Twelve Days - The Beginning (12 page)

“Yes...” he said hoarsely, “his sister, Natalie.”

The pain in his reply was obvious and Elise registered that this wasn’t a topic that she should pursue and so she replaced the photo and headed back to the sofa. His reaction intrigued her. In the few days that she had known him, she had never felt him less than in control. But a simple photo seemed to have the power to almost bring him to his knees and she wondered what the story was. And if it was so painful, why did he keep the photo? She knew Stephen of course but Natalie? She had never heard Stephen talk about a sister and yet he obviously had one. Who was she? What was she? A skeleton in Vaughn’s closet perhaps? Part of his past? Or maybe his present? But then who was she to judge? She had a whole graveyard lurking in hers.

Vaughn was by now standing in front of the fire watching the flames and he appeared lost in memories, the shadow of pain that she had seen once before etched onto his features. She watched the glow reflecting on his face as he tried to bring whatever emotion he was feeling, back under control.

She sat back down on the sofa quietly, almost feeling as if she was intruding on a private moment and crossed her legs, reaching for her glass again. He turned at the sound and his eyes travelled the length of her legs, his face changing almost instantly; a wicked smile forming as her watched her dress slide higher up her thighs when she moved. She nervously
tugged at the hem of her dress and Vaughn laughed lightly. Relieved that his dark moment seemed to have passed, she glanced back up at him to find his eyes once again on hers.

“You haven’t answered me.”

Elise hesitated; she really didn’t know what to say...It was all just too confusing. The way she was feeling about him, the emotions he seemed to bring out in her, the physical attraction between them, his offer to help her leave Dale – she had no idea what to make of it all. Too much had happened too quickly and she felt like her head was struggling to catch up.

“I don’t know, Vaughn “she said “You have to understand that this for me...this is a big thing. I’ve been married for ten years and despite our...differences...he is my husband ‘til death do us part. Clichéd, I know, but I didn’t take those vows lightly and part of me still believes that this marriage can work. Dale just needs to get....”

“He needs to get the fuck out of your life.” Vaughn almost shouted, suddenly angry, cutting off the rest of her sentence. “He doesn’t deserve anything from you, not one single thing and I couldn’t give a shit about your vows! He broke those the moment he first touched you in anger. How far has he gone, Elise? How far?!” His eyes were dark pools of anger, spitting flames at her as he stood above her, dominating her, scaring her. She had been here before – she did not want to be here again.

“What the hell do you mean?” she shouted back, “Who the hell do you think you are, bringing me here, demanding things, passing judgement on my life and then trying to intimidate me? I DO NOT NEED THIS.” She almost screamed and went to get up from the sofa; to get out of there, to go somewhere, anywhere that she could be alone.

Vaughn quickly closed the distance between them and knelt on the floor in front of her, placing a gentle hand on her thigh; the heat transferring between them in that one touch, effectively rendering her helpless. He visually calmed himself and took a couple of deep breaths, his eyes imploring her to stay.

“I’m so sorry. Please. Stay. We need to talk - I need to talk.” he said, “I don’t want to scare you – shit, that’s the last thing I would ever want to do.”

“Look at me, Elise” he said and gently used his other hand to raise her chin, allowing their eyes to connect.

“Look at me...” Slowly she raised her eyes to his, “I would never, ever hurt you – I promise that with all my life. I may get angry, but believe me I would never take that out on you. Never. Please believe me.” He ran his hands absently through his hair. “Christ, I am so far out of my depth here, you have no idea.”

She continued to gaze steadily at him, watching as he struggled with whatever it was that he wanted to say.

“Do you believe me, Elise?” he asked softly and she nodded, realising in that moment that whatever else happened she did trust this man - implicitly. And that scared the life out of her.
“I want to be in your life, Elise, and I need to understand. I need to know how far he has gone, how much he has hurt you and what exactly he has done to you. I
have
to know.”

Clasping her hands between her knees to stop them shaking, she looked down at the floor, absently noting the weave of his trousers as she tried to work out what to say. She knew that she owed this man the truth – wherever their future lay, it wouldn’t amount to anything unless they built it on truth.

“He has hit me,” she said quietly, “A lot – but never anywhere visible. Up until Friday he had never done anything in public. I have no idea why he came to the office; I guess that’s something I’ll have to try to work out with him.” She stopped, glanced back up at Vaughn and then dropped her eyes again, her voice even smaller now. “He’s restrained me too. At first I used to fight it but that just hurt more so, now I just let him get it out of his system.”

It was so hard talking about all of this. If she kept it locked up inside, part of her could almost believe that it wasn’t happening but now, talking about it openly and not just to Cole anymore when he was patching her up, to someone else of her own free will; that suddenly gave it all a life, made it become real and she was amazed at how calm and matter-of-fact she sounded. The numbness inside, her almost clinical delivery of the truth – she guessed that the years of abuse had done that to her and she hadn’t realised quite how accustomed to it all she had actually become.

On top of her leg she felt Vaughn’s hand stiffen and she could almost feel the anger that he was trying to hold in check.

“He broke one of my ribs once,” she continued, “- That was really painful. I had to pretend to everyone that I had fallen over on the ice during the mildest winter we had ever had and hope that no one realised that there actually wasn’t any ice. I’m scared at how good I’ve got at lying, Vaughn. Apart from you, Cole is the only one who knows any of this. Everyone else believes I have a loving husband and a happy marriage. I’m not proud of lying but I can’t bear for everyone to know the truth. It’s too ugly. Sometimes, I even wonder if it’s all in my head, when everyone tells me how lucky I am to have Dale. I only have to look at my bruises though to realise how far off-base they all are.”

She looked into his eyes then and was surprised to see unshed tears in them.

“Hey..” she laid her palm onto his cheek “Don’t cry for me – I’m OK. I’m a big girl now and I’m used to it – I know how to handle Dale and his moods. It’s only on the odd occasion that he catches me off guard. I will leave him - one of these days I’m sure that I will - but whilst a tiny part of me still loves him, it’s not that easy. But I am also scared, Vaughn. Scared of what might happen if I leave. It’s all such a mess.”

Vaughn reached up and covered her hand with his so that they were both now cupping his cheek. His eyes bored into hers, his lashes moist where he had blinked away the tears.

“You still haven’t answered me, Elise” he said softly, “How far has it gone? How far has he pushed you? Sexually, Elise. How far? Has he ever forced himself on you? Made you do things that you didn’t want to do?”

Reluctantly, she nodded.

“Yes.” she whispered.

“Have you ever told him no?”

“Yes.” she whispered again.

“Did he carry on?” his voice was breaking as he asked questions that were clearly painful for both of them.

“Yes.” her voice was tiny, a mere hint of breath.

“Fucking bastard.” She flinched and Vaughn hissed in a breath.

“How far, Elise? How far has he gone?”

She paused, aware that she was now visibly trembling and no longer in control of her movements. She took a deep breath and locked her eyes onto his, knowing that after this there was no going back. Her voice faltered but her gaze remained steady, holding his as she revealed the true depths of her husband’s depravity.

“All the way...” she said quietly, slowly. “All the way.”

She was aware of Vaughn picking her up and carrying her into the spare bedroom, laying her gently onto the bed. She was wrung out, and now that Vaughn knew everything she realised that she felt completely safe with him. She only felt that with one other person in her life and just a few short nights ago she would have never considered that she could feel this way with him.

He had been silent since her last admission but she could see the cogs were well and truly working, the expression on his handsome face ever changing. There wasn’t really much else for either of them to say though; they both needed time to process and so she allowed the comfortable calm to continue, snuggling under the soft comforter that he gently pulled over her. He reached down to remove her shoes and belatedly she realised she was still wearing her ‘killer’ dress. There was no other option though and as she allowed the beginnings of sleep to claim her, she realised that she was far too tired to care.

Gently, Vaughn pressed his lips to her temple and stroked her cheek. “Get some sleep, beautiful,” he said, “It’s late. I’ll make sure you get back to your car in plenty of time to go home and change before going to the hospital.”

He turned his back and walked out of the door and in the last seconds before she fell into a deep and blissfully untroubled sleep, she could have sworn she heard him whisper “Take care, my angel.”

Chapter Fifteen

A piercing shout tore through the night, immediately waking Elise and her heart pounded loudly out of her chest. Where the hell was she? And what the hell was that noise?

Her eyes began to adjust to the darkened room and the memories flooded back. She was in Vaughn’s flat, in his spare bedroom and in her dress from last night.

As realisation hit, the sound came again; this time louder and Elise bolted out of bed. It was coming from Vaughn’s bedroom, she was sure of it. She looked around for an object she could use in case it was an intruder but came up with nothing. The sound came a third time and this time she didn’t hesitate – she ran straight up the hallway to his room and pushed open the door, dreading what she would find inside.

It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the dimensions of the room although Vaughn had left the curtains open, and she could make out bits and pieces of furniture from the slithers of moonlight. The bed took up the centre of the room and it was from here that the sound was coming. Vaughn was clearly in the midst of some night-time terror, flailing and thrashing from side to side with the quilt twisted around his torso.

Quickly she crossed the room to the bed and then hesitated for a moment, unsure as to what to do. She remembered reading somewhere that you should never wake someone from a nightmare as it could cause them more harm than good. The fright of being woken had been known to trigger something as serious as a heart attack if her memory served her correctly and actually scaring the life out of him was the last thing that she wanted to do.

Having never encountered something like this before, she was totally out of her element; being in his room like this whilst he was clearly battling his demons just felt too close, too personal, and too raw.

She remained stock-still, paralysed with indecision and warring with her conscience as to what she needed to do. Another howl, this one louder and longer suddenly rent the night; this one almost a real shout of pain and she was instinctively and instantly by his side. It couldn’t be right to let another human being suffer through something that was clearly as traumatic as this.

Gently she lowered herself to the side of the bed and reached out to touch his face. His brow and his cheeks were soaked with sweat, his face cold to the touch. Immediately her concern increased and she leaned forwards to put her mouth next to his ear, all the while stroking his cheek in an attempt to calm him.

“Vaughn..” she whispered “Vaughn.. it’s OK – you’re having a dream. I’m here, it’s all OK. Wake up – please.”

Still the thrashing continued although it seemed a little less severe; he remained asleep but the sweating had started to reduce. Encouraged, she continued to whisper soothing words in his ear, tracing her hands over his cheeks and along his jaw bone and then back up across his brow, reassuring him and comforting him.

Eventually, he calmed completely, the flailing stopped and his breathing relaxed and became deeper. Elise continued to sit by his side stroking his face and murmuring soothing words until she was certain that he was asleep again. She had no idea what had caused his terror or indeed if this was a regular occurrence but it didn’t really matter. All that was important was that he was OK and, after a while, when she was positive that he was pacified and that the storm had passed, she rose from the bed, intent on leaving his room.

She had just reached the door when a deep, sexy voice rumbled through the darkness, nearly scaring the life out of her. She was certain that he had been asleep. She turned back towards the sound that had been irresistibly roughened by sleep.

“Elise – where are you going? I was just starting to enjoy myself.” The mischief in his voice was blatant and Elise walked back in the direction of the bed, advancing menacingly towards him.

“You bastard! You scared the life out of me. How long have you been awake?”

“Long enough” he replied, as the grin that was spreading across his face became visible in the moonlight. “I especially liked the part when you said you were here for me and that you would keep me safe; I thought maybe I was still dreaming!”

Without thinking, Elise launched herself at the bed and came into contact with six foot of solid muscle. Strong arms banded around her middle as she began to beat her fists on his chest, all the while berating him for letting her believe that he was still asleep.

“You......! I thought you were asleep – talk about taking advantage!”

Vaughn started laughing, a deep rumbling sound that reverberated through his body and before long Elise joined in. The man was incorrigible, and she loved seeing this playful side to him even if it had been a joke at her expense.

“Honestly!” she huffed when she had managed to get her breath back, “That’s one trick I’ve not seen before!”

“Neither have I!” replied Vaughn still laughing, “I’ve never used it before – I swear!” he said holding up his hands in submission when she raised her eyebrows at him.

“I woke up in the middle of a nightmare and then realised that it was you soothing me - it just seemed too good an opportunity to pass up. I did plan on waking up
eventually
, but you left me before I kinda got around to it.”

“Ha. Ha.” She said dryly, drawing out each of the words. “Whatever turns you on.”

She had meant the statement to be sarcastic, humorous even, but the instant the sentence left her mouth, she registered the ambiguity in her choice of words. Suddenly the atmosphere in the room changed as they sat staring at each other, their breathing becoming heavier and faster, as they both recognised the intimacy of their situation. Neither was laughing now as the desire became palpable in the room, the atmosphere charged with invisible energy. Vaughn blew out a shaky breath.

“That would be you, Elise” he said simply, “You are what turns me on.”

It took just those few words for the intensity to become unbearable and Elise shifted from his lap where she had ended up during their scuffle to move to the other side of the bed, wanting, no, needing to create some distance between them. As she repositioned herself, she tried not to notice how the covers had dropped to his waist, leaving his chest completely and mouth-wateringly bare. He was even more stunning up close and her fingers began to tingle with a desire to reach out and trace his sculpted perfection. Without any conscious thought, her eyes began a lazy journey down his chest to the deep V that led below the quilt and her mouth went dry as she began to contemplate what beauty lay beneath the covers.

“You like?” Vaughn asked and she immediately blushed, having been caught in the act of unashamedly checking him out.

She laughed to cover her embarrassment “Yes, very nice. I’ve seen it all before though of course.” She waved her hand dismissively in his direction, trying to appear nonchalant.

“Of course” he concurred and turned to face her, a devilish smile lighting his face.

“So – here we are. You, me, my bed. What do you suppose we should do now?”

He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she raised hers in return before leaning over and giving him a light punch on his upper arm.

“Ow!” he said “What was that for?”

“You need to get your thoughts out of the gutter, Vaughn Granger. I merely came in here to check on my
boss
who appeared to be in the throes of some night-time terror. Now that I know that he is absolutely fine...” she deliberately let her eyes run slowly up and down his chest adding meaning to her words, “I’ll be on my way”.

With a wink she vaulted off the bed and headed to the door but Vaughn was quicker and grabbed her upper arm, hauling her back to his lap.

“Hey,” she squealed, “That’s not playing fair – you’re easily stronger than me!”

“Something that I intend to use to my advantage!” Vaughn replied laughing and immediately Elise stiffened, the words inadvertently so close to something that Dale would say.

Vaughn hastily released her when he felt her stiffen and settled her down next to him. He must have realised what he had said and gently placed a comforting arm around her shoulders, rubbing his hand absently up and down her arm.

“God, Elise, I’m so sorry – what an idiot I am. It just came out – I said it without thinking. You know I would
never
use my strength against you in that way.
Never
!”

“I know, Vaughn.” she sighed and looked at him a little sadly. She did know. She could trust this man, she was absolutely certain of that.

“It was just a bit too close, that was all. It’s hard not to be sensitive sometimes.”

“I can only imagine what it must be like for you. I hate that you have had to live that life and I wish you would let me help you to get away from all that - to show you what kind of life you could have. You need to let him go Elise. You know you do.”

“Maybe...” she allowed “But there is no guarantee that what we are feeling – this ridiculous attraction - will stand for anything more in the end. The passion will undoubtedly burn out and you will want to move on and I’ll be left dried-up and on my own. I know it seems crazy but at least I know Dale will always be there and...maybe I’m not strong enough to be on my own just yet.”

Vaughn sucked in a deep breath and then turned to face her. “You won’t be on your own Elise, I can promise you that. I don’t know what the future holds any more than you do. All I know is what I am feeling right now. How much I want you, how much I want to be with you. How much I need you. I can’t promise forever but I
can
promise right now and maybe we could both work through things together.” he paused momentarily, no doubt referring his recent nightmare.

“I know it’s crazy and I know we’ve only known each other a few days and I know that it makes no sense. But it’s like we are meant to be, Elise – we were meant to meet and whatever happens I will never leave you. Even if we don’t have a relationship or if it were to end, I will always be here as your friend. Please believe me, Elise.”

“I do believe you,” she said quietly, “it’s just that I find it hard to trust people. I’ve been – conditioned - into a certain way and however sad that is, that is the life that I know and that I understand. Anything else – well, that just takes a bit of getting used to.”

Vaughn leaned over and brushed his lips across her temple, leaving a simmering trail of fire in his wake.

“We good?” he asked.

“Yeah, we’re good.”

He smiled sadly at her, “I am so sorry for the life that you have to lead.”

Slowly he leaned down and brushed his lips across her temple again; only this time he continued the trail down the side of her face and to her cheek, nuzzling the sensitive underside of her ear on the way.

Elise shivered and subconsciously turned her face towards him, seeking more of his warmth, his touch, his lips. Vaughn lifted his head up from where he had been nibbling her ear and looked deep into her eyes.

“Are you sure?” he asked “We don’t have to do this, you know. I just want to be close to you and if you’re not ready for more, I completely understand.”

“I do want this, Vaughn” she answered shakily “More than I can tell you right now. Even with my relationship and how wrong I know this is – it just feels so right. I don’t understand this Vaughn, but I know that I want this.”

“It is right, Elise, we have to believe that – everything else can be sorted, I promise. Let’s just have tonight Elise. Let me hold you.”

She nodded almost imperceptibly and moved back into the security of his lap, both of them now sitting on the edge of the bed and Vaughn still somehow cocooned in the duvet. He immediately pulled her tight to him and pressed his lips into her hair, smoothing his hands down her partially bare back.

“Mmmm..” he murmured, “I love your taste in clothes. You have no idea how sexy this dress is. It made me seriously hard just watching you.” He looked at her as if considering something, “You should wear your hair up more often; you have the most incredible neck.”

As if to prove his point, he set about kissing her neck from the nape up to the tendrils of hair at the base of her hairline, stopping now and again to nip little bites of flesh between his teeth.

Elise groaned and dropped her head back to allow him better access which he instantly took, pulling her closer to him and nipping and licking his way around the whole of her neck and across her collarbone. Christ, this man was good.

The shivering became more intense and she felt her nipples harden. The design of the dress didn’t allow for a bra so she knew that if he looked, he would see the hard points jutting out proudly and it would be blatantly obvious how turned on she was.

Twisting slightly to face him, she reached behind his head and linked her fingers, stroking them in the dark curly hair which rested at the base of his neck. She ran her thumbs along the underside of his jaw and then up to his lips, to the half smile that she had been wanting to run her fingers along ever since she first saw him. As she made her way across his mouth, he abruptly opened it and drew her thumb in, sucking on it and gently nipping the fleshy pad.

Elise felt her breath halt and a gush of wetness flow down to her panties at the simple eroticism of the gesture and she wiggled on his lap to ease some of the tension. The movement brought her into direct contact with his erection and they both hissed out a breath.

“Jesus, Elise” he ground out, “What you do to me.”

Hurriedly, Vaughn closed the final distance between them and took her mouth with his with no warning and no pleasantries. He just took what he wanted and, in an odd way, Elise liked that despite it being everything she abhorred in Dale. She knew that this man was different and that he would stop if she asked him to. Right now, she had absolutely no intention of doing that.

She met his mouth stroke for stroke, opening when his tongue sought entrance and groaning as she felt him duel with hers. He deepened the kiss, running his tongue along the inside of her teeth, her lips, across the roof of her mouth.

The contact of their mouths wasn’t enough, and her hands began an exploration of their own across his back, revelling in the muscles that moved and twitched as she continued to caress
him. Dragging her hands down his side, she felt him draw in a quick breath and he reluctantly released her mouth, his eyes never leaving hers.