by Sam Crescent
“Yeah. I need to be prepared in case something bad happens.” He couldn’t believe he had stopped her from hurting herself. To him, it was still a small victory, but he had seen a small change inside Isabel. It was small but it was there, and for him, he had to accept that. He had to be able to believe that she could be trusted without him.
It had been three months since that tree incident, three months of him proving his love. He still saw the pain and the hell she lived with every day. Many times he had found her with her eyes closed, muttering something underneath her breath.
He believed their time in his playroom helped. Every single night he took her to the playroom. Sometimes they played with his toys, and he’d do a little punishment play with her. Most times he had her on the bed making love to her or fucking her until she forgot her own name. Never his. He was never tired of hearing his name from her lips.
The sound turned him on even more.
“I can’t say. There is always a chance of someone turning up, you should know this,” Gabriel said.
“Sure. Thanks for this. I mean it. If you ever need to talk, give me a call.”
“Will do. Stay out of trouble.”
“You’ll never catch me even if I’m in trouble.” Edward winked at his friend and left the Sheriff’s office. Stepping out into the bright sunshine, he ignored the hustle and bustle of the market. For a bunch of locals that didn’t like to be invaded, they sure did like their market days, their artisanal crap.
He left the office and made his way toward his car.
Isabel was at Control with a bunch of the girls. They were having a little ladies’ lunch there. William didn’t like for Daisy to go anywhere else, and the rest of the guys, Gabriel included, preferred for them to do their gathering somewhere they wouldn’t be judged.
Pulling out his cell phone, he dialed Sophie’s number.
“Hello, my new favorite person in the entire world,” Sophie said, laughing.
He and Isabel had told Sophie together that they were a couple. Of course, she had to phone him up to let him know that she had been expecting it.
“I better remain that way.”
“Of course. Is my favorite sister there?”
“I’m afraid not. She’s doing lunch with a couple of women.”
“Yay, you’re getting her out, aren’t you? I knew the moment I saw you you’d be a good guy. I love you, Edward. Not in that way obviously. I mean as a brother.”
“I know what you mean.”
“I just get so excited thinking of you and Is together. You two are going to have the cutest babies, and I’m going to babysit. Hell yeah, I am. Speaking of our little family, what’s happening at Christmas?”
“Christmas is months away.”
“Do you know how quickly time flies? It will be here before you know it. I will be coming home, and I want us to all have a huge family Christmas. How does that sound? Well, it would only be the three of us.”
He had forgotten how talkative Sophie could be. Poor Isabel. She probably never got a word in edgeways growing up.
“Can we stay on track here?” he asked. “We’ll deal with Christmas a little closer to the time. Right now, I’m thinking of other things.”
“Okey-dokey. What do you need, brother?”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s about your parents.”
“What about them?”
“When was the last time you saw them?” he asked.
“It would have to be a couple of days after Is turned eighteen. I was twelve. They told us that they would be back in a couple of days. They told Is that they had put some money away for her. Next thing I know, it’s just Is and me. She’s working to keep us both, and I’m going to school. She helped me get the grades I have now. Did you also know that she’s quit the course she was doing?” Sophie asked.
“No, I didn’t know.” Edward rubbed at his temples. “Don’t take this personally, but Is was only a kid herself. Why didn’t anyone take you away?”
Sophie sighed. “I don’t know. I know Is was scared in case someone did try. No one did though. Everyone knew our folks had left. Good riddance as well. I never liked how they were able to make Is cry. It has been nearly eight years. I doubt they would ever come back. They’re probably dead somewhere.”
“You don’t sound too cut up about it,” he said.
“There is only one parent I know, and that is Isabel. She’s my mom, my dad, my best friend, my everything, Edward. I love her. She’s my Is. I don’t think she knows how much I appreciate everything she did for me. Even when I was being an asshole to her growing up. She’d just sit there and take it. Eventually, I’d be the one humiliated.”
Edward knew she didn’t just sit there and take it. Isabel had other means of dealing with what was going on in that head of hers.
****
“How was lunch?” Edward asked.
Isabel strapped herself in and smiled. “It was fun.” She was getting closer to the girls every single day. She and Amy had hit it off straight away.
“Good. I just got finished talking with Sophie.”
“Is she okay?” Isabel asked. She hadn’t talked to her sister in a couple of days.
“She’s fine. We were just chatting about everything and nothing. She’s already talking about Christmas.”
“She loves Christmas. We would decorate the trailer as much as possible. It was kind of hard to do, but we made do with what we had. It was fun.”
“You’ll have a field day with my place then. Don’t worry about the expense either. I’ve got you covered.”
“You’re always so good to me.” She rested her head back on the seat, and smiled at him. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” He took hold of her hand and pressed a kiss there, heating her up. She pressed her thighs together remembering the feel of him sliding inside her. “Why didn’t you tell me that you had quit the online college?”
“It slipped my mind.”
When she went to withdraw her hand, Edward held onto it.
“I want you to sign back up for it.”
“Why?”
“Because I remember how excited you were talking about it, okay? You could have gone to college. I saw your test scores. You graduated with a decent grade. It wasn’t sloppy.”
“I don’t have it in me to do the college thing, or the online stuff. I’ve tried, and it doesn’t suit me.” She gritted her teeth as she stared at him.
He looked so disappointed.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes, and she wondered what he was thinking, so she asked him.
“What am I thinking?”
“Yeah, I want to know.”
“I don’t know right now. I’m just in a weird place. I don’t understand why you would quit a course that you enjoyed. It was English, right?”
“Yes, it was. You don’t understand.”
“Then explain it to me.”
“It was too hard, okay? I’m not a natural at something like this. I just … I don’t want to waste my time. Yeah, it was fun doing something different, but it didn’t hold my attention. I didn’t see the point in wasting anyone else’s time. There were students there with real passion, and I just didn’t have that.”
“So you’re giving up instead of fighting for it.”
She paused.
There was no argument left. She was giving up, but why?
No sound came from her lips as she looked at him. She didn’t know what to say, or what to think.
Edward parked up outside of their home.
“I’m not giving up, not really. I didn’t enjoy it, Edward. That’s not giving up. I made this decision.”
“When did you quit?” he asked.
“A couple of months ago. Erm, after I talked with Sophie.” She had listened as Sophie talked about her classes, explaining the different topics she was learning and how excited she was. For Isabel, it had just reminded her over and over again of everything that she couldn’t have,
and it was all just a dream. “I’m not a jealous person.”
“In that moment you felt it?” he asked.
“I love my sister more than anything. I can’t do what she does. She doesn’t even know about anything else. It just made me not want to set myself up for failure. I gave up my chance of a higher education. I finally realized it’s not what I want to do.”
Edward reached out, cupping her cheek. “I think your problem is you always expect to fail, and you never will.”
“How can you say that?” She pointed at her arms and then her thighs. “Look what I do.”
“That has nothing to do with failing, babe. Nothing at all. Sophie is a strong, funny, independent woman. She is going to drive someone crazy to falling in love with her. You should be proud. You did that. No one else. You helped her. You went and worked crazy hours in a diner to keep her clothed, fed, and you made sure she got the education she deserved.” He covered her hand as she was scratching her thigh.
Isabel felt ashamed. He made her sound like a strong woman, yet she wasn’t strong.
Fight it!
Don’t let this win!
Be stronger!
Be harder!
“When I look at you, I don’t even see failure, and I know how hard it has been for you, babe. I can see how hard it has been. I don’t know how you got through it. You were a mom before you even became a sister. That shit isn’t right.”
She smiled. “You always know what to say to make me feel so wonderful.” She batted her eyelashes.
“Do you really want to go back to school? In all honesty?”
“No, I don’t. I know what I want, and I don’t want to continue wasting my time with something I hate. I don’t want to go to school.”
“Then I’m happy for you for making that decision yourself.”
The smile just grew wide. “You really have a way of making me feel normal.”
“I can make you feel a million times better than normal.”
“Oh, you can?”
He took her hand and placed it against his rock-hard cock. “Does that feel like I’m joking around?”
“Nope. That feels like you really want to have some fun.”
He cupped her cheek, and slammed his lips down on hers. “Playroom or bedroom?”
“Bedroom.”
“Then get your ass there. I want it naked, otherwise, no playing.”
She squealed, climbing out of his car and rushing toward the front door. Even as her hands were shaking, she unlocked the house door. Dropping the keys, knowing he’d pick them up, she ran upstairs. Isabel heard him following close behind her.
Getting to their bedroom, she started to remove her clothes. She made sure she was facing the door so that she could watch him enter. The moment he did, she was standing in the matching red bra and panties that he loved so much.
He lifted his shirt over his head, showing off those amazing abs that she loved. He crooked his finger, telling her to come toward him. She didn’t fight him.
Stepping up close, she gasped as he banded an arm around her waist, and moved her toward the bed. He didn’t drop her down.
His hands were all over her body.
In moments like these she was able to forget everything. The marks on her body became nothing more than a bad memory.
He flicked the catch at the back of her bra.
She cried out as he took her nipple into his mouth the moment the lace was out of the way.
Edward growled against her flesh. “I can’t resist you.”
“I don’t want you to ever resist me.” She cupped his face, and slammed her lips down on his. Plunging her tongue into his mouth, she deepened the kiss, whimpering as he slapped her ass at the same time he gripped it.
Within seconds the panties were torn from her body, and discarded in a heap on the floor.
“I thought you liked them.”
“I did. I like you naked a hell of a lot better.” He tipped her toward the bed. Before she hit the bed, his fingers were between her thighs, sliding deep within her. “I love how fucking tight you are.”
She rode his finger, wanting him deep inside her.
“Yes, yes,” she said, moaning his name.
“That’s it. Tell me what you want, babe. Tell me how badly you want it.”
“I want you. I want you to fuck me. I want you to claim me. Please. Fuck me, Edward.”
She squealed again as he flipped her onto her stomach and pulled her up to her knees. Edward wrapped his hands in her hair and pulled her back, making her stare at them in the mirror across from his bed.
“Look at us, babe.” He flicked his tongue across her neck. “You’re so fucking beautiful.” His large hand that was free cupped her breast. He pinched her nipple, and then dropped down between her thighs.
She was transfixed as he pushed a finger inside her, followed by a second. He filled her up, preparing her for his cock.
“Who do you belong to?” he asked.
“You.”
She was his. There was no mistaking it. Every part of her belonged to him, and there was no fighting it, not that she wanted to.
He pushed her forward, and she gripped the sheet. The tip of his cock pressed against her opening, and she gasped as he started to fill her up. Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes, and tried to stop herself from pushing back against him.
When he pushed a few inches inside her, his hands went to her hips, holding her in place.
With one sharp thrust, he embedded himself deep inside her, and she cried out his name.
“That’s it, baby. Scream my name. I’m the one that is fucking you. I’m the one that loves you, and nothing is ever going to change that. You belong to me.”
He rode her pussy, and there was no denying it. She belonged to him, and there was never going to be anyone else.
Chapter Ten
“What do you think this will do?” Isabel asked.
The past week had been a tense one. She had called him away from work as she was struggling to deal with her thoughts. Edward held her hand, and offered her the support and love that she needed. He didn’t know if his suggestion would help or hinder her. Isabel has had great days, and weak days. There had been amazing weeks and months, and then this week had been a bad one.
“I don’t know what it will do. I don’t know if it will help you at all. I only know that I’ve got to do something to help you.”
“And if this doesn’t help?”
“Then we keep on going.” He pulled up outside of the old trailer park. There were several trailers still in residence, and he knew the one that Isabel used to live in was still there. It was no longer occupied, and he had asked the owner if he and Isabel could stop by. The woman who owned the trailers was okay with it, and seemed like a good person. Isabel’s parents had purchased the trailer, so all Isabel had to worry about was the maintenance of the trailer, which again would have been stressful enough. At least her parents didn’t put rent on Isabel to find.
Isabel had only just made enough to get by. If she’d had to deal with rent, that would have been a nightmare. He didn’t even want to think about the kind of danger she and her sister had been in. She didn’t even have a clue that she was in any kind of danger, which only pissed him off.
“What are you thinking when you look at the trailer?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I feel an overwhelming sense of relief. I got out. I got Sophie out. She shouldn’t have been there. I know that. Sometimes I wonder if I should have called child services or something. Would that have made me a better person?”
“No. If you had done that, Sophie may not have been the woman she is today. You did right by her, babe. Don’t ever regret that.”
“What about if I was younger?” she asked. “There were so many times growing up that I could have told them the truth.” She chuckled. “I was eight years old, and changing diapers. I taught Sophie how to go to the toilet, and to start using the potty. I cleaned up everything. I co
oked. At the time it just seemed so natural. I had seen other women do it. You know on the television and around the park here. It was just a way of life for me.”
“Do you want kids?” he asked.
“I do. I think I’d make a good mom.” She burst out laughing. “Yeah, right, me make a good mom. That’s a laugh.”
“Why? You did an awesome job of Sophie. She was well taken care of, and loved. You loved your sister so much that you gave up everything. You took her to school, picked her up, babysat her, helped her. You did what every other mother does. You just don’t get the title of mom.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“No, it doesn’t. Anyone who ever gets to call you mom will be in for a right treat.”
She glanced over at him. “Do you want kids?”
“Yeah, I do, and guess what?”
“What?”
“I want them with you. I think you’d make an excellent mother, and I don’t see anyone else I’d trust with my babies.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips. “And that is knowing everything I do about you.” He watched as she licked her lips, looking a little shocked. “Come on. Let’s go check out that trailer.”
She blew out a breath as they exited the car. He moved toward her, taking hold of her hand, and offering her the comfort she might need.
“Wow, it looks like I never left.” She moved forward, and he saw how little the space was. “Sophie would have one of those ring things, I can’t remember what they’re called, and she would spend hours trying to spin it around her waist.” She entered the trailer, and he noticed how she hesitated.
Up a couple of steps, and they were inside.
It was such a small space. A tiny table near the windows. Minimal cooking space, a small seating area, and a couple of doors toward the back.
She moved toward those doors, and placed a hand on one. When she opened it, she revealed the bathroom where it all started.
“I hate it here,” she said.
“I know, babe.”
“No, you don’t understand. I never told them to fuck off. I never told them to look after us. They just partied and had fun. I had to stay home and deal with everything.” She was shaking, and Edward placed his hands on her shoulders to try to steady her, to calm her nerves. She took several shaky breaths, and he felt the anger still building. She was nowhere near done with it. “They just left. Two daughters, and they didn’t even say goodbye, not really.”