Page 60 of Battling the Enemy
Iwas lying.
I was very much in love with Deke still, but it wasn’t enough.
There was no way I’d be able to forget and forgive what he did to me.
I wasn’t as strong as Emerson.
I also knew I needed to get away from him, because every second he stood there was a threat to my pride and my sanity.
Deke damaged me with what he did, and I didn’t feel as if I’d ever be able to trust him again. “Deke, I…I have to go. I need to finish packing and-”
His head reared back, shocked.“Packing?”
Shit.
I hadn’t meant to let him in on my plans, but what did it matter. Regardless of what he was professing, he couldn’t stop me from leaving, and I could always get a restraining order on him if I had to.
“It’s not your business, Deke,” I replied, needing to get away from him.
His hold on my arms tightened. “Everything about you is my business, Delaney,” he fumed. “Christ, Delaney. I’m so fuckingsorry.Tell me what to do, and I will fucking do it!”
I wasn’t ready to sheath my claws yet. I cocked my head and asked, “Let me ask you something, Deke. What happens if I forgive you?”
His hands dropped from my arms and he slid them into the front pockets of his school uniform. He and Winston had obviously ditched school to harass me. “What do you mean?” he asked, slightly confused. “If you forgive me…well, we put this behind us and be together like we’re supposed to be.”
God, men really were clueless.
“So, what happens the first time you reach over to touch me, and all I see is your hand on Melissa’s thigh instead of mine?” Deke paled, but I didn’t relent. “What happens the first time you join me in bed, and I lock up because I don’t know what I’m doing? What happens when you get brave enough to finally try anal sex, and all I can think about is Winston while you’re inside me?”
“Stop it, Delaney,” he snapped.
“What happens the first time there’s a pregnancy scare, and I can’t tell you because your solution to the problem is to run down to the clinic?”
“I said,stop it,” he begged.
“Or how about the first time another guy tells me I’m beautiful, and I believe him because I willalwaysfeel inadequate around you?” The last thing in the world I’d ever want to be is a cheater, but even though the digs were designed to hurt Deke, that didn’t make them any less true. Deke’s attacked against me had been personal, and his aim had been true.
Before I knew what he was about, Deke’s hands shot out, grabbed my face and he crushed his lips to mine. He kissed me like he did that day next to his car when he gave me the safety pin. He was kissing me with so much emotion, I felt powerless to resist.
I felt powerless to resist because I was pathetic, and I wanted this kiss to undo everything. I wanted the pain to go away so badly that I opened up and let him in.
The next few minutes were nothing but crashing and burning with desperation and fear. Desperate to forget the past few days, and fear because we knew we wouldn’t be able to. It wasn’t until I heard a door shut behind me that the fog of lust lifted, and I noticed that Deke had walked us back into the house.
I broke off the kiss trying to get a grip on where this was going. “Deke-”
“No, Delaney,” he snapped. “You’re mine. You’re fucking mine and you can’t tell me to stop.”
As confused, hurt, angry, and lonely as I was, I still wasn’t without complete sense. “Deke, we can’t,” I breathed as he started sucking on my neck; marking me. “I’m on my period,” I reminded him.
His answer was to drag me to the nearest guest bathroom and plop me on the counter. Stepping in between my spread thighs, he growled, “Do you think I give a fuck if you’re bleeding or not?”
Evidently not.
But that wasn’t my biggest issue. I’d been letting Deke do whatever he wanted to do to me since the first night I slept with him. I always knew my period wasn’t anything that was ever going to deter him. “Deke, stop it!” I said more forcefully.
I knew Deke Marlow was dark. I knew he was ruthless. I knew he was relentless. And I knew he was…evil.
I knew it.
