Todd manhandled the current singer off the stage and bent his head to the organiser and whispered, shoving a $100 bill into his hand to speed him up.
****
Jen was nearing the exit, when a familiar drum beat reached her ears, along with a familiar deep voice cracking with emotion.
She spun around; there was still no fucking justice to be had in this world. Every inch of him was perfection, so of course Todd could actually carry a tune. It was a final turn of the screw on top of all his other virtues. A smile came unwanted to Jen’s lips, a begrudging shake to her head as she remembered when she’d last heard this song.
“I know you wanna leave me, but I refuse to let you go!” He was singing “Ain’t too Proud to Beg” for her.
Oh my god he had everyone up there with him as backing singers, complete with finger clicking, Lily, Ben, Sean and Seb.
She flushed crimson as all eyes in the room locked on her; it was obvious to everyone who Todd was singing to.
She felt Max squeeze then let go of her fingers, as she took a hesitant step towards the stage.
He completed the first verse and chorus and shouted, “Come on Jennifer,” improvising the lyrics to suit himself.
A million thoughts and fears went through her head in thirty seconds as he crooned to her directing all his energy at her, as Lily willed her with her eyes, as Sean and Seb mouthed “Jen, Jen.”
It was too much - fear won out, it was much easier to run away and she turned and fled, knocking Max out of the way as the ballroom door slammed behind her.
“Fucking hell,” Sean screamed as reality kicked in, “she’s run off in that dress, that’s thousands of dollars worth of sequins, Christ Todd stop her.”
That galvanized Todd whose jaw had dropped in shock as she’d fled and he leapt from the stage as the crowd applauded behind him, the evening was getting better and better for them as far as live entertainment went.
He almost caught up to her as she was exiting the lobby calling out to her but she yelped in shock and barrelled out into the road, disorientated as to how she’d got there.
Next thing she knew a horn blared and every puff of breath blasted out of her as Todd body checked her, catching her before she fell and half running, half stumbling, flung her along with himself onto the opposite sidewalk.
She struggled out from under him screaming shrilly in his ear.
“Fucking stop it - isn’t once in your life enough?” he shook her hard and her jaw rattled, “just quit it right now or god help me I’m going to slap you into your senses. You nearly got yourself fucking killed.”
The taxi that had missed her by a hair’s breadth, jerked to a stop and the driver got out, he was about to berate the pair of them but stopped when he saw how distressed the lady was.
“Man are you ok, I didn’t see her, the two of you scared the shit out of me.”
Todd wasn’t sure his heart rate was ever going to be normal again, but he had Jen in his arms and other than a couple of scrapes she was unhurt so he managed to gasp, “Thanks, just give me a minute will you, if you wait a second and take us home I’ll triple your fare.”
Jen tried to pull away again, but he pinned her to him. Sequins had popped off all over her dress with every movement she made to right herself, so they looked like they were sitting in a puddle of glitter. Her cute little purse which had actually gone under the cab’s wheels had split open spilling her keys and crushed make-up on the sidewalk.
“That’s enough Jen,” he said hoarsely, “I’m fucking sick of this, waiting for you to make the right decision. It’s not yours to make anymore, I’m taking you home.”
He scooped her and the keys up and into the taxi, cradling her head into his chest giving her no room to object. But she was way beyond that anyway, Jen had finally reached her limit and seemed to have surrendered to it.
By the time the taxi pulled up outside the apartment block, Jen was dead asleep, at least Todd hoped she was asleep and not in shock. He pulled her closer into the glow of the taxi’s courtesy light and sighed with relief. Her colour looked good and her pulse wasn’t beating such a rapid tattoo on her neck anymore, he figured she was just plain exhausted.
Tipping the cabbie even more than he’d promised, he carried Jen up to her apartment and gently laid her on the bed while he rooted amongst her closet. Finding a suitcase, he gathered her enough things to last for a few days, then he left her while he dashed to his apartment to grab his own stuff, quickly crossing his fingers she didn’t wake while he was gone. Todd wanted to be out of there before any of the others arrived home to see what the hell was going on. In his haste he almost forgot poor Hugh who was being as good as gold in his puppy pen, but then he packed up his gear too.
Jen was half awake when he carried her downstairs to her crappy Toyota; she was pliant and sleepy in his arms and didn’t cause him any trouble. Todd kicked the tyres on Jen’s car and sent up a prayer it got them where they needed to go then he wedged himself into the driver’s seat and drove the three of them away as if the hounds of hell were after them.
****
Jen woke sometime in the early morning, disorientated and groggy, it didn’t feel like she was in her own bed but it was familiar somehow so she didn’t panic at first. Then she registered the hard, warm naked body tucked into her behind, and she blinked and her mind started whirring, “don’t be Max, don’t be Max,” what was she going to do if for some reason she’d slept with him.
A deep rumble in her ear, “don’t panic it’s just me, and we’re at the lake.”
“Todd?”
He laughed, “You didn’t honestly think it was somebody else did you? Definitely not that Max squirt that’s for sure,” to emphasize his disgruntlement he tightened his grip around her waist and slid his semi erection against her hip. Jen sucked in a gasp.
“If you’re awake enough we need to talk, or at least I want to talk and I want you to listen, ok?”
“I guess.”
“Firstly while you were asleep I called Carly’s parents, it was late or early I guess but I knew they’d probably be up and expecting to hear from me.
They’re taking her back to Chicago with them, it turns out it was true she was seeing another guy when she slept with me in Chicago that time. Apparently he’s very rich with the kind of social status she’s always craved and she’d fallen hard for him, but he wouldn’t commit to a monogamous relationship.
Poor Carly the guy she decides is definitely the one and she wants his baby and a wedding ring and he won’t hear a word of it - so she came looking for me. But she didn’t get what she was looking for from me either, if you remember I told her to go try and work it out with him. I just didn’t know he didn’t care enough about her.”
Jen momentarily let Todd’s soft tone lull her into swallowing her own anger at Carly and instead tried to dredge up a scrap of pity for the mess the woman made for herself.
Todd’s warm mouth caressed Jen’s ear as he continued to beguile her, “I don’t know if I ever want to know the truth, but in my head she had an abortion and was probably nursing some lingering guilt about it, she’s a bit shallow but not cold enough to do something like that and just forget about it.
A few months later and Carly found herself with a broken heart and a bruised ego, maybe she was wondering whether she’d made a mistake to let me go. Then what do you know I pop up on TV with a new pocket rocket girlfriend in tow and she has some kind of emotional breakdown. Decides to try and have another go at claiming back what she believes is still hers to choose.”
Todd’s arm drifted around Jen’s ribcage and his hand slid up to caress her breast, it was the first time she realised he’d taken all her clothes off too, commandeering her to his will yet again. She could feel him now rock solid against her thigh.
His nose nuzzled her shoulder than slid upwards as he placed a soft kiss behind her earlobe. He resumed speaking in that deep hypnotic fashion that made it so hard to refuse him anything.
>
“I know you might not understand but even though I loathe what she did, I can’t help feeling some relief that she didn’t continue with the pregnancy. Believe me that isn’t an easy thing for me to admit and it makes me feel all kinds of guilt and disgust with myself, because I would usually feel strongly anti- abortion when it comes to what happens in my own life. But God Jen if she’d followed through with it I wouldn’t have ever had you and my brain just can’t comprehend that, not one tiny bit.”
His voice sounded so sincere that Jen tried to turn towards him but he clutched her waist tightly stopping her momentum.
“Jennifer,” he sighed softly as his hand lifted her left leg and hitched it up before he shifted and slid deep inside her in one slow deep thrust, a hot breathy moan slid out of her, how was she ever supposed to live without this?
“Todd please,” she whispered, “I can’t think straight when you do this, you’re not being fair.”
“Shut up, I don’t want to hear it anymore, I figured something out as I was driving here,” he paused to allow himself a single thrust out and back in to release some of the aching pressure, the lazy deepness of it caused them both to groan.
“You were glad Carly turned up on the scene.”
She tried to butt in, “What?”
“Quiet just listen,” another thrust, surer this time, a warning.
“The only thing that has ever come close to threatening this relationship is you; nobody else is capable of killing it stone dead like you are.”
“Ahhhh, ahh” she moaned as he gave her a quick double thrust to keep her thoughts off kilter.
“Admit it, you’ve been looking for excuses since the get go, you wanted me to find your scar disgusting, you wanted me to ditch you for not wanting a family, you wanted to push me away because I’d had ex girlfriends.” He punctuated each statement with another soul sucking thrust and confused tears started rolling down her face.
Todd’s hand left her thigh and glided up over her hip and along her waist until settling back around her breast gently. Then his fingertips trailed further - slid downwards and raised her broken left arm out above the covers, holding her hand up to the vague sunlight coming through the drapes he said, “Look at your hand Jennifer.”
Jen opened her eyes and gasped.
On her engagement finger was a huge yellow diamond on a white gold band, she was stunned speechless.
“That’s a special ring for a special girl, a girl who thinks she’s worthless but secretly she’s terribly clever and strong and fiercely loyal to her friends. She puts others first and actually even though she doesn’t believe it, when push comes to shove she can stick up for herself. You’ve shown me that you’re all of that and more.”
Todd drizzled whisper light kisses along her neck and behind her ear as he continued seducing her into surrender, “I’m not asking because I don’t trust you’ll make the right answer,” a heavy thrust punctuated his words bringing her gasping back to the moment, “but you will marry me sooner or later and that ring’s going to be there to remind you, until you do.”
He pulled out of her abruptly and pulled her onto her back, quickly rolling on top of her and pinning her in place.
“I bought that ring in Chicago, before I met with Carly again. I was so sure of what I felt; there was never a question of it in my mind. I love you Jen, and I don’t know what more I can do, the rest is up to you. Neither one of us can change what happened before we met, it’s up to you to accept that we belong together, I’m already on board.” He laughed softly and looked down at her soft curves underneath him. “Literally, I’m on board, how about you?”
He watched her eyes looking for a glimmer, a spark, anything to give him hope.
Then he felt the backs of her ankles slide up his calves, shift through the hair on the back of his thighs, and then they kneaded his ass rhythmically, “come back inside, Todd,” she whispered.
“You want me?”
“She nodded frantically.”
“You have to want the whole package, not just sex, my family, my friends, and a life together?”
“I love you.” Jen blinked in surprise and almost covered her mouth but she’d said it and the words were no sooner out of her mouth than Todd thrust back inside.
“Wait, wait I’m still not sure about children,” the words came out all muffled swallowed up by his lips and tongue that were busily possessing her.
“We’re not going to worry baby. If it’s meant to be, and you decide you want to, then it’ll happen. Now shut up and make love to me.”
She clung to him tight as he thrust inside her, it was so much more intense now everything was laid open between them, and the delicious push and pull seemed to last so much longer than it had before. Todd slowing or withdrawing every time he came too close, until she gave him everything she had to give. When she came in a mind shattering blur, she finally felt truly happy in her heart and mind. Todd tensed above her, his brow furrowed almost in pain - desperate to orgasm, “Say it again.”
“I love you Todd.”
Epilogue
Jen looked across the grass at Lily rounding third base, a bright breathless smile on her face as her new fiancé Ben frantically raced to try and get under the ball that Todd had just batted wild.
Hugh chased along at her ankles barking furiously in excitement.
It had taken more than two years for the police to fully investigate and bring together all the threads of the rape case that had changed all their lives. Then just when the press frenzy mounted again as the trial date approached they were left reeling in a limbo of denied justice when Neil Fitzpatrick was found hanging in his cell.
It came as a huge shock since he had not once shown any remorse or shame for his actions. In the end he really was just a depraved, selfish coward who couldn’t face life imprisonment.
It had taken Lily another year to finally accept that that chapter of her life was over and that Ben wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. But things were good now, she seemed free again and happy. Even if she didn’t have quite the same effervescence she’d gained a new maturity and confidence about her that only somebody that came out the other side of adversity could understand.
Carly never intentionally intruded on their lives again. It seemed she’d gone back to modelling and from time to time when she popped up on TV or appeared in a magazine spread Jen contented herself with a surreptitious two finger salute, and changed the channel or flipped the page. But it was more of an inside joke to herself than actually harbouring any ill will towards her, she knew who was the winner in the grand scheme of things.
A soft warm breeze whipped Jen’s hair across her face interrupting her daydream; she tucked it back underneath her cap and simultaneously lifted her face to the sun in pleasure.
She had been relegated to the position of referee, due to the six and a half month bump currently stretching out the front of her elasticated shorts. The tank top she had on kept dipping low over her expanding breasts and her scar peeked out from time to time, she’d never quite make peace with it being there but that was ok and she didn’t mind so much around family anymore.
Jen stroked her tummy gently trying to picture what the baby boy she was carrying would look like. Surprisingly the only thing she tended to worry about was if he’d want to be a boxer when he grew up, that would really scare her to death.
Her mind kept wandering from the job in hand because it was hard to keep her eyes off her husband who was playing with his shirt off and god she still never got sick of looking at him –he was laughing and sweaty and running at full pelt, best of all he was 100% hers. The knowing looks he’d been throwing her the whole afternoon meant he’d come looking for some private attention long before bedtime, that she was certain of, and she was always happy to accommodate him.
It was three years since they’d married; three and a half years since he’d insisted on their engagement. She’d not needed much convincing at all in the end.
<
br /> Jen smiled remembering the couple’s therapy sessions they’d gone to in that first six months. Where she’d learned how to accept being loved and desired, and Todd had learned she was no longer going to run away at a moment’s notice.
It was the best thing they could have done.
The wedding had been held in this same spot at the cabins where they were now playing softball. Sean had designed the dress, which miraculously survived the whole day in one piece, and still held pride of place in her wardrobe.
Jen decided not to tell Todd when she stopped taking contraceptives. He had, true to his word, never pressured her to try for a baby. So it was her happy secret the day there was an almost audible click inside and she realised she desperately wanted his child and set about making it happen.
When she told him he was going to be a daddy a myriad of expressions had passed over his handsome face, joy, masculine pride, then fear that it was an accident and she’d be upset.
He’d been so happy when she told him the reality that he didn’t stop crying for an hour, and then he’d made love to her over and over again.
Now here she was with everyone that she loved and every bit of fear and doubt had been worth it, the hard part was over.
THE END
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