They think they can keep firing me with bullets of betrayal, but I’m not bulletproof. The wounds are soul deep and I’m bleeding out.
THOUGHTS OF WHAT IT would be like to be inside the warmth of her body stir in my mind, and God, do I crave it. I love the shape of every curve she rocks. Just to taste her beneath my tongue and take her away from her thoughts and drive her need to the brink so the only thing occupying her mind is the desperation for release consumes my thoughts lately.
She’s looking at me with lust glazing the green of her eyes.
My lips go to her exposed neck, her head turns into me, which is a green light for me to snake my hands around her waist and then down her ass. Her cheeks fill my palm and I squeeze and begin my descent down her neck, grinding my hard cock against her, but she pulls away, slapping me playfully on the shoulders
“Wake up.”
“What?”
“Wake up.” Her voice morphs into a male tone. “Gavin!”
My eyes open and a groan passes my lips when I see Aidan standing over my bed.
“What are you doing?” I ask, trying to hide my rock hard dick that’s tenting the duvet.
“Mary is at the front door for you.”
“Why?”
He shrugs his shoulders. “How the hell would I know, but she’s been crying, I think.”
Antonia.
Pulling the cover back, I leap to my feet and drag my jeans up my legs.
“You may want to get rid of that before you go out there.” He points to the bulge now in my jeans, and I’d love to go and release the beast, but I’m too concerned at Mary being at the door at this time of night.
“She won’t care.”
Pushing past him, I race to open the door.
“Hey, what’s up?”
She sniffles, wiping her hand up her nose. Gross.
“Finlay’s done something.”
Images of the smashed bottle in Antonia’s apartment from him losing his temper flash in my mind and every muscle in my body constricts. “Did he hurt her?”
He wouldn’t. Would he? No.
She frowns and appears to rear back. “Why would you think that?”
“Mary?”
“Not physically, he’s said something to her. I came out to her screaming at him and hitting him and now she’s locked in the bathroom, but she’s been in there for too long and I can’t get in.”
I don’t even wait for her to finish. I’m marching through Antonia’s apartment and banging on the door within seconds. The sound of running water can be heard but she doesn’t reply when I call her name.
“Stand back,” I warn Mary, and bring my shoulder against the door, breaking the lock. The door flies open and pieces of metal drop to the floor.
The room is full of steam but I make out her figure huddled on the floor of the shower. “Get some towels,” I tell Mary.
Approaching the shower, I drop on my haunches. “Hey, beautiful. I need to get you out of here now.”
She’s staring at me but not really present.
“Antonia.” I raise my voice a little and she jerks her head. Her bottom lip trembles and she sobs. The water is soaking over me, causing my jeans to stick to my legs. She reaches her arms out and places them around my neck, crawling into my lap, curling her body into me like she’s looking for me to keep me safe inside my arms. An impenetrable refuge, sheltering her from the battle in the war of love.
Mary lays a towel over her as I lift her from the shower and take her to her room, sitting down on the edge of her bed, keeping her in my arms. Her naked, wet flesh seeps into my own and I want to absorb all the pain she’s feeling.
Covering herself with the towel, she croaks, “It didn’t work. No matter how hot the water, it doesn’t wash away the ache.”
“What happened?”
She gulps and slips from my lap. Going to her dresser, she pulls out a baggy looking T-shirt and slips it over her head, dropping the towel.
“If I could wash away the past and let a new tide bathe over me so I never had to know the sting of heartbreak I would. The love isn’t worth the pain.”
Getting to my feet, I go to her, taking her by the shoulders and forcing her to look at me.
“Some love is. It strengthens us, prepares us for when the right person comes along who’s ready to be everything for you. Who won’t hurt you, but fortify you.”
“He fucked Julie.”
It’s such a shock that I rear backwards. “No way. He wouldn’t.”
She stares at me with such intensity it makes me feel like a little boy, unable to control his emotions.
“It was the night I got home from hospital. I saw her leaving.” Her tone is so damaged from the agony he’s inflicted that it hurts my heart. “What is it about her?” she asks, honestly confused.
What do I say to that? She’s easy and convenient but she is nothing when compared to Antonia. How could he be so foolish?
“She’s good at manipulating you when you’re vulnerable.”
Shaking her head, she points her finger at me accusingly. “Don’t make excuses for him! He’s a grown man.”
“I’m not making excuses for him, far from it. I’m going to kill him for hurting you.”
“I’m tired.” She moves to her bed. She pops the lid from a prescription bottle and puts a couple of pills into her mouth.
“Turn the lights out, please.”
“You never have the light out,” Mary says.
“The monsters in the dark can take me now,” she whispers, climbing under the duvet.
Mary lowers her head and swipes the tears from her face. It’s agony seeing someone you love broken and desperate for a reprieve from the shitty hand she keeps being dealt. Finlay cheated on her. Even saying the words won’t make the reality of them sink in.
He despises Julie for meddling with his relationship. What would possess him to ever go near her, to even open the door for her?
“What should I do?” Mary asks me in a whisper.
I wish I had the answers for her, but I don’t. This is new territory for me and I’m just as lost. We can want to heal her pain, but being able to are two different things.
“Just stay in here with her tonight. All we can do is be here and show her that she has people she can trust. That she can rely on.”
The door is unlocked to Finlay’s place and he’s sitting in the middle of the room on a dining chair. He’s bent forward, staring at the floor. He’s half way through a bottle of whiskey and raises the glass to his lips, gulping the entire glassful.
“Come to gloat?” he slurs.
I don’t even recognize this version of him, and maybe I should have paid more attention to how much pain he was in.
“Don’t make me the bad guy here,” I warn.
“It was there.” He points to the table. “I can’t even fucking remember it.”
“So how do you know it happened?”
He shrugs and throws his head back. “The evidence is too damning.”
“Why tell her? You know how fragile she is right now.”
Getting to his feet, he picks up the bottle at his feet and pours the liquid into his glass. Moving across the room, he leans a hand above his head as he looks out the window. “Julie would have used it against me or told Antonia anyway. She needed to hear it from me. She deserved to hear it from me.”