Skin Tight (Skin Deep #4) (8 page)

Chapter 12

I was pacing back and forth across my sister’s living room floor, agitation written across every inch of my body. I was so pissed that I couldn’t even enjoy the cuteness of my niece as she watched me pace, her little head tracking me as I moved past her where she sat in her octagon-shaped, gated play yard, tossing her toys around and teasing the dogs that were watching her through the fence.

They’d finally given up on following me, which was a good thing because every time I turned around to pace back the way I’d come, I’d almost trip over one of them as they scrabbled to get out of my way.

Emma was sitting on the arm of her couch, watching me with concern, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. She’d given up trying to get me to sit down and try to get calm once we’d gotten back to her house.

Ian had called Luke, who’d sent Emma to get me and take me to their house until things were dealt with at home and he could get to me, because he didn’t want me driving while I was so upset.

It was Wednesday, three days after a pretty kickass weekend that had ended with me asleep on the couch while my man watched a movie with T.J. When it was over, Ian had woken me to say goodbye to T.J., who’d swooped me up in a tight hug, thanking me for cutting his hair and letting him hang. Then Ian had taken me to bed and…well, he’d just plain taken me, sending me off to sleep with not one, not two, but
three
toe-curling, hair-pulling, eyes-rolling-back-in-the-head, screaming orgasms. He’s good like that.

And Monday and Tuesday were perfectly fine, normal days. Today had been, too. Until about an hour ago when I walked into my bedroom to see a stack of Louis Vuitton luggage sitting in front of the dresser, the top one open and full of Ian’s shirts, folded neatly. More than that, there was a very strong chlorine-y smell filling the room, making my eyes water.

Confused, and more than a little disturbed, I’d retrieved my phone from my purse on the kitchen counter and called Ian.

“Um, are you going somewhere, or you planning on leaving me?” I’d asked him, half-jokingly. “And did you use bleach or something in the bathroom today?”

He’d sounded distracted when he answered, “What? What the fuck are you talking about? I’m not going anywhere and I’m sure as hell not leaving you. Why in the hell would you ask me something like that? And no, I didn’t use…”

His words cut off and he’d me to hold on because he was getting a lot of texts coming through and the phone was beeping non-stop in his ear. Suddenly, I’d heard him growl, his voice low and menacing as he’d asked, “Are you at home?”

I opened my mouth to reply but stopped when a slip of paper on Ian’s pillow caught my eye. Picking it up, I’d read the first line, my fingers tightening on it as the words penetrated, leaving me unable to utter anything to Ian other than, “Get. Home. Now,” through tightly clenched teeth.

I’d hung up on him, finished reading the note, and then stalked to my dresser to confirm what had been written. I was still standing there, ignoring my phone as Ian called me back over and over again, staring down into the drawers I’d wrenched open, the note still crumpled in my fist when my sister had walked in, Everly on her hip.

As soon as I’d seen her, I’d whirled and pushed her gently out of the room, crying, “NO! You can’t have Everly in here, it’s too strong!” I’d moved her into the kitchen before I’d asked, “What are you doing here?”

She’d explained that Ian had called Luke to send her over to pick me up, but hadn’t really told her why. Just that she needed to take me to their house and wait for Ian. I hadn’t explained anything to her then, either. I’d just opened my hand and dropped the crumpled note onto the counter. She’d smoothed it out as best she could while still holding my niece, then gasped as she read.

Then she’d folded it haphazardly, shoved it in her pocket, and after grabbing my keys off the counter, she’d shoved my purse into my hands and marched me out the door and into her car.

Which brought us back to here, me pacing the floor of Emma’s living room incessantly.

I’d just turned on my heel to start back across the room when a car door slammed outside, sending the dogs into a barking fit. I glanced out to see Ian running flat out for the house and met him at the door as soon as it opened.

He grabbed me by the shoulders, leaning down to stare into my eyes as he asked, urgently, “Are you okay? Why wouldn’t you answer me? What happened after you hung up?”

“Did you go home before coming here?” I asked, flatly.

“No, I came straight to you because you were so upset, and I couldn’t imagine that it could be worse than it already was. But you’re still not going home until I get whatever it is cleaned up. What happened there? You never answered my questions.”

I looked up at him, my face screwed up in confusion. “What? You couldn’t imagine it could be worse? I’m confused, Ian. Did you go home and check it out or not?”

“No, I-” he started, but I cut him off.

“Then you have no idea what that…that…
fucking cunt
…did. So how could you say that it couldn’t be worse than it was?” I stared at him for a second longer, rage still burning me up. But then it clicked in my head. “What else?”

Ian’s fingers tightened on my shoulders and he tried to pull me into his embrace. “Baby.”

“No. Don’t you ‘baby’ me, Ian. Tell me. What else? What else did she do, because it’s obvious there was more, and it wasn’t at the house.” I was practically growling at him, and I knew it was getting to him because I saw him swallow hard, but I was beyond caring, though it wasn’t him I was pissed off at.

It was Victoria, the fucking she-bitch from hell that was due to get her face rearranged just as soon as I got my hands on her.

Ian looked over my shoulder at Emma. “You might want to take Everly out of the room for a minute. I’m so sorry, I know this is your house…or we could go outside. I just know this isn’t going to be pretty.”

Emma stood immediately and walked over to pluck Everly up from the play yard before she walked toward the stairs. “It’s fine, she probably needs changed again, anyway.” She suddenly jolted, like she’d remembered something, which she had. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the folded, crumpled up note that I’d shown her at my house. “You’ll need this,” she said, stopping to hand it to Ian.

Just…” she bobbed her head around, her mouth opening and closing like she had something else to say, but just couldn’t get it out.

Ian nodded and said, quietly, “I know. I will. She’ll be fine.”

Emma sent him one last look that faded into relief at his words and ascended the stairs.

Ian didn’t speak until they heard the door close upstairs. “Here.”

I took his phone from his hand when he held it out. It was an automatic movement, one I regretted just as soon as he said, “Text messages.”

My stomach dropped and I felt sick, my mind making up a million and one scenarios as to what I’d find when I clicked open his messages. But none of them could even come close to what I saw.

Picture after picture of Victoria, naked, sprawled across my bed.
Our
bed. The bed Ian and I slept together in every night, the one we cuddled, played around, and made love in every night. Each image was different, and each was more graphic than the last. They started with her just laying in the middle of the bed, arms outstretched.

Then they moved to her spreading her legs, holding her breasts. And from there, it got worse. On all fours, spread wide so every inch of her pussy and ass was on display for the camera, while she bit my pillow.
MY
pillow!

On the edge of the bed, legs still splayed, fingers shoved inside herself as she (I’m assuming) masturbated.

But the last one…the last one made one thought crystallize in my mind, ice-cold, and sharper than a blade…and that thought was, ‘
I’m going to fucking murder that bitch.’

Because it was a picture of Victoria, once more spread eagled on the bed, but this time her head was thrown back in what looked like the throes of an orgasm with her hand buried between her thighs, fingertips pressed against the apex of her cleft…and she was wearing my new fingertip massager toy. The picture was with a text that read, ‘
OMG, this thing was amazing. Bring it with you when you leave the tramp. It’ll make it interesting when we fuck again
.’

My skin was prickling with heat, my stomach was roiling, and my eyes were boiling over with scalding hot tears of rage. My arm cocked back automatically, but Ian wrenched his phone out of my hand before I could let it fly. As soon as it was free from my grasp, my hands clenched so hard I could feel my nails biting into my flesh, and my mouth opened on a scream so terrifyingly long, loud, and so full of angry pain that it would have put a hellcat to shame.

Then I was moving, shoving past Ian towards the door. I felt him reach out to catch me, but I sidestepped and flung the door open, shoving open the screen door and rushing blindly through it, my scream still echoing off my lips.

I didn’t get very far, though, as I slammed into a solid wall of unyielding man-chest. The owner of that man-chest’s arms wrapped around me and held tight as I fought to get free, my only thought just to get away, find Victoria, and rip her apart from limb to limb.

But I couldn’t move as those arms banded around me, and I went limp when Luke’s voice boomed above my head, hard and sharp enough to get my attention. “LEAH!”

“I’m sorry!” The words were wrenched from my lips on a sob, and the damn broke completely, leaving me bawling into my brother-in-law’s chest as he just held me and rocked gently from side to side.

I registered movement at my side, but couldn’t stop crying enough to know what was happening until I was being swung up through the air into Ian’s arms. I clutched at him, burying my face in his neck as emotion poured itself out of me in the form of a gut-wrenching sob-fest that left me drained, my breath coming in on hiccupping little gasps.

Through it all, Ian just held me, settling on the couch, whispering soothingly in my ear as he rubbed my back and rocked me.

Finally, I lifted my face to see Ian’s right above mine, looking every bit as ravaged as I imagined mine did. I looked away, ashamed of how I’d acted, feeling even lower when I realized that Luke was sitting beside us, watching me with concern etched across his face, and my sister was standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at me with tears streaming unchecked down her face.

“Oh, God…” I whispered, turning back to look at Ian. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

“Shh…it’s okay. I’m the one who should be sorry that this is happening.” He shook his head sadly, his handsome features pinched with worry and pain.

I felt a tentative touch on my ankle and looked up as Luke asked, “What happened?”

Emma rushed down the stairs, reaching for the crumpled up piece of paper that had fluttered to the floor, forgotten in the craziness of the moment. She met my eyes and I could see the question in hers. I nodded my assent, knowing exactly what she was asking and, frankly, relieved that I didn’t have to say it.

“The note explains it. Most of it, anyway. I’m not…not really sure what was on Ian’s phone and I don’t know that I ever want to know. But, when I went to pick her up, she was standing there looking down into her dresser.” She winced as she went on. “The room smelled straight up like bleach. Lots of it. And that’s because Victoria opened every single one of Leah’s drawers in her dresser and poured bleach over everything. I didn’t see the damage, but I had Everly and Leah made sure we weren’t around it.”

Ian’s arms tightened around me almost painfully.

Emma reached out with the note and handed it to Luke. “Read it. Out loud. Ian hasn’t gotten to see it yet. Oh, and there was a stack of luggage on the floor that looked like it had all your stuff packed into it, Ian. So…I don’t know if that’s something she did? Or…”

Ian gave a short bark of laughter that had no amusement in it, whatsoever. “No. I definitely didn’t do that.”

Luke cleared his throat. “Do you want me to read it?” he asked Ian.

Ian gave a sharp, quick nod, his arms tightening even more in preparation, definitely moving into the borderline painful zone, but I didn’t protest. I buried my face back into his neck, knowing that, if the pictures set me off on top of what had happened at home, Ian was about to go postal.

Luke opened the note carefully and muttered, “Oh, mother fucker,” before he started to read.

‘I’m getting impatient, so I went ahead and packed for you, lover. I know I gave you time, but I’m sick of waiting. Anyway, your bed is super comfy and I know you’ll just love the pictures I took for you. Next time, though, I want you with me so we can take even naughtier ones. Oh, and I made sure to come extra hard all over your sheets. I know you’ll want to smell me all wrapped around you while that tramp pants all over you, smelling like desperation and cheapness. I did her a favor and disinfected her discount lingerie. Don’t worry, though. I left her church mouse teacher clothes alone. Wouldn’t want to give her any reason to spend
my
our money. Call me later, okay? I love you!’

Chapter 13

We stood at the door of the Jones’ residence, Ian’s finger pressing insistently on the doorbell. After what happened this evening, Ian was done. We’d agreed between us to not press charges for the moment; at least not until we talked to Victoria or her parents, which is why it was after eight in the evening and we were standing on their front stoop, waiting for someone to answer the door.

An old man finally answered the door, his face screwed up like he smelled something bad when he looked out at us.

“Is there something I may help you with?” he said with a sneer.

“Yes, Sweeny, there is. You can quit pretending you don’t know who I am and get Victor and CeeCee. I need to discuss something very important with them,” Ian said gruffly.

Sweeny huffed and motioned for us to follow him. We stepped into the foyer, one eerily similar to Ian’s parents’ house, and waited off to the side as the butler (I didn’t know people actually had those anymore) shuffled off.

Fifteen minutes later, the impeccably dressed couple swept into the foyer, calling greetings out to Ian in overly loud, saccharine sweet voices. But it didn’t take long for Ian to change that.

“You need to call off your daughter. I don’t want to press charges, though I will if she doesn’t stop interfering in our lives. She’s delusional, and it stops now. Are we clear?”

Victor Jones drew himself up, puffing out his chest. “You’d do well to remember who you’re talking to, Ian Thomas. I will be having words with your parents to let them know the outrageous things you’re coming in to
my
home and saying. I have lost all respect for you. Do you hear me?”

Victoria’s mom had her hand to her chest, repeating, “Well, I never!” over and over again.

Ian smirked. “I think you’d better hear me out before you go making threats to me. You can tell my parents anything you want because I plan on talking to them next. I’ve already pretty much written them out of my life, and you hold no special place in my heart, so don’t fool yourself into thinking I care one fucking bit what you think of me or how much you respect me.”

He stepped forward, his voice lowering as he went on. “Your daughter has a knack for showing up uninvited to places I’m at, calling herself my girlfriend, acting like we’re lovers…when that’s never been the case. I’ve found her naked in my bed before I moved in with Leah, and a few weeks ago, I caught her lounging naked in my office.” His jaw was clenched when he continued.

“But today your daughter decided to break into our house and destroy personal property, not to mention the lewd acts she documented herself doing on our bed. I have all the evidence I need to ensure that a protection order is granted, and that she possibly serves jail time.”

CeeCee gasped in outrage. “You are lying, you spoiled little…little…ugh!”

Ian just quirked an eyebrow at her. “Spoiled little what, CeeCee? I assure you that I am the most grounded person you have ever known. Tell Victoria that the game is done. Tell her that, if she contacts me or Leah or anyone else close to us ever again, I won’t hesitate to take what I have to the police, and to ensure that the Prosecutor’s Office has a hey-day with the pictures I have. Got it?”

“You’re bluffing,” Victor said coldly. “I don’t know what you’re trying to prove-”

Ian spoke over him, asking, just as coldly, “Am I bluffing, Victor?”

Ian swiped across his phone to wake up the screen, tapped the text message icon, and immediately, the final, most graphic photo Victoria had taken popped up on the screen. Ian held it up, not giving two shits that he was showing Victor a picture of the man’s daughter literally twaddling herself on our bed.

The man blanched, his skin going pasty white as his hand came up to clutch at his chest. CeeCee screamed and covered her eyes, stumbling back from Ian’s hand like it was a snake about to strike.

I reached out and gently pressed Ian’s arm down, effectively removing the offending image from everyone’s view. I hated the bitch, but no one needed to see that much of Victoria for that long.

On a sigh, Ian shoved his phone back into his pocket, and we he spoke again, his tone was almost gentle. “Victor, I hate that it’s come to this, but I can’t stand by and make excuses anymore. I’ve always said that Victoria’s harmless, that she just had a crush on me that she’d grow out of. I never encouraged her, no matter how much you and my parents have wanted us to end up together, but she’s still wreaked havoc on my life for years now. She’s conspiring with my mother for me to propose to her, which is never going to happen, and something I will be addressing with my mother as soon as I can.”

He pulled me into his side, his arm sliding around my shoulders. “Leah is the only woman for me. She’s the one I’m going to marry, the one I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying to make as happy as she makes me. She’s my world, and I won’t let your daughter hurt her ever again, in any way.”

My heart stuttered and melted when Ian uttered the ‘M’ word, and I had to bite my lips hard to keep from grinning, because it was totally not the time to be doing that.

Then suddenly, I didn’t have to worry about grinning in front of them, because I was fighting to keep my claws sheathed as the front door opened and Victoria sailed through, like she didn’t have a care in the world.

“Hi, Mommy, Hi, Daddy! What are you…Oh!” Eyes huge, she skidded to a stop, panic washing across her face fleetingly before it was gone. In it’s place was the carefree bimbo she usually presented.

“Ian! How nice to see you! Awww…and you brought Leah? Sweetie, we need to get together soon for drinks and to catch up.” She rolled her eyes and flapped her hands as she squealed and said, “Oh, the stories I could tell you about our little Ian.”

“Shut up, Victoria!” Victor thundered loudly, his voice making us all jump in surprise.

Victoria flinched and raised wounded eyes to her father. “Daddy, why are you acting like this?” she whimpered.

Victor raised his hand and swung, catching Victoria in a ringing slap across her cheek. He raised his hand again, but didn’t connect, because Ian stepped forward and grabbed his wrist, halting the movement.

“Stop, Victor. She may well deserve it, but I will not abide a man beating a woman, even if she is his child,” Ian warned, releasing his arm and stepping back again.

“Thank you, Ian,” Victoria simpered, batting her eyelashes, her hand cradling the reddened mark on her cheek.

Ian whirled on her in an instant. “Don’t you thank me, you devious little witch.”

She gasped and tears filled her eyes, but Ian kept going.

“I wasn’t doing it for you. They know what you’ve done today, Victoria. They’ve seen the proof,” he paused, delivering the final words on a growl, “in
pictures
.”

“No…no, no, no, no, no…” Victoria began chanting, shaking her head from side to side almost maniacally.

“
Yes
,” Ian hissed, nodding his head just as vigorously. “That’s it, Victoria. Stay the fuck away from me, stay the fuck away from Leah, stay the fuck away from my family, and that includes all my friends, Leah’s friends,
anyone that I love.
And for the record? That list
DOES NOT
include you!”

Ian glanced at Victor and CeeCee, lifting his chin as he asked, “Are we clear in what we discussed?”

Victor jerked his chin upwards once in a sharp nod, but CeeCee just stood there beside him, hand still clamped around her mouth, her face sickened.

Ian nodded once back at him, took my hand, and we walked out of the door.

And…umm…I
may
have shoulder checked Victoria as I walked by. Hard enough to make her stumble.

“Are you okay?” I called sweetly. “Gee, be careful where you step. It’s so easy to stumble in heels that high…” I said, shooting her my best butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth smile as I closed the door behind me.

Once we were safely ensconced in the car and on the road, Ian sent me a sideways glance, the corner of his mouth tipped up in a wryly amused half-smile.

“Was that necessary?” he asked, dryly.

“What?” I asked in reply. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I spent the rest of the ride staring out the window…but I couldn’t help the sly ghost of a smile on my face.

We finally got home after taking a quick side trip to Ian’s parents’ house, but I stayed in the car for that one. It didn’t take long, anyway, as they met him at the door. I saw a lot of head shaking on Ian’s Mom’s part, while his Dad just looked sick to his stomach. Thankfully, Ian didn’t have to pull out his phone to drive his point home, but I think it had more to do with the fact that Victor had called them before we pulled up, hence the reason they met Ian at the door.

Brandon’s Expedition was sitting in our driveway as we pulled past it and parked in the garage, and Chloe and Brandon were sitting at the kitchen table when we walked in, eating pizza directly from an opened delivery box on the table between them.

“Pizza?” Brandon asked, taking another big bite of the slice he was holding.

“Yes!” I cried, practically running for the table to grab up a slice, biting into the piping hot, mouth-watering blend of pizza sauce, pepperoni, and cheese. “God, I’m starving,” I mumbled, my voice muffled by a mouthful of food…and very bad manners, but I couldn’t bring myself to care at the moment. Any dinner plans we may have had were completely ruined by Victoria, and we hadn’t stopped to eat in between delivering our cease and desist messages.

Ian wasn’t far behind me, grabbing his own slice and I swear he inhaled it without chewing.

I swallowed the last bite and moaned, grabbing a paper towel and wiping my fingers. “Thank you for sharing with us,” I told Chloe and Brandon, smiling at them gratefully. “And thank you, seriously, for coming over here and cleaning up the mess while we were gone. You didn’t have to do that; I could have handled it when we got back.”

Chloe shook her head. “Stop. I don’t want to hear that. As soon as Brandon told me something was going on, did you really think I’d just let you deal with it on your own? No. You’re my best friend.”

Brandon and Chloe had shown up at Luke and Emma’s house as we were about to leave. Luke had mentioned what happened to Brandon before he left to go home, so naturally, Brandon had told Chloe, and they’d told us in no uncertain terms that they’d be going to our house to clean up the mess so we wouldn’t have to deal with it.

And they’d gone the extra mile and provided much needed sustenance for us…so needless to say, I have the best friends. Ever.

Ian and I sat down at the table to eat pizza with Chloe and Brandon. I’d barely gotten seated when Chloe started questioning us about what had happened. We filled them in, starting with the note that they hadn’t gotten to read.

When I was finished reading, Chloe looked ready to commit murder on my behalf.

“Calm down, killer,” I soothed, jokingly. “Remember? I get dibs on doling out bodily harm, and I need you to be on hand to bail me out.”

She laughed and we grinned at each other; the guys just shook their heads, but still, Ian warned, “There will be no bodily harm done to anyone that will cause either one of you to end up needing bail money. Yes?”

Like we’d rehearsed it (which we hadn’t, obviously-great mind just think alike!), Chloe and I both saluted Ian smartly, yelling, “Sir, yes sir!” But then we couldn’t contain our giggles when Ian just rolled his eyes and muttered, “Smart asses,” at the same time Brandon did.

We were brought back down when Ian suddenly asked, “We never really looked to see or anything before we left, but how the fuck did she get in? Did you see anything?”

Brandon grimaced. “Yeah, she broke the glass out of the window in the spare bedroom and crawled through, using a chair from the back porch to stand on. Bold, but, since the window faces the back, she had no worries about anyone seeing her. And since the gate on your privacy fence doesn’t have a lock…”

He trailed off, shrugging regretfully, but he didn’t have to finish what he was saying. I knew. I hadn’t put a lock on the gate because, honestly, it was a good neighborhood in the country, my sister never had any problems when she lived there, and I hadn’t either, until now. But I also wasn’t counting on my boyfriend having a stalker. Though, maybe I should have…he is pretty damn sexy. (Wink wink!)

“I know,” I sighed. “I guess I’ll be going out tomorrow after work and getting lock for it. I wish I would have known about the window…it’s just gonna be open all night because it’s too late to get something to board it up or whatever. I’ll have to call and get a new one priced, too.”

Ian cleared his throat. “Did you forget what I do, baby?”

“Oh. Yeah.” I smiled sheepishly at him. “Wasn’t thinking. You can do the window then, but what are we gonna do tonight? We don’t have any plywood or anything…I don’t think…” I wracked my brain, inventorying the contents of my garage mentally, but coming up empty.

“It’s taken care of,” Brandon interrupted. “Jackson had some extra plywood pieces in his garage. I swung by and grabbed one, and Luke and I boarded up the window earlier.”

I jumped up and swung around the table, practically throwing myself at Brandon. He scooted his chair back quickly as I was bearing down on him, opening his arms at the last second and catching me to his chest, settling me across his lap as he wrapped me up in a big bear hug. I squeezed him tight for a moment before pulling back and looking him in the eye as I said, “Thank you, Brandon. For everything.”