Chapter Seventeen

 

Two weeks later

 

“Sam, stop it.” Wade looked away, gnawing the inside of his cheek at the sight of the fading bruises on her neck and wrists. “Put on some damn clothes already.”

“But…”

“No. You’re not ready.” He got up, his entire body on fire with the need to do exactly what she’d asked him to do. But his brain still boiled with the memory of her, bloody, mentally and physically violated by that animal. “Or maybe it’s me but…”

“If you don’t take off your clothes and get into this bed with me right now Wade Michael Roberts, I am going to walk out the door and find someone who will.”

He turned, a smile on his lips. “Hmmm….feisty. Think that’ll convince me?”

Her huge blue eyes were swimming with tears. With a barely suppressed groan, he grabbed her and held her close to his chest, his face pressed into her hair, his heart racing with remorse. “No crying. I’m sorry. I want to. I really do. I just want to make sure you’re ready.”

She pulled away and tilted his chin down so she could glare at him. “I’m ready for you to make me feel like a real woman again. Not like a victim. Humor me?”

He nodded and watched as if from a long way away as she stripped him out of his shorts and T-shirt, then led him to their bed.

“Just hold me, if nothing else. Skin to skin this time.”

Wade gripped her arms gently, but the sensation of trying to anchor himself to the earth was never more prevalent. He couldn’t even look at her, in all her naked glory or he would toss her down and plow into her to put his mark on her, to make her his again and erase anything that remained of the attack.

“Okay,” he finally managed, his voice croaky and weak-sounding. “I’ll hold you.” He held up the sheet, and she slipped underneath.

The smell of her hit him right in the libido, as he knew it would, but he took a long, deep breath, summoned his inner grown-up man, and wrapped his arms around her trembling form, kissing her hair and making soothing noises.

“I love you,” she whispered, putting one of his hands to her lips and kissing it. When she arched back into him, pressing her ass against his groin, he sucked in a breath. “I love you so much,” she said, taking his hand and putting on her breast. “Make love to me, Wade. I need you to.”

“Honey, I…I don’t want to hurt you.”

She rolled onto her back. Her blue eyes shone up at him. The dim light coming from the lights around the pool hid the worst of her injuries. But he wasn’t about to let himself pretend she hadn’t been brutally attacked. He reached across her and flipped on the lamp, taking her face in his hands.

“Sam…”

“Some creep tied me up and mind-raped me for two solid hours and tried to home run my face with his baseball bat. I feel like a chunk of week-old ruined meat.” She shook her head so he had to let go of her and sat up. “I need you to remind me that I’m not ruined.”

“Oh Sam, honey, you’re not ruined,” he said, even as his body rose to the occasion, making him have to bite back a loud groan when every drop of blood in his body rushed to his dick. “Baby, we…oh shit,” he said when she grabbed his cock and started sliding her hand up and down. “Wait, wait, just…wait.”

“No,” she said. “I’m not waiting.”

He kissed her then, unable to stop himself, owning her, repossessing her, taking her back from that monster with his lips, his tongue, his whole body, and his entire soul.

 

**

 

Eight weeks later

 

“So, I’m pregnant,” Sam said, as she clicked her laptop shut and started packing her briefcase. It was a news bomb to be sure. But one she’d had twenty-four hours to wrap her mind around. She was good with it. And she knew, deep down, that Wade would be too. Or at least she hoped he would be because she’d hate to have to raise this kid by herself.

Wade stopped with his coffee mug halfway to his mouth, his jaw hanging open. She smiled and pushed his lower jaw closed for him with one fingertip, then kissed the tip of his nose.

“Have a good day, honey,” she said, making her way to the mud room separating the kitchen from the garage and slipping her feet into high heels. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

“Wait,” he said, scrambling up from the counter-height seat and stumbling over to her. “Sam, shit, how, I mean…it’s not, uh…” He ran a hand around the back of his neck, looking sheepish and utterly adorable.

She shouldered her case and checked her Rolex. “I gotta get to an appointment. I have money to make, remember?”

“But, it’s, uh…”

She smiled and thumbed his chin. “It’s just a baby, Wade. Relax.”

“Relax,” he said, still looking down at the floor, his hands on his hips, looking as edible and perfect as ever. “You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”

“Nope,” she said, loving him so much at that moment she thought her heart might burst wide open. She ran her fingers through his hair, which he’d grown out some at her request. “Although….” She let her fingers slide down his bare chest to his photoshop-worthy abs, then further down to cup a hand over his cock. It stirred to life under her palm.

He stepped away from her, looking utterly wigged out. “Wait, just… hold on a second.”

She sighed and watched as he turned to one of the many kitchen drawers and grabbed something out of it.

“Guess this won’t wait until Christmas then,” he said, going down on one knee and opening the ring box to reveal the most beautiful marquis shaped diamond set in platinum she had ever seen.

“So it takes me getting preggers for you to put a ring on it, eh, Roberts?” She leaned back, crossing her arms and trying to look skeptical.

“No,” he said, rising to his feet slowly, perfectly, like a wild animal, like her wild animal, her Wade, her almost-husband. “That’s just a bonus, I guess.” He grabbed her ass and yanked her to him, grinding his now full erection against her.

“I’m gonna be late for work,” she warned, dropping her purse and briefcase and letting him slide the ring on her finger then his hands up her skirt.

“So what?” he growled into her neck. “I’ll make it worth it.”

“God, I love you,” she sighed as he ripped her panties in two and tossed her over his shoulder.

“Good thing, since I knocked you up,” he said, giving her ass a few smacks before he tossed her down on the bed. “I love you too, for the record. Now, about that fucking with me thing, future Missus Roberts?”

She grinned up at him. “Come on then, stud. Show me what ya got.”

“With pleasure,” he said with a grin.

 

The End