Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Our clothes were stripped away in that frantic and needy way. Creed paused when I was standing before him in only my thong and he before me in all his naked glory. The grin that took over his face as he slid his hands down my hips and over my bare butt cheeks was pure sin.
“Turn around,” he ordered after giving my butt a good squeeze.
I did as he said, and when he told me to bend over, I was having déjà vu. Again, I did as he asked. “My underwear isn’t see-through,” I said as I grasped my ankles.
“I’m not trying to see if it’s see-through, Shi.” The deepness and low tone of his voice made me shiver.
“Then what are you hoping to see?”
I felt him step closer before his finger hooked around the back of my thong where my tailbone was. He tugged on it, making the fabric pull tight along my slit. “I wanted to see how well this tiny strip covered you.” He tugged on it again, making the thong rub against me.
I squirmed a little. “And does it?”
His other hand grabbed me by my hip. “It covers all the places I want to lick.”
I squirmed again, rocking my hips and bumping against his hard shaft.
He chuckled. “Feeling eager, Shi?”
“How long are you going to keep me like this?” I was beginning to feel frustrated, and he had barely touched me yet.
“You look so sexy bent in half I’m debating fucking you like this.” His hand at my hip lifted and came down on my butt cheek in a loud, slightly stinging slap. The sound echoed in the small, tiled room.
“I was promised shower sex?—”
Before I could finish speaking, Creed tugged on my thong hard enough to rip it off.
“Creed!” I gasped and went to stand straight.
I didn’t even make it halfway before his hand slid up my spine, stopping me. “Let me have you like this first and we’ll finish off in the shower.”
Complying, I bent back down and grasped my ankles.
Holding me by the hip with one hand, he aligned himself with my entrance with the other. I let out a gasp as the tip of him entered me. Letting go of himself to grab my other hip, he began easing his way inside me. Once he bottomed out, I let out a sigh.
“Are you relieved to have me inside you?” He withdrew almost all the way.
“I’m not feeding your already-big ego.”
With a tight grip on my hips, he thrust back in, making me cry out. He withdrew again slowly. “Come on, Shi. Tell me you love it when I’m inside you.”
When I didn’t, he began sliding just the tip of his cock in and out of me. It felt good, but drove me crazy at the same time.
“Creed,” I grumbled.
“Shiloh,” he challenged.
I tried to rock back to take more of him in, but his hold on me held me still.
He chuckled. “Why must you be stubborn?” His hand came down on my butt in another loud slap. “If I don’t hold back, you don’t hold back.”
I yelped. “Fine! I love it when you’re inside me. Now please fuck me!”
Creed slammed into me, and I swore I saw stars. It was either from that or from being bent over for too long. I quickly began to not care as he continued to thrust into me.
The sounds of us slapping together and our heavy breathing filled the small room. Listening to it slowed down the moment and made it more erotic.
His strong grip around my hips kept me from falling forward, but the pleasure that was building inside me was causing my legs to shake and my knees to buckle. “Creed,” I whimpered.
He pulled out of me and manhandled me to face him. The world spun from me being righted so quickly and it didn’t stop spinning until I was lifting into his arms by the backs of my thighs. I barely got my arms and legs locked around him before he was back inside me, thrusting. My legs tightened around his waist and I began meeting him halfway in a bouncing motion.
He let out a groan. “You bouncing on my cock is the sexiest fucking thing.”
His words spurred me on, and I took over, riding him as he walked us into the shower. He turned the nozzles and cold water rained down on us. I froze and was mid-gasp when his lips captured mine. His tongue took advantage of my open mouth and began plundering in a way that heated me up from the inside out. I barely noticed as my back met the cold tiled wall. All I could concentrate on was his tongue and the way it stroked mine and the feel of his cock moving in and out.
With the support of the wall, one of his hands began to roam. He slid it up my wet body to my breast. He squeezed and kneaded the heavy-feeling mound that fit perfectly in his warm hand. His attention moved to my nipple. I moaned as he tweaked it between his fingers.
Then his hand moved down and around to my butt. My breath hitched as it slid between my butt cheeks and his finger began rubbing my back entrance.
He broke our kiss to stare at me. His eyes bored into mine, searching for any objection as he pushed his finger inside. I arched at the sensation of being stretched there. Stopping him never crossed my mind. We had done this before. I knew it would feel good. I also knew this was his way of easing my fears of being taken this way. In this regard, I could understand taking things slow. But there was a difference between taking things slow due to my inexperience versus withholding because they thought I might break. No one liked to be treated like they were fragile. At least, I didn’t, because I was terrified I’d start to believe it.
Creed understood that and it made me love him even more than I already had.
Once his finger was all the way in, my body arched and I dug my nails into his shoulders. I became a little delirious when he started moving that finger in sync with his cock.
“I’m going to come.” Just as the words left my mouth, I shattered. Eyes squeezed shut and my head resting on the tile wall, I rode the waves of my orgasm.
Creed never stopped moving inside me. Instead, he amped up his speed, which didn’t give me any time to recover before another orgasm began to build.
I tensed up when I felt more stretching at my back entrance.
“Relax, Shi. You can take one more finger.”
I forced myself to relax and just feel. Of course, it felt good. Better, even. I was so gone on the pleasure I started to beg him to make me come. “Please, Creed! Please!”
He did this scissoring motion with his fingers. That, combined with the way his cock ravaged my pussy, made me detonate.
I came screaming, which Creed quickly smothered with a kiss. His thrusts turned shallow as I clamped around him. Slamming into me one last time, he grunted against my lips as his own release shuddered through him.
Panting, he fell against me, pressing me harder into the wall. He cursed. “I came so hard, my legs almost gave out.”
I snorted and I unlocked my legs from around his waist to stand.
“You have no room to laugh,” he said with a quick peck on my lips.
“All my blood was rushing to my head.”
He chuckled. “Same. It just went to the lower one.”
“Creed!” I tried to chastise, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing.
One of the biggest things Logan had taught me was to never let my guard down. I couldn’t afford to with Mr. X still out there. Before the guys had come into my life and planted roots, I’d been sure that would never happen. I hadn’t been able to fathom that I’d ever feel anything other than fear of him appearing at any minute, or that I’d forget the pain of what I had lost for even a moment. But my guys had changed all that. They had brought happiness back into my life.
Unfairly, time slowed with bad moments and sped up with the good. That was one of life’s many harsh lessons I’d learned time and time again. I needed to cherish the moments I felt happy, no matter how short-lived they seemed to be.
Which was why I was smiling, enjoying the lightness in my normally heavy soul as I walked through my front door. My time with Creed in the shower had been playing on repeat in my mind during my entire trip to the grocery store and all the way home.
As soon as I was through the door, I set all the grocery bags I’d decided to lug in one trip so I wouldn’t have to go back out to the car on the coffee table and then went over to the alarm. It was at that instant my short-lived happiness evaporated.
The alarm wasn’t beeping. I always set the alarm. I specifically remembered doing it before I’d headed to the gym.
Panic surged through me as I realized the danger I’d allowed myself to walk into.
I held my breath as I strained to listen for any sign that someone was in the house and pulled my phone from my pocket. I texted Logan. I was tempted to text the guys, but stopped myself. Keelan was the only one home and he was already hurt.
What if it was nothing? What if I hadn’t set the alarm properly? I didn’t want to interrupt their lives any more than I had, especially if this was a false alarm. But what if it wasn’t? I squeezed my phone, torn. I had texted Logan. He’ll have to be enough , I thought as I slid my phone into my pocket.
I need to leave. The door was right behind me. However, my feet stayed planted. Stupidly, I wanted to see. I needed to know for sure if it was a false alarm or if he had found me. I’d never be able to sleep in this house again if I walked out the door right now without knowing for sure.
It was stupid.
Beyond stupid.
But for my sanity, I stayed. As quietly as I could, I crept to the coffee table. Reaching under, my fingers brushed along the underside. My panic increased as I slid my hand from one end of the table to the other, not finding my gun. Quickly, I went over to the TV and found the gun I had hidden there also missing. My heart in my chest was pounding so hard, it felt like it was trying to rip its way out of my chest.
Never mind.
I couldn’t brave this unarmed.
Trying not to breathe, I took a step back toward the door. Then another. A handful of steps and I would reach it.
Shattering my nearly silent attempt at escape, the shrill of a phone ringing went off in my pocket. I didn’t even think of silencing it. What would be the point? I spun on my heel and ran for the door.
I didn’t hear or sense anyone chasing me as I grabbed the door handle. Ripping it open, I felt relieved. That was, until Sheriff McAllister stepped into view, blocking the way out.
“You have a lot of guns for a girl still in high school,” he said, taking a step inside. Like all the times I’d seen him before, he was wearing his crisp uniform.
I had no choice but to retreat backward, further inside my living room and further away from my chance at safety. “What are you doing in my house?”
My stomach sank as he closed the front door behind him. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly as he stalked across the room toward the couch and took a seat. The predatory confidence he exuded caused my stomach to drop. “I figured we could have that conversation,” he said, draping an arm across the back of the couch.
I fisted my hands at my sides. “You don’t want to have a conversation. You’re here to threaten me again.”
“Seeing how you haven’t dropped the charges against my daughter, I’m assuming I wasn’t clear enough on what would happen to you?—”
“Your threat was perfectly clear,” I cut him off. “Hang me from the nearest tree, wasn’t it? Oh, and you got the man who drugged and tried to rape me out of jail. I know you have power and the lengths you’d go to protect your own. My lack of action isn’t due to naivete.”
“Then what is?”
“You’re a bully like your daughter. Or I should say that your daughter is just like you.” I stood confidently, refusing to give this man the satisfaction of seeing me intimidated.
His hand resting on the back of the couch fisted until his knuckles turned white. It was the only sign of his anger. “I did some digging on you.”
I fought to keep my face schooled as panic wreaked havoc inside me.
“I found your school records, birth certificate, and your previous addresses. What I found intriguing was the lack of any social media. What teenager in this day and age doesn’t have a Facebook? I also couldn’t find a single picture of you other than the one on your Arizona driver’s license. Did you not drive before moving here?”
“I had extremely protective parents,” I lied.
“Speaking of those parents…they died in a car accident?”
“Is there a reason you’re telling me my life history?” I deflected.
“That’s the thing about your history. It’s too perfect.”
“We all have to excel somewhere,” I quipped.
He stood from the couch, and I dashed for the front door. Quickly, I turned the knob and got it open before he could get close enough to touch. Refusing to give him my back, I went out on my front porch.
He stopped walking on the threshold and smiled up at the camera pointed at the front door. “There are too many things about you that beg questioning,” he said as he continued to stare up at the camera. Then he looked back at me. “If you don’t drop the charges, I might be tempted to dig a little further to find out why.”
He walked out of my house, and I pivoted to the side as he passed me. I watched until he walked across the street to an unmarked red truck. After he drove away, I went back inside.
I found my bedroom ransacked. My mattress was flipped and flung to the side and the drawers in my nightstands and dresser were ripped open. Clothes and my underwear were spilled on the floor. All the cabinets in the bathrooms were open. The spare bedroom looked like my room. The door to my panic room had a dent in it, like someone had thrown their shoulder into it trying to break the door down. I went inside and it didn’t look like he’d gotten in. The only other room that seemed untouched was the living room and I had a feeling that had been done purposely. It was to give me a false sense of safety to keep me in the house long enough for him to cut me off at the front door.
All the cabinets were ripped open in the kitchen as well and I found all the guns that had been hidden around the house lying lined up in rows on my kitchen island.
I gripped the edge of that island, eyes staring down at my guns without really seeing them, as what had happened sank in. It was another home—another place I was supposed to feel safe in—taken away. Violated.
What if it had been Mr. X?
I’d known.
I. Had. Known.
It didn’t matter how many guns and cameras I had.
It didn’t matter where I went.
Nowhere would be safe.
I would never be safe.
The confidence and quick wit that made me my lawyer father’s daughter were withering. Now fear and panic were taking over, crushing and overwhelming me to the point I couldn’t breathe.
My chest rose and fell rapidly, but the air still didn’t seem to fill my lungs. My heart boomed in my ears as I eased down to the floor. I was going to pass out soon if I didn’t find a way to breathe.
Keelan.
Keelan was home.
I pulled my phone from my pocket at the same time a voice said, “Shiloh.”
Startled, I dropped my phone on the floor.
“Christ, Shiloh!” Shoes pounded on the floor until Logan knelt next to where I was on the ground on all fours. “What happened?” He put a hand on my back.
Like a knee-jerk reaction, I shrugged his hand off and, in the process, I knocked my phone a few feet away. “I can’t breathe,” I forced out as I started to crawl for my phone.
Logan grabbed me by the elbow, stopping me. “Shi?—”
“Don’t touch me!” I snapped, yanking myself free from his grasp. I didn’t trust him. I didn’t trust that he wouldn’t take advantage of me in this state. I couldn’t fight back. Not when I was moments away from clawing at my throat, hoping it would produce an airway.
He put his hands up, glaring at me as I dove for my phone. Tears blurred my vision as I dialed Keelan’s number.
The moment his cheery voice answered, “Hello, gorgeous,” I was finally able to suck in air.
Expelling a sob, I rested my forehead on the ground. Hateful tears dripped from my eyes as I thought, One step forward, five steps back . That was what it was. Every. Fucking. Day. I hated myself at that moment. I hated how weak the five steps back made me feel. I hated how hard it was to stay determined in the face of very little progress. I hated that Logan was witnessing it all. Because it would be all he saw. Because it was what everyone saw. The weak, broken parts. And I would be treated differently for it. I didn’t need to be coddled or handled like cracked glass. What I needed right now was for someone to scream at me to get up. But it was an unreasonable expectation to have of others. I had to find it in me to do it myself.
“Shiloh?” Keelan said, his tone turning serious.
“Please come over,” I said numbly.
Keelan hung up after saying he was on his way. I let my phone clatter onto the wood floor and sat up. My whole body trembled and felt weak.
“Shi,” Logan said.
Slowly, I looked in his direction. He was still kneeling in the same spot a handful of feet away. He studied me with an expression that approached a glare. Did my lack of trust piss him off? Did he expect me to forgive and forget that he had drugged me? Regardless of the reasons, what he’d done had consequences.
I wiped away the last of the tears I’d let fall down my cheeks. “The sheriff paid me a visit.”
“Did he hurt you?” he asked in a detached way. I couldn’t tell if he was asking only out of obligation or if he was having such difficulty talking to me, he had to dissociate.
I shook my head.
Keelan walked in then and took in the room quickly. When his eyes landed on me, I saw a flicker of relief in them. Logan stood and a not-so-friendly look was exchanged between them as Keelan passed him to come to me. For only a second did he stare at the guns laid out on the island before he knelt next to me. He cupped the sides of my face. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” Strength returned to my voice with that one word. Pushing up on my knees, I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder. I breathed him in deeply before exhaling slowly, and as I did, I tried to let go of some of my hate.
I’d gotten up. I’d done it on my own. It was one step forward and I had to believe it was significant. My mother had.