Victorious (10 page)

Because I’ve learned there’s no point in trying to hide anything from her, I hand her my phone and watch her closely as she studies the three photos Liza sent. “What’re you thinking?”

“I look like I did during Oren’s trial.”

“I hate that you look so afraid.”

“I wasn’t really. Josh and Seth were right by my side, and they moved fast to get me out of there. I was never in any danger. I think I was surprised more than anything. It happened so quickly.”

“This is why I always want someone with you going forward. If I can’t be there, then someone else needs to be to make sure you’re never hurt or overwhelmed. I’d lose my mind if anything ever happened to you because you had the poor sense to marry me.”

She puts down the phone and climbs into my lap, straddling me.

Pleasantly surprised by her assertiveness, I cup her ass and pull her in tight against my instant erection.

“Marrying you was the best thing I’ve ever done. I don’t expect to ever regret it.”

“Did you regret it yesterday?”

Shaking her head, she runs her fingers through my hair, arranging it to her liking. “Not for one second. The time we’ve spent together has felt like a fairy tale. No matter what else happens, it will always feel like that to me.”

“It’s been like a fairy tale for me, too. After you left yesterday, I was out of my mind. I threw a vase through a window, and then the doorbell rang. I thought it was you, but it was that FBI agent. I wanted to kill him for not being you.”

“Wait, why was he there, and why haven’t you told me?”

I sweep away her concerns with my hand. “He was following up on Rogers’s wife telling him Rogers had felt threatened by me. I assured Vickers the only way I threatened Rogers was legally. Why in the world would I kill him when I could’ve had the pleasure of watching him twist in the wind for years because of what he did to you?”

“Did you say that to Vickers?”

“Yep. I told him I was disappointed that Rogers had been murdered, because I’d been looking forward to making his life a living hell.”

“So where did you leave it with him?”

“That I need to remain available for follow-up questions, which I said was fine. Neither of us has anything to hide where Rogers is concerned.”

“I have nothing at all to hide, thanks to him,” she says bitterly.

“I hate him for what he did to you, Nat, but in a way, I’m grateful that we have no more secrets between us.”

She lays her head on my shoulder. “So am I.”

“I hated keeping things from you. It felt wrong to me from the very beginning. You’ll never know how badly I wanted to either tell you the truth or leave you to spare you from having to deal with something I didn’t know if you could ever understand. We all know how successful my attempts to leave you were.”

“You can’t leave me after all this. I was able to move on from everything that happened to me before, but something tells me I’d never get over losing you.”

I tighten my arms around her. “That’s one thing you’ll never have to worry about.”

She rolls her hips suggestively over my cock. “Can we go to bed? Please?”

As if I’ll ever say no to that question coming from her. “Anything you want, sweetheart.”

Chapter 6

We arrange to have Fluff taken outside, but she refuses to pee in the snowstorm. I hope we don’t awake to a mess, but Flynn tells me not to worry about it. He says he wouldn’t pee outside in this shit either.

In the bedroom, Flynn unties the robe I’ve lounged around in all day and pushes it off my shoulders, leaving me bare as his heated gaze travels from my face to my toes and back up again. He drops his shorts and raises the covers for me to get into bed ahead of him.
 

I’m freezing until he wraps his warm body around mine, pulling me in tight against him.
 

“You know what the worst part of yesterday was?” I ask him.

“What’s that?”

“Sleeping without you last night. I hated that.”

“I never went to bed at all, because I couldn’t bear to sleep without you.”

“You must be so tired.”

“I am.” His hand moves from my belly to land between my breasts. The hard column of his erection is pressed between my buttocks.

Despite his obvious arousal, despite my never-ending desire for him, neither of us is compelled to move. This is all about comfort and security. The feel of his skin against mine is all I need to release the deep breath I’ve been holding since I left LA yesterday, not knowing when or if I’d see him again.

In the last couple of weeks, my whole world has been turned on end by this relationship. Now, settled in his arms, with no secrets between us, and decisions made about our future, I feel ready for this next step we’re planning to take. I’m excited. Of course, I’m also nervous, but I’m more excited than nervous.
 

I trust Flynn to make whatever we do together amazing for me, because that’s what he’s done from the beginning. I want to make it amazing for him, too. I want to give him everything he’s ever wanted in a lover. I want to be perfect for him in every way.
 

Thinking about all the things I agreed to try, I drift off to sleep wondering how long he’ll make me wait before our contract becomes a reality. I dream of things I’d much rather forget—the horrific weekend with Oren Stone that claimed my innocence and changed my life forever. I watch the scene unfold as an observer in my dream. I get a front-row view of my own assault, every lurid detail played out before my horrified eyes.
 

It was such a long time ago that many of the memories have faded somewhat. The overall horror has remained, though. As a witness, I’m forced to relive it once again. He is on top of me, inside me, hurting me, making me bleed, making me scream from the pain until I lose consciousness, floating, hurling through darkness so deep I may never find my way out.

I wake to Fluff’s frantic barking and the low rumble of Flynn’s voice.

“Nat, honey, what’s wrong?”

Though my heart is racing, I’m sweating and undone, I know right away that I can’t tell him I dreamed about the attack for the first time in years. He’ll see the timing as a sign that I’m not capable of what we agreed to earlier. “N-nothing. Just a weird dream. I’m sorry if I woke you.”

“You were screaming.” Propped up on an elbow, he reaches over to stroke my face. “And you’re crying.” He kisses my shoulder. “Sweetheart…”

“I’m okay.” I reach for his hand and hold on tightly.

“Are you sure?”

“Mmm. Uh-huh.” Fluff curls up against my legs and lets out a huff of indignation at having been so rudely awakened.
 

“You’re trembling, baby.”

“I’m cold.”

“That I can fix.” He brings me in tight against him, wrapping his arms around me and intertwining his legs with mine. “Better?”

“So much better.”
 

I was young and alone when Stone attacked me. I’m not alone anymore. Flynn’s love and devotion only make me stronger than I was on my own. But the dream and the timing of it have me wondering if I’ll be able to uphold my end of our agreement.

Once again a ringing phone wakes us early in the morning. Flynn groans as he reaches for his phone on the bedside table.
 

“Yeah, Emmett. You’re up early.”

Since he curls back up to me immediately, I can hear Emmett’s side of the conversation, too.
 

“I just got a call from Vickers.”

I feel Flynn go tense behind me. “What’d he want?”

“He’d like to see you and Natalie as soon as possible.”

“What the hell for?”

“All he’d say is ‘follow-up questions.’”

“This is bordering on harassment. Should we make some calls to Washington?”

“I wouldn’t, Flynn. Calling in favors looks like you have something to hide when you don’t.”

“I don’t like that he wants to see Natalie, too.”

“They’re ruling out both of you. My advice is to meet with him and get it over with. How soon can you get back here?”

“I don’t know if you heard, but we had somewhat of a blizzard here last night.”

“Yes, I heard,” Emmett says with a laugh. “It’s all over the news.”

“I’d say it’ll be tomorrow at the earliest before we can get back there.”

“I’ll make an appointment for Monday morning, then. Is that okay with you?”

“I guess it’ll have to be. Let him know that if my name or Natalie’s gets linked to this guy’s murder in the press, I’ll be after his job.”

“I’ve already let him know that.”

“You’re good, Em.”

“Just doing my job. See you soon.”

I turn to face Flynn, looking for some assurances that we have nothing to worry about. He’s got his glasses on, and he’s typing frantically on his phone.

“What’re you doing?”

“Asking Addie to get us back to LA tomorrow, so we can deal with this once and for all.”

“Are you scared?”

“No, sweetheart. I’m not scared. We have nothing to worry about because we didn’t do anything.” He sends the text and puts the phone on the table. “Come here.”

I curl up to him, my head on his chest, his arms around me. I trace my finger over the light scar on his ribs from where he was attacked by a deranged fan last year.
 

“It’s all going to be fine. They’re on a witch hunt. That’s all this is. I handed them an easy lead with what I said on Carolyn’s show, so they’re taking the easiest and most obvious path straight to me. If they think we had something to do with this, then let them prove it.” He strokes my hair. “We know people in DC, right up to and including the president. He and my dad are friends. If this gets any more out of hand, we’ll call in some favors.”

“So you’ve actually met the president?”

“Many times. You might get to meet him, too, as I’ve requested a meeting with him to discuss the foundation. I want him to throw his support behind it.”

“Holy smokes. You don’t fool around.”

“You didn’t already know that from the way I married you not even two weeks after I met you?”

“I suppose there were signs of this trait of yours.”

His fingers trail down my ribs, digging in just enough to tickle me.