Chapter Nine
Time passed. Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned into months, and it was Christmas before Hope knew what was happening. Her time spent with the Carsons was the happiest of her life. After the party, her friendship with Dwayne was rather … awkward. She felt guilty, and after a few weeks, Dwayne apologized to her for not being there.
She didn’t say anything, just gave him a hug, and put it behind them. Beast had somehow made it so that Micah was sentenced for multiple counts of rape. A lot of girls had come forward, not just in their town, but in several others. Each of them had a story, and quite a few of them with similar claims as Hope’s, where he’d told them he’d get away with it.
Just thinking about it made her sick.
“I don’t do trees,” Beast said, from where he was lying on the bed. He was still completely naked after his latest lesson. They weren’t lessons, and they never had been. He didn’t teach her anything, but her body certainly felt good after their time together.
She gasped, placing a hand against her chest. “How can you say such a thing?”
“I told you I don’t do Christmas.”
“That cannot happen.” She rushed toward the bed, dropping down beside him. Even though she was naked, she felt comfortable in her own skin around Beast. Maybe that had something to do with fact he’d seen her completely naked, and had even kissed every square inch of her body. She smiled up at him, recalling how he’d trailed his tongue down her back, lifting her up so that she was on her knees as he’d stroked her pussy and ass.
“You know,” he said, resting his hand on her ass. “You’ve been talking about Christmas a lot. Tell me why?”
“My mom always loved it.” She stared down at her hands, closing her eyes as he began to stroke up her spine, then sliding his fingers down. He grazed over the cheeks of her ass. “Aunt Tay didn’t celebrate it, and I guess I just wanted to have one Christmas before I went away to college. You know. It’s fine though. I don’t mind if you don’t want to.” She smiled as he tsked and slapped her ass.
“You know how to get whatever you want out of me, and you don’t even try.”
She giggled. “When was the last time you had a Christmas?” she asked.
He thought about it. “After Dwayne’s father was born. That was the last time she put up a tree.”
Hope saw the darkness swirling in his gaze, and she hated that it was there. “Talk to me.”
“There’s nothing to talk about, babe. My dad, he hated Christmas, but he made her do a big thing of it because he knew she loved it, but he’d spend so much time shouting at her, and tearing it down. I think he only allowed her to put it up so that he could ruin it.”
She placed a hand on his chest and moved so that she straddled him. His cock already pressing against her core. “We don’t have to celebrate it.” She didn’t like the bad memories she saw in his gaze.
He smiled. “You know if you want something you’re not supposed to agree to not have it.”
“I don’t want you to be sad. Just as a point to mention, your dad sounds like an asshole.”
“He was.”
She didn’t touch on the past tense. He skimmed his fingers down her body, gripping her ass and rolling her over. “I’d love to know what you’ve done to me.”
“I have no idea what you mean.”
She opened her thighs as he slid between them. His cock bumped her clit as he rubbed between the lips of her pussy.
He pulled back, holding her hips, and he stared down at where their bodies lay together. Every touch against her nub had her gasping, desperate, begging for more.
“You make me ache, baby. I want you so fucking much.” He placed his cock at her entrance, and she cried out as with one hard thrust, he slammed to the hilt within her. Arching up, she felt his lips on her tits, and watched as he took one nipple into his mouth, followed by the next.
His cock pulsed inside her, and he didn’t move for the longest time. “I’ll never grow tired of your pussy wrapped around my cock, baby.” He groaned as she tightened herself, feeling him pulse. “Damn, Hope, you want my cum, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
Gripping her hips, he pulled her off his cock until only the tip was inside her, and then he fucked her hard, slamming all the way within her. She cried out his name, feeling him fill every single part of her, touching places deep inside her that made her ache for more.
She was addicted to him, desperate for his cock.
Beast had a power over her, and she loved every second that he used it.
“You’re all mine, baby. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. I want you so fucking badly.”
She cried out as he bit her tits, knowing he’d leave a mark.
He moved over her completely, wrapping his arms around her waist and fucking her so hard that the headboard slammed against the wall, matching their cries.
Beast brought her to orgasm first before he joined her, flooding inside her with his cum. She felt every single spurt as he filled her. He’d not worn a condom for some time, and she kept forgetting to get an appointment with the doctor. She quickly made a note of it to get it done. The last thing she wanted to do was trap him with a child he didn’t want.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
She smiled. “I can’t move right now.”
“Good, because I’m nowhere near done with you yet.”
****
“Are you okay?” Caleb asked.
Beast glanced up at his brother, sitting back in his seat. He spent a great deal more time at home now than he ever did outside of it. Hope was the reason. Whenever she was near, he found it next to impossible to leave her. He didn’t want to leave her.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Your woman is hunting for colleges, and I didn’t know if the age difference bothered you?”
“Age difference?”
“She’s young, Beast.”
He smiled as Caleb took a seat. “The age difference? You know when I’m with her, there doesn’t feel any difference at all. She’s not a child, and she doesn’t giggle, unless I tickle her.”
Caleb burst out laughing. “You tickle your woman?”
“On occasion. I like to catch her off guard, and I’m not talking about this with you.” He sat back. “Why are you asking me this?”
“Just curious. You never struck me as the kind of guy who liked them young is all.”
“I don’t ‘like them young.’”
Hope was the first woman that had ever made him cross that line. She’d been of legal age, and he didn’t doubt for a second that if she hadn’t been, he’d have left her alone. He would have.
There were a lot of things he would do, but even he had morals and lines he wouldn’t cross. Those lines his father had once told him were what made him weak.
No, his lines, his morals, were what made him strong.
“What made Hope so different for you?” Caleb asked.
“Why the sudden questions about the woman in my life?” He pressed his fingers together, watching his brother.
“You’re not going to tell me anything until I tell you, are you?”
“That’s the way this works.”
“Fine. I may have seen or met someone. Not going to go into the details. I’m sure you’re aware of everything already.”
Beast smiled. He was aware his brother had met someone, and that she was indeed young. Not illegal, but still out of Caleb’s comfort zone.
“Her eyes,” Beast said.
“Her eyes? They’re just brown.”
He chuckled. “You’ve got to look a little deeper when you stare at a woman. Don’t just see tits and ass.” Beast stared past him. “I saw her ass first. She was standing at the bookcase in the library, her hands trailing across the spines of the books. That was the first time I saw her. She turned to face me, and I saw her eyes. They’re deep brown, and so torn. She’s seen pain and come out fighting. She’s a fighter, my woman.” He smiled, just thinking about it. “I know I’m the one responsible for putting that look in her eyes, but … I couldn’t look away. I was caught, enslaved by that one gaze. She left, and I found myself thinking about her.”
“I know you got every single little bit of information on her.”
“I watched her at the diner. She walked everywhere.” He smiled, thinking about that small jacket wrapped around her.
“Dude, you sound like you’re in love.”
Beast stared at his brother. “It’s when the little things, like age, don’t matter. When you’re together, and you crave her smile, or find yourself charmed by something that really annoys you in everyone else, you know that it doesn’t matter.”
“What does she do?” he asked.
“When she giggles … everyone else annoys me, but with Hope, I find myself constantly making her giggle. Trying to give her a reason to hear that one blissful sound. Her giggles don’t make me want to kill her. I just want to take care of her.”
Silence fell between them.
“You’re not going to let her go to college,” Caleb said.
He didn’t say a word, staring at his brother, who ran fingers through his hair.
“She’s not a toy.”
“I never said she was, and I don’t intend to keep her on a shelf so that I can bring her out to play.”
Caleb stared at him. “I thought you and I agreed that no woman would ever make us bring them part of this world. Our lives … it’s not for them.”
“I run a tight ship, Caleb. It’s never been safer than it is right now.”
“She wants this.”
Sitting forward, he glared at his brother. “From the moment she’s been in my life, you’ve been trying to draw a wedge between us. I don’t like it, and it ends now.”
“I’ve never seen you so taken with a woman, Beast. I know you’ve used Sarah. You can’t stand the bitch, and I get it. She’s got many men rutting away in her pussy. She’s never going to miss you when you’re gone. Hope, she’s different, and she makes you different. The thing is, I don’t see her not wanting to leave. She’s still looking for the right college. She’s still wanting a future away from here. You can’t keep her locked up in your little cage, no matter how much freedom you think you give her. You’re heading for a fall. Be careful, brother.”
Beast watched his brother get up and leave his office. Sitting back at his desk, he stared at the computer. There was a copy of the college’s application form that she’d sent. There wasn’t anything that Hope did that he didn’t know about. He was aware she still wanted to go to college, and that she wanted out of town. He also knew that every Sunday she spent an hour tending her mother’s grave while her father’s went unnoticed.
Some nights she’d wake up screaming, holding her side where she’d been shot. There were a lot of secrets between them, mostly from him, but each time he intended to tell her the truth, something would happen, and he’d bide his time.
That time was running out. He didn’t need his fucking younger brother to make him aware of it.
****
Staring at the window display of watches and tie pins, Hope nibbled her lip, unsure what to get Beast. She’d already picked gifts for Caleb and Dwayne, along with some of the men who’d taken her to and from school.
She didn’t have to, but at Christmas it just meant something. It was a time for giving, and she liked the thought of having gifts ready for them. Beast had caved on a tree. It wasn’t a live one. He didn’t want the mess, so he’d purchased a plain, fake pine one that looked great once she had it all decorated. Caleb, Dwayne, and Beast had watched her decorate it, and of course she couldn’t have them staring. She’d made each of them help her, and afterward they shared a hot chocolate and a sugar cookie.
They behaved at times like they didn’t know or understand Christmas, and she was determined to make it a day to remember.
Entering the shop, she found the watch that she’d been eyeing, and asked the attendant if she could have a look. It was just a nice-looking watch that reminded her so much of Beast.
She got it gift wrapped and left the shop. Passing a coffee shop, she paused as she was overcome with a wave of nausea. It took her so completely by surprise that she gripped the wall and took several deep breaths.
That very morning she’d woken up and been sick. It wasn’t just that day though. No, she’d been sick for the past couple of days, and she didn’t want to think what that meant.
You can’t bury your head in the sand for much longer.
She’d not made it to the doctor, and they’d had a great deal of unprotected sex. Tears filled her eyes, and she forced herself to go into the pharmacy. For the longest time, she simply stood outside, staring at the shop, wondering if she could wait until after Christmas.
College was not far away, and she’d already picked where she wanted to go. Placing a hand on her stomach, she gritted her teeth and entered. Finding the pregnancy tests, she saw there were so many that she just picked the one that seemed to offer the highest accuracy.
A couple of hours later, she was back at home with the pregnancy test kit burning in her pocket. Carrying the presents she’d purchased up to her room, she made sure to lock her door before going to the bathroom.
Taking a seat on the toilet, she read through the instructions. Peeing on the stick was not something she would ever get used to, especially as her hand wouldn’t stop shaking.
“Please be negative. Please be negative.”
She’d put a timer on her cell phone so it would beep when she was supposed to look at it.
Her heart pounded as she allowed her thoughts to drift. A baby. Beast’s baby. She had fallen in love with him—how could she not? In a weird kind of way, he was her hero. He’d taken her away from her aunt, given her a life, and a chance to finally have a future. The past few months had been a complete dream.
Going to college would cost her him.
Would he even want a baby?
He’d not once talked about a future with her.
Her alarm sounded, and picking up the stick, she saw the answer that she already knew.
She was pregnant with Beast’s baby.
Staring at the stick, she placed it back down on the edge of the bathroom sink. What the hell was she to do now?
The news terrified her.
The unknown always had.
She didn’t have anyone, not really.
Whatever happened, she couldn’t keep it from Beast.