Page 18 of Loving Wild
“Shit . . .” I hiss as I open and read the message while keeping my arms wrapped around Lauren and my dick still pressed against her belly. “I forgot Ava’s furniture was coming today.”
“Lucky furniture . . .” she says, adding another of her cute winks.
“Fuck it. Message says they’ll be here between two and three; we’ve got time.” Without giving her a chance to respond, I pull her behind me as I head towards the bedroom.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I pull her between my legs. Her hands go to my shoulders as she steadies herself. I look up at her as she looks down at me.
“I want you, but I need to know you’re ready. Yesterday was a shit show, and . . .”
“I’m not letting him win,” she interrupts me.
“Not being ready for sex a day after he did what he did, isn’t letting him win, Ren. If you need some time, I totally get it.” I slide my hands under her hoodie and inside the waist of her leggings to cup her arse. Her lips begin to tremble, and her eyes fill with tears as her palm comes to my jaw and strokes at my day-old stubble.
“I don’t know how I feel. Right now, I want this, want you, but I want to give you total honesty, and that means you need to know that tomorrow, or the next day, it might all hit me different, and I’ll be a mess.”
“Then we need to do our best and not let that happen.”
She leans forward and kisses me gently on the mouth, which gives me an idea.
“Take charge, babe. I’m all yours for you to do whatever you like with.”
Despite the tears still shining in her eyes, she stands up straight and gives me a small smile. My heart feels like it’s going to beat right out of my chest when she looks at me like that.
“You are so fucking gorgeous,” I tell her. That earns me a bigger smile right before she pulls her hoodie over her head. She has a singlet on underneath that comes off next. That’s when I see the bruises.
“Fuck,” I exhale on a loud huff. “That fucker, Ren. Shit.” I pull her in tighter, resting my face against her belly. “We don’t have to do this. We can wait. Babe, you’re bruised to fuck.”
She pulls back and stares down at me for a few seconds before stepping completely out of my reach.
“You’re right,” she says with a slow nod. “I’m not ready for this.”
Picking up her clothes, she pulls them back on and walks out of the bedroom.
* * *
I siton the edge of the bed for a while, wondering what the fuck just happened. When I finally get dressed and walk out to the kitchen, Lauren heads straight back to the bedroom. I leave her for around half-hour to work through whatever’s going on in her head. When I check on her, she’s back in bed and appears to be asleep. I’m not sure if she’s faking, but just in case, I leave her to it.
The furniture for Ava’s room arrives, but I get the delivery blokes to leave everything in the hallway, so Lauren can tell me how she wants it set up later.
At around four, Freddie, our solicitor, arrives with some paperwork for Lauren to sign for the intervention order we want served on East. When I check on her, she’s awake and sitting with her back to the headboard, scrolling through her phone.
“Hey, Freddie’s here. He has some paperwork you need to sign.”
Wordlessly, she looks up at me and nods. I watch her climb out of bed and move towards the bathroom. Reaching out, I gently hold on to the top of her arm as she passes me.
“You okay?” I question.
“Yeah, I had a headache. I only planned on shutting my eyes for five minutes, not sleep the afternoon away.”
Her eyes dart to mine, then quickly away as she talks.
“I’ll be out in a minute. I’m just gonna splash my face and clean my teeth.”
“You want a tea or coffee, something to eat?” I call after her. “You’ve not had anything all day,” I remind her.
“Tea would be good, thanks.”
I stare through the opening into the ensuite after her for a few moments, but she gets on with what she needs to do without looking back my way.
