Evelyn Vine Be Mine (52 page)

My smile faded.

He didn’t look impressed.

He stared me down as he backed me into the room and I frowned in confusion.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Where’d you go?” he demanded.

“Out,” I said tersely, “Candy and I had a spa day.”

He glanced down at my outfit and raised an eyebrow.

“Then we went out for dinner and to watch Mase DJ,” I added.

“Next time ask,” he growled.

“Excuse me?” I hissed back in disbelief.

“I had plans,” he said.

“So did I,” I shot back, my hands coming up to rest defiantly on my hips.

“Tell me next time,” he said quietly, his eyes flashing dangerously.

“You’re not my keeper,” I snapped.

He eyed me for a moment and then huffed in frustration, swiping a hand down his face with a loud sigh.

“I wanted to thank you,” he said, taking a slow step forward and gently backing me into the wall.

“Thank me?” my mind tried to catch up, but the alcohol was slowing my thoughts and Stone’s closeness was sending my hormones haywire.

“For helping me,” he said softly, fingering the thin strap of my top and tickling my skin.

Oh, the assignment!

I calmed a little when I realised I’d spoiled his attempt to show his appreciation. I suppose I could have called and told him where I was…or at least paid attention to my phone…

I smiled up at him carefully and gently slipped my fingers beneath his shirt to grasp his belt and pull him closer. His head bent toward me and I closed my eyes in anticipation…but the kiss never came. I felt him freeze and then sniff. My eyes popped open in time to see his narrow dangerously.

“Have you been drinking?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“Yes,” I whispered nervously.

He gripped my shoulders hard and his voice lowered to an almost dangerously soft tone, “Don’t ever drink without me.”

Despite my fear, I bristled. What right did he have to boss me around?

Promise me! His eyes demanded.

I clenched my fists tight and meekly nodded, dropping my eyes from his even though I yearned to yell at him and storm from the room.

The stress left his body a little at my agreement and he bent forward once again to claim my lips. This time I turned my head away, still seething with anger. He growled very softly and tried again, turning my face gently with his strong hand and brushing his lips across mine. I held resolutely still, not budging even when he sensually licked my bottom lip. His growl of irritation was even louder this time as he nipped at me and pressed his big hard body up against me, his other hand twining in my hair.

I growled back and gave in to the inevitable. No way could I resist this man. I wasn’t going to go meekly though. I kissed him with all my anger and frustration, biting and clawing as I pressed closer. He responded in kind, lifting me off the floor with one hand, his other hand tightening in my hair and pulling my neck back to ruthlessly possess my mouth.

Our sex was wild and angry and we lay there panting afterwards, side by side in my narrow single bed.

We didn’t speak.

Feeling emotionally fragile after that explosive episode, I tried to roll from the bed, sick to my stomach from the tension in the quiet room. Stone gripped my arm though and pulled me to him, tucking me into his side. I pushed against him and slapped at his hands, trying to wriggle away.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. I stopped and glanced up at his sincere face. I had the strangest feeling he rarely said those words. He rolled to his side and gently cupped my face, kissing my lips so softly that I could barely feel it. Just like that, I melted. I didn’t want to be angry. I wanted his comfort. I wanted to understand what the hell was happening between us and why he did the things he did. I kissed him back carefully and then we lay back, staring up at the ceiling again in silence.

Several minutes later, to my surprise, it was Stone who broke the silence again.

“My mum was raped at sixteen,” he said emotionlessly. I jolted upright and stared down at him in shock. He’d said it out of nowhere and I’d never expected to hear something like that. He didn’t look at me, so I slowly lay back down and snuggled into his side again.

“She was at a party,” he said, “She’d drunk too much and couldn’t fight him off.”

He didn’t say anymore and it took me a moment to work out he was explaining himself.

I shut my eyes and let out a shallow breath. This was why he hated me drinking. Why he got so angry at Briar and I on her eighteenth.

“Did they get the guy?” I whispered cautiously.

Stone slowly nodded. “He was twenty. He did ten years on three counts of raping minors. Two other girls came forward.” He shrugged, “Apparently I have another half-sister out there somewhere. The bastard wasn’t one for protection.”

I swallowed back the bile in my throat. “You mean…” I broke off, not wanting to say it out loud.

“Stone is my mother’s maiden name,” he said with a growl, “I’m not using his.”

We fell into quiet again and his breathing slowed.

“Grant,” I whispered into the dark, “Are you awake?”

He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my temple in answer.

So I told him about Ben.

I started at the beginning, describing how I was so happy that someone as charming and good looking as Ben was interested in me: my nervousness about doing everything right to please him; keeping it a secret from my family and friends; his pressure to have sex; and finally his dictating my every move – who I could be friends with, what I could wear and where I could go and when.

“Everyone tries to control me,” I whispered, “My family, my friends…”

I paused and took a deep breath….

“Me,” Stone answered softly for me.

I nodded slowly.

“I swore I’d never let anyone have that much control over me again.”

“Did he ever force you?” Stone demanded, his tone icy, before dropping to a tense whisper, “Hold you down?”

“He- He didn’t use force,” I whispered, “I was just too weak to say no.”

Stone was still silent and it was a moment before something clicked in my mind.

“I like it when you hold me down,” I whispered softly, trying to reassure him, “I don’t feel threatened.”

Suddenly, I was flipped onto my knees, my bare ass in the air and Stone’s large, warm hands running up my back.

“What are you doing?” I asked nervously, an excited, but nervous quiver in my voice.

Stone growled and pressed his front to my back, leaning over me to reach my ear. “Making you forget that fucker existed,” he ground out…

And for several long glorious moments – he did.

Thirty-Two

My mind was working overtime the next morning as I contemplated what Stone had revealed about his mother. Our morning run together was spent in silence as usual, but there’d been a new sort of tension that suggested he too was thinking over our serious talk. I was distracted through each class and decided to go for another run that afternoon, lengthening my strides until I was running nearly full pelt around the rugby pitch. I ignored the rugby players watching me from their stretching positions in the centre of the field.

I’d just come to a big decision. I wasn’t going to drink without Stone anymore.

Sure, there was nothing that said I had to, and it definitely wasn’t because he’d ordered me not to…

It was because I didn’t want to worry him. Now that I understood his protectiveness, I was much more willing to comply. I closed my eyes in sympathy as I tried to imagine what it would be like to know my father was a rapist. But I couldn’t. I wondered where his father was now, but there was no way I was going to ask Stone. He might not even know himself.

I heard a fast, heavy tread coming from behind me and glanced back a little to see the rugby players had started their warm up run. Vince and Jesse, tall wingers, were trying to catch up to me, their long legs eating up the distance easily. I kept my pace and they panted as they slowed a little to match mine.

“Geez Evie,” Jesse said, shaking his head, “What’s got your panties in a bunch?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, pushing a little harder, my breaths starting to become difficult and a satisfying burn built in my legs.

“What’s with the sprint?” he continued, “You look like something’s really pissed you off.”

“Just thinking,” I gasped, “Well, trying to clear my head really.”

Vince laughed and winked at me, “Problems with Stone? I could sort him out for you.” He flexed his muscled arms and grinned, maintaining our fast pace easily.

I rolled my eyes at him. “No thank you,” I said clearly, “Everything’s good.”

Vince sighed and turned his head to shout back at the other backs, “Get your fat, lazy asses moving! Evie’s setting the pace for today’s warm up.”

A few guys groaned, but they picked up the pace, one of them shouting out, “But the view’s much better from back here!”

I frowned in confusion, but Vince glared back at them, “Stop perving on Evie’s ass! Get up here and run in front of us.”

That command was greeted by louder groans as they sped up again to overtake us. I blushed, but took revenge by perving on their tight asses as they passed.

“No way is this a warm up,” I heard one of them complain, so I tried to ease back the run a little in sympathy. Jesse shot me a knowing look and increased the pace again.

I grinned sheepishly at being caught, but slowed down anyway. “I’m going to cool down,” I told them, “Thanks for the company!”

“Anytime,” they answered together and I blushed.

***

“You look like you took a swim in your workout gear,” Candy commented as I trudged through our door.

Mason looked up from where he lay on her bed and wrinkled his nose. “Nice look, Evie,” he said with a chuckle. Candy walked over to the bed and flicked his ear hard.

“Ow!” he yelped, “What the hell, Cassandra?!”

She whacked him across the head this time. “Don’t call me that and stop being a pig,” she said sternly, “As if you look perfect after a hot and sweaty workout.”

He grinned lecherously and opened his mouth, but Candy covered it with one of her hands. “Behave,” she said with a giggle. He started munching playfully on her hand and I booked it to the bathroom, not wanting to stand around and watch their easy, playful banter. A surge of jealousy caught me by surprise as I turned on the shower and it took me a moment to work out why…

I couldn’t see Stone and I playing like that…losing ourselves in each other so much that we forgot that others were watching and let our guards down.

I shoved my head under the cold water and shuddered, but it took my mind off Stone…for the moment.

When I walked back into the bedroom, clothed comfortably in a short, cotton dress, Mason and Candy were sitting on the floor, a sketchbook in front of them as well as material and various bits of fishing gear. I looked at them curiously and Mason grinned back.

“My Halloween costume,” he said, with that look guys get when they get a cool new gadget or nerf gun to play with. “Candy wanted me to go in a lame fisherman outfit. Like some old guy in a tinny with all his favourite lures pinned to his hat and a puny fishing rod.”

“So what are you going as?” I asked curiously, hiding a smile.

His grin widened. “A proper seaman” – he paused to chuckle at the word like the immature boy he was – “With a portable harpoon and net.”

He shook his head at Candy with a sigh, “You can’t catch something as big as a mermaid with a puny bit of line and a crab net.”

Candy rolled her eyes at me and I withheld a giggle.

There was a knock at the door and Jamie strode in with a big bag and two pizzas. “Hey Evie!” he said happily, “I didn’t know you were joining us.”

“I’m not,” I said quickly, moving past him into the hall as my stomach growled loudly, “And I’m late for dinner.”