I grabbed her wrist and wasn’t even worried about that old lady. “Did he hit you again? If he hit you I’ll….”
“Stop it! Please just leave. I’m fine!”
I pulled her closer to me, causing her hands to hit my chest. She looked up into my eyes. “If I find out he hit you again, I’m goin’ to take matters into my own hands. What he’s doin’ is wrong. Why can’t you see that? Do you really love this guy that much, because I didn’t take you for being an idiot.”
She grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into the back room. I was so shocked she’d brought us there that I didn’t know what was coming next. “I can’t talk about this here. Everyone in this town talks and you’ve already got me into a bunch of shit by just being here. There is nothing happening between you and me, Conner. Get it through your head and stop doing this to me.”
She started to walk away, but I pulled her back into my arms and pushed her against the wall. I brought my lips close enough to hers that I could feel her breathing on me. “Fighting me only makes me want you more.”
She tried to push me away, but I kept a good hold on her. “Please, just go.”
I pressed my lips against hers and held them there for a few seconds, before pulling away and walking out the door. I never even turned back to see if she’d followed me out of that storage room.
Unfortunately, a few weeks later, while visiting our Kentucky family, my sister got some real bad news. Ty had raised my sister’s daughter Bella as his own, but her biological grandmother was fighting for visitation. Since they couldn’t have the birth certificate changed unless he was the real father, he concocted a ridiculous plan to get a paternity test altered in his favor. As much as I wanted there to be another way, I knew we had to do what was best for Bella.
I may have been shitty when it came to girls, but my family was a different story. They were always my first priority, even my brother in law, Tyler. After having the test done, we all stopped by the salon for something Miranda needed. I was happy to see Amy and teased her about giving me a haircut. I kept my jokes to a minimum while my sister was in the room, but once she walked away, I pounced right on that shit.
“Hey, Beautiful, you think I could get my hair trimmed?” She was bending over picking up some hair to throw away.
I watched her look over at Ty and then back to me. “Your sister is fully capable of cutting that head.”
I sat down in her seat anyway. “I reckon I’d rather have you do it.” I removed my hat and smiled, showing off my dimples like it was going to win me the prize.
Amy was getting irritated with me. “I don’t have time to cut it.”
After looking around the salon and noticing they were closed for lunch, I saw my opportunity to push her some more. “It won’t take long.” I looked over to Ty, not really caring what he thought.
“Come on, Beautiful, just a quick trim. I don’t bite, well at least not unless you ask me to.” She looked mortified as I blew her a quick kiss through the mirror.
“You’re a pig, Conner Healy. Stop calling me beautiful.”
“Why? It’s the truth. I think you’re sexy as hell.” She already should have known that. If I had a real type, like to describe the perfect woman, she would fit the bill.
“Well, let me remind you that I’m married.” She held her ring up in my face.
“You’re so pretty when you get all roused up. It’s just a haircut, sweetness. Surely you’ve cut other sexy men’s hair before.”
I wasn’t giving up. She smelled of pomegranate and I wanted to taste her sweet lips again.
“Fine one haircut, but you’re paying double for getting on my nerves,” she teased.
The first time she ran her hands through my hair, I closed my eyes. I imagined her grabbing it while riding on top of me, with her tits swinging all around. When I opened my eyes, they were the first thing I looked for. “I bet you imagined runnin’ your hands through it, haven’t you?”
She took a huge chunk in her hand and jerked my head back. I think I liked it more than it hurt. She gritted her teeth. “If you don’t cut it out, I’m going to shave it all off.”
It made my dick start to get hard, so I reached my arms around her and pulled her up against my body. She stood there, not letting go of me. “When are you goin’ to stop fightin’ this?”
“There is no this!” She took her hands and moved them from her body to mine.
I had enough of the games and needed to either fuck her or walk away. I leaned in toward her ear. “Maybe next time then.” Then I walked out of the salon.
Chapter 6
Amy
Avoiding Conner Healy at all cost was normally easy, unless he was walking in my shop, throwing his sexy mouth against mine. Then it was a bit more difficult. I had too many of my own problems to add him to the mix.
After spending the night in the motel room with him, I made it a point to steer clear of Miranda and Ty’s, even when Rick and I were fighting. Things seemed to calm down after the night I never came home. He thought I stayed at Miranda’s and never asked any questions. Although, he still needed to know my every move.
Keeping someone like Conner off of my mind was harder than I thought. Even when I was hating him, I was still thinking about him. In fact, I couldn’t stop. During the day I found myself listening to Miranda complaining about him and when I went home at night, I daydreamed about his hot body and the way it felt when he kissed me.
I don’t know how apparent I was, but Rick started accusing me of having an affair. Of course, I hadn’t seen or talked to Conner, or anyone else for that matter. It was a pure coincidence, but it didn’t seem to change his accusations. Rick had it in his head that I was having some heated affair and it was enough to send him over the edge at any moment.
Thankfully, I was able to avoid him until he went out on the road again. When he wasn’t home, I laid in bed and tried to think of an easy way out of my marriage. Not because I wanted to be with Conner. He was a total asshole and nothing was going to change my mind about that. Sure, his body was unbelievable, but everything out of his mouth was bullshit. Still, there was something about that man that made me so hot with desire. Seeing him naked made it even harder and I hated that he knew that. It was like he was intentionally torturing me with his shallowness and my stupid self was taking the bait.
As the weeks passed, Conner’s unexpected visits became less frequent. It was almost like he knew that I had him out of my system and then could come walking back into my mind, just because he knew he could. I wanted to scream, but the other part of me wanting to touch him and do a lot more. He was my poison and even though I knew it was dangerous, I wanted to drink him down and let him fill every inch of my body with ecstasy. Still, I knew that I only thought I wanted him so much, because I wasn’t supposed to. It was something that had always been a problem for me. I never did like the word ‘no’.
I don’t know whether it made things harder or easier, but Rick had been making an effort at being a better person and he’d laid off of the alcohol and stopped accusing me of having some hot affair, for the most part. I was still trying to save up money to leave, but his work was slow and I couldn’t afford to stash much away without him noticing. I’d devised a nine month plan, but the longer time went by, the more I struggled to save.
There was a time where I was head over heels in love with Rick. That time was gone and for the most part the man repulsed me. Even on his good days, the man I used to admire was gone. He was bitter and verbally abusive, so much so that even his own child couldn’t stand him. She was still rebelling, like always. In fact, I was surprised that she hadn’t just moved in with one of her friends to get away from it all.
My life was a repetitive prison and as much as I ran toward the end of the dark tunnel, I couldn’t seem to break free. Time was against me and without friends I felt completely alone. As much as I wanted to believe that Rick would never lay a hand on me, like he kept promising, I knew it was only a matter of
time before I was forced into a corner of the house by the back of his hand, or whatever else he felt like using at the time.
It wasn’t like I never thought about fighting back. I had so many times. I’d played out how I could use objects around the house to stop him from getting to me. I’d even considered hurting him while he was passed out. Sometimes I wondered if living in a jail cell for murdering my husband was a far better future than suffering from his abuse.
On one of Rick’s bad days, I went home to him throwing things at my head as I walked in the door. I managed to duck out of the way for the first thing, but got hit by the remote control as it slammed me in the back of my head. “Where you been at, you whore?”
I held my hands over my head and tried so hard not to cry. “I just got off work, I swear. I had a late perm appointment and it wasn’t setting like I thought it would.”
He came over and grabbed me by my hair, shoving me into a chair. “Look at you, all dolled up. You think I don’t know what you’re doing? You let me catch you with that son of a bitch and you will both be sorry. You hear me, bitch?”
“Rick, please,” I cried. “There isn’t anyone else. Please stop hurting me and calling me names. I can’t take it anymore. I don’t deserve it.” I was pleading with him.
He started laughing all up in my face. I could smell the wretched odor of stale liquor and cigarette breath. “You deserve nothing! Get yourself cleaned up and go fetch me more beer. Do something useful for a damn change.”
I ran into the bathroom to clean up my face and when I came out, I found my purse dumped out over the table. He was going through every single receipt and my wallet. He took my phone and started looking through it. Since I did nothing wrong, I knew he wouldn’t find anything. I slowly approached the table and grabbed my car keys, but nothing else, before darting out the door and not looking back.
I drove around crying for a while, knowing damn well I wasn’t going to go back for my purse. While driving through town one thing caught my eye and without even reconsidering, I pulled my car into the parking lot at the bar next to Conner’s truck and sat there waiting.
I knew he had pool league and it had just started. People in town knew me and I couldn’t take the chance of walking inside to get his attention. The longer I sat there, the more I knew that being there was a bad idea. I turned the key and started to back up my car when I heard someone knocking on the window. Conner stood there with a hand in his pocket waiting for me to roll down the window.
I closed my eyes and took a few breaths, feeling ridiculous for thinking this could have been a good idea. He didn’t want to deal with my bullshit. As the window rolled down I threw him a fake smile. “I was just leaving.”
He leaned in the car, and looked me in the eye. “I just got here a few minutes ago and came back out for my pool stick. I know you just got here. Now why don’t you tell me what’s goin’ on?”
He grabbed my chin with his hand and pulled my face to look at him. As I moved it, he stroked my temple and pulled his hand away, revealing blood on his fingers. I don’t know which one of us was more shocked. He opened my car door before I could argue and pulled my legs out of the car, so he could get a better look at my head. “Tell me what happened, Blaze.”
I immediately lost it. “I don’t even know. I came home and he started going off on me.”
Conner grabbed me by the hands and pulled me out of my car. “You need to leave him. What he’s doin’ is illegal. He should be in jail.”
I covered my face in my hands. “You don’t understand Conner. I can’t leave. I don’t have a way to leave or a place to go. I’m trying to save my money, but times are rough and it’s taking me longer than I thought. I just have to stick it out for a little while longer.”
He grabbed me by the forearm and pulled me into his chest. I felt him looking at the cut on my head. “The cut isn’t that bad. Amy, you can’t afford to wait this out. He’s going to end up seriously hurting you.”
Some man must have come out of the bar looking for Conner. I heard him speaking but I never looked his way. “Hey man, you’re up.”
Conner’s voice vibrated against my head. “Be there in a minute.”
He didn’t let go of me at first. When I started to pull away, he wiped away my tears. “We are short some players and I have to go shoot my match. Pull your car around the side and get your things. Here’s my truck keys. Wait for me in it.”
I started to argue with him. “Conner, I can’t go…”
“Do what I said, Blaze. Please.”
He kissed me on the head and walked into the bar.
After moving my car, I climbed inside of Conner’s truck. People were standing outside of the bar smoking cigarettes, and I knew they could see me crying, but none of them approached me. After around thirty minutes, Conner climbed into the driver’s seat and I handed him his keys. “This is a bad idea.”
“Goin’ home is a bad idea. This ain’t about me and you, it’s about keepin’ you safe.”
I rolled my eyes. “Conner, being with you is a different kind of danger.”
He said nothing as he pulled out of the parking lot and I was honestly too afraid to look over to see his reaction. I couldn’t understand how Conner was always around when things went bad with Rick.
We pulled up at the motel and all of the memories of our last visit came back to my mind. “You should just leave me here. I can get a ride into town in the morning.”
Conner shook his head and ignored me as he walked into the motel’s office. When he came out he pointed to the room and I climbed out of the truck. He grabbed my hand and placed the key in it. “I will pick you up in the mornin’ when the sun comes up. Don’t open the door for anyone but me. If you need anything you call me.”
I was shocked that he was taking my advice and leaving me to stay alone. Part of me felt empowered, but the rest of me felt abandoned by the one person that I could be completely honest with. The problem was, asking Conner to stay was asking for much more than a shoulder to cry on.
He waited for me to get inside before he turned and walked away. I leaned against the other side of the door while listening to his truck door shut. Since I had nothing to change into, I simply stepped out of my jeans and walked into the bathroom to check on my head.
I turned the sink on and washed off my face. The skin under my eyes was so swollen from crying. After washing off the dried blood, the little cut seemed to be nothing but a flesh wound. My head was pounding, but it was also from crying so much.
I took off my jacket and slowly undressed to get a hot shower. I just wanted the water to beat down on me and wash away the emotional pain I was feeling. I wanted to disappear, if even for a moment, to pretend that my life was anything but what it was.
When the water started to get cold, I turned it off and picked my clothes up off the floor. Since I was alone and locked in my room, I figured I could just sleep under the covers while wrapped up in a towel. I’d no sooner climbed into bed, when I heard a vehicle pulling up.
Out of fear, I hopped up to the window and looked out. Conner climbed out of his truck with bags in his hand and approached the door. I never hesitated when I opened the door and let him walk in, but once I realized that all I had around my body was a towel, I freaked.
Chapter 7
Conner
I’d thought about leaving her there and letting her be alone like she’d asked, but it just didn’t set right with me. Amy didn’t need to be alone, she needed a friend. Hell, I was pretty darn sure that I was the only one that knew what was going on with the girl. I couldn’t understand how her own family had turned their backs on her. My family would have never done that to me, even if they threatened to.
I got about a mile down the road before I realized that Amy probably hadn’t eaten anything, so I stopped at a drive-thru and got us both something for dinner. Since it was only around eight in the evening, everything was open. Of course, I had no idea what the woman liked. Hell, she co
uld have been a vegetarian for all I knew.
I ended up ordering a couple things, including a salad, before heading back to the room.
Nothing could have prepared me for when she opened that door in just a towel. I could feel my damn dick growing arms and trying to bust open my zipper from inside of my jeans. To say that her body did things to me, was an understatement.
Amy backed away from the door and secured the towel tighter around her body. I ran back to the truck and grabbed my duffle bag. I still had a few shirts in there that had never been worn. I don’t know why I hadn’t taken it in the house, but it turned out to be a good thing.
When I got back in the room, I could tell she felt uncomfortable. I opened up the food bags and tried not to make eye contact with her. “Listen, I got down the road and realized that you might be hungry, so I got a couple things and came back.”
She smiled and pulled out the bag of fries. “I haven’t eaten all day actually.”
I ripped open the bag and spread out all of the food. She grabbed the chair and sat across from me. “Just take whatever you want. I had a sandwich before I went to pool.”
Amy shook her head and started splitting everything. “There is plenty for two people. Besides, you bought it. I don’t know how I am ever going to repay you for saving me twice, Conner.”
I winked at her before taking a bite of a burger. “Don’t mention it, darlin’. You just need to figure out a way to get away from it all. This can’t continue to happen, you know that, right?”
She agreed and picked at her food. “It’s just not that easy. I wish it were. Trust me, I really do. I’ve stayed up at night thinking of other options. Conner, I have nothing to my name. He owns my business, my bank accounts, and even my cell phone is in his name. The car I drive is in his name. If I leave him, it’s with the shirt on my back.” She started to cry again and I couldn’t help but reach my hand out to her.
“Listen, I don’t know anything about being a good friend. Hell, I know I ain’t no good at it, but since I’m here I’ll do whatever I can. Even if it’s just gettin’ you a room and keepin’ you safe.”
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