He slammed his hand against the window. “Josie Witherspoon. What the hell are you doing here? Do you have my wife and kids back there?”
The willowy blonde with two kids. Mike Lancer was the abusive husband they’d come here to escape.
“I- I don’t know who you’re talking about,” she said, falling back on shelter protocol.
“I know she’s back there. Who the hell do you think you are?!”
“Sir, I’m asking you to leave now,” she said, using her best stern voice.
“You don’t think I know why you’re back in town? Probably servicing Beau like you did back in high school when you let him ‘tap that ’ as you people like to say.”
He banged on the glass so hard, the whole wall seemed to rattle.
“You’re nothing but a whore!” he yelled. “And you’re lucky you’re behind that glass, because if you were out here, I’d teach you exactly what happens to little whores who go sticking their noses where they don’t belong!”
His words hit her like bullets, not just because part of what Mike was accusing her of was true, but also because Mike Lancer really did look angry enough to come through the glass.
But she swallowed her fear and picked up the phone. “If you don’t get out of here, I’ll call the police. And then you’ll have to explain to them why you’re so far away from Forest Brook, shouting at us.”
Mike paled. Unlike Beau, he’d always been way more concerned with keeping up his family’s name.
He slammed his fist against the glass one last time, but in the end, he walked out of the shelter, glaring over his shoulder at Josie all the way.
And Josie let out a huge sigh of relief.
“Oh, my God! That was so scary!” Nancy said beside her. Her voice cracked on the last word and she covered her mouth with both hands, obviously fighting back tears. This was why receptionists tended not last long at Ruth’s House.
“It’s okay,” Josie said, drawing the younger girl into her arms. “I was scared, too.”
“I feel sick,” Nancy said into her shoulder.
“And I felt sick to my stomach, too,” Josie said, thinking about how Beau used to actually hang out with Mike before he’d left his Alabama life behind to join the NFL.
“No, I mean really sick!”
Then Nancy emptied the contents of her stomach down the back of Josie’s shirt.
“I’m so sorry!” the younger woman said sheepishly a few hours later when Josie left the center, dressed in some donation box clothes Sam had picked out for her while she’d been scrubbing Nancy’s regurgitated dinner off her body in one of the center’s showers.
“It’s okay,” she answered with a weary wave.
Josie was bone tired when she finally arrived home to a completely dark house a little after two a.m. But she found herself having to fight off the temptation to crawl into Beau’s bed and curl up in his strong arms.
He’s not paying to comfort you after a long day, she reminded herself as she crept past his door, and walked up the stairs to her own attic room. Besides he was probably furious with her for leaving without giving him the chance to throw a temper tantrum that would have kept her there longer than necessary.
She didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until she reached her room and turned on the light.
But then she turned around and screamed in surprise. Beau Prescott was standing in the middle of her room, so rigid and straight, he would have looked like a statue if not for the fists opening and closing at his sides. And for once, despite his sunglasses and beard, she could tell exactly how he was feeling.
Furious. More furious than she’d ever seen him.
CHAPTER 15
“WHO HELPED YOU GET UP HERE…” But then she trailed off, noticing the state of her small attic room. It looked like an elephant had come trundling through with papers scattered all over the floor and a chair knocked onto its side. No need to finish the question, because she already had her answer.
Beau had gotten his own self up here, that was how determined he’d been to confront her about leaving.
“You can’t be mad,” she said. “You said it was my old job with sex, and my old job had time off.”
“Take off your clothes,” he growled.
“I’m allowed to take time off.”
“You’re allowed to take Friday nights off. It’s Saturday morning now, so you belong to me. Now take off your clothes.”
She was about to protest, but before she could even get a word out, he said, “Take off your clothes or I’m going to do it for you.”
She eyed him warily, thinking there was no way he would or could actually follow through on that threat. But then as if reading her thoughts, he closed the space between them, and the next thing she knew, her long-sleeved donation box t-shirt was being ripped down the center and cool air hit her torso.
“What are you doing?”
He shoved the ruined top off her body, then his hands fumbled down her sides and the next thing she knew, the yoga pants were coming off. He shoved them down over her before tearing her thin cotton panties off her body and throwing them across the room.
“There,” he said. “Now get down on your hands and knees.”
“Wait,” she said, holding her hands out.
“Shut up,” he said. “Don’t say another ing word to me. Just get down on your hands and knees.”
“I don’t think—”
“If I have to tell you again, I’ll find someone else to meet my needs, and you can go back to wherever you were living before my mother dredged you up. It’s your choice. Get down on your hands and knees or get out.”
It’s your choice. Josie clung to those words and tried not to think too hard about what she was doing as she got down on her hands and knees. “Whatever you say, Mr. Prescott.”
In less than a second, he was behind her, his chest pressed against her back, his lodged in the back crevice of her vagina. She held her breath again, expecting a rough entry, but then she felt two of his fingers press down on her , rubbing, rubbing. It was too hard to be called a caress, but not so hard that it to hurt. It was a punishment, she realized with a moan, one designed to show her who had the most power over her body.
And it was working. She could feel her formerly dry kit kat, begin to weep with need. As if to confirm it, he said. “I can feel you wet on my fingers. Your ’s begging me to get inside of you.”
He plunged his fingers into her, almost like he had that Wednesday after breakfast, but this time he didn’t also massage her .
She tried to resist, but the heat he was creating became too much. Soon she was riding his fingers, pressing back against his . Having it lodged against the bottom of her kit kat like this was nothing short of torture, and the two fingers inside of her just weren’t enough.
She found herself reaching up behind her and trying to guide him inside, but he grabbed that hand and pinned it to the floor. At the same time, he used his thigh to spread her legs further apart, so his fingers were even less satisfying than they had been before.
It only took a few minutes of this callous teasing before she was completely out of her mind.
“I can’t take this anymore,” she said. “I can’t—”
He suddenly took his hand out of her and shoved the two fingers that had been plumbing her depths into her mouth, effectively stemming her flow of words.
“Taste how hot you are right now, how ing much you want this. You’re such a bad girl, Josie.”
Josie clamped her lips around his fingers, and tasting herself like this, so hot and indecent, sent quivers through her.
“Does he know how hot you get for me?” Beau asked above her, his voice tight with anger. “When you were with him, did you let him know that every other day this week, you’ve given yourself to me?”
He lifted his away from her damp folds and asked, “Who paid for this? Whose do you want inside you right now?”
“Yours,” she moaned thoughtlessly.
“I want Mr. Prescott’s inside my —repeat that back. I want to hear the words straight from your pretty mouth.”
“I want Mr. Prescott’s inside my .” It was humiliating but true, and the sexual frustration was making her dumb with need. She tried to free her hand so she could masturbate herself, but he was too strong for her.
“Say you’re mine,” he said.
“I’m yours,” she whispered, not knowing what else to do to get the satisfaction her body was demanding.
And he finally shoved himself inside of her, so deep Josie’s back arched and she cried out when he filled her up completely with one thrust.
“You’re mine,” he said. “Mine. Say it again.”