Love Bug (The Prescotts Book 3), Tara Wyatt [best mobile ebook reader .txt] 📗

every single fiber of his being that she was able to see how much he loved her and give them another chance. He knew he’d fucked up and hurt her. He knew she had every right to feel the way she did. He also knew that if she let him back into her life, he’d never lie to her again. Ever. He wished he’d never lied to her in the first place, but it was too late for that.

But more than that, he wished that the kind of openness and trust she deserved were easy for him. Because he saw now that lying to her wasn’t just a betrayal. Wasn’t just a deception. In the moment, he hadn’t trusted her enough to show her his scars and believe—know—she wouldn’t run. He’d demonstrated a lack of faith in her love for him, and he’d broken her heart by doing so.

He wondered if he should be worried at how easily the lie had come. Yeah, he’d felt guilty, but in the moment, he hadn’t hesitated to lie to her. He’d dove into it, headfirst. Maybe that was a remnant from having grown up in a household filled with lies. Filled with secrets and betrayals and words that hurt. He didn’t know.

He didn’t know if he was a good person who’d made a mistake, or a rotten person who’d managed to be good for a few months. That was the worst part.

Because as much as he wanted Willa back in his life, deep down, he was scared. Scared he’d never be good enough or whole enough for her. Scared that his scars would continue to cause damage and hurt her.

But you felt whole when you were with her. For the first time in your entire fucking life, you felt whole and happy and good.

Great. Now the voices in his head were contradicting themselves. He was officially losing it.

“You good?” asked Noah, squinting at him with his gloved hands on his hips.

Max pushed off of the ropes and forced himself back into the center of the ring. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

But the exertion didn’t work to dull the pain burning through him or quiet the voices in his head, and soon enough, the anger and fear and hurt all started to resurface, culminating in a hard punch to Noah’s stomach.

He huffed out a breath and shoved Max back, leaning forward with his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. “You know I didn’t write that article, right?” Noah asked, looking up at him, a grimace on his face.

Just then, the door to the gym opened, closing behind Lucian as he strode in. “Good thing, because the woman who wrote that article won’t be writing anything for a very, very long time.”

Max whirled to face his brother, who’d stopped just short of the ring. “What do you mean?” His legal team had demanded that Kelly Palmer be fired, but the newspaper had refused.

Lucian shrugged and then pulled off his plain white T-shirt and began wrapping his hands with the supplies on the table just outside the ring. “I called in a favor and got her fired.” He shrugged again. “And made sure that no other self-respecting news outlet would want to hire her.”

Max stared at his brother, gratitude making some of the tension ease out of his aching muscles. Lucian had been more of a father to him than their actual father ever had, and he shuddered to think just how bad things would’ve been if Lucian and Aerin hadn’t tried their best to shelter the younger ones from the worst of the damage.

“Thank you,” he said. “You didn’t have to do that.”

Lucian pulled on the boxing gloves and fastened them with Hudson’s help. “Yes, I did. No one fucks with my family and gets away with it. That’s the way it’s always been, and for as long as I’m breathing, that’s the way it’ll be.”

He ducked between the ropes and stepped into the ring, patting Noah on the shoulder. “Take a break. I’d like to punch my brother now.” Noah nodded and stepped between the ropes, accepting a towel and water from Hudson.

Before he had a chance to react, Lucian punched him in the face with a blistering right hook. “That’s for hurting Willa, you jackass,” he said. He landed a hard blow to Max’s stomach. “That’s for not letting all of this bullshit guilt go years ago.” Then he punched him in the face again, sending Max stumbling back against the ropes, his ears ringing. Even though Lucian was an inch taller than him—6’3 to Max’s 6’2—Max was bigger than him. He was thicker, broader and bulkier and had probably a good twenty pounds on Lucian.

But holy fuck, was Lucian strong. Three punches and even with the boxing gloves on, Max knew he’d be feeling them for days.

Lucian circled him, sizing him up. “Why are all my brothers so fucking stupid when it comes to their women? First Theo, who took ten fucking years to wake up to the fact that he was in love with Lauren, then Sebastian, who almost threw away what he had with Kayla because of who he’d once been, and now you, lying to the woman you’re clearly in love with to protect some secret from the past that’s long past its expiration date.”

“I know. I know! What do you want me to say, Lucian?” He held his arms out at his sides, not caring if Lucian hit him again. Not caring if he pummeled him unconscious. “I fucked up. The damage is done. I don’t know how to fix it.”

Hudson moved closer to the ring, the stark overhead lights catching his dark blond hair. He rubbed a hand over his mouth, his beard bristling against his fingers. “Well, you talked to her, right?”

Max nodded. “I apologized.”

Hudson shook his head. “No, I mean you told her what happened with Sophia, right? Told her all of it, the entire story?”

Max frowned. “Well…no.” Then he shook his