Tearing Down Walls (Love Under Construction Series Book 2) (41 page)

“What’s with the sledgehammer?” Laura asked. It was the only thing in the room, leaning up against the far wall.

“We keep those at every jobsite. The recycling plant won’t take whole pallets, so the guys come around, bust up the pallets with the sledgehammer, and throw the pieces into a truck. When the truck’s full, they take it to the recycling center and then start again. We keep a sledgehammer at every jobsite so there’ll be one there. You’d be surprised at how many of those things grow legs and just walk off. Ridiculous.” Vic sat down on the floor and motioned for Laura to come over to him.

But when she walked over beside him, he grabbed her arm and jerked her down and across his legs. She started to say something, but before she could, his hand landed in a hard-driven smack on her ass, and she screamed out, “What the hell?”

“I told you I was going to do this. You’re getting nine more, little girl. Maybe you’ll think twice next time.” He landed another one, and Laura struggled to get up, but Vic held her firm and delivered yet another. “COUNT ‘EM!” he yelled at her.

“Three! I think!” she yelled and kept struggling.

Vic landed another one, and it stung. “Four!” she yelled out, trying to get free. It was useless; he was so strong that she couldn’t get away from him.

“Don’t!” Vic smacked her again.

“Five!”

“Do!” Another smack.

“Six!”

“This!” She was pretty sure that one left a handprint.

“Seven!”

“Again!” He hit the other ass cheek, and she squealed.

“Eight!”

“Hear!” That smack was so loud that she was sure it could be heard outside.

“Nine!”

“Me?” He put an extra couple of pounds of force behind that swat, and she shrieked.

“Ten!”

Vic turned her loose, and she jumped up, her face red, madder than he’d ever seen any woman, including Nikki, and that one could be a terror. “Did you feel those?” he yelled at her.

“Yeah, I did, damn you!” She was so furious that she couldn’t see straight. “Don’t you ever do that again!”

“Yeah, well, don’t you ever do anything like that again. Get the message?” he yelled back.

“Got it!” She stalked across the room and realized there was nowhere to go. There was no furniture, nothing. She was trapped there with him. The only refuge was the bathroom, and she was pretty sure he could get the door open if he wanted to.

Vic’s big, steely Dom voice kicked in. “Get your ass over here. Right now. Sit down. We need to talk.” He waited while she fumed on the other side of the room. “Or I can come over there and get you. Your choice.”

Laura was blind with rage. She wanted to cry, but she couldn’t. Her face was burning, mostly from the embarrassment of being spanked like a three year old, but she didn’t have any way of letting it out, so she stomped her foot.

And Vic started to laugh.

She turned, ready to tie into him bull-chasing-rodeo-clown style, but when she saw how hard he was laughing, she got even angrier – because she started laughing too. That only made Vic laugh harder, and he was gasping for air in just a few seconds. His struggle to breathe struck her even funnier, and pretty soon she was laughing so hard that she was doubled over. Laura walked back over to him and sat down on the floor beside him. “Are you always like this?” she asked him, still laughing.

“Yeah, pretty much! Whole damn family is, and to top it off, the women who keep marrying into the family are just about the same. You should see the family gatherings – they’re crazy fun!” Vic was still chuckling, and Laura was working on getting her giggles out. “You know, you’re even more beautiful when you’re laughing and smiling!” Vic said, his eyes sparkling with tears of laughter. Then Laura did something that surprised them both.

She kissed him.

Vic was so shocked that he almost pushed her away. But in a moment of clarity, he realized he shouldn’t touch her, just let her do it in her own time without feeling constrained or pushed.

She cradled his face in both hands, her lips against his, closed, and just held very, very still. When she turned him loose and pulled away, she had the oddest look on her face, like she was bewildered. “If I’d known you were going to do that, I would’ve brought my toothbrush,” Vic said; it was the first thing that crossed his mind. And Laura started to laugh again. “What was with the weird look on your face?”

She stopped laughing and looked at him, smiling. “I don’t know what I thought would happen, or what I thought you’d do, but that wasn’t it,” she said. “I think maybe, I don’t know, maybe I thought you’d grab me, try to hold me still, try to force . . .”

“No!” Vic almost shouted. “I would never do that. It would make you too uncomfortable, and I don’t want that.” He took both her hands in his and, for the first time, she didn’t feel like she needed to pull away. “We’re going to take this at your speed. Whatever you want, whenever you want it. No pressure, baby.” He reached up and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes, and she caught his hand and kissed it. Vic’s heart soared. This was more than he ever could’ve expected.

“Your lips are so . . . soft. And warm.” She reached up and touched his bottom lip, and he kissed the tip of her finger.

“Laura, how long has it been since a man has kissed you, really kissed you?”

She stopped and thought. “Almost seventeen years.” She watched Vic’s face, but he didn’t look shocked or disgusted. Instead, he looked almost enchanted by her answer. “Does that scare you?” she asked.

“No. It makes me very happy that I was the first man in almost seventeen years that you chose to share that with.” He reached up to stroke her cheek, and her eyes closed. She flinched, but then held still, and he put a palm against her cheek. “Honey, I don’t know what you think right now, but you need to know that I will never hurt you. Never. I’d die first.” He waited for her eyes to open, and when they didn’t, he asked, “Do you believe me?”

Her eyelids finally lifted, her eyes locking with his. “Yes. I believe you. But you have to understand, I’m so . . . scared. I don’t even remember what life was like before . . .”

“You don’t have to. You just have to want to make a new life now. Do you want to?” Vic asked, afraid of what she’d say.

“Yes,” she said, then leaned in and kissed him again, but this time, instead of putting her hands on his face, she reached for his hands and pulled them up and around her waist. She put her arms around his neck and pressed into him, and Vic’s heart started to hammer so hard that he was sure she could hear it. He didn’t try to make her open her mouth; instead, he nibbled on her lower lip, and she giggled. When she leaned back to look at his face, she said, “That was nice.”

“Sure was,” he agreed, then leaned in and planted a soft kiss on her lips, not a lingering thing, just a peck. When he opened his eyes and looked at her, she was smiling, and her whole face was lit up. “Like that?”

“Yeah. A lot. Vic, I don’t know if or when I’ll ever be able to . . .”

Vic reached up and put his finger on her lips to shush her. “Baby, it doesn’t matter. None of that matters. We just take it a step at a time. If you never get there, I’ll still be around. Not going anywhere.”

“You have certain expectations. I know what you do at . . . what goes on at . . .” She couldn’t make herself mention the club, but Vic knew what she was trying to say. He traced around her lips with his fingertip, and Laura felt a strange sensation between her legs. Something knotted up just below her navel, and she got a little nervous. What was happening to her?

“Let’s not talk about that right now, okay? Don’t worry about that because with every little step we take together, that place holds less importance to me.” He looked straight into her big hazel eyes. “Laura, I don’t want any of those women. I want you. Don’t you understand that? They don’t mean anything to me.”

“But I can’t give you what they give you.” She blushed, and Vic wanted to grab her, press her into him, hold her and kiss her and tell her everything was going to be fine. “I may never be able to.”

“Ah, but precious, I have way more faith in you than you do in yourself. You
will
be able to; you’ll want to, beg to. I have no doubt of that. There’s a wild, wonderful woman locked up inside you, and we’ve got to find a way to get her out. And, princess,” he said, pulling her chin up so he could see her face, “we will. Somehow, some way, I’m gonna set you free.”

“I found Steve,” Tony told Vic when he answered the phone in the car. “Peyton ran him down. I don’t know where he was, but I gave him this number. He’ll call you in a bit. You guys okay?”

“Yeah, we’re fine. We got lucky. I’d been to the store on my way home last night and forgot to take the stuff into the house. I have two boxes of protein bars and a bottle of antibacterial soap. The water’s turned on in here, so we can wash the inserts in the cup holders and use them for drinking. It’s no five-star hotel, but we’re safe and we have something to eat and drink. And I keep a blanket in the back seat, so we won’t freeze to death.”

“Okay. You guys hang tight. We’ll get to you pretty soon. And when you get that call from McCoy, you tell him I appreciate his accessibility,” Tony said in a growl.

“I’ll convey your sentiments. Thanks, cuz.” Then Tony hung up and they were alone.

“Well, I guess we’re here for the night. What’s your choice, peanut butter or chocolate chip?” Vic asked, holding out the boxes of protein bars.

“Why don’t we take two out, break them both in half, and share them? That way we can have a little of both,” Laura said, “because I like both and I can’t choose.”

“You’re a smart one, Laura Butler, at least when it comes to protein bars,” Vic said, smirking. He broke them in half and handed her the biggest halves.

She looked at them and shook her head. “I have more than you.”

“It’s my job to take care of you. So don’t worry about it,” he said in a don’t-challenge-me voice. She looked down, smiled a tiny smile, and ate the protein bar pieces. “By the way, what’s your middle name? Because I need to know what to call you when I’m mad at you. Like today.”

“Elaine.”

“That’s pretty. So you know just about my whole family, but you’ve never mentioned yours. Where are your people?”

“Spencer County.” She didn’t elaborate.

“And?” He waited.

“My dad is the sheriff of Spencer County.”

For a second, Vic thought he’d heard her wrong. “What? Why hadn’t you said anything about them before?”

“Because when I came back from the service, I was totally messed up. And they didn’t seem to want to be bothered. My mom even asked me what I’d done wrong to be so weirded out all the time.” Laura looked at the protein bar wrappers and didn’t look up at Vic. “So I don’t spend any time with them at all. I didn’t even see them at Christmas.”

“Who did you spend Christmas with?”

“Nobody.” She still didn’t look up.

Vic’s breaking heart didn’t know what to say. The first thing that went through his mind was Nikki, how she’d been all alone until she and Tony met, and he just sat and wondered how he’d ever get through to this woman who needed someone so much but didn’t know or feel it. After a minute or two, he said, “That must’ve been lonely.”

“Just another day.” Without looking up, she smiled and fiddled with the protein bar wrappers. Vic couldn’t think of one single thing to say.

The silence was broken as the car phone rang again, and Vic got up to answer it. “Yeah?”

“Cabrizzi? Is Butler there?” Steve’s voice boomed.

“No, she’s out skydiving. Of course she’s here,” Vic snarled at him.

“Can she hear me?”

Vic looked at Laura, and she nodded. “Yeah.”

“Butler, I ought to fire your ass! I’m so pissed at you right now that I can’t see straight. What the hell were you thinking?”

Before Laura could answer, Vic said, “Hey, lay off. We’ve already talked about it. Matter of fact, I gave her a spanking for it.” Laura’s eyes flashed at him and he grinned.

“I hope her ass was bare when you did it.”

“Nope, but she still felt it, trust me.”

“Yeah, well, I’m gonna give her another one when I see her. Damn it, woman, telling lies and sneaking away? And you endangered Nikki and . . .”

“Hey, dipshit, how about you tell me why we haven’t been able to call you all day. What’s up with that?” Vic asked, changing the subject.

“I don’t know why you haven’t been able to reach me. My phone’s in my pocket and it hasn’t rung all day long. Walters was pissed when he finally got me, so I had to listen to him bitch me out for twenty minutes. I’ve had a shitty day,” Steve said. “And to top it off, my sub trainee scraped me with her teeth when she was going down on me, so there’s that.”

“Oh, poor baby,” Vic said in a mocking voice. “Whatever will you do?”

“Shut up, Cabrizzi, you dickhead. I’ve got a club full of women in here wanting to know where you are and . . .”

“Now
you
shut up, McCoy. You’ve got the sensitivity of an armadillo, you know that?” Vic looked over at Laura. She was trying very hard not to look at him. “So what’s the plan, or is there one?”

“Yeah, Peyton and José will come and get you tomorrow morning. Are you okay there tonight?”