Chapter 37

“Have a good day,” Dale told me as he gathered up his clothes.

“We’ll call you later,” Lee promised while he waited for his husband.

I watched them go, feeling my chest aching with longing for them both. It was an odd feeling that I’d felt only a few times in my life, but now it was stronger than ever.

I sat alone for what felt like an eternity before finally picking up the tray of food. Suddenly I wasn’t so hungry, but I forced down the food anyway. The nausea from the night before was still there and I wasn’t so sure anymore that it had been the alcohol. I hadn’t had that much to drink, and I didn’t feel hung over.

After eating and gulping down a glass of orange juice, I climbed from the bed only to hear the doorbell ring. Had they forgotten something?

With a smile on my lips I headed through the apartment to the door and clicked the unlock button. They’d know what to do.

Then I headed back down the hall to the bathroom to get ready for the day. I left the door wide open as I turned on the shower.

When I heard the front door open, I yelled, “What did you forget?”

“Definitely not you,” a voice I remembered all too well spoke from the doorway.

I grabbed my towel off the rail and pulled it over my naked body even as I whipped around to face him.

“Simon! What the hell are you doing here?”

The sandy blond-haired man was still dressed in the same clothes from the night before, and behind his glasses I could see his tired eyes. He clearly hadn’t slept.

“I was hoping you hadn’t been with anyone else since we broke up, but now I see you’ve gotten yourself two new fuck buddies,” Simon snarled. “We’re you fucking Lee while we were together?”

“Of course not!” I exclaimed defensively.

“Why don’t I believe you?” Simon stepped into the bathroom and my blood ran cold. “Perhaps it’s because you are a dirty little whore.”

“Simon, I think you should leave,” I suggested softly.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he assured me. “I came to return this and apologise for my actions last night but now I see that it really didn’t faze you at all.”

I cringed as he stepped up to me and his hand flew up to cup my throat.

“Please leave,” I begged.

“Not until you show me the same excitement you so obviously showed them last night.” Simon’s expression was a mask of pure hatred and I felt every muscle in my body go ridged.

“Simon, please.” I felt tears prick the corners of my eyes. “You don’t want to do this.”

“Oh, but I do,” he responded even as he gripped the towel and snatched it away from me.

He shoved me backwards, slamming me against the sink before whipping me around. His boot slipped between my ankles and kicked my legs apart. The sound of him unbuckling his belt made my nausea grow.

His hand on the back of my head forced me against the mirror with a dizzying suddenness and the pain in my cheek was enough to know that it would bruise.

His fingers gripped my hair so tightly that I could feel the roots pulling at my scalp. Blood trickled down the side of my face and I tried to push back against him only to feel his hard erection pressing against my buttocks.

“Get off me!” I screamed. “Help!”

“Shut up bitch!” his free hand slapped me hard across the side of my face and he shoved me so hard against the sink that I almost threw up with the pressure in my stomach.

“Get your filthy hands off her you creep!” Kate’s voice sounded like that of a guardian angel.

An audible thud sounded and Simon’s body weight was suddenly gone from me.

I stood straight and whipped around to find her standing over him with the bat we usually kept by the front door in hand.

“Are you okay?” she asked me when we both saw that he was unconscious.

“Thanks to you,” I told her.

“Get dressed,” she warned me. “I’m calling the cops on this freak.” 20

After Kate called Dale and Lee to explain the situation, they were all determined that I was best to go to a hospital. Although I tried my hardest to tell them that I was fine, I had to agree that my face needed stitches after being slammed into the mirror.

I sat in the hospital awaiting the results of the x-ray that the doctors had taken with all my friends around me.