Page 25 of Resilience

“What? I did not! What are you ...” his hand slowed and stopped, and she knew he was remembering. If not everything, at least enough to make him rethink his denial. But then he managed to make it worse: “Maybe I surprised you, but it wasn’t rape. You’re my girlfriend. It’s not rape just because you weren’t into it.”

Rage made stars in her vision. Athena jabbed the knitting needle at him and made him flinch hard. “It. Was. Rape. You asshole!” With one hand, she began to sign everything she’d drafted in her head. “This is what happens now. You get dressed and get the fuck out of here. You make sure I never see your stupid face ever again. That means you quit your job immediately.” His eyes went wide at that and she saw him ready to argue back, but she shook her head firmly and said, “One more word out of you, and this needle goes straight through your nutsack.”

His hand dropped at once and joined its mate over his crotch.

Athena returned to her rehearsed speech. “You quit immediately. Because if you don’t, I won’t go to the cops. I won’t tell the school. I’ll tell my family.”

Any thought he might still have had to defend himself stopped right there as he went completely still. Athena thought he’d even stopped breathing.

“Imagine what my father will do to you if he ever finds out. Not just him, and not just Sam. All the Brazen Bulls, who all love me, will take turns on you. And they’re big on giving people a taste of their own medicine.”

She didn’t know if that last part was true, but it had the desired effect. Hunter had gone grey and sweaty.

“I was really drunk last night,” he finally signed. “If I was too rough—”

“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP,” she signed, so fiercely she was practically punching herself in the mouth. He shut up, then sat there looking naked and pathetic. Still had a hard-on, though.

Had she thought she loved this guy? Even possibly? What a joke.

She jabbed the needle at him again, and he flinched so hard he almost went off the other side of the bed. “Get dressed and get out. If you’re in that building when I go to work this week, I will tell my family everything.”

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~oOo~

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After Hunter was gone, Athena went back to the bathroom and threw up some more. Then she took the hottest shower of her life and scrubbed herself raw.

But she didn’t fucking cry.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Sam woke groggy and so lethargic he wasn’t sure he could sit up. At first, he thought he was merely hung over—he hadn’t gotten stupid drunk yesterday, but he’d mixed his alcohols, so he’d earned a bad morning. The next minute, however, he remembered about Lark, and about Athena and the new muddle in his head about what she meant to him.

Oh. Right.

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