As her body comes flying back at me, I meet her in the middle. I launch myself at her and she instantly goes down with my body crashing down on top of hers. She reaches out, grabbing hold of my arms and digging her nails in deep. She tries to tear them down my arms but I shake her off, ignoring the pain as my hand curls into a fist and I slam it against her jaw.
My punch has nowhere near the kind of effect that Slade’s would, but for this bitch, it’s exactly what I need.
Rachel grabs at my shirt and tries to pull me down while bringing her knee up and slamming it into my back. I hit her again as her fingers curl around my long hair and tug hard.
Rachel gets me down to the floor and attempts to climb on top of me, desperately needing the upper hand but there’s no way in hell I’m about to let her do that. Not now, not ever.
I push her hand and she falls back, giving me the second I need to right myself.
Over the space of the next two minutes, two things become extremely clear. One; she fights like a little bitch, and two; I fight like a man.
It gets messy and she puts up more of a fight then I had expected, but she’s nothing I can’t handle. I keep her down and by the end, her ass is thoroughly whooped, though I’m not going to lie, we’re both sporting too many injuries to count.
A teacher comes bounding into the circle and grabs me, throwing me off Rachel and stepping between us. “What the hell is going on here?”
Complete, utter silence.
The teacher glares around the room, daring at least one person to speak up but they’re more afraid of ending up like Rachel than of the teacher.
When realizing where the students’ loyalties lie, he turns on me. “Get your ass down to the principal’s office now.”
I grin and nod, knowing that this was most likely the only scenario out of this.
Slade steps forward and takes my hand before pulling me away. “Come on,” he murmurs, curling his arm around my back and leading me out of the cafeteria. “Let me get you out of here.”
Chapter 17
Slade leads me out of the cafeteria and instead of heading toward the principal’s office as I assumed, he leads me out to the student parking lot. “Where are we going?” I question, looking up at him as he slips his hand into his pocket and pulls out his keys.
“I’m taking you home and cleaning you up.”
“I’ll be fine on my own,” I tell him, not wanting his pity. Maybe it’s best if we distance ourselves from one another. It couldn’t be healthy doing what we’re doing, not if I ever plan to move on and make the pain go away.
Slade ignores my comments and unlocks his Dodge RAM before opening the door for me. He helps me up and I cringe as the movement has pain spreading throughout my body. Now I know I whooped Rachel’s ass, but I’m still human and she’s got a nastier bite than I was expecting.
My scalp hurts from where she tried pulling out chunks of my hair, I have claw marks up and down my arms, my back is bruised from her knee, and I’m pretty damn sure I have a cut lip as I think that brassy taste in my mouth is blood.
I let out a heavy sigh as Slade closes my door and walks around to the passenger side. The drive back to my place is awkward as fuck. It’s silent with neither one of us knowing what the hell to say. I’ve never had that problem before, yet he has me all choked up and lost for words.
This stolen moment with him should feel good. I should be hanging out the freaking window and screaming at the people that pass us, letting them know I just whooped a bitch’s ass and got time alone with Slade Cruz out of it…but, it’s not. It feels forced. Why is he even bothering with me? If he doesn’t want this…want me then he should go. He’s only making it harder for both of us.
He pulls up outside my home and I’m not surprised when he gets out and follows me around to the front door. Since all my stuff is back at school in my locker, I feel around for a key. I check under the welcome mat, under the pot plant, and under the cushion on the deck chair all while Slade watches me. “What are you looking for?” he questions.
“The spare house key. There has to be one around here somewhere. Shay forgets her keys way too often not to have one.”
Slade silently steps toward the door and raises his arm up above the frame. His fingers curl around a little metal key and within the next second, he’s dropping it into the palm of my hand, making all sorts of questions fly through my head.
I glance up at him with a raised brow and he sees the question instantly. Slade shrugs his shoulders. “How do you think I’m always getting in and out of here?”
“I figured you were going through my bedroom window.”
“Sometimes. I usually check that first but more times than not, it’s locked.”
“So, you just steal our spare key and welcome yourself in?” I question, already knowing the answer after he more than happily stole my keys out of my bag.
He shrugs again. “Hey, when something needs to be said, you can bet that sweet ass of yours that I’m not waiting till morning.”
I turn to the door and shove the key straight into the lock. “Don’t I know it,” I grumble to myself. The door is pushed open and I find myself stepping into it and then turning on Slade.
I glance up at him, hating how this makes me feel so sick. “What are you doing?” he questions, hovering out my front door with his brows drawn down in confusion.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” I explain. “Maybe you should go back to school.”
“The hell I am,” he demands, trying to step forward only to be blocked by me. “Come on, what are you really doing?”
“No, Slade. What are you doing? You told me that we were done and you tore me to fucking pieces, but you won’t leave me alone. Do you have any idea how much it hurts just to see you every day, let alone having you demanding my attention every chance you get? What are we even doing? I tell you that I love you and I get told that I’m wrong, you told me-”
“You weren’t wrong.”
“What?” I demand.
“I was wrong,” he says slowly, stepping into me and forcing me back into the house. He follows me in and kicks the door closed. His eyes meet mine, heavy and intense as he repeats himself. “I. Was. Wrong.”
My breath catches.
Slade shakes his head ever so slightly as he presses into me, taking my face in his warm, calloused hand. “What kind of man tries to push away his girl when she tells him that she loves him?”
“Assholes,” I whisper.
“Exactly, but it was a rhetorical question.”
“It needed to be said.”
He’s silent for a moment as his eyes focus heavily on mine, making my heart race and my chest rise and fall with rapid movements. His hand on my face curls around to the back of my neck as his thumb stretches all the way to my chin and props it up. “I love you, Virago. I’m done pushing you away. No matter how fucking hard I try, I can’t keep away from you, and to be honest, that scares the absolute shit out of me because something tells me that you’re going to run.”
“Where would I run to?” I ask, watching him, desperately wishing he’d close the gap and kiss me. “I have nowhere to go. You are my home now.”
Slade moves in closer, so damn close that all I’d need to do is raise my chin to feel his lips on mine. “I’m sorry,” he murmurs. “I was angry and hurting and I couldn’t get past the fact that you didn’t tell me about my mom…about me, but I understand it now and fuck, Sky, I’m so fucking sorry.”
A beat.
Silence.
“Please, baby,” he murmurs, the agony shining brightly on his handsome features. “Tell me you’ll forgive me? I need you back by my side. I need you in my life more than I need to fucking breathe. You’re my girl, Virago. Don’t make me take no for an answer.”
I study his eyes, hardly able to believe what I’m hearing, but more than happy to let him sweat it. “You love me,” I state, feeling a strange kind of joy burning brightly within my chest. In fact, i
t burns so damn bright that it actually kind of hurts.
“Yeah, Skylah,” he says, brushing his knuckles over the side of my face. “I love you so fucking much.”
“Then maybe it’s time you stop calling me ‘Virago.’”
Slade groans and presses his body harder against me. “Would you shut up and let me kiss you?”
I don’t wait a damn second as I press up onto my tippy-toes and crush my lips against his. Slade’s hand tightens on the back of my neck as he holds me to him, taking complete control.
I sink into him.
Slade Cruz has completely captured me. I don’t know how it happened or when, but damn it, he did and he did it good.
His kiss grows wilder, hungrier…more desperate and I meet him at every step, needing this just as badly as he does. Since the second he told me we were done, I have craved this, I’ve needed it so damn bad that at times it was hard to breathe. He’s my guy, through and through and finally, there’s absolutely no doubt between us.
All this time I had him wrong, so fucking wrong. It seems that Slade Cruz is capable of absolutely anything and I’m so proud to call him mine.
Where the hell would I be had Blake and I not made it to Aston Creek? To think that I could still be living under Lucien’s roof as his prisoner, as a victim and not a survivor…damn. I don’t even want to think about that and it’s all because of Slade. He gave me a life to look forward to here. Blake and I might have been the ones to run, but Slade was the one who handed me a future.
Slade’s hand runs down my arm and I know they say pain is pleasure, but sometimes they’re just fucking wrong. Sometimes pain is just pain. I suck in a sharp breath as his touch stings Rachel’s claw marks on my arm.
“Fuck, babe,” he says, jumping back from me. “I forgot.”
“It’s fine,” I say, missing his touch and reaching for him again.
Slade shakes his head and takes my hand before leading me into the kitchen. “It’s not fine,” he tells me. “The whole point of skipping school was to come here and clean you up, not get nasty in the doorway.”
“Technically, we were inside of the doorway.”
I don’t see him but I know he’s rolling his eyes. We reach the kitchen counter and he grabs hold of my waist and lifts me onto it as his eyes zone in on mine. “Don’t move,” he warns, pointing a finger at me as though I’m some sort of flight risk.
He turns toward the kitchen cupboard to where we keep our first aid supplies and I salute his back. “Yes, sir.”
Slade comes striding back to me with our first aid box that seems to have tripled in size since Blake and I first moved in. He places the box down beside me and then scans his eyes up and down my body. “Hmm,” he says, fighting to control a wicked grin. “You’re going to have to lose your shirt.”
“Really, now?” I question, raising a suspicious brow.
“Definitely,” he confirms. “You can’t expect me to do a good job if I can’t see what I’m working with.”
I can’t help but smile at the devil as I slowly raise my arms, letting him take care of business. His tongue runs over his bottom lip as hunger appears deep in his eyes. Cool fingers curl around the hem of my shirt, tickling my ribs as it’s drawn up my skin.
My shirt is tossed onto the counter and just when I think Slade is going to give in and give me exactly what he wants, his face scrunches up with a cringe. “Damn, Virago. She got you good.”
“Huh?” I demand, dropping my eyes to my body to find a soft bruising starting to spread over my ribs and a few too many nail scratches. Though, most of them are just red, nothing that’s actually broken the skin. “Damn. I bet she looks worse.”
“Fuck, yeah. Is it wrong to say that watching you like that had me hard?”
I shake my head, remembering all the times I’ve watched him in action and how desperate it had me to slam him up against a wall and screw his brains out. “Nope. Trust me, I completely get it.”
He laughs and despite how badly I want this fun to continue, after seeing the extent of my injuries, Slade now has other priorities. He digs into the first aid kit and starts pulling all sorts of shit out. He grabs a packet of frozen peas from the freezer and demands I put it over my knuckles then starts rubbing cream into the scratches on my arm.
He works in silence while I try my best not to maul him as every touch of my skin has my body burning with need. The longer it takes, the further his brows drop. At first, I figured he was concentrating on doing a good job, but now he looks more as though he’s deep in thought.
“What’s up?” I finally ask, taking his chin between my fingers and lifting his gaze to mine.
He pulls away and keeps trying to work. “Don’t worry about it, babe. I want to finish this. I don’t like seeing you hurting.”
“It can wait a few minutes,” I insist, forcing his eyes back to mine once again. “What’s bothering you?”
Slade’s lips pull into a tight line and after a beat, he finally resigns. “I’m not really sure that I should be bringing it up.”
A frustrated groan comes tearing out of me. “Slade, just tell me what’s up.”
“It’s something that Lucien said the other night.”
I lean back as my brows shoot up into my hairline. Shock rocks through me. I was expecting a few things but definitely not that. Cautiously, I study his features and get this over and done with. “Go on…”
“He said you had a wedding to attend, but I got the feeling he meant something more.”
Fuck.
I take hold of his shoulders as I try to work out how to explain this. “You’re not going to like it,” I warn him, trying to imagine how he’s going to react to this bullshit.
“Straight up, babe. Hit me with it.”
I let out a heavy sigh, preparing myself to hit him with yet another secret from my past. “I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised to find that Lucien doesn’t exactly do things by the law when it comes to his business deals.”
Slade nods, already on board but his brows are drawn, confused as to why Lucien’s business deals would have anything to do with a wedding. I see the thoughts and guesses practically flying through his head but there’s no way in hell he’d be able to guess this one.
I take his hand as he places it on my thigh, unsure how he’s going to take this. “So, Lucien made a business deal with one of his partners, Marcus Mahony…actually, you could call it more of a purchase…”
Slade’s eyes bounce back and forth between mine. I see him physically trying to hold himself back from yelling at me to hurry up and get it out, but it’s not one of those things you can just rip off like a band-aid.
“Babe,” he whispers, threading his fingers through mine, clearly able to see how hard this is. “What was the deal?”
I swallow back fear as I remind myself that no matter what, this man standing before me loves me. I can tell him these horrors from my past and know that he’s going to stand by my side every step of the way.
I let out a shaky breath. “The deal was, that Lucien gets a shitload of money, and on my eighteenth birthday, Marcus gets a bride.”
Slade’s hand tightens in mine and I meet his eyes but I don’t think he actually sees me. He’s far away and hell, I don’t even hear him breathing right now.
He tears his hand from mine and throws himself away, instantly fuming. He begins pacing, hands at his temples and shaking his head. “What the fuck, Skylah?” he demands. “What kind of fucked up bullshit is that?”
“Tell me about it.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he continues as though I hadn’t said a damn word. “What was he expecting? He was going to roll in his cash, completely forgetting about you while you slept in a strange man’s bed and were most likely raped every fucking night?”
I meet his eyes and I don’t need to say a word. He knows he’s right.
“It’s supposed to be the wedding of the fucking year,” I grumble under my breath, the sarcasm thick in my to
ne.
“I don’t give a fuck,” he demands, stepping back into me and pulling me in tight against his warm chest. “What did your…Maria say about all of this?”
I nuzzle my face into his shirt. “She couldn’t have been more thrilled. The night I ran…the night her husband was forcing himself on me, she was too busy meeting with the wedding planner to realize that anything was going on. Not that she’d ever do anything to stop it.”
“So, she wouldn’t give a shit if this Marcus hurt you?”
I shake my head. “She didn’t when I was fourteen so I highly doubt she would when I was of age.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
My eyes drop away, too ashamed. “Didn’t you know that women were placed on this earth to please their man and Marcus was considered mine at fourteen. Whatever he wanted, he got from me. I guess I was lucky that Lucien included my virginity as part of the deal.”
Slade’s eyes blaze with fury. “Fuck, Skylah. I thought Lucien hurt you just that once. Are you telling me this shit started when you were just fourteen?”
I nod and he sucks in a sharp breath, turning around and clutching onto the counter as he tries to control himself. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I should have told you about that earlier but it’s not exactly the easiest thing to talk about.”
His head hangs between his shoulders for a brief moment before I’m back in his arms and his face is nuzzled into the base of my neck. “You never have to be sorry about that shit, Virago. I’ve got you, from now on, you make the decisions that affect you. No one else. Not me, not Lucien, not fucking Marcus. Only you get that power.”
I meet his eyes. I’ve known that since the second I ran, but actually hearing the words does things to me that I’m not quite sure I’m ready for. I raise my chin and brush my lips over his. “Thank you,” I whisper. “You don’t know how much I needed that.”
Slade nods and drops his forehead to mine. “They’re never going to hurt you again, Sky. You got that? Never. You’re my girl now and I don’t plan on ever giving you up.”
Lost Girl: Aston Creek High (Book 2) Page 14