“Words. Fucking use them,” he prompts me, but his voice is not as cut and dry as he usually is.
“Understood,” I answer back.
And oh, I can’t wait.
I’m wearing a baby-pink Herve Leger number and the kind of heels only a pin-up girl can feel comfortable in. I let my hair air dry after my shower earlier, so a few loose curls is all it takes. I look good, and I know it. Not because of the dress I’m wearing or the way I did my makeup, but because I shine. I smile widely, an honest to God, happy smile, something you don’t see very often on my face, and fantasize about tonight. About having sex with Graham and about spending my life with him. About moving to the master bedroom and fulfilling a dream I didn’t even know I had, to be someone’s beloved. To have a steady boyfriend. To live with a man.
“Oh my God, Dahl, bomb-ass party!” Jason, a quarterback, flings himself over me with a huge hug. He is talking to me over the music, I think Jade is playing “Hype” by Dizzee Rascal, his arm over my shoulder casually as he yells into my ear. Normally, I wouldn’t even think about it. But tonight? Tonight I’m afraid Graham is going to barge downstairs and strangle him. I know he’ll never willingly get out of his office to join the party, but he’s got cameras everywhere in this house. I can’t chance it.
“So nice to see you, Jason, hope you enjoy the party.” I kill the conversation prematurely, worming out of his touch and scurrying to the other side of the living room. The lights are dim and people are dancing with each other, thrusting hips, giggling into ears, leaning against the walls and making out. Some kids are sitting on the stairway, making it harder for couples to climb up and look for a quiet room to do filthy things in, and I find it comforting. I don’t envy the person who bumps into Graham Savage late at night trying to sneak into his room.
“You look weird,” Britney tells me, elbowing my ribs. She’s wearing a cherry-red mini dress and her hair is a messy bun of auburn locks. “Like you can’t wait for us to fuck off. Now why’s that?” She slurps her drink with a noisy sound that makes me cringe. I guess I am too distracted with my step-dad to enjoy this. But I just shake my head, a thin smile finding my face.
“Sorry. Just…turning eighteen. It’s heavy, dude.”
“At least now you can move away from your mom.” She shrugs. My mouth dries. Britney, who is good friends with me and Jade since freshman year, explains. “Remember when we just met, and you said you hate your mom and can’t wait to move out? I always thought about that. I remember the things she made you do when you were little, you being her little errand girl. And I always kind of wondered if you’d follow through with your plan to leave her. Especially as the Savage Mansion looks so comfy.”
I wasn’t the only well-off student in my high school, we had a lot of people from Princeton, but Graham Savage made it a point to have the biggest mansion in the neighborhood.
Britney was staring at me intently, her eyes gliding down my body, waiting for my response.
“Well…” I shrug, clutching onto the drink in my hand. It’s beer, and not from a keg either. We were able to afford the nice pretty bottles with the money Graham spent on my birthday party. “I haven’t thought about it, really.”
“Bullshit.” A smile spreads on Britney’s face. “You don’t just go from not liking your mother to forgetting you wanted to run away from her. Tell me. What’s next after you graduate?”
I’m going to kick my mom out of the house and live with my step-dad, who is upstairs, plotting how to ruin my vagina for all other men as we speak.
“My mom has a boyfriend and I’m pretty sure she is planning to leave with him, so….” I downplay the whole thing. “Maybe the problem will solve itself.”
“And where will you live?”
“Here.” I look around me, swallowing visibly. Britney’s mouth falls open, and I guess that’s my cue to avoid the next question that’s about to fall from her mouth. I put one hand over her shoulder, smiling broadly. “Hey, I need to go find Jade, thank her for this kick-ass party. I’ll see you in a bit, okay?”
With that, I bolt upstairs, bypassing the drunkies on the stairs and walking straight in the direction of Graham’s office. I have to see him. Have to tell him that I can’t wait anymore. I don’t care if there’s almost two hundred people in this house. It’s big enough for us to lock the door somewhere quiet and do it.
I walk the wide, half-lit hallway, swinging my hips seductively, licking my lips in anticipation for what’s to come. I’m just about to knock on his office’s door when I feel a hand grabbing me to the guest room right next to his, jerking me inside the dark, small space.
I giggle at first, pressing my body against the person who grabbed me. The hand was warm and big, like a man’s, but it was a little too smooth and not quite as giant as Graham’s. Then again I had two drinks to take the edge off the whole situation so it is totally possible that I’m just imagining things.
“Graham, you made me lose my tiara!” I attempt to bend over to pick it up, but his hands stop me.
“Dahlia,” a voice I recognize mouths my name, the lips ghosting over the skin on my neck and I freeze.
It’s not Graham. It’s Shawn. The guy who’s been asking me out for the past year or so. I always said no. That I don’t want a boyfriend and that I’m not the kind of girl to mess around just like that, but obviously he’s not a good listener.
“Shawn,” I groan. His body presses against mine, my back pushed against the wall, and it feels intimate and…wrong.
“Let me go,” I say softly, gently, but not because I want to be polite. Because I’m scared. I’m not even sure why; it’s my house after all. But I doubt Graham can hear me through the wall, and the music is loud, and Shawn stinks of vodka, and suddenly I realize throwing a huge-ass party with a ton of alcohol wasn’t the greatest idea Jade ever had.
“No, why would I? You’ve been taunting me with these tits for months now.” He reaches for my boob, pinching my nipple through the fabric of my pink dress. I gasp in shock and raise my hand to slap him, but he stops me when my palm hovering inches from his face, holding my wrist tightly. Horror swirls in my gut and I feel my breathing becoming faster. Oh, no. My god, not right now and not like this. I open my mouth and scream from the top of my lungs, but he shuts me up by slapping his hand over my lips. It hurts, and the sting makes my eyes water. Maybe it’s the terror too. It’s all too much and too fast, I can’t even process everything that’s happening.
“Shawn, why?” I try to ask through his forceful fingers over my mouth, and I feel him freeing himself with his free hand, his whole body squeezing mine to the cold wall so I can’t break free. This is a nightmare and I’m about to succumb to my greatest fear and just let go. Maybe I’ll faint. There’s no other way I can escape him. Shawn is big and athletic, a real jock, and I’m barely five foot three.
“You don’t wanna do this,” I say desperately, my voice coming out muffled between his fingers.
“Oh, but I do, so fucking much. In fact, I’ve been thinking of doing just this since I first saw you, pretty little Dahl.”
I feel his warm dick, either half-mast or not as big as Graham’s, pressing against my groin and squeeze my eyes shut. It’s enough to renew my will to fight. I try to knee him in the balls, but he anticipates my move and backs away in time. I throw out an arm haphazardly and manage to get a scream out while my fingernails meet flesh. I latch on and drag down his skin as hard as I can.
“You fucking bitch!” I look up and see Shawn, face clawed and bloodied, staring at his equally bloody hand in disbelief. My brief moment of victory is cut short when he winds up and backhands me with the same blood-stained hand. My head flies backwards and hits the corner of a shelf, and the pain screams through my head. Where is Graham?
Discombobulated, I feel a hand twist and jerk the straps to my dress and bra. I’m totally exposed, and I can’t seem to make my body listen to my brain, which is telling me to fight.
Sucking in a breath, I mentally prepare myse
lf for what’s to come…then I feel him release me.
I open my eyes, confusion and relief dancing in my stomach, when I see why Shawn let me go. He is on all fours on the floor, the music blasting from outside swallowing his moans and groans. Graham rushes to help me up, examining the damage.
“Are you ok? Did he fucking hurt you, Dolly? Tell me!” He practically roars the words. I feel my chin wobbling, fighting off the urge to cry. I shake my head, but I can’t get the words out. He scoops me up like a baby, and sets me on the couch in the guest room, before removing his jacket and tossing it around my shoulders to cover me up. He tears his tie off, rips open the collar of his dress shirt, and bunches his sleeves up. He looks absolutely fucking terrifying. A vein I’ve never noticed is bulging from his forehead, and it’s all I can focus on in my state of shock. Shawn sputters and coughs, bringing his attention back to him.
“Man, what the fuck, what the hell! This is a mistake, I didn’t, I’m not—” he starts saying, but then Graham, who is standing above him, kicks him in the ribs again. Shawn collapses to the floor. The look on Graham’s face is manic. His eyes are sparkling with something crazy. His jaw tenses and his nostrils wide, I can see it even in the pitch black.
Graham kicks Shawn again, this time in the face.
“You think you can hurt my girl? In my fucking house? Do you know who the fuck I am?” Graham asks flatly. His voice is calm, but his face and body tell a different story. I jump on Graham, pulling him away from Shawn.
“Please, Graham.”
But he keeps kicking Shawn, so I pull his arm in both my hands and whisper to him, “He’s the district attorney’s son. Let him go.”
I guess “district attorney” is some kind of a magic word, because it makes Graham listen, and he finally spins around to face me, examining my face closely. I try to smile, even though I know that in all probability he’s seeing my face smeared with Shawn’s blood, and my ripped dress.
“Hey, I’m okay. He didn’t get to…” I trail off because I can’t say the words, but I know he understand when his nostrils flare and gives me a clipped nod. I link my fingers together behind his back, hugging him. I don’t even care that Shawn is in the room. I’m pretty sure he is out of it, and when he comes to, the last thing he’d do is rat me out. He’s just been kicked real good. I’m not going to be surprised if he broke a few ribs in the process.
“I’m going to make sure he never does that again to anyone else, district attorney’s son or not.” Graham sounds so resolute; I don’t want to argue with him. I should probably warn my friends and girls at school from Shawn. This is outrageous. I’ve never seen him like this, and that makes me wonder whether he’s tried doing it to somebody else…or worse, if he’d succeeded.
“I don’t care about Shawn. I’m okay,” I state again, and Graham rubs his thumb over my lower lip, inspecting my face.
“It’s not my blood,” I assure quickly, trying to put him at ease. “I smacked my head but I’m fine, I promise.”
Graham nods, rubbing my lip with the pad of his thumb. He takes a deep breath and tries to calm himself down.
“You got him good, Dolly. If you hadn’t bought yourself those few extra seconds…” I don’t even want to think about that.
“How did you know?” I ask softly.
“The cameras. I see videos of everything in my room. I’ve been following your whereabouts all night, wanted to make sure that you’re okay. I made one phone call. That’s all it took….”
I try to bite my grin, but there’s no point. My face shines like the moon even after taking a beating.
“You’ve been watching me?”
Graham reaches for my cheek, pulling my face into his and kissing my forehead with his eyes shut. “I’m very protective of you, Dolly. I’m protective of you as a lover and as a pseudo guardian. Not because I feel like I’m your father, but because you’ve never had someone who took care of you, and that sucks.”
“I have you now,” I declare, tracing my finger along the scar on his temple. God, it makes him even more beautiful. He groans when my hand disappears inside his black mane.
“Everyone needs to get the fuck out of this house. It’s time to play and I am not a team player.”
I raise one eyebrow, a playful smile tugging at my lips. “Then it’s a good thing my scary step-daddy happens to be home to shut this shit down, isn’t it?”
I’m not sure what Graham said to have two hundred rich kids scrambling for the exit, but they cleared out in two seconds flat…except for Jade, of course. At five feet and five inches of fury, I feel like she can even give Graham a run for his money. She isn’t afraid of anyone, and wasn’t buying whatever Graham was selling. She refused to leave without seeing that I was okay, and of course I don’t exactly look okay, so here I am, sitting on my bed, being interrogated by my cock-blocking BFF.
“He fucking what?!” She’s burning a hole through my carpet from all of her pacing. It’s obviously going well. I let out a long sigh, resigned to the fact that she probably isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“I don’t know where it came from. He’d been pushier lately, but I never thought he was capable of something like this. I mean, we know Shawn. We hang out with him all the time. It just came out of nowhere.”
Jade pauses her assault on my floor, and I see a light bulb go off behind her eyes.
“What is it? Do I even want to know?”
She shifts nervously on her feet and mumbles something incoherently. I cup my hand to my ear dramatically and raise my eyebrows.
“What was that? I’m gonna need you to speak the fuck up, J.”
“I heard Shawn was snorting some blow in the car with Britney and Dillon before the party. But they weren’t doing it in your house, I swear!” She quickly tacks on the last part.
“That’s no excuse,” she continues, “but maybe that’s why he was extra aggressive? I’m going to kick his fucking ass.” And the pacing commences.
“Dude, give a bitch a head’s up next time,” I groan, throwing myself deeper into the mattress, my head hits my pink, girly pillow with a soft thud.
Guilt flashes across Jade’s face, and I instantly feel like a turd for putting that on her.
“It’s not your fault. I should’ve known the snow bunnies would be hitting the slopes. I just didn’t expect it from Shawn.” I sigh, waving my hand in her general direction. Though, really, she was the one who invited half of Jersey into my house.
“I’m sorry, Dahl. I should’ve said something. I didn’t even see you two talking. Where is he, anyway?”
“That’s a good question. I think one of the minions was called in to ‘deal’ with him. I don’t even want to know what that entails.” My gut swims with fear and nerves thinking about what Graham’s doing with him. Not because I care about Shawn, but I don’t want this coming back to bite Graham in the ass. Shawn’s father, Warren Montgomery, is the DA and has a lot of reach. Call me crazy, but I don’t think he will take the news that his son was beat up by a mobster well.
“So, uh…” Jade is picking at her nails, avoiding eye contact, and feigning nonchalance, horribly, I might add.
“What minion did you say step-hottie call, again?” I know what she’s getting at. She wants to know if he brought Carter in. Of course, I can’t make it easy for her.
“I didn’t,” I deadpan. Finally, she loses the act, and smacks me with one of the fifty-seven pointless decorative pillows on my bed.
“Goddammit, bitch, don’t make me spell it out for you. Do I get to see that sexy Irish hulk or what?” My grin feels like it’s splitting my throbbing lip open, but I can’t help it. It’s fun to get her all riled up.
“He actually told Graham that you creeped him out and he specifically requested that you stay away from him. Way to go, J.” She knows I’m joking so she rolls her eyes and tells me to fuck off.
“But really,” I say. “I’m pretty sure they won’t be back for a while. I don’t know what they’r
e up to, but I know that Graham always keeps business away from me…err…us. Away from us,” I correct myself.
Jade raises one perfectly arched brow at me, with a smug look on her face.
“What?!”
“Graham? He’s Graham now? Not Asshole or even stepdaddy dearest? Not only are you referring to him by his real name, but you seem to be worried about him. Anything you want to tell me?” She’s my best friend, of course I want to tell her. I don’t know why I haven’t. I guess I just liked having it be our little secret.
I take a deep breath, before blurting out, “I’m sleeping with my step-dad.”
Smooth, Dahl.
Her eyes practically bulge out of her skull, but she doesn’t say a word. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jade speechless. I tuck a few strands of my blonde hair behind my ear and huff in annoyance, like she’s making a big deal out of nothing, which is, of course, bullshit. This is huge and I kept it from her. Only Graham and I haven’t slept yet, so technically, I’m not 100 percent a crappy friend. Only, like 95 percent.
“Well, I mean, I haven’t slept with him yet,” I rush to continue, shrugging. “But I want to. And I will. Tonight.” And the verbal diarrhea just keeps on comin’.
She finally snaps out of her shock at that, shaking her head from side to side while squeezing her eyes shut. She holds one finger in the air for me to shut the fuck up and let her digest the new info.
“Ignoring the fact that this is the first I’ve heard about this thing between you and Don Draper over there, I fucking knew it, by the way, you want to have sex with him tonight? After what just happened?!”
I lick my lips, looking left and right, grabbing a stuffed teddy bear Graham bought me when we first moved in because he had no idea what girls this age are into, and hug it to my chest.
“I’m gonna be honest, J. The fucking apocalypse couldn’t keep me away from him at this point. Which brings me to my next point. You’re clam jamming me.”
Jade throws back her head and cackles.
Savage Savior (Savage People Book 3) Page 16
