by Lola StVil
“Rex,” I hear, but it’s a far-off noise, an irritation.
I punch Matt again. He’s not moving now. Fucking good. I’ll kill the son of a bitch for what he’s done.
“Rex. Please. Stop.”
The voice gets through to me this time. It’s Ava’s. I jump to my feet and look down at the bloodied mess that is Matt. I’ve gone too far. I know it the second I see him. I’ve killed him. His fingers twitch, and I feel a sense of relief. I haven’t killed him, just knocked him out.
“Rex,” Ava says again.
I turn to her. She’s on her feet now. I can’t look at her face. I know what I’m going to see. Disgust. Anger. Fear. I force myself to look, and I don’t see any of those things. I see acceptance. Love.
She runs to me, and I pull her into my arms and hold her while she cries. I don’t know how long we stand that way. I think we might have stayed that way forever, but a girl’s voice pulls us from the moment.
“What the fuck happened here?”
Ava looks up from my shoulder.
“He was going to rape me, Casey,” she says.
Her words send another surge of anger through me, and it’s all I can do not to finish Matt off right there and then. Casey comes over and squeezes Ava’s shoulder.
“It’s okay. You’re safe now,” she says. She looks at me. “I take it you’re Rex.”
I nod and gently disentangle Ava from my embrace. “Look after her until her dad comes back. Stay here with her.”
Ava looks at me with frantic eyes as I pull my cell phone out.
“Rex, no,” she says.
“Yes,” I say. “He needs an ambulance, and it’s the right thing to do.”
“But they’ll arrest you.”
“I know,” I say. “And it’ll be worth it to know that piece of shit will never dare come near you again.”
She starts to protest, and I look to Casey for support. She seems to understand and begins whispering to Ava. I make the call.
Within minutes, an ambulance and a police car arrive at the house. The paramedics deal with Matt. The police walk toward me. I don’t resist. I hold my wrists out, and they place the handcuffs on me.
Then Ava speaks up. “Wait, don’t arrest him,” she says. “He—”
“Her friend came to see her, and I got jealous and I did that to him,” I say over the top of her.
“Why would you say that?” Ava asks me.
I turn away from the cop. He should probably try to stop me, but he doesn’t. I take her hands in mine.
“If you tell them the truth, they’ll drag you through the courts. They’ll talk about your most intimate moments and they’ll make you feel like this is all somehow your own fault. It’s not your fault. Not any of it. I’ll do the time, Ava. Live your life and forget about this. Forget about me.”
“Miss?” a female cop says. “What happened here?”
I hold Ava’s gaze, trying to make her see what I’m saying makes sense. She shakes her head, and as much as it warms me inside to know she’d get up there on the stand and have her whole life analyzed and judged for me, I won’t let her do it.
“I beat him up because I was jealous. She saw,” I say, nodding to Casey.
Casey nods. “Yeah. That’s what happened.”
I don’t know what will happen between the girls as I’m led away, but I think Casey will be able to make Ava see this is the right thing to do. This sort of thing happens here all the time, and it’s almost always hushed up. It’s just the way Ava’s world works. The women who refuse to be silenced are the ones who become the pariahs, and I won’t let that follow Ava through her life.
CHAPTER TWENTY
AVA
It’s been two days since the police came and took Rex away. Two long, horrible days. They won’t let me see him, won’t let me speak to him. They didn’t even bother taking a statement from me or Casey. Matt woke up and told them he’d come to return my purse after I left it in his car the night before. He said Rex just went nuts and attacked him. And, of course, that’s the story Rex already told them. Case closed.
Casey and I had a big argument after they took Rex away, but I know she was trying to help. I know she’s right about what would happen if the truth came out, but I don’t care about me. I can’t let Rex go to prison for this. With his record, his sentence will be long. I can’t let him do this. And I won’t just forget him like he told me to. How can I forget him when he’s everything to me?
I called my dad last night and asked him to come home. I wouldn’t say why. I was afraid he wouldn’t hear me out, that he’d just say I should let it go. In person, I can make him hear me. He’s not going to be happy about Rex and me, but hopefully he’ll do the right thing. I hope he will. He’s the only person I can think of who can fix this.
Casey stayed with me the whole time, just like she promised she would. She left when my dad texted me to say he was out of the airport and he’d be home in twenty minutes. That was half an hour ago, and I pace the floor, my nerves shot to shit.
The door finally opens. My dad steps in. He drops his suitcase as I run to him and throw myself at him. The tears I’ve held in for two days all come at once. He holds me in his arms and strokes my hair until I calm myself down a bit.
“Ava, what on earth happened?” he asks.
I just shake my head. Where do I even start?
He shuts the door and then takes my hand like I’m a little girl again. He leads me to the lounge. We sit side by side on the couch. It makes me think of Rex and I sitting side by side like this. Everything makes me think of Rex.
“Just tell me what happened,” my dad says gently. “I swear I won’t be mad.”
I’m not so sure that’s true, but what choice do I have?
I start at the beginning. I tell him about how I went to the party and what happened with Matt. I can see he’s silently fuming, but he keeps it in, letting me tell my story. I tell him I called Rex and he came for me. I tell him how he stayed over so I wasn’t alone, and how the next day, Matt came by. I tell him the worst part. What happened after that.
“Okay, honey,” my dad says when I’m done. “Don’t worry, okay? I’ll fix this. I know a good defense lawyer, and I’ll pay for it. I’ll make damn sure you don’t get called to the stand. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Nothing except everything.
“That’s not what I’m worried about, Dad. You don’t understand,” I say. “He told the police he attacked Matt unprovoked.”
“What? Why?”
“Because he didn’t want me to have to be a witness and to have the prosecution tear me to shreds and blame me for what Matt did.”
Dad doesn’t even try to tell me that won’t happen. He knows the system.
“So let me get this straight. He pulls this guy off you and smacks him around for attacking you. Any decent guy would have reacted the same. But then he takes the blame for that just to stop you from having to take the stand and getting upset? Something isn’t adding up here.”
This is where he loses his temper and says Rex can rot in hell.
“Rex and I are in love, Dad,” I say.
He doesn’t need all the gory details, and as I say it, I know it’s true. I wait for the inevitable anger. I am shocked when it doesn’t come.
“That explains that, then,” he says.
He stands up.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“To fix this,” he says.
I stand up too. “You’ll need me to tell the police what really happened. Look, I know it’ll be awful, but I’ll do it.”
He shakes his head. “There’s more than one way to fix this, Ava. Rex was right to not drag you into this. I’m not having you sitting there in court getting grilled and having this follow you your whole life.”
“So, what are you going to do?” I ask.
“I’m going to go and have myself a little chat with Matt’s parents. Let them know their son is a fucking degenerate. And
convince them to drop all charges. There’ll still be work to do. The police will likely still prosecute Rex, but it will be for his involvement in a fight rather than an attack.”
“But he has a record. He might still go to prison,” I say.
“How the hell do you know about that?”
“He told me. He told me everything,” I say. “It’s how he knew he could game the system and leave me out of it. That’s what she did to him.”
“What who did?” my dad asks.
He doesn’t know the full story, then. I just shake my head.
“Look, Ava, if you want me to fix this, you’re going to have to trust me.”
Is it betraying Rex to tell my dad what he told me to save him?
Will he hate me?
An idea occurs to me, and I go to my purse. I hand my dad a hundred dollars. He frowns.
“I’m officially hiring you as Rex’s lawyer,” I say. “So now there’s attorney-client privilege, right? You can’t use this stuff without permission, and you can’t tell anyone else.”
He shakes his head and smiles. “So, you do listen to me.”
“Sometimes.” I shrug.
We sit back down, and I tell him what Rex told me. My dad nods along.
“You believe him, right?” I say.
He nods. “Yes. I knew Rex had a record when I took him on, but I didn’t ask what happened, and he didn’t tell me. I knew he was a good kid deep down, but I guess I didn’t know how good. Or how terrible his mother became.”
“You knew her?” I ask, surprised.
“Rex’s father and I went back a long way. I kept an eye on Rex when he died. We didn’t have any sort of relationship, but I watched from a distance, making sure he didn’t go off the rails. He stepped up and took care of his mom. And when his stepdad came along, his mom made it clear I was no longer needed. I had my suspicions about what was going on, but it was none of my business, and Rex had moved out, so I let it go.”
“So, you can fix it?” I ask. “All of it?”
My dad nods. “Yes.”
“And then what happens?” I ask. “You send him away and I never see him again?”
“Is that what you want?”
“No.”
“Then no,” my dad says. “He can keep his job. And you’re old enough to know your own mind. He’s a good kid, Ava. You could do a lot worse. And besides, he’s too good with the cars to send him away.”
I laugh, and for the first time since I opened the door and saw Matt standing there, I allow myself to think everything is going to be okay
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
SIX MONTHS LATER
REX
Max was true to his word. Within four hours of him coming home, I was out of jail, all the charges against me had been dropped, and I was at his house having dinner with him and Ava. He convinced Matt’s father to have his son drop the charges. And then he went to the current DA and told him the truth about what had happened. He was rich enough and powerful enough that when he spoke, people listened. I don’t know if Max bribed the DA, or just convinced him he was telling him the truth, but either way, the DA dropped the assault charges too.
The only thing I wasn’t okay with was Matt walking away unpunished for what he did to Ava, but Max gently reminded me he would have either way. If Max and Ava could live with that, I knew I’d have to find a way to live with it too. Word soon started to spread. Ava’s name was never mentioned, but soon everyone knew Matt was a sexual predator. I’m almost certain I have Casey to thank for that one, and for once, the gossip mill worked in our favor.
Max took me to one side after dinner and told me he’d spoken to the new DA about my original case. He’d let it slip that my stepfather didn’t step down so much as he was pushed down. Four separate sexual assault complaints had been made by women on his staff. It was hushed up, of course, and he was allowed to resign quietly.
Max told me he could find those women, persuade them to come forward and show the world who my stepfather really was. And then he would reopen my case, and he was almost certain the charges would be overturned and I’d have a clean record.
I thanked him for trying, but I refused. He asked me why, of course. I explained it to him, and he understood. Those girls didn’t need to relive that for my sake. And they didn’t need their lives ruined. And then there was my mom. Even after she took his side over mine, even after she let me do time, I didn’t want to put her through that. I hate her, but a part of me still loves her, and I know in my heart it would have all been different if my dad hadn’t died. She died with him in some ways.
Max assured me she wouldn’t get charged with perjury. He would make the court see she was vulnerable, afraid. But I still said no. She didn’t need that kind of shit, and I had made my peace with my record.
I’ve almost finished working on Max’s cars, but I’m not short of work. After a glowing recommendation from him, and the fact I was going to be his son-in-law soon, the offers of work poured in, and it looks like I’ll be able to start my own business here soon enough.
Ava and I are engaged, but we’re not in a rush to get married. She wants to finish college first, and I want to get the business off the ground. She’s living with me in my apartment now, and we couldn’t be happier.
She called me earlier today and told me that she had an article accepted at a major newspaper. She was so excited, and I have a special surprise lined up for her tonight. One I think she’ll appreciate very much.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
AVA
I couldn’t believe it when I stepped in tonight and Rex shouted through from the bedroom that he had a surprise for me. He wasn’t fucking kidding. I found him standing naked beside the bed. And on the bed were silk hand and foot ties, a blindfold, and some headphones. He told me to strip and lie down, and I happily obliged.
I lie here now, my wrists and ankles tied up. My arms and legs are pulled wide open, but not enough to be uncomfortable. My pulse is racing, and I am already wet as the anticipation of what’s to come floods me.
“I thought it was time to take it to the next level,” Rex says. He’s sitting beside me on the bed. “Sensory deprivation will push you past what you thought were your limits.”
I grin hungrily. I want to eat Rex, to drink him in, every little bit of him. This is going to be fucking mind-blowing.
“It’ll be seriously intense. You won’t be able to move, and you won’t be able to see or hear me.”
“It sounds amazing,” I say.
“Oh, it will be, but it might be a bit too much at first, and you need a safe word.”
“I’ll just say stop,” I say.
“Oh, Ava, you’ll be begging me to stop and keep going the whole time.”
A delicious shiver runs through me.
“You’ll need a safe word. Just humor me, okay?”
“Fine. ‘Scrambled eggs.’” I laugh.
He shakes his head but accepts it. He moves so he’s sitting across my lap. His cock is already rock hard, and I crave him filling me up.
He leans forward and lifts my head up. He slips the blindfold on me, tying it at the back. It’s strange suddenly not being able to see him, but I can see him clearly in my mind, how he’s moving, how his muscles shift under his skin as he moves. How he looks so damn fuckable all the time.
He places the headphones on me, and I hear classical music. A piano, I think. I jump slightly when his lips brush mine. With my vision and hearing restricted, my other senses come to life. I can smell the manly smell of him—fresh sweat, grease, and his own familiar scent—that drives me wild. Beneath it, I smell the briny tang of my own juices.
I feel his kiss like never before. My lips tingle and my nipples harden as his chest brushes across them. He pulls back, and I reach for him, to hold his lips against mine, but I can’t move my hands. I lift my head up off the pillow, and he gently pushes it back down.
He runs his tongue down my neck, down my breastbone. A trail of warmth
leaves my skin feeling heated. His touch goes away. What’s happening?
I wait, my insides clenched with excitement. He bites down on my nipple, and I cry out as pain and pleasure flood me. He keeps my breast in his mouth, sucking on my nipple. His hand comes to my other breast, kneading it, setting me on fire. He rolls my nipple between his fingers. He flicks his tongue over the other one, teasing me. I can’t take this, but I can’t stop it either.
He squeezes hard and bites down again at the same time, and I know I let out a strangled gasp. He releases my breasts, and I feel relief and disappointment mingling inside. I feel the bed move slightly beneath me as he shifts his weight.
I can’t feel him on me anymore. I cry out as his fingers slam into me unannounced. I am already wet, and they slip in easily, but it’s a little disconcerting, in the best possible way. He rams his fingers in and out of me hard and fast, and I’m coming.
I pant for breath as the orgasm takes me. He pulls his fingers out of me and presses down on my clit, sending another wave of pleasure through me. I can feel it in every part of my body. I ride the waves of pleasure. He has both hands on me now, his fingers inside me while his other hand works my clit. I am a throbbing nerve ending. It’s so intense, almost too intense to stand. I try to press my legs closed, but I can’t move them.
I am wide open, and he’s using that to his full advantage as he sends me down a spiraling sensory overload. I can’t breathe as orgasm after orgasm tears through me. They leave me weak, exhausted, and still he doesn’t relent.
“Oh my God, Rex, I can’t take anymore. I can’t. Please, Don’t stop.”
His rhythm slows a little, and it’s sweet torture.
“No. Don’t stop,” I scream.
He picks the pace up again, and again I am flooded with sensation. I can feel him touching me, but that’s almost secondary to the feelings that fly through my insides. I am fire and ice simultaneously. It’s pain and pleasure. It’s sweet torture, the most exquisite feeling I’ve ever had. I float on the brink between sane and insane as the waves keep coming. My back arches; my ass lifts off the bed. I am rigid, frozen in position. I can’t move, can’t think. All I can do is feel the pleasure and the pain.
