“As much as I appreciate your concern, they have not.”Her voice stayed even.“You don’t need to be here, Jarod.Go back to your place.”
He scrubbed his face with both hands, the bleariness fading just enough to show behind-the-eyes calculation.“No, I think I’m gonna move in.You know, since I’m your fiancé.I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Cut the crap.”Her jaw locked.“You’re not moving in.We are never living together.”
He stood, sudden and unsteady, and she stepped back before she realized it.The room shrank around her.Sometimes she forgot how big he was until he pushed into her space.
“I am moving in,” he said.“My lease is up at the end of the month.So get used to it.”
“Absolutely not.”Her voice came out flat.He could continue living out at the Willows, a depressing landscape of run-down duplexes, and away from her tidy home.She kept her feet planted.
He looked at her, head tilted just slightly, like he was trying to decide how far he could push it.“Wrong.”
She wasn’t fighting about this.“We’ve been engaged because you said you needed it for respectability or whatever bullshit reason.I agreed to a temporary arrangement.I’ve said that since day one.”
Jarod smiled then, showing too many teeth.The smile he used at barbecues and fundraisers.The one that used to fool people.“Well, I decided we are getting married.”
“No.”Her tone sharpened.“I’ve gone along with this because I haven’t had a better option.That’s it.”
“You don’t have a choice,” he said, and the way he said it chilled her more than the weather ever could.
Her pulse thudded in her throat.“Enough is enough.You have to be respectable by now.I can’t do anything else for you.”
He leaned in and grabbed her arms with both hands.“You just don’t get it.Why I want this.”
Pain ripped through her so fast she gasped.
“It’s you.It’s been you.I want you.Yeah, the respectability of being engaged and then married to the town's golden girl is definitely appealing, but we’re in this together.You and me, and you're not going anywhere.”He jerked her toward him and pressed a hard kiss against her lips.
She struggled and nearly dropped as more pain slashed through her ribs.
He kissed her harder, reaching for the hem of her shirt.She struggled, panicking.He’d tried this once before, and she’d shut him down.“Stop.”
“No.”He yanked her closer.
She shifted to the side and brought up her knee, nailing him in the groin.
He coughed and released her, shoving her.“Damn it.Bitch.All women want it and just don’t realize it.You will.”He stepped back, his face an angry red.“I'm moving in this weekend, so get used to it.”He turned and walked to the door, opened it, then looked over his shoulder.“We are going to be married in every possible way.”He slammed the door.
As he left, she sank onto the sofa and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
What was she going to do?He was getting more and more sexually violent.
As hard as it was to admit, she had thought about dropping his ass in a creek.She probably couldn’t kill anybody, but it was tempting.Still, the blackmail he had on her was real, and if she made the wrong move, it would get out.Somewhere, somehow, it was waiting to be released.
She picked up her phone, needing to talk to somebody.The problem was, she didn’t know who.
The line clicked.“Hello?”A very sleepy Doc May answered.
“Hi, May.Do you have a minute?”Amka asked.
“Of course.Are you hurt?”
“My ribs are killing me,” she admitted, pressing a palm against her side like it might help.
May’s voice sharpened.“Okay, I’ll meet you down at my office?—”
“No.I’ll come to you.”Amka was already headed back for her raincoat and her green knit hat.It was cold out there.“I need to talk.”
