Page 67 of Falling Too Late

He chuckled, slipped off the bed, and walked his bare naked ass across the hall, coming back dressed in a pair of jeans that had paint on them and pulling on a white T-shirt. “Any special requests?”?

“Dealer's choice.” I pulled the sheet up around myself, sitting up cross-legged. I reached over to the bedside table and grabbed a hair tie, pulling my hair up into a bun. Alex leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching me.?

I watched him, a smirk on my lips. For some reason, I felt powerful with his eyes on me. He made me feel powerful. I could see all the love, want, need evident on his face. The feelings were overwhelming in my chest, and I felt like I was going to burst.??

“What?”?

His arms lifted and fell as he took in a breath. “I just never thought that drowning could feel this good, till I was drowning in you.”?

“I love you.” The words were out and I couldn’t take them back. I didn’t want them back. I wanted him to know. I wanted to make him feel the same way I did.

“I love you.”??

He strode over to me in three steps. His hands grasped my face, and he kissed the sense out of me, ending it with a few pecks. “This is what I want, Wren—you, and me for the rest of our lives. I want to be your first and last. I want to wake up to you, go to sleep with you, work with you, listen to you sing, watch you get ready. I just want you, Wren. For the rest of forever.”??

“Yes, I want this too. I want you for the rest of our lives.”??

Alex brushed a few strands out of my face, kissing the sense out of me one last time. “Be back soon.”?

I fell back onto the bed, the sun still casting through the windows. I had thought about getting some curtains, but I loved the morning light. I loved everything about this room, this house. My life. Everything was falling into place. I had a good job; Alex, Gloria, and I had made it out of the apartment. We weren’t living paycheck to paycheck anymore. We were actually able to live a little. Splurge a little.?

I rolled over pulling the pillow under my chest and holding myself up on my elbows and scrolling through my phone. The radio played a song I recognized. I reached over and turned it up a bit, humming along, noticing Alex’s necklace on my bedside table. He must have taken it off last night. I worked on a shopping list, writing out things we needed for the house.??

The minutes ticked by and I bathed in the warmth of the sunlit room; the sheet had fallen around my hips, but I didn’t care. I patiently waited for Alex to return with food. Maybe we could go to the library, update our address, get some books, and spend the day reading in bed like we used to.??

Behind me, I heard the squeak of the stairs and smiled.??

“So, what did you get? Something from Tony’s?” I heard the click of the bedroom door behind me and laughed, “What, afraid Ma is going to come home and see us? She is going to have a field day when we tell her, but she is going to be happy for us.”

I felt the bed dip at my feet and locked the screen of my phone, setting it on the bedside table. The sheet slowly pulled down my back and I lay my head back down. “I thought you wanted to feed me first.”

The overwhelming stench of cigarettes and body odor hit me. My body locked up. Alarm bells sounded in my head. I don’t turn around, my eyes shifting to my phone that was just in my hands.??

No.?

No.?

No.??

A rough hand wrapped around my ankle and jerked me down the bed, breaking me out of my frozen state.??

“NO!” I screamed, kicked, and tried pushing myself off the bed. I reached for my phone, but his hand gripped my hair and shoved my face into the bed. His fist came down and a ringing sound split my head.?

“I finally fucking found you.”?His oily voice was directly in my ear.

My vision doubled before everything aligned back together.?

Kevin.

But he didn’t look like Kevin. He’s bald now. His skin was extra shiny. It rippled. Half his face was leathery, the result from the burns he’d sustained.??

“HELP!” I finally found my voice and screamed as loud as I could manage. I grabbed his hand still holding my face and ripped at it with my nails, kicking and screaming with everything I had. My throat went raw before he punched me again, the bite of metal along my face from his ring. Everything went still and his weight was pulled off me. Through the haze and ringing, I heard the clink of his belt, the sound of his pants dropping.

I found myself wishing he would have hit me harder. I wished I would have blacked out, so I didn’t have to be aware in this moment.

Then his weight was there again, and I felt his spit hit my ass, sliding down. His dick was there, pushing and prodding around until he found what he’s looking for. In one thrust, he buried himself in my ass. I screamed, his hand pushing my head into the bed, muffling the sound. Pain ripped through me, blinding me. He pumped himself two, three, four times till he pulled out. And then he was pushing into my center, ripping through every good moment I had with Alex up until now. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to go back to last night.

Alex’s rough hands on my hips, his soft hand in my hair. His weight on me, his woodsy amber scent that I could drown in. I tried wrapping myself in every memory of him. Alex would make it better. This would be over and he would make everything okay again.

---