Authors: Michelle Betham
‘It was seven years ago, Reece…’
‘I said I didn’t want to hear you talk, didn’t you fucking hear me?’
‘Michael?’ Layla asked, a small hint of panic creeping into her voice.
‘Is… is this true?’
‘Of course it’s fucking true!’
Reece almost spat the words out, looking briefly over at Layla before turning his attention back to Michael.
‘And it doesn’t matter
when
it happened, it happened.
You did that, you raped my beautiful daughter and you expect me to leave it alone because it happened seven years ago?
You really think I can do that?
Huh?’
‘Please, Reece, we can talk about this…’
‘Talk?
What the fuck can you possibly think I want to talk about?’
Michael pulled himself upright, steadying himself against the banister as Layla continued to stare at him, watching what was going on, confusion washing over her like a tidal wave.
‘I don’t understand…’ she whispered, feeling tears prick the back of her eyes, blinking furiously to try and stop them from falling.
‘Michael… did you…?’
Michael looked at her, his heart breaking in that all-too-familiar fashion but he wasn’t altogether sure who it was breaking for – the woman who stood here in front of him, this beautiful woman who’d been willing to take him back, despite everything he’d done to her?
Or the woman he knew he could never live without.
India
Walsh.
His obsession; his life.
‘Oh, Jesus,’ Layla gasped, her hand flying to her mouth, her voice shaking.
‘You
raped
India
?’
‘Layla, honey, I can explain…’
Reece threw his head back, letting out a loud, cynical laugh.
‘You can
explain
?’
He moved closer to Michael, his voice slow and steady.
‘My daughter should never have gone anywhere near you.’
‘I loved her, Reece.
You have no idea how much… And I don’t know what made me do what I did…’
‘You don’t know why you
raped
her?’
Layla couldn’t stop the tears from falling any longer as small, sharp sobs wracked her body and as much as Reece wanted to run to her and comfort her and tell her to get the hell out while she still could, he wasn’t finished.
He still had work to do.
Layla now knew the truth about the man she professed to love; it was up to her what she did with that information.
‘I should kill you, for what you did to her.
And believe me, I want to.
More than you could fucking imagine, but that’s just not me.
I’m not some fucking monster.
And where would that get me anyway, huh?’
‘You have no idea how sorry…’
Reece laughed that laugh again, more than surprised at how calm and in control he felt in a situation that could go any way at any given moment.
But he could handle this.
‘Sorry?
You’re fucking
sorry
?
You ruined my daughter’s life, Walsh.
You got inside her head and you refused to let go and that’s killing her, do you realise that?
It’s fucking killing her.’
‘Reece, please…’
Layla’s voice caused Reece to break his stare from Michael for a second, and as he turned around he found himself looking at yet another woman who’d been hurt at the hands of this man, her pretty face stained with tears that were now streaming down her cheeks.
‘Can’t you give… give him a chance to explain?
I mean,
India
she… she’s moved on, hasn’t she?
She… she’s with Dominic now…’
Reece continued to stare at Layla.
‘She’s with Dominic,’ he repeated slowly, looking down at the ground for a second, scuffing his shoe on the marble floor, his hands pushed deep into his pockets.
He looked back up at Layla.
‘Yeah.
She’s with Dominic.
But, you see, I’ve got a problem with
that
relationship too.’
He turned his attention back to Michael who’d managed to gather himself together, looking calmer than he really felt as he leant back against the wall.
‘When she found out he was your son, she ran, didn’t she?
She ran from the situation, she left it behind, knew she couldn’t stay with him because of who he was.
But then she came back.
She came back and she took
him
back, and do you know why
I
think she did that?’
Michael just stared at Reece, no words seemingly able to come out of his mouth anymore.
He just felt out of it, dizzy, as though all of this was happening to someone else and he was just watching everything from a safe distance.
‘She did that because it was the closest she could get to
you
without actually taking
you
back.
Don’t you see that?’
‘That isn’t my fault,’ Michael whispered, suddenly feeling light-headed, a tightness creeping across his chest that hadn’t been there before.
‘Of course it’s
your
fucking fault!’ Reece was aware that he was shouting again and he pushed a hand through his hair, trying to regain the calm composure he’d managed to hang onto for so long during this confrontation.
‘It’s
your
fault because you dragged her in so deep that she couldn’t let you go, she couldn’t leave you alone.
You wouldn’t fucking let her…’
Michael closed his eyes for a second, the tightness he’d felt before now giving way to a sharp pain that seemed to travel from his chest to his left arm, causing him to feel breathless, a sudden, uncharacteristic feeling of anxiety sweeping over him.
He felt a strange mixture of just wanting to go to sleep tinged with this pain that seemed to be taking over, Reece’s voice now almost fading into the distance.
‘But she won’t go back to you, Michael.
I see that now, I know that’ll never happen, no matter how deluded you might be to think otherwise.
She’ll never go back to you, but she’s damn well going to have the next best thing – your fucking son.’
‘He’s… not… my… he’s not my… my son…’
Michael’s breath was catching in this throat, making it harder to get the words out, his eyes losing focus as a pain like a heavy weight being thrown against his chest almost winded him, causing him to slide to the floor.
Layla immediately ran over to him, crouching down beside him.
‘Michael?
Michael… can you hear me?
Michael!’
‘Pain…’
He couldn’t get the words out; he couldn’t find the energy to speak.
Every movement was taking a strength he just didn’t have anymore.
Layla looked up at Reece who immediately pulled out his phone, calmly dialling the number Vince had given them all in case of emergencies – of any kind – turning his back as he spoke to security.
‘Reece…?’
He turned back around, taking in Layla’s pleading eyes as she clung onto Michael’s hand – another beautiful young woman who’d been sucked under the spell of a man Reece could find little pity with.
‘Paramedics are on their way,’ Reece said, that calm manner still very much evident as he crouched down to their level, looking at Michael as he struggled for breath, gripping Layla’s hand.
‘You’re going to be fine, Michael.’
‘Is he?’ Layla asked, panic now very much evident in her voice.
‘How the hell do you know that, huh?
You walk in here, accusing him of all sorts…
You
did this to him.
You
did this!’
Reece stood back up, saying nothing, putting his hands back in his pockets as he walked outside to wait for the paramedics.
He had nothing to feel guilty about.
He had nothing to feel sorry for.
If anything, in Reece’s eyes, this was only payback that a man like Michael Walsh had had coming for a long, long time.
***
India
breathed in deep as Dominic once more pushed his way into her with a beautiful force that shook her body with a warm, tingling shiver, every inch of her giving in to him, because that’s what he did to her.
He left her no choice.
One touch and she was under that spell that only men in the Walsh family seemed able to cast – although she still wasn’t entirely sure if this particular man she was making love with now knew that he was doing it, whereas his famous father almost certainly did.
Banishing yet more thoughts of Michael to the back of her mind she closed her eyes and threw her head back, letting Dominic take over.
The feel of his lips on her skin coaxed little moans and gasps out of her, his fingers stroking her breasts gently before replacing his fingers with his mouth, which only served to make
India
cry out more.
What he could do to her with just one kiss, one touch of his mouth against hers, it was crazy!
‘I think I might be falling in love with you, Mr Movie Star,’ she groaned, wrapping her legs around him, pushing him in deeper, throwing her arms above her head as she stretched out.
Dominic looked at her, stroking the hair from her eyes, wanting to look into them when he heard her say that again, because he needed to know that she’d meant it.
‘You
might
?’ he smiled, which caused India’s stomach to turn a million and one back flips as she stared into his ice-blue eyes.
‘You think you
might
?’
She threw her head back and laughed, gripping him tight, keeping him firmly inside her because they were nowhere near finished here and she wanted to know he was very much a part of her when she told him words that she’d previously found so hard to say to him.
Words that seemed to come so easy all of a sudden.
Had it taken just one more dose of Dominic MacDonald to make her realise how she really felt?
His fingers stroked her hip gently as his mouth lowered down onto hers, their bodies still moving together in that crazy, sexy rhythm as an air of inevitability surrounded them.
This was the final straight, they were almost home.
A conclusion was drawing ever closer.
‘So, you think you might be falling in love with me, huh?’ Dominic whispered, his mouth resting on hers, his breath warm on her face.
She reached out to touch his cheek, running her fingertips over it, smiling as she felt him move inside her – this man who’d crashed into her life with a secret he should never have kept to himself, but none of that seemed to matter anymore.
‘Yeah.
I think I might be falling in love with you.’
He smiled again, sending
India
’s stomach into the now seemingly-obligatory somersault routine that appeared to be ever-present whenever he was around.
‘Well, I
know
I love
you
, Ms Queen-of-the-Rom-Com.’
She laughed again, arching her back as he pushed deeper into her, sending her body into a wonderfully warm spasm of white hot pain, his final release one they felt with a force that rocked them both.
‘Jesus!
That was five minutes
really
well spent,’
India
breathed, closing her eyes for a second as Dominic slowly withdrew, rolling over to lie next to her.
‘You weren’t so bad yourself, beautiful,’ he grinned, reaching out to take her hand, his fingers closing around hers.
She turned her head to look at him, sticking her tongue out.
‘Y’know, that’s a hell of a lot sexier than you might think,’ Dominic laughed, pulling her over onto him, watching her every move as she knelt up astride him, her naked body toned to within an inch of its life, as near perfect as any he’d ever seen.
‘Marry me,
India
.’
The words had come out before he’d even had a chance to think about whether or not this was the right time – which it probably wasn’t.
He was met with a wall of silence.
She said nothing, turning away from him to stare out of the window.
‘
India
…?’
She climbed off him, hurriedly pulling on her clothes, shaking her hair out before pulling it back into a high ponytail.
‘I heard what you said, Dominic.’
He jumped out of bed, pulling on his jeans.
‘And?’
He walked over to her, reaching out to take her hand and she let him, but she didn’t look at him.
She was staring out of the window again.