by R. K. Lilley
By the time he pulled her dress up her body and off, followed quickly by her bra, then her panties, she was too far gone to feel any misgivings as the night air whispered through the open windows, touching her naked skin.
Her needy fingers grasped at his stomach as he shrugged out of his shirt. He was ripped with muscles, and she loved the feel of him. She tried to help him unbutton his jeans, but ended up being more of a hindrance in her eagerness, and finally just let her hands drop in an attempt to speed his efforts.
It worked. He had his jeans and boxers down, condom out of his wallet and rolled onto his thick length, and was back between her thighs with a few swift motions.
He entered her with one smooth, deep-rooted thrust, their mouths panting together as he set a tenderly passionate rhythm that drove Brittany quickly to the brink.
He took her with slow, sublime purpose, bringing her to a crashing climax before he let himself follow with her name on his lips.
One sane thought went through her mind as the aftereffects of her pleasure rocked through her: Marcus was as skilled at taking her body as he was at taking her heart.
“This probably wasn’t how you envisioned our first time together,” he eventually said, his lips at her neck. They’d been there for a while, inundating her tender flesh with affectionate kisses that made her shiver in sated delight. “I’m sorry we didn’t make it to a bed.”
“It was perfect,” she said. And it had been. She didn’t care about a bed. All that mattered was that she was here with Marcus.
They looked at each other, then smiled. For tonight at least, they could put their troubles aside and just bask in their newfound intimacy.
Brittany felt hopeful. Tomorrow might bring more troubles, but they would work through them together.
CHAPTER NINE
“Please, Hector,” Joanne begged as he herded her into their bedroom yet again. Her voice grated on his nerves. This was the second time today she’d forced him to tighten the reins on the household. “Not again. Not now. I need to finish making dinner.”
Hector clenched his fists to keep from touching her, but it was an effort. He was sick and tired of her telling him what to do. She’d become dangerously willful in his absence. The woman honestly thought that every little thing had to go just the way she wanted. It was his job to show her otherwise. First she’d hurt Dakota. It was bad enough to have her panting after the damn sheriff. But now she was choosing Tate Johnson over him. Abandoning preparations for his dinner to answer the goddamned phone.
“Dakota is right,” he said, voice low and mean. “You’ve tainted the Alvarez name. I can barely stand to think about what you’ve been up to while I’ve been gone. And poor Dakota. That girl needed her mother, meanwhile you were off working—”
“Someone had to pay the bills.”
He blinked. Once, twice, three times. His arm cocked back and then slammed into the wall.
Joanne cowered appropriately.
“Did you just interrupt me?” he breathed. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
“I was just explaining myself. I had to work. I had to keep the bills paid.”
“Meanwhile, your sheriff boyfriend kicked me out of town.” He saw the way she flinched when he said boyfriend, and knew he’d be coming back to that later. “And you basically stopped being a mother to poor Dakota.”
“I did not,” Joanne defended. “I tried my best. She’s a grown woman, and she doesn’t listen to me.”
Her tone was so impertinent that he couldn’t hold himself back. He took a step toward her.
She took a step back. And another. Every foot he advanced she retreated until her back was to the wall.
“You let that bastard senator take advantage of our little girl!” he shouted into her face.
“I had no idea that was happening!” she retorted in the wrong fucking tone.
Snapping, he let his foot sweep out, taking her legs out from under her.
She almost fell to the ground, but caught herself on her small project table in the corner, causing her sewing machine to crash to the ground, hitting her leg on the way down.
She whimpered.
He sneered at her. “Are you that stupid? Did you think there wouldn’t be consequences for the way you acted while I was gone?”
Her eyes were appropriately on the floor, her voice finally submissive, “I never thought that, Hector. I always knew you’d be back.”
“Damn fucking right,” he said. “This is my house. Your little boyfriend”—again he noticed how that made her flinch—“managed to get me out of town once, but that will not be happening again.”
She didn’t say anything, and perversely that made him want to lash out even more.
“Not even going to deny that he’s your boyfriend?” he growled. “Have you become that shameless?”
She shook her head furiously, eyes still downcast. “Of course not. I knew you weren’t serious.”
“Did you now? Why do you suppose, then, that the sheriff wanted me out of town so bad?”
She flinched and he noticed. Oh yes, he noticed.
“You think I don’t know that he has a thing for you? That he always has?”
“I don’t know what he has,” she said meekly. “It’s none of my business and it’s not returned by me if he does.”
That appeased him but only a small amount. “Dakota said he came over all the time. Why did you let him do that?”
There it was. The proper amount of fear in her eyes. About goddamn time.
“She was exaggerating. It wasn’t all the time, and when we did see him, he was usually here for Marcus.”
“Usually? And what about the other times?”
“Work related. He was helping with work stuff for Tate. Remember, they’re cousins.”
He’d forgotten that. It did explain a bit about why the sheriff would help with that sort of thing. “Good,” he said, somewhat satisfied on the subject. For now. “Now what about that other man?”
“What other man?” she asked. The dumb woman looked genuinely confounded.
“Tate Johnson. That asshole on the phone. The one you work for,” he shot back, tone mocking hers. “What do you really do for him?”
* * * *
Joanne swallowed, trying to hold back her fear as she stared up at her husband. “I told you. I’m his campaign manager.”
“Bullshit.” She jumped at the anger in his voice, wishing, not for the first time, that she had the strength to fight back. “You can’t even keep this house running, let alone a political campaign.”
It was her turn to grow angry. Joanne felt something inside of herself come alive again at his taunts. Because he was wrong. There were a lot of things she could do. A lot of things she hadn’t given herself enough credit for.
She wasn’t an idiot. She wasn’t worthless. She wasn’t incompetent.
Hector was wrong about her.
“I do run his campaign,” she said with grim determination. “And I’m good at it. I’m organized. I’m resourceful. I’m hardworking. There are a lot of things I can do that you’ve never given me credit for, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do them.”
“You can’t even make a meal on time, or has that changed?”
“I made you breakfast this morning,” she pointed out calmly. “And I’m in the middle of making you dinner now.”
“That’s funny,” he barked back. “I didn’t eat any breakfast. Why the hell would anyone want cold bacon and eggs? And I’m guessing that if I go look, the next meal will be ruined.”
“That’s my fault?” she cried.
His face moved so close to hers that she felt herself begin to tremble. “Are you saying it’s my fault?” He growled the question.
She took a few trembling breaths, trying to recall what had her standing up for herself with such determination.
He’d been terrorizing her for so long that she’d conditioned herself to go on autopilot the second she felt threatened, and autop
ilot meant forgetting any ideas in her head that did not involve submitting to his brutal will.
But she was not forgetting today. She’d found a new version of herself while he was away, or perhaps rediscovered an old one. Whatever the case, it was a stronger, better version. One not ruled by his heavy hand. And she refused to forget that, no matter what he did to her, that part of her was still there.
“I didn’t say that,” said the self-preserving part of herself.
“You know what?” he said, his mood suddenly changing. “I’m starved! Go salvage what you can of that meal, or make a new one, but do it fast.”
She left the room without a word.
Both of her daughters were absent as she entered the kitchen, and she was relieved. She just couldn’t read Hector’s mood. She had no idea if he was going to come after her again, or if he’d gotten it out of his system.
She tossed out the food. The chicken was far too greasy. The biscuits weren’t warm from the oven anymore, and the gravy had begun to stiffen up. The corn was overcooked and mushy. Still, technically, everything was still good. Certainly, if it was up to her, she’d have eaten it as it was, but it was all unsalvageable by Hector’s exacting standards. He liked his food a very particular way.
So she started from scratch. It was a pain, but if cooking dinner twice was the worst this day had to offer, she’d consider herself lucky.
She had everything just about perfect again when she felt him enter the kitchen behind her.
He pressed himself against her back, his nose going to her ear.
She froze but tried her best not to flinch away. He would not take it well if she recoiled from his touch, of that she was certain.
“You’re going to quit that job,” he said blandly and moved to sit at the table and wait for his meal.
She decided to ignore his statement if she could, neither confirming nor denying it for the sake of a temporary peace.
She served him a heaping plateful of all of his favorites. He grunted and started eating.
Relieved that he’d let the subject drop, she dished a small portion out for herself, sat in the seat across from him, and began to eat.
The first bite was almost to her mouth when he spoke.
“You’re going to quit that job,” he stated, tone vicious, eyes malevolent on her.
Feeling sick, she put the food in her mouth and began to chew.
Maybe if she just ignored him, he would drop it this time.
She saw him move, lightning fast, just a second before he leaned forward, reached his arm across the table, and jammed the edge of her plate with direct, blunt force into her ribs.
The breath whooshed out of her, followed immediately by her food shooting everywhere. Racking coughs shook her body until she’d gotten all of the half-swallowed food out of her throat.
“That’s what you get for pretending not to hear me,” he snarled. “Now let’s try this again. Repeat after me: I am going to quit my job.”
She took a long swallow of water to clear her throat, hoping that he wouldn’t take exception and use it against her.
She apparently took too long of a drink. Hector let her know by slapping it sideways out of her hand.
It shattered against the wall, glass and water spraying in every direction. She felt a few drops hit her face and hoped that there weren’t any glass shards doing the same.
His eyes were wild with his rage. It was like meeting the gaze of a rabid animal.
Joanne’s entire body was shaking like a leaf.
“Say it now,” he gritted out.
“I won’t,” she said, voice trembling in fear.
Trembling or not, she was proud of herself for getting the words out.
“What did you say to me?” His voice was high with incredulity. He really couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.
“I’m not quitting,” she said stubbornly, praying all the while that her children weren’t home.
Please let them have gone somewhere else, she prayed. Please don’t let them walk out at the wrong time and catch his attention.
Hector stood, both hands clenched into fists.
She knew all of the signs. Every little violent tell he had. This was it. She was in for it. She’d made him lose his temper, and he would not hold back on her.
“We should go into the bedroom if we’re going to have this talk right now,” she said in her best effort at a calm voice, which was not calm at all, but unsteady and undeniably terrified.
It was the wrong thing to say. His eye began to twitch, his upper lip to tremble.
“Quit fucking telling me what to do!” he roared at her, raising his fist.
She closed her eyes, her mind going a little hazy. One of these times he’d kill her.
Her eyes snapped open at the sound of the doorbell ringing.
The noise seemed to snap him back into himself somewhat, as well. He went from enraged to highly annoyed, from trembling and twitching, to glaring and sneering.
It was a marked improvement.
“Expecting company?” He asked the question tauntingly.
“No,” she answered, her mind going to Dillon, instinctively wishing it was him for a few moments before her mind shied away from the thought of him. He couldn’t save her.
She’d been so sure of him, of his character and his honesty, while all along he’d been lying to her face.
She’d begun to think of him as someone she could trust, only to have that belief come crashing down around her. She didn’t know what to do with where that distrust left them, only that it let her know that she couldn’t count on him.
Still, whoever was at the door, it was possible they’d just saved her life.
* * * *
The story continues with Episode 6, Quiet Storm by Julie Kenner. Click here to purchase.
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Rising Storm story
Storm Season: Ginny & Jacob – the Prequel
by Dee Davis
Rising Storm
Storm, Texas.
Where passion runs hot, desire runs deep, and secrets have the power to destroy…
Nestled among rolling hills and painted with vibrant wildflowers, the bucolic town of Storm, Texas, seems like nothing short of perfection.
But there are secrets beneath the facade. Dark secrets. Powerful secrets. The kind that can destroy lives and tear families apart. The kind that can cut through a town like a tempest, leaving jealousy and destruction in its wake, along with shattered hopes and broken dreams. All it takes is one little thing to shatter that polish.
Rising Storm is a series conceived by Julie Kenner and Dee Davis to read like an on-going drama. Set in a small Texas town, Rising Storm is full of scandal, deceit, romance, passion, and secrets. Lots of secrets.
Look for other Rising Storm Season 2 titles, now available! (And if you missed Season 1 and the midseason episodes, you can find those titles here!)
Click to purchase.
Rising Storm, Season Two
Against the Wind by Rebecca Zanetti
As Tate Johnson works to find a balance between his ambitions for political office and the fallout of his brother’s betrayal, Zeke is confronted with his brother Chase’s return home. And while Bryce and Tara Daniels try to hold onto their marriage, Kristin continues to entice Travis into breaking his vows…
Storm Warning by Larissa Ione
As Joanne Alvarez settles into life without Hector, her children still struggle with the fallout. Marcus confronts the differences between him and Brittany, while Dakota tries to find a new equilibrium. Meanwhile, the Johnson’s grapple with war between two sets of brothers, and Ian Briggs rides into town…
Brave the Storm by Lisa Mondello
As Senator Rush’s poll numbers free fall, Marylee tries to drive a wedge between Brittany and Marcus. Across town, Anna Mae and Chase dance toward reconciliation. Ginny longs for Logan, while he fights against Sebastian’s maneuvering. And Hector, newly freed from prison, heads back to Storm…
Lightning Strikes by Lexi Blake
As Ian Briggs begins to fall for Marisol, Joanne and Dillon also grow closer. Joanne’s new confidence spreads to Dakota but Hector’s return upends everything. A public confrontation between Marcus and Hector endangers his relationship with Brittany, and Dakota reverts to form. Meanwhile, the Senator threatens Ginny and the baby…
Fire and Rain by R.K. Lilley
As Celeste Salt continues to unravel in the wake of Jacob’s death, Travis grows closer with Kristin. Lacey realizes the error of her ways but is afraid it’s too late for reconciliation with her friends. Marcus and Brittany struggle with the continued fallout of Hector’s return, while Chase and Anna Mae face some hard truths about their past…
Quiet Storm by Julie Kenner
As Mallory Alvarez and Luis Moreno grow closer, Lacey longs for forgiveness. Brittany and Marcus have a true meeting of hearts. Meanwhile, Jeffry grapples with his father’s failures and finds solace in unexpected arms. When things take a dangerous turn, Jeffry’s mother and sister, as well as his friends, unite behind him as the Senator threatens his son…
Blinding Rain by Elisabeth Naughton
As Tate Johnson struggles to deal with his brother’s relationship with Hannah, hope asserts itself in an unexpected way. With the return of Delia Burke, Logan’s old flame, Brittany and Marcus see an opportunity to help their friend. But when the evening takes an unexpected turn, Brittany finds herself doing the last thing she expected—coming face to face with Ginny…