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35
Beth
Committed to Nothing.
“You sound good singing in the shower.” Duke’s voice, unexpected and unwelcome, startles a scream from my throat that his big hand muffles before it can find wings that carry it out the open door of my bedroom.
With one of his massive arms wrapped around my torso, he pulls me back into his solid wall of a body and presses the sharp edges of his teeth together around my ear lobe hard enough to hurt. Just for a second before he lets go and laves it with his tongue. He presses the side of his face into my hair and takes a deep breath.
I wriggle against him, fighting my panic at how tightly clamped his hand is over my mouth. I have to remind myself that I breathe through my nose. He’s not trying to hurt me.
But when he doesn’t say anything and his arm tightens around my waist, I try to turn my head, frantic to make eye contact with him.
“You feel so good, smell so good,” he groans into my hair and I feel his arousal pressed into the rise of my ass and I start to struggle in earnest. I use my fists to pummel his forearms, I get the impression the strikes hurt my hand more than they hurt him.
He laughs, his breath washing over me makes me shudder.
“Oh Clover, why do you have to be like that? I’m always so nice to you.”
I shriek against his hand and try to bite the fleshy palm that’s pressed against my lips. My teeth barely graze him, but it’s enough for me to taste the salty skin of the hands I swore I’d never let touch me again.
“Mmmm,” h
e breathes, his hot breath pollutes the skin of my neck and face with the perpetually sweet mint gum flavored scent that I’ve come to loathe.
“If I move my hand, you gonna kiss me and be nice?” He asks in a deceptively calm, cajoling voice.
I’m desperate now and I see he’s wearing a pair of Converse. So, I raise my knee to get some momentum and bring my heel down on his instep.
Hard.
I’m not sure if it’s pain or annoyance that drives his grunt and sharp release of his hold on me, and I don’t spare a second trying to figure it out. I scramble away from him. Grabbing my towel tightly around me and whirling angrily to face him.
“What did you do that for?” he howls and hobbles over to sit on the bed.
“I should call the police, Duke. What the hell are you doing?”
“I was just fucking with you. And you said you wanted to see me before tonight.” Duke’s handsome face is contorted and flushed, as he bends over to examine his foot muttering to himself.
“When I got back to Winsome, you shouldn’t have come here unannounced.”
He sighs like my question exhausts him, but a sly smile spreads across his ludicrous, lying lips.
“I wanted to see you in person. I’ve missed you.”
“Why? Is Etta’s mouth busy?”
He laughs and shakes his head like he feels sorry for me. Then, he stands and saunters over to me. He cups my chin and tilts it up.
He scans my face, with the same dispassion I use when I’m eyeing a piece of fruit at the grocery store and I’m trying to determine if it’s ripe enough for me to take home. I know he’s already decided I’m at the peak of my prime and he’s plucked me. Now, he’s admiring his conquest.
My entire body hums like one of those old-fashioned wind-up timers right before it goes off. All I can think, the only thing I’ve been able to think for a long time, is how wrong Duke feels.
And not just physically, my soul has rejected him. It balks at his nearness. “I can’t do this. I really thought I could. But, there is so much wrong with us.”
He leans back like I slapped him. “Are you kidding? No two people have ever been better suited. This town is full of idiots. And we’re about to be rich and unstoppable. Your father just wants this one term as governor. He’s grooming me to run after him. Just imagine how much influence you’d have if you were my wife. We need to stick to our plan.”
I can’t hide my horror at how resolute he sounds.
