by Marnie Perry
Then his mouth found hers again and this time his kiss was so violent that she tasted blood in her mouth. With one hand he held her hair tightly while with the other he pulled up her dress and began to run his rough hands up and down her thigh then tried to get between her legs but she tightened her upper thighs together. She could hardly breathe and her head was hurting. Through the roaring in her ears she could hear his friends yelling their encouragement. Her one thought was of Hennessey, where was he? He seemed to have been gone a long time. Maybe he had no intention of coming back for her. Maybe he had left her there to make her own way home because he was so angry with her.
Just when she thought she would throw up right then and there in the man’s mouth everything went suddenly silent. She thought she had gone deaf because she could no longer hear his friends shrieks and whoops. Suddenly his mouth left hers with a harsh sucking sound and she was free of him. She fell to her knees as her legs gave way, partly because he was no longer holding her up, but mostly because her legs would no longer support her. She shook her head to clear it and saw the most amazing sight she had ever seen in her life.
The man’s two friends were sprawled out on the floor, one was still and quiet the other writhing and moaning and holding his arm which was sticking out at an odd angle. The man who had been kissing her had blood pouring out of his nose and mouth and was raised up on his toes against the wall, Hennessey’s hands around his throat. The man’s face was turning blue as he tried to prize Hennessey’s hands from his neck, he was not succeeding. Adela blinked repeatedly as if waking from a strange dream and unsure where she was and what was happening.
She saw the man Hennessey held start to grow limp as his hands fell from Hennessey’s grip. She staggered to her feet and rushed towards them as fast as her shaky legs would allow. She gripped Hennessey’s arm and yelled, ‘let him go, for God’s sake, you’re killing him.’
He didn’t seem to hear her because his grip didn’t loosen. She pulled at his hands, ‘please let him go, just let go, Sterling, please.’
This time he turned his head to look at her and never had she seen eyes so dark, so cold, so frightening, it was as if he was somewhere else and there was nothing and no one there but he and the man whose throat he held in a death grip.
Adela looked into those black intense eyes and for a moment she thought he would do to her what he was doing to the man. But she kept her voice low and soft as she said, ‘Sterling, please, let him go.’
He looked at her for another moment as if he was suddenly aware of her and who she was. He looked back at the man whose face was now very blue. Hennessey’s grip slowly loosened and the man fell limply to the floor, unconscious.
Hennessey didn’t even look at him but stared at Adela who looked back, the shock and horror of what had just happened plain to see.
Suddenly, one of the men whom Hennessey had hit earlier and whose left arm was obviously broken, got to his feet and lunged towards them something metallic and shiny flashing in his hand. Hennessey pulled Adela behind him, and out of sheer habit and instinct reached behind his back for his gun, but before he could draw it the man was grabbed from behind by a pair of giant arms and thrown face first against the wall. Jaws had hold of the hand that held the knife and was twisting it behind the man’s back at a very painful angle so that he had no choice but to drop it, not if he didn’t want his other arm broken.
They watched as Jaws disarmed the man. Adela turned to Hennessey and to her relief the hand that Hennessey slowly brought forward was empty. Jaws turned the man around then to Adela’s horror punched him in the solar plexus so hard that all the man’s breath seemed to leave his body in a horrible whooshing sound. She turned away not being able to witness any more violence. Hennessey looked down at the man who had now joined his friends in oblivion.
Jaws bent down and felt the pulse of the other two men then came over to them looking very grave. He said, ‘they’ll live.’ Hennessey looked as if he didn’t care one way or the other. Jaws asked, ‘y’all all right?’
Hennessey didn't answer but turned to Adela who stood with her back to the them. He took her shoulders and she jumped. He turned her around and said very gently, ‘are you all right? Did they hurt you?’
Her arms across her body she shivered as she shook her head then wished she hadn’t, it felt like an explosion had just occurred in her brain.
Hennessey reached around and with gentle fingers felt through her hair until he found the bump on the back of her head. She winced and his jaw tightened. She raised her hand to her head and that’s when he noticed her torn dress and the scratches on her chest that had little droplets of blood in them. His eyes were like two forest fires as he looked at them then at her. He took off his jacket and gently put it around her shoulders pulling it around the front to cover her torn dress. He then took out his handkerchief and dabbed her lip. She took the hanky from him and pressed it against her mouth then looked at the blood on it.
Then she noticed something on the floor and started to bend down but Hennessey was there first. He picked up the corsage he had given to her which had fallen off in the struggle with the drunk. He handed it to her; she took it with a shaky hand.
Hennessey watched her for a moment then turned to look at Jaws and snapped, ‘where were you?’
Jaw’s head jerked back and his face grew dark but he said quite calmly, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Hennessey; I was seeing to some other guests. I didn’t see these men leave the dancehall. Besides I thought she would be quite safe waiting here for you,’ he looked down at the three men before adding, ‘we never had this happen before.’
Hennessey continued to glare at him until Adela said, ‘it’s not his fault, he can’t be everywhere.’
Hennessey looked at her pale face and swollen bleeding lip and looked as if he might carry the argument further, instead he sighed and said, ‘well, thanks for the assist.’
Jaws grinned and said, ‘oh that was my pleasure. Besides, Mr. Bentley expects the odd spat in his club but he draws the line at people actually being shot. He keeps a respectable place.’
‘If you don’t get these bastards out of my sight,’ Hennessey replied coldly, ‘Carson will lose that respectability he’s so fond of.’
Jaws nodded, ‘job done, Mr. Hennessey. And don’t worry about Mr. Bentley, he’s not here right now, I’ll have all of this,’ he waved his hand at the three men,’ tidied up before he returns.’
Hennessey nodded and Adela looking very concerned and scared said, ‘what do you mean, what are you going to do?
‘Don’t worry, ma’am,’ Jaws replied, ‘I just meant I’ll make sure they receive hospital treatment, and that they get the message that they’ve been very lucky tonight.’ His eyes darted to Hennessey and there was a wealth of meaning in that one quick glance. ‘But I’m sorry this happened, Miss. Faraday, very sorry. Nothing like this has ever happened before, well, not since Mr. Bentley took over, he would be most upset if he knew this had occurred, especially to his friend’s lady.’
Her teeth chattered even while a warm feeling spread through her veins at Jaws last comment. She managed to say, ‘it’s not his fault or indeed yours, you helped us, thank you for that.’
He continued to look at her then frowned as if trying to figure something out, then said, ‘goodnight then, goodnight, Mr. Hennessey.’
Adela said, ‘goodnight, Mr. Jaws,’ which despite everything made him smile.
Hennessey led her around the men stepping over the man he had tried to choke without a second glance and picked up her shawl and bag. He opened the door for her and they stepped out into the rain which neither of them seemed to notice.
Hennessey held her shawl over her head as he guided her to the car; he opened the passenger door and helped her inside, put her bag on the floor at her feet then closed the door and hurried around to the driver’s side. Once seated he fastened her seatbelt and his own then started the engine. He turned to her and noticed that she was shivering and he
r teeth were still chattering. He turned on the heater, took off his jacket then pulled away from the kerb and began the journey back to Eden.
‘I’ll take you to the doctor in Eden; you need to get that bump on your head and those scratches seen to.’
But he was taken aback when she made no comment on this but instead said very quietly, ‘you were going to shoot that man.’
He looked quickly at her then back at the road before saying, ‘he had a knife.’
‘You had a gun.’
‘So he would have lost.’
She turned to him; his jaw was rigid and his face cold and hard again. She said, ‘Jaws managed to subdue him without a weapon.’
This time when he looked at her his eyes were very dark and very black. Without even looking he swung the car off the road and brought it to a stop. He turned to face her although she refused to look at him but sat still and rigid staring straight ahead. ‘Jaws had the element of surprise. I reacted to a threat. That guy had a knife I had a gun, and the guy with the knife always loses. That’s the law of the jungle.’
She did look at him now, ‘that wasn’t a jungle, it was a night club and that man was drunk that’s all.’
He stared at her and the heat in his eyes suddenly dimmed to be replaced by ice, his voice was low and almost menacing as he said, ‘you should have told me this back at the club, I would have tapped the guy on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me for interrupting but the lady’s ride is here.” He taunted.
She looked away from his hard, cold eyes but he took her chin in a tight grip and turned her roughly back to him, ‘you should have told me he wasn’t a threat, that he wasn’t hurting you but was just “drunk that’s all.” Oh wait, you couldn’t, your voice was rendered useless by his tongue down your throat.’
He saw her flinch and the pain cross her face at the memory of that man’s assault. Tears gathered in her eyes before she knocked his hand away and turned to open the door intending to get away from him and his anger and his sneering words. She had the door open and was trying to get out but was unaware that he had fastened her seatbelt for her because she struggled to get free without even trying to unfasten it.
He reached over and gripped her shoulders, she slapped his hands away but he kept a firm hold on them and turned her around. She pushed at his chest with both hands but like the man back at the club he was immovable. He drew her to him and held onto her even while she pushed and hit at him. Then suddenly she went limp in his arms and her cheek came to rest on his chest. He tightened his hold on her as the tears came adding to the water already soaking his shirt. He held her as she wept until the sobs turned to gulps then to hiccups. Her face still lying against his chest and between gasps she said, I’m sorry, so sorry. I didn’t mean it, I’m sorry.’
He whispered, ‘hush, hush, it’s okay.’
He continued to whisper comforting, reassuring words until the sobs began to subside. They were both silent for a few minutes her head still resting on his chest and his hand stroking her hair, which thanks to the drunken man had come loose and lay in long damp folds down her back, in his mind Hennessey likened it to a waterfall. He reached a hand across her and closed the car door as quietly as he could but still she jumped. He picked up his jacket from the floor where it had fallen in her haste to get out of the car and put it around her shoulders. He was about to say they had better get back before she caught pneumonia, before they both did, when she suddenly said, ‘you’re very wet.’
He was surprised by her comment but smiled, ‘not surprising since I’ve been rained and cried on.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘I was kidding.’
‘No, not for that, well, yes, for that, for crying on you and because you got wet so I wouldn’t.’
He realised that she was talking about mundane things so as not to think about what had just happened. He said, ‘in retrospect, that was a bad idea, I should have let you get wet too.’
She gave a muffled chuckle against his chest but then he felt her mouth turn down as she said, ‘but mostly I’m sorry for what I said to you, but it was just so awful and I was so scared. I thought you weren’t coming back for me.’
She felt his Adams apple move up and down before he answered, ‘why the fu…why did you think I wouldn’t come back for you?’
‘Because…because you were so angry when you left, I’d upset you in some way.’
He took her shoulders and moved her away from him so that he could see her face. ‘I said I would be back didn’t I? That’s something you should know about me, I never renege on a promise.’
She didn’t look at him but kept her eyes on the place her head had just rested, his chest. She of course had no idea just how important to her and her future his last sentence was.
He said, ‘but I’m sorry I said that about that guy kissing you, I was out of line. And I’m sorry I snapped at you when you offered to pay.’
She looked up at him now and he could see the tears still swimming in her eyes which were red and swollen. Her voice was low and ragged as she asked, ‘why were you angry?’
Hennessey looked into her eyes then gently cupped her face with his hands, wiping the remaining tears from her cheeks with his thumbs as he had on the beach at Gulfport. His voice was low and husky as he said, ‘if you were any other woman I would ask, don’t you know why? But you’re not any other woman, you’re innocent and guileless and uninitiated in the games that members of the opposite sex play with each other, unnecessary games sometimes. I forgot that for a while back there, or I let myself forget. I got carried away in the moment.’
She stared back at him, indeed she could do little else, his eyes kept hers fixed on his like two violet magnets.
She stammered, ‘I…I don’t understand.’
He smiled gently and his voice was just as gentle as he said, ‘I know you don’t.’
She frowned nonplussed and he sighed, ‘look, I was angry, but not at you,’ he stroked her cheek again sending shivers down her body all the way to her toes, ‘never at you, I was angry with myself for letting myself lose control, for wanting you, for…desiring you.’
‘D…desiring me.’
‘Yes. Look, I’m a man, a normal red blooded male with normal male appetites. I’m not going to lie to you, I was turned on. I’ve wanted you since the first moment we met when you took on that big guy all by yourself. The way you stood up to him and for that waitress, boy that was quite a turn on and I’ve wanted you every moment of every hour we’ve spent together since. Being that close to you tonight, I just wanted to take your hand and drag you out of that place, throw you into my car and burn rubber all the way to my hotel and into my bed. But I knew I couldn’t do that to you, it wouldn’t be fair, I’d just be doing what I accused Maxwell of, that being getting you into bed then saying adiós. You deserve more than that, Adela Faraday, much more.’
Adela was so astonished, so utterly astounded by his confession that she couldn’t speak. His voice became slightly harder now as he said, ‘that’s why I was angry, not with you, but with myself for letting my fantasies get the better of me, for acting like a high school kid on his first date, hardly able to control my ardour. I should know better.’
He removed his hands from her face and took her cold, shaky ones in his then kissed her fingers one by one, Adela thought she would die from pleasure. She waited in case he had not yet finished speaking. But what else was there to say, what more could he add that was as amazing and beautiful as what he had already said. But he said nothing further only turned to switch on the engine again.
She didn’t try to stop him nor did she speak but sat looking at him in complete bewilderment. Without looking at her again he said, 'best put on your seatbelt.' Then he pulled back onto the road. She didn’t know how she managed to fasten the seatbelt her hands were shaking so badly.
Never had she felt this way, never had she felt so inadequate, so out of her depth, so frightened and yet so exhilarated. But then nev
er had a man said such things to her as this man sitting next to her had tonight, and probably never would again. He had wanted her at their first meeting in the diner and all those other times they had been together, in the woods, in the bar and the restaurant. On Ship Island and tonight whilst they’d danced.
Oh it was not real, it could not be true, he was lying or trying to comfort her after what that drunk had done, he was just trying to make her feel better, yes, that was it, it must be. And yet, he had not had to say it, he could have just said he was turned on and frustrated and left it at that, he hadn’t had to say those things, that he wanted her, that he desired her.
As for Hennessey his mind was a whirl, he had scored heavily tonight, he had reached the pinnacle, well, almost. That she had not responded verbally to his confession of ardour or to his flattery did not concern him; on the contrary he was encouraged by it. If she’d been repulsed or outraged, (not that he thought for one moment that she would be), she would have expressed it in no uncertain terms. Shy she might be, shy she might be, but she was a fighter and did not let people get away with being obnoxious. But her silence was more eloquent that any amount of words, as was the expression in her eyes. He would have to be a child or blind to have missed the fascination and desire in those expressive eyes of hers.
She wanted him, was hungry for him, but he was not stupid, she had just been through a frightening ordeal and he had added to that ordeal by being angry when he had left her, causing her to believe that she had been left alone to deal with those guys.
The truth was he had intended to act angry with her, it was all part of his plan, he had intended to apologise either on the drive home or when they arrived back at her cabin, and then explain just as he had. But instead what he had felt had been genuine, he had been angry yes, at himself for getting carried away in the moment, and that’s all it was, a moment, when he had forgotten who she was and why they were both there.
