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They jerked their pants from the floor, shielding Tess as they dressed quickly. Cole’s body was tight with fury as Tess fumbled with her gown, her fingers shaking so badly she could barely get it over her head.
Turning to her, still shielding her, Cole helped her untangle the material and ease it over her head.
“I’m sorry, baby,” he whispered, his lips feathering over her hair as he straightened the gown.
Tess shook her head, feeling the heat that traveled over her face. With a final touch of his fingertips to her cheek, he turned to her mother.
“How the hell did you get in?” His voice was furious as he faced Ella Delacourte, dark and warning.
“I didn’t come here to talk to you, perverted bastard that you are. Look how you corrupted my daughter. You’re just like that trashy, home wrecking sister of yours. ” Ella was screeching now.
Tess felt her face flame in shame as she stood to her feet, her legs shaking from her exertions and her fear. Dear God, how had her mother got into the house?
“Mother, why are you here?” Tess’s voice was thick with tears and confusion.
She wasn’t ashamed that she had experienced the sexuality of the act. But being caught in it was mortifying. And by her mother!
“I came to see why you were here after I found out your father and his tramp were away for the week,” she sneered. “You haven’t even called me. I was worried. ”
The classic guilt trip from her mother any time Tess spent time with her father.
“Ella, control your tongue,” Jesse’s voice was hard and laced with warning.
Tess looked at him in surprise. She had no idea Jesse knew her mother.
Ella cast the other man a look that should have withered him with shame. Jesse stood before her, his shoulders squared, his dark face furious.
“Tess, go shower or something. ” Cole drew her into his arms, kissing her head softly, his hands soothing on her back. “Let me take care of this. ”
Tess shook her head.
“I haven’t needed you to fight my battles before this, Cole. I don’t need you to do it now,” she said. “I haven’t done anything wrong—”
“Wrong?” Ella’s voice was piercing. “You think fucking your perverted lover and his friend isn’t wrong, Tess? I raised you better than to whore for some depraved bastard. ”
Tess trembled at the fury in her mother’s voice.
“Ella!” Jesse’s voice was a lash of cold, hard fury now. “Get the hell out of here before I escort you out. And I don’t think you want me to have to do that. ”
The heated edge of fury in Jesse’s voice surprised Tess.
“Get her the hell out of here,” Cole muttered to his friend.
“Would you guys just stop this?” Tess ran her fingers through her hair, hating the tremble in her hands as she faced her mother.
Years of being made to feel ashamed of her sexuality, of her needs as a woman washed over her. She remembered the lectures from the time she was a child, on the depravities of sex and the sins of the flesh.
“Mother, I told you I’d be back after the party,” she sighed, leaning against Cole for support, thankful in a way that she didn’t have to hide from her mother now.
“How could you do this, Tess?” Ella’s expression was livid, her gray eyes glittering with fury. “How could you have become so depraved?”
“Depraved?” Tess shook her head, sighing. “I’m just different from you. I’m sorry. ”
A tear escaped her eyes. She hated having her mother angry with her, just as she had hated leaving her father so long ago.
As she finished speaking, a movement behind her mother caught Tess’s attention. Her father, tall and strong, his face coldly furious, moved into the room.
“Well, I guess you’re satisfied,” Ella sneered when she saw him. “She’s just like you and that whore you married. ”
