Fragile Truths (19 page)

***

I had given her the space she needed and hadn’t realised I had fallen asleep until I felt the bed dip behind me when she lay down. I remained with my face in the opposite direction and just concentrated on the mellow rhythm of her breathing.

Her obvious loneliness had hurt me, her preparation and acceptance to die had made me angry but most of all, the thought that she believed she had no one saddened me.

“We all have someone we leave behind, Capella.” I whispered into the silence.

She remained quiet for a long moment; the only sound was a low drip from the bathroom and our breathing. “And you, Tate. Who do you leave behind?”

“Bella,” I offered. “My Mom and Pop, Ben, my friends and…”

“And?” she prompted when I hesitated.

“And Jude.”

The silence returned as we both contemplated our lives, what our loved ones would do without us and for me, I wondered if Jude would actually miss me. “Just because we don’t talk or because he doesn’t see me as his brother anymore doesn’t mean I don’t love him, you know. It doesn’t mean I would be happy to leave him here. As I’m sure your dad and friend wouldn’t accept your… end.”

“I’m not saying they would accept it, just that they will be fine without me.”

I felt her turn her head so I did the same until we were looking at each other. “Tell me about you and Jude.” She inclined her head as she smiled at me. I chuckled as certain memories slipped through my mind.

“He was a little fucker,” I laughed. Her smile widened and I reached out to touch her lips on instinct. She was so beautiful; I just needed to touch her. “He was always getting us in trouble. I’m four years older than him so of course it was always left to me to watch him and my Ma always insisted he tag along every-bloody-where I went.” Her eyes were alive with my story telling and I smiled at her excitement.

“I remember one day, I was about fourteen, so he must have been around ten. Anyway, I was into this girl and of course as a fourteen year old lad, my hormones were all the over the shop and I knew she wanted to… well you know.”

“At fourteen?” Her stunned eyes searched my face and I suddenly felt like a dog, her astonishment making me realise just how bad I had been at that age.

“She was sixteen,” I revealed as though it excused my behaviour.

She smirked at me as I gave her a sheepish look, “Go on, you were meeting this girl…”

“Yeah, I was meeting this girl; I can’t remember her name…” Shit, should have kept that snippet of information quiet when Frankie’s brows hit her hairline. “Will you stop bloody judging me or I won’t tell you.”

“Sorry,” she smirked as she lifted her hands in surrender. “Go on oh mighty stud.”

“Hell yes, I was a stud, still am, Capella.” She bit her tongue and nodded but I ignored her mockery. “Well I’d sat him down with a can of pop and a packet of crisps in the field as me and… the girl went into the woods to…
kiss
.”

“Kiss?” she repeated as her eyes laughed.

“Kiss,” I sustained. “So after about ten minutes we were kissing with her knickers around her ankles and mine… shit, I don’t think I actually wore any at that age,” I divulged, going off course as I tried to remember back to the day.

“Go on; never mind your underwear situation.” Frankie urged with eagerness in her eyes.

“Sorry, well we were
kissing
and she kept moaning about how she could smell something but we carried on, in fact I don’t think at that point either of us could stop…
kissing
.” I stopped to laugh when the memory assaulted me. “Right, sorry… so we’d finished, pulled everything up and scrambled from the woods. Jude is sat with his back to us, looking down at something in front of him but I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”

Frankie nodded and smiled, my tale taking her mind someplace other than the horror we were currently in. “As I came behind him, I can see a trial of smoke swirling above his head.” Frankie frowned as I looked straight at her, “The little twat had only gone and raided the girls bag, taken her little make-up mirror thing and used his specs and the sun to burn tiny little holes in his bloody shoes.”

She laughed loudly, her face lighting up with glee as I chuckled with her, “My God, why?”

I scoffed as I remembered his face and his words, “He said that everyone at school wore lace ups and he hated his Velcro fasteners, said some kids took the piss cos’ he still wore little kids shoes and he wanted holes so he could use shoelaces.”

“Aww, that’s so sweet.”

“It fucking wasn’t when my mother battered the shit out of me.” I snorted.

“Oh god,” she furrowed her brow and her eyes fuelled with pity. “You didn’t hurt him for it did you?”

“Of course I fuckin’ did, I beat the shit out of the little sod. He got my ass whipped good and proper.”

“You big meanie,” she grumbled as she punched me in the arm. “He was just a kid and if I remember at that age, other kids can be really mean.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “They got their asses whipped too.”

She tilted her head as her eyes softened. “You hit them for bullying your little brother?”

“Yeah.” I stared at her in confusion, “Of course I did. Don’t act so surprised.”

She shrugged but smiled as she shifted onto her bottom, “Do you miss him?”

The question was so out of the blue after the laughter that it hit with a force I wasn’t expecting. She gazed at me, her eyes sad and knowing but I rolled my lips as my heart ached. “Yeah, I do.” I sighed and smiled back, “A lot. I know I wasn’t the best brother and my… methods were wrong but I did it to protect him, Frankie. He just doesn’t get that, he didn’t understand.”

“He didn’t understand what?” she asked softly and I blinked at her.

Shit, this woman had a way of getting under my skin, burrowing deep and wriggling out all the stuff that was buried under all the hatred. I was angry with her but her eyes simmered the heat building in me and I reached out to cup her cheek. She leant into me immediately and closed her eyes, seeking comfort from my touch as a blush covered her cheeks. “Who hurt you, my Capella? Who made you so ashamed of yourself?”

She opened her eyes and regarded me, her face so full of sadness that I wanted to find this fucker and tear him limb from limb for what he had created in her, for what he had moulded from her once happy spirit and crafted a mere shell of what she could have been. “It doesn’t matter,” she answered eventually with a heavy sigh.

She stood and held her hand out to me, “Do you think you can manage a shower? We need to clean off your back and reapply the balm.” She grimaced as she said the word, her guilt angering me.

“Frankie, stop with the guilt. It wasn’t your fault.”

She nodded weakly then turned her back on me and walked into the bathroom. It suddenly occurred to me that we were both naked, had been now for some time, yet throughout her obvious shame in herself, my Capella was entirely at ease with her body. Her degradation and hurt went deeper than something physical and I had an idea just how to break her from it.

I grinned to myself as I pushed off the bed, wincing at the pain in my back when I realised she was right and the lacerations were drying up.

She was stood smiling by the side of the shower cubicle as she waited for me, “I hope the water is to one’s approval, sir.”

I didn’t smile at her, forcing my lips to remain still as I hid my humour from her. She frowned but said nothing as I let my eyes roam slowly over the delicious length of her amazing body. Her deep flush started in her toes and I followed its route with my eyes, the colour scurrying up the defined contours of her incredible perfectly shaped legs, blossoming across her slightly rounded but toned stomach before rising over her chest, her deep nipples peaking and swelling beneath my gaze, until it hit the beauty of her face with force, her cheeks scarlet and glowing under her embarrassment.

I stalked slowly towards her, keeping my eyes narrow and dark on her as I lingered before her, my eyes still perusing and feasting on her. She gasped as I reached out and grasped her chin harshly before leaning into her, my nose gliding along the edge of her neck before reaching her ear where I blew faintly on the damp skin behind and ruffled the delicate edge of her hairline.

“Are you mine, Capella? Completely and utterly mine?”

“What?” She stammered but I caught the heavy swallow and the shiver that shook her body. I smirked against her, knowing exactly what fired my pretty little star up.

I took hold of a section of her hair and yanked it hard. Her knees trembled and I slipped my arm around her waist as her head fell back and exposed the long tantalising length of her neck. “Don’t question me. When I ask a question, I expect an answer not a bumbling uncertainty.”

She swallowed severely but I lowered my eyes to her breasts and appreciated the way she pushed them forward slightly, her nipples dark and distended with her severe arousal. I smiled again when I realised I had found her niche, the deep hidden need in her and I pushed harder, needing to find her limit.

She gasped but I relished the soft whimper that accompanied it when I took her nipple between my thumb and finger and pinched it cruelly, pulling and twisting it so brutally any other woman would have slapped me – but not Frankie, she blossomed, she fucking blossomed under my harsh touch. Her breathing sped up; her teeth sunk into her lower lip as her eyes rolled slightly.

“Do you know what I like?”

She shook her head but released another small moan as I slid my hand from her hair and cupped her delightful ass, her flesh soft and welcoming under my probing fingers. “I like to know that when I fuck, I fuck a dirty little bitch that likes to fuck me back just as hard.”

Her legs wobbled but I held her up as I moved my hand from her pretty little tits to the curve of her neck. Her eyes widened when I moved my fingers around her throat but then something snapped inside her, one light extinguished as another fired so brightly it was almost blinding. “I…” I nodded, allowing her to speak when I grasped that she was waiting for my confirmation. She wanted to be owned, it was so blatantly obvious but I knew no one, none of her previous lovers had ever seen it in her. “I like to be fucked and… and I...”

She halted and stiffened but I tightened my fingers and narrowed my eyes on her. “Let’s get one thing straight. I need to hear everything that you want, Frankie. I want to not only listen to you but I want to make sure every single one of your naughty and downright filthy desires is thoroughly fucked to perfection. So don’t hold back from me or you won’t get what I know you want; you won’t get the hard thrust of my cock in that pretty wet pussy of yours, you won’t feel my tongue wrapping around your perfect pink clit and you most definitely will not get to feel my fingers slide into your tight little ass while my cock drives deep inside you.”

Her eyes fluttered so much I wasn’t sure if she had actually come right there in front of me but she opened her eyes, a new determination glaring back at me as she physically braced herself. She cleared her throat and I bit back the smile at her cute fortitude, “I like to be fucked,” she repeated more firmly. “And I
am
a dirty little bitch.” She smiled then blinked and added, “Sir.”

A wicked grin lifted my lips and I palmed her shoulders then pushed her forcefully to her knees. She gulped but her eyes widened when she realised her face was right in front of my throbbing dick. “Tate…”

I frowned at her as she hesitantly flicked a glance at the camera in the corner of the room. “Don’t worry. I won’t take you in front of them, although I’m quite sure they’d enjoy the show.”

The usual spark in her eyes dimmed as she rapidly shook her head. “I can’t… I can’t do that.”

I watched as her face paled in horror, the fear she exhibited giving me a small clue as to her inner shame, however she nodded at my promise, stunning me with her absolute trust in me, and dropped her eyes back to my dick. “Oh my,” she breathed. She lifted her hand and ran her finger delicately over the bead of my piercing. My balls shivered and tightened as my cock pulsed violently.

I stared at her as she studied my jewellery with amazement. “Frankie, I’ve been nude for roughly four or five hours. Are you telling me you didn’t see my apa before now?”

Her eyes lifted to mine, “I’ve felt it.” She blushed furiously and shrugged, “But I didn’t look.”

I quirked an eyebrow at her, “My dick has been out and swinging away, and you
didn’t look
?”

She shook her head and dropped her eyes to my cock again, “It didn’t seem right, perving on you when you were in so much agony.”

Well fuck me! But then it actually occurred to me that she’d been naked for a lot longer and even though her body mesmerised me and fed the beast inside me, I hadn’t defined her as a ready available fuckfest.

Christ, this was new.

She frowned at me in return when my eyebrows furrowed and tilted her head, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I rested my hands on either side of her face and tipped her head back until she was looking up at me. “Take me in your mouth.”

She blinked at the demanding tone but leaned in without argument, her large grey eyes secured on my face. Her long eyelashes flickered across her cheekbones softly when her lips parted and her perfect mouth sheathed my throbbing dick, the warmth she radiated enveloping me and driving more blood into my already painful erection.

“That’s it, Frankie. Feel how hard I am for you, babe? How fucking rock-solid you make my cock.” She slid her mouth down me slowly; her gaze staying with mine as a moan fluttered passed her lips when she sank balls deep. Fuck, shouldn’t that be me moaning? “Jesus Christ. Do you have a gag reflex?”

She smirked and shivered when she drew back and twisted her tongue over my swollen crown, flicking the ball of my bar with her tongue. She didn’t answer me; she just continued to worship my dick with her soft mouth, her lips wrapped around me tightly as her tongue slid across the underside of my pulsing shaft.

My head dropped back as I screwed my fists tightly and seized her soft hair between my fingers. She was still sucking me softly and slowly at an almost torturous pace as my body craved more, my crude desires growling deep within me as they yearned for release. The beast was banging on the door, and I knew it was only a matter of time before he knocked the fucker down and came out to play.