Underestimated (25 page)

dream that night. It was bad.

It was the third time that Drew had given me my

wedding set back. We were meeting some very prominent

clients for dinner at a fancy high-rise restaurant. He

coached me to keep my mouth shut and to only speak if he

spoke, he would answer any questions directed toward

me.

I was almost sick from the affection that he was

showing me. He held my hand, kissed me several times

and called me baby. He never called me baby unless it

was when he was close to coming. He made sure that he

kept my hand in his on the table, showing off my thirty five

thousand dollar wedding set, I was sure. He was trying to

get his prospects to be envious of my expensive set, or at

least her anyway.

After a couple of drinks, I needed to go to the

bathroom. I didn’t dare just excuse myself without asking

first. I almost puked when I leaned into Drew and

whispered in his ear. He nodded and smiled the fakest

smile I had ever seen.

“I love you too, sweetheart,” he said with the nod,

giving me permission.

“Excuse me,” I politely spoke, laying my fancy

cloth napkin on the table.

“Oh, I’ll go with you,” the beautiful diamond ring

prospect announced.

My eyes instantly looked to Drew. He didn’t like

it. He didn’t like it one bit.

I tried to get back to the table as quickly as

possible, but Ms. Chatter box wanted to talk, and thought

that she needed my opinion on which of the three

engagement rings I liked best. Of course, I said the most

expensive one, talking it up like nothing else.

We were gone for at least ten minutes. Our entrees

were being placed around the table.

Drew was livid. It was written all over his face.

His clinched jaw may not have been noticeable to his

guests, but it was exceedingly obvious to me. The young

lady did end up picking the one that I had suggested. I was

sure that Drew wouldn’t want to hear about how I talked it

up though.

As soon as we were in the back seat of the

limousine he practically ripped the rings from my finger.

“What the fuck did you tell her?” he asked.

“I didn’t tell her anything, Drew. She was only

asking my advice about the rings. I swear. I never said

anything that I shouldn’t have.”

He ran his hands through his hair, angrily. I was

scared. I knew he was mad, and I knew that I was going to

be the one that he took it out on. I just wasn’t sure how.

He grabbed me by my hair and threw me over his

lap. I didn’t have to worry about the panties. I was no

longer allowed to wear them when he was home. He

raised my party dress and cracked me on the ass more

times than he ever had. He didn’t even rub the sting out

between the blows. All I could think about was whether or

not Derik could hear what was going on from the driver’s

seat of the limo, not that he didn’t know what was going

on. He had to know. He was around almost as much as

Rebecca. I didn’t cry. I had stopped that a long time ago. It

didn’t do any good anyway. Drew had no compassion.

Drew kept me bare assed over his lap the whole

ride home, even after he thought I had enough of his assault

on my ass. Once Derik parked the car back in the

extravagant garage Drew threw me off of him.

“Don’t move!” he demanded, getting out.

I didn’t. I was too scared to move. I heard him tell

Derik to keep me out there until he cooled off and called

him.

I had never spoken to Derik before. I couldn’t

believe that Drew was going to leave me with him. Wasn’t

he afraid that I would talk? Of course not, I was sure that

Derik knew more than anyone, he was there when he

forced my signature on his stupid marriage license. He

probably knew more than I did. Maybe I could talk to

Derik. Maybe he would help me get out of here. I stopped

that notion very quickly. I wasn’t getting out of there. That

was my life, and I wouldn’t take the chance of Derik

telling him that I tried to get him to help me.

I didn’t even need to be thinking about that. It

wasn’t at all what Derik had planned. He opened the back

door and sat across from me. I didn’t like the smirk on his

face, and I was all of a sudden afraid of him. I had reason.

He pulled my knees apart and raised my dress

more. I swiftly put my knees back together, only to have

them forced apart again.

“What are you doing? Drew is going to see you

through the cameras,” I pleaded. I wondered then if I was

afraid of Derik or of Drew. He would make this my fault.

He always did.

“There are no cameras in this car or this garage. I

have waited for this opportunity for almost two years,” he

said as he slid to his knees in front of me. I wanted to

object, but how could I? He had more power over me than

I had over myself. If I screamed, Drew might come out. I

didn’t want that either.

He moved his fingers into me and all I could do

was stare out the dark window while he rapidly and

vehemently thrashed his middle and forefinger in and out

of me. I didn’t get aroused. I didn’t want to come. I was

too terrified to even think about it. Not of him as much as

Drew. I just knew he was going to sling the door open at

any second.

Derik must have been worried too. He was in a

hurry, and it showed. He took himself out and moved into

me with a hiss. Now I was freaked out. Drew would

know. I was sure of it. He didn’t speak, and only made

sexual grunting and moaning noises. He had one thing on

his mind, and that was getting off. In me!

Or not.

“I’m going to pull out, and you are going to

swallow me. I don’t want to leave any evidence for Drew.

Do you understand?”

Fuck no…

He grabbed my hair and pulled when I didn’t

answer. “Do you understand me?” he asked again, and I

tried to nod.

He pumped faster and harder, and I knew that he

was getting ready to come. He stood as much as he could.

I wouldn’t open my mouth and turned my head. It didn’t

work. He grabbed my head forced his dick into my mouth,

pumping just as rapidly there.

“Oh, yeah fuck,” he moaned as he invaded my

mouth just before he spewed out. I was happy that he

didn’t do it like Drew did and make sure that I had to taste

him. I was able to swallow all of him without any

dripping out of my mouth.

He kissed my lips. The bastard had the nerve to

kiss me.

He put himself away and got out of the car without

one word. I supposed he didn’t need to say a word. He

knew that I would never mention it. I sat in the car waiting

and anticipating what Drew had in store for me next, for

over an hour.

When I was finally escorted back into the house, I

never saw Drew. I went to my suite and bathed away his

idiotic sidekick. Drew came in and sat on the toilet while I

bathed. He didn’t speak, and only sat there glaring at me. I

got out of the tub, mostly to get the rest of the night started

so that it would be over. He hit me right across the same

cheek bone that he always seemed to aim for. When I

stood back up, he did it again.

“Riley!” I heard Dawson calling my name over

and over.

I jumped and covered my face to stop the next

blow.

“You’re okay. I’m right here, baby,” he said, trying

to soothe me back to reality.

“Dawson?” I wept, needing to make sure that I

was with him.

“Shhhh, I’ve got you, Ry,” he said, trying to calm

me.

“I didn’t tell her anything. I swear.”

Dawson sat up and turned the lamp on, trying to get

me coherent enough to realize that I was safe with him.

I crawled into his arms, and he embraced me. I

couldn’t for the life of me figure out why he wanted me.

Would it always be this way? Would I always be the

broken one?

“Tell me about your dream,” he requested, holding

me tight and placing soft kisses to my forehead.

“It wasn’t a dream. It was a nightmare.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I did. I told him every last detail, and then some. I

never got to finish my dream before Dawson woke me up.

I told him about how after he dragged me from the

bathroom he made me squat on a rather large dildo that he

had lubed up for me. I wasn’t allowed to sit on it. I had to

hold myself up while he sat on the bed and watched. When

my legs finally gave out, and I plopped to the bed he

removed the foreign object and replaced it with himself.

Once he was spent he picked up the phone and

called Rebecca. It was almost two in the morning. I

couldn’t believe that he expected her to be at his beck and

call whenever he wanted her.

“Morgan’s going to need an icepack,” he said, but

I wasn’t sure why he cared about my black eye. He didn’t

care when he was giving it to me.

I started to get under the blankets to cover myself

before she came in.

“Did I tell you to move?” he asked. I froze.

“Lay down,” he demanded.

I lay down and crossed my ankles.

“Spread your legs. You want to humiliate me? I’ll

show you humiliation.”

I was mortified, enough so that a tear did escape

from the corner of my right eye when I heard the tap on the

door. I lay there spread eagle while Rebecca brought me

the icepack. She only looked at my face and smiled a

warm smile as she placed it on my eye. I flinched from the

pain.

“Riley. Please tell me that was only a nightmare

and didn’t really happen,” Dawson begged, but he knew.

Now he not only wanted to kill Drew he added Derik to

his hit list too.

“It did happen, Dawson, and so much more. I am

never going to be whole.”

“What is his last name?”

“You know that I’m not going to tell you that. I

don’t want you to do anything. Please,” I pleaded.

“Don’t you want that son of a bitch to pay for what

he did to you?”

“No. I just want to forget that he ever existed.”

“Is he a good looking man?”

I rose up to give him a stressed look. “What the

hell does that have to do with anything?”

“I’m just trying to figure out why, if he is so rich

and powerful, why he would come to a poor town in West

Virginia to marry you?”

I relaxed and lay back to his chest. “He is very

handsome. I’ve asked myself that same question a million

times.”

I finally dozed back off. Dawson never let go of

the hold he had on me.

When I woke, Dawson was still holding me. He

was never still in bed when I woke up. He was an early

riser too, not quite as bad as Lauren, but he was still

normally up before me.

I looked up and he was wide awake, staring pitiful

glares through me. He opened his hand palm side up, and I

placed mine in his. He kissed me on top of the head as I

lay back to his chest.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked. I knew

what he was thinking about, and I wished I would have

kept my past in the past and not shared my horrific

nightmare.

“You,” he quietly said, kissing me again.

“About how pathetic I am?”

“Not at all, I was thinking about how much I loved

you, and how I wished I could take all of this away from

you.”

I snorted. Nobody could take it away. Drew had

taken it all, and although I hated to admit it. He still

controlled me. It wasn’t as much as when I first left. It

seemed like every time that I was happy, and things were

going exceptionally well for me was when he decided to

haunt me. Why? I didn’t know. I guess the subconscious is

just one of those mysteries that you just never figure out.

“Why did your wife leave you, Dawson?” I asked

for some reason. I never asked about his past. I guess it

was just another one of my hang-ups. I was never allowed

to ask questions, and it was always no concern of mine.

He snorted next. I assumed he was thinking about

how crazy I was.

“I met her at the police academy. I knew I wanted

to stay here and take over once my father retired. She was

from Chicago and couldn’t get used to the small town. She

needed more action than Misty Bay could give her.”