Yeah, I couldn’t do this without talking. Rae isn’t just a cheap fuck to me. She’s everything.
“Jesus.” She folds her arms in a huff, leaning further back against the headboard. “I didn’t realize this was so aggressive.”
She says it in a mocking tone. Deflecting. “What the hell is wrong? You weren’t kissing me like you usually do. It was like you were angry, like you’re trying to work something out.”
Her eyes snap to mine. “And is that so wrong?”
I move my hand to her thigh, wishing she would relax and just talk to me. Not that I’m the best about talking shit out. “No, it’s not wrong. It just felt forced.”
“You think I don’t want you?”
“Rae . . .” I sweep her blond hair behind her ear and hold on to the back of her head. “I love you. I know you love me, but there’s something you aren’t telling me. You know you can.”
She shakes her head. “There’s nothing you can do. I just want you to make me feel good.” A tear slides down her cheek, nearly choking me with emotions I don’t know how to deal with. “I just want to feel good.”
She straddles my lap, her hands moving to my shoulders.
“You always make me feel so good,” she whispers against my neck before nibbling the flesh there.
I’m achingly hard and quickly losing my resistance, but I don’t want her to think she has to do any of this. I’m just as happy hanging out and watching TV as I am fooling around. Well, almost. Let’s be honest.
Still, she doesn’t have to do anything to keep me. I want her and no one else.
“You make me feel good too, Rae.” I hold onto her hips, halting her movements as she starts to grind on my lap. “But not when you lie to me.”
“I’m not lying.” Her glare is so sharp it could cut through glass. “Why do you think I’m lying?”
“Because you aren’t acting like yourself. And you haven’t been lately. Something is up. Is it Colin? Did he touch you?” She winces, and I see red. “Has he?”
“Stop.”
She looks away, and I grip her chin firmly but not enough to hurt her as I force her eyes to my own. “Rae.”
“Stop. It’s nothing. He’s just an asshole.”
“An asshole who touched you?”
My eyes search hers for a lie, but she doesn’t speak, and I know for a certainty that fucker did touch her.
“What did he do?”
“Nothing.”
“Rae.”
“Nothing!” she shouts and climbs off my lap. She grabs her coat and flies out into the living room just as Nash comes through the front door. He’s wearing a big smile on his face until he sees Rae and then me.
“What’s going on?”
I can’t take it anymore. I just can’t. “Colin hurt her, and she won’t tell me what happened.”
Her head turns to me, betrayal written all over her face, but I don’t care. I’ve had it. Nash walks closer to us both. “Is that true, Rae?”
“No. It’s not. He’s jumping to conclusions,” she says with a straight face, but I know she’s lying. Da Silva did something to her, and she’s not talking about it, which is bad.
Nash’s cautious eyes meet mine. “Law—”
I cut him off, “She’s lying. I have no idea why.” I look at Rae. “Because this is a safe space.”
She scoffs and folds her arms, but she flinches when her hand touches her bicep and quickly drops it. I step closer to her. “Show me your arm.”
“What? No.” She steps back.
“Show me, Rae.”
“Okay, maybe you need to chill, Lawson.” I hear my brother, but I step closer to Rae, holding her face in my hands.
“Show me.”
More tears fall, and she shakes her head but drops her coat on the couch and then pulls the sleeve of her t-shirt up to reveal a bigass hand-shaped bruise on her otherwise perfect flesh.
“That motherfucker,” I growl, afraid to touch her, so I release her face because my body is thrumming with rage.
“I’m fine.”
“Is that all?” She looks away. “Rae.” I know my voice isn’t gentle, although it should be, but I’m pissed. He touched her, hard enough to bruise her skin, and she didn’t tell me. How many other times have there been?
“Guessing you didn’t report that,” Nash says as he takes a seat on the couch, looking deceptively casual on the outside, but I know him well enough to recognize the fury flowing beneath the surface.
“It wouldn’t matter if I did.” She looks down at the floor. “He’s my stepfather and has my mother wrapped around his finger. He’s the school principal who all the women at the school drool after and the men want to be friends with.” I hate that she’s not wrong, but I don’t agree with her. “He’s even friends with all the cops in town. Hell, the mayor is his godfather.” She stifles a sob and wipes at her eyes. “Nothing can help me.” Her bottom lip quivers as she looks into my eyes. “I just wanted to forget about it for a little bit tonight.”
Nash grunts something before getting up and walking to us. “You should report it to someone else.”
Why is he not offering to kill this guy with me? To find a place to bury the body? If anyone so much as looked at me wrong growing up, they had to deal with my brother. Not that I want to actually commit murder, but report it? That’s all he’s got?
“It won’t matter. He’ll talk his way out of it.”
Nash looks disappointed as he shakes his head at her. “You should try. Tell your mom again. I mean, hell, you have proof.”
“Her mom is useless.” I know she is. Way too dick-whipped, and I’ve only been around her a few times. And she looks at me as a problem to be dealt with.
Rae grabs her coat again, holding it to her body. “I should go.”
“Rae.” I pull her to me. “Don’t go like this. I can’t let you leave and go back there where he can hurt you.”
“You don’t have a choice, Lawson.” I hear my brother’s voice and turn my glare on him.
“Really? You’re fine with him doing whatever the hell he wants to her? Who the hell are you?” I shove his chest, and he shoves me back, although I know he held back.
“I want to see you make it. If you go to jail because you’re standing up for your girlfriend, how the hell are you going to do that?”
“This is bullshit,” I shout in his direction, feeling so useless I want to drop to my knees and curl up in a ball. But that’s not what Rae needs. “You aren’t going home,” I say to her.
“Yes. She is,” Nash says.
Just as Rae says, “I am.”
They’re both insane. I grip Rae’s face in my hands again, desperate not to let her go. “No. If he touches you again, I’ll kill him.”
Her forehead rests against mine. “I won’t let you.” She sniffles and presses a kiss to my lips. “I’m okay. He didn’t . . .” she falters. “He didn’t do anything other than try to scare me.”
My eyes close, hoping she’s telling me the truth but still wanting to protect her. I want her out of this situation. “Maybe we could report it.”