Playing Patience

Page 85

“Feed me he says,” she joked. “Didn’t you get enough to eat last night?”
I threw my head back and laughed. I’d created a monster, a sexy, soft-skinned monster that was slowly starting to straddle me.
“I’ll never get enough of you,” I said against her lips as she leaned down and started to kiss me.
Thirty minutes later, Tiny was beating on my wall and telling us to shut the fuck up. Two hours later, we were in my car headed to her house. She had on my clothes and wet hair from the shower. I was sure her screams combined with the bathroom acoustics left a fabulous impression on the people in the apartment next to us.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to go in with you?” I asked as I drove her to her house.
She needed clothes and girlie stuff and while she looked hotter than shit in my boxers and T-shirt, she couldn’t wear that stuff out.
“Yeah, I’m sure. I’m just going to run in, get some clothes and stuff, check on my mom, and then I’ll be right out. Fifteen minutes… tops.”
She gave me a sweet peck on the lips before she jumped out of my car and ran up the sidewalk to her front door. She disappeared inside the white mansion and I sat in my car listening to Radiohead and tapping the steering wheel.
I looked down at my radio clock and fifteen minutes later, she still hadn’t come out. I didn’t think anything of it, but once thirty minutes passed, I got out of my car and walked up to the front door. She’d told me to stay put, but something wasn’t right. She would have at least texted me and told me it would was going to be longer.
I knocked at the front door, but no one ever came. My nerves were jumping around inside me and my instincts were telling me something was definitely wrong. I reached out and tried the knob and the door popped open. I guess when you lived in a neighborhood like this one, locking your front door wasn’t important.
I walked into the massive space and looked around at all the expensive furnishings. As I continued to walk, I passed a living room and an office. I heard voices nearby so I followed them and found myself in the kitchen.
I saw Patience and her father talking. They didn’t know I was there and while most people would have announced themselves, I was seriously thinking of backing out and going to the car. Now that I saw she was fine, I was more worried about the governor getting pissed about me walking into his house without being invited in. Patience was my girl now, and the last thing I wanted to do was piss off her dad or end up in jail again.
I started to back away, but something odd struck me. The way his hands were touching her. He was too personal. Not the kind of personal a father was to his kids, but the kind of personal a man was to his woman. It made me sick to watch.
She reached up and batted his hand away and his eyes got angry. Then I took a good look at her face and I saw fear there. She was afraid of him and his hands, and just like that, I knew. All the pieces of Patience were clear to me and slowly I collected them.
I thought back to her shyness and the way she freaked out about being touched. I thought back to the guilt I saw on her face when I gave her an orgasm in my car that first time. Her constant need to rush home, the bruises, it all made sense to me now. Then something else hit me and I thought for sure I was going to be sick. Patience wasn’t a virgin. I’d been with a virgin before and she definitely hadn’t been one, yet before, she would barely let me touch her. There was no way in hell she’d had sex with another person unless it was forced her on. Her dad sexually molested her. It was all so clear to me now and I couldn’t even believe I hadn’t seen it before. Her father touched her inappropriately. That bastard touched my Patience.
He jerked her up and spun her around over the kitchen table. She kicked and fought back, but never made a sound. He started to pull down her shorts, and just like that I wanted to kill him. He had to die. He deserved to die.
“You got about two seconds to get your fucking hands off of her before I come over there and kill you.” My voice echoed in the kitchen.
Both of their heads snapped in my direction and he let her go instantly. There should’ve been relief in her eyes, but all I saw was her starting to panic even more.
“You sick son of a bitch.” I started across the kitchen.
Patience jumped in front of me before I could get to him and I stopped and looked down at her. Her eyes were wide and she placed her hands on my cheeks.
“Everything’s fine, Zeke. Come on, let’s just go.” She talked to me like I was about to jump from a cliff.
“No! Everything’s not fucking fine. That bastard’s been molesting you, hasn’t he?”