Once Upon a Time
“Do you think we met by coincidence?”
I chuckled. “Isn’t that how it works… chance?”
Kelly rolled to her side, pulling the thin sheet with her and let her hands explore along the surface of my chest and ribs. The reflection of the street lamp flickered through her open blinds and penetrated the heavy flakes of snow as they steadily fell from the sky.
“I mean, do you think it was fate?” she asked as the tips of her fingers toyed with the dermal piercing on my ribcage.
Shit like fate, love at first sight, I didn’t believe in any of it. But I couldn’t deny the connection we had.
“I think we just fit.”
“I think it’s fate.” I chuckled and she smacked my chest. “Everything…” she exhaled a sad sigh. “Your dad, my dad, it’s all too similar, I think we were supposed to meet.”
“Maybe.” My face split into a grin as I said, “I’m a lucky fuck, regardless.”
Her hand drifted up my chest and rested on my left shoulder as her nose buried into the right side of my neck. I felt her lips spread against my skin into a smile as she inhaled. Kelly’s hair poured down her shoulders and tickled my chin as I pulled her closer.
“Yeah, you are,” she hummed.
Her nails trailed up and down my stomach, and I shivered. It was cold as fuck outside, it hadn’t stopped snowing for a few days, but that had nothing to do with the goose bumps on my skin.
I drew a line down her spine and she pressed against me. The heat of her body stirred my pulse and set my heart’s rhythm into an uncontrollable beat.
“What time will your parents be home?” I asked.
Kelly lifted onto her elbow. I groaned at the distance and she giggled, the sound of it loosened the muscles in my shoulders.
“My mom’s at work until seven in the morning. It’s the weekend, so my dad might not come home at all.”
“Good.”
I couldn’t help the stupid fucking smile as it spread across my face. Time, it was a fucking blessing. Kelly hovered just above my right side, her long, elegant form completely naked. Her cheeks were red as I stared at her mouth and then her tits. She was perfect. I swore every line of her had been drawn by a professional hand. My palm cupped her breast, and my thumb traced a circle around her pink nipple. She hardened under my touch, and her lips parted with a quiet moan. My fingertips brushed along the curve of her breast, across her collarbone, and gently wrapped around her neck, my thumb resting lightly against her throat. The planes of my stomach became rigid as she tilted her head back, and my hand fell from her throat, down past her breasts, and over her hip bone to her ass. She lowered her mouth to mine, her lips searching as her tongue licked the bow of my upper lip, and I opened for her.
Kissing her… I’d forget who I was, all the bitterness—all the responsibility—it all fell away, and I submitted to the power of her taste.
Kelly broke our kiss and, as always, I had to catch my damn breath, inhaling so deep I hoped to steal a little bit of her air to keep as a souvenir. This had become our routine since the first night I’d stayed over on her eighteenth birthday. I’d never been with a girl like her. No one ever fit me, or cared, or even stayed long enough to fucking give a shit about what I could offer, which wasn’t much, but she’d given me everything. She trusted me enough, she’d let me in. There were times, when the bullshit of my life was an undercurrent I couldn’t fight, but she filled all the empty space and made me stronger. I was still just a kid, a kid shouldering the fucking world, but she made me feel like a man. I watched her, watched as her tongue darted along her wet and plump as hell lips, and I didn’t think I was worthy of any of it.
But every Saturday night, as soon as I was off work, I’d ride over to her place, park on the street a few houses down, and she’d invite me in. It was the best day of my damn week. If I actually subscribed to all the shit my mother had taught me and believed in God, I would thank his ass for making sure Kelly’s parents were never home. It was the only time we’d gotten to ourselves. Otherwise, it was date nights with her friend Kathleen and one of the asshole jocks from her school. Most of the time, Kelly would endure punk rock music and shop talk while she sat at Avenues and watched me work.
“I missed you this week,” I admitted as I grabbed her waist and pulled her so that she was straddling me.
She laughed, and it was one of those rare, sexy, low numbers that sent a vibration all the way down my spine. “I missed you, too. I told Kathy she owes me big time for picking up those two shifts.” I skimmed the curve of her hips and gripped her thighs as she rocked against the length of my dick. My fingers pressed into the soft flesh of her legs and she grinned.
“Are you going to stay?” she asked as she bent down and left kisses along my chest, along the patterns of ink.
“Don’t I always?” I lifted my hands to her cheeks as she leaned back and she flinched. “Are you okay?”
Her eyes avoided mine as she sat back. I lifted myself onto my elbows and stared at her face. The light in her room was always too dim.
“It’s nothing new, Liam.”
She attempted to slide her body to the side, but I caught her waist. I scanned her face and noticed she had on more make-up than usual. I’d been in such a goddamn hurry to have her, that I’d missed the details. Every damn weekend I was like a depraved lunatic, and today had been no different. We’d tear each other apart, and then fall into the sweaty mess we’d just created. Fast and then slow, it was how we were. But, as Kelly’s lashes wet with tears, I was fucking pissed I hadn’t noticed earlier.
“What happened?” I almost growled as I sat up all the way.
She wrapped her legs around my hips and rested her forehead on my chest just below my shoulder. Her cool tears sliced me open as they trickled down my skin. We’d been together for almost five months, and her prick father had only met me once. He’d laid off her for a while, and I’d hoped my presence would’ve kept her safe.
“What happened?” I asked again. This time with a gentle tone as my fingers ran through her hair.
She lifted her head and locked her eyes on mine. “It was a few days ago. He was so drunk, Liam, I don’t think he realized what he was doing. He came home from the pub, and I’d just gotten back from work. I don’t even know what the hell he was pissed about. He just barged in my room, yelled at me for always being late. I told him to get out and he backhanded me.”
She turned her cheek so I had a better view. It was faint, but it was there. I dusted the pad of my thumb along her cheekbone and her eyes closed. I was grateful, because if she could see the murder in my eyes, feel the fucking rage forming in my chest, my limbs, my heart, I was worried she’d cower away, and I never wanted her to fear me.
“I won’t let this happen again.” It was an oath.
Her eyes opened wide and vacant. “You can’t stop him,” she whispered.
I brought my lips to her cheek and left a path of kisses along the bruised skin.
“I’ll do whatever I can,” I promised as I leaned back and gave her the full weight of my stare.
“When I graduate, I want to leave. Move to California, like I said before. It’s not just a kid dream, Liam, it’s the only way I’ll be able to keep him out of my life.” Her lips trembled as her hands gripped my shoulders. It was a plea, and I could feel it in my pulse. She wasn’t asking, she was begging me. “Come with me?”
Every breath I inhaled and exhaled was marked as the hope drained from her eyes. It was fucking crazy, but I wanted to give her everything, give her the world, and maybe I couldn’t move to California, maybe I’d just get my own place, and we could live together. She was smarter than she thought she was. She could go to college here, she didn’t have to be a model. But the fear in her eyes told me she wasn’t ready for options, so I said the only thing I could to protect her, to let her know she’d always be safe, “I’ll go anywhere with you.”
The frigid air crept along the sheets and covered me in a cool, damp sweat. My hand automatically searched across the small, full-sized bed for Kelly, but she was gone.
“Don’t fucking tell me you don’t know! It’s every goddamn weekend.”
I sat up in the empty bed and ran my hand through my hair, half asleep and half stuck in a nightmare.
“Ira, calm down. She’s eighteen, it—”
“This is my house and no fucking punk kid is—”
“Maybe if you worked and actually paid the mortgage you could have a say.”
The muffled groan, the sickening sound of bone on skin had me jumping from the bed. I quickly stepped into my jeans and pulled on my t-shirt.
“Dad!” Kelly cried out. “Stop!”
My heart was in my throat, my stomach clenched into a ball as I swung open her bedroom door and rushed down the hallway to the family room.
Kelly’s face was drawn and white and my heart fractured. Her dad noticed me before anyone else. Kelly’s mom had her hand raised to her cheek. The right side of her lip was swollen. My eyes flicked to Kelly again, quickly assessing her face, her body. Her shoulders dipped and tears stained her cheeks and lips, but there was no sign that he’d hit her, too.
“Get the fuck out of my house, you think you can—”
“Dad! Don’t!” Kelly’s voice splintered and so did my self-preservation.
He lunged at me, and I lunged right the fuck back. I didn’t give a shit that he had about fifty pounds on me, I was fueled by fury. Seeing the damage he’d caused first hand, live in action, it was what I’d needed to set him straight. I dodged his attempt to grab me and put every pound of anger, outrage, and power I had behind my fist as it crashed into his jaw. Kelly’s sharp intake of breath, her mother’s gasp, they echoed in the room as he fell to the floor. He muttered and groaned as he tried to get to his knees. This piece of shit was supposed to nurture and love his family, but just like my father, he let the lure of poison steal his affections. His sloppy breathing, his uncoordinated movement, I figured he was still a little drunk and it was probably why he’d gone down so easy.
He tried to get up again and I kneeled down, twisting the back of his collar as I said, “Don’t ever touch Kelly again, or next time I won’t stop at one punch.”
I dropped my hold, ignoring Kelly’s mom as I looked straight at my girl. “Grab your shit, you’re staying with me for a little while.”