Love Me Dear (Love Me Book 3)

Chapter 25

It was late, and Trinity was sitting in Levi's home office, reviewing what she had missed over the past two weeks. Ben and Lia had gone to bed early because they were still on east coast time.  The evening had been fun as Levi, Ben, and Lia had all gotten to know each other. Josiah had left shortly after dropping off Ben and Lia, saying something about meeting the new manager of the hotel.

"What are you thinking about?" Levi asked, entering the office and closing the door behind him.

Trinity smiled. "I'm wondering if Josiah is better at hiring new employees than you."

"Ouch!" Levi said, covering his heart as if mortally wounded by her words as he lowered himself into a chair across from the desk.

"But fair," Trinity insisted.

"Yes, fair," he agreed. "Did you get a chance to talk to Josiah about what happened?"

Trinity shook her head. "No, he apologized, and that's enough for me. I know where he was coming from, and I don't disagree with concerns."

"What concerns?" Levi's voice was soft.

"Your first wife was a survivor of abuse. It was where the majority of her problems stemmed from, and it is the same for me. I will never be completely whole again. There will always be a broken part of me, and I worry that it's not fair that you have to deal with it." She sighed. "I wish..."

"You wish?" Levi asked after a few moments of silence. "I wish I could have met you ten years ago. When I was whole."

"I love who you are now Trinity, and ten years ago, I was married and raising a son. Our time is now." He watched her give a watery smile. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything," Trinity assured him.

"How bad was it with your husband?"

Trinity looked at her hands where they lay on the desk as she gathered her thoughts. "Sometimes, I was afraid to breathe. He was always careful about how he hurt me. He knew I had an image to maintain. Which thinking about it now, meant it all had to be calculated. It wasn't anger that drove him. It was some form of sick mind game that made him feel important." She swallowed hard as she admitted it.

"I can believe that, especially since he's been waiting and watching for so long. You never told your family?"

Trinity shook her head. "I was ashamed and afraid to tell them. When he beat me to the point that I had to go to the hospital, I knew I had to leave." She took a deep breath, what she was about to admit she hadn't even admitted to herself.

"I wasn't surprised by Ben's wife, Illiana, and Christopher's affair. It was something I suspected. I would see the way that he would look at her at parties, and she wasn't opposed to his attention." Trinity stood and walked over to the fireplace behind Levi. She didn't want him to look at her during her next admission. "When Illiana turned up dead, there was a brief moment that I thought it might have been Christopher, and even after they accused Ben, I still didn't say anything. What kind of sister does that make me?"

"The scared kind, and I'm sure he would not have wanted you to put yourself at risk," Levi tried to reassure her.

"I should have said something." She shook her head.

Levi rose and moved to stand behind her, wrapping his good arm around her. "You never told anyone that, did you?

Trinity shook her head. "I have so many secrets, that I've been keeping for so long. I don't even know if I'm able much less how I will be able to share them with you."

"You don't have to share anything you don't want to with me, but I get what you're trying to say. You're worried that all of your secrets and trauma are going to make you cold and heartless like Constance?" 

Trinity turned to face him and took his face between her hands. "You are so kind and gentle. You deserve to have someone who can give you all of themselves."

"Do you love me, trust me, want me?" Levi asked, resting his head against Trinity's

"Yes, to all of it!"

"Let me tell you how bad it was with Constance. I walked into that relationship with my eyes wide open. She never loved me much less liked me. She was able to hide it in New York because people always surrounded us, but when we moved here, she couldn't disguise her disgust. When I touched her," Levi put his hand to Trinity's cheek, and she turned her face and kissed his palm, "she would jerk away. I knew what I was marrying into, and I did it for Josiah. I also was young and foolish enough to think that with love and time, she would come to love me."

"But she didn't?" Trinity asked, looking up into his eyes.

"No, she cursed me the last time I saw her. I think she resented me and the connection I had with Josiah. She didn't want to need me or my money to survive." Levi placed his hand above Trinity's heart. "You, on the other hand, don't need me or my money."

"I do need you, and I want you." Trinity's heart raced as she said the words and felt his touch.

"I know I can feel it now and when we make love. I've never felt anything like it before," Levi assured her.

"Me neither," Trinity agreed as she went up on tiptoe, placing her lips in front of his. They were so close they were breathing the same air, and her heart was about to burst. "I told Christopher I wasn't going anywhere with him because I belonged to someone else now. I belong to you, Levi." Her voice cracked as she said the words.

Levi closed his eyes at her words. "We belong to each other, Trinity." Then he opened his eyes and captured her lips with his.

Trinity couldn't get close enough as she pressed against him, and when he gasped in pain, she jumped back. "We shouldn't!"

"We should!" he disagreed. "We're going to have to be creative, that's all." He gave her a wicked grin.

"I don't know?" Trinity eyed him with concern.

"Trust me, Trinity."

Their eyes met, and she knew he was asking her to trust him with her future, not just the moment.

"I do, Levi," she assured him and kissed him to prove it. After all, actions sometimes spoke more than words.