by Ivy Love
“What do you mean?” I ask a small smile dancing on my lips.
“You’ve been holding me for a long time, shouldn’t your arms hurt or something? Why are you even here?”
Her voice holds a hint of dejection and I don’t like that. I grab the blanket, lay it out on the couch and lower her onto it. I watch her adjust herself and I grab a stool so I can sit at the end of the couch where her head is. I gather her hair in my hands and begin to brush it out.
“I could hold you all day, if you’d let me. There’s no pain, only the desire to keep you close. I’m here because in the short time I met you I became fascinated with you. You had a sense of strength about you, a sense of who you are and who you might want to be. You’re absolutely gorgeous and you don’t seem to have any idea that you are.”
Chapter 7
Isabella
I don’t really know what to think right now. Anthony is gorgeous and from what I can tell gentle and sweet, yet still looks like he could kick someone’s ass. I have no doubt that he could have any woman he wanted, yet he’s sitting here with me. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
I feel his hands stroking my hair and it’s hard not to relax under his touch.
“I don’t know what to say to that,” I finally say.
“Then don’t say anything at all. Just know that, that’s the truth,” He says.
I feel him lay my brushed out hair on the couch.
He starts stroking my hair, “You don’t have to believe me or even say a thing, just,”
He’s interrupted by the doorbell.
“That must be Matt. I’ll be right back.”
I watch as he walks out of the living room to answer the door. My mind is running over everything that just happened. I let him cut off my clothes and see me naked. I let him hold me and clean me. I told him that I would let him take me away. What in the hell was I thinking?
I hear voices coming towards me, I’m guessing that must have been Matt at the door.
“Thank you for the invite, man,” I hear Matt say.
“I know that probably wasn’t the easiest thing for you to ask, but I appreciate the effort,” He continues.
“Yeah, no problem. You were honest with me, I’ll be honest with you. This isn’t going to be easy for me, it isn’t easy for me to share, or talk about my feelings. But I’ll also never be the person who holds someone back from who they care about either. Plus, I already talked with Izzy about it and she’s going to let me set it all up,” Anthony says.
They walk in side by side and smile at me. Matt walks over to me and kneels in front of me.
“I got your medicine sweetheart. And I made a quick sweep of the outside, there’s nobody there.”
“Thank you Matt.”
He smiles, “You look nice and clean.”
My heart starts to race, I wonder if he’s upset that Anthony bathed me. I don’t want him to be angry, but I don’t regret what happened either. I have no idea what that means, but it’s confusing.
“I’m glad you’re in new clothes and there’s no more blood. I’m glad that Anthony cleaned you up and hopefully kept you comfortable.”
“He did. He was the perfect gentleman. But, um, I’m still in a lot of pain,” I say.
He opens the bill bottle, “I’m sorry, let me get that for you. Will you drink milk with these?”
I nod, “Thank you.”
He gets up and heads to the kitchen.
Anthony comes and sits at the foot of the couch. He’s careful to not move me too much, but once he’s situated at the end of the couch, he seems to relax.
“Here you go. Drink this and take both of these, hopefully they will help,” Matt says, standing in front of me, handing me the glass of milk and two pills.
I take the glass and pop the pills into my mouth.
“Thank you, hopefully these work soon,” I say looking at both of them.
“I’m sure they will,” Anthony says.
“You said you’d let me take you away, Izzy, so I plan on doing just that,” he continues.
“We need to know that you are somewhere safe. We want to make sure that you have a safe place you can recover and not have anything to worry about. I’m very happy, you’re going to let us take care of you and you should know that we’d both do anything to protect you,” Matt says grabbing my hand.
“That’s something similar to what Anthony said earlier and I’ll ask you something similar to what I asked him. Why do you care? What’s in this for you?” I ask, my heart racing, feeling something I can’t describe. It’s not fear, or panic, but my heart is racing as if it is.
“I’m here because somehow in just a few short minutes of meeting you, you managed to wrap me around your finger and you didn’t have to do a damn thing. You just had to be you. When you walked out that door earlier tonight I was scared. I knew something wasn’t right, but I let you leave anyway. I wanted to chase out the door and follow after you. The Dom in me wanted to make you stay, but the man in me knew I had to let you go. What’s in this for me? You. You’re what’s in it for me,” he says.
I’m left speechless, again. I’m broken, my strength nowhere to be found, yet two men who are attractive, caring and kind are attracted to me. It baffles me.
“I’m not going to give you a lot of time to think on that sweetheart. Instead I’m going to get things in motion for our trip. I’m going to call Jack and get things going,” Anthony says, rising from his seat.
“Who’s Jack?” I ask curiously.
“Jack is the bartender at the club you were at and an extremely trusted friend,” Matt says.
“Oh, okay. Well, where are we going?” I ask.
“The island is off the coast of Spain, past the Canary Islands. It’s an exclusive resort that I am lucky enough to own. It’s not the only one that I own, but it’s the most exclusive and most secluded one. It has its own private air strip with flights coming and going twice a day. It’s surrounded by water, white sand and is a massive 75 acres. There are 24 different villas scattered throughout the island. Not to mention a variety of activities to do while you’re there. Food, alcohol and supplies are flown in once a month and as necessary for special occasions and/or events. It’s peaceful, beautiful and it’s just what you need,” Anthony says, as if it’s normal for people to just run away to exclusive resorts.
“I’ve been there before, it’s beautiful Izzy,” Matt says, agreeing with Anthony.
“Okay, don’t I need a passport or something to get there?” I ask. This conversation is exhausting me. My pain hasn’t subsided yet and I’m struggling to stay on top of everything these men are saying.
“Just let us take care of everything, your passport, your clothes, everything. Why don’t you just lay here for now and let us take care of everything,” Anthony soothes. His voice is soft and kind, and I let his voice flow over me.
“I’m going to call Jack right now, I want to make sure he can come over tonight after his shift. I’m sure it’ll be fine, but I know he’ll have to run it by Spence and if for some reason there is a problem, I need to figure out a back-up plan.”
Anthony begins to furiously text and I watch as a satisfied smile crosses his face. “Jack is on his way now, he’s going to pick us up and fly us out. I’m going to call Dr. Fanner and make sure there’s nothing he needs from us before we leave. Anything that can wait, will. He’ll just have to meet us at the island,” Anthony says.
“Hey, you still have all the shops and whatnot on the island, right?” Matt asks.
“Yeah,” Anthony says.
“Sounds good, I’m going to save myself the packing and just get everything there,” Matt says laughing.
That even draws a smile from Anthony, “Sounds good to me.”
“Do you want to buy all your clothes there or do you want to pack up a few things?” Matt asks.
“Um, I have no idea,” I pause, “Um, maybe pack a few things and buy the rest. Is it expensive there? I’m going to have to
pull out money, because I’m sure he’s going to block my account soon.”
“You do realize that you’re not going to have to pay for a thing, right?” Anthony asks.
“No, I mean, I thought you would try to not let me pay, but I figured I could try and talk you out of it. Even if I couldn’t, I have to look at the bigger picture. If he tells me I have the weekend to get my money and my stuff out, then that’s what I have and I want to make sure that I have what I need,” my voice comes out slightly shaky as I try to contain the emotions threatening to overwhelm me.
“We understand,” Matt says, “We’ll make sure that everything gets taken care of.”
“Just let us take care of everything and shut your eyes. Please trust us to take care of you and your needs,” Anthony says.
“Um, you realize that you’re asking a lot right? The man that was supposed to be my protector, someone who would never hurt me, someone who was supposed to love me unconditionally just beat the shit out of me and has been doing it for too long to mention. How am I supposed to be able to trust anyone?”
It’s getting harder to breathe, I feel my chest rising and falling uncontrollably.
“Cant. Catch. My. Breath.” I stutter out.
Chapter 8
Ryker
The ride back to her apartment is quiet. She’s lost in her thoughts and I’m trying to get in her head to figure out who this woman is. Her lack of security drives me nuts. I’m absolutely not ok with the lack of security in her apartment, or the fact that she has nothing in her home and is so nonchalant about it. No mementos, no photos, it barely passes as a place to lay her head at night. It’s not the way a normal person lives. There’s something more to her, something that she hasn’t told me yet and I want to know what it is.
I pull into her parking lot and shut the car off. I look over at Liz and watch as she stares out the window.
“Liz, we’re here,” I say softly.
“Hmm,” she says distractedly.
“We’re here. Are you ready to go in?”
“Oh, yeah. Thank you for the ride.”
She opens her door and steps outside, and I do the same. It’s as if she can’t get out of her head right now and I’m worried about her. I think that tonight had more of an effect on her than she wants to admit. I want her to trust me enough to tell me what’s wrong. I meet her on her side of the car and grab her hand. Her eyes drift down to our entwined hands, “Pet, what’s wrong?”
The moonlight dances off her face and skin, showing shadows of a worried woman. She continues to look down at our hands and I squeeze her hand softly.
“What’s wrong, Liz?
Her eyes lift to mine and her voice comes out wearily, “We…I, can’t do this. Tonight just reminds me why that’s truer than ever.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask confusion lacing my voice.
“You won’t understand. How could you? I can’t do this, I can’t do us, anymore. I could never forgive myself if I caused pain like that to you. Or if something happened to you.”
I have no idea what’s talking about and now my concern is growing. She pulls her hand from mine and starts to walk away.
“Liz, tell me what’s going on. Please.”
She doesn’t answer, instead she just starts walking towards her apartment. I follow her towards her door, and watch as she pulls her keys from her purse and slides them into her door. Her door opens easily and I follow her inside.
“Liz, why don’t you have anything in your home?”
“What are you talking about?” She turns to look at me and seems surprised I’m still here.
“This is a place to sleep, not a home.”
“I live here don’t I?” she asks defensively.
I nod slightly.
“Then it’s my fucking home.”
“It may be a place you sleep, but it sure as hell, is not your fucking home. So, how about you drop the act and the attitude and tell me what the hell is going on? Do you need money? Are you not able to afford anything, is that why your so-called home looks empty? On a completely different note, why don’t you bother to actually lock the door? Please, fill me in Liz, let me know what’s going on so I can help,” I say my voice rising.
She stares at me, “Money? Is that what you think? You think that I can’t fend for myself? If that’s the case, you don’t know anything about me. Honestly, it’s better that way anyway. We can’t do this anymore.”
“Why can’t we do this? It was fine the other night and you haven’t had a problem so far. So, what happened in this past 24 hours to change your mind? Tell me, Liz.”
“I can’t do this Ryker, I’m sorry. It’s just not going to work out.”
I step closer to her and grab her arms lightly.
“This is going to work, because we’re going to make it work. So, tell me what or who you’re hiding from and let me help you.”
I watch a flurry of emotions flicker across her face. I stand there silently, holding her, watching her and waiting. I’m trying to stay calm, but it’s so damn hard, my anxiety is eating at me. I need to know what’s going on so I can make whatever is wrong, better.
The silence drags on and on. I don’t lose my patience, just wait in silence as she decides. I am hoping that she chooses me. I am hoping that she trusts me enough to tell me what’s going on. Even if she decides to stay and not break it off, I don’t think that we could continue as a couple. The key to every Dominant/submissive relationship is trust. If she can’t trust me enough to tell me about who she is, then how can she trust me on a regular basis to take care of her and her needs.
She pulls back from me and says, “Do you want something to drink? It’s going to be a long night.”
Chapter 9
Liz
He just stands there, watching me, while I try to figure things out. I need to figure out what and how much to tell him, if anything. I run through my options over and over again, in the end I realize I have to tell him something if I don’t want to lose him.
The thing is, I don’t want to lose him, and I want to be with him. I know I shouldn’t want to keep him around, but I do. My brain is telling me to push him away, so I can keep him safe, but, my heart is telling me to keep him close. I don’t want to lose the way he makes me feel. So, I’ll tell him just enough to satisfy his curiosity, just enough to keep him around. I just can’t tell him everything.
“Sure, what do you have?” he asks.
I can hear the caution in his voice. Caution is a good thing, it can save your life.
“While I might not have a lot on my walls or in my home, I always have a bottle of Jack and some Coke laying around. Or I can get you a bottle of water, up to you.”
“Rum and coke works for me,” he says.
“Go ahead and take a seat, like I said this could take a while. I’ll bring you your drink. Warning, I make them strong.”
“Don’t worry I like them strong.”
“Sometimes strong will knock you on your ass.”
“Never hurts to get knocked down once in a while, besides the strong are survivors.”
I feel a small smile touch my lips, he has no idea how right he is. I turn and go make our drinks. I pull the cups down, get the liquor out and begin to pour almost subconsciously. Instead of focusing on the drinks, I’m thinking and worrying about what’s about to happen. I bring the glasses over to the couch and sit beside him.
I take a sip of my drink, enjoying the burn as it trickles down to my chest. It’s a bit stronger than I usually make it. Clearly I wasn’t paying attention.
“Holy shit,” he coughs, “you weren’t kidding about making them strong.”
I smile, “To be fair, it’s a bit stronger than I usually make them, but not by much.”
“So, I guess I don’t have to worry about carrying you to bed after a night of drinking.”
“Nope, but if it makes you feel better I can pretend for you,” I smile coyly at him.
“Ah, Pet,
you’ll never have to pretend with me. I don’t need an excuse to carry you to bed, if I want you, I’ll have you.”
I smile, “Yes, you do have the tendency to take what you want, don’t you?”
“You know me so well,” he laughs.
As the laughter subsides the room is eerily quiet, neither one of us quite ready to face the monster in the room, but without the luxury of time.
I clear my throat, “Well, I guess that’s my cue.”
“For as long as I can remember, I’ve been running, always looking over my shoulder, never staying in one place for very long. I’ve been all over the country. Trying to stay one step ahead of the people after me. Vegas was only supposed to be pit stop, but I met Izzy.” I smile. “She’s hard to run away from, quite the persistent woman even back in college. But I was never supposed to stay here. You’re never supposed to stay close to the people chasing after you. But, here I am. I’ve managed to stay here for years, only having to disappear a few times. But, I always come back, I promised Izzy I would and if there’s one person I’ll keep my promises to, it’s her.”
He looks like he wants to say something but he holds his tongue.
“I was born, here, I think. Even if I wasn’t, Vegas is home now.”
“How do you not know where you were born?” he asks incredulously.
“Look, I didn’t grow up in your cookie cutter home. It’s why I don’t remember a lot of my early childhood, I probably blocked that shit out. I didn’t have the perfect family. I mean, yes, I had a family, but my father treated my mother like shit on a regular basis. It’s one of the reasons, I feel so guilty about Izzy.”
My eyes begin to gloss over, I shake my head and continue on, “He always told her that she was never good enough for him. That she could never do anything right. That she never dressed right. He always said that she should feel lucky that she was even with him, that he chose her and she should feel honored that he did. But the biggest disappointment for him was that she was only able to give him two useless daughters.”
