Reese

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“Victor? What are you doing here?” Disappointment coated my words. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and stared at him.

He stood on my doorstep with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. He was all dressed up in black slacks and a black and gray striped shirt with a black jacket. “We have a date. Remember?”

“Uh. A date?”

“To see Ulalena. We have to take a helicopter over to Maui.” His gaze raked down the length of my body. “Is that what you’re wearing?”

“Uh ...” I sighed. Shit. I’d forgotten that he’d asked me to go see the musical with him. But I’d said maybe. Not yes.

“Our flight leaves in thirty minutes.” He shoved his way inside my apartment. “Hurry. Get changed. I’ll go put these in water while you get ready.” He took off to the small kitchen that was actually in the same room since it was an open floor plan. Cupboards opened and closed as he searched for something. “Where do you keep your vases?” he yelled, but he didn’t need too since I was still standing, frozen, in the living room, gaping at him.

“Victor.”

“What?” He continued his search for a vase I didn’t own.

“I can’t go out with you tonight.”

“What?”

I shook my head when he turned to look at me. “You should have called me to confirm. I’m not going out with you.”

“I did call you. You never answered. I left you messages. Are you sick? If you’re sick, we can go tomorrow. Why didn’t you call me and let me know?” He took the three steps toward me, closing the gap between us, and splayed his hand over my obviously cool forehead.

“No. I’m not sick. I never got any messages.” Truth was, I hadn’t been checking my phone for any either, because I’d been sleeping.

His eyebrows knitted together into one line across his forehead.

“I don’t want to go out with you. Not tonight. Not any night. I’m sorry. I never said I would go out with you. It slipped my mind that we even talked about it. You really should have waited for a call back from me to confirm.”

“It slipped your mind?”

“I’m sorry.”

“It slipped your mind that you had a date with me?”

Oh shit. I guess I did say that. I didn’t think of the impact something like that might have on someone. “That’s not exactly what I meant,” I lied. “We never had definite plans to go out.”

“Are you seriously going to stand there and lie to me?”

I blinked. “Again, I’m sor—”

“You said that!” he yelled and threw the flowers across the room. Pink rose pedals hit the wall before falling with broken stems to the floor. “Jesus Christ. Did you ever think that maybe I might have spent some money for those tickets?”

“But I said I would maybe go with you. I never said we had a definite date.”

“Don’t I deserve the respect of being told that you couldn’t go tonight? Did you ever think that I might actually have feelings for you?”

I blinked again. He sounded irrational. Like a crazy person. Especially that last statement. “You couldn’t possibly have feelings for me. You don’t even know me, Victor. I’m sure maybe you think you like me—”

I was silenced by the pressure of his lips on mine. I took a step back, shoving him away. “Victor. Don’t.”

“You’re a real bitch, you know that?”

“You need to leave. Now. Go before I ...”

I was silenced by the slap that struck me across the cheek, knocking me to the floor.

“Don’t you dare tell me who I do or don’t have feelings for, you stupid cunt.”

My hand went to my face. Something sticky coated my finger. Blood, from my bottom lip.

Next thing I knew, I was being yanked up by my hair. I grabbed his hand with both of my own, wincing and crying out as I tried to relieve the pressure on my hair.

“Ouch. Please, stop. You’re hurting me.”

Victor didn’t seem to care. “You’re coming with me whether you like it or not. No one stands Victor Rossi up.” He dragged me toward the door, my bare feet slipping against the carpet. I couldn’t get enough traction to fight, but when we made it to the door, and after my feet found some grounding, I kicked him in the balls.

“You fucking cunt.” He doubled over, his hands clutching his privates, as more curse words spewed from his mouth. I ran back toward my room, but I must not have kicked him hard enough, because he was right there, shoving his hands against the door, keeping me from closing it. He was much stronger than I was and he outweighed me by at least sixty pounds. He managed to shove the door open, knocking me to the floor. I quickly scrambled to my feet as he entered. I dug my toes into the carpet and swung my right fist at him, punching him in the jaw. I winced as the brunt of the hit hurt my knuckles and made them bleed as well.

I swung my arm out toward him and sent him flying into the wall. But my hand was hurting from punching him, and the force of my power wasn’t strong enough to have much of an effect on him.

“What the fuck?” He shook his head as if to clear a hallucination he thought he might be having. I didn’t care if he found out about my abilities. I could erase his memory later.

He came at me again and grabbed my arms, forcing my back against his chest. I kicked at his legs with the heel of my foot but couldn’t get a good enough kick to his shin, and when I did, it hurt like hell. Victor shoved me to the floor, and I kicked my legs and squirmed like crazy under him trying to shove him off and get free, but he was heavy sitting on top of me. He held my hands so I couldn’t use any telekinetic powers.

Tears stung my eyes at the realization of what would happen if I let him gain complete power over me. He held my wrists in each of his hands and I brought my arm to my mouth and bit his hand between his thumb and forefinger and didn’t stop. Not even when I tasted his nasty blood. I kept biting. He yelled out in agony and hit me across the mouth with his other hand. I cried out, but I continued to squirm and kick beneath him, desperately trying to lift my knee to jab in him in the groin again. But he finally grabbed my arms and pulled my hands together, holding them in his fist. I was no match for his overbearing weight that held me, prisoner.

Pinning me to the floor, he laughed. “You’re a tough one. You don’t deserve to be treated nice. You like it rough, don’t you?” He shoved his lips against mine, and I bit his bottom lip and spit in his face, and then his fist collided with my jaw. At first, I saw stars, then everything went black.

***

Sand filled my mouth, and I gagged, spitting it out. Why was there sand in my mouth? Why did my body feel so wet and clammy, like I was lying on wet sand? Wait, I couldn’t move my hands. Where the hell was I? Why were my arms bound behind my back? I groaned. My head felt like it was cracked in half. What the hell was going on?

My feet were up in the air like someone was holding them. Victor’s face loomed above me. He was walking backwards holding my legs as he dragged me along the wet, scratchy sand. The skirt of my pareo had risen up exposing my undies. Where was he taking me? Thorns brushed against my head, as we headed toward some higher brush. I kicked at him and twisted, but his grip was too tight.

What made Victor snap? He’d seemed so calm before tonight.

“Victor, why are you doing this to me? Please let me go.”

“You shouldn’t have spit at me, Reese. I don’t like when girls spit at me. So now, guess what? You don’t get to go to a musical. Not one I’d spend any money on. You’ll get music all right though. The music of listening to me come inside you.”

Oh my God! Fear laced through my veins. No. I couldn’t let this happen.

“No, Victor. Please. You don’t want to do this. I’ll go out with you. Just let me up, and I’ll go get dressed. We’ll go to the musical.”

“It’s too late for that, Reese. Don’t you think I know that you and Adrian have been fucking each other? Don’t you know that you fucking Adrian is exactly the reason I’m doing this? He thinks he won but wait until he finds out how loudly you scream my name when my cock is buried deep inside you.”

I wish I’d used my powers earlier when Victor first slapped me. I could have sent him flying into the wall harder then, most likely enough to have rendered him unconscious. But I hadn’t realized it was going to come to this. Now my hands were tied. I tried to concentrate and just use my mind, but I wasn’t very good at moving things with just my mind. This was happening if I didn’t think of something quickly.

I needed my hands.