His to Claim (10 page)

Did he want her to follow?
It should have scared Elaine.

When he had had taken such pains in the past to not even be seen, he now wanted her to come after him? Why the sudden change? What did he want from her?

He didn’t even stop to check whether she had obeyed, or not. And his confidence in his own ability to prevail over her was not misplaced. Elaine was trailing after him spellbound.

A short while later, he had led her to a quiet, isolated and shadowed part of the fair.

Elaine saw him turn into a long darkened alleyway formed from the back partitions of two rides, one, a big Monster House, and the other, a giant Ferris-Wheel.

The passage had minimal light sporadically falling on the dirt path, and he, long, powerful legs astride, stood at the very end–the dead end.

*****

CHAPTER 12

H
er heart raced like a prey’s in the clutches of a predator. Even the clamour of the world outside repressed before its loud thundering echoes.

“Who..who are you?” She enquired from long circumspect yards away. Her throat hoarse with uncertainties.

He didn’t answer. Didn’t move. So she did.

He was the piper whose tunes pulled at her cords and she, enthralled, abridged the distance between them like a puppet.

Elaine was aware this was madness. At the back of her lulled mind she knew he could be a criminal, could do any number of horrible things to her, but–a very big,
but
–for all the havoc he was creating in her, nothing even remotely pointed toward threat.

Come to think of it, she had never gotten an intuition that cautioned her of a danger from him. He was always an enigma she had longed to solve. But just when a thought of doing so would cross her mind, the sensation of him being around would lift like some mystic fog.

The nearer she got to him now, the darker some feelings lying dormant stirred.

He was posed in a thespian play of light and shadow. A mystery that thrilled her beyond her better judgement.

When at last standing before him, she reiterated her question, “Who are you?” an internal voice whispered in answer to her,
you know him, Elaine.

Did she?

The grid of day and night falling over him, gave him an intriguing air. But his proximity was too jangling. Even through the dim lights, his hoodie covering his face, something tugged at her, asking for her to recognise.

Obstinately though, it was as if a side of her was refuting the answer, a knowledge of affinity to him.

However, she couldn’t push away the trepidation now rapidly breaking into her.

“W..Why do you follow me?” Her questions didn’t seem to faze him.

Elaine had reached so close, close enough to touch that wide expanse of his formidable chest. It rose and fell with his every breath, and her fingers grappled with an electrifying need to feel that force of life.

But when she did lift her hand up, it was to pull at the hood keeping him cowled in scarlet mystery.

At first glimpse Elaine knew, without an ounce of doubt–before the head shining with thick, rich dark hair had even risen to unveil his identity–who he really was.

Cold blue eyes from a face chiselled as the ridges of an unforgiving mountain slivered her.

“You..!” Livid, she didn’t know what else to say. What to make of him, his stalking her like this?

Elaine also didn’t realise her accusation was resonant of the past they shared, as he did.

“Expecting someone else again?” His sneer spoke of it volumes.

The shock of seeing him quickly wore off as her mind proficiently unravelled the reason behind his appearance there.

“Yes,” She concurred astutely. “In fact, I am. You wouldn’t happen to know why he’s not here, would you?”

Trevor’s hands as hard steel charged out to grab her by the upper arms, and shake her once as though to shake a point home.

“From this moment on, you can have no doubt in your pretty little head that the one man this close to you,” he plastered her to his length, the rock hard crest in his pants unmistakable, “and in your bed, would only be me, and me alone.”

And then as if to seal the pact, he kissed her, obliterating her defences with that earth-shattering contact.

She had yet to surface from this attenuating assault, when he started walking again, this time towing her after him.

Still somewhat dazed, her feet staggered in his wake, whereas his sure foot falls with an imperious stride crossed over a back-entrance, then straight from a dirt ridden ground into an open car of a Ferris-Wheel.

An attendant closed its door as soon as they had mounted in. And just as quickly, the ride began its climb.

Elaine nearly lost her balance from the unexpected momentum of going against gravity, but Trevor’s hand was instantly there to lend her support. It was galling to her, needing even that small a help from him.

“Let go!” She glared at him with all the hatred she could muster.

“Are you sure?” He enquired calmly, unaffected by her display of fury.

That riled her all the more.

“So certain, you can call my life on it.” They stared into each other’s eyes. The challenge, unspoken, of who would look away and give in first.

Of course, she lost. After all, what did he have to hide? It was she, who had a broken heart, a broken soul, a broken life to keep from exposing.

Elaine flittered to one corner. The top half of the car made from glass showed the ground slipping farther and farther down. People shrinking in size.

No one made a beeline for the Ferris-Wheel. Apparently, the deplorable man had worked something out with its operators.

“Make it stop, Trevor. Now.” She demanded without turning, hoping too, the shiver in her voice wasn’t as noticeable as it felt to her.

From the corner of her eye she saw him stalk to one of the long crescent benches skirting the car. She hadn’t paid attention before, but there sat a Champagne bottle cooling in a silver bucket.

After pouring them the sparkling drink, he came to offer her one of the two flutes.

How dare he?
The high-handed swine!

Elaine was blazing with such fury that she not only knocked her own drink, but sent his spiralling as well. “You presumptuous swine, stop the ride.” She was proud of the direct challenge in her voice.

However, impervious to her antics, Trevor smirked. And with a laid back drawl came his words. “It’ll stop, ju..st abou..t, now.”

The Wheel stopped, as if on command. Their enclosed car dangling from the peak of the ride’s height. The view was breathtaking if Elaine had the capacity to look anywhere else but at
him
.

She knew he had her trapped good. There was nowhere she could run, until it wasn’t what he wished too.

The fight fled Elaine. She was just too weary of it all.

“Wh..What do you want, Trey?”

“You know.”

“No.., no I don’t know.” She spoke, frustrated with him. “Every time that I think I might have an inkling, you go and prove me the biggest moron.”

“I want you, Elaine.” His sight honed on her. “I’ve always wanted you. How could you not know?”

“Um.., let me see..” Resentment swirling within her at his glib tongue, she feigned a serious deliberation upon his question before scornfully flinging, “How about the time when you welcomed me to your home with the slur, Trash?!”

His grimace didn’t slow her down. “The mean looks, the cutting remarks you hurled at me when you were home from college. You wouldn’t stay in the same room if it were just me in it. As I recall, the only time you were ever nice to me was when I caught you fooling around with Damian’s girlfriend, Violet.” Her words treacherously quivered. “But I saw through you. And th..then, the day after o..our first time..”

Elaine was horrified she was about to cry, unable to finish.
God, please, don’t let me weaken now, any other time’s okay. But not in front of him!

“I ruined it for you, Elaine. Didn’t I? It being me that morning,” he poured before her the acid burning him for years, “instead of the one you wanted.”

The coldness of his tone froze her. She didn’t think he was still this bitter over that. Something akin to rage was darkening his visage.

“You never did tell me, who you were imagining in our bed.” He moved to the other side of the car, seemingly lost in thoughts. “I tried finding him, but no one could tell me anything.”

Shocked, her eyes went wide. Trevor had attempted to unearth her.. non-existent lover?

He saw her astonishment and took it for mocking incredulity.

“What?” He sneered. “Can’t believe I would go to such lengths? You sorely underestimate your worth, Elaine.”

The laughter that next came from his gravelled throat was too ominous. It sent icy shivers through her.

And when the bucket that was cradling the opened champagne flew over from the power of his violent kick to bang across the metallic half of the car, just inches from hitting the glass top, she cowered, startled from such destructive outburst.

Malevolent looking pieces of the shattered bottle and the atrociously dented bucket strewn the floor.

“It drove me insane!” Hands raking through the thick thatch of his hairs, he growled in tormented agitation as his brogue leapt out. “It was me, me who made love tae ye that night. And tae think ye were
fantasising
aboot another..” No one could begin to guess how he had lived with it till now.

Trevor snatched Elaine to him by her slender shoulders. “I damned near walked with a murderous rage fo’ too long. People looked at me and knew tae keep away.”

His blazing eyes pinned her. “Who was it, Elaine?”

She was shaken to her marrow. His pain, his anger, all naked, all intimating to a vulnerability she had never guessed at before. Could she really have had such power over him? The lie she conjured to protect her pride had long back turned into the most effective weapon of torture to him.

“When alone,” His lips touched the hollowed back of her ear, “I would persecute myself fo’ hours thinking what did he have that I couldna give ye?” His mouth travelled down to the valley between her breasts and licked one quivering globe, setting a fire in her so hot, she moaned.

Triumphant, he raised his head and looked down into her drugged eyes. She was having a difficult time remembering why she needed to keep him at a distance.

“Ye had me in the palm of yer hand from the first glimpse of yer bonny face, lass. But circumstances had always put ye in front of me at the wrong time, wrong place.”

His hands absently played with the wisps of her soft hairs. “That first day we met, I was already in a temper ‘cause Damian pissed me off with his usual dictums aboot responsibility. But when I got that..”

His brows knit together as if resonance of some old, bewildering ache had risen inside him with a vengeance.

“When I got that..
odd
sensation in my chest just laying eyes on a teenage lass, who hardly reached past my shoulders, it bludgeoned me. I dinna even ken what was it that fascinated me aboot ye? And then ye went on and repeated the exact drivel Damian tried tae gag me with earlier, and I flipped. I ken I handled everything badly, flaunting the same immaturity Damian indicted me of.”

Trevor met her baffled gaze. “It had hurt me more coming from ye.”

He wasn’t finished yet, she could see it in his fiery eyes. His hands were restless on her upper arms.

“It festered inside me, no’ ‘aving a clue why I couldna care less fo’ a lass stuck-up worse than a fucking nun’s arse.”

He scoffed at himself, “I avoided coming home fo’ some time. Stupidly believing that would erase all inexplicable feelings I had fo’ ye. But the truth hit me hard when I finally did come back tae find ye had turned sixteen. And I kent fully, that if I confusingly thought myself snared ‘fore, then I was hopelessly entrenched now.”

His head dropped back and he sighed wearily. “The longing tae touch ye, take ye in my arms, kiss ye.. God, I was going mad with desire fo’ ye. And even though nothing could ‘ave come from it, I still, like a masochist, tortured myself tae stay closer. I came home more often, just tae see ye.”

There was that furious glint back in his eye. His fingers tightening on her shoulders. “But ye never looked twice at me. And if ye did, I was petrified with having my weakness given into the hands of a girl who would nae doubt enjoy agonising me with it. No’ tae mention, I was calling myself all kinds of sick bastard fo’ lusting after sae young a lass from me.”

“Y..You’re lying.” Elaine was completely flummoxed. She didn’t know how to process this revelation.

Her disbelief, scepticism, incensed him. “The hell I am!”

He pushed away from her, and that’s when she realised how utterly content with his closeness she had been.

Leaning on him for support had felt natural. But now her legs felt rubbery, disturbingly weak without the certitude of his strength by her side.

However, somehow, she managed to keep standing.

“Ye ‘ave always believed the worst of me, Elaine!”

*****