Swallow it Down by Addison Cain

Author:Addison Cain [Cain, Addison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-08-11T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

The ice pack wasn’t optional.

Stunned from what Aaron had just done to her, in broad daylight, as it were. From all he’d just said, Eugenia lay there and couldn't grasp how it had gone so far. And like he always did, he took advantage. Tucking a pillow under her head. Taking inventory of all the battle scars he could find. Replacing Band-Aids, kissing booboos.

He even inspected between her legs where his seed leaked free. Seed he caught up with a finger and put back in with a smile.

Swollen, bruised, he’d told her. But no blood. That last virgin blood had been spilt the prior night, pink smears on the sheets.

The towel Joan had wrapped the ice pack in was soft, laid between the limp thighs of a defeated woman. Chill cut the throb. But the broken heart under her ribs?

There wasn’t going to be an easy fix for that aching organ.

“Do you want your textbooks? I know you like to sleep with them when you’re upset.”

Turning away from him, legs closing on the ice pack to keep it where it served a purpose, she tucked her face into the pillow. “Knowing you’ve been watching me sleep is really unsettling.”

“You knew I was in the room.”

Yes. She had known. And it was nice to have those long silences in the dark where she didn’t have to be alone. Where he never made her talk. Where he rarely did more than sit on her mattress, elbows to his knees.

Where she’d known he’d left another woman sleeping on his couch or in his bed.

Covers were pulled over her aching body, and then her beloved books were set beside her hands.

“Sleep will do you good.” A gentle hand landed on her curls, stroking mussed hair from her face. A gentle voice, southern to the core, petitioned, “I’m asking you not to do anything that might harm yourself or anyone else on board while I’m gone. No fires, Eugenia. Arrangements need to be made, work done, but I’ll be back by dark. If you get hungry, Joan left food in the bags. If you get thirsty, there’s water. All your things are here if you want to unpack. And I prepared a present. Several new textbooks—my personal favorites back from my teaching days—but most are medical in nature. You’ll find them in the cabinet under the bar.”

She ignored him.

Buttoning up his jeans, he said, “We can go for a walk on the deck when I get home.”

Like a dog being let out so it wouldn’t shit on the carpet.

“Change is never easy, Eugenia, but it’s going to be okay. I promise.” A kiss landed on her forehead.

And then he was gone, unlocking and then locking the door.

Dreamless sleep stole in—the kind that keeps the desperate and the broken alive. Sucking fragmented fools so deep they fought waking.

But a hand jerked her shoulder. “Young lady, that’s enough of that.”

Groggy, burrowing under the covers to escape the utter annoyance, Eugenia growled, “Go away, Mom. I’m tired.”

“And you’ve slept enough.

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