It made me want to vomit, but I relaxed my muscles, going almost limp as I brought my mouth to his neck and slowly kissed his skin. His body stilled as I trailed more kisses up to his jawline. I knew I had him when he released a low groan and eased his hold on me. Just a little more…
I sucked on his earlobe and bit down. Hard.
It shocked him enough that he jolted back, giving me enough room to lift my knee up to his groin. Unfortunately, I missed his junk, but I hit a sensitive enough spot that he doubled over and sucked in sharp breaths.
“Fuck!”
I jumped around him and lunged for the door. Just when I had my hand on the knob, he grabbed the back of my sweater and pulled hard. I heard the distinct sound of the material ripping as I struggled to get free. As I twisted around, my boots slid on the tiled floor, sending me crashing to the ground. I hit my head on the door as my ass landed on the cold tiles, but I didn’t stop moving. Or shouting.
“Let go, you bastard!”
He must have still been in pain because he was on his knees, struggling to move, but his hand kept its hold on my sweater, ripping more of the garment with every move I made. Finally, I was able to angle my body to where I could land a good kick right on his outstretched arm with the heel of my boot.
“Goddammit!”
His arm instantly retracted and I scrambled to my feet. With my heart racing, I quickly turned the lock and bolted out the door, praying he wasn’t right behind me. Drunkenness forgotten, I flew down the stairs, my ears alert for the sound of heavy footsteps following. When I reached the landing, I searched frantically for Cam.
I didn’t have to search long.
He stood in the middle of the living room, arms at his sides, gazing at me in complete shock. His mouth agape, he inspected me from head to toe, his eyes darkening with rage when they saw the bottom of my sweater ripped from back to front. I didn’t think I was crying, but I’m sure my hair was a mess and I probably had the deer-in-headlights look as I realized everyone in the room was staring at me. The guys stood at Cam’s back, looking almost as enraged as he.
Cam’s hands formed fists, his knuckles turning white, as he returned his gaze to my face. He didn’t say a word but his eyes were filled with both raw fury and insurmountable pain. I opened my mouth to speak when I heard those footsteps coming slowly down the stairs.
Trey.
I spotted Gemma and Syd make their way to the front of the crowd near the group of guys, and I went straight for them.
“Oh my God, Reese, what happened?” Syd asked, hugging me to her.
“Are you okay?” This from Gemma.
“I’m all right,” was all I could say.
I met Cam’s eyes again after they tracked me across the room and tried to reassure him that I really was okay. I had a feeling it was no use, though. The damage, so to speak, had been done.
That’s when Trey entered the room.
Dozens of eyes turned to him, then back to me, putting two and two together. The music even cut off at that point, casting a sinister mood over the room. Shit. I really didn’t like everyone seeing me like this. I didn’t need or want the attention or their sympathy. Or God forbid, their pity.
Cam faced off with Trey, looking more threatening than I’d ever seen him. “Oh, you motherfucker. You touched her?”
Trey didn’t back down. He just smirked and licked his lips. “She tastes pretty sweet, doesn’t she?”
Cam exploded.
“You’re fucking dead.”
With a viscous growl, he attacked, landing his first punch right across Trey’s jaw. He threw a second one with his left fist before Trey reacted, tackling him to the floor. They became a blur of cocked elbows and flying fists as they rolled around taking as many swings as they could get in. Trey was holding his own, but Cam had too much ferocity working for him. His rage drove every punch, to the point that even I winced at the sounds.
I rushed over to Jesse, who had been watching the whole thing—along with the other guys—with calm resignation. “You have to stop this! He’s going to seriously hurt himself.”
He didn’t take his eyes off the two fighters. “He needs this, Reese. It’s been a long time coming. Just let it happen. It’ll help him more than you think.”
That was ridiculous. Getting kicked off the team wouldn’t help him a damn bit.
I went to try and intercede when Jesse lightly pulled me back. “You’re likely to get hurt if you try and get in the middle of that. And that’ll only piss him off more.”
He was right, but this was madness! They were going to end up killing each other if this didn’t end soon.
Cam straddled Trey’s chest after he landed a particularly brutal punch. He grabbed the collar of his shirt and jerked him upright.
“You don’t lay a fucking finger on her ever again! Do you hear me, asshole? You don’t talk to her, you don’t even look at her. This right here is nothing compared to what I’ll do to you if you try that shit again. The only reason you’re even still breathing right now is because she’s standing here watching.”
Trey smiled with bloody teeth, his right eye already swollen. “I had her first, Donovan. She wanted me first.”
Cam shook him hard. “She’s mine, you son of a bitch! Mine! She doesn’t want you. She wants me. She only wants me. So, stay the fuck away from her.”
Holy shit. Cam just admitted in front of a house full of people that we were together.
Apparently, he wasn’t done because he started hitting Trey again, roaring expletives and threats. Trey’s head snapped to the side after one hit, sending blood spurting out of his mouth. I was worried a tooth may have come out with it, too. That’s when the guys finally decided to pull Cam off of him.
Jesse and Boyd each held an arm as Cam continued to snarl at his nemesis. Trey rolled over and pushed himself to his feet, wiping blood off his lip. I wondered where the two guys he came here with were. I saw Rachel standing across the room, watching the scene in horror. A microscopic part of me cheered with victory that she’d also heard Cam’s confession.
I was still huddled against Gemma and Syd when Trey turned to face me, stupidly pushing Cam’s fury to the breaking point.
“I knew you were his whore,” he said with a sneer. “Should have known cunts like you have a certain type.”
Cam roared and struggled against Jesse and Boyd’s hold, fighting to free himself. They were too smart to let him go now, though.
To everyone’s surprise, Vaughn came out of nowhere and dealt such a hard blow to Trey’s face it had him stumbling backwards. “Get the fuck out of my house. Now. And don’t ever think about coming back.”
Tension filled the room as everyone waited for his next move. Would he really be foolish enough to go after Cam again? Did he not know when he was bested and outnumbered? Thankfully, it didn’t come to that. With one last glare at Cam, Trey walked out of the house and I could finally breathe again. Half the guys followed to make sure he got in his car and actually left. Cam stayed back with Jesse and Boyd, still breathing hard, not at all calming down.
“You good, man?” I heard Jesse ask Cam.
“No.”
Neither was I. I could barely even process everything that just happened.
He turned to me and I got tunnel vision. Everyone else in the room disappeared as he pulled me into his tractor beam gaze. All I wanted was to forget the scene I just witnessed, run away with him, and ignore the entire world for a few days. I couldn’t look anywhere but at him as he approached the three of us.
“Can I take you home with me?” he asked in a strained voice.
My girls’ hands tightened on my shoulders. “We can take her home.” They were obviously unnerved by the menacing look on his face.
“Please,” he said to them, then looked at me. “Please.”
I squeezed their hands. “It’s okay. I want to go with him.”
After several hugs and promises to call them if I needed them, I joined Cam as we head
ed for the door. Most of the party-goers had dispersed after the fight ended, so the room had cleared out significantly. We passed Vaughn on our way out and Cam shook his hand. In that way guys had, no words were spoken, just silent understanding. Vaughn shot me a wink as I passed, making me almost grin. Only he could wink at a time like this.
Cam lifted me up into his truck as if I were made of china, making me wince as he grabbed me on the hips right where Trey bruised me. He slammed the door after he got in on his side and peeled out of the driveway. I inspected his face as he drove. He wasn’t without some swelling and blood of his own. There was one particular cut on his cheek that looked like it could get infected if we didn’t clean it up soon.
“Are you okay?”
He gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I just need to get you home. Need you home with me where I can hold you. Where I know you’re safe.”
Emotion made my throat tighten, preventing me from saying anything more.
All I could think about was what this meant for him and his future. Had he just ruined everything, all of his hopes and dreams and everything he’d been working for, for me? Had I made him just throw all of that away?
I couldn’t stand the thought.
I kept my face turned toward the window as the tears slowly fell down my cheeks.
Please let us survive this.
38
Cam
I was amazed I got us to my apartment safely.
I still saw red everywhere I looked. All I could picture in my head was the vision Reese made when she’d stumbled down those stairs and into the living room. The terrified look on her face. The trembling in her hands. The destruction of her hair and clothes.
Trey hadn’t gotten the kind of beating he deserved.
If we hadn’t been surrounded by people I can’t guarantee I would have stopped hitting him. I’d never felt such a single-minded sense of violence before. A need for violence. I knew it may not have been a good idea to have Reese around me right then, but there was no way I was going to leave her there.
I had to have her close to me tonight.
After that, I wasn’t sure I’d ever let her out of my sight again.
I helped her out of the Jeep even though I knew she wanted to tell me she was fine. I needed to do it, though. And because she knew me well enough, she stayed quiet and let me lead her up to my apartment.
She’d been here a couple of times before, but we usually stayed at her place. For one, hers was a little closer to campus so it made things easier. And two, her place felt a hell of a lot more homey than mine. I lived in a one-bedroom unit by myself because the place was cheap enough that I could afford it, and I was sick of having roommates. There was one couch, one TV, one small kitchen table jutted up against the wall, and one bed. Reese and the girls had pictures hanging up everywhere at their place, candles lit all the time, and flowers on their kitchen table. Even with her roommates there, I liked having that homey atmosphere with Reese. And the girls were usually accommodating enough to give us our privacy.
But I couldn’t handle being around anyone else tonight.
“I’m taking a shower,” I muttered after throwing my keys onto the kitchen counter.
I didn’t look at her as I walked down the hall, stripping off my clothes as I went. I didn’t want to see the concern for me in her eyes. It was her we needed to worry about, not me. I was damn sure going to check out her body and find out what Trey did to her, how she’d gotten her sweater torn to shit. But first, I needed a few minutes to myself so I didn’t scare the crap out of her.
Again.
I shut myself inside the bathroom and assessed the damage in the mirror. Two bruises were starting to form on my ribs, but they weren’t deep. I had a split lip and a sore jaw, but nothing that wouldn’t heal in the next few days. The worst was the nasty cut on my cheek, courtesy of Trey’s ring, that I’d probably need to rub down with some antiseptic.
I turned on the water and stepped under the spray, not caring if it was hot or cold. Bracing my hands on the wall, I watched the blood trickle down my body, pooling at my feet before swirling into the drain. Every time I heard Trey’s words in my head a fresh wave of fury welled up inside me. I tried so hard to think of anything else, but—
The shower curtain was pulled open.
I didn’t turn, but I felt Reese tentatively step inside the shower and inch toward me. Seconds later, two arms wrapped around my middle and her cheek pressed against my back. I closed my eyes and savored the moment. Just for a second, it was almost possible to forget that we were in a veritable shit storm.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. I barely heard her over the shower.
“What for?”
Her voice was shaky. “For causing that. I shouldn’t have gone upstairs alone. You said to stay close and—”
I spun around and framed her face in my hands, using more tenderness than I’d thought I was capable of right then. “Stop it. I don’t want to hear those words come out of your mouth again. You did absolutely nothing wrong, sweetheart. You don’t apologize for anything, got it?”
She nodded but her face was crumpled in pain. “But you got in a fight because of me and now you might not get to play.”
I placed a finger over her mouth. “One, that was my choice to get in a fight. The fucker deserved even more than I gave him, but none of that is on you. Two, we don’t know what’s going to happen at this point, so let’s just take it one step at a time. Okay?”
I couldn’t tell if that was a tear running down her face or a water droplet from the shower. “Okay.”
I hugged her to me and we stood like that for several minutes. Feeling the spray massage our bodies, our chests moving against one another as we breathed together.
That’s when I remembered we were naked.
Jesus. She just went through his huge ordeal, and I was getting horny. I needed to get a hold of myself. But damn, being pressed up to a naked Reese was bound to get some kind of reaction out of me. I started hardening against her belly despite the mental scolding I was giving myself.
Then I saw the scratch.
Three distinct red lines across her stomach where her sweater had been torn. Marks that had clearly been caused by fingernails.
“Baby,” I breathed, carefully tracing the lines with my fingertip.
What the fuck had gone on upstairs that had caused him to scratch her like that?
“It doesn’t hurt,” she insisted, trying to tip my chin up but I didn’t budge. I couldn’t stop staring at those marks.
He’d marked her.
Reese. My girl.
He’d hurt my girl.
That’s when my eyes fell on the bruises. There were about three or four on each hip, already turning purple. Clearly in the shape of fingerprints. Fuck me. I couldn’t take this. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d be standing there in my shower with Reese after some asshole had just attacked her, examining the damage he’d done.
“I can’t fucking believe he put his hands on you,” I growled.
“I’m okay. I promise. Really, I’m not hurt.”
“These,” I said, pointing to the bruises and the scratch, “suggest otherwise.”
She scoffed. “Please. I used to get much worse back when I played ball.”
She was trying to lighten the mood by teasing, but I couldn’t find it in me to crack a smile.
I pulled her back to me, needing to hold her. I cupped her head in my hand, lightly massaging her scalp, and she sucked in a sharp breath. I lightly ran my finger over that same area and felt a noticeable bump.
“What happened?”
She looked almost afraid to tell me. “Nothing.”
“Reese,” I said sternly. “What. Happened?”
She sighed. “I hit my head on the bathroom door when Trey tackled me to the floor as I was trying to get out.”
Just when I thought nothing more could shock me tonight. A new image now assaulted my mind of Trey charging
Reese, getting her to the floor, and holding her down with unspeakable thoughts churning in his head. His intentions with her up in that bathroom were too dark to comprehend.
I wanted to slam my fist through the wall.
Instead, I rested my forehead against hers, fighting the emotions rising to the surface.
“Goddammit, Reese. I’m so sorry. That never should have happened. I should have been there. I should have stopped him. I’m so fucking sorry, baby.”
“Shh, it’s over now.” She now took my face in her hands. “There’s nothing you have to apologize for, either. Neither of us knew he would ever do anything like that. But it’s done now. We don’t need to keep revisiting it. We’re going to move forward and take things one step at a time. Like you said, okay?”
My insides didn’t completely calm down. But her voice was soothing enough that I got control over myself.
“I’m never going to let anyone hurt you again,” I promised. “I want you to know that you’re safe with me. I need you to know that. I’ll always protect you and keep you safe.”
She placed a soft kiss on my lips. “I do know that.”
We held each other for a few more minutes, but damn it if my dick wasn’t being a persistent bastard. She didn’t need to be accosted by my horniness right now. It didn’t even make sense that I was horny. She was hurting and she needed sweetness and tenderness. I angled my hips to the side so she wouldn’t feel how hard I was.
Which was why I almost choked on my own tongue when I felt her fingers wrap around me.
“What are you doing?”
“I know a way to help take your mind off of things,” she whispered, laying a hot kiss on my pec.
I tried pulling her hand away. “No, sweetheart. I’m taking care of you tonight.”
She looked so fragile when she looked up at me, her wet hair slicked back, the makeup gone from her face. “Then who’s going to take care of you?”
I hissed through clenched teeth when she fell to her knees for me. “Baby, really. You don’t have to do this.”
“Let me do it, anyway.”
King of the Court Page 29
