by Aimee Duffy
‘I missed you,’ she said, but this time he didn’t say the words back. Her heartbeat spiked and she stepped forward, reaching out to him. He dodged her and shook his head. ‘Darrell, what’s wrong?’
All he did was cover his beautiful face with his hands. For the first time, she saw the red bruises over his knuckles. Surely he hadn’t gotten into another fight with his team mates? Her heart sliced in two for him, his pain becoming her own. He was a good rugby player but his family didn’t have the money the others did, and they hadn’t taken to him when he got asked to play.
‘Are you hurt?’ she asked, taking one of his hands.
He flinched away and shoved his hands in his pockets. ‘I’m fine. Look, I didn’t want to do it like this, Licia, but I can’t keep leading you on.’
Her heart started to fissure, she knew because of the agony that ripped through her chest. He couldn’t break up with her, not after everything they’d shared. Not after what she’d just found out. He … No, she wouldn’t believe it.
Ignoring the stinging in her eyes, she asked, ‘Do what?’
‘I’m leaving. My dad got a job in Wales and I’ve asked for a transfer to one of the teams there. It was approved yesterday. We’re moving in a few days.’
The words didn’t make sense in that second, she didn’t want them to. Nor did she want to see the pain in his eyes. ‘You’re sixteen now. You can stay here with me.’
Darrell shook his head. ‘No, I can’t. I’m sorry. I should… go.’
He’d made it ten steps before it hit her that this was real. He was really leaving and she was just going to let him walk away? Alicia ran faster than she ever had and when she caught up to him, she grabbed his arm. ‘This can’t be the end. It can’t be! What happened to us? We were supposed to get married. Have kids! Grow old together! You promised.’
There were tears on his cheeks and she reached up to wipe them away, her anger draining a little seeing this was killing him as much as it was killing her. ‘I don’t understand why this has to be the end.’
‘We can’t have any of it, Licia. Your father won’t allow it.’
She was shaking her head before he finished. ‘He’s my father, it’s his job to want me to be happy. You make me happy!’
His voice softened. ‘You make me happy too, but I’m the son of a carpenter and he won’t have me as a son-in-law. Now that Jonathan’s gone, he needs someone he can be proud of to take over when he retires. That’s not me.’
The mention of her older brother only made the pain in her chest all that sharper. ‘How can we know until we tell him we’re together?’
Darrell blew out a breath, then ran a hand through his hair. ‘I don’t know how he found out, but he knows. Who do you think put my dad forward for the job? He made it clear he wants me to leave too, or the deal’s off.’
Her mouth gaped. There was no way her father would do that! She was his daughter and now she was …
‘I don’t believe you.’
His expression crumpled. ‘I would never lie to you.’
Blinking against the burn in her eyes, she tried to wrap her head around what he’d said. She knew her father had thrown Jonathan out, could he be so cruel as to do something that horrible to her too? Jonathan had gambled away most of the trust fund he’d gotten on his eighteenth birthday and her mother had told her he turned to drugs and was stealing from them. She could understand why her father hadn’t wanted him in the house.
But what had she done to deserve this?
‘Licia, listen to me.’
Darrell pulled her into a hug and she let him, even cried into his shoulder. She’d been like this for weeks, the littlest things setting her off, and now she knew why.
‘I can come with you,’ she said between sobs. After all, he’d promised they’d be together forever and he wouldn’t lie to her.
He kissed her hair, then pulled back to cup her cheeks. With his thumbs he rubbed the tears away. ‘You’re only fifteen, your father will never let you.’
‘Only for a few more months. If you have to go, we can write to each other and on my birthday –’
He pressed his fingers to his lips. ‘I’m sorry, we can’t.’
More tears fell, and she tried to breathe through her nose to stop them – really tried to pull it together, but her heart was being crushed beneath her ribs and the pain was too much to bear.
‘You said you’d never lie to me. You told me we’d be together always.’
‘I meant it then, Licia. I wish it could have been true.’
She tried to swallow against the lump in her throat. She still couldn’t understand any of it – Darrell couldn’t leave. Not now. Not ever.
The news she’d been so excited about telling him earlier felt like the last shred of hope in this nightmare – the one thing that might have a chance of keeping him. ‘I’m pregnant.’
The blood drained from his face as he staggered away from her. Rolls of nausea washed over her as she watched the shock turn to fear. She’d been so sure this was what he wanted, for them to get married, have babies, and live in a little cottage in one of the villages surrounding her father’s estate.
Now she could see the truth. He had been lying. All those things meant nothing to him.
‘Are you sure?’ he asked, the hope in his voice worse than if he’d slapped her in the face.
Alicia nodded.
‘Shit. He’s going to kill me this time. Fuck!’ Darrell started pacing back and forth.
‘Who? What do you mean “this time”?’
‘Your father!’ he shouted.
Now she was the one stepping back. ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
He laughed once. ‘Ridiculous? Do you call this ridiculous?’
He jerked up his T-shirt and bared his stomach. She didn’t understand until he turned to the side and she saw it. Deep red marks – or the start of what looked like nasty bruises – covered his torso from his hips round to his back. She gasped and reached out to him, but he dropped his shirt and glared at her.
‘That’s why I’m leaving. Your precious father came to my house with a message. My dad has to take the job he was offered and I have to go with him. I fought for you, Licia, but he said a scumbag like me didn’t have the class to date you. I hit him and he fought back harder.’
‘When?’ was all that would come out of her mouth, she was too horrified at what he’d revealed.
‘An hour ago.’
Alicia glanced in the direction of the estate. Darrell was huge and tough, and her father wasn’t. She wanted to run to him, make sure he was OK, but if he did tell Darrell and his family to leave, how could she even bring herself to care?
But none of it made sense. She bit her lip so hard she could taste blood. ‘My father isn’t a thug, he would never –’
‘Wake up and look at the evidence!’ Darrell shook her by the shoulders so hard her teeth clattered together. ‘Your father will do anything to protect his precious family name without giving a shit who it hurts. You can’t tell him about the baby, he’ll come after me and kill me! You’re going to have to take care of it.’
Pushing out of his hold, she frowned at him. ‘What are you saying?’
‘I’m saying you need to have an abortion. Fast.’
Chapter Nine
Sebastian rang Alicia’s doorbell for what must have been the third time that morning. He’d arrived early but now she was ten minutes late.
He tapped out another text to her.
If this is payback for last night, Blondie, that’s fine. Point made. Now come on!
The second he hit send, he regretted it. Technically, she hadn’t agreed to come – and it wasn’t like he’d given her a choice.
Yeah, he should have maybe asked instead of bribing. But she’d looked so sad when he was driving her home and he’d had a weird urge to find out what had upset her and make her smile again. For that, they had to spend time together, so instead of saying she owed him a fun day out he’d in
sisted she play a few games with him.
Scrolling down to her number, he walked back to his car at the side of the street and hit call. There was a dial tone, so at least she hadn’t switched her mobile off. But she didn’t pick up and he went through to voicemail. He didn’t leave a message, just shoved the phone in his jacket pocket and reconsidered using the machine today. He hated the thing though, it was always too predictable.
It had nothing to do with the fact he’d been looking forward to seeing Blondie’s eyes flare up when he teased her.
With a sigh, he opened the car door. It was probably best they didn’t train together. He could think of better ways to make her sweaty and breathless – considering she ever let herself have what she wanted.
The front door to the building opened and he turned around. At first, all he could focus on was her little white shorts and the miles of thigh and calf on display. But he soon noticed how the vest beneath her fleece hugged her stomach and he couldn’t wait to get the full effect when they hit the gym.
‘Bit cold for shorts, isn’t it?’ he asked. It was better than telling her how fuckable she looked without the frumpy suit. That might earn him another lecture on controlling wild libidos.
Alicia didn’t say anything, just shrugged. She kept her head down as she came closer to the car and handed him her racket. He shoved it in the backseat while she climbed into the front with not so much as a smart comment or greeting.
When he got behind the wheel he turned to her, but Alicia was looking out of the passenger side window. Her shoulders were stooped and that urge to make her forget everything bad in her life came back stronger than ever.
She was shivering. He turned on the engine so the heater would warm her before he asked, ‘Are you OK?’
‘Yes, I just didn’t sleep very well.’
The distant tone made him push when he probably should have dropped it. ‘Nightmares?’
Her eyes slid shut. ‘Something like that.’
‘Tell me. You never know, it might make you feel better.’ But she faced him then and he caught a glimpse of how red and puffy her eyes were. ‘Jesus, Alicia. What happened?’
‘Nothing, I’m fine. Can we just get this over with? I have a job to do afterwards.’
He took the hint and put the car in gear. But that didn’t stop him from wanting to ask what the hell had happened to upset her. But she was right not to tell him. It was none of his business and if things were to progress between them, going down the road of telling each other everything would only confuse what kind of relationship they’d have. He could do flings, he could do fun, but he just wasn’t made for steady or long-term. All his life he’d moved from one country to another, leaving behind people he cared about. Permanent didn’t suit the career he’d chosen, no matter how much he craved stability, and it was time he accepted that.
Alicia pulled her fleece off and left it on the bench, barely registering the chilly temperature of the gym. She was too numb inside for that.
After he’d taken her home the night before, she’d gone straight to bed, hoping her emotional overload at the party and the almost-kiss in the car would mean she’d fall into a dreamless sleep within seconds.
If only she’d been that lucky.
Instead, she’d relived the day everything in her life had gone so horribly wrong. If she was honest it had crashed down before that, when she’d let things with Darrell progress to the next level. A shudder ran through her and she hugged her elbows to hide it.
But Sebastian frowned at her. There was no fooling him, it seemed.
He wore a long-sleeved polo shirt, probably because the whole of London was covered in a sheet of frost. Still, she hadn’t shivered because she was cold. On the outside, anyway.
Before she could register what he was doing, Sebastian tugged his shirt off. Slicked with his sweat or dry, she’d never seen a body that impressive before. Not in real life, anyway.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked. Surely he wasn’t going to play half-naked?
‘Put this on,’ he said, tossing the material to her.
She caught it and watched him rummage around in his bag. He pulled out another top, then two bottles of water. The smell of him clung to the shirt in her hands and she knew when her heartbeat increased that she should give it back. But it was warm from his body and her arms seemed to make the decision for her. Pulling it on, she bit her lip to stop a moan from escaping.
The shirt was far too big – she had to roll the sleeves up and it was so long it hid her shorts. But it was warm, smelled like his aftershave, and those complaints became pathetic in comparison to how she felt wearing it.
Sebastian winked. ‘See, all better.’
She turned away, not wanting him to see how true his statement was. The numbness was fading slowly, giving her senses back. Now, adrenaline rocked through her veins while heat pulsed at her core. The way she felt near him never seemed to dull, not even a little.
Alicia was beginning to think it never would.
‘You should serve, I’m rusty.’ She took her phone out of her pocket, switched it to silent, and left it on top of her fleece. When she grabbed her racket and walked over to the court she didn’t see it light up with a call. All she could see was his flexing muscles as he put on the other shirt.
Sebastian then pulled off his tracksuit bottoms, making her swallow. He had shorts on beneath but it didn’t stop her getting a glimpse of his muscled rear. Or thighs more suited to a football player. As her core temperature scorched she wondered if accepting his top was a good idea. She was already close to sweating, was well on her way to panting, and they hadn’t even started yet!
He grabbed a ball and his racket, then jogged over to the court. She stayed in the far box, trying to think through the fluster that hit her seeing him without a shirt. He moved to the box at the opposite side, then tossed the ball in the air.
Alicia grabbed the racket with both hands, remembering the power of his swings the other day when she’d walked in on him training. But Sebastian just caught the ball, then threw it in the air and caught it again.
‘I thought we were going to play,’ she said.
His eyes darkened – she could see it all the way across the court and too late she realised what the words could be construed as.
‘We can play if you like, Blondie, but I thought you were the one who always insisted on work, work, and more work?’
His grin was of someone who knew he was pushing her buttons and it took every ounce of willpower to act like a lady instead of letting her annoyance have its way with her tongue. ‘Have you forgotten how to serve?’
The smile that followed made her heart stutter.
‘And to think I was worried I’d miss out on my daily dose of smack talk.’
This time he got into position for an underhand serve, the easiest shot there was. It would make setting up her next move as simple as a stroll down the street. At first it made her more annoyed, but then it occurred to her that if he was going to underestimate her this early, it could be fun proving him wrong. After all, how many people had ever gotten the chance to get a few points past Collins at the top of his game?
‘I’m no stranger to smack talk,’ she said. Hardly true, not when her parents had forbidden it at their games, but she’d watched her brother play with his friends when she’d been little, and heard language that should never be spoken in front of a lady.
He tossed the ball then went straight for the underarm swing. She could predict where it would touch down, a foot or so in front of her. All she had to do was step forward and volley it back, but she didn’t want to let him know how insultingly easy he was making it for her.
Instead, she staggered back a few steps, watched the ball bounce off the floor a meter away, then bolted to the side for what should have looked like a last-minute lucky swing.
With the set-up, it didn’t make much of an impact on his side and he returned the swing easily. After a few more sets she’d lost tw
o, built up a light sweat, and was ready to rub his nose in his assumptions so they could really start to play – though that might mean he buried her, at least he’d have to admit she wasn’t an uncoordinated idiot.
On her serve she went for an overhead, ignoring his raised eyebrows and ‘Careful you don’t pull something, Blondie.’
Aiming for a spot just before the line at the far end of his box, she tossed the ball and swung with all the strength she had. To see his eyes widen a little before he tore across the court made her grin like an idiot. The backhanded swing he was forced into didn’t have the same kind of power, which made getting into position easy, and then she put everything she had into the return.
Sebastian was fast, and watching those thick muscles on his legs move him like the wind was all she could concentrate on. He missed the shot, as she knew he would, but he didn’t say anything at first – just stared at the spot where the ball hand landed as if he couldn’t believe what had happened.
Alicia couldn’t hold back any longer. ‘Next time you patronise me by playing like a five-year-old, I’ll make the bitch slap sting twice as hard.’
‘You’d think I’d have learned by now not to underestimate you,’ he mumbled, then went after the ball.
Her mood lifted even higher, completely freeing her from the remnants of her dream. She darted over to the benches, removed his shirt, and took a long drink from one of the water bottles. This time she didn’t think he would go easy on her, not if it meant risking his ego.
She needed to be ready.
‘Do you need a time out, Blondie?’ he asked, and she guessed it was supposed to be a way to tease her into action. But his voice was too deep and his gaze was riveted to her torso.
She looked down, wondering what was wrong with a white vest. It wasn’t see-through and her nipples were well hidden behind the light padding of her bra. But from this angle she caught a glimpse of her cleavage and realised it wasn’t actually her torso he was staring at, but her breasts.
The knowledge should have annoyed her, but she couldn’t collect the appropriate ire. She liked his gaze on her – which was exactly why she should put the shirt back on. But she knew she’d have to work harder for the next game, and she was already sweating.
