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“Why?” Not that she cared to spend the night on the boat, but she knew he worried about vulnerabilities the boat presented if someone were watching it.
His arms came around her, snug, sheltering, and she knew immediately that something was wrong. Rowdy sighed behind her, his muscular arms flexing as he rubbed his cheek against her hair.
“You may as well tell me, Rowdy. ”
“Someone was watching the house last night,” he said softly. “On the hill in front of your bedroom window. They were there for most of the night. ”
Kelly swallowed tightly as she stared across the room. “He’s been watching me. ” She had sensed it. A part of her had known she was being watched, she just hadn’t wanted to admit it.
“It’s okay, Kelly. ” Rowdy’s voice lowered as his lips pressed against the top of her head. “It might not even be him. I just want to be certain. ”
“And how are you going to be certain?” she asked, feeling the fear invade her in a slow, insidious crawl. “Where are Dawg and Natches?”
“They’re watching the boat. The sheriff is going to check out the hill tonight. He’s ex-Army, he knows how to do it. Besides, there’s no way I can make love to you in Dad’s house. Every time I think about it, Kelly, my balls shrivel. ”
He was trying to lighten the mood. She could hear it in his voice. Kelly shook her head as she pulled herself from his arms and moved from the bed, swiping the shirt he had worn earlier from the floor and pulling it on.
“Kelly,” he protested softly. “Baby, I’ll fix this. I promise. ”
She held her hand up without turning back to him, hiding her desperate attempt to hold back her screams with sheer force. Shaking her head she moved quickly to the doorway then down the steps that led to the first floor of the houseboat.
Where she was going to go, she didn’t know. There was no place to hide, no way to escape.
You’re my good girl, Kelly. My good little girl. Tell me you love me. You love me, don’t you?
Kelly stumbled at the last step as the words whispered through her mind, the memory of his hissing voice, his hands holding her down, parting the cheeks of her rear as he spread the lubrication there and attempted to rape her.
She had felt him trying to enter her.
She wrapped her arms over her stomach, determined not to throw up, not to scream in rage.
“Don’t do this to yourself!” Rowdy’s voice was dark, angry, as his arms came around her again, turning her to his chest, pulling her against him as he surrounded her, sharing the heat of his body as she felt ice building in her soul. “Kelly, I swear. We’ll catch him. ”
She shook her head desperately, realizing tears were washing down her cheeks as the sobs clawed at her chest.
She could still feel the cuts the attacker had sliced into her flesh, the blood running over her skin, hot, slick.
“I can’t do this,” she cried, her fingers curling into fists as he held her to him, refusing to let her go. “I can’t do it again. ”
She would never survive another attack and she knew it. “Oh, God, Rowdy. Oh, God. I can’t…”
Rowdy picked Kelly up in his arms, moving to the sofa, cradling her against his naked body as he held her head to his chest and fought back the intense, primal violence threatening within him.
The bastard had scarred her. Not just her mind with his attempted rape, but her soul. The attack had instilled a fear inside her that he knew she would never fully recover from, and it destroyed him.
“It’s okay, Kelly,” he crooned at her ear. “I have you, baby. No one can hurt you here, sweetheart. I swear it. ”
She shuddered against him. The cries had eased, but the trembling in her body hadn’t.
“Kelly, baby, you have to trust me. ” He cupped her chin, forcing her to look up at him, his heart breaking at the sight of her eyes drenched in tears, her face pale from fear. “It’s going to be okay, baby. ”
“It won’t be. ” Husky, filled with fear, her voice sliced open his heart. “I knew he was watching me. I could feel him. God, Rowdy. ”
She jumped from his lap before he could stop her, stumbling across the floor. She turned on him, her eyes blazing with cloudy fury as she stared across the distance.
“He won’t stop. He won’t stop until he hurts someone again, and next time, he might hurt you. ”
What he thought was fury in her eyes was actually horror. He saw it swamp her features, leeching the rest of the color from her face.
