Unraveled (Holding On Book 3) (22 page)

“Look, Carly,” Nolan said as he switched tactics. “I
hit a rough patch awhile ago. Nothing in my life was going how I wanted it. My grades were crap. My parents told me that I needed a degree, any degree. But I had to have a degree in something if I was going to inherit the resort someday. With the way my grades were, that wasn’t going to happen. My future was going down the toilet. I—”

“Your future was going down the toilet? You asked me to marry you. I said yes!” she hissed. She glanced
around, wanting to be sure no one was hearing this. “You could have talked to me about your grades. The university offers tutoring services! We could have made things better. But you never even told me there was a problem!”

“The point is
, I was in a funk.”

“A
funk
?!”

“I made some bad choices.”

“Was proposing to me with a fake ring one of those ‘bad choices’?” she demanded.

He stared at her in stunned silence for a moment. “I can explain about the ring.”

She shook her head. “Don’t bother. Either you’re going to tell me a lie. Or you’re going to tell me a bullshit excuse that I don’t want to hear.”

“It’s not bullshit when I tell you that asking you to marry me wasn’t a bad choice. It was probably the only good choice I’ve made all year.”

Carly narrowed her eyes at him. He looked sincere. He sounded sincere. Did that mean anything? More importantly, did it matter? She decided it didn’t. Besides, he’d proven time and again that he was a master liar. She would be stupid to believe him now.

“Carly…please?” he implored.

Please what
? she wondered. Please go back to him? Please try to understand his reasons for being a fraud? Please don’t tell his parents? Again, none of that mattered.

“Tomorrow,” she said firmly. “I’m leaving after my class tomorrow afternoon. I want a check for the full amount then. If I don’t get it, I’m telling your parents everything.”

This time she walked away, not giving him a chance to argue. The bar had filled up a bit and she had to swerve her way through clusters of people. As she reached the exit, she tossed a final glance over her shoulder. Nolan was at the bar, downing a shot of something.

Carly let out a sound of contempt as she let herself out. The last thing he needed was another drink.

As she drove home, her mind was spinning. She knew with certainty that he wasn’t going to come through. Maybe he was just going to run away again. If she was going to get the money, she was going to have to go through his parents. She didn’t like it. There wasn’t really anything she could do about it.

She tried to push it out of her mind as she drove home. She still had plenty of homework left to tackle. With some effort, she tried to concentrate on that. By the time she walked through her front door, her mind was back on track. She’d started reviewing some of the day’s lecture note in her head.

With a sigh, she finally tossed herself back down on the sofa. More than anything, she wanted to call Jesse. She wanted to simply hear his voice. However, she’d been gone for an hour. She had a lot of catching up to do on her assignment. Furthermore, she knew if she called him, her head would
not
be on her homework.

So she pushed that thought away too and pulled her textbook into her lap.

Nearly two hours later, she was finished reading two chapters for one class and writing a paper for another. She stacked everything on the rickety excuse she’d been using for a coffee table. Exhausted, she got ready for bed. She was sure she fell asleep minutes after her head hit the pillow.

Sometime after that, her sleep was permeated by a dream.

“Jesse…” she mumbled on a sigh. Her eyes fluttered open in the darkness and she realized that she wasn’t dreaming at all. In her groggy state, she tried to pull a coherent thought together as a hand slid up her bare thigh. It came to rest under the hem of her pajama shorts. For a split instant, she was sure that Jesse had decided to surprise her with a visit.

The weight of someone’s body rolled on top of her.
Then a hot, wet mouth came down on hers. The taste that lingered was that of beer and sour whiskey. She let out a shriek as she instantly became awake.

“
Nolan
?! What the hell are you doing?” She tried to shove at him in the darkness but she was buried beneath him, his mouth on hers once again. Her heart was hammering as she tossed her head to the side. She was able to pull her hands free of the cage created by his arms. She pummeled him in the back but his hands slid down, circling her wrists and then sliding back up again, holding them over her head.

“Carly,” he slurred. “Just tell me you miss me. Tell me how to fix this.”

His horrible, hot breath was moist against her ear. The weight of his body was crushing her.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” 
she cried. “Get
off
of me!”

Ignoring her, he sought out her mouth again.

“Stop it! Just…
stop
!”

Breathing heavily, he lifted his weight a bit.

“What the hell are you doing?” she gasped. “You can’t just break in!”

“I have my key…” he mumbled.

She squinted into the darkness, barely able to see the outline of him. His key? She had never thought about that. With so much else going on, it had never crossed her mind. He’d chosen to leave. It never occurred to her that he would’ve kept the key. Shouldn’t he have turned it into their landlord?

He seemed to take her sudden silence as an invi
tation. He pressed his body against hers. She was infinitely grateful that he seemed to still be fully clothed because her thin pajamas didn’t provide a very reassuring barrier.

In the darkness, his mouth sought hers again. He settled on her neck when she tossed her head aside, shouting at him,
“
Get off
of me!” She sucked in a breath. “You’re drunk! You don’t know what you’re doing!
Just stop
!”

“Just let me show you how much I miss you,” he mumbled. His hands slid from her wrists as they headed south.

She took advantage of her freedom by wedging her hands between herself and his shoulders. With a momentous shove, she managed to roll him off of her. She rolled with him and without hesitating, she pulled her knee up hard and fast.

She was only vaguely aware of his guttural grunt of pain. She propelled herself over the top of him and lunged for the light switch.

Her heart was hammering and her body was on fire with anxiety when the room flooded with light. Nolan, fully clothed, was curled into a ball in the middle of her bed. She scurried out of the room, hurrying to the kitchen. On the way, she realized he’d left the entry door half-open. Frigid air was rolling in as his cluster of keys still hung from the doorknob. She pulled the ring out and tossed them into the living room. Then she hurried back toward the kitchen.

In seconds, she found what she was looking for.

Rolling pin in hand, she stormed back into her bedroom.

“Get out of my house. Get out, right now,” she commanded and he rolled over on
to his side. “Get out or so help me, I’ll crack you right over the head with this.”

He narrowed his eyes at her, or more likely the object she held firmly in her hand.

“You wouldn’t,” he said.

“Wouldn’t I?” she said. “Just try me.”

With a groan, he stumbled to his feet. Carly backed away, staying out of his range should he happen to lunge at her. He fumbled his way to the door, slightly hunched over, clearly still in agony.

“My keys,” he grunted.

“Not a chance in hell,” she fumed. “You’re not having access to this house. And you sure as hell aren’t driving anywhere in your condition.” Her bravery was bolstered by the sight of him, still moving at an excruciatingly slow rate. His pallor was sickly, probably a combination of the alcohol and the ache between his legs. She was glad. She took a menacing step toward him and pointed to the door with her free hand. “Out! Or I’m calling the cops!”

She realized she should probably do that anyway, but she just couldn’t imagine dealing with the drama. As he listened to her orders and stumbled out into the darkness, the reality of the moment crashed into her, knocking her into the wall. She leaned against it, gasping for breath as tears gushed from seemingly nowhere. The shock had worn off and terror had taken its place.

Forcing herself to move, she stumbled to the door and threw it closed. She flipped the lock and then glanced out the side window. She could vaguely make out his form, stumbling down the sidewalk, headed back toward the downtown area.

Satisfied that he was gone, she stumbled back to her room.

~*~*~

“Did he force himself on you?” Jesse grated out. His heart slammed against the wall of his chest.
When his phone rang in the middle of the night, he’d correctly assumed it was Carly. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d called him all hot and bothered. He’d answered with a sleepy grin on his face. The grin quickly faded as he’d flown out of bed, slammed into reality at the sound of her tears. Now he wasn’t just trying to calm
her
down, but himself as well. They’d been on the phone several minutes before her hysteria had died down enough for her to tell him what had happened.

“
Not…not like that, no. Not like what you’re thinking. He was just so drunk. I kept telling him no. I kept telling him to stop. I don’t think he knew what I was saying. Or what he was doing. I think he was just
that
out of it. I don’t think he meant—”

“Carly,” he interrupted. The world spun under hi
s feet. He sank onto his mattress as he scrubbed a hand across his face. “Tell me what I can do? Because right now, I want to kill the bastard. In fact,” he said as he stood up again, “I can be there in a few hours.”

“I can’
t stay here. I can’t just sit here, waiting for you to get here,” she said, her voice finally steady again. “In fact, I’m packing a bag as we speak.”

“You’re coming to me?” He breathed out a sigh of relief.

“He doesn’t have his key but I’m afraid he’ll come back. I mean, I don’t think he will but he might,” she said.

“Cricket,” he said softly,
fully aware of how shaken she was, “don’t you think you should call the cops?”

“He didn’t really break in,
he had a key. He didn’t hurt me. He just scared the crap out of me.” She was silent but for her strained breathing, an after-effect of her crying-jag. “You’re right. I should. I should call them. But if I do, I’ll have to go in and give a statement or something. I think. I don’t really know how that works. What if they won’t let me leave town or something? I can’t deal with that right now. I just need to see you.”

“If you’re
sure
.” He thought she was making a mistake. Yet, he understood what she was saying, too.

“I’m sure.”

“Are you okay to drive?”

He heard muffled noises in the background and assumed she was slipping into her coat.
The sound of a door opening and closing confirmed that she was leaving her house.

“I’m sure. In fact, I’m walking outside right now. I’m getting into my car,” she said, giving him some much needed commentary. He needed to know she was safely inside, that Nolan hadn’t been lurking in the yard. He heard the car door slam and the engine start.

“Jesse?”

“Yeah?” he asked around a heaving breath.

“I love you, Jess. More than anything.”

He had begun pacing again but her words stopped him
. He’d been waiting so long to hear them. He couldn’t help but wonder if she really meant it. Or if it was just a reaction to the stressful situation she was in.

“I love you, too, Cricket. Always have, always
will,” he quietly assured her.

“I mean it, Jess. I don’t know why it took me so long to say it. I’ve loved you since…well, since forever, too. That’s why when things were bad between us, it was so hard. But I do. I love you,” she insisted.

He let out a content sigh as he clenched the phone in his hand.

“Get some sleep, Jesse. I’ll let myself in when I get there.”

He wanted to smile at that, the thought of Carly simply crawling into bed beside him. But he couldn’t. The circumstances wouldn’t allow it.

“Call me if you get sleepy and need to talk,” Jesse said.

She managed a weak laugh. “I am so wide awake right now that it’s not even funny. But you work tomorrow so get some rest. Because once I get there, I plan on keeping you up for a while.”

That, finally, brought a small smile to his face.