told her I had a shitty childhood. But I never actually told her anything else because it wasn’t worth it.

She didn’t want to hear about it, just wanted to know when I was going to see a plastic surgeon and have them fixed. ”

Angelina skimmed her fingers through his damp hair.

“I’m even more honored to listen, then,” she finally said, her voice pulling him from the memory as she nuzzled his cheek, her wild hair tickling his neck.

“I think it must have been hard to know how to grow into a man when you didn’t have one around to show you.

And since Birch and Winter stepped up to be the men they needed to be when they were still children without a role model themselves, it’s no wonder you saw what they did and sought to emulate it. ”

*

Angelina knew her words had struck a chord with River when she found herself hauled to her feet by a soaking wet man, his lips devouring her while bath water and bubbles sloshed and pooled at their feet.

Demanding as his kiss was, his fingers were gentle as they tugged at the elastic holding her hair back, a low growl rumbling through his chest when she yanked it out herself.

His tongue trailed along her throat to her earlobe, his naked, wet body pressed tight to her. “You’re so fucking incredible.”

“And you’re going to freeze,” she panted, grabbing a towel and tossing it around him, using the edges to hold him to her.

When he responded with another searing kiss that curled her toes and left her more breathless than before, she nudged him toward the door, obliging when he pulled her shirt up and tossed it on the floor.

“The candles in the lanterns are battery-operated but the rest—”

With a huff, he walked to the counter and blew them out one by one, giving her a moment to appreciate the unimpeded view of his ass until the last one was extinguished and he caught her standing in the doorway with her arms crossed, blatantly admiring him.

He stalked over to her, stopping just out of her reach.

“I’m laying out my official promise to fuck you all night. ”

Licking her lips, she lifted a brow in challenge. “I heard from a reliable source that that promise shouldn’t be made lightly. Are you sure you’re up for it?”

Without breaking eye contact, he palmed his heavy erection. “I hereby give you the Baker satisfaction guarantee.”

“Let’s see what you can do.”

He was on her in an instant, easing her into her room until her legs made contact with her bed and she broke their kiss to sit, crawling backwards while his eyes raked over her. “Will this affect our landlady-tenant relationship?”

“We’ll chalk it up to an Indulgence Night activity,” she replied, her smile matching his.

Although she expected River would live up to his word, she didn’t expect him to remain at the foot of her bed, his gaze hungry and intense while he stood there studying her.

“I don’t even know where to start,” he suddenly said running a hand through his hair and giving her an amazing view of his muscled arms and stomach.

“There isn’t a single inch of you I don’t want to taste and my head is fucking short-circuiting trying to decide where to begin.

” He put one knee on the mattress and splayed his hands across her thighs, gripping her roughly for a moment before he released her. “Roll over.”