Underestimated

by Jettie Woodruff

  Dawson walked me backwards toward his bedroom, never letting the contact of our lips break. He had my long flowing sundress around my hips and was thumbing off my panties. I didn’t take any of my clothes off except for the panties. He backed me up until the bed stopped me and I pulled myself back with my elbows. After he pulled my shirt above my breasts, I watched him hastily undress himself. He raised my knees and kissed my stomach while his hands caressed the satin on my bra. I wasn’t used to that either. Drew just demanded that I spread my legs, and I did it. Dawson moved down and kissed me on the inside of my right thigh.

  I thought I was going to come off the bed when he slid his finger into me. These were all new and foreign feelings for me. I didn’t know it could be this way. My emotions were instantly halted when I felt his tongue next. It scared me at first, but he sensed it and softly laid his hand on my stomach forcing me to stay with him, promptly bringing me back to him and not Drew.

  Never in my life had I felt anything like that. I came. I came hard and called out in loud, totally unbelievable agony. I hadn’t had time to regain my composure when Dawson came to me. He kissed me, another first. I never dreamed that tasting myself on his lips could have been so sensual. He rolled me over, and I took over the driving. My long skirt covered us, and he kept his hands under it, caressing and pulling my hips to him. My hands ran up his sexy as hell chest. I loved the hair on his chest. Drew had a bare chest, not that I ever touched it or anything.

  I came twice. The second time wasn’t as intense as when he had brought me there with his mouth, but none the less, I did, and it was incredible. Dawson was right there with me and rolled me over. He frantically took me sending us both over the edge.

  We both kind of laughed at our hungriness for each other.

  “Damn, I love you,” he said, kissing my lips.

  I was glad that Dawson loved me. I loved him, and couldn’t imagine not having him in my life.

  Chapter 9

  I was doing well, and I was so proud of myself. I slept every night in Dawson's arms, and my nightmares were becoming a thing of the past. My thoughts of Drew grew few and far between. I did it. I was happy in my small town practically living with my sheriff. I loved calling him my sheriff. I think he secretly liked it too, although he did tell me more than once that he had a name. It was usually followed by a kiss though.

  The shop couldn’t have been doing better. There was no such thing as a slow day anymore. I did however, have to keep on Starlight some. Her lack of organization and my OCD sometimes clashed, but it was all out of fun.

  I turned twenty six on October 2nd, well not really, Riley turned twenty six on October 2nd. Morgan had turned twenty six in June. I had never been so happy in my life. It was almost surreal. I had run away from Morgan Willow, leaving her in the hills of West Virginia, and Morgan Kelley was dead in Las Vegas. I never wanted either Morgan back. I loved being Riley Murphy.

  I thought that Dawson was taking me out for my birthday. I showered and was ready to go when he picked me up at my house. I had on a new pair of jeans that fit me well, and a new flowing embroidered Kurta that I had ordered from one of the hippy catalogues. It was white with a brown embroidered Indian design around the sleeves and waist. I wore brown leather dingo boots with my jeans tucked inside. I looked cute. The mirror behind my door said so.

  “Happy birthday. I don’t want to take you out anymore,” Dawson decided, kissing me.

  He had told me happy birthday at least ten times already, not counting the multiple texts that I had received throughout the day. I loved his compliments. I didn’t always love them, and it took some getting used to, but I finally learned to accept them with a smile.

  “Feed me and I may let you spend the night,” I teased.

  I read the text from Starlight just as we pulled out of my drive.

  “Star wants to know if you will stop and hang some kind of hooks for her,” I said, looking to Dawson.

  “I guess we have time,” he replied.

  We parked on the front street, and he held my hand as we went inside.

  I should have known something was up. Star never said anything about any hooks before.

  He held the door for me, and the whole place was decorated with balloons and banners.

  Lauren, Levi, Matt, Star and several of our regulars were there. I couldn’t believe it. I almost cried. I was twenty six and was having my first birthday party…ever.

  “You guys,” was all that I could think of to say. I was in shock.

  Starlight handed me a blue drink on ice with a cute little umbrella.

  “What is it?” I asked, eyeing the neon blue drink.

  “Sex in the driveway,” Lauren was the one to say with a smile.

  Dawson and I exchanged a private glance, both thinking the same thing. A couple of months back we had gone out with Lauren and Joel to celebrate her birthday. We never made it inside and jumped in the backseat and had sex. We woke up just after daylight, both still naked. The paper boy had come and left the paper on the door. Needless to say, he had to walk right past the car to leave the paper.

  We ate pizza and drank the sex in the driveway drinks.

  I couldn’t believe the presents. I had never gotten presents like this for my birthday. I did usually get one gift. When I was real little it would be like a Slinky or one of those plastic Barbie’s that seemed to always get their faced smashed in, and you could never push it back out. I would get cheap Jewelry when I was older. I never got a birthday present from Drew. Hell, he probably didn’t even know when my birthday was. Rebecca always got me something though. It too was usually earrings or a bracelet of some sort.

  Even the patrons bought me gifts. They were nothing extravagant. I got the cutest little key chain from my beach friend, John. It was a piece of sea glass. He explained that it meant happiness. I was very happy. Lauren bought me a Miranda Lambert CD. I opened all of my gifts and Dawson had saved his for last. When I turned to see where he was, he knelt on one knee in front of me.

  Oh, God…

  I didn’t freak the way I would have expected myself to. I could only feel how much I was loved, and was beyond grateful for my friends and of course Dawson.

  He smiled and opened the black velvet box.

  “Will you marry me, Riley?” he asked.

  “Of course I will marry you,” I smiled. I didn’t need to think about it. I knew what I wanted. I wanted my sheriff.

  He slipped the diamond on my finger and kissed me while my friends hooted and hollered.

  I was well on my way to being drunk from the blue drink that I had been consuming for the past three hours by the time we left.

  Dawson stayed at my house, and it was the best night of my life. I couldn’t believe that I was going to become Mrs. Dawson Bade. We were planning a May 1st wedding, and I wanted it all. I never had the church wedding, the white gown or anyone that cared about me at my last wedding. I didn’t want anything lavish or anything, just a small church wedding with my friends.

  Dawson made slow passionate love to me that night, and I don’t think I could have been happier had my life depended on it. I’m not sure if it was because of all of the excitement, the fact that I was going to marry Dawson or the ring that I proudly wore on my finger, but I did dream that night. It was bad.

  It was the third time that Drew had given me my wedding set back. We were meeting some very prominent clients for dinner at a fancy high-rise restaurant. He coached me to keep my mouth shut and to only speak if he spoke, he would answer any questions directed toward me.

  I was almost sick from the affection that he was showing me. He held my hand, kissed me several times and called me baby. He never called me baby unless it was when he was close to coming. He made sure that he kept my hand in his on the table, showing off my thirty five thousand dollar wedding set, I was sure. He was trying to get his prospects to be envious of my expensive set, or at least her anyway.

  After a couple of drinks, I needed to go to th
e bathroom. I didn’t dare just excuse myself without asking first. I almost puked when I leaned into Drew and whispered in his ear. He nodded and smiled the fakest smile I had ever seen.

  “I love you too, sweetheart,” he said with the nod, giving me permission.

  “Excuse me,” I politely spoke, laying my fancy cloth napkin on the table.

  “Oh, I’ll go with you,” the beautiful diamond ring prospect announced.

  My eyes instantly looked to Drew. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit.

  I tried to get back to the table as quickly as possible, but Ms. Chatter box wanted to talk, and thought that she needed my opinion on which of the three engagement rings I liked best. Of course, I said the most expensive one, talking it up like nothing else.

  We were gone for at least ten minutes. Our entrees were being placed around the table.

  Drew was livid. It was written all over his face. His clinched jaw may not have been noticeable to his guests, but it was exceedingly obvious to me. The young lady did end up picking the one that I had suggested. I was sure that Drew wouldn’t want to hear about how I talked it up though.

  As soon as we were in the back seat of the limousine he practically ripped the rings from my finger.

  “What the fuck did you tell her?” he asked.

  “I didn’t tell her anything, Drew. She was only asking my advice about the rings. I swear. I never said anything that I shouldn’t have.”

  He ran his hands through his hair, angrily. I was scared. I knew he was mad, and I knew that I was going to be the one that he took it out on. I just wasn’t sure how.

  He grabbed me by my hair and threw me over his lap. I didn’t have to worry about the panties. I was no longer allowed to wear them when he was home. He raised my party dress and cracked me on the ass more times than he ever had. He didn’t even rub the sting out between the blows. All I could think about was whether or not Derik could hear what was going on from the driver’s seat of the limo, not that he didn’t know what was going on. He had to know. He was around almost as much as Rebecca. I didn’t cry. I had stopped that a long time ago. It didn’t do any good anyway. Drew had no compassion.

  Drew kept me bare assed over his lap the whole ride home, even after he thought I had enough of his assault on my ass. Once Derik parked the car back in the extravagant garage Drew threw me off of him.

  “Don’t move!” he demanded, getting out.

  I didn’t. I was too scared to move. I heard him tell Derik to keep me out there until he cooled off and called him.

  I had never spoken to Derik before. I couldn’t believe that Drew was going to leave me with him. Wasn’t he afraid that I would talk? Of course not, I was sure that Derik knew more than anyone, he was there when he forced my signature on his stupid marriage license. He probably knew more than I did. Maybe I could talk to Derik. Maybe he would help me get out of here. I stopped that notion very quickly. I wasn’t getting out of there. That was my life, and I wouldn’t take the chance of Derik telling him that I tried to get him to help me.

  I didn’t even need to be thinking about that. It wasn’t at all what Derik had planned. He opened the back door and sat across from me. I didn’t like the smirk on his face, and I was all of a sudden afraid of him. I had reason.

  He pulled my knees apart and raised my dress more. I swiftly put my knees back together, only to have them forced apart again.

  “What are you doing? Drew is going to see you through the cameras,” I pleaded. I wondered then if I was afraid of Derik or of Drew. He would make this my fault. He always did.

  “There are no cameras in this car or this garage. I have waited for this opportunity for almost two years,” he said as he slid to his knees in front of me. I wanted to object, but how could I? He had more power over me than I had over myself. If I screamed, Drew might come out. I didn’t want that either.

  He moved his fingers into me and all I could do was stare out the dark window while he rapidly and vehemently thrashed his middle and forefinger in and out of me. I didn’t get aroused. I didn’t want to come. I was too terrified to even think about it. Not of him as much as Drew. I just knew he was going to sling the door open at any second.

  Derik must have been worried too. He was in a hurry, and it showed. He took himself out and moved into me with a hiss. Now I was freaked out. Drew would know. I was sure of it. He didn’t speak, and only made sexual grunting and moaning noises. He had one thing on his mind, and that was getting off. In me!

  Or not.

  “I’m going to pull out, and you are going to swallow me. I don’t want to leave any evidence for Drew. Do you understand?”

  Fuck no…

  He grabbed my hair and pulled when I didn’t answer. “Do you understand me?” he asked again, and I tried to nod.

  He pumped faster and harder, and I knew that he was getting ready to come. He stood as much as he could. I wouldn’t open my mouth and turned my head. It didn’t work. He grabbed my head forced his dick into my mouth, pumping just as rapidly there.

  “Oh, yeah fuck,” he moaned as he invaded my mouth just before he spewed out. I was happy that he didn’t do it like Drew did and make sure that I had to taste him. I was able to swallow all of him without any dripping out of my mouth.

  He kissed my lips. The bastard had the nerve to kiss me.

  He put himself away and got out of the car without one word. I supposed he didn’t need to say a word. He knew that I would never mention it. I sat in the car waiting and anticipating what Drew had in store for me next, for over an hour.

  When I was finally escorted back into the house, I never saw Drew. I went to my suite and bathed away his idiotic sidekick. Drew came in and sat on the toilet while I bathed. He didn’t speak, and only sat there glaring at me. I got out of the tub, mostly to get the rest of the night started so that it would be over. He hit me right across the same cheek bone that he always seemed to aim for. When I stood back up, he did it again.

  “Riley!” I heard Dawson calling my name over and over.

  I jumped and covered my face to stop the next blow.

  “You’re okay. I’m right here, baby,” he said, trying to soothe me back to reality.

  “Dawson?” I wept, needing to make sure that I was with him.

  “Shhhh, I’ve got you, Ry,” he said, trying to calm me.

  “I didn’t tell her anything. I swear.”

  Dawson sat up and turned the lamp on, trying to get me coherent enough to realize that I was safe with him.

  I crawled into his arms, and he embraced me. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why he wanted me. Would it always be this way? Would I always be the broken one?

  “Tell me about your dream,” he requested, holding me tight and placing soft kisses to my forehead.

  “It wasn’t a dream. It was a nightmare.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “I did. I told him every last detail, and then some. I never got to finish my dream before Dawson woke me up. I told him about how after he dragged me from the bathroom he made me squat on a rather large dildo that he had lubed up for me. I wasn’t allowed to sit on it. I had to hold myself up while he sat on the bed and watched. When my legs finally gave out, and I plopped to the bed he removed the foreign object and replaced it with himself.

  Once he was spent he picked up the phone and called Rebecca. It was almost two in the morning. I couldn’t believe that he expected her to be at his beck and call whenever he wanted her.

  “Morgan’s going to need an icepack,” he said, but I wasn’t sure why he cared about my black eye. He didn’t care when he was giving it to me.

  I started to get under the blankets to cover myself before she came in.

  “Did I tell you to move?” he asked. I froze.

  “Lay down,” he demanded.

  I lay down and crossed my ankles.

  “Spread your legs. You want to humiliate me? I’ll show you humiliation.”

  I was mortified, enough
so that a tear did escape from the corner of my right eye when I heard the tap on the door. I lay there spread eagle while Rebecca brought me the icepack. She only looked at my face and smiled a warm smile as she placed it on my eye. I flinched from the pain.

  “Riley. Please tell me that was only a nightmare and didn’t really happen,” Dawson begged, but he knew. Now he not only wanted to kill Drew he added Derik to his hit list too.

  “It did happen, Dawson, and so much more. I am never going to be whole.”

  “What is his last name?”

  “You know that I’m not going to tell you that. I don’t want you to do anything. Please,” I pleaded.

  “Don’t you want that son of a bitch to pay for what he did to you?”

  “No. I just want to forget that he ever existed.”

  “Is he a good looking man?”

  I rose up to give him a stressed look. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

  “I’m just trying to figure out why, if he is so rich and powerful, why he would come to a poor town in West Virginia to marry you?”

  I relaxed and lay back to his chest. “He is very handsome. I’ve asked myself that same question a million times.”

  I finally dozed back off. Dawson never let go of the hold he had on me.

  When I woke, Dawson was still holding me. He was never still in bed when I woke up. He was an early riser too, not quite as bad as Lauren, but he was still normally up before me.

  I looked up and he was wide awake, staring pitiful glares through me. He opened his hand palm side up, and I placed mine in his. He kissed me on top of the head as I lay back to his chest.

  “What are you thinking about?” I asked. I knew what he was thinking about, and I wished I would have kept my past in the past and not shared my horrific nightmare.

  “You,” he quietly said, kissing me again.

  “About how pathetic I am?”

  “Not at all, I was thinking about how much I loved you, and how I wished I could take all of this away from you.”

  I snorted. Nobody could take it away. Drew had taken it all, and although I hated to admit it. He still controlled me. It wasn’t as much as when I first left. It seemed like every time that I was happy, and things were going exceptionally well for me was when he decided to haunt me. Why? I didn’t know. I guess the subconscious is just one of those mysteries that you just never figure out.