Rough Love

by Laura Morgan

  Nico stopped halfway down the stairs and turned to face me, our noses the same height thanks to me being a step higher than him. I was about to ask him what was wrong when he wrapped his arms around me and held on tight. So tight the wind rushed from my lungs, but I didn’t fight his hold. He clearly needed it. My protective big brother needed a moment to be weak, and I let him.

  “You’re happy with Tobin, aren’t you?” he asked me quietly, resting his chin on my shoulder. “We did the right thing putting the two of you together?”

  “That first night was the worst, Nico. Don’t ever do that to me, or anyone else, again,” I told him honestly, using my newly found strength to spur me on. He didn’t answer me back or move away. Nico just took his miniscule telling off with grace and I was glad he wasn’t going to argue with me about the rights and wrongs of that night. “But, yes. I’m happy with Tobin. We’re right together and he’s brought me out of myself in ways I didn’t know I’d needed. Shown me a life I hadn’t realised I was missing.”

  Nico breathed a sigh of relief and lowered his arms. He then took me in for a moment, his eyes scanning my face with a wistful, youthful look I hadn’t seen on him in years.

  “You look so much like mum,” he told me before letting out a sigh. “She would’ve been so proud of you, Dahlia.” I wanted to cry. No one ever spoke of her anymore, as if the memory of our fallen matriarch was too much for any of us to handle. Although I knew I resembled her more than any of us, it made my heart ache to think how Nico had watched me grow up, looking more and more like her, but not once feeling able to tell me. Being able to openly mourn her. I wish I could properly remember her. In truth, I had very few memories of our mother, having been three when she’d died, but he must’ve had so many as he would’ve been a teenager. While I envied him for having spent longer with her, I also couldn’t envy the loss he must’ve felt at her passing.

  Before I could answer, he turned and bounded down the last few steps toward the muffled voices and music in the bar. I hung back a moment, stifling my tears, and then jumped when I heard the stomping of heavy feet from behind me.

  Calvin rounded the corner and headed towards me, reaching the bottom right as I did. He was grinning playfully, back to his normal self again, and I forced myself to play along. To hide my hatred and fear from the man who I knew had ruined my sister’s life.

  “You waiting for me, babe?” he asked me with a wink. Inside, I cringed. How could he ever think I’d be interested in him? Not just because of what I knew about his nights spent forcing himself on Dita either, but also because I was seeing his cousin. I certainly wasn’t going to play along with any game he was trying to lure me into.

  “Nah, I bumped into Nico. They’re all inside,” I answered, opening the door for Calvin and then following him through it. I was glad to be back in the busy bar rather than alone in the hall with him and veered straight towards where Tobin was stood beside my father and brothers, ready to toast Nico’s special day.

  The guys closest to him had lined up shots and Nico was back to his old self again, like our conversation upstairs or out in the hall hadn’t happened, but I knew he wouldn’t forget our pact. Like him, I would act the same as always and give nothing away, while plotting secretly to bring down Calvin in whatever way I could, but for now, I would drink and be merry with my family and friends. I would celebrate and smile, because deep down, I was still in a much better place than I had been. I was glad to have discovered the truth about who X was. Watching him fall from the pedestal he’d put himself on was going to be fun, or so I convinced myself.

  ***

  A couple of days after the party, I was lazing with Tobin on the sofa beneath the window, his hands leisurely stroking their way up over my knees to my thighs and then back again. Most of the club members had headed back to the city but Thomas and Brad had stayed, along with a couple of prospects, and they were putting the new guys to good use by having them clean and tidy Dahlia’s after the chaos of the weekend. Tobin and I were ignoring everyone, doing our own thing, and I guess perhaps I was being a little too giggly and girlie, but I was happy with him. Safe. Tobin made me feel like a supermodel or a star, or something. I don’t know, but I did know I felt more alive than I had my entire life before.

  “Fucking hell,” I heard Brad mutter under his breath as he walked into the living area. I then watched as he did an about-turn and headed back in the direction of the kitchen. Enough was enough. I’d had it with his apparent distaste of seeing Tobin and I together so decided to confront him. I didn’t make a big deal out of it as I slid from my man’s grasp, pretending I needed to pee, but then plodded out and toward the old kitchen, rather than to the bathroom.

  “What’s wrong, Brad?” I asked, opting for the gentler approach rather than to ask him outright what his problem was with me and Tobin. He rolled his eyes but didn’t answer me, so I stepped closer. “Brad. I feel like you’ve barely said a word to me in weeks. And now you can’t even look at me?” I demanded, feeling angrier by the second. I was right. He was looking everywhere but at me, so I grabbed his chin and climbed up onto my tiptoes so we were eye to eye.

  “I can’t, Dahl. I promised Dad,” he answered, much to my chagrin.

  “Don’t do this to me,” I begged, shaking my head. “Don’t make me lose you when I don’t know what I’ve done to make you hate me.” I was sure he had to. What else could it be? Maybe he’d had a harder time letting me become a woman than our father had and I just hadn’t seen it before? I couldn’t fathom another reason for me being in his bad books.

  I was pleased when my brother softened and leaned into me, crumbling against me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and laid his head on my shoulder, showing me he didn’t hate me at all. It was a relief, but I still couldn’t understand.

  “The first night we came here, do you know why we stood guard?” Brad asked. I groaned, not wanting to relive that strange night, so I simply shook my head against him. “We were there because Dad needed to know you’d gone through with things and been willing, but also for another reason…”

  “Tell me,” I implored him, desperate to know the truth. It felt like forever before Brad answered me, and what he said made me recoil in disgust. I finally knew how all of our lives had been touched by the evil soul within our midst and to what extent his reach had gone.

  “I was the first one to notice the bruises,” Brad finally answered, his head still buried in my neck. His voice reached my ears and was quiet and muffled, but clear enough. “I saw them on Dita’s wrists and neck. He’d been rough with her. I knew it, and it wasn’t the last time. She was scared all the time, Dahlia. I think he was hurting her.”

  I wanted to cry. Bradley had been beating himself up all this time because he too had noticed the changes in Dita, as well as the abuse she had thought she was successfully hiding. But it wasn’t Tobin giving her those bruises, it was Calvin. However, I couldn’t tell him so without blowing the secret Nico and I had already agreed we were going to keep. All I could do was lie through my teeth, but I did what I had to. Tobin deserved to be absolved of the sins he hadn’t committed.

  “It wasn’t Tobin,” I whispered back, watching as Brad lifted his head in surprise. The hazel eyes that matched mine fixed me with a scowl so I continued with my white lie. “The bruises were from someone else, she told me.”

  “So it’s true? She was seeing someone behind Tobin’s back?” he asked and I decided to go with it.

  “Yes, but it was all consensual. She wanted what Tobin couldn’t give her but the other guy could. That’s why they were close to breaking up,” I told him, which was almost the truth. She’d been madly in love with L after all—ready to run off into the sunset with him.

  “Who was he?” Bradley asked, but I shook my head.

  “I honestly don’t know,” I replied, telling at least one whole truth. Brad shrugged it off, I guess figuring it was too late now anyway. “So he’s never hurt you, not even once?”

&n
bsp; “Not even once,” I said, hugging him again. “Trust me.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  I laid awake for hours that night, plotting and scheming in my head as Tobin lay beside me fast asleep. His body was curled against mine, his hands somehow instinctively caressing my naked skin even in his sleep. I wanted a future for us. A safe future. I didn’t want to have secrets to hide so decided I was going to get straight to work on bringing Calvin down. But how? I wracked my brains, following trains of thought I figured could work, but all of them either incriminated myself, my family, or Tobin in the end. He would figure me out if I wasn’t cunning about it and if Calvin really did have a violent side he wasn’t afraid to unleash, the last thing I wanted was to put anyone I loved in danger. He’d already taken Dita from us.

  As I began to drift off to sleep, a dark shadow swept across the room, either a figment of my imagination or the passing of a car outside, but either way, it scared the shit out of me. I jumped, making Tobin do the same, but he settled back to sleep as soon as I shushed him.

  “It’s okay, just a nightmare,” I whispered, curling my body against his. Yes, just a nightmare. An illusion manifested by the paranoia haunting me in the dark hours of the night. Right then, I realised I had it. I knew exactly what I was going to do, albeit a rather childish approach at taking my vengeance. I was going to haunt Calvin, or should I say, Dita was. I was going to make him think she was coming through from the other side to complete her unfinished business and torment him in ways he could not control. Yes, I was going to let the monster ruin himself just as much as I intended to rip him to shreds from the shadows of his torment. It was going to be fun. Almost easy…

  The next morning, I woke early thanks to Tobin’s alarm. He needed to get up and head out with my father for a few hours so I stirred long enough to enjoy a morning quickie with him before dozing and listening to the sound of him taking a shower in our en-suite. After he blew me a kiss goodbye, I watched him leave with a sour expression and buried my head in the pillow, but perked up right away when I heard him chatting to someone out in the hall. Clambering to my feet, I pressed my ear against the door, being nosy, but not caring. I was glad I did.

  “Hey, what you up to?” Calvin was asking him, and I heard Tobin answer with his plans. “Don’t envy you mate, I’m heading to the shitter then I’ll be back to sleep for at least another couple of hours,” I heard Calvin add and Tobin laughed before leaving his cousin to it.

  An idea hit me. It was perfect. My first chance to do something to mess with Calvin while he was in the bathroom, so I scanned my room, desperate to think of something I could do as my first attempt at riling Dita’s abuser up. I spied my backpack and ran to it, quickly finding the item I had hoped was still wedged in the bottom of it—a small vial of Dita’s perfume. No one else wore the same scent and I hadn’t been able to use it either as it reminded me too much of her so had left it there.

  Slipping on my robe, I ran across the hall directly into Calvin’s empty room and sprayed just a couple of times in there before turning to leave again. In my fear at being caught in the act, the blood was whooshing through my ears, my head pounding. I wanted out of there right away, but that was until I saw his perfectly neat pile of things again and saw red. I shoved them, tipping the stack over so his clothes and accessories fell across the unit. There, now it was perfect. The room smelled of Dita and while his things had been moved, nothing had been taken. Calvin couldn’t go around asking who’d been in his room going by just those two things without sounding like a madman, could he?

  I was across the hall, back in my room, and snuggled in bed just a few seconds later, but I needn’t have worried. It was another five minutes before I heard the communal bathroom toilet flush and him pad back down to his room. I held my breath and waited. It seemed like forever, but then suddenly there was a slam from one of the rooms and I heard as footsteps thundered downstairs. It had to be Calvin, surely? I cracked my door open an inch and peered out to where his room was, and lo and behold, the door was wide open and natural sunlight was streaming in through what had to be its open curtains. Had he flung open the window in an attempt to clear the smell? I imagined him coming in and freaking out before throwing on his clothes and making a run for it. When I then heard a bike start and speed away, I was sure I was right, and a huge smile spread across my face at the sheer thought of him panicking and feeling like he had to take off.

  It’s far from over yet, X, I thought. He was going to pay his debts, and when he was finally broken, I’d find a way to make him confess his sins. He’d never know what hit him.

  ***

  That evening, we all got ready to head back to the city and Dad insisted Tobin and I went too. I’d kinda hoped for some time alone, but couldn’t deny my father’s wishes, just like Tobin couldn’t refuse his President’s command. I was horny. Like, crazy horny. I wanted my gorgeous man to take me every which way he knew how, and knew I was still riding the high after my successful first attempt to rile Calvin. He’d left ahead of the others and gone back to the old house without a word to anyone, however Tobin told me he’d seemed off when he’d called but wouldn’t explain his sudden disappearing act.

  “I’m sure he’s fine, babe,” I said, sliding in behind him on the bike after everything had been locked up and we were ready to go. The cars and other bikes were already on their way back, so it was just me, Tobin, and Nico left. I could tell my brother wanted to ask me how I was doing after our crazily intense talk at his party, but he also seemed to like seeing me happy so decided against sneaking a minute with me to try and discuss any suspicions he might have as to Calvin’s sudden disappearance.

  Nico gave us a nod and then sped away, while Tobin took his time getting himself ready to leave. “What’s the matter?” I finally asked and he answered by twisting me around over his hip so I was suddenly straddling him instead of the bike. The front of the chassis dug into my back like it had before so I arched my body against his, giggling when I heard him groan from beneath his visor. I pulled mine off and he did the same, revealing those immense blue eyes that had me flushed red hot in a second.

  “I don’t want to share you anymore, Dahl. I want to stay here and fuck your brains out…” he groaned. I wanted the exact same thing and he knew it. Tobin then lifted me off his bike and carried me around the back of the house. I was surprised he hadn’t taken us back in the main entrance to sneak some time alone, but then realised we weren’t heading back inside, only out of the view of the main road.

  Tobin eventually set me down next to one of the back walls not lit by the security light. There, he pressed himself against me and began kissing me with such ferocity I was soon gasping for breath, coming undone at his command. He was rough, as if he could barely control himself. I’d never seen him that way, but I didn’t mind one little bit. In fact, he was seducing the dark side of me, luring her out. I gave in and ground my hips against his, telling him I needed him inside of me, which was when he began ripping at my clothes in a bid to gain access to my flesh.

  The cold air of the late winter made me hiss, my nipples going rock hard the second he had my shirt open and my bra cups yanked down. He sucked on them in turn, the wetness only making them colder, and I grabbed his hand, pulling his finger to my neglected nipple so he could warm it with his touch. As he went to town, sucking and tweaking them roughly, I moaned loudly. The sound seemed to spark something inside of him and Tobin suddenly lifted the hand caressing my right breast. Up it went, over my collar to my neck, where he wrapped it around me in a gentle yet firm hold. His other hand was unbuttoning my jeans, which he then slid down my thighs to my knees. He then yanked my knickers aside and slipped two fingers inside me, caressing me with harsh plunges that only served to make me hotter and wetter for him.

  I stood there, pinned to the wall by Tobin’s hands, one holding me down and the other driving pleasure through my core at an alarming rate. I was utterly at his command, but I wasn’t afraid, and he knew it. W
hen I came, I screamed his name for all to hear, and for the first time since we’d started being together he didn’t want to hear it. Tobin put his hand over my mouth, lifting his head up to meet mine while he unbuttoned his jeans and released his erection. “I love you, Dahlia, but so help me God, all I want to hear right now is the sound of your body taking me inside of it.” His voice was a deep, rumbling growl that sent me over the edge. He’d never been rough before but I liked the game we were somehow both playing and I decided to make him wait to fuck me, only in the best way possible.

  I shoved my jeans back up to my hips and slid to the floor, landing face-to-face with his cock, so I did the only thing I could, given the circumstances—I slid my mouth over the head and sucked on it. With his palms against the wall behind me, I was trapped as he began to move, and before I knew it he was hitting the back of my throat and I was fighting my gag reflex in a desperate attempt to accommodate him. I’d sucked him off before, but never like that. Not all the way back. It was the hottest blowjob I’d ever given him.

  When he reached one hand down and cupped the back of my head, I instinctively knew what was about to happen and tried to ready myself as best I could. Hot cum spurted down my throat, filling me with his release, and I gagged as he withdrew, still not used to the taste of it. I thought I might be sick, but luckily managed to subdue my nausea. I’d wanted to please Tobin and was glad he’d let himself go with me. I didn’t want him to feel bad or as if I hadn’t liked what he’d done, even if it’d been rougher than I was used to.