Page 77 of Soft Tissue Damage
I feel my eyebrows creep up my forehead. “So what?”
“So, can we try again? Get a cup of coffee tomorrow or something?”
“No, thank you.”
“Why not?” he demands.
My mouth falls open in shock. “Are you seriously asking me that?”
“Was I such a bad boyfriend? You know, apart from that one mistake. When we were together we were great.”
I can’t fathom how Leon’s mind works, and that he can compartmentalize his cheating like that. Did I cease to feel real to him when I was out of his sight? “My self-esteem hasn’t been great lately, but even I draw the line at you sleeping with someone else, her rubbing my nose in it by sending all those pictures to me, and then getting back together with you.”
“Angie said she didn’t send you anything. I’m really sorry you saw that.”
“I don’t want to hear her name, Leon,” I snap. “And she would say that, wouldn’t she? She wanted to break us up, and it worked. She won. You and I are over.”
Leon steps toward me, but Cullan reaches out and stops him in his tracks with a hand on his chest. “That’s close enough. You don’t argue with a woman when she tells you no. It’s time to leave.”
Leon looks like he wants to argue, and then he closeshis mouth and hangs his head. “You looked beautiful last night. I’ve never seen you like that before. I wish I…”
He sighs and shakes his head. A moment later, he strides out of the kitchen, and we hear him leave the house.
I let out the tense breath I’ve been holding, wondering what he was going to say. He wishes he could make me look as beautiful and happy as Cullan makes me feel? I guess that’s the difference between the two men. Cullan is always looking for ways to make me smile, and Leon barely tried.
“Are you okay?” Cullan wraps both his arms around me and gathers me tight to his broad chest.
“I’m okay. Thankfully that’s over with now.” As my anxiety fades away, Cullan’s mouth seeks mine and he kisses me slowly.
“I’ve thought about touching you all day,” he whispers. “Last night was intense, and I’ve wanted to give you space to breathe, but I can’t take it anymore.”
I need to be reminded what it’s like to kiss a man who cares about me. “Please touch me. I don’t want space from you. I never want space from you.”
Cullan puts his hands around my waist, picks me up, and sits me on the counter. My legs wrap around his waist, and my fingers push into his hair as he kisses me. All the pain and distress vanish from my heart when I feel his lips on my lips—his tongue caressing mine. Cullan holds me so tight, his strong body grounding me. He pulls my hipstight against his. Desire shoots through me, making me moan, and Cullan’s tongue pushes deeper into my mouth.
Distantly, I hear Cullan’s phone chime from another room, but I pay it no mind and neither does he. His hand pushes beneath my shirt to squeeze my breasts. With his other arm tight around my hips, he thrusts against me through our clothes. Showing me he wants me. Promising to fuck me. Pushing my desire for him even higher.
There’s a small sound from the doorway, and we both look around at the same time.
Leon has come back into the house, and he’s watching us kiss and touch each other in the most suggestive way possible. My ankles are locked around his father’s lower back. My fingers are in his hair.
Leon stares at my lips, which are wet and swollen from his father’s kisses, and his expression fills with revulsion. “Elena, you slut.”
19
Cullan
Elena flinches as my son calls her that horrible word. I actually feel the hurt and humiliation go through her. I give her a reassuring squeeze and gently set her on her feet.
Then stride over to my son and seize him by the elbow. “Move. Now.”
He shrugs angrily out of my grip, his eyes on Elena. “You’re kissing my dad? You’re making out with my goddamn dad?”
Elena is half turned away from us, her head bowed in shame. It makes my heart ache to see her like this, silent and accepting of Leon’s cruelty. It’s no business of his whom she kisses, and she owes noone an apology or an explanation, but she can’t seem to find her voice. What has happened to her in her life that’s made her believe she deserves this?
Until she can fight, I’ll fight for her.
I grasp Leon’s elbow again, harder this time, and march him out of the kitchen and into the living room, closing the door behind us. Whatever hurt feelings Leon needs to express, he can do it here.
