Page 122 of Consumed By You

Warily, I raise my eyebrows in question.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to…but how did you get away? From him?”

I look down at our entwined hands. “I hitchhiked.”

“To New York?” he asks incredulously.

“Yes. It ended up being the best way to do it anyway since it led the cops off my tracks. They couldn’t trace me.”

“And no one tried to harm you?”

“No, no one. Most of them were really nice. I had a black eye at the time, so I think most of them knew I was running away. Thankfully, none of them asked.”

“I’m surprised none did.”

“Most of them were just trying to do a good deed. I was grateful they didn’t.”

He lifts his hand and caresses my face tenderly. I press my cheek to his palm.

“Anyways, after that, I was in New York.”

“Where did you live?”

“I was, um, homeless for a while.” His grimace forces me to avert my eyes. I shouldn’t be telling him this. He might not want me after hearing my sordid tale. “I met a guy outside a laundromat about two months after arriving. He owned it. He was well-known for helping people create new identities, and he agreed that if I worked free of charge for a year, he would do it for me.”

“So you did it?” Benjamin asks. “Did he at least give you a place to stay?”

I nod. “His house. I ended up dating his son Gio. They were overall good people. A year later he helped me change my name to Fontaine and I dated his son for another year before he died in a hit-and-run accident.”

“Jesus,” Benjamin utters. “Did you keep in contact with the father?”

“His father died a year later, but yeah, I did. He knew I cared for his son, but it was never love. I just wanted to feel safe. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.” I take a sip of wine, trying and failing to get the sour taste from my mouth at the mention of a past I try so hard to forget.

“Was he your first?”

“Yes.”

He rolls off his back to face me. “You told me something when we first slept togeth—”

“That you’re the only one who’s made me…” I blush, nodding. “I wasn’t lying.”

“The other guys just didn’t care?”

I smile shyly. I can’t believe we’re talking about this. “I’ve only been with Gio, Luke, Adam, and you, but yeah, they figured it was something wrong with me.Ithought it was something wrong with me. It wasn’t until I met you that I knew differently.”

“I wanted you so bad…from the moment I met you.”

I lean forward, planting my lips to his chastely. “Same.”

I put the glass of wine on the nightstand and lie back. “I couldn’t do it even when I was with Luke.”

He whips his head up, stunned. “Wait,what?”

I blush, embarrassed. Time to get off this subject. This wine is making me say stupid things.

Benjamin clears his throat, and when I look at him again, there is a hint of a smile on his face.

“You don’t have to look so damn happy about it!”