by Sienna Skye
Finally, she spoke, her voice sounding so small. “No. I remembered how you taught me those self-defense moves. I managed to get the upper hand for a second and then I kneed him in the balls.”
Relief swept through me and I let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I had been holding. I pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. “That’s my girl.”
“I’m going to go run you a hot shower sweetie, we need to warm you up.” Hunter went to her bathroom and started running the water.
I grabbed a pair of sweat pants and a fleece shirt from her dresser and handed it to her. We sent her off to the shower and I promised to be there when she came back out.
Hunter pulled out his phone and told me he was calling Kyle. Kyle’s brother, Jason, was in Jules’s class and Hunter figured Kyle could track Jason down and get information on the guy who took her to the dance. I heard Hunter on the phone as he paced up and down the hallway.
“Okay, I found out who the bastard is. I’m going to go pay him a visit. Kyle is going to come with me.”
“You are not going without me. I want a piece of that son of a bitch, too.” He wanted to hurt someone? Let the coward come after me. I was itching to give the bastard a taste of his own medicine.
“Morgan, if you want to go, fine. Then I will stay. Someone needs to stay here with her. She can’t be here alone.”
He was right of course. I was so full of rage, I hadn’t even considered that both of us going meant nobody would be here with her. I had a choice to make, but it was an easy one. I knew Hunter would have the boy wishing he had never been born. I wanted to stay with Jules and give her the comfort she needed.
“You go. I’ll stay with her. Hey, do we know this asshole?”
“No, he only came to town last year. Guess he didn’t know whose sister he was messing with. He’ll learn soon enough. Turns out he’s already eighteen, so I guess we’ll be handling this man to man.”
“Do me a favor, Hunter. Rip his balls off for me.”
A few minutes after Hunter left, I heard the shower water turn off. Jules shuffled out of the bathroom, towel drying her hair. I saw she had her comb in her hand and I took it from her. I sat on the edge of her bed and patted the spot next to me. She sat down and I began to comb out her hair. She looked so pale and scared it tore me up.
“Jules, you need to talk me through what happened.”
She tensed up and was silent. After a few moments, she began to speak, her words hesitant at first.
“It all started out okay. He picked me up here and gave a really pretty corsage.” It didn’t escape me that there was no corsage when she came home and I was pretty sure it was lost in the struggle. “We had a good time at the dance. I was so excited he asked me of all people to go with him. I didn’t think anyone would...”
“What is that supposed to mean? He was lucky to have a beautiful girl go with him. Besides, you wouldn’t have had to go alone. You could have asked someone. I bet Kyle would have gone with you.” And not just as a favor to Hunter. I had caught Kyle eyeing Jules on more than one occasion. He would have jumped at the chance to take her and she wouldn’t have come back having been assaulted. “I’m sorry, that’s not important right now. Keep going.”
“After the dance, he was driving us, and then he pulled over…you know off where it was more private.” Her voice got softer then, almost a whisper. “I didn’t mind, Morgan. I knew he was going to kiss me. I wanted him to kiss me.”
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be kissed, Jules.” An odd feeling came over me at the thought of her wanting this guy to kiss her. I wouldn’t be able to identify that emotion until much, much later.
“We were kissing and he started…this is so awkward…you know, he started to touch me a bit and I was still alright with that…was that a growl?”
“No, I was just clearing my throat.” It was a growl.
“But then it was pretty obvious he wanted a lot more. So, I told him to slow down. I mean, it was the first time I was going out with him, I wasn’t ready to have sex on the first date. But, he kept going and I pushed him off. He called me…he called me a cock tease. He said that guys were saying that he would never get in my pants. That he made a bet that he would. He said he wasn’t going to let me make him lose the bet. I tried to pull away while he was kissing me, and he bit down hard on my lip and held me by my throat to hold me still. Before I knew what was happening, he grabbed my arms and threw me down on the seat. I felt his hand pushing my dress up and I felt myself starting to panic. But then I remembered. I remembered, Morgan. All those times you would show me stuff from your martial arts and those self-defense moves you taught me. I forced myself to go calm, so he thought I was giving up. Then I grabbed the back of his head by his hair, yanked his head up and brought the heel of my other hand up hard into his nose and then I brought my knee up hard into his balls. I wriggled away from him, grabbed my stuff, and ran.”
For the first time since she came home, she let herself go and cried. She cried hard. Loud sobs wracking her body. I held her, rocked her, whispered soothing words to her. She cried for the longest time. It was heart wrenching. At some point I lost track of which tears were hers and which were mine. Finally, she quieted down, just the occasional soft shuddering sob escaping from her.
“You did the right thing, Jules. Well, except for walking. You should have called us.”
“I was too ashamed.”
“Ashamed? You have nothing to be ashamed of, baby.”
“I let him take me there-“
“You let him take you there because you thought he was going to kiss you. You didn’t think he was going to try to force himself on you. This is all on him, Jules. All of it.”
A new wash of tears started to flow down her cheeks. “He was never really interested in me. I feel so stupid.”
I hadn’t expected her to say that. I wasn’t even sure how to respond. To deny what she said about him would have been a lie and she would have known it. So instead I wiped her tears and hugged her tighter.
She pulled back and looked at me, her eyes red and wet.
“What’s wrong with me, Morgan?”
“What? What do you mean? Nothing is wrong with you.”
“Guys don’t like me. They never ask me out. And the one who did only wanted to use me to win some bet.”
Like it wasn’t bad enough the son of a bitch had attacked her, what he did had her doubting she was worthy of being wanted by some guy who wasn’t an asshole. I wanted to kill him. Revive his useless ass. Then kill him again.
“Sweetheart, I don’t have an answer for you except that sometimes guys are just stupid as hell. Maybe they don’t know a good thing when they see it. Maybe they are just afraid to go for what they want. Maybe they don’t think that you would be interested in them. I don’t know. What I do know is that you are beautiful. You are crazy smart and very funny. And despite having all that going for you, you are down to earth and have a big heart. You are the total package. I’ve seen guys looking at you. You just need to wait until one of them is smart enough to do something about it. And you deserve to have someone who will see you for all the wonderful things that you are. You don’t need the rest.”
She looked up at me with those big blue eyes. “Do you really think so?”
“Baby, I know so.”
“Thank you for staying with me.”
“You don’t need to thank me, Jules.” I kissed the top of her head. “There is nowhere else for me to be. No way would I leave you alone. I don’t think I have ever been as scared as I was when I saw you all marked up. I was so afraid…well I am just glad that you got the upper hand and fought him off.”
“Do you think he’ll be arrested?”
“The asshole?”
“No. Hunter. I realize he’s been gone.”
“No, he is not going to be arrested. It’s nothing for you to worry about.” I hoped I wasn’t lying to her. Hunter was always the rational, reasonable one. But
, the look in his eyes when he left was neither of those things.
“Will you stay in here with me tonight? I’m afraid to go to sleep alone.”
“Of course I will. You should try to get some rest. You’re safe. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She crawled into bed and curled up on her side. I pulled the covers up over her and then climbed onto the bed behind her, spooning her, her under the covers, me over. She was exhausted from the struggle, the walk home, and then crying her eyes out. She fell asleep quickly, but it was not a peaceful sleep. I whispered in her ear, letting her know she was safe, hoping on some subconscious level she heard me.
I received a text from Hunter a little while later. He was on the way home. Hunter had called his friend Tony who was a cop in town. Hunter had Tony meet him after he had a “few words” with the guy, who I now knew was “Blake”. Hunter texted it was handled, and I figured he would tell me the rest later. My concern was helping Jules get through this. My thoughts kept going back to how the night could have turned out in a different, much more horrific way. No wonder she was having fitful sleep. I wasn’t the one who lived through it and I was shaken up. I pulled her closer and wrapped my arm around her tighter. Partially for her, partially for me.
A short time later, Hunter opened the bedroom door. I put my finger to my lips telling him to be quiet. He nodded at me and then whispered. “How is she?”
“Shaken up. Scared. Humiliated. She didn’t want to be alone.”
He nodded, walked out of the room, and returned a moment later with a pillow and two blankets. He tossed one of the blankets at me and then tossed the pillow on the floor and settled in to camp out for the night.
✽✽✽
Julia
When I woke up the next morning, I had one of those headaches you get when you cry too much. I discovered I was being held in place by Morgan’s arm draped over me. The weight of his arm felt unfamiliar, yet strangely, like it was right where it was supposed to be. There was breathing coming from the floor next to my bed and I looked over to see that Hunter had spent the night too. I was so totally relieved that he was home, because I was pretty scared that he did something that would have gotten him arrested. I debated for all of a half of a second about getting up, but I didn’t really want to face the day yet, so I closed my eyes and drifted back off to sleep. I’m not sure how long I slept, but I was woken up by Hunter who had brought me breakfast. Morgan was gone by that time, so I asked Hunter where he went.
“He went down to the gym. He needed to burn off some extra energy.” Hunter shrugged casually, but I knew he was doing it for my benefit. They had both been enraged and while I was pretty sure that Hunter had relieved some of his anger when he went to confront Blake, Morgan had been stuck being my babysitter while I made him relive everything with me. It wasn’t surprising he’d need to work some of that off.
“He did stay all night with you.”
“I know that. You both did. Thank you for taking care of…things…last night.” Seriously, what did you say when your brother possibly had someone tied up and duct taped in the basement?
“I won’t let anyone get away with hurting you.”
“What exactly does that mean, Hunter?”
“I don’t want you to worry about that. The important thing is that you’re safe and he won’t be coming near you again. But, until you go on holiday break, Morgan or I will be taking you to and from school.”
I tried to tell him that the personal drivers weren’t necessary, but he wouldn’t listen to me. I also tried every way I could think of to find out what happened, but he wasn’t budging on that either.
His friend Tony stopped by and asked me some questions. I didn’t have any better luck getting information from him either.
Not long after Tony left, Kyle showed up. I was watching a movie when he walked in and I told him Hunter was up in his room. He nodded.
“Cool, but I am not here to see Hunter. I came to see you.” He sat down next to me. Much like Morgan had done the night before, he lifted my face and inspected my lip and my throat. “He’s not going to bother you anymore.”
“You went with Hunter, didn’t you? I tried to get him to tell me what happened, but he hasn’t given anything up.”
He smiled at me. “Well then, he must have his reasons. You know I am not going to overstep him. I know Hunter and Morgan plan on taking you to and from school. I’ve already talked to Hunter and if at any time they can’t make it, I will.” His expression grew serious. I couldn’t recall ever seeing him look so serious before. “Listen to me, Julia. If you are ever in any kind of trouble again, if you need anything, day or night, you can call me. I don’t ever want to hear again that you did something like walk home for miles in the cold night. If you felt uncomfortable calling your brothers, you should have called me. Are we clear?”
I told him I understood, promised I would call him if I needed him. Maybe it was his kindness and protectiveness, but my emotions got the best of me again and I started to cry. Kyle kissed my temple and put his arm around my shoulders. We sat like that watching the rest of the movie. I felt a little silly feeling nervous, I mean with the male version of Charlie’s Angels in the house, nothing was getting near me, but I really didn’t want to be alone. Besides, Kyle on babysitting duty gave the guys a break.
Morgan had come up from the gym just as Kyle was telling me he had to go. Morgan stopped short when he came in the room but didn’t say anything.
“Thanks for hanging out.”
“My pleasure, kiddo.” He moved his arm from around me and tapped a finger on my nose. “I’ll text you later tonight to see what time you want me to pick you up tomorrow.” He clasped Morgan on the shoulder as he said goodbye.
“What’s going on tomorrow?”
“Kyle is going to take me Christmas shopping. I still have a few more things I need to get.”
“Why didn’t you ask me? I would have taken you.”
“Because I feel bad, Morgan. I feel like I am being a pain in the ass.”
He sat down next to me and took my face in his hands. His expression looked like he was trying to figure something out before he simply said, “Just ask next time.”
True to their word, one of the three of them played my personal chauffeurs and bodyguards until the holiday break. Nobody ever told me what happened, but I did see Blake from a distance, so I knew Hunter didn’t have him shoved in a canister somewhere. Blake made sure he kept his distance. When I did get a good look at him, he looked like he had maybe fallen down a flight of stairs, or three, and only after he had run multiple times into Hunter’s fist. When school started up again, I heard that Blake had transferred to a new school. I didn’t miss the coincidence of the timing that the guys had insisted on driving me until the break. I never bothered to mention to them that Blake had left. Chances were, they knew long before I did.
Chapter Ten
Morgan
Julia was busy in her freshman year at college and while she still lived at the house, she seemed to always be off somewhere whenever I popped home. I kind of missed her. I was looking forward to Thanksgiving break because it had been months since I had last seen her. Classes ended early on the day before Thanksgiving. Since our schools weren’t too far from one another, Hunter picked me up so we could drive back home together. Kyle was having a party at his place and we decided to head straight there. We hadn’t gotten trashed, but we drank enough to decide to crash the night at Kyle’s house. We woke late the next morning and I bugged Hunter to get moving so we could get home.
As soon as we walked through the front door, we could smell the dinner Jules was cooking. My stomach immediately started to growl. Our parents would have just as soon gone out or had dinner catered, but Jules insisted on cooking. And that girl could cook up a storm. Hunter and I gladly took on clean up duty just to be able to eat whatever she prepared.
Hunter walked into the kitchen first. He picked Jules up and kissed her forehead.
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“Hey, Idgit! Good to see you.” He drew an appreciative breath through his nose. “Smells great! What can I do to help?”
“Food is pretty much under control, but the table needs to be set and if you could grab the drinks…” She leaned up and planted a kiss to his cheek before turning back to the stove.
“Got it.” Hunter headed out of the kitchen to the dining room.
I watched the exchange and stood there staring like an idiot. There was just something different about her. She was beautiful. No, it was more than that. She was stunning. Her chestnut hair hung in loose curls down to the middle of her back. She was wearing a fitted dark teal sweater with a deep V neck that revealed more than a peak at her cleavage. The color really brought out her sapphire eyes. Tight jeans hugged her ass and she had on these black boots that laced all the way up the back and ended above her knee. When the hell did she get that ass? And why the hell was I staring at her ass? I scrubbed my hand over my face in an effort to refocus.
Then she flashed that smile at me. “Hey Morgan.“ She walked over and threw her arms around my neck and pulled me in for a hug.
Damn, but she smelled good. Too good. Like good enough to taste. Shit, this was bad. I shouldn’t be thinking about tasting Jules. No matter how good she smelled. And felt. Damn, she felt good against me. My body fought to betray me. Focus on something else, Morgan. Sad puppies. Baseball Stats. Toxic Mold.
“Hey Jules. How are you sweetheart?” I slowly started to pull away from her grasp before I embarrassed myself. I walked over to grab a glass and get some water. With ice. Lots of ice. Maybe I could just stick my head under the faucet. Or in the freezer.
“I’m good. I’m good.”
There was something in the tone of her voice. Actually, there was just something different about her in general. I couldn’t quite place it, but there was definitely something. She started to fuss about the kitchen. She was humming. Humming?
