His Sweet Torment: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance

by Michelle Love

  “I love you, Reed,” she says. Her lips move against my neck as she keeps her legs wrapped around my waist and her arms around my neck.

  “Love is a word that isn’t even strong enough for what we’ve found. But since I don’t have a new one yet, I love you too, Jenna.” I trail soft kisses down her neck and over her shoulder.

  We should probably get out and get going back to the room at the lodge, but holding her in this warm water feels too good to stop. Then a sound has me listening very hard.

  “That sounds like a motorcycle, doesn’t it?” Jenna asks, as we both look around to see if we can see any lights.

  But the backyard has so many privacy fences around it, we can’t see a thing to tell us where the thing might be. I kiss her cheek to calm her, as her body has gone tense.

  “It’s only one bike, and he’s not due in until next week, remember.”

  She nods. The sound of the motorcycle is gone now, and she wraps her arms back around me. “I’m being silly.”

  A light comes on in the kitchen, then the back door opens. Jenna turns in my arms to see who it is. Neither of us can see any more than a shadow.

  “Shit!” Jenna hisses quietly. “Busted!”

  I hold on to her from behind and whisper in her ear. “Probably just Dad taking in a breath of fresh air, and he’ll go back inside. Just be still and quiet.”

  Then a lighter lights up and it lights a cigarette.

  Dad does not smoke!

  Now it’s me who hisses, “Shit!”

  The outside light comes on as he takes a couple of steps out and triggers the motion sensor. It also makes the interior pool light come on as a safety thing, and now it’s made us vulnerable.

  It takes a second for my brother’s eyes to roam over us and when they do, I see fire in them. He pulls his black leather jacket with the words Brothers of the Scarlet Dragon off and tosses it on the ground, followed by his cigarette.

  He’s not saying any words at all. But his body is in full gear as he begins to walk with a quick pace toward the pool. Then I feel Jenna slipping out of my arms as she pulls herself up on the edge of the pool and she’s out and running to him.

  “No! No, Rod! Stop!”

  I hurry out after her, both of bare-assed. I manage to grab up my shorts and pull them on in a fraction of a second. Then I see Rod toss her to the side and she falls on her ass.

  He doesn’t even look at what he’s done to her as he’s focused only on me. Then I see her get up and run at him again from behind.

  “Jenna, no!” I yell at her. “Get Dad!”

  She runs toward the door, grabs a towel off the chair next to it, and wraps herself up as she runs inside.

  Rod goes right for my throat. “I’m going to kill you!” His words are spoken between clenched teeth.

  I avoid his hands and smash my fist into his stomach. He takes a step back with the punch, but it doesn’t seem to affect him or slow him down at all.

  His left arm comes up and I go to block it, when his right fist slams into my face. I fall back with the punch, but quickly regain my balance and come at him like a linebacker.

  Catching him in the middle, I run forward and take his feet off the ground as I run with him until I hit something that has his breath pushing out so hard I can feel it.

  He grunts with the force, and I let him go. He falls to the ground but gets back up, and the way he comes at me has me walking backward, but not fast enough. His fist hits my mouth, and I taste blood right away.

  It only pisses me off and I throw a wild punch. It connects, and I see his cheek split and blood starts pouring from it.

  Then we both grab each other and wrestle, trying to take the other one to the ground. But we both stop and let go of each other as a loud gunshot stops us.

  We turn and find our father at the back door holding a shotgun. “The first one to raise a fist gets a taste of this.”

  Jenna and Mom are behind him and it seems Mom gave Jenna one of her nightgowns to cover herself up with. I look at Rod and he looks at me. Then we take a few steps away from each other.

  Jenna comes running out, straight to me, until Rod says something that makes her stop dead in her tracks. His voice is low and threatening as he says, “You better rethink that, baby. You’re mine, no matter what Reed thinks. And you damn well know that.”

  Her face goes very pale and her body starts to shake. I take a step toward her and she holds up her hand, stopping me. “It’s okay, Reed. I need to face this.” Her voice is shaky, and I can tell she’s scared, but she swallows hard. “I am not yours, Rod. You left me. And a day doesn’t go by that I don’t thank God you did. I am with Reed now. Not a damn thing you say or do will change that.”

  “I still have the paper, Jenna. You are mine, and you know that. It might take a bit of retraining to get you back to how I had you, but I will have you. And you damn well know that.” He turns his head and spits in my direction.

  “I’m not listening to any more of his shit!” I start walking towards Jenna and take her hand when I get to her. “Come on, Angel. We’re leaving.”

  She falls in behind me as I pull her along, and I hear Rod coming up behind us. But Dad fires off another shot. “Leave her alone, son.”

  “She is my woman!” Reed shouts. “How could you two allow this to happen? You both know who it is she belongs to!”

  “Now, Rod,” my mother says in her best mom tone. “You left her. You left her without a word. She had every right to move on.”

  “No, she didn’t, and she knew that.” He stays where he is since Dad has the gun and I pull Jenna inside.

  I look over my shoulder at my mother. “We’re leaving in the morning instead of the day after.”

  She nods. “I understand. Good night.”

  I take Jenna out through the front door, put her in the passenger seat, and lock her door. Then I quickly get in the driver’s side and leave my parents’ home as fast as I can and pray they don’t let him leave right behind us. Or we’ll have to bring the cops in on this.

  My head is spinning. Then Jenna just falls apart and cries like I’ve never seen her do before. She’s sobbing uncontrollably.

  What did that fucking bastard do to her?

  I let her cry it out until we pull into the parking lot. Then I get her out of the car and carry her inside as she cries into my bare chest.

  Sitting on the bed with her on my lap, I stroke her damp hair. “Jenna, it’s okay. We’re leaving in the morning. It’ll all be okay. He knows now, and he can start to get over it.”

  She shakes her head. “It will be a long time before he gets over this. And he will try his best to stop this. I could see it in his eyes. I am his.”

  “You are not his! Shit! Jenna, you don’t belong to anyone. Not even me. You are your own person. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.” I kiss her cheek and taste the salt of her many tears.

  “I haven’t cried like this in so long. I don’t know how he has the power to make me this way. Weak and afraid.” She takes in a deep breath, trying to stop herself, but it doesn’t work and she busts out again. “I hate him, Reed!”

  The thought crosses my mind that he has done something so bad to her she may need professional help to get over it. And that makes me furious at him.

  “You can be weak right now if you need to be. I’m here for you. You fell when he threw you. Let me see if you’re hurt.” I lay her face down on the bed as she continues to cry softly.

  When I raise up the nightgown, I see her ass is scraped up and go to find something to clean it up with and see if we have any kind of ointment to make it feel better.

  In a bag of toiletries, I find some antibiotic ointment with pain reliever and take that along with a wet washcloth back to her. I see in the mirror that my lip is busted and dried blood is caked around it, but I’ll see to her first, then clean myself up.

  When I go back to her I can hear that she’s stopped crying, and she seems to be asleep. I press the cloth to
the scrape on her ass and she doesn’t move, so I know she’s asleep pretty deeply.

  I spread the medicine all over the wound and she turns her head. Her eyes open. “Oh, it’s you. Good.”

  “Who else would it be?” I ask.

  “Rod used to do that afterwards. It’s just that I was asleep, and I guess dreaming, and thought it was him.”

  “Rod used to do this to you after what, Jenna?” My whole body is tense, as I don’t know if I want to hear this or not.

  “Never mind, Reed. I’m very sleepy.” Then her eyes close.

  I move her around to lie the right way on the bed. She’s still wearing my mother’s flower covered nightgown so I leave it on her, as she must be exhausted.

  As I go to clean myself up, I can’t help but think about how this will all play out. Rod is not one to come around and play nice.

  Not ever!

  Chapter 21

  JENNA

  My body aches as I lie in the bed and see the early morning light streaming through the white curtains of the small room Reed rented for us. I can hear him in the bathroom.

  He opens the door and smiles at me as I lie in bed. “Hey there, sleepyhead.” He comes and kisses my cheek. “I thought I’d let you rest while I go grab us some breakfast from the café. How about a couple of breakfast tacos?”

  “Mmm. Yes, that sounds good. I could use a few more winks before I get going today.” I stretch a little and he gives me one more kiss.

  “I’ll be back in about an hour so you can rest. I’ll gas up the car and get ready to go to the airport. Sleep, Angel.” He leaves, and I hear the deadbolt lock and close my eyes.

  Softly, his hand runs over my back as I lie on my stomach. “Back already? That didn’t seem like an hour. I feel like I barely fell back asleep.”

  I roll over and nearly have a heart attack. “Rod!” I have on a nightgown, but I grab the blanket and pull it up to cover myself even more. “How did you get in here?”

  “I know the chick at the front desk and she gave me a key. You and I need to talk.” He stands up and pulls out his wallet.

  I watch him and have no idea what I need to be doing to ensure not only my safety, but Reed’s too. Rod pulls a folded piece of paper out of his wallet and opens it, then hands it to me. “Remember when you signed this?”

  I place the contract on the bed without looking at it and look straight into his eyes. “I do. I was a dumb kid then. I’m not anymore. The fact is, you wouldn’t even like me now. So just be glad I’m not wanting you back.”

  A grin covers his heavily bearded face. His hair is really short on the sides and kind of long on top. He’s covered in tattoos, and his beard is thick and long.

  He barely looks like the same man.

  “We both know I can get you back to the way I want you.” He sits back down on the side of the bed. “That’s not a problem. Tell me why you left our home.”

  I glare at him. “How was I to keep it? And tell me why I would even want to? You left me without a word. Not a note, nothing. So why would I stay? And for over two years, at that.”

  “Because you belong to me. I knew you went off to college, and I was okay with that. I thought you’d know to come back here and get a job until I came for you. You came back just like I knew you would. My plan was to come for you this summer and take you with me. Only you found my baby brother, didn’t you?” He reaches out to touch my face.

  I pull back so he can’t. “No! You do not touch me. I’m not going to allow you to touch me. Not ever again. You hurt me. You have no idea what your leaving like that did to me. I had no idea if you were alive or anything. I had to worry for what felt like forever. Then one day it went away, a little and a little more each day, until I just didn’t think about you anymore.”

  “Why would you do that? I never stopped thinking about you. I never stopped dreaming about the day I could come get you and take you with me on the road with my gang.” He smiles. “You’re going to have a rough time at first. The women are tough as shit. But I know you can gain their respect. You’re tough and fearless.”

  I shake my head. “What makes you think I want to be a part of a motorcycle gang? I’m going to be a kindergarten teacher, Rod. I’m not biker chick material.”

  “You are my woman and, as such, you will be what I want you to be. So if I say you need to fit in with my new lifestyle, then you will do as I say. I will train you just like I did before.” He reaches for me again and I move away from him.

  “You should leave before Reed gets back.”

  “You are mine. And I will show him that.” He grabs my wrist and pulls me up to him.

  His face is too close to mine. I can smell the cigarettes and some kind of liquor, maybe tequila. “If you think you’re going to force yourself on me, you better know I will file rape charges on your ass. I swear it. You’ll have to kill me for that not to happen. Get me?”

  He lets me go and stands up with a laugh. “See, you are tough. You just need to come back to me for a little while and you’ll fall right back into place.”

  “I’m marrying Reed. I’m not going to hang with you to see if I want that back, because I know I don’t. To be honest, that was never a life I wanted. I accepted it because I was young and dumb and I loved you for reasons now I can’t really figure out. You were wild and dangerous and a thing no grown woman wants in her life. Not this one, anyway.” I shift in the bed and realize I don’t have any underwear on. That makes me feel a bit vulnerable, but I try hard not to let my face show that.

  Rod looks down at me. “Mom gave me the ring I gave you when I asked you to marry me and you said yes. Want to explain to me why you gave it to her?”

  “Because I was done with you. I waited nearly a month at the house for you and two more months at my parents’. When I decided to go away to college, I wanted to leave it all behind me. So I gave the ring to your mother. It’s a lot better than tossing the motherfucking thing that, in my opinion, you didn’t care at all about.” I pull the blanket up even tighter around me.

  He pulls the ring out of his pocket. “I’m here to get that ring off your finger and this one back on it.”

  “You’ll play hell doing that, Rod.” I stare right into his eyes. “You see, Reed will be back soon, and he will beat your ass if he finds you here. And I will do everything I can to help him do that.” I hold my left hand up next to my face. “So jump if you feel froggy, asshole!”

  His steel-blue eyes light up and his eyebrows go up high. “Wow! See, you are tough. And I made you that way. I do deserve a little appreciation, don’t you think?”

  “You also made me have trust issues. You also made me have nightmares about how you strung me up for hours on end and did things to my body until I was crying and asking you to stop.”

  His smile goes only over half his mouth. “That was no nightmare; that did happen. More than a few times. But I recall you agreeing to that. I recall reaching into your pussy and finding it wet and throbbing after those kinds of things. I recall you begging to suck my dick after those things. What is it you recall, Jenna?”

  “I recall feeling weak. I recall thinking I had to make you happy, because you weren’t. I recall thinking that, if I could just make you feel loved, you would soften up some. And for the last part of our time together, you were softer. Not entirely, but you weren’t exactly that hard man you were in the beginning. But those things you did to me did scarred me deeper than the flesh wounds you gave me with your punishments.”

  His eyes narrow and he looks down. “If things were better, and I was more like the man you wanted me to be, then why did you move on?”

  With a sigh, I say, “Because even the man you had become wasn’t what I wanted. When I was eighteen and started things with you, I had no idea what I wanted. All I knew was that you had wanted me for two years, and that was pretty awesome in my young and naïve eyes.”

  “So you never wanted me?” He looks at me with sad eyes.

  That look used
to get me every time, but not this time. “That would be a lie. I did want you. I did want to make you happy, and so I did the things you told me you needed. And still you fucked other women. And still you left me without a word. So my heart hardened. I learned how to harden a lot of things thanks to your training, Rod. So now you will reap the rewards of a job well done. You wanted me to be hard, and now I am.”

  “And turned against me. Your owner. And if you think I’m going to let this go, you're very wrong. I’m going to leave, so I don’t have to deal with my little brother. But you and I are not done.” After picking up the contract off the bed, he walks toward the door, then stops and turns back. “See you soon, baby.”

  As I watch him walk out the door, all the strength in me fades away so quickly, it’s unreal. My body begins to shake and I jump up and lock the door again. I also close the latch inside so even if he uses the key, he can’t get back in.

  I managed to escape that little interaction unscathed, but that was close. I think he could see in my eyes that I wouldn’t go down easy. The tiger in me showed itself, I think.

  But I don’t even want to know if I could actually fend him off or not. I’d rather never find that out.

  I go and pick up the phone to call the front desk and hear a friendly female answer, “Hello. How can I help you this morning?”

  “Are you the bitch who gave Rod Manning a key to this room?” I ask, trying to keep my tone sharp.

  “No.” She hangs up and I call the other number on the phone. The one that says if you have any problems, please call.

  “Good morning, Arizona Lodging Corporation. How can I help you this morning?”

  “Hello, my name is Jenna Foster. My fiancé rented a room here at your Jerome location and I’d like to report that the woman who is working at the front desk this morning gave a key to another man and he entered our room. I suppose that’s frowned upon in your business. Is it not?”

  “Oh my goodness! Are you okay, ma’am?”

  “I am. But the man she let in and I have a very bad past. He used to beat me. So I was very scared. I’d hate to see anyone else go through what I just did. I can count on you to take care of this situation without my needing to involve the authorities, can’t I?”