PROTECTOR #6
“Brian!” I cried as he looked at the computer screen and then turned away. I was shocked that I’d blurted out how I really felt about him, but I was more concerned that he didn’t believe me. I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to prove my plan, and I cursed myself for keeping it a secret from him to begin with.
“This is just…” he trailed off as he set the computer down on the desk, grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair, and headed toward the door.
“Just what?” I yelled. “It’s nothing! I didn’t mean it! How can I prove to you that I was trying to help you? I wanted to lure Dominic in so you could trap him and call the police. You’ve got to believe me!”
“It’s hard for me to know what to believe, Ava,” he said as he turned and looked at me. My heart ached at seeing the look on his face, but I knew why he felt betrayed. I hadn’t been honest with him.
“Brian, I wasn’t trying to lie to you,” I said softly. “I was honestly trying to help.”
“Ava, can we just let this go for the moment?” he asked. “I need to go out and get some air and clear my head. We’ve been cooped up here for so long, I can’t think clearly anymore.”
I nodded and looked at the floor. I was ashamed of what I’d done, but I also knew that I had the best of intentions and that I’d never wanted to hurt him. I felt confident that if he really thought about it, he’d realize that as well, and that we’d be able to work things out.
“Okay, I get it,” I said.
“I’ll be back in a half hour,” he said as he walked to the door. “Please don’t leave this room, and don’t answer the door. No matter who it is, okay?”
“Fine, fine,” I agreed. “I’ll just stay holed up here like a fugitive while you go out and paint the town.”
“Ava…” he replied in a tone that let me know he wasn’t finding any of this funny at all.
“I’m kidding,” I said as I held up my hands. “I’ll stay here and do my homework, and I won’t answer the door. I promise.”
“Please, just do that,” he said. “For me?”
“I will,” I said solemnly. “I promise.”
He nodded as he grabbed his jacket and phone, then turned and headed toward the door. Just before he opened it, he turned and looked at me once more, and I saw it; the look. He gave me a look that let me know just how much was at stake in me following directions this time. I nodded slowly and bowed my head.
*****
With one hand on the door knob, Brian opened his mouth to say something just as someone knocked on the door and called, “Room service!”
Brian looked out the peephole and confirmed that it was the guy who usually brought up our meals, and opened the door. As he turned the handle and the door flew open, the room server came flying into the room. He collided with Brian and knocked him against the wall hard enough to knock the wind out of him and send him to his knees. Brian quickly sprung back up as two masked men rushed into the room. One was short and square, and the other was tall and lanky. Brian swung at the short man, landing a punch in his stomach before the second man attacked.
“What are you doing!?” I screamed as the two masked men attacked Brian. “Leave him alone!”
The tall one rushed Brian, but quickly found himself on the ground as Brian swept his feet out from under him. The fat one regained his footing and tried to punch Brian in the face, but Brian ducked and the man missed, throwing him off balance and giving Brian a chance to land a brutal punch to the man’s kidney area and making him cry out in pain. The tall man pulled himself off the floor and landed a punch to Brian’s crotch, causing him to crumple to the floor, and giving the tall one a chance to reach under Brian’s hoodie and grab his gun. Before Brian could fight back, the tall one held the gun to his partner and said, “Put him out of his misery.”
“Stop it! Stop it!” I screamed hysterically as I ran toward them and began hitting the tall man who’d taken Brian’s gun. He turned and shoved me hard against the wall before spinning around and whipping Brian in the head with the pistol.
I watched as Brian slumped to the ground and the fat masked man kicked him in the ribs.
“Don’t hurt him!” I yelled.
Then the tall one looked down at the frightened room server on the floor and threatened, “Stay down there and be quiet or you’re next. Got it?” The boy nodded and lay still.
When I realized that they hadn’t come after me yet, I turned and ran toward the bedroom, but before I could reach the door, the second man quickly covered the distance between me, wrapped an arm around my waist, and grabbed a fistful of my hair before he slapped his hand over my mouth to keep me from screaming.
“Shut the hell up,” he growled in my ear as he pulled my hair so hard I thought he was trying to yank it out of my scalp. “I don’t want to hear your useless whining, got it?”
Wide-eyed, I nodded as best as I could without causing myself any more pain. Who are these guys and what do they want? I thought as I watched the first one quickly flip Brian over onto his stomach, pull his arms behind him, then wrap what looked like a length of rope around his wrists to secure them. There was something familiar about the way he moved, but I couldn’t place it.
“Blindfold the kid,” the one tugging on my hair said to the other one as he dragged me over to the dining table and shoved me onto a chair before letting go of my hair, roughly yanking my arms behind me and securing my wrists with a length of rope. “Stupid bitch, you think you can get away from me?”
I inhaled sharply as I recognized Dominic’s voice, then exhaled slowly, hoping that he didn’t know that I’d recognized him.
“You know it’s me,” he laughed as he pulled off the mask and stepped in front of me. “Don’t try to hide it, Ava. I know you better than you think.”
I let out a terrified scream and began to cry.
*****
Dominic watched me through narrowed eyes, as if trying to decide what to do with me next.
“Shut up,” he ordered as he grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked down hard. I sat stock still as he pulled back on my hair, forcing me to look up at him. He threw the mask aside and then leaned down so that his lips were inches from my ear and whispered, “Did you miss me, baby?”
I swallowed the bile that rose in the back of my throat and tried to nod without speaking.
“No, tell me you missed me,” he demanded quietly. My stomach rolled as he spoke. “Tell me, beautiful Ava. Tell me how much you love me and how much you’ve missed me.”
“I…I…love you, Dominic,” I sputtered. The words felt like poison in my mouth, and for a moment I was glad that Brian was unconscious so he wouldn’t have to hear me lie. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I don’t believe you,” he snapped as he let go of my hair and slapped me across the face. I bit my lip to keep from crying out, and when I didn’t look back up at him quickly enough, he reached under my chin and forced my head up to look at him. His eyes were cold and angry as he ordered, “Tell me you love me, and mean it.”
“I love you! I love you! I love you, Dominic,” I tearfully chanted. “I’ve missed you so much. I made a mistake and I want to come back. Please?”
“That’s better,” he smiled cruelly as he slowly scanned my body from top to bottom. I swallowed and fought to hide my true feelings so that I wouldn’t vomit. But when he ran his fingers down my cheek, I shrank from his touch. He ignored my response and murmured, “See? Isn’t it better when you admit the truth and tell me how you feel?”
“Mmm hmm,” I nodded as I felt the nausea rising again. I fought to keep myself from looking away as I held his gaze. In my peripheral vision I could see Dominic’s accomplice removing his mask, and my stomach sank when I realized that it was Cheese. The two of them together were my worst nightmare.
“You know my friend Christopher, don’t you, darling?” Dominic said as he watched me. “I believe the two of you became acquainted during an unfortunate incident at the Fiji house, didn’t you?”
I closed my eyes and tried to simply breathe, but Dominic was having none of it, and he yanked my hair so hard that I cried out.
“Do not fucking ignore me, Ava!” he yelled. “I will not have you ignoring me when I ask you a question!”
“Yes, we met,” I replied. My scalp burned and I wondered if he’d actually pulled out my hair.
“Good girl,” he murmured. “When you answer me, I don’t have to resort to hurting you to get a response. Now, you wanted to talk with me about getting back together, did you? Tell me about what you want to do with me.”
“I want…want us to…to get back together,” I stammered as I tried to respond quickly. My head hurt from the tight grip he had on my hair, and I was afraid that if I said the wrong thing, he’d order his henchman to hurt Brian.
“Really?” he said in a skeptical tone that let me know he wasn’t buying what I was desperately trying to sell. “Somehow I don’t believe you, Ava. Why is that?”
“Because I’m…I’m scared?” I whispered.
“It could be,” he said. “But it could also be because you’re lying to me. Are you lying to me, Ava?”
“No! No, Dominic I’m not lying! I love you and I want to get back together with you,” I cried. “I want us to be a family again!”
“Really? Now that’s quite a change of tune, Ava,” he said in a slimy tone that made my skin crawl. “A week ago, you were telling me that you never wanted to see me again. What’s changed in the seven short days between that conversation and now? Hmmm?”
“I realized my mistake,” I said as I lowered my eyes to try and show him my shame. “I was wrong. I’ve spent the week with the bodyguard my father hired, and I realized how wrong I was, Dominic.”
“You hear that, Cheese?” he laughed. “She’s telling me she’s sorry and that she wants to come back. What do you think about that?”
“I think is total bullshit,” Cheese replied dryly. “She’s a cock tease and she has no idea what she wants.”
“I think you might be right, my friend,” Dominic replied as he turned to me with a cold look in his eyes. “But first, I want to hear what the little lady has to say for herself. So, speak, Ava.”
I felt the panic rising as I sat looking up at him. I knew him well enough to know that he was fighting to maintain his impassive expression and casual tone. Underneath it all beat the heart of a true sadist, and questioning me was simply giving him time to coil up inside himself and prepare to strike. If I could figure out how he would strike, I might be able to avert disaster, but that would require me to lie like I’d never lied before, and I wasn’t sure I could do it.
“What’s wrong, Ava?” Dominic whispered as he bent down in front of me, his face only inches away from mine. “Cat got your tongue? Perhaps I should do something to loosen it up.”
“No, I was just remembering our summer trip to New York,” I said as I smiled softly. “Remember how we found that little park that had the lights embedded in the concrete and danced to the street music after dark?”
A look of confusion flitted across Dominic’s face before he returned to his marble mask. I smiled sweetly up at him as I continued, “You gave me that pretty silver necklace that I love so much. The one with the diamond perched on the edge of the half-moon because you always said you loved me to the moon and back, Dom,” I spoke softly and smiled again.
“I…I…yeah, I remember,” he stammered a bit before regaining control. I was getting to him, and I knew that if I was going to take control of the situation, I was going to have to spin a memory powerful enough to turn me back into his ally. I searched my peripheral vision for Brian, but I couldn’t see what Cheese was doing with him, so I focused my full attention on Dominic and hoped that when Brian regained consciousness, he’d understand what I was doing and look for an opening. Given how upset he’d been with me before this, I wasn’t sure he would, and that scared me more than telling all the lies.
“You loved me so much, Dom,” I whispered. “That trip was a dream trip, and I really thought you were going to propose when we had dinner at Tavern on the Green. I was so disappointed that you didn’t. Why didn’t you?”
“I…well…that’s none of your business, young lady,” he snapped. There was something underneath his anger, and I didn’t know what it was.
“No, it’s all my business, baby,” I cooed. “Just tell me, it’s okay if you were scared and weren’t ready. I totally understand. Look at me? I got cold feet.”
“It was…well…it was just not the right time,” he muttered as he looked over at Cheese. I followed his gaze and saw that Brian was laying facedown on the carpet with a river of red slowly snaking down the side of his face, forming a growing stain on the carpet. I was distressed, but I knew that I couldn’t show any interest in what was happening or Dominic would turn his focus on Brian. What might happen then was anyone’s guess, but I didn’t dare risk it.
“I know you had your reasons,” I reassured him. “I just wanted to know if it was something I’d done. Was I good enough for a proposal?”
“You were fine, Ava,” Dominic said quietly. “In fact, you were more than fine. You were stunning that night. I remember it like it was yesterday.”
I watched him slowly sink into his memory of the night he should have proposed. The reality of that night was that we’d fought at the hotel before dinner, and I’d said I didn’t want to go out to eat, but he’d gripped my arm so tightly that I couldn’t get away and then dragged me down to the hotel lobby, where he’d ordered the bellman to get us a cab. Once inside the cab, he’d turned and let loose with a torrent of abuse that had the cab driver giving me worried looks in the rearview mirror. I’d waved him off once we reached the restaurant, and we’d gone in and had a delicious, but tense, meal. It was nothing like the romantic fantasy I was weaving, but the only advantage I had over Dominic was that he lived in a fantasy world rather than in reality.
“We were happy, weren’t we?” he mused.
“Oh, it was such a lovely night,” I fed the memory. “We had champagne on the dance floor and you whirled me around like I was Ginger Rogers to your Fred Astaire, Dom. It was magical.”
“Yeah, I did a good job, didn’t I?” he asked.
“The best,” I replied in a dreamy voice. “I felt like a princess.”
“You are my princess, Ava,” he said softly. “I don’t understand why you would want to run away from all of the wonderful things I have given you.”
“I don’t know, Dom,” I said sadly. “I think I just got confused. I got scared. It’s all such a big deal with my family, you know?”
When I mentioned my family, Dominic’s face went blank and I knew I’d hit the wrong note. Dammit!
“Yes, I know all too well how big a deal things are with your family,” he replied coldly.
“They’re not me!” I cried. I had to turn this conversation back around and quickly. “I’m not my parents! I love you! I want to be with you! I don’t care what they say or think, we’re meant to be together, Dom. You know that, don’t you?”
He looked back down at me as if seeing me with fresh eyes, and smiled as he said, “Yes, I know you’re not them.”
He walked over to where Brian lay, looked down at his unmoving body for a moment before he turned and faced me again. “But I also know that they raised you, and there’s no way for you to escape that fact, Ava. You are your parents’ daughter whether you like it or not, and you’re smart and resourceful.”
“What do you mean?” I was absolutely confused.
“What I mean is that you are adept at deception, my dear,” he chuckled. “Your father is the king of lies and deceit and you are the queen of the empire!”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” I cried. “I’ve never lied to you. Not once.”
“Listen to her, Cheese!” he roared. “She lies to me about lying to me! What a piece of work!”
“Huh?” said Cheese looking back and forth between us, obviously confused. “She sounds sincere to me, dude.”
“Good lord, Cheese, you’re such a sucker,” Dominic scolded. “No wonder no frat house wants you as a member. You’re an idiot.”
“Hey!” Cheese protested. “I’m not an idiot!”
Dominic rolled his eyes and turned his attention back toward me, and suddenly a glimmer of hope peeked through the curtain of darkness. I knew what I could do to turn the situation in my favor and get Brian and I out of there, but first I had to get Brian to regain consciousness, and then somehow get him to play along with my little game.
“Dom, tell me how we’re going to get out of here, please?” I flirted and smiled at him. “I haven’t been alone with you in so long.”
“No, you haven’t, have you?” he smiled as he reached out and ran his fingers lightly down my cheek. “You must be so very lonely.”
“You have no idea,” I said. “It’s been the longest time since anyone has even touched me.”
“You mean you and the bodyguard didn’t get your groove on?” he asked with a surprised.
“Who? Me and him?” I said incredulously. “What on earth are you thinking?”
“Well, I figured that close quarters with a handsome, yet simple hunk might wear you down,” Dominic mused.
“Um, have you forgotten that he was hired by my father?” I asked as I rolled my eyes as far back in my head as I could. I had to channel my inner teenager to get this one right. I’d been a child in an adult’s world my entire life and I wasn’t sure I had it in me, but for Brian’s sake and mine, I had to try.
“True,” Dominic replied. “Daddy dearest would not like you mingling with the help one bit.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Brian’s fingers moving. The other two hadn’t seen it, and I was determined to make sure they didn’t notice him regaining consciousness. I shifted my focus and said, “Dom, let the room server go. He’s nothing. We don’t need him, do we?”
Dominic looked over at the teenager lying facedown on the carpet with a blindfold covering his eyes as if he’d forgotten he was even there. “Hmmm,” he murmured. “You might be right, but I’m not taking any chances, my dear. I’ve got a plan, and I’m sticking to it.”
“What kind of plan, Dom?” I asked eagerly. “Are we going somewhere?”
“Oh, we most definitely are,” he smiled. “You and me, that is, after we take care of the problem.”
“What problem?” I asked as my heart sunk into my stomach. I’d been lulled into a sense of false security because Dominic was calm, but the reality was that he was more dangerous when he wasn’t actively angry.
“Well, you see, my dear,” he smiled. “We can’t have the nosy bodyguard reporting back to your father and screwing everything up, now can we?”
“No, we most definitely cannot have that happen,” I said as I forced a smile and stole a peek at Brian. He was still out cold, and I was starting to sweat. Wake up, wake up, wake up.
“Good, I’m glad we agree.” Dominic smiled in a reptilian way as he moved across the room to Cheese and said, “Get him up off the floor and into that chair.”
“How, dude?” Cheese asked genuinely confused.
“I don’t care how you do it, just do it,” Dominic intoned. “And how many times do I have to tell you not to call me dude?”
“Sorry, du—Dom,” Cheese replied as he bent down and slid his arms under Brian’s armpits and hoisted him up off the floor. As he lifted, Brian’s head dropped forward. I kept hoping for a miracle; that Brian would wake up and take on our captors and free us from this nightmare. But he only groaned a little as Cheese propped him up in the chair and secured him to the back of it using another length of rope. I watched him as he tied it and realized that he had no idea how to tie knots. If I could get Brian conscious, there was still hope.
“What are you going to do, baby?” I asked sweetly.
Dominic walked around behind Brian, rested his hands on his shoulders, and said with a smile, “He will no longer be an issue, pretty girl. You will be mine and he will cease to be.”
My stomach turned as I heard Dominic discuss his horrible plan to ensure that we would have a beautiful future. He would make sure he got what he wanted even if he had to kill Brian in the process, and my brain spun as I tried to figure out a way to talk him out of his disgusting plan.
“Dom, do you think that’s the best idea?” I asked sweetly. “I mean, he’s really kind of a nobody, and if you off him then he becomes somebody, right?”
“Ava, Ava, Ava, you’re so very naive. Sweet, but naive,” he chuckled. “You see, if I off this jarhead, then I will also make sure that no one knows I’ve done it. He will simply disappear into nothingness and no one will know what happened to him, so he will still be a nobody. Do you see, my darling? I’ve got it all planned out.”
“Oh, okay!” I said as brightly as I could and smiled a big, fake smile. “Well, if you’ve got it all planned out then I guess it’s done, right?”
“Yes, except for one thing,” Dominic smiled. I didn’t like that smile, it was the one he always used on me when he was about to punish me for some imagined infraction and then blame me for the pain he was forced to cause me. “I need him to be conscious so that he understands that I’m making the choice to end him. I need him to look me in the eye as I lead him out of this world and into the next one.”
I knew now that Dominic had gone completely mad. Up to this moment I wondered if it was just grief and ego that drove him to try and reclaim me, but now I knew for certain that he had descended into madness and that he really was going to kill Brian. I quickly worked to come up with an alternate plan that might give us a little time. If I could buy us time, Brian might be able to figure out a way to break free and disarm Dominic and Cheese. Cheese. Shoot. I’d forgotten about him and the fact that he was now holding Brian’s gun.
“Wake him up,” Dominic ordered Cheese. “I want him awake. Now.”
“But du- Dom, I don’t know how to bring a guy out of unconsciousness,” Cheese protested.
“Throw some water on him! Slap his face! Yell in his ear!” Dominic shouted. “Why do I always have to do everything around here?”
“Fine, fine,” Cheese grumbled as he went into the bathroom, filled a glass with cold water, then walked back out and dumped it on Brian’s head.
“Are you a complete idiot?” Dominic yelled as he began to pace the room. “You have to throw it in his face! He’s not going to come to if you drip it on the top of his head!”
“I’m not an idiot!” Cheese protested. “How in the hell am I supposed to know how to do this?”
I stole a glance at Brian as Dominic insulted Cheese and restlessly paced the room. Brian seemed to be breathing alright, but I couldn’t figure out why he was still out cold. The knock to his head hadn’t been that hard, and he was someone who had been trained to take a lot of abuse before his body gave out. Something wasn’t adding up.
And then I thought I saw him move. Or did I? I thought I saw the tiniest movement of Brian’s finger, but I wasn’t sure. Had he moved? Or was it simply my imagination playing tricks on me? It was agonizing to think that we were all going to die in this room, and I knew it was up to me to divert attention from Brian just in case he was conscious.
And if he wasn’t, well, I’d think of that later.
Dominic and Cheese were still fighting amongst themselves and as I looked over toward the door, I saw the poor room server still lying facedown on the floor. I’d forgotten about him.
“Dom, baby?” I called in the sweetest voice I could muster. “Don’t you think that it would be wise to let the poor little room server go? He doesn’t have anything to do with this and he’s scared out of his mind. I think he might have even wet his pants.”
“Jeez, what a baby!” Cheese laughed. “Pissed his pants like a little baby!”
I had hoped that the room server would be smart enough to pick up on my cue and actually wet his pants, and by the sound of Cheese’s reaction, I’d played my cards right.
“Shut up, Cheese,” Dominic ordered. “That little baby is going to go out with the meathead here. I want you to take care of him. Do you understand me?”
“Wait, what?” Cheese looked at Dominic with a frown. “Hey, I didn’t sign on for hurting anyone. You told me it was just going to be getting the girl back and then leaving.”
“Well, sometimes things don’t go as planned, now do they?” Dominic smiled. “And you have to adjust your plan to fit the circumstances.”
“Dude, there is no way in hell I’m killing anyone!” Cheese declared. Dominic looked at him for a moment, then turned and walked over to me.
“Ah yes, the big, bad frat boy turns pussy,” he laughed as he began to loosen my ties. “I had a feeling this was what would happen, so I made sure that I had a backup plan. Always have a backup plan, Christopher.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Cheese protested. “Seriously, you did not tell me that there was going to be real killing involved. I don’t want any part of that, Dominic.”
“Then if you will not participate,” Dominic said in a low, sinister tone. “You have become part of my problem, as well.”
He quickly untied my hands, pulled me to my feet, and then turned and punched Cheese so hard that he fell to the floor. Out cold. In an instant, Dominic was behind Brian with the gun pointed at his head as he smiled at me.
“I know you have a soft heart, Kitten,” he said. “But you’re here to do some work for me before I finish up the show with a bang. Get it? A bang?” His maniacal laughter filled the room, and I stood trembling as I looked at the gun pressed against Brian’s temple. Now that Cheese was out cold on the floor, I knew that getting him to turn on Dominic wasn’t going to happen, but I didn’t know if Brian would regain consciousness or if he could escape the restraints if he did. I felt my heart sinking as I realized that saving us was entirely on my shoulders at the moment, and that I couldn’t rely on anyone but myself.
“Ava, listen to me,” Dominic murmured softly. “We are going to dispose of all of these problems, and then you and I are going to go out for dinner and discuss our future.”
“Yes,” I said in a weak voice as I nodded. “Okay, we’ll take care of the problems and then have dinner.”
“Good girl,” he said smiling. “You are always so appealing when you say yes to me.”
I stood rooted to the spot where he’d left me as I scanned the room. He wanted to kill three people and then go to dinner? It was a sure sign that he’d gone completely off the deep end, and I knew that I was our only hope, but I had no idea how to stop his evil plan. What did I have that he wanted? What could I offer that would keep him from killing Brian and the other two? Suddenly it came to me, and I knew exactly what I had to do. I only hoped that Brian would forgive me once we were free.
“Dom?” I asked quietly.
“Yes, Kitten?” he replied in a distracted voice as he scanned the room for the tools he’d need for properly disposing of the bodies. “What do you want?”
“You,” I said with a giggle as I dropped my skirt and lifted the hem of my T-shirt. “It’s been so long!”
Dominic turned and looked at me as I continued my striptease, and I smiled seductively as I nodded towards the bedroom and begged, “Just a quickie? Please? Please, Dom?”
“Ava, you’re going to have to wait for that,” he lectured. “This is neither the time nor the place.”
“But I’m so incredibly horny!” I cried as I undid the hooks on my bra and slipped the straps off my shoulders. “It’s been ages!”
“I thought lover boy here was keeping you busy,” Dominic said in a bored tone.
“Him? Oh no, he isn’t someone I could have sex with! He’s the help!” I laughed and silently begged for Brian’s forgiveness.
“This is true,” Dominic chuckled. “You were definitely raised better than that!”
“So? Please?” I begged as the bile rose in my throat. “You know how I love it when you take me hard and fast.”
“Oh, do I,” he flashed the sinister smile and I could see that he was thinking about moving into the bedroom with me. “You like it rough, don’t you, Kitten?”
“You know just how I like it, Dom,” I whispered as I fought to keep from screaming. The thought of his hands on my body made me want to vomit, but I knew that the only way we were going to get out of this was if I distracted Dominic well enough to take control of the situation. “Please? Just a little? Now?”
Dominic quickly scanned the room and saw that the three problems were neutralized at the moment, and he smiled that awful, evil smile as he walked over to me. I was nearly naked and trembling, but he read my fear as desire and wrapped an arm around my waist as he walked me backwards toward the bed. In his other hand he held Brian’s gun, and I knew that I would have to find a way to make him put it down or else I’d be forced to go through with this awful act.
“Dom, I need you touch me,” I whispered into his ear as he held me against his chest. “I like it when you hold me down and touch me, you remember, don’t you?”
“Mmmmm,” he murmured. “Indeed I do. You like it when you have no control, don’t you, Kitten?”
“Oh, yes,” I breathed into his ear. “Oh yes, you remember!”
“Lie down,” he ordered in that soft, sinister voice. “I want to see you spread out before me. I want to know that I own you, all of you.”
I swallowed hard, nodded, and lay down on the bed on my back, trying hard not to expose the depth of my hatred as I looked up at him. I tried to recall Brian standing over me and the way his eyes shined when he saw me naked for the first time. I tried to remember the feeling of his hands on my body as Dominic lightly trailed his fingers down my torso. There was nothing sexy about this, but I was determined not to let Dominic hurt Brian - no matter what it took.
“You always liked it when I stroked your skin,” he purred.
“Oh yes, I love the way your fingers feel,” I sighed. I couldn’t close my eyes or look away because I was scared that he’d sense how much I hated him if I did. More than that, I was afraid that if I didn’t focus on him, my mind would realize what I was actually doing, and my body would rebel. I whispered, “Hold me, Dom? Please? I haven’t felt your arms around me in so long, and I’ve missed them.”
Dominic ignored my plea and continued caressing my skin. There was something about his touch that frightened me, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of the past or the present. Either way, my mind was spinning as I watched him.
Please wake up, Brian. Please. Please. Please.
Dominic lay down next to me and continued stroking my skin as he slid his other arm under my neck. He still had the gun in his hand, but at least it wasn’t aimed at anyone. He looked down at me as he raised his free hand and brushed the hair away from my face.
“You really should make an attempt to keep your hair out of your face, Kitten,” he scolded. “Your face is too pretty to be hidden.”
I nodded and forced a smile as I said, “I will do that from now on, Dom. I promise.”
“Ava, don’t you wonder why I went to all the trouble to get you back?” he asked in a tone that made my blood run cold in my veins. I knew that he had a plan, I just didn’t know what that plan was or why he was doing what he was doing.
“I thought it was because you loved me and you wanted me back,” I replied as innocently as possible.
“Oh my goodness,” he laughed as he grabbed one of my breasts and squeezed so tightly that I gasped. “Aren’t you absolutely darling! Naive, but darling.”
“Then why are you doing this, Dom?” I asked in a trembling voice.
“Because you humiliated me and I want that rectified,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone. “You left me and you told lies about me and everyone thinks I’m a monster, and now I’m going to prove that I’m not only not a monster, but that you and I were actually meant to be together.”
There was no way to hide the terror in my eyes now. He saw it and it made him stronger. The only possible way out now was to fight, and I was well aware that this choice might end badly for me—and the others—but it was my only choice left.
“What…what do you want me to do?” I asked.
“You and I are going to take care of these problems together, and then we are going to go tell our story to the police,” he explained. “Your father hired a crazy bodyguard who held you hostage and abused you. I tried to rescue you from him, but he’d brainwashed you and convinced you that I was the enemy based on false evidence and lies.”
I stared at Dominic, wondering what had to happen in a person’s brain to make them believe the lies they told. He was living in a fantasy world of his own making and he had no intention of recognizing reality. All I could do was nod and listen to his grand plan for us.
“It took me a long time to track you down because he was very adept at hiding, but when I received a cryptic email from you inviting me to come talk, I knew you were trying to let me know your whereabouts. I came to the hotel, enlisted the help of the room server, and broke in just as Brian was about to allow Cheese to have his way with you.”
“What on earth?” I was truly perplexed by this.
“You thought I didn’t know?” he smiled. “Cheese got kicked out of the Fijis because of your little friend’s antics at the party. He wanted to get even with you for that humiliation and to have a little fun while he was at it, so your bodyguard agreed to give him what he wanted in exchange for a little cash.”
“You are twisted,” I couldn’t hide my disgust any longer and it seemed useless to even try. Dominic had planned everything and wasn’t going to deviate from his plan. Now all I could do was fight back.
“Ah, the kitten has claws!” he laughed as he forced his hand between my legs and grabbed my crotch so hard I screamed. “I knew they’d show themselves sooner or later. You’re no shrinking violet, baby.”
“Get your hands off of me!” I yelled in his face. “You are not allowed to do this!”
“Allowed? Oh no, no, no, my dear,” he grinned. “I don’t need to be allowed to do anything. I’m going to take whatever I want and you will have no choice but to let me.”
“You have always been a sick, sick man,” I spit as I twisted to try and escape. In an instant, Dominic had the gun pressed to my temple as he gripped my arm so hard I swore I could feel the bones beginning to crack.
“I’m not sick,” he growled. “I’m perfectly normal, I’m just angry at you for embarrassing me the way you did last year. I treated you like a princess, and you treated me like dirt.”
“Because you beat me,” I said in a flat voice. “You beat me until I couldn’t move. You are sick.”
“I beat you because you asked for it,” Dominic said in a casual tone. “You know you did. You misbehaved and I punished you. There was nothing wrong with what I did. In fact, you liked it.”
“I what?” I gasped. “I never liked anything you did to me. You beat me so badly I couldn’t leave the house for days at a time. Have you forgotten that?”
“Oh no, I’ve not forgotten anything at all,” Dominic grinned. “I’ve got it all on tape and I watch it whenever I’m in the mood for you.”
This revelation knocked the wind out of me. He had my beatings on tape and he watched them for entertainment. What kind of monster was he? And then another thought struck me; he has the beatings on tape. Evidence. All I had to do was escape and I could tell the police about the tapes, and they would put Dominic away for good. But first I had to escape.
“You’re so disgusting,” I said calmly. “Do your parents know that they’ve raised an absolute monster? If they don’t, they’re going to be sick when they find out.”
“You bitch,” he spat. I’d hit a raw nerve and I knew it. “You really shouldn’t be talking about parents who are disappointed, now should you?”
“My parents aren’t disappointed in me,” I said truthfully. “They just don’t care what I do. Unlike your parents who care about everything you do and every move you make. Man, this is going to suck when it comes out that you’re a woman-beater and a murderer. I’d be surprised if they didn’t totally disown you.”
The sting of Dominic’s hand hitting my face surprised me only a little. It was the way my neck snapped to the side that shocked me. He’d hit me many times before, but he’d never hit me this hard or with this much rage. For a moment I was frightened that he would unload the gun in my head, but then I remembered how much he enjoyed watching me suffer and knew that he’d be far more likely to kill the others and make me watch. Dominic’s sickness was ego and attention, and when I was forced to pay attention, his ego swelled. I had a good idea of what was coming next, so I closed my eyes and came as close to praying as I ever have in my life. Just let us live. Just let us live. Just let us live. I didn’t ask for any favors, just the gift of life, and hoped that someone up there would hear me.
The next thing I felt was Dominic yanking me up off of the bed and dragging me by my hair to the front room. The others were conscious now, but since they were tied up, they were also helpless. I bowed my head as Dominic pointed the gun at the room server and said, “Tell him you’re sorry, Ava. Tell him that it’s all your fault that he’s going to take a bullet to the brain. Tell him that you feel terrible about it, but that you appreciate his sacrifice so that you can live.”
I looked down into the terrified eyes of the teenager and held my breath.
I opened my mouth and found myself pitching forward toward the floor. I landed on top of the terrified room server who let out a loud “Oof!”
“What the hell!” I yelled as I felt someone land on top of me, forcing an “Oof!” out of both me and the poor room server on the bottom of the pile.
“I wouldn’t move if I were you,” said Dominic as he pressed the barrel of the gun to my head. “Are you going to attack me, Mr. SEAL, or are you going to let me get up?”
“Get up, you coward,” Brian growled as he backed away from the pile.
Dominic slowly lifted himself off of me as he kept the gun aimed at my head. He then yanked me off of the frightened teenager and pulled me against him so that my back was pressed against his chest and I could see Brian’s face. I could feel the cold metal of the gun against my temple, and I smiled weakly at Brian so that he wouldn’t know how scared I was. He looked right through me as he fixed his gaze on Dominic and the gun.
“You see, SEAL, I win. I get the girl. You lose,” Dominic proclaimed. “You are nothing more than a hired hand.”
“Oh, you have no idea what I am, you arrogant prick,” Brian shot back as he watched Dominic closely. “But the one thing I’m not is you, thank goodness. Who would want to be such a pathetic loser?”
“You’re good at what you do, but you’re not going to get me worked up,” Dominic chuckled. “You see, I win. I will always win. I have money and money makes everything work. You don’t have money, so you are nobody. You can’t have girls like this because you have nothing.”
“Is that what you think? That I want your girl?” Brian laughed loudly as he began circling us, forcing Dominic to turn on the spot where we were standing in order to follow him. “That’s just ridiculous. Why would I want used goods?”
His words pierced my heart and I wondered, Is that what he thinks of me? I was trembling as Dominic spun in place. The gun was hard and cold against my head, and I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I realized that one wrong move and he’d fire a bullet right into my brain. I wouldn’t stand a chance. My eyes searched wildly for Brian, but he was on the move and was keeping us moving, too.
“Used goods? Is that all you think of her? My, my, my, that’s not very complimentary, is it, Kitten?” Dominic looked at me as he asked the question. “How do you feel about being called used goods?”
“I’m not used goods,” I whispered.
“What did you say? You need to speak a little louder, dear,” Dominic ordered. “We can’t hear you.”
“I’m not used goods,” I said more clearly.
“Well, I believe the SEAL here thinks you are,” Dominic reminded me. Brian continued moving, his attention focused on Dominic, but I could see that he was holding something in his right hand. I couldn’t tell what it was, though. Dominic pressed the gun against my head harder and more insistently. “I think maybe he might be right. Maybe you are used goods, and you know how much I hate it when something that is mine has been used.”
I couldn’t hold it in any longer, and the tears began sliding down my cheeks. I had done everything I could to try and save all of us, and now I was going to be the first one to die. Dominic was going to win, again. I’d done everything I could to escape from him, and he was going to have the last word here in this hotel room with Brian watching. I closed my eyes and willed myself to breathe deeply. If I was going to die, I wasn’t going to fight it. I would stay calm.
Seconds later I heard Brian yell, “Duck, Ava!” and without thinking I pulled away just as Brian flew across the room and grabbed Dominic’s arm. He let go of me and turned the gun on Brian. I heard myself screaming as the gun went off and the sound rendered me deaf for a moment. Was I shot? I didn’t feel like anything hurt, and it didn’t look like I was bleeding. I looked up and saw Brian punch Dominic in the face as he swore a blue streak. Dominic punched back wildly, but only landed one to every four of Brian’s.
Where is the gun? I couldn’t see it in Dominic’s hand. I frantically searched the room with my eyes and finally located it on the floor just under the sofa. Dominic had dropped it when he’d fired a round, and Brian must have kicked it out of the way. I scrambled across the floor and grabbed it from its hiding place as Dominic landed a vicious punch, and I heard the crunching of bone against bone as his fist connected with Brian’s cheek.
I winced as I lifted the gun and pointed it at Dominic. His earlier punishment had left my arm an aching mass of bruises, but I held the gun up as I stood and yelled, “Dominic, stop! Now!”
He turned and looked at me holding the arm that was holding the gun and then burst out laughing. His laughter struck a nerve, and I nearly pulled the trigger. I would have, too, had it not been for the fact that this gave Brian the opportunity to connect one very brutal punch to Dominic’s ribs. I watched Dominic crumple to the ground holding his side as he writhed in pain, then looked up at Brian and held out the gun.
Brian quickly crossed the room and took the weapon from me and tucked it back inside the holster under his hoodie before moving back over to where Dominic lay crying in pain, and gave him a swift kick in the ass for good measure. Wide-eyed, I looked up at him.
“Hey, he tried to kill both of us,” he shrugged as he pulled out his phone and quickly punched the 911 key. He told the operator where we were and what had transpired then hung up the phone, tucked it in his pocket, and moved over to help me off the floor saying, “I think we should get some clothes on you, don’t you think?”
The rush of adrenaline had made me completely forget that all I was wearing was a pair of panties. I shivered as Brian wrapped an arm around my waist and walked me back to the bedroom, where he retrieved my clothes and helped me pull my T-shirt over my badly bruised torso. I left my bra on the floor, knowing that to try and put it on would be more pain than I could handle. After he’d helped me dress, he walked me back out to the living room and sat me on the couch.
“Just stay there, okay?” he advised as he moved around the room and untied the room server and Cheese. He brought the frightened teenager to the couch and sat him down next to me. Cheese was still groggy on the floor, so Brian went into the bathroom, ran some cold water over a washcloth, and brought it out to put on Cheese’s face. Dominic lay silent on the floor until Brian nudged him with the toe of his sneaker, then he groaned in pain and tried to roll over.
“I’m going to kill you, SEAL,” he muttered as he tried to get up off of the floor. The pain in his ribs made him cry out and sink back down to the floor.
“Yeah, promises, promises,” Brian replied as he pushed Dominic’s face into the carpet a little harder than necessary. I looked away. I understood why Brian was doing what he was doing, but I still didn’t want to see it.
Despite everything that had happened, I felt sorry for Dominic. He was a sad, sick man, and he was going to pay the price for his desire to get revenge, but I also knew he was a broken boy who never felt like he’d been loved. I shook my head and looked at the poor little room server who’d gotten caught in the middle of all of this and thought he was going to be killed. I put a bruised arm around his shoulders and reassured him that it was all going to be okay.
Brian looked at me from across the room, and then looked away.
*****
Five minutes later, the police pounded on the door, and when we opened it, they came streaming in like they had prepared to storm the entire hotel, and it occurred to me that maybe they had. The first thing they did was bring in the EMTs and have them check us all out. Dominic was put on a stretcher while we were all questioned, but they didn’t roll him out.
Brian gave a detailed account of what had happened, and I was shocked to hear him telling the officers about what I had done to try and divert Dominic’s attention so that he could free himself. He’d been conscious the entire time. I felt the shame rising in my chest as I realized he’d heard me say some really terrible things about him as I’d tried to figure out how to save us all. I looked over at him, but he was deep in conversation with the officers, so I shifted my attention back to the room server who’d been obviously traumatized. I told the medics what had happened to him and how he’d stayed remarkably calm for someone so young. They took turns reassuring him that he would be okay, and then slowly led him out of the room to the waiting ambulance. Other EMTs had collected Cheese and quickly driven him to the hospital. It sounded like they feared that he had a concussion from the blow to the head, and they wanted to get a CT scan to make sure he wasn’t bleeding into his brain.
I told the police what had happened with Cheese and that while he was certainly responsible for his actions, he had not signed on for the kind of action that Dominic had decided on once they’d gotten in the room. I didn’t want to absolve Cheese of any responsibility, but I also didn’t want him taking the fall for Dominic’s evil plot to kill us all. The officers took my statement, and then finished up with Brian before they signaled to the EMTs that they could move Dominic out of the room.
“I’m not done with you, Kitten,” Dominic ranted as the EMTs wheeled him toward the door. “I’m going to find you and hunt you down! You will be sorry that you ever messed with me when I find you!”
I shot a frightened look in Brian’s direction, and he moved in next to me and put his arm around my waist as he softly said, “They will never let him out of prison again. Don’t worry, Ava. It’s a done deal. You’re safe.”
I gave him a grim smile as I watched them wheel Dominic away from the room, and then turned to the officer in charge and said, “He has evidence of all the horrible things he did to me.”
“What do you mean?” asked the officer.
“He was my boyfriend, but he beat me badly and I finally left,” I replied. “Today he said he has videos of the beatings that he would watch when he missed me….” I trailed off as the tears started to flow. Brian turned and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against his chest and stroking my hair as I cried.
“Do you know where he keeps them?” the officer asked.
I shook my head against Brian’s chest, not wanting to have to think about where Dominic might keep such awful mementos of his abuse. For the hundredth time since this all started, I wondered how I could have possibly ended up here. Is this all my fault?
“Ava, none of this is your fault,” Brian whispered as if reading my thoughts. “Dominic is a sick individual, and you had nothing to do with that sickness. You were a victim of it as much as the rest of us.”
“But I couldn’t stop him,” I sobbed.
“None of us could, alone,” Brian soothed. “It took all of us to stop that level of sickness. You can’t blame yourself.”
I nodded, but I wasn’t sure I believed him. Brian held me as the officers finished up their preliminary work and told him that we’d need to come down to the station to file reports and give statements the next day. Brian took the officer’s card and assured him that we would be there the next morning.
As soon as the police had closed the door behind them, Brian quickly grabbed our bags, threw our things in them, and hustled me out to the car. He didn’t explain and I didn’t ask, but we both knew that staying in the hotel was no longer an option - or a necessity.
Once on the road, I knew exactly where we were headed, and I smiled when Brian pulled up outside of the dorm. He carried the bags up to my room and then said, “Get comfortable, I’m going to go pick up dinner.”
“Don’t leave!” I cried, afraid that if he left something terrible would happen. “Can’t they deliver it?”
“Ava, please don’t worry,” he smiled as he pulled me into his arms and held me close. “Nothing bad is going to happen. Not now.”
I smiled as I hugged him tightly, then whispered, “But don’t leave, okay?”
“Fine, you win,” he said as he stepped back and looked at me, smiling. “I’ll call and have it all delivered. Although, after today, I’d have guessed that you’d be a little more wary of people delivering food to your door.”
“Don’t joke about it!” I laughed as I swatted him lightly. “Just get it here soon, I’m starving!”
Brian smiled as he pulled out his phone and called in the order, then he turned and pulled me back into his arms and we stood holding each other for a long time.
*****
When the food arrived, the knock on the door startled us both. We’d been standing in the middle of the room with our arms around each other, appreciating the silence and the feel of our bodies pressed together. I could smell Brian’s cologne, and mixed with my perfume and our sweat, and nothing had ever smelled better—except maybe the pizza Brian had ordered.
We dug into the huge pizza and ate with gusto. It felt like a whole other lifetime since we’d eaten, and maybe it had been. We were the same people that we’d been that morning, and yet, totally different now. I looked at Brian as I slurped up the cheese that stretched between the dough and my mouth and wondered what he was planning to do now that he didn’t have to watch over me anymore. I wondered when my father would call and relieve him of his duties. I wondered if I’d ever see him again after tonight.
Brian smiled at me with a mouth full of cheese and pepperoni, and said, “I’m here to stay, Ava.”
“How did you know?” I asked with wide eyes.
“I don’t know, I can just hear what you’re thinking when you want to ask me something,” he shrugged.
“You can read my thoughts?” I blurted out.
“No, not like I can read your mind,” he laughed. “I can just tell when you’re thinking something that you want to ask me and you are afraid to put the question into words.”
“I’m not sure I like that,” I said darkly. After all the fear and hiding I’d had to do with Dominic, I wasn’t sure if I wanted a man in my life who thought he could read my thoughts. I wasn’t sure if that was a safe thing.
“I promise that I’ll always use my powers for good,” he swore as he raised his right hand and looked straight into my eyes.
“Alright, then…” I said, not quite convinced, but appreciative of the gesture. “So, what are you going to do next?”
“I have no idea,” he laughed. “I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“Will you be leaving?” I asked hesitantly.
“Do you want me to stay?” he replied. I looked at him and wondered if I did. Did I want him to stay with me? What would that mean? What would he do? We couldn’t live here in my dorm room, but was I ready to move in with him? The questions came tumbling one after another. “Ava, I’m not asking if you want to marry me or even move in with me, I’m simply asking if you’d like it if I stayed.”
“I think I would,” I whispered softly as I looked down at my plate. “I would like that very much.”
“Then it’s settled, I’m staying,” he announced. I smiled and took another bite of my pizza, and chewed slowly as I looked over at the handsome man sitting next to me. The one who had saved my life and was now willing to stay in a small college town to be near me.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly.
“For what?” he asked as he tipped his head and gave me a confused look.
“For the email I sent and not telling you what I was doing, and…” I trailed off, embarrassed and unsure of how to say what I wanted to say. “And for saying all of those things about you when I was trying to distract Dominic while I was hoping that you’d wake up. I know you heard me, and…I’m sorry.”
“Oh, Ava,” Brian smiled as he put down his plate and turned toward me. He raised his hand and stroked my cheek gently as he spoke, “I didn’t believe a word of what you were saying. I knew you were trying to do whatever you could to save us all. Besides, I’ve heard far worse things said about myself and in situations that were far less stressful! No apologies necessary.”
“Oh good, I felt awful saying those things,” I explained. “But I had no idea what else to do to give you time to wake up and to keep Dominic from killing us all.”
“I heard what he said to you,” Brian said with a serious look on his face. “Are you okay?”
“Who me? I’m fine!” I laughed uneasily. “I’m just fine…”
“Ava, it’s okay not to be fine,” he said gently as he opened his arms and waited for me to find my way into them. I looked up at him as tears began to well up, and then sunk into his embrace.
“I was so scared,” I whispered into his chest. “I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared in my whole life.”
“I know, me either,” he confided. “I was terrified of what he was going to do to you and the others, and that I wouldn’t be able to stop him.”
I nodded and buried my face in his chest as he gently rubbed my back, and as he did, the gravity of the day sunk in, and I began to cry.
“Shhh, shhh,” Brian soothed as he stroked my hair and held me close. “It’s all going to be okay. I’m not going to leave you.”
“But what happens when my father lets you go?” I sobbed. “You won’t be able to stay here with me!”
At that moment, Brian’s phone rang, and he let go with one arm to answer the call. He listened for a while and then said, “Yes, sir. No, sir. No, sir. Yes, sir. I will, sir. Thank you, sir,” and hung up.
“Well, that just answered your question,” he smiled. “That was your father, and he’s decided that I should stay on as your personal bodyguard until the end of school year. The police commissioner called him and told him what happened, and he decided it was better to be safe than sorry. He’s also decided to move you out of the dorm into an apartment where I can keep a better eye on you. The movers will be here tomorrow to pack you up and move your things. I’m to oversee the move.”
I stared at him for a moment and then burst out laughing. “You and my father have conspired against me!”
“No, I swear I had no idea what he was going to do!” Brian said as he held up his hands in a defensive gesture.
I considered him for a moment. On one hand, I resented the idea that my father was, again, going to dictate where I lived and what I did, but on the other hand, I was going to get to have Brian in my life on a permanent basis. I wasn’t sure if I should be mad at the two of them or grateful for my good fortune. As I looked at Brian, thought about all we’d been through in such a short time and how safe I felt with him, I opted for grateful.
“Well, if the movers are coming tomorrow, then this is our last night here,” I smiled as I gazed into his beautiful blue eyes.
“Indeed it is,” he replied as he smiled back at me. “What do you say we do something to commemorate it?”
“I think that’s a wonderful idea, Mr. Flynn,” I murmured as he leaned in.
He softly brushed his lips across mine as he reached out to pull me to him. He stopped and we both laughed when we realized that I was still holding a piece of half-eaten pizza. I set it down and melted into his arms as we kissed.
Brian wrapped his arms tightly around me and pulled me against his chest as I cupped his face with my hands and felt the prickly stubble that had sprung up on his cheeks. His lips tasted warm and salty, and I giggled a little when he pulled back and whispered, “Mmmm, you taste like pizza!”
For a long time we sat on the couch kissing as our hands roamed over each other’s clothed bodies, but as our desire grew stronger, this wasn’t enough. Abruptly, Brian pulled away and stood up, and I couldn’t hide my disappointment when I realized he was stopping the action, so I looked away. Seconds later, I let out a small scream as Brian bent over and scooped me up in his arms.
“You didn’t think I was going to leave you here, did you?” he smiled as I wrapped my arms around his neck and laid my head on his shoulder.
“I wasn’t sure,” I whispered. “And I didn’t want to be disappointed.”
“Ava, look at me,” he said seriously. I lifted my head from his shoulder and looked into his eyes. “I’m going to do everything in my power to never, ever disappoint you. Not ever.”
In response, I nodded and planted a soft kiss on his lips. He lowered me onto the bed and then stood back as he slowly removed his T-shirt and undid his jeans, letting them fall to the floor. I sat up and started tugging on my shirt, but he pushed my hands away and said, “No, let me do it.” His hands were gentle as he pushed my shirt up my torso and then pulled it over my head, and I saw him wince as his eyes scanned the bruises that Dominic had left.
“Do they hurt?” he asked as he ran his fingers over the marks that mottled my skin.
“Not yet. That’ll come tomorrow,” I replied, knowing that the worst would be the next morning, when I would feel the full impact of the blows.
He leaned forward and lightly brushed his lips across the worst of the bruises as he gently pulled my skirt down and dropped it on the floor. He quickly added my panties to the growing pile of discarded clothing as he lay down next to me.
His hands roamed my naked body as we slowly kissed, and I could feel his hardness pressed against my thigh. My body responded to his touch as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and before long, I felt him spreading my thighs and slipping his fingers into my wetness. I gasped as he slowly slid them up and down, lightly stroking my clit, and then dragging them down to tease me a little before sliding back up again.
In retaliation, I reached out and ran my hand across the tip of his cock, coating it in the pre-cum that covered it. Then I wrapped my hand around his girth and began stroking it slowly. Now it was his turn to gasp. I smiled as I whispered, “Two can play that game, Mr. SEAL.”
“Can they, now?” Brian laughed as he pushed two fingers up into my tight, wet pussy and heard me inhale sharply. We lay there watching each other as our hands got lost in the playground of our bodies.
Suddenly, Brian withdrew his fingers, wrapped his arms around me, and rolled over on his back, pulling me on top of him so that I was forced to let go of my hold on his cock. He quickly positioned me so that the tip of it was pressing up against my wet opening, and then kissed me deeply as he slowly slid inside me. I felt like I was melting as his cock filled my pussy, and I moaned softly into his lips as he pushed the entire length inside. He stopped and waited, letting me feel the fullness before he began slowly pulling back out and leaving just the tip of his swollen member inside me.
I kissed him harder as I tried to make him push back up, but he held his ground and waited.
“Oh Brian, please?” I begged. “Please! Please!”
“Please what,” he said through gritted teeth as he kept me from slamming myself down onto him.
“Please! I need it!” I cried as I wriggled in his grasp.
“What do you need, Ava? Tell me,” he urged.
“I need it! I need your cock! Please!” I begged more desperately. “God, take me! Now!”
Hearing those words spurred him to action, and Brian slammed his hips up against mine as he buried his cock inside me. I cried out as I felt him enter me fast and hard, and then began pushing against him as we tried to find a rhythm that would match the desire we felt. He thrust up again and again and I met him more than halfway as I tried to drive him deeper and deeper inside of me. I wrapped my arms around him, and as I slammed down, I heard him groan. We’d found our rhythm, and frantically rode it until both of us were on the edge of an intense orgasm.
Brian had somehow worked his hand between our two bodies, and was firmly stroking my clit in a way that made my pussy pulse around his cock. I’d never felt anything like it, and I briefly wondered if I would pass out when I came. The thought left my mind as quickly as it had arrived, and suddenly, I was hurtling over the edge of a cliff as I moaned his name. The orgasm shook my body, and I felt him join me as we both flew into the abyss together.
Many minutes later I heard Brian whisper something in my ear, but my pulse was still pounding in my brain and I couldn’t hear him. I lifted my head and lightly kissed his lips before I gave him a questioning look.
“I’m so sorry, Ava,” he whispered as he bent forward and pressed his forehead to my chest. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” I reassured him. “This isn’t your fault.”
“It is my fault,” he said. “I was supposed to protect you and keep you safe and I failed.”
“No, you didn’t,” I objected. “There was no way for you to have known what Dominic was doing!”
“I tried to keep tabs on him at all times,” Brian admitted. “All those texts were from a couple of the frat brothers I’d had following him and Cheese. I tried to keep him under surveillance, but we lost him.”
“So that explains the obsessive texting all the time!” I laughed. “I thought it was a new girlfriend.”
“A new girlfriend?” he said with a smile as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me tightly against him. “Why would I want a new girlfriend when I’ve got all I ever wanted right here in my arms?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
TEACHER’S PET
By Claire Adams
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 Claire Adams
Chapter One
Tessa
I didn’t think there was ever a time in my life when I had been more nervous.
And this all had to do with a paper.
Well, really it was the grade that was going to be on the paper, and as I sat there, waiting, I tried to convince myself that everything was going to be okay, that I had done well enough on the assignment to get at least an A. Because that’s what I needed: an A.
My palms were sweating, and my heart was beating fast, like I’d drank too much coffee on an empty stomach. My stomach, in fact, was all clenched in knots, and I was having trouble sitting still in my seat. I tried to take deep, calming breaths like they told us to in yoga class, but taking deep, calming breaths is difficult to do when your whole chest feels like it is in a vice. Professor Rochman had given Kristin, the teaching assistant, half the papers to return, and he had the other half. It was probably random, who had which papers, but my mind for some reason latched onto the idea that if Professor Rochman handed mine back to me, it would be good news. And that good news could only come in one form: an A.
“I was mostly quite pleased with the effort shown in these articles,” he said. “Most of you showed that not only have you been paying attention in the past month’s lectures, but you’ve been applying the principles we’ve been learning to the work you do out in the field.”
My best friend, Lindsey, sat next to me, chewing on the cap of her pen, not even paying attention. She wasn’t in this class because she was interested in journalism; rather, she was here because she’d heard the professor was hot and not a curmudgeon like a lot of the faculty here at Benton College were.
And Professor Rochman was hot—call me Leo, he’d said on the first day of class, but that was so weird. I couldn’t call him Leo; I’d never been on a first-name basis with a teacher before. None of the other students seemed to have a problem with it, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
He was getting closer to us, and I felt my heart rate accelerate. My GPA had slipped below a 3.5, and my parents would be infuriated if it remained there. Subpar performance was simply unacceptable to them, and up until this point in my life, I’d always gotten straight As. I had just assumed that going into my junior year at college, things would be the same, but then I’d made the mistake of falling in love. Well, I thought it was love, but it really turned out to be a big disaster. His name was Nick Sanders and he was one of the stars of Benton’s basketball team, a total jock, not the sort of person I ever would have dated, but we ended up sitting next to each other in an American politics lecture and it just sort of went from there. It was great, until it wasn’t, and I’d found myself totally caught off guard when he told me that he didn’t think we should hang out anymore. I didn’t think that I’d done anything wrong, or that anything had changed between us since the last time we’d hung out and everything seemed great, and it had taken its toll on my schoolwork. Only in the past month or so had I been able to wake up and not find myself thinking about him first thing in the morning, but it was still difficult to see him around campus, to know that he probably hadn’t given me a second thought.
And now here I was, behind in most of my classes, all because of some stupid guy.
There was more than just my GPA at stake. I did not take it for granted that my parents were paying my tuition, and they were also paying for my car and for me to live in a small apartment in the city, as opposed to the dorms, because they thought living by myself would not just get me out of the party atmosphere, but would also help me become more independent. My father transferred a monthly stipend into my account, which I could use for groceries, utilities, and any other expenses that cropped up. Unlike many of my classmates, I didn’t have to eat in the cafeteria, I hadn’t needed to take out any loans, and I didn’t have to try to juggle a part-time job on top of my studies.
The one condition of this, though, was that I maintain a 4.0 GPA.
If only I hadn’t gotten involved with Nick, this wouldn’t even be an issue. But I had, and on more than one occasion I’d put off studying or doing my homework to hang out with him, because the whole experience was thrilling. Here I was, dating a popular guy, a guy that other girls around campus were interested in, yet he had wanted to be with me. I still occasionally thought back to that time, marveling at the fact that it had even happened in the first place, except those memories always ended with me recalling how unceremoniously he had dropped me.
Professor Rochman was heading my direction, and I felt my heart lighten, and relief begin to flood me as he paused right in front of us. I even went so far as to lift my arm, palm up, to receive the paper he was about to hand back to me, but he handed it to Lindsey instead. He glanced at my outstretched palm like I was some panhandler he’d encountered on the street, and then kept walking. A few seconds later, Kristin appeared, dropping my paper down in front of me. She was average height and very thin, with blunt-cut, shoulder length brown hair and big brown eyes that sort of reminded me of a basset hound’s. She looked at me with those eyes but didn’t say anything. I looked down at the paper.
A C+. A big, red C+, right there on the front of the paper, like an angry slash, a blood stain, a symbol of doom.
“Shit,” I whispered.
“How’d you do?” Lindsey asked, leaning over, peering at my paper. “Oh,” she said when she saw the mark. She quickly flipped her own paper over, but not before I caught sight of the A- scrawled across the top.
Professor Rochman and Kristin had finished handing back all the papers, and he was saying something now to the class, but I couldn’t really hear what it was; his voice was distorted, like he was talking underwater.
“It’s okay, Tessa,” Lindsey said quickly. “It’s not like you got an F. C is average. So you got a C+. That’s better than average!”
She smiled, but I could tell that she felt bad for me. She knew what my parents were like. Unlike her parents, who didn’t seem to care what her GPA was, my parents were not going to be happy to hear about this. Part of me wanted to just keep it quiet, to resolve to get nothing but A-pluses on all my remaining assignments, but I didn’t even know if that would be possible. I didn’t have another choice; I would have to tell my parents.