Текст книги "Aurora James"

Автор книги: Jessica Ingro

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Текущая страница: 15 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

Time seemed to move at a glacial pace as Spencer fucked me. Even if it wasn’t hurting like a son of a bitch anymore, I just wanted him to come already. I wasn’t sure how much more I was going to be able to take.

“Fuck. You have a tight fucking cunt,” he grunted in my ear while his hips pulled back and then forward as he slammed inside me again.

To my horror, after thinking of Xavier and then hearing Spencer’s dirty words, I felt my muscles clench around his length. I squeezed my eyes shut in despair and felt tears leak down the side of my face as my body tried to betray me.

I had read an article at the doctor’s office recently that discussed how a woman could still climax when being raped—and regardless of what I told myself, this was in fact rape. I remembered thinking that was whacked. As my body trembled under the heaviness of his, I feared it wasn’t.

I prayed my body wouldn’t prove the author’s theory right.

“I feel you coming. You wanted my cock, didn’t you? Such a pretty little whore. I bet Xavier likes fucking this cunt. Doesn’t he?” Each verbal taunt was backed up by a hard thrust.

Then again, maybe I was just the whore he accused me of being.

His hand wrapped around my throat and he put immense pressure there, cutting off my airflow, and a few minutes later, black started creeping around the edge of my vision. Much to Spencer’s dismay, I didn’t end up coming. Instead, I gasped for air and fought passing out while he pumped his seed inside me.

His dick was still impaling me when the door flew open, crashing loudly into the wall behind it. Standing on the threshold was a panting and furious looking Ghost. In his hand was a gun to rival all guns and it was pointed straight at Spencer.

“Get the fuck off her,” he demanded with a menace that crawled over my skin, making me shiver, and it wasn’t even aimed at me.

Spencer pulled out and off me, leaving me fully exposed. I curled my legs up and to the side, all the while watching him struggle to get his pants up his hips.

Ghost advanced quickly, smacking Spencer on the side of the head with the butt of his gun. He went down like a sack of potatoes, hitting the ground with a thud, his pants still not completely on. If the seriousness of the situation weren’t weighing on me, I might have laughed at how ridiculous he looked.

Just then Xavier burst into the room. His eyes held murder, and blood was splattered across his white dress shirt. Even covered in blood, he was beautiful. And here. So very here.

“Jesus Christ,” he cursed when his eyes took me in, from my handcuffed hands right down to my legs curled into the fetal position. The minute his eyes locked on mine and I saw the torture in his, I burst into tears.

“Get him the fuck out of here. I’ll meet you at the warehouse,” he told Ghost before moving swiftly to me on the bed. “Do you know where the key to these are, baby?”

“Table,” I whispered in between hiccups.

He moved to the rickety table in the corner and back to me in no time. With the handcuffs unlocked, my arms fell limply to the bed. Pinpricks moved up them as the circulation returned.

Xavier sat on the bed next to me, picking me up and cradling me to his chest with one hand, while the other massaged my arms, helping to alleviate the discomfort.

We were silent until Ghost was out of the room with a dead-to-the-world Spencer.

“We need to get you cleaned up,” Xavier murmured against my hair. “I’m going to take you home.”

“No.” I clung to his shirt in desperation. “Sophie can’t see me like this.”

He looked at me thoughtfully for several moments. “Okay. Come on.”

With one arm around my back and the other under my knees, he carried me out of the house and to an Escalade that was waiting there. It was past dawn, and I squinted at the blinding sun as he set me gently in the backseat. He grabbed a napkin from the glove box that he pressed to the cut on my throat. Then he leaned over the back seat to dig around for a blanket. Even though it was hot as hell outside right then, I was grateful when he found one and draped it over my still-naked body.

Before shutting the door, Xavier leaned into me, both hands on either side of my head as he studied my face. I knew he was beating himself up over this. I could see why he would, but I didn’t want him blaming himself. He had warned me about Spencer, and I knew the inherent dangers of having a relationship with a man like him.

“It’s not your fault,” I whispered.

His index finger trailed lightly over the cut on my neck and what I assumed was an imprint left by Spencer’s hand. “Isn’t it?” he asked, his eyes tracking the movement of his finger.

“It’s not,” I said adamantly. “It’s that sick fuck’s fault.”

“We’ll talk about it later.” He placed a gentle kiss on my swollen cheek and shut the door, effectively cutting off any protest I might have had.

Xavier drove us into the underground parking garage of The Den and parked in his reserved spot. The drive there had been silent. I was quiet because my brain was still trying to process everything. I presumed Xavier was quiet because he was alternately beating himself up over the events that took place and attempting to reign in his urge to kill something.

My fingers held the blanket tighter to me when he lifted me from the back of the SUV and set me on my feet in front of a locked door. With an arm around my waist, he hustled me through it and down a tunnel, at the end of which there was another door that he unlocked and held open for me. I walked through with him right behind me and stopped, unsure of where to go.

“That door.” He pointed to the one in front of where we stood and I opened it to see I was in a suite much like the girls’ rooms, but more manly.

“What is this place?” I asked him while he flipped on the light in the bathroom and took a towel out of a white cabinet.

“It’s where I sometimes stay instead of going home. You got clothes in your room?” I nodded and he stood in the doorway of the bathroom and continued. “I’ll have someone bring you some clothes and help you take a shower.”

When he didn’t come near me but instead went to leave the room, I stopped him. “Why can’t you help me?”

“Because I have to get someone to get your clothes and then I have to find Ghost and Spencer.” He spit out his name as if it tasted like garbage. Which I had to admit it sort of did.

“Are you going to hurt him?” Deep down I knew the answer to that question, but I needed to hear it from him.

The perverse and sinister look that crossed his face had my fingers spasming where they gripped the blanket. “I’m going to do more than hurt him.”

“Honey,” I whispered but didn’t say any more when he was suddenly in front of me and all I could do was blink at how fast he moved.

When his hands settled around my face, holding me with possessiveness, my heart settled for the first time since Spencer had taken me. “No one should ever dare to take what’s mine from my own fucking house. No one threatens to do vile things to what’s mine. And no one fucking hurts what’s mine. All those things happened tonight, and right now I’m doing my best to keep a leash on my temper, baby. He won’t just hurt. He will bleed and beg for my mercy, and when I’m done, I’m going to find Lucien Spinelli and do the same things to him.”

The feral look in his eyes at the thought of exacting revenge on my behalf had me conflicted. On one hand, I wanted nothing more than to have him avenge the wrongs done to me, but the thought that he could do something hideous to another human being turned my stomach.

“Who’s Lucien?”

“Spencer’s boss. Now, please, go take a shower and wash his filth from your body. Get dressed and when you’re done, wait for me. I don’t want you leaving this room.”

Even though I wanted him with me, I knew I couldn’t keep him there. He was a man who protected what was his and, when he couldn’t, did what he had to do to make it right.

“Okay,” I whispered, and he dropped his forehead to mine like my acquiescence was the greatest gift imaginable.

I would never ask him to be someone he wasn’t. The question was, could I live with myself if I didn’t?

I was surprised to find Candy sitting on the bed when I walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my body. While the water and soap had washed away the visible dirt and what was left inside me of Spencer, I still didn’t feel clean.

“Oh God,” she whispered with a horrified look on her face.

My face was a mess. My eye and cheek were bruised from where he’d hit me. There was also a handprint-shaped bruise on my neck along with a small cut from the knife.

I had no idea how I was going to explain things to Ruth and Sophie when I did go home.

“I’m okay,” I assured her even though I wasn’t even sure if it was true.

“Here’s some clothes. I tried to grab something comfortable.” She held up a pair of cotton shorts and a t-shirt for me. “And there is a pair of my flip-flops over there you can have.”

“Thank you.” I went into the bathroom and changed quickly. My nerves were still a mess from everything that had happened along with the knowledge that somewhere in that building Xavier was doing God knows what to Spencer.

“I need to find Xavier,” I announced when I finished.

“Sweetie, I think you should sit here and try to relax.” She patted the bed next to her and gave me a coaxing smile, but I wasn’t to be deterred.

At some point during the last twenty minutes, I had decided that I needed to see for myself what kind of man I was letting into my life. I wasn’t going to be able to turn a blind eye and still be able to sleep at night. It was all or nothing. I had already promised myself to a man who wasn’t what I thought he was. Before I could fully give myself over to Xavier, I needed to see him for who he really was.

“Not going to happen. Do you know where he might have gone?” I didn’t know my way around the place well enough and Candy had been with Xavier the longest. I wasn’t sure how she did, but she knew far more than she ever let on.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said in a meaningful tone.

“If you won’t help me, then I’ll tear this place apart until I find them.”

Her eyes assessed me to determine the truth of that statement. They must have determined I was not fucking around when she said, “Fine. I’ll tell you where they probably are, but if anyone asks, you found it all on your own. I want nothing to do with X losing his mind.”

She shivered at the very idea of it before telling me where to go.

I slid my feet into the flip-flops and practically ran out the door.

Two minutes later, I made a mental note to kiss Candy for knowing the code to get through a large metal door that I never would have found on my own. I sprinted through one hall, and then skidded to a halt when I rounded the corner and found Ghost standing guard outside another metal door.

“Get the fuck out of here,” he clipped out somewhat forbiddingly.

“No.” I continued to storm down the hall towards him.

“I’ll drag you by your hair back to his room if that’s what it will take to get you to see reason.” The stern look on his face showed he meant every word, but I wasn’t going to leave without doing what I came there to do.

“Threaten me all you want. I’ve had the worst done to me and I’m still standing here. So give it your best shot.”

At the reminder of what I’d endured, his face gentled infinitesimally. I used that minor change to push my advantage.

“Please, Ghost. I have to see for myself.”

“You don’t want to see it, girl,” he warned me in a dire tone.

“I know I don’t want to, but I have to. I need this. Please,” I begged.

“Fuck,” he mumbled under his breath. “I knew you were going to be the death of me the second I saw you standing on the steps all give me a job.” He quoted me in a high-pitched voice. “I’m telling you right now if he kills me, I’m taking you down with me.”

“Understood.” I nodded my head and waited anxiously while he turned and opened the door.

The sound of crunching bone met our ears as we entered the room. Xavier’s back was to us as he faced a naked Spencer, who was tied to a metal chair in the center of the otherwise empty room.

“Where is he?” Xavier hollered, his voice echoing off the walls.

Spencer spit blood out of his mouth and smiled creepily at Xavier thanks to his now missing teeth. “I’ll never fucking tell you.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, his head snapped back with the force of Xavier’s fist hitting his face. It was then I realized that his nose was broken. Blood trickled down his face from multiple orifices. His arm was bent unnaturally behind the chair and a bone stuck out of his leg. None of that affected me quite the way the burn marks on his penis did, however.

It was the sound of me gagging that made Xavier aware of my presence beside Ghost.

“What the fuck is she doing here?” His voice was a lethal whip around the room as he eyed Ghost with derision.

“He was working with Cherry,” I blurted out before Ghost could answer him.

Xavier’s face hardened further and Ghost cursed under his breath.

“Find that bitch. I want her here… now!”

Not leaving his place next to me, Ghost pulled a phone from his pocket and sent a text to someone, and I knew Cherry would be there soon. I spared one small moment to feel sorry for her for having to endure Xavier’s wrath. Then I remembered she deserved whatever karma sent her way.

“Get out of here, Aurora,” Xavier’s voice rumbled as he barked at me.

“No. I deserve to be here.”

“This is no place for you,” he argued.

“That’s where you’re wrong. This pathetic excuse for a man thought he could bring me low. I want him to see I’m still standing with my head held high.” I turned my attention to Spencer before speaking again.

“You might have deserved my sympathy once upon a time, but right now you get nothing from me. You’re a sorry excuse for a human being and I hope Xavier tortures you until you can’t stand it any longer. Until you’re begging for him to stop. You disgust me.” I spat at him, knowing it wouldn’t quite reach him but that I’d get my point across just the same.

“She had a tight cunt,” Spencer stupidly taunted Xavier.

“You might want to quit while you’re ahead,” I warned him.

“Such a tight cunt. You always did have good taste, Xavier,” he continued his needling.

Xavier’s response was to pull a gun from the waist of his pants. He set the muzzle against Spencer’s temple and I puked in my mouth at the realization of what was coming next.

“You want to take that back?” Xavier asked even though everyone in that room knew there was no going back.

“She may have had a tight cunt, but that’s all she is… pussy.”

“Wrong fucking answer.” He jerked his head towards the door and addressed Ghost. “Get her out of here.”

The sound of his gun cocking seemed way too loud in the room. Ghost grabbed my bicep and pulled me toward the door. I didn’t even have it in me to fight him. I knew what was about to happen, and even though I didn’t want Xavier to have even more blood on his hands, I wanted justice for what had happened to me.

As soon as the door clicked shut behind us, the blast of the gun went off. I jumped in Ghost’s hold and let out a little scream. That was when he dragged me back to Xavier’s room and locked me inside.

Xavier eventually found me sitting on his bed, exactly where he had told me to be. The annoyed and pissed off look on his face was replaced with shock when I stood up abruptly and launched myself at him.

“I love you,” I whispered against his mouth before pressing a kiss to it.

His arms snaked around me and his mouth opened beneath mine. The moment my tongue touched the tip of his, he let out a growl so edged with passion that I felt it down to my toes.

Now that I was in his arms and Spencer was gone, I knew everything was going to be fine.

All I needed in this life was him and Sophie. The rest was all trivial.

“Wait.” He pulled away from me and put some space between us. Just like the first time he’d done this to me, my brain screamed in frustration.

I reached for him, but he took another step back.

“This is over.”

“What?” I breathed.

“I’m done with this. With you.” My heart immediately fractured into a million pieces at his pronouncement.

“Why?” The word cracked under the weight of my emotion.

“You’re in danger,” he bit out.

“Yeah, I think I got that,” I snapped angrily, glad that it was overriding the hurt that his careless words had inflicted.

“I won’t be able to live with myself if something happens to you again. If something happens to Sophie.” He choked on the words and in the back of my mind it registered that he was afraid for us. And instead of dealing with it, he was trying to push us away.

That was not going to happen. Not after the shit I’d just gone through. Not after I’d finally accepted who and what he was. No way. Nuh-uh.

There are some things in life worth fighting for, and I knew I had a fight on my hands to prove to him just how worthy I thought him to be. I knew deep down in my core that Xavier O’Brien was the cocoon that sheltered and nurtured the butterfly I’d ultimately become. His love had allowed me to take flight. Now it was my turn to return the favor.

I was in this for the long haul and he was just going to have to accept that.

“So keep us safe,” I whispered.

“You don’t get it.” He sat on the edge of the bed and thrust his hands through his hair in agitation.

“No, you don’t get it.” I stood in between his legs. With one hand on his shoulder, my other played with the hair at his collar. His body started to relax from its previous rigid posture, so I went in for the kill. “Would you willingly let someone hurt us?”

“Not as long as there was a breath left in my body.” His hands, which had settled on my waist, reflexively squeezed at the thought. The fact that he didn’t consider himself a knight in shining armor—a natural born protector—perplexed me. How could he not see it?

“Then keep us safe. Sophie and me, we’re yours. And we aren’t going anywhere.”

His nostrils flared and his fingers dug into my skin almost painfully, but I said not a word. I watched in silence as he worked through whatever demon had hold of him.

“My sister died because of me.” His words were so low I barely heard them.

“What?”

His grip tightened even further and I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out.

“I was an enforcer for a drug dealer and pimp. I was good. The best. I made enemies fast, but I didn’t give a shit because I was untouchable. I pushed their buttons. Goaded them. Dared them to come after me.”

The weight of his guilt was oppressive as it filled the room. I swallowed hard and tears prickled my eyes, understanding where this story was going.

“It wasn’t until someone sent me a text with a picture of my seventeen-year-old sister being gang raped that I finally realized I wasn’t as superior as I thought I was. I went crazy looking for her. I kicked the shit out of anyone and everyone until they told me what I wanted to hear. For nearly three days, I didn’t sleep as I followed any lead I possibly could. It wasn’t until they finally left her dead that my mother was able to call me. They had tied her up and made her watch every sick and twisted thing they did to my sister.”

Oh, God. I couldn’t hold back any longer as the tears streamed down my face. That was the worst thing for any mother to have to endure.

“When was this?”

“Fifteen years ago.”

My hands smoothed over his shoulder and his upper back in a silent show of support for the young man he had been and the horrific things that had happened to him. “You were young. You didn’t know any better.”

“I knew. And I didn’t fucking care. Not until I saw her body mangled and beaten in the house we’d grown up in. That’s when my mom killed herself. She couldn’t live with the images in her head of what they had done to her daughter. If it weren’t for my need for revenge and the drive to build an empire that would rival any of theirs, I might have joined her.”

No wonder he was so afraid when Spencer had taken me from him. And his fear about not protecting Sophie and me made perfect sense. If I didn’t know the man in front of me would lay down his life for her and me, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. It was that knowledge that I clung to in my effort to get him to see reason.

“We were meant for each other. You lost everyone you loved and so did I. Every single test we’ve had to endure made us who we are today. And what we are is precisely what each other needs right here and right now.”

“How can you say that after everything that’s happened? Everything I’ve done?”

“Oh, Xavier. Don’t you see? I’m not your sister and you aren’t the same man you were back then. None of that matters to me. I’m still yours.”

“But—”

“Let Sophie and me love you. Let us be yours.”

He buried his face in my stomach and whispered, “Mine.”

“Yes. Now let me love you.” I placed my hands on either side of his head and pulled his face up. Holding his eyes, I leaned forward and kissed him gently on his lips.

When I pulled back, I saw his eyes flare with possession right before he whispered with conviction, “I love you, Aurora.”

That’s when I knew no matter how messy life got and how many obstacles we encountered, as long as we had each other, everything would be alright.