Dax
Since Rayne, I’ve hadno relationships with anyone. I didn’t trust my own judgement where women were concerned. That was a big part of the reason I installed the cameras around the house. I wasn’t sure if I could trust Samantha. Hell, even now after spending time with her and living with her, I still wasn’t sure.
She was good with Bow, and she seemed like she was building a connection with her. But Bow was my baby girl. She was the reason I moved across the country to give us a fresh start without the memory of her mom hanging over us like an albatross.
I loved her mom, but what she had done to herself and to others was unforgivable. I’d been too blind to see it or stop it from happening, and by the time I met her it was already too late. She’d crossed a road there was no coming back from, and I had to pick up the pieces she left behind. The only thing Rayne wanted and asked of me before she died, was to take care of our kid.
She didn’t want her growing up without a home and without love. I was doing the best I could by Bow, not because of Rayne but despite her. Bow was a constant reminder of her mother in both looks and because her name. I named her Bow as a tribute to her mom and as a steady reminder of what I’d been through, so I wouldn’t fall for someone again.
Samantha threatened that tight control I kept on my emotions the second I laid eyes on her. She had taken me by surprise the first day she walked into this house and every day since. I was finding it harder and harder to resist her sweet smiles, so that’s why I gave her the choice to make. Would emotionless, detached sex be enough for her?
I ignored the small voice inside my head that asked if it would be enough for me. There was no way I was going to get attached to Samantha. I couldn’t let myself love her no matter what. It was just sex with an available, attractive woman that was living in my house.
"Yes." She licked her lips "I can handle it."
I nodded, both thankful she agreed and hating myself for even considering using her this way. When I'd placed that ad, I didn't anticipate anyone like Samantha answering me. She was polished and refined. She was sophisticated and still humble and kind. The guy that she was supposed to marry was an idiot for chasing her away and right into my arms.
“Bow will be home in thirty minutes, and I need to get back to campus. Really think on this Samantha, because once that door is open, it has to remain void of any and all real emotion. It’s just sex. Just fucking to scratch an itch.” I watched the pulse pounding in her neck and I wanted to kiss her again, but I didn’t have the time. She wasn’t the only one that really had to consider the ramifications of us having sex. I had to consider it too. “If the answer is yes, leave your door unlocked tonight. If it’s no, I won’t bring it up again.”
She nodded and I pushed up off the floor. I had to get back to the team and figure out what the hell to do about Aimes. He’d fucking stalked her to the parking lot, and the mere thought of what could have happened had my blood boiling. The kid was gone. He was young and an egotistical asshole. Aimes thought he was the fucking team and that he could get away with harassing someone without consequences. He had no clue what the hell he was dealing with. If the coach and dean wouldn’t let me get rid of him, I was going to make him quit one way or another.
***
“I want him gone.” Ihad called an emergency meeting with the coach and the dean of the college. The kid was barely passing most of his classes, and I’d done him a favor getting him tutoring with Sam.
“Who is this girl? Is she a student?”
“No. She was tutoring him so he could have a chance at passing his damn classes. He followed her into the parking lot and scared the shit out of her. The second he followed her into the lot, he crossed a line.”
“I need proof, Winchester. I can’t kick a kid from the school and off the team without proof a crime was committed.”
“Did he out and out threaten her?”
I stayed silent, knowing already that this was going to go nowhere. That kid was a loose cannon on campus and if the school wouldn’t do anything about it, some young woman was going to end up getting hurt.
“It would be best if his tutor didn’t come back on campus.”
“She’s not just his tutor dammit, she’s my fiancée, and why should she be punished when that fucker had no right to go after her?”
“Watch yourself, Winchester. I don’t want to have to suspend you.”
Fury had me excusing myself from the meeting. I had a lot of fucking anger to go work out before I went home to Bow and Sam. Instead of heading back to my office, I headed to gym. One of the perks of being faculty was they had a smaller, private gym for staff to use.
I grabbed my clothes from my locker and slammed the door shut. “Damn, who pissed in your Wheaties today?” Liam came into the locker room from the opposite end.
I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. “Nothing, just watch out for the females on campus because we have at least one dumb asshole who doesn’t mind following women out to their cars.”
Liam’s demeanor changed and he stood up straight. “What happened?”
I told him the story Sam had told me, but I didn’t tell him who the player was that had done it. “I don’t know what to do, man. My hands are fucking tied. Cops can’t really do any more than the dean or coach can do. I’m stuck. I have to sit by and wait for something bad to happen to the girl he harassed already or to another girl, and it doesn’t sit right with me, especially—”
My mind went back to Rayne and her story. The whole situation with her had been a fucking nightmare. I may not have agreed with what she had done and the way she did it, but I could totally understand the why behind it. Justice was there to protect the innocent just as much as it was there to punish the guilty, if not more so.
“Especially what?”
“It’s nothing, man. I just need to beat the hell out of a punching bag before I go home to my girls.”
“Girls? Did I miss something? I thought you only had Bow.”