Building Faith (Long Beach Series Book 2) (33 page)

Our chests are damp where they've been crushed together, and Ace carefully eases down slightly until he can rest his head on my breasts. He's still supporting most of his weight, but I love the feel of him wanting to be close to me. His head rises and falls with my every breath, and I can see his back moving as he tries to calm his breathing. “Holy fuck,” he manages to mutter.

I smile, unable to see his expression. “So you liked it?” I tease, already knowing the answer.

He chuckles against me. “That was off the charts. What about you?”

“Most definitely,” I tell him.

I wake abruptly a few nights later, and the haze of sleep fades as I try to figure out what pulled me out of my sleep. Faith's bedroom is still dark, and I turn my head and peer at the clock, seeing that's it's only a little past midnight. We'd only fallen asleep about an hour ago. I make a move to draw Faith closer to my body when I hear her whimper.

Fuck.

These nightmares she's having bother me more than she'll ever know. I wish I was enough to keep them at bay. I'm not sure what's suddenly brought them on, but I have a feeling she's keeping something from me. She keeps brushing it off when I bring it up, and I haven't reached the point where I want to force the topic.

“No...” Faith moans in her sleep, her body restless now as she twitches slightly, her hands pushing out in jerky movements as if trying to fend someone off.

I realize that this is more than her usual nightmare and quickly slide closer. She's on her side with her back to me. I press my body against hers, my arms wrapping around her securely. “It's okay,” I try to soothe.

Unfortunately, the second I try to embrace her, she screams like she's being murdered while fighting to escape me. Son of a bitch! I'd just wrapped my arms around her from behind while she's in the throes of a nightmare. She'd admitted to me a while back that she doesn't like being pinned, at least not from behind.

I curse and quickly burst into action, trying to gently pull her onto her back so she doesn't fling herself off the side of the bed. She's sobbing now, and her fists are flailing. Christ, how the hell do I get her to wake up? I straddle her hips and pin her wrists on either side of her head, careful not to hurt her. Her head is tossing from side to side, and even in the moonlight, I can see the tears that stream down her cheeks. “Faith! Wake up!”

Her eyes open, but she stares up at me blankly, not even a hint of comprehension or lucidity in her gaze as she begs me to stop. I know it's not me, it's Justin she sees in her mind, but it fucking hurts like a knife to my gut.

I'm afraid to let go of her wrists since she's struggling violently now, her small hips thrashing beneath mine while her legs kick at the mattress. “Faith,” I grit out desperately.

The room suddenly brightens, causing me to wince and blink a couple times. What the—I'm yanked off Faith before I can even comprehend what's happening. A fist slams into my jaw, and I'm falling off the bed before I can stop my momentum.

I sit there on the carpet—jaw throbbing and buck ass naked as the situation begins to unfold before my eyes. Faith is sobbing now, and my heart stutters in my chest when I see Caleb sitting on the bed with her in his arms. He's bare chested with only a pair of jeans on, and he's murmuring softly to her. I can no longer see her face since Caleb's back is in the way.

There's a part of me that knows I'm thoroughly fucked where Caleb is concerned, but all I care about is Faith. I scramble to my feet and before I can walk towards the bed, Zoey—who is wearing nothing except for one of Caleb's shirts--is suddenly in my way.

Her hand presses firmly against my chest while her other hand holds out my jeans. “Don't,” she says softly with plaintive eyes as she urges me to listen to her.

I glare at her. “Get out of my way.”

“He hit you once, he'll do it again. It looked real bad when we rushed in here, you realize that, don't you?”

It dawns on me exactly how bad it had likely looked when they'd burst in here. I was pinning Faith to the mattress while she was begging me to stop. I'm still naked...and so is she. I stare down at Zoey with disbelief. “You can't possibly think that I'd...that I'd...” I can't say it. Just the thought of forcing myself on Faith has me feeling ill.

Zoey shoves the jeans into my chest, her eyes softening. “We know. But it still looks bad. We were just going to bed when we heard Faith scream. It's not what we were expecting when we rushed in here.”

I glance down at the jeans, not the least bit bothered by my nudity. However, it would probably be wise to put something on. I grab the jeans out of her hand and quickly yank them on and over my hips, leaving the top button undone.

I run a hand through my hair and glance back at Faith. Caleb is still with her, and I can see her small hands clutching at his sides as he talks quietly. I can't make out what he's saying, but I can tell she's finally coming back to reality.

Zoey touches my arm, drawing my attention back to her. Her eyes are sad as she says, “I know it's the last thing you want to do, but you have to walk away tonight. Caleb's usually pretty level-headed, but he's already hit you once, and I have a feeling he'll come at you again if you stay. The best thing you can do for Faith right now is to go back to your place.” She grimaces and adds, “I'm betting someone called the police. That scream was loud enough to wake the dead. The last thing the police need to witness is you and Caleb fighting.”

I know she's right, but it's impossible to walk away from Faith. She needs me. I shake my head. “I'm staying.”

Her expression hardens. “Put Faith first, Ace. This situation will be harder on her if you stay. You know that. I'm sure she'll be looking for you in a bit, but for now, let Caleb handle it.” She pushes on my bicep, trying to shove me out the door.

I'm solid muscle, so my feet don't move an inch as I glare at her and brush her hand away. “Zoey, knock it off.”

“You knock it off, you stubborn ass!” she hisses at me, her brown eyes flashing with temper. “If you care about either of them, you'll leave before you make it worse. Stop putting your feelings first and think of hers. You really think she wants to see you two beating each other to bloody pulps? That's exactly what's going to happen if you stay,” she insists. “Caleb took you by surprise, but I know you sure as hell are going to hit him back if he plants one on you again. Ace...think logically for a second.
Please.
”

She's right. As much as I want to be the one holding Faith, it'll only make the situation worse. Caleb's not likely to give her up, and Faith is in no condition to have to witness more drama. I shoot Zoey a look and then silently turn and stalk out of the room. I make my way down the hall and out of Faith's apartment, noting that an apartment door is cracked open down the hall and someone's peeking out. Zoey's right, the police are more likely on their way.

Thankfully, my apartment door is still unlocked, and I step inside and shut the door. After flipping on the living room light, I drop down on the sofa. Tonight went to shit in the blink of an eye. I let lose a long string of curses as I drop my head back against the sofa and look up at the ceiling with frustration.  Can't things just settle down for longer than a week at a time so Faith and I can actually enjoy what we're building? It's been one damned thing after another. We just got past the hurdle of my issues, and now we've got to deal with Caleb. Not to mention we have her nightmares to sort out as well. I'm sure as fuck not dodging that topic anymore. As far as I've been able to tell, Faith has been doing fine where her past has been concerned. Then a week ago, she starts having nightmares almost nightly. Something had to have triggered them, and I need to know if it was something I did. Was it that night we'd played with that restraint kit? No, it couldn't have been because she'd been having nightmares before that night. We also haven't messed with restraints since. I had meant it when I told her I didn't want our relationship to be all about that. I want it to be more. There's no doubt she liked it, but the sex we've been having lately has been exciting enough for me to want to continue exploring it with her. I have yet to take her against a wall or take her while she sits on the bathroom counter top, but that will come with time. If Zoey blabbed about any details from when we hooked up, the last thing I want to do is have sex with Faith against a wall where she might feel like she's being compared. I'm being careful to make sure that we do things that will make her feel comfortable, and so far we both seem to love the position of me being behind her.

Realizing my mind is wandering, I shake off my thoughts on sex and try to concentrate on what had just gone down in Faith's bedroom.

It's going to be a shit week for sure.

One second I'm caught up in the memory of Justin attacking me with the knife, and then within the next, I am realizing that I'm naked and pressed against my cousin's chest. His bare chest. Eww! “Lemme go,” I grumble as I try to push away from him.

Caleb's arms tighten around me. “Not until I know you're fully awake.”

“This is so gross,” I moan as I struggle for the sheet around my hips.

“Yeah, you're awake,” I hear him say as he lets me go.

I jerk the sheet up to cover my breasts as I look around with complete and utter bewilderment. Caleb is sitting on my bed in front of me in just a pair of jeans while Zoey stands there in nothing but a man's shirt. She's peering at me worriedly, her expression tense but also mixed with resignation.

“What...what are you doing here?” I ask as I look around for Ace. Ace. Oh no! My eyes dart around the room, and I see it's empty.

Zoey clears her throat. “I urged him to go back to his place.”

Caleb tenses before me, then he reaches out and touches my tear stained cheek, his eyes searching. “This was from a nightmare, right? Ace wasn't doing something he shouldn't be, was he?” he asks in a carefully controlled tone.

It sinks in what he's asking, and my eyes widen with shock. “He would never do anything like that.”

There's a loud pounding sound from my apartment door and the muffled sound of someone calling out, “Police! Open up!”

My mouth falls open. “The police are here?”

“I'll go let them in,” Zoey says as she darts out of the room.

I look back at Caleb with amazement. “You called the police?”

He shakes his head. “No, one of the neighbors must have. Your scream was loud as shit.”

The police are here.
Oh my God.
I quickly scramble off the bed, yanking the sheet around me so that I can get the robe that's hanging behind my door. I just manage to pull it around me and cinch the waist when Zoey comes down the hall with two stern looking police officers.

I spend the next twenty minutes talking to the police. When Caleb brings up my past, I have to inform them what went down in Harrison with Justin
and
Oliver. The officers take notes as they listen intently. It's just as I expected. Oliver hasn't ever approached me face to face, so there's not much that can be done. They tell me they'll contact the Harrison Police Department for further details about my case and eventually they leave.

Now, I'm alone with Zoey and Caleb in my living room. A tense silence has fallen upon us, and I realize just how bad things are going to get in the coming weeks. This was the worst possible way for Caleb to find out about me and Ace.

“How long?” Caleb asks as he gazes at me with grim disappointment.

I hate that this is going down the way it is, but I refuse to hide my feelings for Ace any longer. “A while,” I admit.

I expect him to say more, but instead his eyes lock on Zoey, who actually seems to shrink slightly from his direct gaze. “You knew about this?”

My mouth opens to lie for Zoey, but Zoey looks at Caleb and says “Yes. I just figured it out last week.”

He stares long and hard at her for a moment. Without a word to either of us, he rises to his feet and calmly walks out of my apartment.

“Zoey, I'm sorry,” I whisper.

She looks at me wryly. “He'll get over it. At least the part about me omitting the fact that Ace and you have been hooking up. As for Ace and Caleb...” She winces. “Caleb hit him.”

“Caleb
hit
Ace?”

“Ace was naked and on top of you when we barged in. He had you pinned, and you were begging him to stop. Look, we know that it was a nightmare and that Ace was trying to wake you up, but in that moment, it looked really, really bad.”

“I need to go see him,” I say as I brush past Zoey and hurry out of my apartment. When I try Ace's apartment door, the knob turns easily in my hand.

I step inside and see that the living room light is on, and Ace is sitting on the couch looking defeated. His head lifts, and his eyes lock on mine. “I hate that I couldn't help you.”

“I haven't had a bad one like that in months,” I apologize as I walk over to him. I see that his jaw is turning dark purple right below the corner of his mouth. Very carefully, I settle on his lap so that I am straddling him as I reach out and gingerly touch the angry, bruised skin. He doesn't even flinch as he continues to gaze at me.

“I'm sorry,” I whisper as my eyes fill with tears.

Ace's hands settle on my thighs, and his lips tighten. “You've got nothing to be sorry about. It was shit luck that Caleb came bursting in like that.”

“He was only trying to protect me. Not that I'm making excuses for him,” I say quickly and add, “It was wrong of him to hit you.”

He sighs. “I didn't want to leave you, but Zoey insisted that if I stayed, it'd only rile him up worse.”

“There's some things we need to talk about.” I have to tell him about Oliver. There can't be anymore secrets or our relationship will never survive. The past few weeks have been tougher than I could have ever imagined when Ace and I had agreed to take our relationship to the next level.

Ace's eyebrow quirks. “No shit,” he says dryly in reference to my comment. “No more dodging the topic of these nightmares you're having. I know something has triggered them. Is it me, Faith?”

I'm shocked, and I probably look as much. “No, of course not!”

His fingers tighten slightly on my thighs, and he stares hard at me. “Then why did they start? Honest truth.”

Here we go. This isn't how I wanted to tell him. Not after what went down with Caleb, but I can't wait any longer. “Justin has a brother, Oliver. I think he's after me now that Justin is in prison.”

“After you how?” Ace asks suspiciously, his gray eyes narrowing.

I explain about the accidents in Harrison, and that they are the real reason I'm here in Long Beach. I tell him that Caleb is aware of the incidents, which is why he's been so overprotective. Ace is silent and grim up until I get to the part that Oliver was asking about me at the café.

He carefully eases me off his lap so that he can stand up. His fists are clenched at his sides as he begins to pace like a caged animal. “So he's
here?
He wants to hurt you?” he asks tightly as he stares me down with a feral protectiveness that I had known was coming.

I stand up and adjust the robe, which had begun to fall open across my chest. “I think that's why my nightmares have started up again. I was fine until Ben called to tell me that Oliver had disappeared from Harrison.”

“That fucker's not getting anywhere near you,” he says harshly. I watch as he turns away and begins to curse profusely under his breath as he works out his anger over the news I'd just shared.

I'm silent as I wait for him to calm down. Ace has never been temperamental around me, and this is a new side of him that I haven't seen. Justin used to take his anger out on me, not necessarily physically, but usually with brutal accusations. The kind that begin to chip away at one's self-esteem, leaving nothing left but an insecure shell. As I watch Ace struggle with his temper, I know that he'll never take his anger or a bad mood out on me. In fact, he's now on the opposite side of the room. It's as if he's trying not to further aggravate me while he tries to handle his temper.

Movement comes from the hallway, and we both look up to see Jeremy standing in the doorway in just a pair of black briefs, his face slightly bewildered. “Something going on?” he asks as he frowns at both of us.

“Go back to bed,” Ace orders in a voice that betrays his surly mood.

Jeremy puts his hands up in surrender. “I didn't want to be a part of whatever this is anyway,” he mutters as he turns and disappears down the hall. A second later a door shuts firmly.

Ace turns on me, his expression now accusing. “Why would you keep something like this from me? You should have told me a long time ago that some lunatic might be gunnin' for you.”

I expected this. I knew he'd be upset, but the accusing look in his eyes cuts me deep. Instead of rushing over to beg his forgiveness like the old Faith would have, I take a moment to sort out my thoughts. The reality is, I shouldn't have to answer to anyone about any actions I take. I'm an adult now, and this is
my
life after all. I completely get Ace's anger, but the last thing I want or need is Caleb, Ace, and the others babysitting me or keeping me safely guarded under lock and key. I came here to live, and that's exactly what I've been doing. I love where life has taken me these past few months, and I refuse to cower anymore or give in to my fears.

I fold my arms over my chest and face him, my gaze holding his. “I'm sorry, I really am. I felt bad keeping it from you, but since he wasn't in town, it was easy to move on and concentrate on all the things I wanted to do with my life. I knew there was a possibility that he might follow me, but I didn't want to dwell on it.  Then, when Ben called with the news that Oliver had left Harrison, I decided to keep it to myself. The last thing I want or need is anyone babysitting me or trying to keep me from living my life for fear that Oliver might try something. I've let fear and uncertainty control my life for too long now, Ace. I'm done being the girl that always does what everyone wants her to do.”

When he opens his mouth to interrupt, I put a hand up to warn him I'm not finished. “I'm not stupid; this is serious. I know it is. Which is why I'm no longer walking to work, and I'm taking the bus. I won't be going out alone anymore, I'll be sure to have someone with me at all times. I will protect myself to the best of my ability, because I love this life and I'm not giving it up. I had every intention of telling you, I just hadn't figured out how to approach the topic. We've had enough to deal with lately, and I didn't want to add Oliver to the mix,” I say sincerely as I watch his reaction.

Much to my surprise, a proud smile flickers to life on Ace's lips. “I agree with every word that you just said.”

“You do?” I ask as my eyebrows furrow. I was expecting him to argue.

He walks over to me and brushes his thumb high up on my cheekbone where my freckles are scattered. His eyes are affectionate as he gazes down at me. “I've been watching you turn into the most beautiful and amazing woman these past few months. The girl you were when you first arrived tugged on my heart strings and made me want to find a way to put her back together again. I think I had a hand in who you've become since then, but most of it was all your own doing. I'm proud that you're not going to cower or hide. I'm proud that you want to take on the situation on your own.” His eyes turn very serious as he says, “But you know you can't protect yourself alone against this Oliver guy. You should also know that no matter how independent you get, I am still going to step in and help you when you need it, regardless of whether you ask for it or not. You and I are probably going to have plenty of arguments in the future over this, I look forward to it.”

“You want to argue?” I ask, feeling completely baffled.

He suddenly grins. “Arguments are usually followed up with hot make-up sex, right?”

“I wouldn't know,” I laugh. Leave it to Ace to turn the conversation to sex.

“I think we need to find out then,” he says as his hands slide down my hips and then he lifts me up so that my legs can wrap around his waist. I settle my arms around his shoulders and gaze up at him with a soft smile. “I love that even when we argue, I feel safe and secure. And that it's going to lead to amazing sex,” I add impishly.

Ace stares down at me, his eyes intently searching mine. “You know I love you, right?”

“You love me?” I whisper, completely stunned that he'd just put it out there like that. I figured it'd take Ace months to maybe even a year before he'd ever admit it to me.

“Head over heels,” he confirms as his eyes gleam dangerously. “He's going to try to take you from me, but he'll have to go through me first.”

“The police already know about the situation,” I say as I struggle with the topic change. On the outside I'm calm, but in the inside, I want to jump up and down like a little kid that just received the coolest gift ever. Ace loves me! Somehow, I manage to continue calmly, “Like I told Caleb when Ben first called to warn me about Oliver, if he wasn't concerned about witnesses, he would have already taken me out. Each time he's come after me, it's when I've been alone. As long as I'm not on my own, I'll be fine. And sooner or later he's going to screw up, and it'll give the police a reason to connect him with the incidents in Harrison.”

“I need time to think about the situation. I just found out about it tonight, but tomorrow I want to start figuring out a better way to keep you safe,” he says simply as he turns and carries me towards the hallway and into his bedroom. One hand leaves my bottom as he flips on the light and shuts the door.

A second later, I'm gently set down on a mattress—a mattress that's way too low to the ground. I sit up with bewilderment to look around. His bed is no longer in the room. All that's in its place is a box spring and mattress. “Where's your bed?”

“I have no use for it anymore,” he tells me as he slips off his jeans. He eases onto the mattress and grabs the tie of my robe, pulling on it so it unravels and the robe falls apart.