“I have no obligation to you. We danced, that was all.”
His grip tightens on my wrist. “Well, I think I should at least get a goodbye.”
Leah has moved to stand beside me. Pulling away, I try to get my wrist loose.
“Goodbye. Now, let me go.”
He tries to pull me closer to him, leering. “I don’t think I will, kitten. I spotted you the minute you walked in. You’re David’s daughter. He owes me, and therefore you owe me. I think I’ll take that payment tonight.”
“Like hell. If you know my dad so well, you would have called him by the name he uses in the club. You just want an easy lay, so let me go. I haven’t been in the club in years, you know nothing. Let me go.”
He yanks me forward onto his body. The smell of liquor is strong on his breath. “You belong to me tonight. You’re not going anywhere.”
Red clouds my vision as I swing my free arm at him, making contact with his face. He lets go of me and clutches his face. He turns towards me with an angry snarl and slaps my face.
“Bitch!”
Staggering backwards, all I can see is stars. Fuuuck.
Leah steps forward and does something, my vision is still too blurry to see what. Blinking a couple times, I see people have moved to hold the man and Leah apart.
The cops are called, and when they get here, this guy claims he is a victim and just wanted to dance with me. The police believe him over me, of course, so they arrest us and take Leah and I to the police station for holding. Once we get there, they let me tell my side of the story again. My wrist is starting to bruise and a handprint is forming on my face. They finally agree to let us go as long as we get someone to pick us up.
The hour it takes for Mason to arrive seems to last a lifetime. Leah puts her hand on my leg and I look over at her, “Are you okay, Abbey?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just going to be sore.”
I don’t really know if I’m okay, but that’s what I tell her. It’s what she needs to hear.
When Mason arrives, I see that Luke is with him. Mason touches my face, and I wince.
“Sorry.”
“No big deal.”
Leah explains what happened. Mason is visibly fuming, and Luke doesn’t look too happy, either. I’m just ready to go home. Exhaustion and cold have taken over my body. I follow Leah out to Mason’s car. She sits in the front with him and gives him directions to where her car is. Luke gets in the back with me and gives me his jacket when he sees me shivering. I can’t get warm even with the jacket. Mason drops Leah off at her car and starts the drive home.
It’s a silent ride. I spend it staring out the window until Mason pulls into the driveway. I’m out of the car and on my way inside before he’s even turned the car off. I go straight in and to the shower; I want to get warm and get this gross feeling off my skin. I stand under the hot water for a while before I get out and put on my pajamas.
Walking out to the kitchen, I find Mason there holding some water and Advil. I take it from him.
“Hey, are you sure you’re okay? Tonight was a lot.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. You have to be up early tomorrow and meet whoever. You can go to bed.”
“If you’re sure, Abbey.”
“Yes, I’m sure Mason. Go to sleep. That’s where I’m going as well.”
He kisses my forehead and heads to bed.
I head to my bedroom and sit on the side of the bed. The pain is setting in now… I focus on taking deep breaths until the Advil starts to work.
There’s a knock at my door.
“Come in.”
Expecting Mason, I start talking.
“Mason, I told you I was fine, please just go to bed.”
I continue to look down at my knees and see feet stop in front of me.
“Abbey, would you please look at me?”
That’s not Mason’s voice. That’s Luke.
I shake my head. I really don’t feel like looking at him. This was an unbelievably hard night. It brings back painful memories of nights in the club, nights I don’t miss one bit. It was fun, but there’s always some jerk doing this. The events of the night keep rushing back to me, and I can’t keep them pushed back. Tears start to roll down my cheeks, and I hear Luke move forward towards me. I cover my face with my hands and just hope he goes away, but he doesn’t. If he would go away, I could cry and go to sleep. Alone.
Sniffling, I spread my fingers enough to see through them. Luke is kneeling in front of me, looking at me apologetically.
“Abbey, you are very obviously not okay. What can I do?”
Bringing my hands down, I just look at him for a minute. I don’t know what he can do. I don’t even know what would make me feel better. I just need to cry.
Taking a breath and trying to hold myself together, “I just need to cry and go to sleep for the night. I’ll be okay in the morning.”
His brow furrows like he doesn’t know what to do or say. After a minute he speaks up, “Would you like a shoulder to cry on? I don’t mind, and I’ve got all night. I understand if you don’t want to be touched.”
I debate his answer for a couple of seconds. A shoulder to lean on wouldn’t be too bad. “Yeah. a shoulder would be nice.” My voice breaks as I finish speaking.
He sits on the side of the bed beside me and puts his arm around me. I lean my head on his shoulder. A sob catches in my throat, shaking me. Luke tightens his grip for a minute, and then moves to rubbing my back.
“Hey, do you mind if I change the position a little? It might be more comfortable for both of us.”
Wiping my nose and cheeks, I nod.
He bends down and puts his arm under my knees and swings me around to where my legs are across his with my bottom up against his thighs. My head is still resting on his shoulder and he has one arm around my back rubbing it and another on my legs. The tears have stopped, but my body is still shaking.
It takes me a little while, but the shaking slows, allowing my eyes to grow heavy. I doze off there with my head still on his shoulder.
Chapter 4
I’m hot. So hot. It’s like a heatwave has hit me. I’m drenched in sweat, and nauseated. Kicking the covers off of me, I make to roll away from the heat and an arm tightens around me. Ugh. What is happening? The memories from last night flash back to me. I gasp and sit straight up, pulling my knees to my chest and take a couple of deep breaths. The bed moves and a warm hand lands on my back.
“Hey, you’re okay. You’re safe.”
Refusing to move, I just stare down at my knees. Resolving not to cry, I instead bite my lip to focus on that. I don’t want to cry again.
“Would you please look at me, Abbey?”
Turning my head to face him, I see him lift a hand to move towards me, and I flinch unintentionally. He slows down his movements, but brings his hand to my face. He pulls at my bottom lip until I release it.
“Causing yourself more pain isn’t helping anything.”
I don’t say anything and just continue to look at him. His hand ventures up the side of my face to trace what I’m assuming is the bruise. I wince when he goes over a sore spot.
“Sorry.” He drops his hand after a moment and moves to get up.
“I’m going to take a shower and then make us some lunch, considering we’ve slept half the day away.”
“I think I’m going to shower, too. I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”
“Sounds good.”
We both head our separate directions, Luke to his bedroom and then to the bathroom down the hall and me to my en suite bathroom. I avoid the mirror until I’m showered. Finally, I look to assess the damage. I already know that my wrist is bruised, but seeing my face was a shock. It’s one big purple bruise in the form of a handprint. No wonder it was so sore.
Pulling out my makeup bag, I grab some concealer and foundation and get to work. The bruise is mostly covered once I’m done. You can tell it’s there if you look really hard, but at a glance it isn’t not
iceable. I try to figure out what to wear as I make my way to the closet. I finally settle on a casual red dress that just brushes the top of my knees.
A wonderful aroma reaches my nose when I make my way to the kitchen. Whatever Luke is making smells amazing. I plop myself onto a stool at the bar and watch him. I think he is making pizza, but his back is to me so I can’t say for sure. He turns around after a few minutes and jumps a little. Definitely pizza.
“I didn’t hear you come out.”
“I made some noise, you just must have been engrossed in cooking.”
“Well, making pizza is an art.”
I smile at him and he squints, inspecting me.
“You covered the bruise.”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to draw attention to myself tonight at dinner and get my own personal 20 Questions. Besides, I really just don’t want to see it, and if I’m taking you to the club tonight, I definitely don’t need it showing.” He puts the pizza in the oven and then comes back to the counter to stand across from me.
“Cool, we are going tonight. How are you feeling?”
“Definitely better than last night. It’s been a while since I’ve dealt with a person like that. I wasn’t prepared for it.”
“What do you mean? Are people at your dad’s clubs like that?”
“No, not necessarily. There are always some entitled people who think something is owed to them at the club, but usually they are removed, and there are precautions in place. Last night we weren’t at any of those clubs, just a regular one, and things got out of hand.”
He comes around the island to stand behind me, swiveling my seat around to face him.
“Well, I’m glad you are okay. More than glad, actually. When Mason woke me up last night, we didn’t know what had happened. We practically ran out of the house to come to you, we were so worried.”
I lift my gaze to meet his and smile. “Mason gets worried at the drop of a hat; although, last night was probably a good reason to be worried.”
His arms come to rest on each side of me on the back of the chair and he leans in a little closer. “Yeah, I’d say last night was a really good reason to be worried.”
Ready to be done with this part of the conversation, I shift it another direction. “So, are you excited to go to the club tonight? Mason puts on a pretty good show. He wants to own one someday and likes to show up and act like he runs the place.”
“Mason puts on a good show? I was interested in seeing what kind of show you put on.”
Placing my hand on his chest, I push a little bit to stop him from moving forward.
“I don’t really put on a show anymore. I just go to have fun.”
The timer on the counter goes off, startling me. Luke laughs and moves to take the pizza out of the oven.
“So what does tonight mean for me?”
“You will wear a bracelet that indicates you’re a guest, and it’s your first time there. You’re welcome to hang out with me or Mason. We tend to have different crowds, but sometimes we drink together.”
“So does a lot of sex happen at this club?”
“Well, it is technically a sex club, but that usually happens in the private rooms. There are rooms where people can watch. It’s usually all up to the guests. There’s a main event stage, but there’s never people having sex on it. Sometimes it’s a band, sometimes it’s people exploring their kinks, and sometimes there’s nothing going on.”
“It seems interesting.”
“Usually it is. I stopped going because people’s expectations of me got so high, and it wasn’t fun anymore. It got too tedious and I didn’t enjoy it anymore.”
He nods while cutting the pizza and plating it for us.
“I get that.” He continues nodding, “Do you think it would ever be fun for you again?”
“Maybe one day,” I shrug.
He passes me a plate; the smell is divine. I’m not the biggest fan of pizza, but this looks great. After a quiet meal, I excuse myself to my room for a while. I put on a movie, deciding to pass some time with some classic Patrick Swayze.
As the final scene comes on, I hear the front door open. I hope that’s Mason.
Hopping off my bed, I walk out of my room just as Mason is walking towards Luke’s room.
“Hey!” I greet him.
“Hey, where’s Luke?”
“Um, I’m not sure. I’ve been in my room watching TV.”
“Well, I’m going to go get ready for dinner. See if you can track him down so we can leave in time?”
“He is an adult man and can do as he pleases.”
“Abbey…”
“Fine. By the way, we’re going to the club in Smyrna tonight.”
He gives me a thumbs up as he heads up the stairs.
I venture around the house searching for Luke, even checking upstairs. He is nowhere to be found. I don’t see him on the deck either. Ugh. He must be down by the lake. I set off down the trail.
“Ow!”
Looking down, I find a rock embedded into the bottom of my foot. I should have put on some shoes. This is going to be a long walk. Approaching the opening to the lake, I notice there are a lot of twigs and branches on the ground. I peek around the bushes before I start making my way around the bend to make sure Luke is there, so I’m not wasting my time. I spot him, sitting peacefully on a rock by the water. I start to tip-toe through the branches, careful not to step on one and hurt my foot even more. He turns and stands up when he sees me coming.
“You can sit back down. I’m coming over and resting my feet for a minute. I’m pretty sure I’ve stepped on every pointy and jagged rock on my way out here.”
He chuckles and offers me his hand. I take it and jump over the rest of the branches.
“It’s nice of you to join me.”
“Oh, I was enjoying my movie until Mason told me to come find you while he gets ready for dinner tonight.”
“Ah, well, we can head back whenever.”
“I’m going to relax. Let’s go sit down for a few minutes, he takes forever to get ready anyway.”
Moving forward, I tug him along with me since we are still holding hands and sit on a big rock close enough to the water that I can stick my feet in. Mmmm.
“Ahh, not too cold. It feels good.”
Luke slips his shoes off and joins me. “It does feel nice.”
I look towards the sky and revel in the warmth of the sun on my face. “I don’t come down here nearly enough. I need to make more of an effort; I almost forget how peaceful it is.”
“Yeah, I came down for the solitude.” He glances over at me pointedly and smiles. “But you being here isn’t bad either.”
I roll my eyes at him. “Thanks for that.”
It really is beautiful out here. The way the sun shines in through the trees casts long shadows onto the greenish-blue water of the lake. I just enjoy taking in the sight of everything.
After a few minutes of comfortable silence, I get up and prepare myself for the trek back to the cabin.
Luke seems to notice my hesitation, “How about a piggyback ride?”
I’m beyond grateful for this offer and sigh, “That would be wonderful.”
He walks over to stand in front of me, squatting down a little bit. I put my hands on his shoulders and jump up. It’s not the most modest position, with my red dress now bunched up against his back and my body, but oh well.
“You know, the trail back goes uphill a bit. I can walk that part if you want.”
“Let’s just see how it goes,” he says as he sets off down the path. “You know, the last person I gave this kind of ride to was my sister when she hurt her ankle.”
I lean in so that I’m close to his ear. “So, you’re saying I’m like your sister?”
He chuckles. “I’m not saying that, just saying that it’s been a while since I've done this.”
“So you’re gonna drop me?” I tighten my grip on him jokingly.
“No. You may think you’
re being funny, but I am not amused with you.”
“Oh, whatever.”
I’m quiet for the rest of the hike back to the house. Luke seems to do really well; we only had to stop once to readjust my position.
He sets me down on the deck, and I adjust my dress so that I’m not giving anyone a show. When we head into the cabin, I grab my sandals and slip them on while Luke goes to his room to change his clothes. Mason comes down the stairs looking freshly showered and put together nicely.
“What took you so long?”
“Well, I found him by the lake and then stopped to relax at the water. Now we’re back, so there you have it.”
“I believe you’re leaving out the part where I carried you back”
My head whips around and I glare at him. “Yeah, there’s that.”
Mason raises an eyebrow questioningly. “And this is how you treat a guest?”
I cross my arms and shoot Mason a glare. “Oh, whatever. You sent me on a hunt for him, and I found him. I just happened to be shoeless.”
They look at each other and start laughing.
“Jerks. Let’s go before we’re late for dinner.”
An hour later, we are all in the car and pulling into the driveway of my mom’s house. While getting out, I see a small figure run towards me. "Abbey!!" I squat down so that I’m on my little cousin’s level "Hey, Handsome! What's up?" He hugs me, "I'm spending the night with Aunt Ellie. We cooked you guys dinner, and I made cookies for dessert! I wanted to make them look like sasquatch, but Aunt Ellie said it would take too much cookie dough." Brayden's pout happens to be the cutest thing ever. He sticks his little lip out and crosses his arms. I can't believe he's six already.
"That's a shame. I like Sasquatch. Did you know I went looking for him and found a big footprint before?"
He gasps, "Will you take me?"
"Maybe, but we can't go again until next year. If you are good all next year, I'll take you."
"Oh, I promise, I will definitely be good."
He gets a disgruntled look on his face, "Who is that?" I walk over to Luke. "Brayden, I would like you to meet Mr. Luke. Luke, this is my cousin Brayden." Luke smiles and sticks out his hand to Brayden for him to shake, "Hi."
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