Page 230 of Boyfriend of the Hour
He smirked. “Fine. But then I want you to beg.”
I let him put his mouth on mine for the last time. Let his hands rove with the familiarity he’d always had, even though now, I felt like a stranger in his arms. Let him grind against my leg like I knew he would and waited for his breath to grow short and shallow until it matched the rocking of the boat.
Then I reached into the ribboned exterior of my bodysuit for the one potential weapon I’d been able to find.
When I was twelve and my brother came back from Iraq, one of the first things he did was teach my sisters and me how to fight. Specifically against men. I’d never stopped to wonder why—Matthew only said he’d seen too much over there, and he was never going to let his sisters be in the same position.
So, for a year, he’d instructed the four of us still living at home in the fine art of self-defense. We’d learned to grapple and feint. How two fingers to the eyes created more opportunity for escape than a knee to the balls. And the correct way to stab someone for maximum impact—left side, up and under the ribs to reach the stomach so the fucker might just bleed out.
I’d carried a switchblade for years, though never had to use it. That blade, of course, was gone, along with the rest of my things after being abducted. But the nail kit provided to the girls did have a cuticle trimmer, one that was just sharp enough to puncture Shawn’s soft belly when I jabbed him as hard as I possibly could.
Shawn squealed like a pig as he jumped off me, the trimmer sticking out of his side like an instant thermometer.
“You bitch!” Shawn screamed as he yanked out the tool, then lunged for me again.
Fuck, he was loud. And covered in blood, which was getting all over the bed and carpet. And scary as fuck.
“Getoff!” I shrieked as I tried to jump over the bed toward the door. “You just got stabbed in the gut! You should be bleeding out, not chasing me!”
“I’ll chase you forever, you little whore!”
Shawn grabbed my foot, then dragged me back toward him. He collapsed on top of me, obviously struggling despite his efforts. Then his hand closed around my neck, and all my screams were silenced as I choked,unable to gasp for a single breath.
“You thought you could get away with that?” Shawn’s voice warbled too, searching for breath even as he shoved me harder against the mattress. “You thought you couldstabme and just walk the fuck away? Iownyou, Joni. I fuckin’ own you, and now I’m gonna end you—fuck!”
Suddenly, he was yanked away, and I gasped, sucking in several deep, precious lungfuls before I was able to comprehend what was happening. When I finally managed to sit up, I found Shawn on the other side of the room, lifted onto his toes as a large man with slightly disheveled curls pinned him to the wall with a muscled forearm shoved against his neck.
My heart swelled.
Nathan.
I moved to get up but was held back by another hand on my shoulder.
“I wouldn’t interrupt him right now,” Carrick said behind me. “He’s busy.”
I gaped between them. How had they even gotten here? How had they even known to come?
“How does it feel?” Nathan was asking Shawn. “Not breathing? Forced to be helpless under someone you can’t possibly fight?”
Shawn could only gurgle, though his black eyes shot murder. At me. At Nathan. At Carrick too.
“What did I tell you?” Nathan went on, as calmly as he had ever been except for the muscle ticking furiously in his jaw and the high color on his cheeks. “What did I say I would do if you ever fucking touched her again?”
Again, there was only a half-whimpered response. But Shawn’s horrible gaze again landed on me as he reached toward me, then brought his finger up to his throat and drew a clear line across it.
It was a clear promise.
And apparently, the last straw. Nathan shoved his arm even further into Shawn’s throat as he took hold of his head with his other hand and wrenched it to the side with a horrifying snap.
Shawn stopped moving completely. His eyes closed, and his entire body slumped. And when Nathan released his neck, Shawn crumpled to the floor, blood staining his shirt from his side wound, head lolling at an impossible angle.
I pushed off the bed, standing on shaky knees, hands to my mouth as the realization of what had just happened washed over me.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh myGod.”
“Well, that was one way to end it,” Carrick said dryly as he got up and walked to Shawn’s lifeless body. “Jesus, Nate. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“I told you what needed to be done. He was never going to give her up otherwise,” Nathan said, though he was already moving back to me. “Joni.” He took my shoulders, shaking lightly. “Joni.”
