Chapter 9
D avid
I finished eating and was washing my dish when the bedroom door finally creaked open. When I turned to put the plate in the drainer, I caught a glimpse of her crawling to her bowl I’d left at the foot of my chair.
She sat on her heels and used her fingers to feed herself the scrambled eggs. Eventually, I’d have to make her eat properly from her bowl, but I could give it another day.
The coffee maker gurgled as the last bit of the brew hit the pot and I snagged a cup.
When I sat down at the table again, she finished the last bite of her breakfast and turned her face up to me.
Her hair was wet still from the quick shower she’d taken.
A small droplet slid over her shoulder and down her chest.
“Would you like a cup of coffee?” I offered the second cup I’d brought with me.
“Yes.” She started to pull the chair out nearest to her but stopped. “Can I?”
My brow raised. “Yeah. Just this once since it seems we have something to discuss.”
She climbed up into the chair and grabbed hold of the coffee.
“I wasn’t sure how you took it.” I pointed to the sugar bowl on the table. “I can get the cream if you want?”
“No. No. This is perfect. Thank you.” She took a slow sip and a gentle smile tugged at her lips. I watched the brew slip between those full lips and wondered what it would feel like to kiss them. Not some little peck, but a real kiss. One that made her understand that she belonged to me.
I jerked my gaze away from her. Thoughts like that would get me into trouble. Could get her hurt. She wasn’t mine. She couldn’t be mine. She’d been bought and paid for, and her true owner was going to collect her in just a few days.
“What happened to you?” Her voice was soft, concerned.
“What do you mean?” I sipped my coffee while watching her lips twist upward as she tried to find a delicate way to ask how I became the monster before her.
“You were different when I knew you.” She went the general statement route. Okay, we could dance around the bush a few times, if that’s what she wanted.
“That was over ten years ago, Gabby. People change.”
“Not this much.” She waved her hand at herself. “I mean, look at me.”
She’d put on her collar again, like I’d told her to. Her new behavior wasn’t genuine. A lot of girls tried this. They thought if they went along with me, behaved good, they’d find an opportunity to get away. Or they could endear themselves to me so much I wouldn’t want to let them go.
“I am looking at you.” I reached over and flicked the D ring on her collar. “You’re starting to come around.” I could play the same game.
Her look of repulsion hit me square in the chest, but I had to brush it off. My options were limited, and no matter how much the protector in me wanted to help her, I would not. I couldn’t. I was too fucking close to stop now. After her and the two new pups coming my way, I would be free.
“When I saw you at camp, you weren’t this guy.” She drudged up the past. The girls’ part of the camp was separated from the River Scouts’ side, but only with a log fence. Easily climbed.
“I was this guy; you just didn’t see him.” I finished my coffee.
“I don’t believe that.” She shook her head, looking at me with conviction. As though if she could just get me to tap into the boy I was all those years ago, the man I became would see the errors of his ways.
“You can believe whatever you want.” I took my cup to the coffee maker for a refill, slipping in a shot of whiskey from the bottle I kept nearby.
“That last summer you… you defended me. You protected me.” She stood up from the chair, her hands fisted at her sides, a fierceness blazing in her eyes.
I raised an eyebrow and pointed to the chair. “Watch yourself, pup.”
Her cheeks flamed before me, but I had no delusions it was from embarrassment. She was getting ramped up for an argument, but her common sense must have kicked in, because she sank back into the seat.
“Jason Ritters was a fucking prick and a half, when I saw him pawing at you—” I paused.
Remembering that asshole trying to get her shirt off behind the fish cleaning shed made my blood heat even now, eleven years later.
But who the fuck was I to play judge and jury now?
Hell, I hadn’t let her have a piece of clothing since she arrived. I’d made her piss outside on the grass!
No, I had no moral podium to stand behind.
“When you caught him trying to push me further than I wanted, you shoved him away. And when he said those horrible things about me, you punched him right in the nose.” She jabbed her finger into the table as she made her points. “You kept him from me the rest of the summer.”
And I paid a hefty price for it, too. Jason Ritters’ father owned the construction company my father worked at as a foreman.
A week after camp was over, my dad was out of a job and had been blackballed by the other crews in town.
Dad had to take a job two counties over, which meant we had to pick up and move.
It was on that drive, pulling the U-Haul behind his truck with my mom, that they were struck by a semi, shoving them off the road and flipping them into a ditch.
I’d been driving my car two miles behind them. I was told I had been lucky.
I still didn’t believe that.
“Jason got the last laugh on me, don’t worry. I didn’t beat him.” I took a heavy sip of my coffee, enjoying the subtle burn of the whiskey as it slid down my throat.
“I know.” She lowered her gaze. “I heard what his dad did.”
“You did?”
“Yeah.” She sighed. “My sister was dating Jason’s older brother. They got married a year later and have four little boys now.”
“So, you and Jason are related now.” A twist in my chest caught me off guard. Knowing she’d been around him all these years shouldn’t have affected me in the least. But it sure as fuck did.
“Sort of. He’s been a thorn in my side for years. He says he’s the reason my marriage didn’t work. Says it was because deep down I wanted him.”
“He’s still chasing you?” Did the asshole not take a hint? After all these years, still trying to get under her skirt. He’d probably blow a blood vessel if he knew what I’d done to her.
“He doesn’t take no for an answer easily.” She sat up straighter. “Just like back then.”
“He was a prick.”
“And you weren’t. But now…” She let her words trail off, like I should fill in the blanks. I already knew damn well what I was. A survivor.
“So, what do you think happens now, Gabby? You think because you remember the scrawny River Scout working on his veterinarian patch all those years ago, I’m going to just let you go?
Fuck myself in the process? Because that’s not the guy I am now.
” I stalked to the table, leaving my drink behind.
“The guy I am now wants to drag your pretty ass back out into the backyard and force you on your knees. I want to play fetch with you, make you run the yard and bring me back the little ball I keep for my puppies. And once you’re all tired and worn out, I want to drag you back to bed and fuck you senseless until we both pass out in a sweaty heap.
” I pressed one hand on the table and the other on the back of her chair. “That’s the guy I am now.”
She reached up and gently cupped my cheek. “I heard you helping that puppy. You’re not that guy all the time.”
I jerked back from her touch. “Go back to your crate.” I snapped my fingers and pointed toward the hall. “Now.”
Sad eyes met mine, but she didn’t argue. She got up from the chair and walked down the hall. Walked. On her feet. I shouldn’t have let that happen. I should have shoved her back to the ground.
But my cheek stung from where she touched me, leaving me too dazed to remember my own damn rules.