Found By You (The Spring Rose Bay Series Book 1)

by K. L. Jessop

  I try to escape once he turns for another drink but he’s too quick for me, pulling me back by my hair and slamming me against the wall, gripping my jaw with his hand and smashing my head back against the bricks making my cry out with the blow.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” I cry, even though I have nothing to apologise for but I always felt I had to. He eyes now full of fury as he seethed his word out through gritted teeth.

  “I spent years on the run because of you and you’re fucking lies, changed my name, my lifestyle, and lost my friends. You owe me every-fucking-thing you’ve put me though. I want something in return. You owe me. 50k should do it and I’m not going till I get it.”

  He has to be kidding right? “Daniel, I haven’t got that sort of money.”

  “You’re fucking a millionaire, you have the money!” Pain radiates in my head and neck with another hard slam of my skull to the wall, my hands pathetically try to defend myself.

  I agree to his ridiculous demand in the hope it will bide me time to tell Marcus. “Ok, I-I’ll get you w-what you want, I need time. Please.” I beg with my hands not knowing what to do with them.

  A sickening smile greeted his malice eyes as he moved forward, his voice had now lost the aggression behind it, “That’s my girl. You see how easy things are, how differently they could of been if you’d listened to me.” He murmurs, pressing himself into me creating a proximity that nauseates my stomach as he runs his hand up my dress. My heart is in my throat, my mouth dry.

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper, trying to hold back my tears. Tears that would enrage him more if he were to see them. This was where his unpredictability came out, after hurting me he would always try and plead his forgiveness with caresses and healing words. Words and touches that repulse me as his breath hits heavy on my lips.

  “I’ve missed this, this connection we have. I’ve missed you. My gorgeous, Amelia.” He says above a whisper. My body burns with panicked heat when his lips hit mine trying to force his tongue into my mouth. I press my lips together firmly, shaking my head to prevent his entry. The hard yank of my hair causes me to gasp with pain as it rips my skull, gaining him access into my mouth with his unwanted invasion that robs me of my breath and abuses my mouth. I push hard at his chest to try and remove him from my grasp but he’s too strong. He takes my arms, pinning them above my head with one hand while the other plays with the hem of my dress to work its way rather up my thigh, pressing his solid body against me to prevent my escape as the feel of his arousal makes me want to vomit. My body trembles with the terror of what’s going to happen. My attempts to fight back begin to shut down against the poisonous body that’s crushing me. Not again. He can’t have me again.

  “Babe, you left your phone in the-” Our heads spin towards the voice that saves me, warmth and relief hitting my body which quickly turns cold as his eyes darken with anger when he sees my body entwined with another.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Marcus

  Air left my lungs like I’d been winded with a solid blow. My bloodstream a mixture of ice cold and fury working its way up my body in equal measures with witnessing the unexpected that stood interlinked before me. Her lips red and swollen from the wildness I interrupted and her eyes popped out with horror from my entrance.

  “Marcus,” she gasps, panic dripping from her voice. “I-I can explain.”

  That’s the line people say that automatically makes them look guilty.

  “It’s not what you think.”

  And that’s the second line people say because they are guilty.

  My eyes blaze into hers, chest expanding from rage that’s soon to erupt from my body as I clench hard on my jaw. Why would she do this? What was it with me and cheating women?

  “Well this is awkward.”

  My eyes shifted from Amelia’s to a bearded man with a smug look on his face, dressed in a black suit, the same black suit that belonged to the entourage of Nadia-fucking-Lenton and the same lapdog I spoke to just yesterday. Of all the people in the world it could have been it had to be some prick from her colony. Another one to laugh in my face. She’s going to fucking love this. “What’s the fuck is going on?” I seethed as I step towards them, knowing exactly what’s going on.

  “Do you really have to ask, surely it’s obvious?” his cocky stance pissed me off the more he spoke. Hands in his pockets as he rocks back and forth on his heels without any kind of remorse. Fucking prick.

  “No. Don’t listen to him, Marcus. Let me explain.”

  “Amelia, baby what’s to explain, he’s already caught us, you should just tell him now. Save all the heartbreak.” He smirked. He fucking smirked.

  “Stop it! Marcus, listen to me.” She moves towards me, pleading with her hands but I focus on the piece of shit behind her that’s clearly getting a kick out of all this. My fists clench tighter at my side as the rage becomes overpowering. Only I call her baby.

  “I asked a question. What. The. Fuck’s. Going. On?”

  “Are you blind man, she wants me. She’s well up for it.”

  There was nothing in his eyes other than amusement, no guilt, no shame, nothing. Just a look I couldn’t work out other than enjoyment. His cold dry cackle was enough to make me lose my shit, lunging towards him and knocking him off his feet as my fist made contact with his face. Grabbing the scruff of his jacket before he had chance to recover and slamming his front against the wall as he fought against me. Amelia screaming at me to stop and I can’t help but think it’s to protect the piece of filth I want nothing more than to throw in front of a fucking train.

  “Couldn’t get what she wanted from you so she came to me.”

  “Fuck you!” I growl.

  “Don’t listen, Marcus, he’s lying!”

  She tugs at my arm trying to make me look at her but I shrug her off as my only focus is the bastard that’s had his hands on my girl and is currently laughing at me while pressed to the wall. “Get back, Amelia.”

  “I love it when I make her scream for more,” he grunts.

  I pull him back with a spin, smacking him a second time as he comes in for his own blow, hitting my chin with a solid punch that makes my teeth smack together. I swing for another as the office now becomes a ring to a bare-knuckle fight.

  “Stop it! Stop it!”

  Her piercing cry should have made me stop but in all honesty I couldn’t give a shit about the woman that’s betrayed me right now. I needed to release the wrath of what I walked in on and make her suffer just as much as I was. Make her hurt like I was hurting as I still see the vision of her slim body up against his.

  Within minutes a cloud of black entered the office in a heavy form, separating us from our conflict as I try to fight against whoever’s holding me back.

  “What the fuck is going on?!” Andrew bellowed, his green eyes burned into mine as he takes in the surrounding of two men in a heated brawl and a woman curled up in the corner in a trembling mess. My gut twisted at the sight of her, frightened and confused, yet I didn’t want to go to her. Comforting her would be wrong of me when she’s the reason behind this.

  “She can’t get enough, Matthews. She wants me,” he laughed, as the blood dripped from his nose. “Amelia, I’ll see you very soon.”

  “Get him out of here!” Andrew snaps at the security holding the enemy, giving me a disapproving look and going straight to Amelia.

  “Amelia, sweetheart are you ok?”

  “Yes,” she cries.

  “Come here, its ok.”

  Seeing his arms around her pissed me off, not only was I mad with her, I wanted to hold her. I hated seeing her upset. Then in seconds I see them again in my mind and hate her for it. “Oh, enough with the fucking sympathy, she’s the reason this has happened.”

  “No. No. Marcus, it’s not like that.”

  “Will someone please tell me what is going on here?” Andrew glared, asking me for answers while he held her close.

  “She’s fucking her way through Lento
n’s Security.” I gestured to her with my hand.

  “No!” she pushes past Andrew and comes to me, grabbing my arms to hold me as I turn my head not wanting to look at her. “You have to listen to me, Marcus. You have to trust me.”

  I’m taken right back to walking in on Sadie and Sean when their dirty lies were uncovered. I’m taken right back to the feeling of disgusting disloyalty and humiliation as I stand before this woman who promised to give me her heart, only to go and jump in some fuckers pants. I thought she was different. I thought she understood the word truth and loyalty, clearly I was wrong.

  “I’ll leave you to it.” Andrew leaves us in the silence of the room as I pour myself a large whiskey, wanting to leave but needing answers while her constant sniffles do nothing to ease my anger that’s still simmering. Of all the people to do shit like this I never thought it would be her. I love her, respected her, treated her like a queen and this is how she repays me.

  “Marcus, please say something.”

  I walked the floor in silence, I didn’t want to talk, sometimes you just gotta stay silent because no words can explain the shit that’s going on in your heart and mind as I tried to control the tightness in my chest. I wanted an explanation from her but I needed to calm myself. Even now I was thinking of her and her mental state, what my reaction would do. The last thing I wanted was to frighten her as that would only prove her theory on men. And despite my outburst I was nothing like her last.

  “You’re the one that should be talking, Amelia.” I sigh, pouring myself another drink and sitting at the opposite end of the office as close to the door as I could get, I feel like I’m suffocating the closer I’m near her. She slowly moves her shaky body to the sofa, twisting the ring on her finger and sniffing back her tears as I run my tongue along the inside of my lip that’s been split with the impact.

  “Yesterday was the first I saw of him. He was already in my office when I got here this morning. He kissed me, Marcus; I was trying to stop him when you walked in. That’s all it was I swear. It’s not what you think.”

  “Is that right?” I scoff. “That’s exactly what Sadie said when she was fucking my best friend.”

  “But I’m not Sadie and I’m not fucking him,” she cries, mascara running down her face as her neck becomes blotchy. “I’m not fucking him. Please, Marcus, you have to believe me. I’m yours, you have all of me remember?”

  “I thought I did,” I murmur.

  I sit forward and pinch the bridge of my nose, squeezing my eyes shut as the pressure in my head becomes too much. Loosening my tie and top button in need of freedom.

  Wiping her tears Amelia straightens herself, her voice thick with emotion but commanding, “Look at me, Marcus.” I don’t, I can’t, because her eyes that are my home will break me and I’m afraid of what they will show. “Look. At. Me.”

  She comes over taking my face in her hands and instantly washing away the aggression in me with her magical touch, the touch that for the first time I disliked because she was clouding my vision with her existence. My heart ached the moment she tipped my head up and I looked into her eyes. Hurt and confused just like mine as she spoke through her sobs.

  “Do you really think that after everything I’ve been through, after the courage I had to find in showing you my body that I’d go with someone else? Do you really think I’d do that?”

  I’d like to think that she wouldn’t, I like to think that everything she was saying was true but that part of my past threw up the warning sign and prevented me from thinking anything other than what I witnessed. I can’t fall back into that life again.

  “I don’t know what to think. I can’t think when you’re around me; you take that ability from me, Amelia, because all I think about is you. And now all I can see is you and him.”

  “There is no me and him, Marcus, I want you. Only you.”

  My irrational mind was driving me crazy with scenarios and the same one kept repeating in my head. She’s not told me she loves me because she was saving me from the fucking humiliation, only I’ve stumbled upon her little party like a surprise visitor. “Is this why you’ve not told me you love me? Because of wh-”

  “Just because I don’t speak it doesn’t mean I don’t feel it, Marcus, I’ve told you that. I only want you. It’s just you and I.”

  She moves further forward, coming up closer to my body and stopping my ability to breathe. Suffocating me with her honeysuckle and vanilla aroma causing my eyes to close with the unwelcoming feeling of yearning that she’s giving me. I can’t bear her touching me because of the feeling she creates inside. The feelings that makes my heart feel like it’s going to explode because of the love I have for her, my heart is hers and she’s breaking it. She is breaking me.

  “Amelia, don’t.” I mumble.

  “You know me, Marcus. You. Know. Me. You’ve made me come alive, made me learn to love myself and made me feel, why would I jeopardise that?”

  Her eyes always told me things she never needed to speak, they held my gaze when she spoke of her fears, never faltered when she was sad and still held on when she spoke the truth. Even though I found it hard to look at her I knew her eyes were on me the moment I stepped foot in this office. And now as she held me through her tears they still locked on mine as she spoke, which only confused me more.

  My body stiffened as she dipped her head to mine, my heart pounding faster as my emotions were all over the place. “Amelia, please don’t do this.”

  “I only want you, Marcus,” she whispered a breath apart from my lips. “I don’t want anybody else, I only want you. Let me be yours.”

  Her lips touched mine and my stomach tightened. The saltiness of her tears met my tongue when she slipped hers into my mouth to captivate me. My heart and mind fighting the rollercoaster of emotions that compressed within me. I didn’t want her near me, but I don’t want her to leave. I want her; I hate her for making me feel the way I do. She was the best thing that had happened to me and I can’t bear the thought of losing her but I felt trapped, humiliated. Hurt. A part of me believed everything she said because I did know her, but that fucked up part couldn’t forgive her, the things he said kept going over in my mind.

  “I can’t do this.” I push her back and stand. Feeling as though I’m suffocating. I needed to be away from her in order to sort my head out and have time to think.

  “Marcus, please don’t go, nothing happened I swear. I’m nothing without you.”

  “I need time, Amelia. I need to think.”

  “Marcus, please don’t leave me on my own. I need you here with me.” She begs, grabbing my jacket in desperation and resting her head on my chest as she cried. “Please. Please don’t leave me on my own.”

  Her pleading words crushed me but I couldn’t stay any longer. Every relationship goes through struggles, but only the strongest relationships are the ones that work and I hoped that we could get through this. I needed space to sort out the shit that was running around in my mind and work out what was the right thing to do.

  “I need to think, I’ll find you when I’m ready.”

  “No. No, Marcus, don’t-” I push her from me and walked out with clenched hands and a shattered heart as she cried my name over and over through her sobs. The sort of cry I knew won’t leave me any time soon.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Amelia

  My legs burned, my body’s exhausted and my chest ached from the endless miles I’ve put in on the treadmill in the last twenty-four hours. When I need to think I run. When my anxieties need to be eased I run and when I’m fighting the fear of my ex, I run. Running was my freedom. Now it’s only my escape. I can’t work out if it’s more painful having my heart ripped out from being beaten daily or from the one person I never wanted to lose.

  I’ve not seen Marcus in two days and my heart feels as though it’s shattered into a thousand pieces. The ache in my chest deepens the longer we’re apart and I feel as though I’m losing the ability to breathe without
him near me.

  In the past few months there’s hardly been a day or night without him and the thought of not having him close scares me shitless. My fears and anxieties have heightened, my tears won’t stop falling and I can’t seem to function. It’s like he’s took all the control I ever had and now I have to start all over again in order to make it through the day. Yesterday I spent the entire day barricaded inside my house too afraid to leave whilst I cried myself into the whiskey bottle trying to find answers that weren’t there. I forgotten what it felt like to feel broken and now I’m right back there in the cloud of darkness. The scariest part of loving someone is the uncertainty that they could stop loving you at any given moment and I fear that this is what’s happened between Marcus and me. He’s not returned my calls and I’ve left dozens of tearful voicemails as I pleaded my forgiveness. I respect the fact he needed time but every second I’m without him, feels as though I’m drowning.

  If only I could have told him the truth then none of this would have happened and he’d be with me now. But I couldn’t put him in danger, Daniel is an evil man and never one to go back on his word, if he said he would hurt Marcus he won’t stop until he does and because I love him I’ll do anything to keep him out of danger. Even if it meant losing him forever.

  In one respect a part of me is thankful Daniel has found me, because if it wasn’t for his return I wouldn’t have realised just how much I’m in love with Marcus. I tried to bury the feelings I had as I was terrified of falling in love, because I knew Marcus would never hurt me and that’s what scared me the most. Only now he’s hurt me in other ways. Sometimes it’s not the butterflies in your heart that tell you your feelings but it’s the pain, and that pain is ripping through me like a hot bullet. Through my own stupidity and apprehension I’ve lost the man that only ever loved me and I never got the chance to tell him he had my heart.