Page 33 of Whispers of My Skin

“That sure narrows down any kind of a decent film—don’t I get a say in the matter?”

Truth is, doesn’t matter what film we see. I have other plans.

“I’m wearing a dress, Joel,” I murmur. “We’ll be in the dark, with hardly anyone around. Just think of the possibilities.”

“You, my darlin’, are a very naughty thing, putting such tempting thoughts in my head,” he replies with a grin as he kisses me, one time, twice and one more. “You are the temptation and I am a confessed sinner.”

But we don’t get to act out our lust filled fantasy.

My father suddenly storms in, Joel is torn from me and virtually thrown across the room, while I’m pulled aside.

We’ve been found out.

And my father is incandescent with rage, his face completely red.

“How dare you touch my daughter,” he roars, punching Joel in the jaw, throwing him to the ground and launching a vicious attack on him.

I scream like crazy to make him to stop, but I’m powerless to do anything to help Joel, since Pete, the foreman Daddy brought with him, is holding me back and ignoring my pleas. I’m guessing he’s the one who betrayed us.

Over and over I beg my father to stop, and plead for Pete to do something, to intervene, but he does nothing.

By the mad look in his eye, I fear my father might actually kill Joel, especially when he doesn’t fight back, he just lays there and allows my father to beat him.

Finally, my father pauses in his vicious attack.

“Pete, call the police,” he commands the foreman, breathing heavily as he gathers himself, raking his hands through his hair to smooth it back in place. “I’m done dealing with this piece of shit. Hopefully, he should have a clearer idea of his place now, so I’ll let the sheriff take things from here.”

“No, Daddy, please. Joel hasn’t done anything,” I beg.

“Hasn’t done anything? He had his dirty filthy hands all over you, that’s all I needed to see to confirm what Pete said was going on behind my back. I’m only doing my duty by making sure this rapist never gets the opportunity to lay a finger on you again. I’ll rest a lot easier knowing justice has been served, once this piece of scum is safely locked up in some hell hole jail with the keys thrown away.”

“You can’t do that, Daddy. Joel’s not a rapist, we’re in love and he didn’t do anything I didn’t want him to. There’s no point getting the police involved, I won’t testify against him, and you can’t make me—I’m over the age of consent since my birthday two weeks ago. And if you throw him out, I’ll just go with him, because I love him.”

My father knows I’m not making idle threats, and that if I decide to go with Joel, he’ll have little choice but to stand back and watch me go. But he doesn’t give up that easily.

“You imagine yourself in love, silly naïve young girl that you are, and think you have all the answers, but trust me, I know better. There’s more than one way of dealing out justice, and rest assured that cocky young good for nothing cowboy is not getting away with seducing my daughter and stealing her innocence,” he retorts furiously.

“No, Daddy, it’s not like that! You’re making it sound sleazy when it’s not!” I yell, desperate to make him see reason. “This is serious, it’s the real deal. We love each other, we want to spend the rest of our lives together and we’re getting married.”

The day after my birthday, we went to the civil registry to fill in all the necessary paperwork. We’ve just been waiting for the right time to tell everyone about our plans.

But there was never going to be a right moment, was there? Now the bombshell has dropped and all hell has broken loose. This is all my fault; Joel wanted to do things properly, go to my father and ask for my hand in marriage, but I begged him to wait, knowing it would burst our perfect bubble, burying my head in the sand instead.

My father turns his angry bloodshot eyes on me.

“You most certainly will not be marrying him,” he states. “In his twisted game, you are the queen and he’s is just a pawn, a nothing, a nobody. He’s an opportunist gold digger, that’s all Joel Sadger is. Open your eyes, Tara. Can’t you see that’s why he set his sights on you? He’s using you, taking advantage of your sweet innocence, seducing you, making you believe he actually cares for you, when the truth is you mean nothing more to him than a meal ticket, a means of dragging himself out of the gutter. I will never allow my daughter to be the wife of a common cowboy, to involve herself with a lowlife piece of shit like him.”

I open my mouth to refute his ugly words, but when I look over at Joel, he puts his finger to his lips to silence me. I guess he’s right, whatever I say will only aggravate the situation.

“Go home, Tara,” he says. “Your father and I need to talk alone, man to man. I’ll come and find you after.”

But I can’t move, my legs refuse to work. I can’t leave him, not when my father is so determined to split us up.

“You promise?” I say, tears streaming down my face. I’m petrified of losing him, but I have to believe there’s a way out of this, that we still have a future together, because there just has to be. Love conquers all, right?

“I promise,” he says, looking intently at me. “Faith over fear, Tara. Nothing will prevent me from coming to get you.”

I have faith.

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