Authors: J. Lynn
“You’re being ridiculous. I’ll be okay.”
Cam sighed again. “Okay. Please be careful.”
“I will.”
Before I could slide out from his grasp, he tightened his grip and captured my mouth. The kiss started off softly, turning deeper and hotter as his tongue slipped inside, moving in ways that reminded me of what he’d done last night and this morning. I moaned into the kiss, and when he pulled away, I was panting.
A wicked glint filled his blue eyes. “The faster you are in there, the faster you get more of that.”
“That is so wrong.” I slipped away, but I was grinning.
“I love you.”
I would never get tired of hearing that. “I love you too.”
Pulling myself from that car was almost impossible, but I did it. My sandals smacked off the cracked pavement as I hurried to the front door. I’d been out in the late morning sun for only a few seconds and sweat already dotted my brow.
I raised my hand to knock, but the interior door flew open, revealing a short, skinny girl with black hair and large gray eyes—wary eyes. They shifted to me and then over my shoulder. She was a pretty girl, one that looked bone-tired and weary.
“Who’s that?” she demanded.
I recognized her voice immediately. “That’s Cam. My boyfriend.”
Her face puckered as if she tasted something sour. “He can’t come in here.”
“I know.” I was quick to reassure her. “That’s why he’s staying in the car.”
Molly’s expression slipped into a scowl, but she stepped aside. Opening the screen door, I followed her inside the dark living room.
“Is this your parents’ house?” My eyes scanned the many pictures lining the walls and the well-worn furniture.
“Yes.” She stalked into the living room and picked up a remote. Turning the TV off, she tossed the remote onto the couch beside her. “They’re at work.”
“It’s nice.”
She smirked. “Says the girl who’s from Red Hill.”
The jab at the stretch of road my parents lived on wasn’t missed. I sat in a chair, crossing my ankles. “Okay. I’m glad you wanted to see me.”
Molly didn’t sit, but stood only a few feet from me. “Are you really?”
“Yes.”
She laughed harshly. “I somehow doubt that considering our last conversation and the fact you’ve spent a good nine months or so ignoring me.”
Okay. This was not going to be easy. “I’m not a big fan of reading emails from people I don’t know after being in high school and getting bombarded with hate mail. And there’s the
fact
that you sent me a ton of not too pleasant messages.”
Crossing her arms, she lifted her chin. “You know why I sent you those messages.”
“Because I didn’t respond in the beginning and because you blame me.” When she didn’t say anything, I leaned forward. “I wasn’t lying when I said I knew nothing about you until I spoke to my cousin in January of this year. I didn’t check the first emails. That’s the truth.”
She pressed her lips together. “So you’re still sticking with the ‘not a lying whore’ story?”
I exhaled through my nose as I stared up at her. Anger pricked at my skin, but like with my mother the day before, I kept my cool. “Like I told you on the phone, I hadn’t lied to the police.”
“Then why did you drop the charges?” she demanded.
“It’s a long story.”
She spread her arms out. “Obviously I have time. Tell me.”
Her demanding tone was making it a struggle not to be bitchy back. Keeping my voice level, I told Molly everything about that Halloween night and the days afterward. For the most part, her expression remained unyielding and as unforgiving as a seasoned cop. The only crack in the exterior was when I told her what Blaine had done. I didn’t have to ask her to know that it was the same.
When I was finished, she turned away, shoulders bowed but spine straight.
“I’m not allowed to tell anyone this, but I needed to tell you.”
“Did you tell your boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
She kept her back to me, silent.
“I wish my parents wouldn’t have agreed and I wish I hadn’t either. I wish I was as strong as you are and that I—”
“You don’t know anything about me.” She spun around, eyes a flinty gray.
I held up my hands. “But I do know you are strong—stronger than me. You did the right thing and I know it couldn’t have been easy.”
“It wasn’t easy.”
“I know.” I think this chick just wanted to be argumentative.
Her sharp chin jutted out. “Nothing about this was easy. Talking to the police—the detectives and then the lawyers. Having to keep going over every fucking thing he did to me?
In detail? Wasn’t easy. And I wouldn’t have to have gone through any of that if you had stuck with the truth!”
“I’m sorry—”
She moved so fast and I was so unprepared for it that I just sat there.
Molly smacked me, snapping my head to the side. Tears of pain and surprise pricked my eyes.
She had smacked me right across the face.
I almost couldn’t believe it. The entire side of my face burned red-hot, stinging. Damn. For someone so skinny she could deliver one hell of a good bitch slap.
Fury stamped down the shock and my hands itched to replay the favor. But I got Molly’s anger. Her pain was still so fresh and it was cutting too deep. I’d been in her shoes, was still there every so often. The anger never really left. Maybe it never would. So I got why she was so furious.
That was one of the reasons why I wasn’t currently introducing my fist to her face.
“You deserved that,” she said, voice shaking.
My cheek stung as I stood. “Maybe I did. But I didn’t deserve what Blaine did to me and I don’t deserve all the shit you’re giving me for something I decided when I was fourteen and had very little choice in.”
“Your parents didn’t put a gun to your head and make you sign those papers, did they?”
I shook my head. “What would you have done if you were fourteen and your parents demanded that you do that?”
Her mouth opened.
“Don’t even answer that, because it doesn’t matter. I am sorry—but if you hit me again, I will hit back—I’m sorry that this happened to you. And I’m sorry that you have to go through a trial and all of that. And
trust me
, the biggest thing that I’m sorry about is signing those fucking papers and agreeing. But I can’t change that. All I can do is let it go.”
“Well, you have fun letting it go then.”
Standing here, staring at the girl that I shared a terrible commonality with, I felt… empty. There were no harking angels or golden light of revelation. I felt the same way I did walking out of my parents’ house. Nothing. In a sudden instance, I knew Cam was right. I didn’t need to do this to move on. I hadn’t really even needed to confront my parents. Although that had felt terrific.
I had begun to move on the moment I had told Cam the truth.
It just hadn’t happened overnight. Letting go had been a slow process that took a bitch slap in the face to figure out.
I didn’t need to be here.
I needed to be out there, with Cam, and back home, in West Virginia, with my friends. I needed to continue letting it all go.
I started for the door.
“Where are you going?” Her bony fingers dug into my arm, stopping me. “Avery?”
Removing her hand from my arm, I kept my voice even. “I’m leaving, Molly. I’m going back out there to a man who loves me no matter what happened in my past or what stupid decisions I’ve made. I’m going home, which isn’t the house on Red Hill, and I’m going to go see my friends. That’s where I’m going.”
Molly’s throat worked, but she said nothing as I walked to the door. I stopped and turned back to her. “Look, if you want to call me to just talk or something, you obviously have my number. Call anytime you want, but I’ve learned from my mistakes. If you send me anymore messages that piss me off even the tiniest bit, I will call the police and I will press charges against you.”
She clamped her mouth shut and took a step back.
“I wish you the best. I seriously do. Goodbye, Molly.”
She didn’t stop me as I left and didn’t come outside like my father had. I slid into the cooled exterior of the car and let out a ragged breath.
“How’d that—why is your face so red?” Cam caught my chin and gently turned me toward him. “Did she hit you?”
“Yeah.” I winced at his explosive curse. “But I think it made her feel better after she got it all out of her system.”
His eyes narrowed. “That does not make it fucking okay.”
“I know.” I wrapped my hand around his and pressed it to my sore cheek. “But it’s over. I’ve said what I need to and I don’t think I’ll be hearing from her again.”
Cam opened his hand, gently palming my cheek. “Avery…”
“You were right. I didn’t really need to do this, but I’m glad I did. I’m okay with it.” Closing my eyes, I turned my head, pressing a kiss to his palm. “Take me home, Cam. That’s where I need to be.”
Chapter 34
The only problem with summer once you grew up was that it was over before it felt like it got started. Or that could have something to do with taking summer classes, which seemed to suck the summer right out of life.
Prying one eye open, I groaned. First I saw my bracelet—not the silver one. Cam had replaced it with several loops of rope that carried an infinite charm. Then I saw the time. Why had I set the clock for this early? I didn’t have class until nine.
The bed shifted beside me.
And Cam didn’t have class until ten. It was going to be a light semester for him as he was winding down on his college career.
A sleepy smile pulled at my lips as I rolled onto my stomach, stretching my legs out and pointing my toes. The sheets slipped over my bare skin and ended up somewhere at the foot of my bed. There was either a perverted ghost in my bedroom or Cam was wide awake.
Lips pressed down between my shoulder blades as a hand flattened on the base of my spine. Fingers trailed up, causing a wave of little bumps to race across my skin.
“Good morning, sweetheart.” Cam’s voice was thick with sleep.
Ah, this was why I set the alarm for so early, which was so different from a year ago. I had been worried about being late, annoyingly anal about it in fact. Now I set the clock an hour early for a little bit of one on one time.
“Morning,” I mumbled, closing my eyes as he ran his hand up and down, stopping at the cleft of my cheeks and going straight to the nape of my neck.
He kissed the center of my back and then his lips were on the flare of my hip. Warm breath danced over my lower back and then he kissed my right cheek.
I giggled, wiggling.
“You know what they say about a guy who kisses a girl’s ass? Literally?”
“He knows his place?”
“Ha. Ha.” He swept my hair off my neck and kissed me there. “He’s absolutely in love with the girl.”
“Is that so?”
“So,” he murmured, grasping my hip with one hand.
“Where did you learn that?”
“On the Internet.”
“Classy.”
“You know what else I’ve learned?” He lifted me up and slipped his arm under me. “That women’s breasts are at their perkiest in the morning.”
“What?” I laughed.
“Yep,” he replied, cupping my right breast. “I have to check out that theory.” He squeezed gently and my nipple tightened. He moved onto my other breast and did the same thing. “I think what I’ve read is right. Your breasts are exceptionally perky this morning.”
Breaking into a fit of laughter, I smacked his hands away, but my laughter quickly died off when his hand returned with a lot more purpose. His fingers worked their magic on the tips and it wasn’t long before my hips were moving in restless circles against the sheet.
“I love how your mind works,” Cam said, shifting behind me.
I looked over my shoulder. “Huh?”
He nodded at the clock. “Setting it early. You, my dear, are brilliant.”
“I know.” I smiled, and then rested my cheek on my pillow. My heart was already racing, my body ready. I was ready. “So you going to do something with the extra time or wow me with your knowledge of the seedier side of the Internet.”
“Bossy.” His lips brushed my shoulder and his hands went back to my hips. “And I would send you screaming to campus with my knowledge of the seedier side of the Internet.”
“Good to know.”
Cam lifted me again. “Can we?”
He always hesitated and asked before we did it like this. Something about that always warmed me; the thoughtfulness of it all and the fact he was aware that there were still moments when I was awkward as all hell when it came to intimacy or when I just didn’t want to be touched. Those moments were few and far between, but still existed, and he watched for them and adapted.