Page 4 of Bear
Her wide eyes seek mine out. “I—” She stops to swallow, her free hand creeping to her neck. “I’m marked up and red in spots from getting manhandled at the stadium. Some of it, I think I may have done to myself, banging around inside the locker against the wood. And… well, a little bit of it is a result of—” She doesn’t finish, but it doesn’t take more than a flick of her eyes upward for me to gather that Mason contributed to her injuries today.
My eyes dart to her reddened upper arms. Probably a combination of her attacker and Mason. I heave out a sigh. “I want to see the rest.”
Lennon stares at me, bold trust in her eyes. She drops the towel, but holds her arms drawn up in front of her breasts. Her skin looks soft and dewy from the shower. I close my eyes for a moment, dropping my head down to stare at the marble floor. Starting at her toes, my eyes drift upward, slowly sliding over her curves, noting angry redness on her knees from being jammed in the locker. Before I can look everywhere, she begins a slow turn, and I notice more areas that will likely become bruises. A nasty spot on her hip makes me wince, but it’s what I see when she scoops her hair out of the way that has me wincing in sympathy for her. “Fuck.” I suck in a breath, and step closer, hesitating to touch her. Her spine is dotted with marks where she must have scraped herself raw trying to find a way out of that locker. My eyes shift upward to a spot on the back of her neck, just under her hairline, that is red, like something rubbed against it. It looks a bit like rope burn. My stomach gurgles as my fingers gently brush over it. That’s because it fucking is. Whoever tied that bag over her head is responsible for that.
“The bag. I pulled at the front, trying to get it loose, and it roughed up my neck.”
“Yeah, I see that.” Now that I’m closer, I turn her in my arms to explore her neck. I take her jaw in both of my hands, tipping her head back so I can get a better look. “Goddammit, Mason,” I grit out, wrenching my gaze from four fingerprint-like marks on one side and what looks like a thumb on the other. “He had you by the neck again. The fuck.” It’s not even a question, just a bitten-out exclamation of frustration. “I’ll never make excuses for him, not for this.”
She sucks in a breath. “I know it. And I know I should walk away, but I can’t. Couldn’t explain it if I tried.” Her shoulders lift in a confused shrug before she quickly wraps me in a strong hold, pressing our bodies together. She shudders in my arms and mumbles, “He told me some shit that—” Cutting herself off, she shakes her head, the color leaching from her face. “I won’t betray what he told me. He was out of his head, distraught. But I understand him better now. No one lives through something like that and…” Her voice wobbles, and she never finishes her thought.
I feel her rough swallow against my chest, and it’s like a knife to my heart. I can only assume Mason said something to her about his mother. “Lennon, is there anything else I need to know about?”
She looks up at me with wild eyes, her cheeks turning cherry red. “Um. No. Not really. Some things happened when we were—”
“Fucking,” I supply for her with a grimace.
Raggedly, she murmurs, “Yes. There’s a mark on my breast.” When she looks into my eyes, I don’t hide my irritation. “It’s not a big deal. I-I wanted it.”
Seeking calm, I reach for each of her forearms and draw them from around my waist and force her to take a step back. Her chest caves in, shoulders rounding. My eyes fixate on her breasts. Sure enough, one nipple has a distinctive bite mark around it.
My heart thunders in my chest. I knew—not only from things I’ve seen and heard from Mason, but also from the way he’d touched her when he joined us on the yoga mat—that he has some serious carnal knowledge of Lennon. But seeing this, not knowing how it all came about, and not completely trusting Lennon when she says she wanted it—it makes me a little unhinged.
“You let him hurt you, Lennon. Why? You can’t tell me you don’t see that. Don’t feel it. Fuck, you have the evidence of it on your body.”
She struggles to get her arms free of my grasp, and I immediately let her go, not wanting a repeat of earlier. But then she dives forward, nestling her body close to mine as she wraps her arms around me. She sucks in a stuttered breath, tipping her head back to look up at me. “I told you. I wanted it,” she whispers softly. “I understand him. We have this connection, and when I’m with him, we both kinda— I can’t explain it. We get each other, and— Fuck. I can’t talk to you about this. You wouldn’t understand it.”
My jaw clenches. “Lennon, he’s my friend, but fuck that. Even if I ignore everything else—he tried to choke you. Hehurtyou. You can’t tell me you’re okay with that.”
She takes a deep breath, and with surprising calm, she states, “He wanted to push me away. He tried to scare me. But I don’t scare that easily.”
My head scrambles, trying to understand what she’s telling me. “So he pushed you away, yet somehow ended up completely unable to let you go. Literally refused to take his hands off you.”
“I wish I could explain it.” She chews on her lip. “He was fine until I asked about his mother. I wanted him to tell me more about her. He didn’t like it. And then he kinda… lost it. But I’m telling you, I understand him more now than I did before.” There’s a glint of determination in her eyes—one that tells me whatever they are to each other is definitely not over.
So, I was right. Discussion of what happened to his mother played a role in what happened. And the odd thing is, despite the fact that she says he lost it when prompted to talk about Lily—he obviously told hersomething,but I wonder how much. I don’t like this. Their relationship is volatile at best. Fuck. I don’t know how to help them.
I’m so distracted by my thoughts I don’t realize Lennon has slid her hands around to my back until they’re dipping under the waistband of my joggers. Air punches from my lungs as she kneads my ass cheeks, and for a moment everything is perfect. Gorgeous girl. Hands in my pants. Cock quickly hardening.Fuuuck.
I inhale sharply as warning bells begin to clang in my head.
“Lennon, wait.” I skim my hands from her upper arms over her shoulders before carefully sweeping them up her neck so I can cup her face between them. “I need to…” I work my jaw to the side, trying to figure out how to say this without offending her.
She looks up at me, that trust I’d felt earlier still shining there. “You need to what?”
“I can’t.”Fuck.I release a ragged breath. “I need you to know that you’re beautiful, and I’d like nothing more than to lay you down and make us both feel really good.”
Her brow furrows as her teeth come down on her lower lip, worrying the skin there. “But…?”
Does she have a clue what my concern is? “But you’re hurting. And the physical bruises are only the tip of the iceberg. It’s been a rough day for you emotionally. Fuck, it’s been hell for me, too. And I don’t want us to fall into a pattern where you’re hurting about something Mason—orfuck,anyone else—has done, and I become the one you seek comfort in.”
She looks up at me from under hooded eyes, a prominent flush creeping onto her cheeks. “Could you explain why that’s a bad thing?”
I take one unsteady breath and then another. Her hands haven’t moved from their position on my ass. My dick would like to know why I’m saying a goddamn thing. And maybe I shouldn’t, but fuck. With my heart thundering in my chest, I murmur, “Because I don’t want times like this to be theonlyones when you come to me. I love that I make you feel safe. But that can’t be all this is. Not for me.” At the wounded look on her face, my eyes crash shut. “I’m sorry. I have way too many areas of my life where I deal with secrets and untruths and outright lies. I don’t want to keep things from you.”
“No.” She nibbles on her lip again. “I see what you’re saying. I didn’t mean to make you feel like that.” Her hands slide out of my pants to rest lightly on my hips.
Needing to occupy my mind with something other than the tempting nakedness of the girl in my arms, I murmur, “I’m happy to take care of you, though—and I actually think the first thing we should be addressing is your back.”
