Chapter Six
Travis
T onight, little S is flirting with danger.
For once, I’m the well-behaved saint while my best friend is the blatant sinner. It takes incredible self-control not to stare at her long, bare legs that are stretched out in front of her.
She’d come downstairs, clearly lighter from her talk with Cole, using my blanket as a cape, wrapped around her shoulders. It gave the illusion that she was naked beneath. When she sat down right next to me on the couch, I had to subtly pull a pillow into my lap to keep her from noticing her effect on me.
I’m not the only one whose blood sizzles when she’s nearby. Cole is fighting an inner demon that wants to see Savvy as more than our friend’s daughter. I think he’s losing the battle.
“What movie do you want to watch?” Savvy asks as she fiddles with the remote. “Cole said he needed to change clothes first. I don’t know what’s taking him so long.”
If I know my friend, and I do, he’s doing more than changing his clothes. He’s releasing some pent-up sexual tension. Lucky for him. I’m shacked up in our living room with virtually no privacy.
Maybe she could watch…
The thought assaults me out of nowhere. I steal a glance at her legs and push the pillow against my throbbing cock. Down, boy.
She finds a newer movie on Netflix and then sets the remote down. Cole is still missing. Her top teeth tug at her lower lip as though she’s mulling something over in her head.
Poor girl is probably mentally struggling, and me and my horn dog roomie can’t stop thinking about her naked. We’re pathetic. I should really check my dating app. It’s been a while and maybe I just need to get laid.
“Everything okay?” I ask, gently nudging her with my knee. “Something’s bothering you.”
She shrugs. “Just feels weird. The night before last I was sharing a room with Addison and wondering where my life was headed. Now I have you guys, a new school, and my job at Smoke & Sugar.”
“It’s weird? I thought that’s what you wanted,” I say softly. “Freedom.”
“Oh, I do,” she rushes out quickly. “I just…I don’t know. I expected the loneliness to go away too.” Her eyes water and she blinks away the tears. “I miss them.”
“Hey.” I wrap my arms around her and pull her into my side. “You’re not alone. You have us. We’re not the best roommates, but we’re trying. I know I speak for Cole too when I say we want the absolute best for you. You can talk to us about anything.”
She doesn’t speak for a beat and then murmurs, “I hated it at the Monahans.”
I run my fingers through the ends of her silky hair, hoping to encourage her to keep going.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she continues. “Addison was great. They never touched me or abused me or were cruel to me. Something was just seriously messed up about most of the members of that family.”
“Messed up how?”
“Her brothers were always staring at me. It was creepy. The oldest, Rhett, is an angry guy. He would do stupid things like ‘accidentally’ knock my drink over, spilling it everywhere, and then stare at me to see what my reaction was.”
I try to imagine some little shit messing with our girl. I’ll admit, it pisses me off. A lot. I’m half tempted to pay that twerp a visit.
“The younger brother, Cason, would film me with his phone.” She shudders as if this disturbs her. “I told him a million times to knock it off, but his parents would always laugh off my concerns. I’m not sure why he needed so many videos of me.”
I’m pretty sure that kid was using it for spank bank material, but I refrain from telling her.
“They sound like spectacular humans,” I deadpan.
She laughs, soft and breathy. It makes my dick fucking tingle.
“Leah always acted as if I was a nuisance. Even though they were loaded, she would complain about the cost of groceries and all the mouths she had to feed. Or, if I went clothes shopping with them, she would huff and sigh at the checkout. I felt like a bother to her.” She shifts her hand to the pillow that rests on my crotch and absently rubs the material as though to soothe herself, not realizing she’s driving me insane with the movements. “I guess it makes sense why she was so ready to get me off her phone plan. Let’s hope they don’t take in any other foster kids.”
I continue to twist her silky hair around my fingertips to distract myself from the location of her hand, a mere few inches of pillow separating it from my rock-hard cock.
“Travis?”
“Hmm?”
“Can I tell you something and, like, you won’t tell Cole? I don’t want anything done about it. I just, I don’t know, want to get it off my chest.”
I tense, unsure what she’s about to tell me. “Of course, little S. What’s on your mind?”
She’s quiet for another beat.
“I saw him standing over my bed one night.”
“Cole?”
A bark of laughter escapes her. “What? No. Owen. Addison’s dad.”
Icy anger prickles through my veins. “And he didn’t touch you?”
“No,” she says with a groan. “But it was weird. I pretended to be asleep.”
“What did he do?”
“After the first time—”
“Wait,” I bark out, interrupting her. “He did this more than once?”
She stiffens and doesn’t answer. I go back to toying with her hair, hoping she’ll find the nerve to tell me.
“After the first time,” she repeats, shuddering, “he cornered me the next morning. Apparently, he suffers from a sleep disorder where he sleepwalks. He asked if I understood. I didn’t but I nodded anyway. Then he asked me to keep it to myself because Leah worries and will send him back for testing. Since she’s always worried about everything, he didn’t think it would be good for her.”
What the fuck?
My teeth grind together as I hold back a barrage of thoughts, all of which are safer inside my head. She’s confiding in me. The last thing she needs is another overbearing Cole situation. I need her trust.
“He said sometimes he does strange things like cook meals or water the yard or talk to his kids while they sleep. Most times, either someone else will tell him what he did, or he’ll wake up in the middle of whatever he was doing.” She shudders violently. “I don’t think you understand how frightening it is to wake up to someone standing over your bed in nothing but their underwear, swaying as if in some kind of trance. It’s enough to make your skin crawl.”
“Why didn’t you lock him out?” I ask, trying desperately to keep the fury at that man out of my voice.
“Leah didn’t allow locked doors in her home. They’d all been replaced with knobs that didn’t have locks on them. Ever since Rhett was caught having sex with a girl in his room, Addison said her mom basically made it a law around there.”
The thought of Owen standing over her bed every night while she slept is distressing. I’m grateful she turned eighteen so she could be with us where she’s safe.
Is she safe, though?
You and your roommate can’t seem to keep your dicks in check around her.
“There was only one time that really scared me,” she whispers. “I’d gone to the bathroom in the middle of the night. When I returned, he was in my bed. Naked.”
Okay, now I’m going to kill this motherfucker.
I don’t give a damn if he has a sleep disorder. This shit is messed up.
“I shook him awake. In the moonlight, through the window, he seemed confused and then horrified.” She trembles at the memory. “When he stood up, his…you know…was hard and just sticking out at me.”
My teeth grind together audibly. I want to scream or punch something. Neither of those things come to pass. She needs to get her story out and I’m going to let her.
“He grabbed me like this.” Her hand slides off the pillow and up my chest. When it encircles my throat, I see red. “I think he was worried I’d tell on him or something. It wasn’t painful, but it was a firm grip that made me gasp for air. He said that it was an accident but if anyone found out, it would ruin his life and tear apart his family.” She sniffles. “He was so close it was rubbing against my leg. While he whispered how much it would harm him for others to know, I was worried he’d do something worse. But then, as quickly as it began, he released my neck, kissed my forehead, and then left the bedroom.”
Relief floods through me. It could have been a lot worse, though what she experienced must’ve been awful for her.
“I’m sorry,” I rasp out. “I’m so fucking sorry. We tried so hard to gain custody of you.”
Her palm rests on my upper chest. Warmth radiates there. I should remove it, but I don’t want to.
“And then you had to deal with us.” I bite back a curse. “We’re no better than what you dealt with there.”
She sits up, frowning at me. “What? No. This is different.”
“We eyeballed you like a piece of meat, Savvy. Fuck.”
Her head shakes back and forth in disagreement. “No, I care about you and Cole. You’re friends of my real family. There was always something unsettling about the Monahans.”
If my dick was hard before, it’s now flaccid as a cock can get. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get an erection again at this point. I am disgusted with the men in her life, me and Cole included.
“Please don’t do that,” she says, eyes darting back and forth. “I confided in you because you’re my friend, not because I think you did something wrong. You’re not going to shut me out now, are you? I won’t be able to survive that. I’ve already lost too much.”
As much as I want to argue with her, I don’t. She’s right. All we can do is right our wrongs. The poor girl had her world crushed when Charlie and Serena died, and if we put distance between us and her, it’ll do more harm than good. We just have to have boundaries.
And me and Cole need to talk.
On cue, he bounds down the stairs, his heavy footfalls echoing in the quiet room. When his gaze sweeps over the way Savvy clings to me, his face contorts into one of anger. I shut him down with a hard glare and mouth the word, “Don’t.”
It’s then he takes in the mood. There’s a heaviness in the room and how things play out from here forward depend on how we navigate this situation.
“Saved you a spot,” Savvy says, gesturing at the other end of the couch. “You can rub my feet. They’re sore after my shift.”
Cole’s jaw muscle ticks but he nods. He sits down where instructed and pats his lap. Savvy shifts around until she’s laid out on the couch with her head on the pillow in my lap and her feet on his.
“Ready?” she asks, reaching for the remote on the table. “If I fall asleep, stop the movie. I don’t want to miss anything. We can pick it back up tomorrow.”
The movie begins to play, but I’m far from being interested in it. Her confession plays like a horror reel in my mind. Was Owen really suffering from some medical issue or was it a ploy to see how far he could take it with Savvy? I hate that I’ll never know the answer.
I’m overwhelmed by the urge to comfort her. I stroke my fingers through her hair and hope to hell we don’t do wrong by this girl.
Something tells me it won’t be that easy.
Nothing with this girl ever is.