Page 8 of His Gift
Harper
"You really pulled out all the stops, sweet girl." He's in bed with me, his arm curled around my midsection. I ended up watching way too much TV and then coming to bed as soon as the sun set behind the trees, just hoping sleep would make the time pass. I tossed and turned for a while, but I finally fell asleep.
"Why didn'tyou eat?"
I keep silent. It's none of his business, and he already knows too much about me.
"I'm sorry I left you alone the whole day. It wasn't my intention. Things got out of hand."
"Things? You've said that twice now. Can you be any more vague?"
He sighs. "My business."
"Your business? You said you made a lot of money to be able to isolate."
"I also told you I was searching for you. And I don't like to stay idle."
"Oh, yes… Sorry. The whole'I'm your gift and I'm made for you'thing," I mock. If he thought leaving me alone for an entire day would be forgiven with a stupidsorry,he can think twice.
"It goes both ways. You missed me."The gall on this man.
"I didn't."
"You're hugged to my pillow."True.
"Proves nothing. I'm more comfortable like this."
"And you didn't get yourself off like you do every night before going to sleep. You were waiting for me to do it." I feel the heat rise to my face. He saw me masturbating. I try to turn around to stare him down, but of course he doesn't let me.
"You have no right! That's my life. And my books. It's none of your business! I am none of your business!"
"Everything about you is my business. You were just waiting for me to show up and take care of you. Take the weight from your shoulders. Makeyou come as many times as you need." His hand caresses my belly, then slides down my hip and strokes the inside of my thighs.
Between his absurd statement and the fact that his touch has a power over me I can't understand, I'm so confused.
"No. Don't."
"Why?"
"Because I'm asking you not to."
"As you wish." His arm wraps around me again, and he shifts slightly back, effectively preventing his erection from poking me.
I push again to turn around and this time he lets me. I'm surprised. Whenever I told no to my ex-husband, I got hit with a pout or a snarky comment and his back turned to me. I kinda assumed it was how men reacted to rejection. This man is just looking at me with an interrogative expression and stroking my hair.
"Why don't you like people?"
"Because everyone disappoints, and the ones who don't get dragged down by the others."
I put a hand on his bare chest. He came to bed with just a pair of boxers. There are a lot of scars all over his body, and a long one runs from his sternum to his belly.
"Care to elaborate?"
"My birth parents dropped me as soon as they could. A few attempts with adoptive families failed because I was too much work and wasn'tworth the effort. I enlisted in the Marines and found a family, brothers. But the NCO was a shithead and what should have been a simple recon mission ended up with everyone dead. I got out with my life because the medic sacrificed himself to drag my ass out. I tried to save the others, but only managed to get shot multiple times."
"These scars?" I ask, running my fingertips over the silver lines and holes in his body.
"Yes."
