I glanced down at the clock: it was already 5 AM. Sighing, I brushed her hair back gently. “How about we skip mass today?”
“Your mother will kill you.”
“You’d protect me.” I smiled and she huffed at that. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Now that I have three children, I’d never make the mistake of getting between a mother and her son.”
“So I’m on my own?”
“You’ve always got Jesus…if you go to church, that is.” She yawned.
Sitting up slowly, I cradled her in my arms and lifted her over to her side of the bed and pulled the blanket over her.
“Goodnight, wife.”
“It’s no longer night, so good morning, husband,” she muttered as she drifted off.
“Must you fight me on everything?” I kissed her forehead, lying down beside her.
As I was falling asleep I heard her say, “Yes, because fighting is the best foreplay.”
I could never win against her…but losing came with its own advantages.
FIVE
“I think I have a pattern of being nice and lovely and then dark and twisted.”
~ Ryan Murphy
MELODY
Damn him. It was the only thought that repeated over and over again in my mind as I stared at myself in the mirror. All across my skin were the red marks that had been left from his whip. My chest was covered in so many purple-red bruises it looked like I’d made love to a fucking vampire—and it wasn’t just there: there were bruises on my arms, my neck…fuck.
“If you don’t pick something to wear we are going to be late for mass.” He had the motherfucking audacity to say that to me, leaning on the doorframe of my closet, smugger than the devil, dressed in a fitted navy suit, his red tie still untied around his neck.
“Tell me, Liam, what am I supposed to wear when I look like I was—”
“Fucked until the sun came up?” he interrupted, his eyes roaming over his handiwork proudly.
“Liam! It’s March! I can’t go into church with a turtleneck to cover this shit up!” I snapped.
“Don’t cover it up then.”
Damn him.
Taking a deep breath, I fought the urge to smack him, instead grabbing a long cream blouse, a scarf, and a blue pleated skirt.
I could feel his eyes on me as I got dressed and tried my best to ignore him, but because he couldn’t go an hour without trying to tempt me, he came up right behind me and pulled the scarf from around my neck.
“I said don’t cover it up.”
“Someone is getting a little bit too comfortable with bossing me around.”
He didn’t reply, simply kissing the back of my head. His eyes met mine in the mirror as I relaxed against his chest for a second, taking a deep breath before reaching for my heels—
“MOMMY!!”
A chill went down my spine as I dropped the heels in my hands and pushed Liam off of me. I ran, my heart pounding in my chest as I ripped open the door to their room.