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He called me a stupid girl, a whore, and worse, and tried to drag me out of the house. I don’t know what I would have done if Campbell hadn’t come around the corner and saved me. He really is my guardian angel.
My mind flashes back to what my father said about Campbell. He’s wrong. Campbell isn’t a stranger. I know him better than I know anyone and I know he feels the same way about me. I know it seems like we’re too young or we moved too fast but that’s not how it feels. I’ve loved Campbell since we were kids and I know he feels the same way. Just because we haven’t seen each other in the last year doesn’t mean that our feelings for each other have changed.
Campbell has been nothing but amazing. He’s tried to take care of me and protect me since we met. He loves me and I love him. We’re married now and I know that we each took our vows seriously.
We watch my father leave in silence before Campbell turns and escorts me into the house. I’m silent as we make our way back inside and Campbell steers me over to the kitchen table. He leaves me there while he goes over to the stove and I watch as he makes some tea and sandwiches. I’m not really hungry but I don’t have the heart to tell him that. He carries everything over to the table and I take a drink of the tea before I pick at the sandwich.
This isn’t how I pictured spending my wedding night but my father’s arrival seems to have pushed us off track and destroyed any mood that was there.
“Are you ok, princess?” Campbell asks, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Yeah, seeing him just threw me.”
“I’ll never let him take you back there. You’re mine now. I love you, Salem.”
“I love you, too. I know that you would never let anyone hurt me. I don’t even think that he would hurt me, I just don’t want to go back there and be trapped again.”
“You won’t. You won’t ever be trapped again,” he says as he picks up one of my hands.
I smile at him as I take another sip of my tea. We’re silent for a minute before Campbell speaks again.
“Will you tell me about the last year? Why doesn’t he want you to leave?”
My shoulders tense but I know I need to let him in. He’s my husband now, after all, and he loves me.
“I think he was afraid that something would happen to me too. It was just the two of us after my mom died and I think that he just lost it. Or maybe he was always like this? I don’t know. It’s hard to picture him being any other way. He could be so cruel. Sometimes he used to get drunk and tell me that I killed her, I killed my mom.”
“Salem, you have to know that that’s not true,” Campbell says, squeezing my hand tight.
“I do, I do,” I assure him. “He homeschooled me and that took up most of the day and then he kind of just let me be by myself. It wasn’t all bad though. I love to read, you know, and he let me go outside every day, it’s just… I was so alone. I missed seeing you every day. I missed you so much, Campbell,” I say, feeling the tears starting to fall.
“I missed you too, Princess.”
He lifts me out of my chair then and cradles me in his lap. I cry into his shirt as I remember how alone and sad I was this last year. How alone I really was even before then.
“I can give you the friends, take you into town and introduce you to everyone I know,” he offers, already trying to find a solution, to make me happy.
I nod against him as I lay in his arms. We stay like that until our tea grows cold and my father fades from my head. I shift in his arms and his beard tickles my forehead. I remember what he did to me this morning and last night, how his beard scratched softly against my thighs and I remember that tonight is our wedding night. We shouldn’t let my father ruin that for us.
“Campbell?”
“Hmm?”
“Take me to bed.”
ChapterEight
Campbell
My body tenses at her words. I would love nothing more than to take Salem to bed and claim her but I need to make sure that she’s alright, emotionally, before we do anything.
“Are you sure, Salem? We don’t have to do anything tonight. I’ve waited years for you, I can wait longer if you need me to.”
“I don’t want to wait any longer. I love you, Campbell. I want you to make love to me.”
I look down into her pleading eyes and know there’s no way that I can deny her. I’ve waited so long to have her under me.
“I love you too, Salem. I’m going to be so good for you, so goodtoyou. I won’t let anyone hurt you and I promise I’ll make sure that you get whatever you want.”
