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For now, he was the wall protecting Geoffrey from all of them. And until Geoffrey said otherwise, he wasn’t moving.Chapter 14“Geoffrey, open the door.”
He wanted to get up. He did. And a part of him felt bad for how he’d pushed Sven away. But he hadn’t experienced this sort of agony since his parents had been killed.
Who had done this? Had it gone further than what was shown on the video? Someone touching him while he was clearly saying no was violation enough, but had it gotten worse? The uncertainty had become an acid eating through his soul. He had tried to watch the video again to see if there was anything that he could remember about the person, any little tic or something that would give their identity away, but he’d had to stop it before it reached the end. He couldn’t watch that part again.
A deep chill set into his body and wouldn’t let go.
He just couldn’t remember. Not that night. Not the person. Nothing.
And looking at the comments had turned into an obsession. Even after the video had been taken down, they continued to stream in on other posts.
What did he expect with the way he acts?
I see him at clubs all the time. Seen him kissing lots of guys.
Eh, I fucked him. Wasn’t anything special.
This was obviously staged for sympathy. He’s a millionaire—doesn’t need it.
Sympathy? That didn’t even make any sense. And he had not fucked that guy. The kissing? Yeah probably. He hadn’t been living like a saint.
There were just so…many…comments. He couldn’t keep up. They came in on Instagram, Tumblr and even the Facebook account he barely used.
And some of these people he knew.
Or thought he had.
They all seemed to revel in his downfall and they came in flocks like starving vultures to peck at what had once been his safe areas. Geoffrey closed the laptop and curled up under the covers in the center of his bed. He pulled the duvet over his head and made a cocoon. His sheets still smelled of Sven. He hugged close the pillow he’d used and buried his face in it. He wasn’t one to hide, but the comfort of his bed was too alluring to resist.
“I’m coming in.”
He heard the door open, the steps across his room and Sven’s breathing as he stood beside the bed. His sigh was loud as the covers shifted and Sven slid under them. He placed his hand on Geoffrey’s stomach and pulled him in tight against him, curling that big, beautiful body around his. Lips touched the back of his head.
“I haven’t showered,” he whispered.
“I don’t care,” Sven whispered back, nuzzling into his hair.
Exhausted or not, his body stirred at the intimate touch and his chest tightened because that felt like something way beyond sexual—like loving.
Sven suddenly tensed. “I should have thought—Geoffrey, are you okay with me touching you?”
“What?” Surprise froze him until he realized that had anyone else tried to touch him right then, he would have hated it, so the inquiry made sense. But he hadn’t been kidding when he’d said Sven made him feel safe. Geoffrey wrapped his fingers around Sven’s arm. “I’m very okay with you touching me. I’m sickened by that video, by what happened, but your touch helps…I don’t know, erase it. Please don’t stop.”
“I won’t.” Sven squeezed him. “You need to get up. Do something. I’ve only known you a short time, G, but even I know this isn’t like you. You’re a fighter.”
“I know.”
“Then what are you doing?”
Geoffrey didn’t have an answer. On one level, he knew none of those people mattered. He knew that he hadn’t asked to be touched. But he felt so betrayed and it wasn’t just the terrifying video of his nearly unconscious body being molested—it was the way everyone turned on him. There were some defending him, but the number was shockingly low compared to the ones gleefully jumping onto the shame wagon. So many, they’d weighed it down to a slow crawl. That swarm of judging, pointing fingers had become a recycling storm that hovered heavy over his social media pages.
“I need to go see my sister today,” Sven said.
Every muscle in Geoffrey’s body tensed. He didn’t care if it made him look like a weenie—he just wanted Sven protecting him. No one else. He kept seeing that pixelated hand on his body. He shivered.
Sven’s arms tightened and another kiss landed on the sensitive skin behind his ear. “Normally, I’d turn you over to Royce, but I don’t want you out of my sight. You’re coming with me.”
The finality in that statement made Geoffrey shiver for a different reason. The man didn’t ask, he told. And right then, that was welcome because Geoffrey didn’t feel up to anything, not even making decisions.
“Come on. It’ll do you good to get out of the house.”
