Chapter 14 #2
She’d told me her mother was abusive. But seeing how well she described it on the page and knowing her like I knew her now, I knew this had happened to Sarah. It seemed unimaginable that someone could take their hands to her.
“I told you she slapped me in front of the police.”
“But there was more, wasn’t there?”
“Mum slapped me around a bit, yes, but …” Sarah swallowed hard.
“I … A few months before Ardnoch opened, just before Adair started hiring his staff, I was still working at the Gloaming. We went for a staff Christmas night out in Inverness. There was a guy who’d started working with us who kept coming on to me, and I wanted nothing to do with him.
He got drunk and wouldn’t leave me alone, so I decided to leave the bar without telling anyone.
” Sarah let out a shuddering breath, and dread sickened my stomach.
“A man, a stranger, followed me and tried to pull me down a dark side street. Thankfully, a few girls who were out for the night saw it and came after us to chase him off, but not before he’d punched me in the face and gut to try to incapacitate me. ”
Unexpected rage welled within and I looked away, scrubbing a hand over my mouth to stop the reaction from spilling out.
“Those girls saved me from God only knows what.”
“Oh, I think we both know what they saved you from,” I snapped, turning to look at her.
She flinched at the fury in my expression and remorse filled me. I reached out to stroke a thumb over her cheek, unable to bear the idea of what might have happened to her if those girls hadn’t been there. I softened my tone. “Did the police get him?”
Her cheeks flushed and she lowered her gaze. “I didn’t tell the police. I … if I told the police, then Grandpa would find out and it would just upset him, so … so I let the arsehole get away with it, and now I have to live with the fact that he’s probably done it to other women.”
“Sarah.” I tilted her chin, forcing her to look at me.
“The likelihood is that he’d done it to women before you and even if you had told the police and they did catch him, he hadn’t done enough to you to warrant much of a sentence.
He’d be out again, doing it to other women, because men like that are predators with a sickness inside them.
You know that. You write books about them. ”
She nodded slowly. “I … it’s just one more time in my life that I wished I’d been braver.”
“You were brave, little darling,” I murmured as I touched her cheek. “Was it here?”
Knowing I was asking her where he’d hit her, she nodded, eyes wide, perhaps a bit dazed.
Leaning in, I brushed my lips gently over her cheek, then I pulled back to brush another kiss across her lips.
Pushing both our laptops aside, I moved over her and gently shoved up the hem of her pajama shirt.
Her smooth, pale stomach trembled as I trailed my fingertips over the middle. “Was it here?”
She swallowed, cheeks flushed for an entirely different reason, and nodded.
Eyeing her to make sure this was all good, I bowed my head and dusted soft kisses across her flat belly. Sarah’s scent filled me, and my balls tingled and tightened as blood thickened my cock. I followed a path downward and curled my fingers around her pajama bottoms.
“Where else does it hurt?” I asked thickly.
Shifting her hips to allow me better access, she whispered, “Between my legs.”
“Be more specific.” I tugged down her pajamas and underwear.
“Theo …”
Throwing her clothes over my shoulder, I pushed her thighs apart, bowing my head toward her pussy. “Use your words, Sarah. Where does it hurt?”
She shook her head. As free with her body as she was when we had sex, her verbal shyness was something we still needed to overcome. Giving her mercy, I licked her and she gasped, undulating toward me.
“Is it here?” My voice was gruff with need now that I had her taste on my tongue. “Does your wee pussy hurt, my little darling?”
“Please!” She gasped, fingers curling into the duvet at her side.
Fuck.
I sat up, yanking her farther down the bed, before I pulled my cock free from my boxers. Needed her. Needed her so desperately. Wanted to banish all the bad memories and fill them with nothing but this overwhelming desire between us.
Prodding her opening, I groaned as I began to sink inside her. She felt even better than usual, and she usually felt phenomenal.
“Theo!” Sarah shook her head on the pillow, expression twisted with regret. “C-condom, condom, condom.”
I froze.
Disbelief coursed through me as I glanced down at where my cock pushed inside Sarah. I had never forgotten to don protection. Ever.
Fierce desire made me want to sink all the way inside.
In fact, I don’t think I’d ever been in this much pleasurable pain in my life.
The caveman part of my brain tried to rationalize that one time would be fine.
But I’d never do anything a woman didn’t want to do.
Chest heaving with the exertion of pulling out when I was so goddamn happy where I was, I practically threw myself off her.
Glowering at my lack of control, I grunted as I leaned over the bed to where condoms lay on the bedside table. I pulled one on with jerky, angry movements.
“Are you … annoyed?” Sarah asked uncertainly.
A tender ache filled me. “No,” I told her gruffly as I spread her thighs again. “But your pussy is the physical embodiment of Elysium, and my cock likes being there naked. As it turns out, Little Theo is a bit of an exhibitionist.”
Laughter spilled from her lips and despite myself, I grinned. Then I thrust inside her and her amusement turned into a cry of pleasure. “Take your top off,” I demanded hoarsely.
I didn’t stop thrusting into her as she did, so it took longer than usual for her to be rid of it. Then my Sarah was naked and perfect beneath me.
“Hold on to the headboard.”
She reached her arms out, her fingers curling around the bars of the metal bed frame.
I tightened my grip on her thighs, hoisting her hips off the bed.
And I fucked her.
“Harder!” she begged, arms straining, breasts jiggling as I took her hard and fast. “Theo, harder, please!”
I did as she begged. It was dirty and rough and claiming and exactly as she wanted. And it was never enough, I realized with something akin to despair. I didn’t think there would ever come a time when I’d had enough of this woman.