by Lynne Silver
“You didn’t tell him,” she said, mostly reiterating the information for her own benefit. “He didn’t know I was in the hospital, and I didn’t know he had surgery.” Her brain struggled to understand what had happened. Something wasn’t passing her sniff test. “If Drew was cheating on me, how was he also having surgery?”
And the bigger question, why did Javier, a man who beat up her date just for trying to kiss her, simply walk away from the situation? She needed answers.
His arm tightened around her waist. “Stop getting hot and bothered about him, amor. He’s not worth your worries.”
She shook off his arm. “Stop calling me amor. I’m not your love.”
Drew pushed Ian’s arm off. “Stop helping me. I’m fucking fine. Go help my mother.” Except Ian had already had his mother through the entrance of her bedroom and settled onto her bed. Ian had picked him and his mother up at the airport where they’d flown in after their week of convalescing in Baltimore. Brodie was barking and generally losing his canine mind at being home after a week in the doggie daycare and at being with his beloved Drew again.
Drew had spent the entire week recuperating in the Baltimore hotel room, watching movies and reading six books. Olivia hadn’t texted or called him once, and he’d refused to contact her. He’d done nothing wrong, and if she were going to throw a hissy fit over nothing, he didn’t have the energy or desire to be her man.
“Want dinner?” Ian asked. “Water? Cat should be here soon with food.”
“A drink would be great.” He lowered himself onto the couch, almost embarrassed by how wiped he was from a simple two-and-a-half-hour flight and trek through terminal C at MIA.
There was a knock on the door, and both he and Ian turned toward it. “That’ll be Cat,” Ian said. “Go sit.”
Drew was tempted to stand simply to be ornery, but his body wasn’t going to hold up much longer. He needed bed, but his body was wide awake when he saw it wasn’t Cat at the door.
Olivia stood in the doorway looking more gorgeous than ever, but wielding a hammer to his heart.
Ian, who knew the gist of the story, scowled at her. “This isn’t a good time.”
Brodie disagreed, and jumped all over before lying on his back and showing her his snipped goods.
“Brodie, come.” His voice was harsher than necessary and his dog obeyed, but hung his head.
He managed to meet Olivia’s eye and hold his gaze steady when he didn’t feel up to it. Tomorrow after a good sleep, he’d be ready to confront the woman he’d thought he was falling in love with.
“How’re you feeling?” she asked.
“Why are you whispering?” he demanded.
“We need to talk,” she said, coming forward and sitting next to him on the couch.
“The hell we do. I have nothing to say to you except goodbye.”
She visibly winced. “Drew, please. I think there’s been a huge misunderstanding.” Her voice was hoarse and not her usual tone.
“You’re saying I misunderstood your texts telling me to fuck off?” Off in the kitchen, he could see Ian doing his best to pretend not to be hanging on every word.
Her eyes widened and now that she was closer, he could see that there were faint purple circles of bruises on her throat. “What happened to you?” he asked.
“I’ll get to that. First, go back to the part where you think I told you to fuck off.”
He pulled his phone from his pocket. “I might’ve been under anesthesia, but I didn’t hallucinate this.” He held up the screen and watched her read the thread of conversation from the past week.
She slowly shook her head and grabbed at the phone.
He pulled it back. “Don’t delete those. I want to remember this, so the next time I’m tempted to fall in love and commit to a woman, I won’t make the same mistake.”
“Drew,” she whispered. “You have to believe me. This wasn’t me. I didn’t send these. I can prove it.”
“Yeah?” He tamped it down, pretending that the little nugget of hope hadn’t leaped into his brain.
“I’m whispering and hoarse because I was in the hospital,” she said.
“Convenient,” he said. “You work in a hospital.”
She nodded. “Which is where I got attacked.”
He froze. “Attacked?” He glanced at Ian, suddenly wanting him gone, though Olivia kept speaking, giving him no chance to get her alone.
“A patient in the hospital was drunk, and we thought sedated, but he woke up long enough to wrap a cord around my neck. He did a fair amount of damage. I was sedated in the hospital for nearly three days. I didn’t even have my phone.” She stilled. “Javier,” she whispered, almost more to herself.
Before he could question that, there was another banging at his front door, and this time it was Cat, holding bags of Chinese takeout; all her attention on Olivia. “You’re here,” she said. “Good, this’ll make things easier.”
“Make what easier?” Ian asked, kissing his wife while relieving her of the takeout bags.
“Something you said today didn’t sit right,” Cat explained. She came closer and sat on the floor with her legs crossed in front of the coffee table.
“You saw each other today?” Drew asked Olivia.
“Yes, we ran into each other in South Miami,” she said, but her attention was on Cat.
Cat turned her gaze to him. “That night you got drunk…”
“I’ve already said I don’t remember much about that night. I don’t fucking remember.” He rubbed his tired eyes. “I felt like shit. Like I was drugged.” He sat straighter and looked up. “Is that what you think happened? I was drugged.”
Ian, who’d come over to kneel behind Cat, gave him a doubting look. “You think Carlos drugged you?”
He sank back into his seat. “Good point.” He trusted Carlos. His friend would never do that.
“What if it wasn’t Carlos?”
Drew and Ian’s necks swiveled as they turned to stare at Cat who’d asked the question.
“Who else could’ve done it?” Ian demanded.
She shrugged. “Check the tapes. Did Carlos pour all your drinks?”
“Amber,” Drew said, remembering. “She poured my second shot. She seems to hate me, but do we really think she…?”
“Only one way to find out.”
“Backpack,” Drew ordered, reaching out to the black backpack leaning up against the coffee table leg.
Olivia reached down and handed it to him, and he noted she winced at the movement. They’d have to get back to her ordeal, but first… He pulled out his laptop, booted it up and logged into the web-based security system. “How long do we store feeds?” he asked.
“Sixty days,” Ian said.
It was the work of seconds to find the file of the night he’d gotten drunk—or drugged—and scroll to the time he remembered starting to drink.
Everyone gathered around him, peering into the screen, and…nothing.
The video jumped from point to point. It wasn’t like watching a high def movie. They were able to see Carlos and Amber behind the bar and Drew at a stool. Amber turned her back to Drew when she went to pour the shot, and they got nothing.
“If she dropped something in your drink, it would’ve been then,” Ian said.
“Yeah,” Drew agreed. “Damn it.” He wanted to punch something. “Why the hell didn’t I go to the police and get tested for a drug the morning after? I knew it wasn’t a normal hangover.”
“Because you were about to get on a plane to donate your kidney,” Cat said sympathetically. She brightened. “Hey, do you think they checked you for anything in all the pre-surgical checks?”
“If they didn’t say something, it didn’t show up,” Olivia said. “So, maybe it was Amber who slipped something into your drink, but I think I know who put her up to it.”
“Who?” Cat asked.
“Javier,” she said. “That guy I was with today.”
“Why would he drug D
rew?” Cat asked.
“He’s not even in the club,” Ian pointed out.
“Fast forward,” Olivia ordered. “I think he shows up later.”
Drew switched to the camera recording from the entrance of the club and moved the feed forward.
“There.” Olivia’s index finger touched the screen. “Keep watching.”
It took switching camera angles and a bit of maneuvering, but they finally saw what Olivia had known to look for. About an hour after Amber had poured Drew a shot, Javier was seen at the fringe of the dance floor recording something with his phone.
“He showed me that video,” Olivia said. “The night I got home from the hospital. He showed it to me to make me think you’d cheated.”
“But I didn’t. At least I don’t think I did.” He turned and gently grasped her hand. “Baby, I don’t know what happened that night. Maybe I did do something with that woman. I don’t know.”
He wanted to vomit, because he’d been violated. He had no evidence he’d been raped, but not knowing was almost worse than knowing. Jesus, fuck, how did women deal with this? How did they get out of bed every day knowing that they were potentially at the mercy of an asshole who might violate them? When he got back to work, not one Goddamn woman at his club was leaving the building until she verbally told a bouncer she was leaving of her own free will.
Olivia gave his hand a return squeeze, and it was the best fucking feeling in the world. “I’m sorry.” Tears made her eyes shiny. “I hate that this happened to you. May I please see your phone again? I promise not to delete anything.”
Without a word, he handed it over and watched as she scrolled. Her lips got tighter as she read. “It’s what I suspected,” she said, and handed him back his phone.
“What was?”
She pulled out her own phone and handed it to him. “Javier had my phone nearly the whole time I was in the hospital. He was the one texting you and telling you awful things. Now I think he was the one who had Amber drug the drink at your club. Why would he do such an awful thing?”
“Because he wants you,” Drew said. If he weren’t recuperating from surgery, he’d already be in his truck on his way to Javier’s house.
“That’s insane,” Olivia protested. “I’ve known him my whole life. If he’d wanted me, he had every opportunity to ask me out. He didn’t have to stoop to something illegal.”
“You weren’t dating before,” Drew said. “He thought he had all the time in the world to fool around but knew you’d be waiting when he was ready. You dating me must’ve set him off. Especially when you told your brother you really like me in front of him.”
Olivia looked thoughtful. “When did I do that? Oh, but that was in…You speak Spanish? Don’t you?”
He nodded.
She rolled her eyes. “Any other big secrets you’re hiding from me?”
“No.”
“You need to rest,” Cat said suddenly. “Ian and I are going home.”
“Tomorrow we’ll swing by with James, our lawyer, and figure out what to do,” Ian said.
Cat and Ian rose, and she came around to give Drew and Olivia a hug goodbye. “Take care of him,” she whispered in Olivia’s ear, loudly enough that Drew heard.
Then it was only him, Olivia and Brodie in the apartment as it had been for dozens of times, with his mom sleeping in the other room.
Now that they were finally alone, he needed her in his arms and scooted closer to make it happen. Gently, he grazed the bruises on her neck with his lips. Cold air touched the skin of his lower stomach as she lifted his shirt to see his newly acquired scars. He sucked back a breath, and she instantly pulled back.
“Did that hurt?”
“No, but I didn’t think I’d ever have your hands on me again. Little overwhelmed here.” Her expression visibly softened.
“I thought I lost you, too. I was so angry, and now I’m angry with myself.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t believe in you. I let my brain jump to the wrong conclusion, and I didn’t trust you.”
“Hell, we just watched the video of what went down on the dance floor between me and that girl. I’m not sure I believe me after seeing it.” He shook his head, scared and shaken at how close he’d come to losing her. He still wasn’t sure he had her back. “Do you need to go home?” he asked. He needed her here longer so they could work things out.
She nodded at the same time as saying, “No.”
“Huh?”
“I mean, yes, I should go home. My parents will worry, but no, I’m not going home. If it’s all right with you, I’d like to stay here.”
A huge sense of relief washed through him. All the anger and the confusion from the last week melted away. They’d been victims of someone trying to tear them apart, and he’d be damned if he’d let Javier win. “Hell yes, I want you here. But I may not be much fun. I need to sleep, but first I want to shower all the airplane germs off me. I’ll need your help,” he said.
She looked up giving him a questioning look, which he returned with a pointed look of his own. She was fun to tease.
“Oh,” she said, and he loved seeing her cheeks flush when she finally understood where he was going with this.
“I’d hate to fall in shower,” he said. “I feel a little weak.”
She rolled her eyes, and he laughed, but he hoped she was feeling cooperative since it had been more than two weeks since they’d made love for the first time at his childhood home in Titusville. It felt like years. “I’ll go get the water hot.”
She texted her parents to let them know that she wasn’t coming home tonight, then skipped off through his bedroom to the bathroom. Drew was already naked and wet under the shower.
“You’re late,” he said. “You’ve already missed all the good stuff.” But he looked pale to her eye and he was using one hand to hold himself upright.
She laughed. “Looks like I’m right in time. Sit down before you fall down.” She reached in to turn the water from a shower to a bath. She knew he was feeling weak when he didn’t protest and instead sank to the tub floor.
“Come in with me. I might drown otherwise.” Exhausted he might be, but his penis, which had been soft when she walked in, was showing all kinds of signs of life. She tore off her clothes and stepped over the ledge into the water with him.
It was another lesson in intimacy. She’d always imagined bathing together would end with her spine against the tile wall and a man holding her up effortlessly as he pounded away.
Squeezing two naked bodies in a tight tub was not the porn fantasy she’d imagined. It was real and honest. Their skin rolled in places that were normally taut when standing. Their wet bodies made funny squelching sounds with every shift.
She liked the reality even better than the fantasy. She started out kneeling and facing him, because she wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to pass out on her. He reassured her when he sat forward and kissed her bruised neck and then leaned down to kiss her nipples. But then she noticed him wincing and she pushed him gently by the chest. “Sit back. You’re in pain.”
“It’s fine,” he said, but he obeyed her orders and sat back.
She eyed his erection and decided to put her long dormant skill to use. She grasped his erection in her hand, and he groaned. He cursed in a really good way when she leaned forward and took him in her mouth.
Unfortunately after a few seconds, she had to admit defeat and sit up. She touched her tender throat column. “Not happening tonight. I’m so sorry.”
He grabbed her shoulders and gently turned her so her back was to his chest. His erection prodded her rear. “We’re a pair tonight, huh?” She laughed, and he responded with a kiss to the side of her neck.
“That’s how I know this thing is real,” he said. “Because we’re both a mess, and I’m still going to find a way to bring us both pleasure. I can be me in front of you, Olivia. I’m not fronting and pretending not to be in pain.”
“And I�
��m not naked in the tub with you because I think it’ll make you like me more. I’m in here because I love being naked with you.”
He trailed water over her exposed breasts and belly, and she gasped.
“I wouldn’t be too sure about this not making me like you more. I foresee a long future of me liking it more every time we get naked.”
She started to chuckle, but then his hand stopped trailing water and found a much more interesting spot to play between her thighs. The back of her head rested against his chest and she spread her legs, giving him better access.
“That’s it, baby. You’re getting wet and slippery for me. I can feel it, even in the water.”
His dirty words aroused her intensely, and she shifted against him, purposely letting his cock rub against the fleshy curves of her rear. She lost his fingers where she needed them for a second and looked around wondering why he was torturing her.
“Switching hands, babe. Need my right one.” The fingers from his left hand settled where his right had been, and she tensed in a good way as he brought her pleasure once more. Her feel-goods doubled because she felt his right hand, the one that had been between her lips, was now wrapped around his erection. He was taking care of both of them at once.
“I feel selfish,” she murmured, leaning back into him, feeling like a queen. “I should help.”
“You want to help?” His voice was a guttural growl. “Grab your tits. Play with your nipples. I want to watch.”
Her hands shot up to cup both her breasts, letting her thumbs graze over her nipples.
“Jesus, that’s hot,” he murmured in her ear. “You like that?”
She nodded.
“Tell me. What does it feel like?”
Words failed her. She wanted to give him the dirty talk that seemed to fall off his lips naturally, but she had no experience in open, honest adult sex.
“Tell me,” he ordered. “Or I stop.” His fingers between her legs stilled, and two of his fingers deliberately squeezed her clitoris gently, but doing no more than the gentle, still squeeze.
The threat was real. He was making her desperate, and she was close to coming.
