“You little tease.” His hand came back to my arm and held it in a vice grip as his face got close to mine. “All that time I worked to get you to go out with me and you think you can blow me off.” He snarled in warning. “That’s not fucking happening, do you hear me?” he spat.
Getting pissed didn’t work before so I needed a different approach. Thank goodness my brain was still firing on some cylinders and the hit to my head hadn’t knocked too many marbles loose, allowing me to come up with something quickly.
“You’re right, that wasn’t very nice of me.” I had to work hard to say it nicely and it made me want to vomit. Or that could have been the pain.
A mix of confusion and satisfaction lined his face. He was caught off guard, and with that, he lessened the hold on me, giving me the second I needed.
In a rapid fast move, I grabbed his forearms to give me leverage and raised my knee, slamming it up into his groin. The asshole let go of me and dropped to his knees.
I didn’t waste a single second in getting the hell out of there and escaping back to my apartment. Once inside I slammed the door shut, locked it, and went straight to the bathroom.
When I looked in the mirror, I gasped. It was one thing to feel the pain he’d inflicted, but seeing the remnants of it on my cheek was like another slap to my face. I’d let myself think I could handle Brett and that once I said no enough times he would leave me alone.
The swelling and angry red mark lining my cheek that was already starting to bruise, confirmed that he in fact wasn’t planning to leave me alone. My eyes dropped to my arms where burgeoning marks were already starting to peek out of my short-sleeved lavender t-shirt, adding to the collection of bruises he left in his violent wake.
I knew I should’ve called the police. Followed by my friends. What I did instead was text Brinley to let her know I wasn’t feeling good and apologizing before stripping my clothes off and climbing in the hot shower.
As water cascaded over my body, I sank to the fiberglass floor, and pulled my knees to my chest.
Then I let the tears fall.
* * *
I managedto drag myself out of the shower.
My tears had run dry and I was exhausted. After drying off and avoiding any other glances at my appearance in the mirror, I threw on a pair of panties along with an oversized sleepshirt.
Then I crawled into my bed and tried to shut the world out.
That hadn’t been easy since my phone had rung several times and chimed with notifications that text messages had come through.
A sigh escaped me.
I felt awful that I missed going to Brinley’s and wasn’t answering anyone, but I couldn’t even find the energy to reach over to the nightstand to grab my phone.
Besides, I felt a bit beat up.
I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do, but at that moment, all I wanted to do was sleep.
Turning to my side, I moaned at the pain it created, and gentled my movements. Once situated, I rested my head carefully on my pillow and snuggled under my blankets and fluffy, lavender duvet cover.
Hopefully, by the light of day I’d know what I should do.
ChapterFour
BODIE
She hadn’t shown up.
I hadn’t been able to get Gemma out of my head and found myself looking forward to seeing her again.
That hadn’t happened though since she’d texted the ladies to let them know she wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to get the baby or anyone sick so she wouldn’t make it.
While that could be true, something didn’t feel right.
And I was fucking worried about her.
ChapterFive
