by Elle Boon
Feeling the stress of the night, and possibly the effects of the beer catch up to her, she flicked the light off, the room lit by moonlight filtering in gave her enough to see her way to the bed. She didn’t bother taking the half a dozen pillows off before peeling back one corner of the comforter and easing inside. Her head hit the pillows, enveloping her in softness. “Goodness, I could get used to this.” She yawned, feeling herself relax for the first time in a long time.
Kailani felt hands sliding up her legs, stripping away her pants. She fought, screaming for someone to help her, only realizing something was in her mouth, keeping her from making any noise. She thrashed around, finding her arms and legs unable to move. Frantic now, she fought harder, darkness weighing heavy on her like the man on top of her. “Please,” she cried.
The sound of something crashing made her fight harder, whimpering as she knew the pain that would come from her not just allowing them to do what they wanted.
“Kailani, it’s me, Traeger. Wake up,” he whispered.
The blankets were wrapped around her so tightly, she couldn’t get free one minute and then the next, she was in Traeger’s arms, his deep voice soothing her as she cried.
“Nobody can hurt you now. I’ve got you.” He kept murmuring over and over, one hand was on her back, the other ran over her head, like she was a child while he held her against his chest.
“I’m ss...sorry. I had a nightmare,” she whispered, anguish in every word. God, she hadn’t had one in such a very long time.
“It’s fine. I have them on occasion too,” he assured her.
Kailani leaned back, her tears making it hard to see him. “Bullshit,” she hiccupped.
He laughed, his thumb coming up to brush a tear away. “Not bullshit. I haven’t had one in a few years, but I’ve had them. Trust me, they’re not pretty.” He brushed another tear away. “Want to talk about it?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“How about we go outside and listen to the ocean lap at the sand?”
She was shocked at his easy acquiesce to her denial to answer his question. “I got your shirt wet,” she pointed out.
Traeger shrugged. “It’ll dry. Come on, let’s go out and let mother nature soothe our souls. There’s water in a cooler calling our names.” He stood up and offered her his hand.
Kailani knew this man was dangerous, but not once did she stop to think about denying his request. Her hand settled in his as he waited for her. She scooted off the side of the bed, her bare feet hitting the cool tile floor.
“You want your shoes?” Traeger asked.
She looked down to see he was barefoot and shook her head. Why seeing his big feet made butterflies dance in her stomach, she had no clue, but she’d take that over the fear she’d felt in her dreams.
Chapter Seven
Traeger wanted to find every motherfucker who’d touched Kailani, and kill them, slowly. No, he wanted to keep them alive as he brutalized them, daily. He’d find out what they’d done to her, then he’d have that done to them, only ten times worse. When he’d heard her cry out, he’d rushed to her room, not surprised to find it locked, but slightly surprised to see she’d put a chair in front of the door. None of that deterred him as he’d heard her scream. His first thought was someone had gotten in while he’d been out by the water. He’d run faster than he’d ever done in his life, but what he’d found had broken something inside him. Kailani, twisting in the bed, crying, and fighting as if she were being tortured. He’d had to breathe in and out and count to ten before he approached the bed, only then was he able to untwist her from the bedding and call out to her in a voice that didn’t sound guttural. Fuck, he wasn’t cut out to be a babysitter, but he’d be damned if anyone else was allowed to hurt one more hair on her head.
“It’s nice out here,” she whispered.
He brushed off one of the chairs, making sure no sand had blown onto it. “Take a seat. I didn’t bring any fancy water, just plain ole bottled stuff.”
She laughed. “If you mean sparkling, that’s good. I hate that kind. I do, however, like flavored water, but plain is good too.” She held out her hand, their fingers brushing.
“Good to know.” He twisted the cap off before giving it to her, then grabbed one for himself. “Cheers,” he said, tipping it toward her.
Kailani took a drink, staring out at the ocean instead of at him. Minutes passed with neither of them speaking. “My brother and father are monsters.”
Traeger sat his water down, turning to face her. “I figured that out.”
She didn’t look at him or say anything for another long minute. “When I was sixteen, my mother died. Until then, we were a happy family, or maybe I just thought we were. My mama, she was the most bonita mama in all the world. Then one day, she didn’t come home from shopping. The car she was in was blown up. It tore mi padre up, made him into a monster. My hermano, Rico, he had to take over. I...I didn’t see my father for two years. On my eighteenth birthday, Rico and my father planned a surprise party for me. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected. I didn’t have a lot of friends because...of who mi familia is, but I wasn’t expecting a houseful of my father and brother’s associates.” She shuddered.
He didn’t need her to go on with her story, but she clearly needed it, so he let her.
“You need to know what, or rather who you’re protecting. I’m not some innocent damsel in distress, Traeger. My birthday was not what I expected, but it became what my life was for the next five years. I never knew if I closed my eyes at night, if I’d wake up to find one of mi padre’s or hermano’s associates on top of me,” she choked out.
“You don’t have to go on, Kailani,” he said.
She shook her head. “I’d been reading a book that I’d been waiting to read forever. Summer had just started, which I normally don’t look forward to because I...well, I don’t have a lot of friends, so I get lonely. But I was looking forward to going off to college the following school year.” She took a shuddering breath. “I really wanted to go to New York, but my father would never allow me to go so far away. However, I got accepted at the University of Southern California, which was the next best thing since it gave me hope I’d one day be—free.”
Traeger let her talk, keeping his body relaxed although he wanted to scoop her up into his arms.
“Rico stormed into my room holding several bags, acting strangely, almost jovial, and for him that was very odd. When he hit me on the ass, it shocked me, yet the gifts were even more out of the normal since my father never allowed me to wear revealing clothing before. I thought it was a joke. Could you imagine your older brother giving you see through lingerie to wear and expecting you to come down to a party in your honor wearing it?”
Traeger didn’t answer her, giving her the time and space she needed to gather her thoughts.
“I truly thought it was a joke and didn’t put it on. I dressed in one of my favorite outfits and went down, expecting...a party like a normal one. What I found instead was a room filled with men who I knew associated with my father and brother, and a glaring father at the bottom of the steps. Mi padre yelled up at me, wanting to know what the hell I had on, he looked at my brother like he’d done something wrong, which angered him. I could see the vein in the side of Rico’s temple pulse, and then he was beside me on the steps, where he grabbed me by the arm and marched me back upstairs. Once we were in my room he informed me that if I didn’t put the outfit he bought for me on, he’d allow his bodyguard to do it for me. Trust me, Thomason, his guard would’ve loved to do just that.” Kailani licked her lips, taking a drink of water before continuing. “Rico told me that he wouldn’t allow me to disobey him again. If he ordered me to do something, I was to do it, or suffer the consequences.”
Traeger watched as a tear rolled down her cheek, saw how hard she fought to control the shudders wracking her frame. However, he didn’t try and interrupt her.
“When I made my way out of my room wearing the scraps
Rico had given me, I felt more exposed than if I’d been naked. At the top of the stairs, I stood there and thought of launching myself over the ledge instead of walking down them, then I met my father’s gaze and knew that he would prefer me dead and thought screw that. I held my head high and took the steps one at a time. Every person there was male, and I felt like I was on display, which I was. They all had this knowing look in their eyes, each one planning what they would do to me. The one saving grace was my prick of a brother wasn’t going to be privy to...my earning my keep. He informed me he wouldn’t be sticking around while that happened. Oh, and he was gracious enough to ensure one of his buddies was the first, so I didn’t have to lose my virginity to an old man with quote unquote saggy balls.” She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hands.
Traeger gripped the bottle of water, wishing like hell he could’ve been there for her. Fuck, how the hell could a father and brother not only allow, but facilitate such shit?
Kailani inhaled deeply. “I don’t know why they hated me so deeply. Rico was older than me by twelve years so there shouldn’t have been any resentment. Heck, our father didn’t show me any favoritism, quite the opposite in fact. Of course, after that...that first night I realized it wasn’t me, or not just me, but women in general. Neither my father, nor brother respect women. I don’t know that they respect anyone other than themselves.” She turned to stare at him, her eyes shimmering in the darkness.
“I’d say men like them only respect power and who can give it to them. Whatever they see as below them is nothing.” He traced the water dripping on the bottle with one finger, thinking of how life for Kailani must’ve been. One huge nightmare, day after day, night after night.
She nodded. “I think you’re right. That first night...it was, is a blur mostly as was the next couple of days. I remember coming down to breakfast hardly able to move, every part of my body ached. I probably should’ve gone to the hospital to be checked out, at the very least. However, my father would never have allowed that. Instead, I suffered in silence, wincing with each movement. My father met my gaze, his steady as he’d regarded me. He’d left the house shortly after the auction, everyone there knowing what was going to happen next. I begged my father not to go, but he walked out without looking back. The bastard was too much of a pussy to stay and watch or be near when his own daughter was being raped by a man he’d allowed into his own home, yet that morning at breakfast he held my gaze as if he was lord and master.” She took another drink, her voice cracking.
“He is a pussy. Any man who must force a woman to have sex or allows a woman to be forced to have sex, is a pussy. No, a man, a father who does that, is worse than a pussy,” he growled.
She gave a mirthless chuckle. “In my world it is normal. You see, he thought by offering me a new car, it would make it better. Maybe I should’ve taken it, but I have pride. When he laid a set of keys on the table that morning, tapping them with one long finger, saying in his clipped accent ‘a present for you’, like that would make up for what I’d gone through. I got up from the table, pushing them back toward him with as much dignity as I could and told him I didn’t want payment for being his whore. I told him that was his son’s job. I limped away, which wasn’t such a great way to exit, but he let me go without another word. I remember walking out, my head high, holding my breath waiting for one of the bodyguards to drag me back into the room for a beating.”
He could see the fear and horror written on her face, could tell she’d relived the entire scene all over again as she’d sat there and told him of it. Son-of-a-bitch, how this beautiful strong woman stood up to the bastard of a father only days after enduring what she had, showed him just how much of a fighter she was.
“Don’t,” she whispered.
Traeger cocked his head in question.
“You’re feeling sorry for me. Don’t. I learned quick that night that wishes were for fairytales. You see the first man to take me had been Rico’s friend. He bought me for the weekend. That’s how my father had it set up, auction style. The bastard had slipped his jacket over my shoulders after he won the auction that night, making me think he might be gallant, like a knight in shining armor. That was the first and last time he showed any kindness. I don’t want a knight, or some fairytale prince Traeger.”
“That’s good, Kailani. I don’t think I’d look real good in a pair of tights. Besides, fairytales are for little girls and you’re all grown up.”
She laughed. “If I hadn’t been, I sure as hell did that night and every night since then. I thought I’d be saved once I went off to college in the fall, but as you probably figured out, that never happened.”
Fuck, his fist was clenched so tightly he felt his fingernails biting into his palms. “Can I hold you please?” he bit out.
“What?” she turned to him. Her eyes glassy with unshed tears.
“I need to hold you, Kailani, but I don’t want to just pick you up. Will you let me hold you?” He held his breath, hoping like hell she said yes. If not, he would be calling King for someone to come and take his place while he went hunting.
With a cry, she leapt out of the seat and into his arms. Traeger closed his eyes, pulling her against his chest, and let her cry until she stopped. He felt his own eyes tearing up but didn’t try to stem the tears. What this woman had been through, no woman should have faced. A father, a brother, was to protect their family, not do what hers had done. For that, they’d signed their death warrant. Oh, he knew King and the other MC brothers would need to be brought in, but at the end of the day, Traeger would be the one dealing out the justice to them.
“Traeger, will you make love with me?” she whispered.
He stiffened. She’d been through so much, and he knew she was only asking because she was having some sort of Stockholm shit. “No, sugar, that’s not what you want or need. Let me hold you. I’ll keep your ghosts at bay, and then when the sun comes up, we’ll get some breakfast and maybe Keys will have some news for us.” Telling her no was one of the hardest things he’d ever done, but shit, he should get a medal for it. His cock jerked in protest.
She sat up, her hip bumping against his dick. “You don’t want me because I’m a whore?”
Traeger gave her a little shake. “Don’t you ever call yourself that ever again. You are the farthest thing from that. Besides, there is nothing wrong with a woman who sells herself, if that’s what she chooses. Hell, prostitution is the oldest profession in the world. What happened to you wasn’t your fault, and it sure in the hell doesn’t define you. In my eyes, you’re still a virgin.”
Kailani snorted, but he gave her another little shake. “No, listen to me. Did you consent?” At her head shake, he continued. “Then you, sugar, are a virgin. I don’t want to take advantage of your vulnerability. I want you like hell, but I’ll be dammed if I’ll be in the same classification as those other fucks.”
She bent and pressed her forehead against his. “You’re nowhere near their classification. Those fucks are lower than the dirt in a shit-house porta potty. You, Traeger, are so much better than they ever were. Now, I’ll ask again, so please don’t make me beg. Will you make love with me, not to me?”
He tipped her chin up with one finger, meeting her heated stare with his. “I am not an honorable man, sugar. I can’t offer you pretty words or happily ever after. Hell, I can’t offer you much after this is over. You okay with that?” He wasn’t going to lie to her.
Kailani nodded, looping her arms around his neck. “When this is over, I don’t plan to be around here either. I want tonight, Traeger, and maybe whatever else we can grab while we’re together.”
Hearing her say the same thing as he did didn’t sit well with him, but he wasn’t going to allow himself to question the whys. Instead, he bent and covered her lips with his, kissing her like a man deprived of water. He raised his head, checking to see that she was with him. Although she was kissing him back, with her past, he was sure that was something she’d done automatically
. However, he knew a woman’s eyes didn’t lie, and right now, Kailani’s were sparkling with joy. Flicking his tongue out, he licked over her bottom lip, repeating the action over her top. “You doing okay, sugar?”
“Yes,” she said on a gasp. Her arms going around his neck like she was afraid he would push her away.
“Let’s take this inside.” He gave another teasing flick of his tongue over her lips, and was rewarded when hers came out to join his.
She shook her head. “No, here. I’ve never made love outside like this.”
The honesty and need shook him. He opened his eyes inquiringly to see Kailani looking up at him, her jaw clenching tightly.
With a nod, he stood, taking her with him to the corner of Cosmo’s patio where his friend had a set of loungers that resembled a bed. “Anything you want, I’ll give you, sugar.”
“I like that name better than princess.” Her arms held onto him securely as if she feared he’d drop her.
“It suits you,” he agreed. “Is there anything you don’t like, anything that you don’t want me to do?” If he sounded like a fucking pussy, he didn’t give a shit. With Kailani, he’d be one...for a minute. Hell, he’d be one for as long as it took to get her comfortable.
“I want you, all of you. I’m not scared of men, Traeger. I used techniques to...get through what I had to, but I’m not going to do that with you. I choose to be here with you, completely. Show me what it’s like to want a man. No, scratch that. I want you, let me be with you.”