CHAPTER FOURTEEN
KYLE
Facing The Truth
†
STOPPING WAS THE FURTHEST thing from my mind, but hearing her cry out when I took her nipple into my mouth was enough to jerk me back to reality.
I’d to consciously force myself to stop. I knew I was nearing the point of no return and needed to put an end to it even if she begged me not to. She was so fucking intoxicating; I literally tore myself away from her, stepping back to put some space between us.
We were both breathing heavily, chests heaving. I could see the want… the unbridled need in her eyes, begging me to finish what I’ve started.
You cannot do this! Not like this, Kyle!
I restrained myself to move forward and draw her close again. I watched to see her confused expression change to one of disappointment, her eyes drifting shut.
She thought I didn’t want her and that was enough to make me push reason aside and pull her into my arms again, reassuring her that she had it all wrong. What she assumed was far from the truth. God, if she only knew!
If I’d continued, it would’ve been her first time making love, and I was not that much of a bastard to take her in anger. She needed to give herself to me freely. To be honest, I wanted her… no, needed her to do just that.
I leaned back slightly, placing my hands on either side of her face, tilting it upwards… her cheeks still flushed and warm against my touch. She needed to look me in the eye when I explained it to her.
“I know you don’t remember much about last night, Eris, but you were pretty out of it. But you did say a lot of things when you woke up at one point. A lot of it didn’t make much sense… you were drunk and disorientated. But some of it did make sense.”
Uncertainty mixed with what I could only describe as fear flashed in her eyes.
“What? What did I say that would want you to stop?” she whispered, frowning.
“Sweetheart, you told me you’re still a virgin…”
She froze under my touch, stiffening. “Oh… I see,” she whimpered. I could see that she was taking my hesitation as a sign of rejection. She pulled my hands away from her face, pushing me aside as she turned her body to jump off the counter. I allowed her. Turning back towards me, she was avoiding eye contact, pushing the toes of one of her bare feet into the floor, her arms hugging her body in a soothing gesture.
She looked so vulnerable and innocent standing there like that, it nearly took the life from me.
“Eris,” I said softly, reaching for her as I took a step forward.
“No, you don’t need to explain,” she backed away from me, raising her one hand, her palm facing forward. “I mean I understand. You’re into more experienced women, and you’re not into… well … women like me. It’s fine… really,” she said; her voice reached a slightly higher pitch as she finished.
“Eris, stop. Listen to me. That is not it at all. Fuck, if you only knew how wrong you are for even thinking that.”
“Then why did you stop?” she asked; her eyes pleading for an explanation.
I reached out to her again, taking another step forward, “Let’s sit down and talk this through.”
“No, don’t touch me, and I don’t want to talk about this anymore. It’s simple, Kyle, I get it so let’s just drop it, okay.”
Goddammit! This is not the way I saw this going.
I stepped forward again, my patience wearing thin. “We’re going to sit down now and discuss this like adults, so stop behaving like a child,” I said sternly, careful not to raise my voice.
“Oh well, you didn’t think I was a child a few minutes ago,” she snickered.
“Eris…,” I breathed, my voice restrained. “Look, I am very aware of what happened between us just now, trust me. And I’m not regretting it for one second.”
Her interest peaked.
“You went through a hell of an ordeal last night, and it could’ve turned out very ugly, and very different to what you might have thought or wanted it to be. But one guy taking advantage of you is enough and I’m not going to add to…”
She frowned at my last statement. “Wait. What do you mean?” she interjected.
Shit! I needed to move slowly now.
“Ray…”
“Jay,” she corrected me.
“Jay…”
The spineless piece of shit!
“… I saw him slipping you a roofie when I was standing at the bar. That was the main reason why you lost consciousness and fainted. That was why you were so out of it and why you cannot remember most of what happened last night.”
Her eyes squinted as she tilted her head forward in stunned disbelief.
“What? This can’t be true… and how did you know that he had done something like that?”
I couldn’t believe that she was actually trying to defend Ray… Jay… or whatever the fuck his name was… questioning what I said… but it was no time for me to get defensive.
I steadied myself, taking my time to explain, “I was at the bar, paying for our drinks. He was standing a way in front of me ordering you a drink. That’s when I saw him slip the drug into the glass before he handed it to you.” I cringed at the mere thought of him all over her, touching her the way he did, but I didn’t feel it necessary to tell her everything I saw. “It wasn’t difficult to put two and two together to figure out what the hell he was up to. Just think about it, honey. After that last drink… wasn’t that when you started feeling really bad?”
I could see her mind racing, trying frantically to fit the puzzle pieces together and make sense of it all. Her eyes were scanning my face as if she was looking for a sign that would give her reason not to believe me.
I kept silent, waiting for my words to settle in.
“You’re right, Kyle. Thinking about it, it does makes sense,” she whispered nodding her head slowly, still frowning. “I know I had a lot to drink, believe me. But to suddenly feel so sluggish and disorientated… It does make sense.” I kept on waiting. She needed to see the truth in her own time.
And then it happened.
Her eyes shot up brimming with tears, echoing the depth of emotion that the realization evoked within her.
“Oh, my God, Kyle! What would he have done to me if you weren’t there? If you hadn’t seen?”
It was as if a wave hit her in full force. She covered her mouth with both her hands, tears now spilling onto her cheeks. “Oh, my God!” she cried against her fingers. She stepped towards me.
I met her halfway, my arms ready to enfold her. She buried her face in my chest, her hands grabbing fist-full of T-shirt material as she clung to me, sobbing.
My arms moved up immediately, embracing her, drawing her close, as if to shield her from the horror of what she had just come to realize.
“Don’t think about it Eris… don’t let your mind go there, sweetheart,” I whispered against her ear, comforting her. I held her tight as she cried softly.