He gets up and carries me to the bedroom. I unbutton the buttons on his dirty blue work shirt with his name embroidered in white on the upper left side of it. He caresses my cheek as I push it off his broad shoulders.
“You’re beautiful, Jenna.” His lips touch my cheek.
I unbutton his pants and push them down. They fall around his ankles and I pull his underwear down and he steps out of the pile. Then I take his hand and lead him to the shower.
Turning it on and letting it heat up, I pull the dress off over my head and push my panties off. Then I take his hand and get into the shower, pulling him in behind me.
The apple shampoo I pour into my palm and run my hands over his ash blonde hair and over the beard he’s been growing. He gazes at me with those steely blue eyes.
I can see the love in them. He doesn’t have to tell me the words. I can see them in his eyes from time to time.
Gently I push his head back and rinse out the shampoo and when I bring his head back up he takes my wrists and pulls me to him. His mouth falls soft on mine and he moves me to the side and presses me up against the wall.
My hands run over his muscled back as he runs his hands down and takes my ass in them. His cock slides into my soft center as my legs wrap around him.
He moves slow and easy as we kiss. Our tongues moving around the other’s in a lazy fashion.
It’s times like these that cement the bond between us. It’s when he lets his soft side out that shows me who he really is and with time will become.
His movements grow faster and he takes his mouth from mine and begins to pant as his need grows. Faster and harder he goes then he whispers, “Cum whenever you feel like it, Baby.”
My heart grows with the love I have for him and I kiss his neck and run my tongue up and down it. When I feel him go stiff I let my orgasm go and we moan at the same time as our bodies unite in the middle.
I want to tell him I love him so damn bad. I won’t though. That would ruin this and I don’t want anything to ruin it.
After his cock stops jerking and pulsing, he lets me down and eases out of me. With one look I know he does love me.
And this is why I stay…
Chapter 7
JENNA
Two weeks ago a laptop computer was sent to me anonymously. The package came to my parents’ address and Mom called and told me I had something there.
I called Reed who told me he was the one who sent it and I was to click on the Arizona State Icon when I turned it on. He’d set everything up for me somehow.
He enrolled me into the college. Setting me up in the basic classes and paying for it with a scholarship from his business.
I’ve been doing the work online the last couple of weeks and hiding the laptop from Rod in the top of the closet every day before he gets home.
I’m loving taking the classes and using my brain for the first time since I graduated almost three years ago. And with my twenty-first birthday coming up, I’m feeling like I’m really doing something for myself. For my future.
And I have Reed Manning to thank for that.
I open up my math class on my computer and see the grades for last week’s test have been posted. I open up the grade book and see a perfect score there. I jump off the sofa and dance around while wiggling my ass.
Then I grab my cell phone and type in a quick text to Reed. -Wanted to let you know I made a perfect score on my math test. Thank you so much. This is so appreciated-
I don’t even get the phone sat back down and hear the ping of a text. I look and see he’s texted back. -Jenna, I’m so happy to hear that. You should give me a call if you can-
I look at the words then hit the button to call him. My heart’s beating all fast and I pace around.
“Hey, Girl!” his deep voice meets my ears.
My stomach gets a little wobbly. “Hi, Reed.”
“Way to go on the math test. How are the other classes going?” he asks.
His voice is so deep and smooth and very sexy. It gives me chills and sends desire straight through me. I shake that off and say, “I’m doing great in all of them. I’m trying hard to make you glad you gave the scholarship to me. I don’t want to disappoint you.”
“You could never disappoint me. So how’s everything else going?” he asks.
“Fine.” I go to the window as I hear something and pull the curtain back and see Rod pulling into the driveway three hours early. “Shit!”
“Something wrong, Jenna?”
“Rod’s home early. I have to go and hide the computer. I’ll text you sometime. Thanks again, Reed.” I haul ass to grab the computer.
Reed says, “Delete this phone call and the texts, Jenna. Hurry. Bye.”
I stop and do what he’s said to. And manage to get that accomplished when Rod throws the door open. I put the phone down on the coffee table just in time but his eyes are on the laptop.
“What’s that?” he asks as he nods toward it.
“Oh, that? Uh, well, my parents gave it to me. No big deal. I was just on this little social media thingy. A lot of my old school girlfriends have accounts and I was talking to them. Kind of like exchanging notes.” I pick it up and start to walk to the bedroom with it when his hand takes my shoulder and pulls me back to him.
“Let me see it.” His words are sharp and I hold it to my chest like a sacred book.
“Rod, it’s really fragile.”
His eyes narrow. “Let me see it.”
With a heavy heart, I hand it to him and he pulls it open. “I don’t want you on social media. Bad things happen on any of them. And no good ever comes from having one of these things.”
Horror fills me as he snaps the lid back and the cracking of the screen screeches as he breaks it. I fall to my knees in front of him. “Rod! How could you? That was mine. It was expensive!”
I start crying as the pieces of the computer fall on the pea green shag carpeting from the seventies that covers our living room floor. “Stop crying, Jenna, or I’ll give you something to cry about.”
He walks away as I pick up the broken pieces of what would’ve been my future. His voice is loud as he shouts, “Beer, Jenna! Now!”
I stand up with what’s left of the computer and walk into the kitchen and toss it into the trash as I don’t even attempt to stop crying.
He’s gone too far!
Getting a beer, I walk back to find him sitting in his chair. He’s looking straight ahead and I move the beer in my hand and throw it like a football, straight at the side of his head.
He moves just in time to avoid it hitting him and then he’s up and has me by my hair. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he screams.
I fight as he drags me to the bedroom and rips the dress off me. Then my panties and I fight him as hard as I can. He never lets go of my hair as he drags me over next to the dresser and grabs the bungee cord.
Then he has me face down on the bed and sits on my back as he pulls my hands over my head. I kick and thrash under him. He binds my hands with the cord then he lifts me up and hooks the cord over the hook on the wall.
I’m shrieking and crying and trying to kick backwards and trying to move myself in a way that will get me off this hook.
“Stop crying!” he yells as the belt slices through the air and lands on my ass.
I shriek louder with the lash but don’t stop crying. I’m not crying from the pain of the strike. I’m crying in absolute anger.
I don’t think I’ve ever been more angry in my life. “Fuck you, Rod!”
Another hard hit has me screaming louder. “Stop crying, Jenna!”
Then my body falls limp against the wall and I sob like I never have before. I can barely breath as he hits me over and over and every time he shouts for me to stop crying.
I don’t feel any pain at all. I’m numb. My brain is numb and my body is numb and I finally stop crying.
I close my eyes as he takes me down and throws me onto the bed. He leaves the room and comes b
ack with the ointment and rubs it all over my ass.
It doesn’t matter, I can’t feel it, anyway. I lie there on the bed and know I can’t do this anymore.
Then I hear something I’ve never heard before.
I turn over and find Rod on his knees beside the bed. His face is in his hands and I think he’s crying.
I sit up and blink as I can’t believe what I’m seeing. There are no words. And there is a flash of something that shoots through me.
“Rod? What are you doing?”
When he lifts his face out of his hands I see the first tears I’ve ever seen come out of his eyes, my heart breaks into a million pieces.
What have I done to him?
I go to him and wrap my arms around him as he sobs. “Jenna, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
He stands up, pushing me away from him. Then he pulls open the drawer of his nightstand and pulls out the paper which binds us together.
Our contract!
“What are you doing, Rod?”
My body is trembling as I watch him hold the paper up. His eyes are rimmed red and his deep voice is shaky as he says, “I’m tearing this up. You can leave if you want to.”
Something snaps inside me. I get up and reach out for the paper. The paper I’ve lived my life by for the last few years. “No.”
He looks at me with tears running down his face. “I have to, Jenna. I’ve worked on you for over two years and you came at me like a tiger. I don’t know what I’m doing.” He takes the paper and begins to tear the top of it.
“Stop! Don’t. I was wrong. I’m sorry. Please, don’t let this be the end of us, Rod. Please.” I fall to my knees and wrap my arms around his legs. “Please, Rod. I’ll do anything. Don’t end this. I’m begging you.”
“Jenna, this isn’t working and you know it.” His hand runs over my head. “You were not cut out for life the way I want it.”
“I can be. I’ve come so far, Rod. Don’t quit on me now. Please.”
I look up at him and it kills me to know I’ve made him cry. He sits on the bed and I climb onto his lap and we both take the paper in our hands.
It’s all we have. There is no marriage. There is no talk of love. This is it.
I gently take it from him and put it back in the drawer. My lips touch his cheek then I tell him, “Forever, remember, Rod. That paper binds us forever.”
I move off his lap and take his boots off as he looks down and seems so sad and somewhat broken.
After I get his boots off, I take off his shirt and then undo his pants and pull at him to stand up. “Come on, Baby. Let me give you a bath and then I’ll rub you down with some oils and after that I’ll make you some meatloaf.”
He follows me but I feel something missing. The cockiness, the control, the strength.
And it makes me sick to my stomach that I did this to him.
What’s wrong with me?
Chapter 8
JENNA
The months have passed since our fight and things haven’t been the same. Rod’s been passive and I feel like it’s only a matter of time until he ends this.
I broke something in him that day and it looks like no matter how hard I try to get things back to normal between us, I can’t.
I told Reed about the broken computer and he said to use one at the library so that won’t happen again. He told me to be very careful as he’s afraid if Rod catches me doing this then he might hurt me, physically.
He told me to tell him if he does.
It made me feel bad for not being truthful with him. He’s doing so much for me and I’m lying to him. It feels wrong.
On a good note, I’m acing my classes and was able to take a few tests that gave me credit without having to take the actual classes.
Seems I am smart!
As I close out the tab for my English class on the library’s computer my cell rings. It’s Rod so I hurry to answer it. “Hey, Sweetie.”
“Where the fuck are you, Jenna?” He sounds pissed.
I hurry out of the library as the librarian looks over her glasses at me with a scowl on her wrinkled old face. I try my best to ignore her and hurry out. “I’m on my way home. I took a walk. I was feeling kind of cooped up and needed some fresh air.”
And as I go around the corner, I see him standing there, looking at me. I put the phone in my purse. He puts his in his pants pocket. Then his arm goes around my shoulders.
“In the library. Not out for a walk in the fresh air,” his words are controlled and tight. “Lies, Jenna.”
“I wanted to find a book to read too. I was doing a few things on my walk, Rod.” I laugh and try to act cool about things.
“Someone, your mother I suppose, left a letter for you taped to our front door. A letter from Arizona State University. Seems congratulations are in order, Jenna. You managed to gain six credits for classes you tested for. How wonderful is that news?” He stops and turns me to look at him.
“I was able to get into the college’s online program. I got financial aid to pay for the classes. I was going to tell you. I wanted to surprise you, Rod. I wanted you to be proud of me.” My words are coming out very fast and my heart is racing.
“Did my brother talk you into doing this behind my back?”
“Reed?” the name comes out high and shrill. “No! I don’t talk to him.”
“Then who?” His arm leaves my shoulder as we get to our little house and he moves his hand up into my hair.
“I did this on my own, Rod.”
Then he has me by the hair and lifts my feet off the ground then puts me back down so hard I fall. Then he drags me through the yard.
I don’t fight or scream. I try to get my feet under me so my body doesn’t drag any more than possible. My knees are burning as the ground scrapes the flesh from them.
The old woman from next door looks outside and shouts for him to stop. But Rod seems not to hear her. He lets my hair go and I fall to the ground. “Get up, Bitch!”
I try to get up and as soon as I do he pushes me back down. “Get up!”
I scramble to my feet once again and keep my head low. I stand still.
“Come here,” he says with a low and firm tone.
I go to him and he pushes me back so hard, I fly a few feet then fall on my ass.
Sirens fill the air as one of the three cops we have in this tiny town skids to a stop at the front of our house. He jumps out of the car and takes his gun out and points it at Rod. “On the ground, Rod!” he shouts.
The fall on my ass knocked the breath out of me and I struggle to get my wind as I watch Rod fall to his knees with his hands behind his head then he slowly goes to his stomach and lies face down in the dirt of our front yard.
The officer walks up to him and holsters his handgun then takes out a set of handcuffs.
With a cough, my breath returns and I shout, “No! Don’t do that to him!”
I get up and stumble over to the officer. He looks up at me from his kneeling position behind Rod. “Look, I’m taking him in. Your knees are bleeding and a few other places on you are as well.”
“Please, let him go. This is my fault. I was lying to him. I’ll take what I have coming to me for that.” I give the cop a pleading look.
He shakes his head as I see the dirt move near Rod’s mouth. “Let him take me away, Jenna. My heart is broken. I may as well sit in jail after what you’ve done to me.”
I break down crying hard and go to my bloody knees in front of him. “Please, don’t take him, Sir!”
Tears pour out of my eyes as the cop just shakes his head. He looks at me. “You sure about this?”
I nod. “Please, Sir. I am sure.”
He stands up and says, “Okay, Rod. She saved your ass. I hope you repay the favor. If I get called back out here for any domestic situation I’m taking you both in.”
Rod rolls over on his back as the cop walks away. Tears fill his eyes again. Only the second time I’ve seen this.
The
n he holds out his arms and I go into them.
Right there in the front of the little home we’ve made, he takes me into his arms and we cry together. He keeps murmuring to me that he’s so sorry and I say it right back to him.
“Let’s go inside, Baby,” he says and I climb off his lap and hold out my hand for him.
He takes it and I help him to his feet then he picks me up in his arms and carries me inside. In the bathroom, we both get washcloths and wet them and I clean the dirt off him and he cleans the dirt and blood off me.
He puts some antibiotic ointment on my knees and kisses the bandages after covering the scrapes. Then he picks me up and carries me to the bed and sits me on it.
I watch as he goes to the top dresser drawer and he takes out all the devices he has in there and the leather belts and carries them out of the room. I hear the squeaking of the trash can lid and then he comes back in with a screwdriver and takes the hook off the wall.
My stomach is tight as I think he may be about to tear up the contract. I don’t say a word as he comes back and touches my chin. “No more punishments.”
My eyes go wide. “What does that mean?”
“It means your training is over. When it came down to it, you kept your head and told the cop to let me go. You know who you belong to. You know how to keep my dick out of other women and out of jail and in your life. You’re done. And now we can move on to the next step.” He climbs onto the bed, pushing me back as he does.
I fall back as he straddles me then leans over and kisses me. Soft and easy. Different.
We both stink like sweat, blood, and tears and never have I felt more comfortable with a person. The salt of our combined tears I can taste on his lips and I know he can taste them on mine.
Our relationship has seemed a little like a level of hell. But it seems that level has been passed and the sweet taste of victory is ours now.
Somehow our clothes are removed and we’re nothing but flesh against flesh and it feels freeing and amazing. His hands move over my skin like water over pebbles.
Shattered: A Billionaire Romance Series (Contemporary Romance Novels) Page 74
