Phoebe: Book One of Broken Girls Series

by J. A. Hornbuckle

  The room spun and spots danced along the edges of my wavering vision as I crumpled to the floor, my legs no longer able to hold me upright. I squeezed my eyes shut and grabbed at the hair on either side of my head as I pressed my head to my knees. There were thudding sounds coming from somewhere close to me but it was only background noise to the sound of my racing heartbeat throbbing in my ears.

  Taking in a deep, deep inhale, I knew I was going to die. That Marcy was finally going to kill me either with her knife or from the terror that controlled my body and mind. And with that thought came another, one that floated up from the locked places inside me and gave me the courage to open my eyes.

  I was not gonna die on my goddamn knees, on the floor of my freaking kitchen with my eyes screwed shut! With that front and center in my head, my shrieks and whimpers morphed into bellows of rage, especially when I finally made sense of the scene before me.

  Ryker had Marcy bent back over the sink, his forearm at her throat as he beat her hand holding the knife against the edge of the countertop. When the sharp blade clattered to the floor, he threw her to the side before slamming both hands on her back, sending her belly-first to the linoleum.

  For me, it was a scene from my youth. One where Marcy and Sloan used to physically fight when they were high from whatever they puffed from the various pipes they had around the house. The ones I’d been warned never to touch.

  As I watched my Ryker wrestle against Marcy, something in my mind snapped.

  My tormentor was trying to hurt my man.

  My Ryker!

  And on every level within me, I knew that shit wasn’t right in any way, shape or form.

  So I came up out of my crouch, resolve steeling me from the inside out as I stepped toward where they grappled. “You want to fuck with me, Marcy?”

  I bent my foot back and aimed, hitting her in the lower part of her back so hard her body took on an ‘S’ shape as Ryker eyed me with a look of horror on his face. “Then take that, you fucking bitch.”

  “Phoebe please,” Ryker gasped, as he struggled to keep the large woman on her stomach, her face pressed between two boxes. “Call 9-1-1!”

  Fuck that.

  This was my chance for revenge and I was gonna take it. “You and your so-called man liked to force a little kids into a closet? Liked making me so scared I’d wet myself?” I drew back my boot and let it fly, connecting with the space above her waist before my boyfriend covered the area with his body and stuck out a hand to prevent me from landing another fierce kick. Leaning down to her face, I screamed a passionate, “Fuck you!”.

  “Baby, you need to call 9-1-1,” Ryker cut in while Marcy groaned and squiggled between the boxes on my kitchen floor. “I know you’re pissed, but you need to call the cops.”

  Both my thoughts and my movements stuttered at my man’s words, even as I heard Jose yell, “Llame a la policia. Ellos estan viniendo.”

  “Thank Christ,” Ryker breathed, although I didn’t understand Jose’s words which caused the relief I could see in my man’s face.

  I don’t know if Marcy understood what Jose said, because all I’d gotten was ‘policia’, but she seemed to collapse into herself, belly first, bracketed by the cardboard towers of my kitchen. Ryker shifted until he straddled her butt, his knees on her hands before he sat up and looked my way.

  “Are you okay, mi cariña?”

  Truthfully? I didn’t know because adrenaline still controlled me, making me pant with a fury I’d never allowed myself to unleash before.

  I wanted to kick the bitch again. Hard.

  “It ends now, mi bella Phoebe, yeah?” His voice redirected my eyes from the exact place I thought her kidney was located to his amazing green eyes. And it was then, right at that exact moment when his words connected to my heart that I zeroed in on him.

  On how he’d saved me. Had taken my assailant down. Held her captive.

  And then calmly told me it was over even though I still wanted to fuck the bitch up for all she’d put me through both that day and all the others throughout the years. Since the very first time I’d been shoved in her closet.

  Pushing my hair off my face, I took a deep breath and nodded before replying. “Yeah, honey. It ends now.”

  Chapter Thirty

  I turned to look at Ryker as I closed the door against the last of the detectives. “Guess you were right, honey. Looks like that really is the end of it.” Walking to where he stood, I wrapped my arms around his waist and arched up to look at him.

  “You sure you’re okay, mi cariña?”

  I did a quick internal scan of my emotions so I could answer as honestly as possible. “Absolutely fine, Ryker. But I should be asking you that since you were the one who handled it all.”

  He grinned as he tightened his arms around me. “Very good. Especially since I did it all without punching the bitch, which I really wanted to do when I saw her slice your top.”

  “Ever the gentleman, even with psycho bitches,” I breathed, rolling up onto my toes, aiming my lips his way. “Your mother will be proud.”

  He rolled his eyes before his mouth joined mine in what started out as a gentle kiss that soon heated into something more delicious and promising. But it didn’t last as long as I wanted.

  “I don’t know why but I always figured your fucking attacker was a guy. Kinda chauvinist of me but I never thought it would be a woman who pulled that shit.”

  In all honesty, I agreed with him because I’d also believed it was Marcy’s husband who was trying to get to me, who sent all the letters. Even in the texts I received with updates regarding her release, I’d never even noticed the first initial after the ‘Davis’ portion of the message. “At least they have enough to charge her. Enough to send her back to prison, don’t you think?”

  “That’s what Bell and Trusdale said,” he agreed. “They got her on breaking and entering plus assault. But what she was screaming as they dragged her out to the car is what will get her time.”

  “You mean about beating me?”

  He dropped his forehead to mine. “Yeah. They said even though the Temporary Order of Protection hadn’t been served, her confession would fucking nail her to the wall.”

  Detective Bell had explained that to me and Ryker right before he left. Seems the police had come up empty in finding out where Marcy Davis lived and worked after she was released from prison and without a known address, they couldn’t serve the paperwork. But once the uniformed policewoman patted Marcy down, they found her with a fake ID.

  “Bambi Haskell? Seriously?” I murmured on a giggle, causing Ryker to start laughing. “At least she could have chosen a name more fitting, don’t you think?”

  “What? You mean like ‘Bruiser’ or ‘Bull Dyke’?”

  I swatted Ryker’s arm and he stepped away with another laugh. Grabbing my hand, he walked down the hall to the bedroom, loosening his tie. “Lemme get changed and I’ll see about fixing the security system.”

  Casting my eyes behind me, I saw the control pad hanging halfway down the wall only holding on by a couple of wires. The detectives explained they thought Marcy had gotten in through the kitchen window and then ripped the keypad with her bare hands to stop the alarm, never knowing it fed straight to GPD dispatch. Jose’s call to them only confirmed there was a problem at my place instead of the system malfunctioning.

  Ryker dropped my hand as he went to the closet and I crawled up to the middle of the bed to sit tailor-style. It had been a long time since I’d seen my man’s unclothed body and I didn’t want to miss a moment of the next few minutes as he undressed.

  But his mind obviously wasn’t working in the same naughty vein as mine because as he pulled at his shirt, untucking it from his pants, the questions started. “Since the master’s program is done online, did you consider doing it from Grantham?”

  “When I applied, I was still living with Vonnie and thought the whole package of job, a place to live and UoC funding the degree was ideal,” I count
ered quickly. “You weren’t a part of the picture at the time, honey, or I never would’ve considered it. As it was, just the thought of leaving Grantham and all my girls was scary enough.”

  “And then I came along,” he mumbled, opening his shirt one button at a time, his eyes unfocused as he did a slow, unknowing striptease. Pushing the front of his shirt open, my gaze devoured the golden skin of his chest, reveling in the hills and valleys of his abs.

  God, he was glorious!

  So goddamn fine, I had trouble responding, my voice coming out as a reedy breath. “Yeah, Ryker. You were an unexpected pleasurable surprise.”

  Throwing his shirt into the dirty clothes hamper before folding his tie, he nodded. “Is the tuition that high?”

  I blinked, trying to keep up with the conversation which was especially hard when he reached for his belt buckle. “Uh-huh. I can manage, but I might have to move back in with Vonnie in order to swing it. Buying out the lease on this place used up a lot of my savings.”

  Ryker’s eyebrows drew together as he watched what his hands were doing and I wondered what he was thinking. Luckily I didn’t have long to wait. “If you do that, where will you study, mi cariña? For that matter, when will you study?”

  I opened my mouth to speak, watching as he toed off his boots while hanging onto his unzipped dress pants by the waistband. Then closed my lips it as my eyes hit on the thin trail of hair leading down his stomach, disappearing into his boxer briefs. And all my thoughts scattered when he shucked the trousers off in one fluid motion before reaching for a hanger. As he turned to hang them up, I got a view of his naked back, his muscles rippling above his tight underwear covering his beautifully shaped ass.

  Coming to the bed, he sat on the edge and pulled off his socks, tossing them at the laundry basket. “What about distractions or having a social life?”

  I tried, I really did. But a Ryker induced sex-fog prevented me from coming up with any answers to what he was asking. And when I didn’t reply, he turned to look at me, sitting still as stone in the middle of my bed.

  “Are you okay, baby?”

  I nodded, delighting in the feel of my heartbeat in all sorts of secret places although I could’ve done without the heat creeping up my chest and neck. And much to my chagrin, his gaze followed the trail of my blush as it hit my face. Dropping lower to my chest, his eyes roamed over my breasts, zeroing in on the sharp peaks poking through my shirt.

  He twisted and crawled towards me, his look shifting between my face and my chest as his eyes became more heated and a sexy, one-sided grin appeared. “I think my girl has other things on her mind,” he murmured on hands and knees before nuzzling my neck.

  A wave of thrilling shivers erupted at the feel of his lips on my sensitive skin. It had been too long since he’d touched me and my needy flesh basked in the renewed feel of him.

  “But she needs to learn to talk and touch at the same time.” I didn’t know if he was talking to himself or to me as I leaned my head to the side in order to give him more room to work his magic. His breath on my skin only added to the erotic storm whirling within me.

  “Maybe she’s got too many clothes on to hold a conversation,” he sighed, shifting his lips to the other side of my neck in a trail of light licks and tiny kisses. Fumbling at my waist, he snagged the bottom of my top and pulled up. Without thinking I raised my arms and allowed him to slide it over my head. When that was done, he lightly pushed two fingers against my sternum in a nonverbal request for me to lie back.

  “Yep, way too many clothes considering I’m fucking running around in nothing but my boxers.” He loomed over me with a hand on each side of my body and his head moved to follow his eyes as he looked me over. Sitting back on his heels, Ryker arranged my legs on either side of him before reaching for the fastening of my jeans. It didn’t take long and they too were gone, leaving me in just my bra and panties.

  “Hmm,” he purred, running a finger over the scalloped lace that edged the cups of my bra. When his thumb grazed over my erect throbbing nipple, I gasped at the sharp pleasure as it shot straight from my breast to between my legs.

  “Ditch the bra, baby,” he growled and another round of shivers exploded, causing every hair on my body to sit up in delight. I made short work of my bra and slung it to the side as he ogled my nakedness. “Now the panties. Yeah. Oh hell to the yeah.”

  And just as I thought the good things happening were going to get even better, he moved to the side and crawled up until his back was against the headboard. I’d watched him as he took off his shorts, taking in both his hard length and the little bit of wetness on the tip, happy to know he was just as affected by our play as I was.

  “Come sit on my lap, mi cariña and talk with me.”

  I didn’t know about the conversation part of his request but I was totally down with straddling him again. He guided me to the top of his thighs, not exactly where I’d hoped to end up since we were both naked and more than a little interested. As soon as I’d settled myself, his hands began to caress me in long, smooth glides that were not only sexual, but comforting.

  With a predator grin, Ryker renewed the conversation. “I asked about where and when you would study as well as distractions because I want to know where I’ll be when all this is going on.”

  I stopped my hands in mid-stroke. The only plan I’d come up with was done hastily in the car on the ride back from his office. “With me, of course.”

  “At Vonnie’s place?” His fingers ceased their fondling of my breasts as he stared at me. “Is she aware she’s getting not one but two new roommates?”

  Without a doubt, my girl would never go for that and my mind started searching for a new idea.

  “How ‘bout this?” Ryker started. “I talk to my aunt and see if we can get a two bedroom unit. That way we can use the extra bedroom as an office.”

  “An office?” I queried, but that wasn’t the portion of his suggestion that repeated itself in my head. It was the ‘roommates’ and ‘we’ part. I didn’t want to assume anything so I gathered my courage and just asked him straight out. “You want us to live together?”

  He relaxed against the headboard. “Isn’t that what we’re almost doing before you got accepted?”

  Ryker was right, we practically had been living together before he walked away from me leaving me to a future that meant nothing without him in it.

  “We’ll have both our names on the lease and can split the bills fifty-fifty.” One part of me wanted to squee in happiness at the way he tried to persuade me into living with him, but my brain was working through the logic in the different scenarios of us officially cohabitating.

  Sliding his hands to the cheeks of my butt, he adjusted me on his lap, lifting me until my nether lips splayed over his hot length of steel without breaching my channel. “Or we could just get married.”

  Wait! What?

  I couldn’t have heard him right. “Say again?”

  His amazing green eyes stared into mine and with a completely straight face, he said, “I love you, Phoebe Marquette, with every molecule of my being. I want to build a life and a home with you beginning immediately. Will you marry me?”

  *.*.*.*.*

  The shocked confusion of Phoebe’s expression went straight to Ryker’s heart before sinking lower, making his cock flex at how adorable she looked.

  “That’s crazy,” she whispered, staring at him. “We can’t get married right now!”

  “Why not?” He waited, giving his girl time to think.

  Swallowing, she gave the first of what he knew would be many objections to his proposal. “It’s too soon. We’ve only known each other a few months, Ryker.”

  She was right about the length of time although wrong about it being too soon. But he didn’t confirm or deny her protests and remained quiet.

  “We don’t know each other well enough!”

  It was true he didn’t yet know all the day-to-day habits of Phoebe, but he knew her. Was on familiar
terms with her values, her strengths and weaknesses, her inner heart. Her deep well of caring she showered on others, her sense of humor and her loyalty to those she loved.

  Oh fuck, yeah. He knew his girl.

  But still he kept his thoughts to himself and allowed her to talk without interruption.

  She threw out a hand in a frustrated gesture making her breasts jiggle enticingly, causing his gaze to involuntarily shift from her flushed face to her jutting, pouty peaks. “And it takes at least a year to put a wedding together so ‘immediately’ is out of the freaking question.”

  Now they were fucking getting somewhere!

  “The county clerk’s office isn’t open on Saturday,” he started. “Monday works for me. How about you?”

  “You want to get married on Monday? Just the two of us in front of a judge?” She had gone from frustrated to pissy in just a matter of seconds and Ryker hid his delighted grin. He liked it when she got feisty. “No, no and freaking no. I want my girls standing up with me, flowers and a proper dress with you in a tux. I don’t need a church, but maybe a hall or a conference room at a hotel would work. It’s just got to be someplace nice we can decorate.”

  She was almost panting as she gave voice to what she wanted. “And I want a kickass wedding reception with alcohol, great food and a dance floor!”

  “I’ll give you three months, mi bella cariña,” he stated, trying really hard not to crow his glee at her latest, and hopefully last, dispute.

  Narrowing her eyes and still breathing fire, she leaned into his face and spat, “A year!”

  “Six!” he shot back, determined to get what he wanted to the point of playing dirty. “Six fucking months, baby. Or I’ll get mi madre involved. And you know that woman’ll have everything arranged in less than three, guaran-damn-teed!”

  His girl sat back and huffed a breath. He could almost see the wheels turning as she considered his demand and his threat. “I guess I could do six if I get everyone involved to help. I mean, Tonya could do the catering and we could have Vonnie do the official photography. Maizie’s such a fashion diva, I’m sure she could help me with the dress—”.