“You didn’t fucking scare me.” I heard the slight emphasis on the first word. He shook me off and walked to the closet, pulling off his jacket and tie as he went. “Why did you let him in?”
“I didn’t. Joshua said he had to leave all of a sudden and told me to lock the doors. I was in here, and he showed up out of nowhere.”
He exited the closet in a T-shirt and jeans, joining me once more by the bed and looking me up and down. “Where did he touch you?”
I twisted my head to bare my neck, glaring at him out of the corner of my eye. “Am I not bruised?”
His fingers stroked my neck, causing the hairs on my arms to stand up straight. “A little.” He clasped my shoulder, the other hand cradling the back of my skull as he dipped his head. Lips brushed against my skin, sending fireworks down my spine. “I was afraid he would hurt you more. He thinks I’m slipping already.” His lips pressed against my neck, wet tongue gently lapping at my skin. This time, when my fingers wrapped into his shirt and pressed into his flesh, he didn’t balk.
“Are you? Slipping?” My voice sounded as unsteady as my pulse felt. When had this mood shifted? Why was I no longer angry?
He tilted my head to the other side, switching his hands, and kissed my neck again. “Where else?”
“What?”
“Where else did he touch you?”
I was shaking. “He bit my ear.”
Kisses traveled up my neck to my ear; his tongue flitted out to lick me before his lips followed and pressed a silent kiss against my ear. I couldn’t help my moan, didn’t want to. When he spoke again, it was barely a whisper. “Where else?”
“Here.”
He stopped kissing me to look as I placed one palm against my stomach, then sank to his knees before me as he lifted my shirt. The skin was a patchy red, and my entire body went up in flames as he pressed his lips just above my belly button.
“What are you doing?” I stared down at him, meeting his blue eyes as he looked up at me from below, hands wrapping around to rest at the small of my back.
“Fixing you.” A bruise was forming near my hip in the shape of his father’s thumb; he sucked it gently, and I gasped not from pain but from the desire burning through me like wildfire and the effort it was taking to hold myself back from falling down to meet him. “Anywhere else?”
I whimpered. I didn’t want to say it. Didn’t want to admit that his father had been pressed against my core, intimidating me with sexual violence, not when Meyer had transformed me from frightened to electrified with a few kisses.
“Tell me.” He bit the hem of my jeans, tugging them away from my hips before letting them fall back.
“Between my legs.” I choked a little as I said the words, and his fingers tightened for a moment before they slid up my back and around my shoulders as he stood, fingers twining softly into my hair to tilt my head and bring my lips to his.
I crumpled as he kissed me, falling into his chest and clutching at his shoulders like a life raft. My anger at him dissipated, evaporating into the air, and I was left with the fear I’d felt while Conrad held me and the relief when I heard Meyer’s voice, letting me know I was safe, at least for now.
He let one of his hands fall down my front until he cupped me between my legs, fingers rubbing at the seam of my jeans to send electric shocks through my body. “Right here?”
I nodded, keeping my lips against his, never letting us break contact.
“Well then,” he said, “you need to get on your back.”