I hurt for her as he tells me what happened to his precious sister.
“Her arms had marks up and down them. I knew immediately she was on something. When I confronted her, she told me to mind my own fucking business.
“A week later, the same thing happened. She stormed in; he followed. I heard him say the same damn thing—she needed a fix. This time, she told him no. In that moment, she was again Maria in my eyes, not the Maria I saw over previous weeks.
“I stood up off the couch and walked toward her room. I heard a struggle and her begging him, ‘No, please no.’ I kicked in the locked door and pulled him away, then pulled the syringe of poison out of her arm. He attacked me, and I yelled for her to call the police. She cried and cried, and then she laid down and stared at the ceiling.
“I knew something was wrong. I kicked him off me. I stood and went for the door to call for help. He attacked me from behind and pushed me on the bed next to her. I watched as her lips went from a healthy pink color to pale within seconds. Her body convulsed. She wasn’t in control.”
I feel him tighten under me, and I wonder if I asked too much of him. Yet, I want to know, and I somehow feel like he needs to tell me.
“His hands were around my throat when the rage kicked in. It was like I was watching it all happen—everything—in slow motion. The sound of my own blood flowed like the Detroit River on a spring day after the big thaw. My pulse pounded out of control through my entire body as I fought for my life.
“The moment when a person takes their last breath, there is a look that passes in their eyes. In his case, the anger and rage left, and fear and pain set in... right before realization that there wasn’t a fucking thing he could or would do to hurt her ever again.
“I could have stopped. I could have let him live. But I didn’t. I never let go.”
I am fighting with everything I have to hold back the tears, but I can’t hold back the truth.
“It’s not your fault.”
“No talking, Tatum. Sleep now.”
I can hear the pain in his voice. It took him a lot to open up to me, and I am so glad he did. Maybe it will relieve some of the pain inside of him. I sure hope so.
“Goodnight,” I whisper against his skin, then kiss him.
“Sleep good,” he says, pulling me closer.
Can I sleep? Can he? I know we have done it before, but I was drunk, and he disappeared before I awoke.
No matter. He will be here in the morning. After all, it’s his place, and he invited me to stay. So stay I will. Sleep or no sleep.
Chapter Twenty
Buck lands a jab to the left side of my head, a solid hit. I’m sure it would hurt if I let it. Mind over matter. It can’t hurt if I don’t acknowledge it.
“Focus, fool.” He laughs, coming at me with a right that I block.
I sweep his legs, and he falls.
“How about I do the teaching, and you do the focusing.”
He sputters under his breath as he pops up. “My mom did that to me twice.” He swings with his right, and then sweeps me.
Didn’t see that coming, I think as I stand.
“You should have slept last night instead of shaking the bed,” he jokes, but it’s not fucking funny.
“You watch what you say, you hear me?” I swing at him, and he blocks.
“Oh, I fucking heard you.” He laughs. “Not nearly as much as I heard her.”
I swing and connect with the side of his face, and he is down.
“All right, that’s enough,” I hear Jagger call to us.
I understand why he interjected. Shit was getting heated.
Buck stands up, rubs his jaw, and smirks.
I poke him in the chest. “You and I got a good thing going, Buck. Don’t fuck it up.”
I don’t know what Jagger says to him next because I hit the bags hard.
I didn’t sleep for shit last night, and neither did Tatum. I couldn’t let her. I couldn’t control the new thing burning inside of me.
Rage wasn’t center ring anymore. Need was.
She lay in bed this morning, staring at the ceiling after the last time I fucked her. Her face was flush, pink lips red, tits covered in hickeys, and legs limp.
I asked her if she was okay, and she nodded before looking over at me.
“I should apologize,” I tell her.
She smiled as big as the fucking morning sun. “You better not.”
When I kissed her and reached between her legs again, she whimpered in my mouth. I knew she’d had enough. Fuck, I knew she’d had enough ten minutes before that, but I loved the way my cock felt sliding in her hot, wet pussy; the way her walls tightened around me, squeezing the fuck out of me, even after I fucked her twice before that. Fucking amazing.