Page 32 of Redemption

Rick

My arms wrap around her back as I drop to the floor with her on my lap, and my cock still inside her. Lifting my eyes to hers, I know she sees too much, and I’m almost grateful when her lips meet mine. I say almost because her kiss isn’t just a kiss. It’s the promise of more. It’s the idea of a second chance and something I never ever expected.

Shaking the thoughts away, I allow myself to fall into this moment, moving my mouth against hers. With each stroke of her tongue, another dent appears in my carefully constructed steel walls. And I know without a shadow of doubt that this won’t be the last time I seek her out. I’m fucked. Well and fucking truly.

Breaking the kiss a few minutes later, and before it goes any further—because let’s be honest, that’s where it was going—I grip her thighs and get to my feet. I can’t resist one last kiss as I drop her to her feet.

I watch from the corner of my eye as she gathers her clothes, but she doesn’t make a move to put them back on, perfectly comfortable with having her body on display. I silently curse as she bends down in front of me, picking up her top. I quickly look away before I change my mind and take her again.

“I’ll be back in a second. There’s beers in the fridge,” she says, heading for the ladder to the mezzanine floor. The implicit question of whether I’ll still be here when she returns is loud in its silence.

Jess is a woman who knows her own mind, knows what she wants, and she’s not afraid to show it or go after it. I know very little about who she really is outside of the information Tobias gave me before her rescue and what I’ve learnt over the past few days.

So far, I’ve managed to resist the temptation to dig deeper into her background. Not because I’m worried about what I’ll find, but for fear it will only pull me to her more. I know she has secrets, harbours a darkness not too dissimilar to mine and keeps her heart locked up tight.

I didn’t miss the bruises across her chest and shoulder caused by the seat belt when she crashed the other day. But they do tell me it wasn’t a small little accident as she implied. I’m surprised by the sharp stabbing pain at the thought of her hurt, and against my better judgment, I grab two beers from the fridge before following her up the ladder. I don’t think about the consequences or what it means that I didn’t just leave like she expected me to.

Reaching the top of the ladder, I don’t see Jess but hear water running from behind the screen. As I step up onto the floor, I take in my surroundings. The large bed that fills the space is dressed in rich, deep red silk sheets, and the clothes she was wearing are thrown haphazardly over it. There’s a laptop with a folder on the top, a small diary or journal on the bedside table along with a book, some romantic shit no doubt, and a simple lamp, which is on and casts a dim, shadowy light around the room.

I’ve just sat down on the bed when Jess steps out from behind the screen still naked. She lets out a quaint gasp at seeing me there. Her face is still flushed, a hint of pink lighting her cheeks, and her lips are plump and swollen. My cock stirs in my pants as my eyes rove over her full breasts, flared hips and slim waist.

Still not meeting her eyes because I can’t seem to take my eyes from her body, I watch as her long, tanned, shapely legs carry her towards me.

Stopping in front of me, I finally lift my eyes to hers, and I see the uncertainty in them. But above everything else that her face and eyes tell me, her body tells a different story as it hums with desire, arousal and want.

Keeping my eyes on hers, I reach out my hands, fingertips glancing over her hips to her toned abdomen.

“You seem to be wearing entirely too many clothes, Mr…” she pauses, not knowing my surname.

I lean forward at the same time as I grip her hips and pull her to me. “Sullivan,” I whisper against her stomach, burying my nose into her flesh and getting high off the sweet, tropical scent of coconut on her skin mixed with the erotic scent of sex.

I feel her tense, but whatever caused it is forgotten when I surge to my feet, taking her with me as I twist us and land on the bed with Jess beneath me and take her mouth like a dying man.

I watchbetween the curtain of blood running down my face as the man steps forward, taking Kuffs’ limp arm, lifting it then letting it go. It drops back to his side as the man screams at him to hold it out. Kuffs can barely lift his own head, let alone hold his limbs out. Blood flows down his torso, and mine, like a rich river of crimson, and I gag at the sight and smell.

I thrash at my restraints as a second man steps forward, a machete swinging loosely in his hand.

“Leave him alone. He’s had enough,” I cry out, but it’s weak and barely audible.

I must have passed out,and as consciousness works its way back in, I peel my eyes open and scan the darkness, seeking out Kuffs.

I don’t know how long I was out for, but as I raise my head, my back screams out in pain as red-hot fire races down it. As my eyes slowly adjust to the dark, I see a form just out of reach on the ground.

A pool of blood glistens in the moonlight around the form. My mind already knows who it is. It remembers the screams, the blood, the pain and pleading as they slashed at his skin. The acrid, metallic smell of burning flesh as they branded him over and over again.

A scream of anguish rips from my lungs…

“Aaargh!” I scream over and over until hands grip my face, holding me still. I fight to get away, but then a soft, soothing voice hushes me and sweet lips touching mine and the smell of coconut break through my fractured senses.

“Sssshhh, it’s okay. Rick, it’s me, Jess. I’m here, ssshhh.” I feel the weight of a warm body on mine.

My breathing begins to slow as sweat rolls off my forehead, and Jess continues to whisper to me, holding me tight.

As I gradually calm and my mind returns to now, a new fear unleashes inside of me. Fear that I could have hurt her. My dream flashes through my mind again, and I remember what came next that day. How I fought with everything I had to escape at the first opportunity, almost losing the battle as my body began to shut down on me. How I squeezed the life from the man who had tortured us both with a brutal savagery that was unrivalled.

Jess’ hand trails down my chest, and my mind is unable to separate the emotions trampling through me, causing me to tense and every muscle to lock tight.

Pushing up to look at me, Jess says, “Hey, it’s okay. It’s just me.” Her words are soft and strong, but the barest inflection bleeds through, and I know she’s afraid.

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