by Anna Edwards
In the distance, I’m relieved to see a phone box. They are few and far between on English streets nowadays, and I pray this one is working. Retrieving some coins out of my bag, I feed them into the slot and lift up the phone. It has a dial tone, and I breathe a sigh of relief. My fingers hesitate over the buttons when I realize I don’t know the number to Theo’s house. Damn it. Why didn’t I bring my phone? There is only one number I know: one I had drilled into me since an early age, should I need it. I don’t want to call it because I know it’ll lead to trouble, but maybe I could use it to my advantage? I need to be smarter. I need to be stronger. I need to be the old Joanna, not the victim of abuse I’ve become. I dial the number and wait for someone to answer.
“Hello.” The deep masculine voice booms down the phone when the call is connected.
“Hello, Daddy...”
Chapter Fifteen
Theodore
“I can’t believe you’ve been so stupid. What were you thinking? Actually, don’t answer that. I don’t think you were thinking. Well, not of anyone but yourself.” The angry masculine voice comes out of my lounge as I walk in through the front door.
My stomach is sore from the fight with Nicholas, and I’m sure he got a punch in that will leave me with a black eye tomorrow. All I want to do is go to bed and not have to deal with more hassle. I nod at my butler with a request to let me know what’s going on.
“Earl Linton, sir.”
“Joanna’s father?” I query with bewilderment.
“Yes. From what I can gather, Lady Hamilton left the premises without means of communication and got lost. Thankfully she had some money on her and was able to remember her father’s phone number.”
“She did what?” I hiss.
“She left the house, sir.” My butler cowers down at my sudden angry outburst.
“And you let her?” I stand up tall against him. I’m furious knowing Joanna was out there alone, and at a time when Nicholas Cavendish is probably baying for blood.
“I’m afraid she was rather sneaky in her ability to dodge those watching her.”
The angry, raised voice comes again from the lounge, but this time accompanied by a sorrowful whimper from my wife. I loom large over my butler.
“Then you’d better remind everyone that Lady Hamilton does not leave this house without a guard. If it happens again, I’ll be looking to change my staff to a set who can follow orders.”
I don’t pay my butler any more attention. My fury is now focused upon my wife for putting herself into such a dangerous situation. If she thinks the telling off she’s getting from her father is harsh, then she’s in for a big lesson once I start on her. My heart is beating so fast. Why would she be so stupid? I pound my way across the marbled floor, my dress shoes resonating in a series of eerie clicks. Thrusting the lounge door unceremoniously open, I stomp into the room, and with a growl, I start to admonish my errant wife.
“Is it true?”
Joanna and her father both freeze and look at me with wide eyes.
“What?” her Father stutters at me. The look of concern in his eyes draws me in, and I can’t ignore the uneasy feeling I’m getting in the pit of my stomach, telling me he’s worried about something other than a daughter with no regard for her own safety. He’s like a deer caught in the headlights. I’m about to question his reaction when Joanna steps in.
“I’m sorry.” She comes closer to me, and I’m drawn into the sadness in her eyes. “I was stupid. It was such a foolish thing to do. I would have been all right, but a man bumped into me, and I lost my sanity a little.”
My anger begins to dissipate, and Joanna’s fresh lavender scent calms me. I pull her close and press a kiss to the top of her forehead.
“Did he hurt you? I’ll find him.”
“No. It was an accident. I wasn’t really looking where I was going.” Her eyes glass over momentarily, and I know there’s more to this story than she’s telling me. I won’t push her here and now, though. Alone, later, is a different matter. She corrects herself by taking a deep breath and breaking our eye contact. “I promise I won’t do it again. I just wanted to experience freedom, having not had any in ages.”
“You’ll never have it while the Cavendish brothers are breathing,” Earl Linton interrupts with his matter of fact response. I’m so captivated by Joanna’s beauty I’d almost forgotten he was in the room. She weaves a spell around me and draws me completely into her love.
“She’ll be safe soon. The Cavendish brothers will be out of London in twenty-four hours.”
“What?” the Earl responds, looking confused.
“Joanna provided me with a piece of information, which will secure the freedom of my sister and niece along with that of Tamara, their friend.”
“Freedom? Information? I don’t understand. What have you done?” he shouts at his daughter who steps closer into my side, her hands shaking.
“Calm yourself in my house, sir. I won’t have you shouting at my wife like that.” I place myself between father and daughter as I vent my growing frustration that a good day, which was developing into a triumphant one, is now looking like it’s shrouded in more issues.
“I want to know what is going on? If this involves my daughter and can come back on me, somehow, then I need to be informed,” the Earl demands.
“It will not reflect on you,” I interrupt. My anger previously soothed by my wife is now growing again at her father’s arrogance.
“Will you just tell me what is going on?” Earl Linton slams his fist on a table. It rocks, and the glass ornament on it crashes to the floor.
“Calm down!” I yell and motion with my eyes to the smashed glass. “I’ll allow you one breakage, but anymore and you start paying for it.”
He looks to the floor and then back up at me.
“That piece is of no value anyway. It’s fake.”
It’s my turn to breathe deeply and control my temper. I turn my back to Earl Linton and focus my attention on Joanna.
“Do you want to go upstairs while we finish this conversation?”
She shakes her head and reaches up to my sore eye. I flinch a little when she touches the sensitive flesh.
“You’re hurt?”
“Nicholas is worse.” I smirk but stop when she steps back horrified.
“This is all my fault.” Joanna’s eyes start to blink rapidly. It’s like she’s trying to understand something that will never make sense. Her breathing accelerates.
“Joanna!” her father barks from behind me, and she looks up at him with so much horror in her face. I’m beginning to wonder whether the fear she feels for the Cavendish brothers isn’t only the result of what they did to her but also due to her father’s treatment of her whilst growing up.
I turn back to him.
“Did you abuse her?”
“What?” he spits at me.
“As a child, did you hurt her?”
“Never. What do you take me for?” The Earl folds his arms across his chest and resolutely stares me down. “I think you owe me an apology. I would never touch my own daughter.”
I back down immediately. My senses tell me something is wrong, but apart from the issue with the alleged rape of the woman who died, I’ve never heard anything to question Earl Linton’s abilities as a father.
“He sold me…” The words come from behind me. They are spoken so fast it takes my brain a few seconds to register them. “For cash, I don’t know the exact amount, but it was thousands. He got thousands for me being sold.”
Joanna slaps her hand over her mouth when she’s finished her accusation. My mind is still struggling to take it all in. It’s like I’m wading through deep water with heavy, bulky clothes, weighted down from the saturation. I open my mouth to speak, but her father beats me to it when he lunges forward and wraps his hands around his daughter’s throat.
“You lying little whore.” He shakes her, and I can only watch on as my brain struggles to catch up with what I’m hearing
and witnessing.
“It’s true,” Joanna gasps. Her whimpers of pain penetrate into my subconscious, and I grab the Earl by the back of his collar, and with almighty strength, I send him flying across the room and into the wall.
“Tell me again.” I stand large over Joanna, my breathing quick and my fists clenched hard.
“W-w-what?” she stutters between hitching in gasps of air. Her father had been holding her so tightly around her neck that already a red ring of inflammation has appeared.
“Say…it…again,” I repeat slowly, every syllable pronounced with meticulous precision and definition. I don’t want my meaning to be misconstrued in any way.
“He sold me for money. I wasn’t given away because my father was forced to. He received payment.” Her words are equally as clear. I’ve learned a lot about her since we’ve been together. The way her eyes flick with darkness at the corners when she’s hiding something—a lie hidden within a story. There is none of that this time. She’s being as honest now as she was when she told me she loved me. It’s the truth. My nostrils flair, and Joanna sinks down onto the floor.
“Please,” she whimpers, and I nod once to her before turning rapidly and once again grabbing her father who has only just begun stumbling to his feet.
“You’re never welcome in this house again. If I see you anywhere near my wife, I won’t hesitate to kill you.” I send a fist flying into his face. He’s an older man and not built to withstand my assault. He staggers backward, and his eyes roll in his head before he comes back to his senses. My fury increases, and I send another two punishing blows to his face. His nose cracks, and blood splutters out over me. “You will stay away from everyone we know. You will not move in the same circles as me. You will have Joanna’s inheritance plus any money you received for her put into her account before the month is out, or we will report this to the police. And…”—I pause for dramatic effect—“I will find some way of bringing back the previous rape charges against you, and if I have to, I’ll plant evidence of you murdering the girl as well.”
The Earl who is barely conscious manages to take in what I’m saying.
“There’s no proof,” he responds, spitting blood in my face.
“I’ll make some.”
He starts to laugh and looks over my shoulder to Joanna.
“I hope you realize what you’ve started. The apple never falls too far from the tree.”
I’ve heard enough. I send another quick succession of punches to his face, and he slumps down unconscious on the floor.
Joanna whimpers quietly on the other side of the room with her arms wrapped around her, cradling herself in comfort.
“Theo.”
“Did he ever touch you?” I ask and step over the prone body, currently bleeding over the priceless oriental rug my father always loved, but I couldn’t stand.
“No. I promise you.”
“He just sold you.”
She nods and looks down at her feet.
“Head up,” I order, and she immediately responds. Tears are streaming down her face now. She’s breaking down in front of me. The shell she’s erected around herself to keep in all the real truths of the situation is crumbling.
“More,” I demand, but I know instantly from the frightened expression in her eyes I’ll get nothing else out of her at the moment. With a blink of her eyes, she shuts down again. I move beside her, and my arms snake around her waist, pulling her into me and the inconveniently timed erection, which juts from my trousers. I can’t explain it, but protecting my woman has left me needing the softness between her thighs to counteract the violence of my acts. I have to know she’s not going to fall apart at revealing the truth about her father. I need her to know I trust her implicitly and believe in her honesty. My lips press down onto hers in a passionate kiss, which is as intense as the emotion that flooded the room when she spoke her fateful words. I need her, and I want her, but not here. Bending down, I scoop her up in my arms, and we leave the violence of the lounge behind us. I’m heading for the stairs when my butler appears.
“Will the Earl be staying for dinner, sir?”
I snort a laugh. I can’t help it. By morning, my bruised knuckles may be as sore as the black eye given to me by Nicholas Cavendish, but I’ll never regret inflicting them on my father-in-law.
“No, he won’t,” I respond to the butler as Joanna buries her head in my chest, her warm breath tickling the skin under my shirt. “I’ve left some trash in the lounge. Please see it out and ensure it never returns to this house again. If it does, kill it!”
Chapter Sixteen
Joanna
I can’t quite believe what I just did. I allowed those words to fall from my mouth, condemning my own father. Half a million, that was what I was sold to Viscount Hamilton for. My father wouldn’t have received all that money. A fair chunk would have gone to Nicholas’ father, but my own would have been compensated well for having a failure as a daughter. He’s out of my life, now, but I know I’ve started a chain of events that could lead to chaos and death. Strangely though, I don’t fear death—it’s the lies that terrify me more. I don’t want to be a part of them any longer.
Theo carries me up the stairs, two at a time, and deposits me tenderly on my bed. His face is splattered with blood, but I don’t find it unattractive. It gives him a look of danger and power.
“Are you all right?” My husband kisses my lips and down my neck. I welcome his affections. I want him, need him. I feel strength for the first time in ages, and it ignites flames of desire within my body. It would be dangerous to think this will all end well, but for now, I’ll embrace my new-found courage.
“Take me,” I plead on a breathless whisper as my tightly coiled body unfurls and welcomes my husband between my thighs. He continues to kiss lower until reaching my breasts, and his hard length presses into my leg as the excitement within him builds. My back arches, wanting to draw him in closer. I need him now… no more waiting or thinking about it any longer. I second guess my decisions too much. I need to go with instinct.
“Theo, please.”
“Patience,” he replies, and then taking the shirt I’m wearing in his hand, he rips it open, sending the buttons popping and flying around the room. “I’m going to savor my wife. And only take her when I think she’s ready.” His large hands encase my breasts, and he squeezes hard. It sends a pulse of energy straight down to my clit, and I can feel myself getting wet as I prepare to take him when he’s ready to give himself to me.
“Need you naked,” Theo growls, helping me to sit up while removing what remains of my shirt. Next my jeans are quickly discarded along with my underwear. “You have perfect breasts.” His hands slide around my back and unclasp the fastening of my bra. It’s pulled off and thrown across the room, landing over an antique lamp on a dressing table where it swings back and forth. “Damn.” Theo sits back on the bed, stroking himself over his trousers. His knuckles look sore. The bruising I can see is the result of the words I spoke earlier, at least in part, when I condemned my father.
I lean forward and gently press a kiss to each of the cuts on Theo’s hands. The metallic taste of his blood gives an erotic edge to the vision in my head of me kissing away his injuries. He’s protected me more than any man has ever done before. He twists one of his hands around my hair and pulls my head up so our mouths can meet. They combine in a tumultuous tango of emotion and lust, crashing together like rough seas breaking over land. I’m tasting him: his masculinity encapsulated in a spicy mixture of the scent of oaky wood aftershave and the flavor of coffee…his favorite drink. This is my Theo, my husband.
He pushes me down until I’m lying on the bed and looks at me again. When my eyes follow his hand as it travels over the contours of my breasts, I see blood is smeared onto my skin from his shirt and face.
“Never again.” His vow needs no explanation. I know he means my father will not be allowed to harm me again.
He shifts from the bed and quickly remo
ves his clothes. His hard cock springs from the captivity of his trousers with an excited bounce, glistening already at the head with pre-cum. He strokes himself a few times before lying back down on the bed.
“Up,” he orders, and I willingly obey my husband. From under my hooded eyelids, I look up at the intensity in his face. His commanding presence framed by the soft lighting in my bedroom. He’s pure sex on legs with a strong jaw, deep chestnut eyes, and full lips swollen from our passionate kissing. He reaches out and wraps his hand around my hair before pulling me down so I’m level with his dick.
“I want you to suck me.”
I hesitate momentarily, but it’s enough to worry my husband. He immediately releases my hair and brings me up to lie against his chest.
“I’m sorry. You don’t have to.”
“I do,” I respond into the small covering of hair there. “I want to. I have bad memories of oral, but I want to replace them with good. Just like I replaced the vision of losing my virginity with our first time.”
“Joanna.”
I free myself from his embrace and move back down, so I’m lying next to him on the bed at his groin. I slide my tongue over his body and toward his dick. Little nips with my teeth ignite his flesh, and I can feel it heat to an inferno.
“Fuck!” he exclaims out loud when I wrap my hand around his dick and bring it to my mouth. My tongue darts out and licks up the salty taste at the tip. There is something intrinsically masculine in his flavor. He’s nothing like his father or any of the other men I’ve been forced to service before. He’s sweeter, fresher, cleaner, perfect. I swirl my tongue around the tip a few more times before drawing it into the warmth of my mouth.
“Fuck.” Is the only word Theo appears to be able to utter at the moment because as I draw him in farther the expletive is repeated a few more times. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
Circling my mouth around his length, I draw him to the back of my throat. I was forced by his father to deep throat. The first time, it scared the life out of me, but with Theo, I’m not afraid. I want to please him. To show him I’m here for him only. That I’m not a damaged soul, but the sexual goddess of his dreams when I allow myself to live.