Wanna Bet? (37 page)

“
Why what?” I have no idea
how I am still talking to him as if this is a normal situation, My
mind is more focused on why someone hasn’t come out here
yet.

“
I’ve seen them you know.
It’s OKAY. You can talk to me. I have some too” he says the
sympathy in his voice makes me turn all my attention back to
him.

“
You’ve seen what?” I ask
confused, all the worry gone now.

“
You’re scars, I saw them
when you were in the store room with that singer” I am in shock, or
at least I think I am, that’s why I don’t move when he rips my
shirt open with one hand sending buttons flying everywhere and
that’s the reason I don’t move when he lets my arm go to rip open
my bikini top to look at my scars. “Mine” he reads aloud running
his finger over my scars.

His gently touch brings me
out of my stupor and I push his hand away “I’m nobody’s!” I yell
and run past him to the entrance of the club holding my shirt
closed as best I can.

“
She’s here” someone shouts
I ignore it and push my way through to the bar.

“
Don’t let anyone in but
Tucker” I call to Lucy and Zack as I walk into the
office.

I crawl onto the floor
behind the desk and try to control my breathing to calm down so I
won’t cry. A few minutes later the door opens.

“
Brooke?” Tucker
calls

“
Are you alone?” I ask my
voice shaking.

“
No Andrew and Cam are here
is it okay if they come in too, they want to make sure you’re okay”
he asks softly.

“
Umm ... I love them for
that but I have no top on
at
all
” I call back quietly. I hear him say
something too low for me to hear and then the door
closes.

“
Are you okay?” Tucker asks
cautiously still from the other side of the room. He knows from
experience that after something bad happens to me I can freak out
at any moment if someone comes to close. That has never been the
case for him though.

“
I think so?” I say but it
comes out as a question

“
Brooke, I’m going to have
to make sure he didn’t hurt you” his voice is pleading and I
struggle to hold back the tears over his concern.

“
It’s fine, come on over,
he didn’t hurt me” As I say it I look down at my arm and wince at
the redness of it, that’s going to bruise but I can deal with that.
He might not though.

Anger flashes through his
eyes as he takes in my ripped clothing and I watch the muscles
ticking in his jaw letting me know he’s clenching his teeth. He’s
definitely pissed. “What did he do” he asks tightly.

“
Nothing, well he was
watching us in the storeroom and saw my scars, he touched them” I
explain avoiding his eyes because I have never shown him the scars
and every time I thought he might come close to touching them I
have moved his hand. I have no idea how I have kept them from him
for so long but I have.

“
What scars?” he asks
confused but I know that won’t last long, anger will be
back.

“
If I said it doesn’t
Matter, would you listen to me and forget I ever mentioned them?” I
ask hopefully making my voice playful. He doesn’t fall for it just
stares at me expectantly. “It’s not a big deal OKAY” I say as I
move my top and ruined bikini top out of the way so the side of my
right breast is visible. The scars are small so he has to move
close to be able to see them, and read them.

“
How don’t I know about
these? Why don’t I remember them?” he asks not taking his eyes from
them.

“
Because since you’ve been
back I’ve distracted you every time you’ve come close to finding
them and well, I didn’t have them when I saw you before I
left”

“
I don’t understand” he
admits looking at me now.

“
When I left that day,
after I packed my bags I went to my mums house to say goodbye to
Phin … Sam was there and it was the first time I’d seen him since
the graveyard and he thought you were my boyfriend … he held me
down with one of his friends and ... branded me. They didn’t do
anything. This is all” I say pointing to the small circular burns
that spell out
Mine.

“
This is my fault?” he asks
horrified.

“
No!” I grab his hand and
squeeze it “It’s not your fault. If it wasn’t for you he would have
killed me that night and if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have gone
there before that and attacked him and he would have raped me.
That’s what he told me he was going to do. Remember that night in
JD’s when he came and you pulled me away from him to dance, well
that night he drugged me, that’s how I got drunk so fast, he was
going to rape me. You saved me more than once from him. This is not
your fault” I tell him firmly.

“
I’m so sorry” he murmurs
as he leans down and kisses every one of the burns then pulls me
into his chest in a bear hug.

“
Don’t ... I can’t …” I
struggle to get out of his hold because I know it could be what
breaks my control.

“
I know, but I need to … I
need to know you’re okay” His voice shakes so I pull back and as I
look into his eyes that are now glistening my heart
breaks.

“
Hey” I say gently as his
hold loosens and I move my hands up to cup his cheeks then place my
lips on his and kiss him tenderly “I’m okay, because of you” I kiss
him again.

“
We should get back out
there before they come in here looking for you” he declares
unhappily.

“
Ummm” I look down at my
top.

“
Here, let me” he ties a
haphazard knot in my bikini top and removed his shirt, he’s wearing
a tight black tee under it and it distracts me for a moment but I’m
brought back when he shrugs his shirt over my shoulders I stand and
do a few buttons up then tie the bottom into a knot over my
stomach.

“
I’m ready” I nod at him
and we make our way to the door. “Can you not tell anyone about the
…” I trail off as we reach the door.

“
Of course. I would never”
he promises with a chaste kiss and tucks me under his
shoulder.

He doesn’t leave my side
for the rest of the night, he answers questions for me when anyone
asks what happened by playing it off as someone who had drank too
much and got a bit grabby. He pours drinks with me when I get
multiple orders and laughs with me as I teach him how to make
cocktails. He helps me clean up when the club has closed and
everyone has gone home. He locks up for me and follows me home in
his car. We don’t talk as we make our way straight up to the
bedroom and climb into bed together.

“
Trust me?” He asks as he
climbs over me, I nod my acceptance and he undresses us both
slowly, I watch amazed, as he trails soft slow kisses over my body
as he removes my clothing once piece at a time. Every time we have
been together it has always been frantic, filled with passion and a
ferocious need to be connected on a more physical basis. He takes
him time with me kissing and licking his way up from legs to my
face, he kisses my eyelids last before moving onto my mouth. The
kiss is powerful and I immediately know this is his way of
apologizing for what I won’t let him apologize for aloud. It’s his
way of sorry for what happened to me as a result of his actions,
sorry for making me go back there, sorry for hurting me enough to
go back there and sorry for not being there to stop him from
hurting me.

For the first time ever I
let him spend the time he needs on my body, I relax into and get
sucked into the pleasure as he caresses my breast, teases my
nipples, kisses and licks every scar, as he sucks and licks my
swollen clit and then slowly but passionately makes love to me.
Deep down I know that no matter how rough and wild we normally are
with each other when we are together it is never meaningless or
cheap it is always more.

He tucks my under his arm
so my head is on his chest and I’m reminded of the first time we
spent the night together a few years ago after we admitted we had
feeling for each other. I snuggle closer as he runs his fingers
through my hair softly.

“
I will never let anyone
hurt you ever again, and I want you to know that you can talk to
me, no matter what. Even the bad stuff okay?” he asks nudging me
gently with his shoulder.

“
Okay” I whisper and
squeeze him tightly in answer.

“
I love you Brooke, I think
I have since the moment you woke up and found me in your room
looking for coffee” he chuckles at the memory “you looked so cute
rumpled from sleep and confused yet amused at seeing me first thing
in the morning.”

“
I never stooped loving
you. I knew when you told me how you’d worked out my disguise; it
got me thinking and I just knew. That’s why there hasn’t been
anyone else; I couldn’t if it wasn’t you”

“
I’m still the only person
you’ve been with?” he asks surprised.

“
Well there was one person
when I first moved here, I thought it would help me forget you,
when it didn’t I never tried again” I tell him honestly.

“
I know this is awkward and
Tucker did promise me but …” Lucy trails off but the mention of
Tucker promising her something immediately grabs my attention,
she’s struggling to say something to me and I know it’s not
something I want to hear but I have to know.

“
Go on” I smile
encouragingly at her.

“
Well I know he promised me
that you wee fine with it and just didn’t wan to talk about it but
I have to tell you that if I knew anything was ever going to happen
between you two I would never have slept with him” she finishes
looking both horrified and embarrassed.

“
You slept with him?” I ask
not sure if I should believe her or not.

“
He didn’t tell you?” It’s
clear she doesn’t know if she should believe me now. I shake my
head at her. “He took me home the night after your
birthday”

“
No way, I went back to his
on her birthday” Mel puts in.

“
Wait … You’ve both had sex
with him?” I ask not sure I’m hearing this right. I had sex with
him the day after my birthday, in the office for god’s
sake.

They both nod at
me.

I feel sick, like someone
has just kicked me in the stomach after I’ve eaten a massive meal
sick.

“
OKAY, I can deal with
this, just do me a favor and don’t tell Tucker that I
know”.

I stumble into the club
dragging my new
friend along with me, the
band are playing and everyone is having a good time, I think. I
probably should have stopped drinking hours ago, but well we all
make mistakes.

“
This is your place?” he
asks looking around.

I nod up at him grinning
and pull him through to the bar.

“
Lucaaaaayyy” I call to get
my best friends attention. She does a double take and walks over to
me frowning.

“
This is my new best friend
Adam” I announce proudly.

“
Are you drunk?” she asks
watching me not looking happy. I’m not going to let her spoil my
mood when she’s a third of the reason I’m drunk in the first place.
“Yupp, and don’t pull faces at me. Everyone else gets drunk and no
one pulls faces at them” I pout at her. “Me and Adam would like
some drinks please. I’m going to show him my bar dance” I smile up
at Adam and look around while we wait for our drinks. I spot Andrew
making his way to us.

“
Where have you been? We
have all been trying to ring you” he says pulling me into a hug but
I trip so he ends up stopping me from hitting the floor with my
face.

“
I went out. I have other
friends you know. Look here’s one, his name is Adam and he’s my
best friend” I laugh as he stands me up right again.

“
How much has she had?” he
asks Adam

“
Not enough” I shout as an
answer “We’re waiting for my bar dance time and then we’re going on
a train” I tell him proudly.

“
Brooke you’re not doing a
bar dance tonight, you can just about walk on the floor let alone
dance on a bar that’s only a metre wide” he says sternly sounding
like a father.

I throw my arms around him
“I didn’t have a daddy for lots of years, will you be my new one?”
I step back and look him over, yes definitely daddy material “Yesss
you’re my new daddy from now on. You’re not allowed to ground me
though, although maybe you should. I’ve never been grounded before
it could be fun” I giggle and grab my beer from the bar and hand
Adam his. Lucy joins us on the other side of the bar and wraps one
of my arms around her shoulders and hold me across my
middle.

“
Oooh Lucy can be my new
mom cos my real one’s a bitch and doesn’t like me …. No cos then
you two would have to be married … let me think about this … Lucy
is my big sister, I’ve always wanted one of them and Andrew can be
my big brother, Tucker can be my dad and Mel can be my mom” I nod
as I decide my new family. “And you” I turn to Adam “Can be the
reason I get grounded” I giggle at him. “Come on, there’s someone I
want you to meet”