CONTRITE

BY

KATHY

COOPMANS

© 2015

Contrite © 2015 Kathy Coopmans

Cover Design © 2015 Sommer Stein

Photography © 2015 Kelsey Keaton, K. Keeton Designs

Cover Models: Tessi Le’Anne and Nathan Weller

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission by the author. All rights are reserved.

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to eStore and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book contains graphic scenes of physical and sexual violence. Please continue reading at your own discretion.

 

To Yamara, Karrie, and Heather.

Always remember that if you fall, I will be there to pick you up.

 

Chapter One

I’m standing in the Atlanta Airport fidgeting and pacing back and forth as I wait for my husband Turner to come walking through the gate. It’s been a week since I have seen him; to some that may not be a long time, but to me it’s been forever. This is the longest we have been apart since we started dating in our sophomore year of college. Both of us were studying to be accountants and now we have our own small firm in a small town on the outskirts of Atlanta.

Usually when Turner goes away on a business trip I go with him. However, my brother Zack and his wife Krista just had their first child- my handsome nephew, Nolan. I had to be there for his birth. I couldn’t miss seeing my brother’s first child come into this world, and I am so glad I didn’t. The look on Zack’s face when he showed Nolan to me from the nursery window is one I will never forget. It was a moment of pride for my entire family, one I simply cannot describe.

My dad stood beside me with tears of happiness welling openly as he observed my brother holding his son. When Nolan was placed in my father’s arms for the first time, I cried right along with him as he cooed at the baby. I have never seen my dad cry, not even when my bitch of a mother left us all ten years ago to move on to bigger and better things . . . her words, not mine. Zack and I haven’t talked to her in two years.

She showed up one day on my doorstep. I freaked the hell out when I answered the door and there she stood, draped in diamonds and some fancy designer dress, pulling me in for a hug like we were best friends. Turner hated her, and to this day I still don’t know why she was there. To brag about how she was happily married to some guy with lots of money, I suppose. She went on and about how happy she was, how she missed us all so much, and how she made a mistake by leaving us. She said she wanted to start over. I told her there was no chance in hell that I wanted anything whatsoever to do with her again.

When Turner asked her to leave and never come back again, she fake cried all the way to the damn door. Now we have no idea where she is, not that she was around much, anyway. She should be the poster child for the worst mother. No, I take that back. She is the worst mother. But today is all about the man who I call ‘my world.’

I shiver just thinking about him and how much I have missed him. Turner Calloway stole my breath away eight years ago when he walked into class and sat down right next to me. I was the shy, timid nerd girl who just wanted to be happy and to make my father proud.

After my mother left, I took care of my dad and brother the best way I knew how, cooking and cleaning and doing everything else my selfish mother should have been doing. Dad and Zack were constantly riding my ass about going out and doing something. I never wanted to. Sure, I had friends, and they usually came over to my house. I just didn’t want my dad to ever be alone. I went to school and came home, and even when I went to college I still lived at home. Dad tried to convince me I needed to get out and experience the college life. Nope. Not me. I just wasn’t interested, until the day I laid eyes on Turner.

After two weeks of talking back and forth to each other in class, he finally got me to give him my number, and we’ve been together ever since. My dad about shit himself and practically shoved me out the door when I finally told him about Turner. Instead of being the typical dad who claims no man is good enough for his daughter, my dad was the opposite. He fell in love with Turner just as I did.

My older brother Zack, not so much. He’s only older by 18 months but he acts as if it’s a decade. He grilled Turner and even threatened to kick his ass once if he ever hurt me.

Turner’s response was, “Dude, I have a woman worth spoiling. For years she was yours to protect and now she’s mine, so back the fuck off.”

That was all it took to win Zack over, and the two of them have been best friends ever since. Heaving a heavy sigh, I keep my eyes on the door of the terminal and wait for them to open. All I want to do is leap over all these people and into the arms of my man.

Finally, the doors open. I can already feel his arms wrapped around me and his lips moving reverently against mine as I get lost in handsome, green-eyed, dark-haired Turner Calloway.

I freeze on the spot when I see him walk through the door. When he lifts his head and scans the area, his eyes land on mine, and the crooked smile that made me fall in love with him is where my eyes stay focused. As his pace quickens and he approaches me with a toxic and lethal stare, I can’t help but smile back.

“Jesus Christ. I fucking missed you so damn bad.”

He scoops me up in his arms and twirls me around burying his face into my long blonde hair.

“I missed you too, lover boy,” I reply, smiling as he keeps his head buried in my hair.

“You smell so damn good, Clove,” Turner whispers softly in my ear. “Let’s get the hell out of here so I can get a proper welcome home from my wife. Shall we?”

Turner gives me that crooked smile as he places me back down on the floor.

“Sounds good to me,” I say, knowing exactly what Turner has in mind for us when we get home.

I cannot think of one time where my husband has not worshipped either all or some part of my body before we made love. Sure, he likes to fuck hard and fast, but not before he makes me squirm or beg for him to take me after his skilled hands and mouth have had their fill of whichever body part of mine he is fascinated with at the time.

“Tell me again why we live in a big city?”

Turner’s tension fills the air of our small luxury SUV. I lean my head back against the headrest and reach over and run my hand through his hair to try and ease his stress as we sit in bumper-to-bumper afternoon traffic. I have always loved the color of his hair. It’s somewhere between brown and black, and so thick.

“That’s enough, Clove.” Turner startles me when he says that and jerks his head so I have no other choice but to drop my hand. He’s gone from night to day in a damn nanosecond.