“A man broke into the house and raped me. It was awful. It was terrible. I was so scared.”
“Jesus,” he said.
She smiled.
CHRIST. HER TEARS TURNED HIS HEART OVER. SHE HAD KNOWN IT
was him, hadn’t she? Hell. Yes. She must have. He wasn’t wearing a mask. She’d seen his face.
Except that he’d made her keep her back to him. Until he was on top of her on the bed. She’d seen him then. But it was fairly dark, only streetlight illuminating the room. Dammit, she should have at least known his voice.
“Did he hurt you, cut you, hit you?” Of course, that’s what he’d ask first. But this couldn’t be real.
“Just because he didn’t hit me or cut me doesn’t mean he
didn’t hurt me,” she said harshly, sniffing. “He made me have sex with him. He
raped
me, Rand.” She sobbed.
“Did you call the police?” That would be the second thing he’d want to know. If this were real.
“No. I can’t let anyone else know about this.”
“But he could come back.”
She sniffed again. “I know.”
There was something in her voice, a sly note of seduction. She was playing him, probably paying him back for that first moment when she thought it was all real. Hell, he was going to play right back at her.
“Tell me what happened, everything. I have to know if he hurt you.”
“I went out for groceries, and when I got back, he was hiding on the porch, and after I unlocked the door, he pushed me inside.”
“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry.”
“He closed the door, then he made me take off my shirt and my shoes. That’s when I elbowed him in the stomach and tried to run away.”
Yeah, she’d given him a hell of a jab. But it was deserved. “Did you run for the back door?”
“No. I wouldn’t have made it. I tried to lock myself in the bedroom, but I couldn’t get the door closed before he shoved his foot in.” Her speech was fast, her voice breathy, and she was making him hot all over again. He gave her a comforting sound, urging her to go on. “Then he was all over me on the bed, Rand. He tore off my clothes, squeezed my breasts, then touched me between my legs.” She stopped, waited.
She wanted something from him. What? Funnily enough, he couldn’t remember the exact details as to when he’d done what. “Did he hurt you then?”
“Rand, you’re going to be mad,” she whispered.
“I promise not to be. Just tell me. It’ll be all right.”
“I was very wet, Rand.”
He was suddenly marble hard in his jeans. She had such a sweet, sexy voice, low, seductive. “You naughty girl. Don’t tell me you actually liked it.”
“I didn’t want to, Rand. But he was so big and manly, so powerful. I couldn’t help it. There he was between my legs, and I just got so wet.”
“You are bad. So you let him fuck you.”
“No. I didn’t. Honestly. I still fought him. He was holding my arms over my head, and he had his fingers between my legs, and he told me he was going to fuck me.”
He slouched back in his chair. Oh yeah, he remembered. She’d made him so fucking hard with her struggles. Her skin was like silk, her pussy wet, her clit plump and begging for it.
“He took his cock out of his jeans.” There was a note of reverence in her voice. “He was so big. I actually salivated, Rand. I couldn’t help it.”
“You wanted that cock bad, didn’t you?”
“Yes. You just can’t know how much I wanted to reach out, touch him, then suck him.”
“Oh, you need to be punished for that.”
“But I didn’t do it, Rand. I swear it.”
God, he wished she had. Though what had happened was just as fucking good.
“Then, when he tried to put on the condom, that’s when I rammed him again and ran out.”
“Thank God, baby, you got away.”
“He caught me in the hallway.” She stopped for two beats. “He fucked me doggy style right there in my own hallway.”
“Jesus.” He could still feel her pussy gripping him, taking him even as he took her, the cool darkness of the hallway around them.
“I liked it, Rand,” she whispered. “I loved it. He fucked me, and I screamed with how good it was.”
“You dirty bitch.” He could barely breathe. She’d turned him inside out.
“He called me names, and I loved it.”
“You are so fucking bad.”
“You know what else, Rand?” she said on a mere breath.
“No, tell me.”
“I’m going to fuck him again.”
Then she was gone, only blank space left on his cell.
Jesus. She had him. He was hers. He jerked off in the dark of his bedroom and came almost as hard as he had inside her house, inside her.
TUESDAY MORNING, NATHAN HAD GROWLED AT HER WHEN SHE’D
reminded him she’d be leaving work early to make it to the basketball game at four. This Tuesday game was the last of the season. She absolutely would not miss it.
Of course Erin didn’t have a problem with her cutting out early occasionally, and she met Justin outside the middle school. She’d wanted to include him in the outing, too. They crossed the street to Nathan’s high school, heading back through the maze of hallways to the gymnasium. It was an open campus, shaped like a wheel, the quad in the center, the gym on the far side, and all the classroom buildings fanning out like the spokes of a wheel. Students still mingled in small groups, others dashing past. Music from band practice floated out through an open door as they passed. The musicians were pretty darn good.
Everywhere, Rachel kept an eye out for Rand. She’d worn butt-hugging jeans to work this morning, with a red T-shirt tight over her breasts and a short black blazer. Bree had smiled knowingly, Erin hadn’t said anything, but Yvonne had given her a long
up-and-down perusal. Whatever. If she saw Rand, Rachel wanted to look sexy and hip, not like some dowdy old mom.
She was still reeling from Saturday night. The sex was hot, the phone sex afterward exciting. They’d crossed another line. He’d been in her house. He was the principal; he’d probably looked up her address. She wouldn’t put it past him to figure out where she worked, too. But she for damn sure knew he’d be in her house again. He’d turned her inside out and all around. She wasn’t giving him up. If she could have gotten away with it, she’d have unlatched the bedroom screen and let him sneak in to ravish her while the boys slept. She wanted it that bad. She couldn’t risk them catching her at it, though. How would she explain? She needed to keep Rand her secret, with no one to judge her. This wasn’t like the masseur; she knew what Gary would say. She wasn’t going to listen.
Rand had called her Monday night. She hadn’t answered. Part of it was feminine wiles. Keep him guessing as to what was going on in her mind. The other part was Nathan. She had to think of him, to put the boys first and her own needs second.
But the minute she dropped them off at Gary’s on Sunday, Rand Torvik better watch out.
Justin was talking. She suddenly tuned back in. “He thinks it’s embarrassing you’re coming to games he’s not even playing in,” Justin said. “Like you’re checking up on him.”
Her youngest son could be a fountain of information. He wasn’t a tattletale so much as a talker. She wanted to say she
was
checking up on Nathan, but communication was two-way, and she didn’t think Nathan needed to hear that.
“You’re not going to pull that crap with me, are you, Mom?”
She stopped on the edge of the quad. “First, I am not checking up on Nathan, and second, I will make a concerted effort to attend as many of your soccer games as I can. I was remiss this year. It’s not
checking up
, it’s being involved.”
Justin shrugged. “I don’t care whether you’re involved. I’d rather know I’ve got meat loaf to come home to for dinner.”
Rachel laughed. “You and your stomach, that’s all that counts.”
She ruffled his hair. He didn’t pull away. He was so different from Nathan. She wouldn’t say more mature, just less sensitive. He didn’t seem to care what other kids thought of him. Or maybe it was safer to say that he was picky about whose opinion he valued. He didn’t choose friends based on their popularity at school. She didn’t know why he was that way. Her mother claimed that children’s personalities were determined in the womb and the first few months after birth, affected by the mood of their mother at the time. With Nathan, Rachel had been nervous, all the new-mother things a woman worried about. Would he be healthy, would he love her, was he gaining enough weight, was that cough something she needed to call the doctor about, yadda, yadda. When Justin came along, she’d been through it all and was much more mellow. She didn’t put a lot of stock in her mother’s old wives’ tales, but she had to admit Nathan was a worrier like she’d been, and Justin was pretty darn laid-back.
A low rumble of voices, feet, clapping, shouts, and cheers drifted on the breeze, getting louder as they crossed the quad to the steps leading up to the gym’s open doors.
Inside, it was chaos. She hadn’t expected the game to be so well attended, but the school had spirit. The bleachers had been pulled out from the walls on all sides, and most of the seats were full. Cheerleaders in blue and yellow outfits punched their pom-poms in the air, chanting out cheers the audience yelled along with. There were two male cheerleaders, which they certainly hadn’t had in Rachel’s day.
The two teams were out on the court warming up. The referees were checking their whistles, and the coaches were shouting last-minute instructions.
Scanning the crowd, she couldn’t find Nathan.
“There they are,” Justin shouted, grabbing her hand and pointing. Her youngest son didn’t mind touching her. She followed the line of his finger, and there was Nathan, three-quarters of the way up on the far bleachers. His expression was glum, even put-upon. Next to him sat Gary, leaning down to shout something in his ear. She hadn’t expected Gary. He’d done his duty on Friday.
On Nathan’s other side sat a pretty brunette, midtwenties, slender features, and big red lips. She put those big red lips forward, leaning across Nathan to say something to Gary. He turned as she spoke. They smiled together. Even Nathan smiled.
Dear God. The bastard had brought his girlfriend.
RACHEL FROZE, HER HAND PUNISHINGLY TIGHT AROUND JUSTIN’S
. “What’s
she
doing here?” She regretted her tone immediately, wanting nothing in her voice to communicate any emotion, but the words were out before she could stop them.
“She said she had fun on Friday night and wanted to come again sometime.” Justin rolled his eyes. “It reminded her of when she was a cheerleader.”
Which wasn’t that long ago. Rachel’s fingers felt numb, but no way was she running out. “What’s her name again?”
“Sherry.”
“How often is she over?” she asked as they made their way around to the opposite bleachers, past the flouncing cheerleaders, behind the athletes’ benches.
“Not
every
night.”
That’s illuminating
, she wanted to say, but refrained.
“She doesn’t spend the night, if that’s what you mean.”
Thank God. “I didn’t mean that.” It was exactly what she meant. “I was just curious how—” Rachel stopped herself. She
wanted to know how hot and heavy they were, how long they’d been dating, how they’d met, if they’d known each other before the divorce—way too many questions to pump her son for answers to.
Nathan saw her as they started to climb the bleachers and scowled. Then he looked at Sherry, who was practically bouncing on her seat like she wanted to join in the cheers. She was young, God, so young.
Rachel stuffed down her emotions. She would not be bitchy in front of the boys. She would not sound like a jealous woman who’d gotten dumped by her husband for a younger woman. Because really, life was better without Gary. Okay, it would be better when Nathan was no longer angry about everything.
God help her, she wished Rand was here, right here, so she could cling to his arm and beam up at him, and watch Gary’s face pale because he was so much less of a man.
Stop the madness!
Her head ached with all the noise.
Then Justin was sidling past Sherry, Nathan, and Gary, and sitting down in a vacant spot. Rachel had two choices, push past all of them, too, or sit on the end next to Sherry.
“Hi,” the girl said brightly, holding out her hand. “You must be Rachel.”
Duh.
She was looking at Sherry’s hand like it was a bug to be squashed. How terribly embarrassing the whole situation was. Why the hell hadn’t Gary said something? They’d talked civilly on Sunday, and he hadn’t said a thing about leaving work early on Tuesday to attend the game. He’d done it for
Sherry
, because she’d had
fun
. Yet he’d groused when he’d had to take time off to go to the principal’s office with his ex-wife. Rachel gave a mental groan. She needed to stop her runaway thoughts.
She was forced to sit next to the girl. “You must be Sherry,” she said, her voice sounding sickeningly sweet even to her. “It’s nice to meet you.” She was going to throw up.
Sherry’s T-shirt was tighter, the neckline lower cut, and though she was slimmer, her breasts were much larger. They were disgustingly pert, the breasts of a young woman who’d never had children. Her dark hair cascaded luxuriously over her shoulders. She wore sandals despite the fact that it was still winter, with a toe ring on each foot, a diamond glittering in one.
“I hope you don’t mind that I asked Gary to bring me again. We just had so much fun on Friday.” Sherry tapped Nathan’s knee. “Didn’t we?”
He nodded.
“Hi, sweetie,” Rachel said over the din.
Nathan nodded again but didn’t say anything. Well, at least she and Sherry got the same reaction: silence.
“Nathan’s going to try out for the team next year,” Sherry said, as if Rachel wasn’t his mother and didn’t know. “He’s watching all the teams and the strong players and all that stuff, so he’s really prepared this time.”
Nathan had told all that to Sherry? This was mortifying. Then all the announcements started, the cheerleaders stopped cheering, the coaches got up, the players were introduced over the loudspeaker, then the game was on.