I squeeze my eyes closed as he turns around. I’m not in the right frame of mind to talk about anything more tonight. I’m drained, overwhelmed, and more tired than I’ve ever been in my life.
Lex gets into bed beside me, tugging up the disgusting blanket I’d kicked away. When he turns over and backs into me, I realize his back and ass are bare. And against me. I can’t believe he got into bed naked with me. I try to scoot over an inch, but I meet the edge of the mattress. My eyes clench shut, and I hope he doesn’t notice the change in my breathing. I’m worried he’ll feel the discomfort radiating from me as I draw my arms against my body.
“It’s just nudity, rabbit. Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” he says without turning over.
His words infuriate me. I scoff. “I don’t have panties to get in a bunch, thanks to you.” I draw my legs toward my chest, making myself as small as I can.
He laughs. He fucking laughs. “Oh yeah, that’s right.”
His body stills as he sobers. He never tries to turn toward me. He allows the gap of space between me and his naked body. “Goodnight, bunny,” he whispers before silence falls between us.
ChapterEight
Lex
Iwake up the same way I went to sleep, except now a cold sweat coats my body. The alarm clock by the bed buzzes like a hive of angry bees. The time on the clock is only a few hours later. Nothing is worse than waking up restless next to a goddamn woman like her. Actually, next to any woman at all, but she’s especially difficult to just exist beside.
I turn onto my back and stare up at the dark ceiling. Every so often, headlights illuminate the room through the thin veil of the inner curtains. For a while I worried about her husband finding us, but as the days passed without him sending the goddamn army to find her, I can’t help but wonder if he even cared that she was gone. Not just about being married or the marriage-centric image he portrayed, but actually cared abouther.Is she safe? Dead? With all that generational wealth he has, why isn’t he doing everything he can to get his girl back? A girl like her would make me do some real fucked-up shit to find her and bring her home.
She stirs beside me, and I hold my breath for a moment until she settles. She’s making me anxious. I feel guilt and regret and something else that I can’t put my finger on. I hate knowing I’ll have to kill her when we get to Texas, but it’s better than sending her home to the piece of shit who bruised her abdomen like that. I can’t bring her with me, not that someone like her would come along anyway. Life on the run wouldn’t work for a girl like her. There aren’t any spas or fancy new cars on the lam.
My mind wanders to how I imagine her husband looks. Probably nothing like me. Probably well dressed and put together. Someone her parents love more than she does. All I know for sure is that he’s a little-dicked piece of shit who likes to beat up on his woman.
The irony isn’t lost on me. I never treated women much better, and I’d be lying if I called myself any kind of saint. She’sdifferent, though, and I can’t wrap my mind around his inability to see that. How can he not when it’s so disgustingly clear to me? With everything else good in his life, he also has her beneath him.
Fucking idiot.
My cock hardens at the thought of him fucking her. It shouldn’t, but it does. I recognize the appearance of the side of me that wants to see that. A familiar to me—yet foreign to her—entity that occasionally screams in my head. At times, that side of me is hard to disregard.
I ache with an uncomfortable throb I can’t ignore. My hand slips to my cock, and I bite the inside of my cheek as I wrap my fingers around the head of my dick. I circle myself with my fist as I try to be quiet and still, like I had to do when I was on the inside. I was polite about it, at least, unlike some of my roommates who jerked it loud enough to wake up the whole row.
I bite back a groan. Fuck, I want her. Ineedher. Never in my life have I wanted to rip the clothes from a woman so completely.
At this moment, with my head in all the wrong places, I turn over and scoot closer to her back. She remains motionless as I press my hard cock against her ass. There’s no way she doesn’t feel it. I run my hand down her side, knowing there are bruises beneath my touch. If she doesn’t feel my dick pressed against her, she’ll feel that.
“Don’t pretend to sleep, bunny,” I whisper.
She tenses and tries to fake a heavy sleep as my hand reaches the waistband of her pants and travels to the front of her slacks. I unbutton them and lower the zipper. I reach into the newly splayed fabric, rubbing the soft skin of her lower stomach and the soft hairs of her pelvis.
“There’s no way you don’t feel this,” I say in a hushed tone as I tug her pants down. “Being asleep doesn’t make it any less wrong, you know? Pretending to be asleep doesn’t make it any less sinful.”
I pull her pants past her ass and push my cock between her thighs. I groan at the warmth of her pussy against me.
“Remember when I said I fucked women who couldn’t consent? If you think being asleep deters me, it doesn’t.” I grip my cock and guide myself into her.
The muscles inside her twitch at the intrusion, and the tension rides up her entire body. She’s still trying to remain faithful. It’s a pathetic and sad attempt to fight what she wants and what I need. What we both need. She’s too fucking wet to pretend she doesn’t want it, too.
“Goddamn it, rabbit,” I groan as I draw my hips back and slam them into her. It’s too dark to see her face and gauge her reaction. I hope a pair of headlights will cross the window so I can see her open eyes. Because I know she’s awake. “You’re being childish,” I say through gritted teeth. I get sick of it. I refuse to play the fucked-up game she made up to avoid the reality we’re in. To avoid letting me in.
I sink my fingers into the worst of her bruises, and she yelps. Finally, a fucking reaction. I roll her onto her stomach and keep my cock deep inside her as I press her face into the pillow. Her legs clench together beneath me, and the friction is enough to make me want to bust.
“Lex...”
I push my hips forward, going deeper inside her. “Good morning, bunny,” I say with a growl as I wipe the hair from her cheek.
“You’re...hurting me,” she whispers.
“I’m not even doing anything to hurt you...yet.”