Page 11 of Late Night Talking
Panic bursts in my chest. I’ve never been afraid of Ethan. Not once. But he’s not moving. His body is pressing down on mine, his hands holding mine down at my sides, and I have the sudden realization that he’s not going to takenofor an answer.
I immediately feel like I can’t breathe. I tug at my hands, but he holds them down harder, until I know they’ll bruise. “Ethan, let me go.” I know saying it isn’t going to do any good, and the words come out choked anyway. “Ethan, please.”
“What’s the big deal?” he says, and all the playfulness is gone from his tone. “You’re my girlfriend. We’ve had sex tons of times. Why does this one time matter?” At this, he pushes his hips into mine, and I can feel that he’s hard. He’s gyrating against me, like I might change my mind, and bile rises up in my throat.
“Because I said, no!” I pull up my knee as far as I can and jam it into his ribs. This alone doesn’t do much, but Ethan flinches, and it’s enough to get his grip on me to loosen. I rip my hand away from his and hit him once across the face with the flat of my palm before struggling to get out from underneath him.
I’m not sure if it’s the shock of what just happened or the realization that he’s done something entirely unforgivable, but Ethan lets me go. He doesn’t try to come after me as I grab my bag and race for the door. Once I’ve gotten it open with trembling fingers, I spin around to face him, still half crouched on the couch where I left him.
“Don’t you ever fucking come near me again!” I scream, and then I slam the door and run.
∞∞∞
I have to find Finn’s new place in the rain. A small storm has blown in, big heavy drops of rain that wet the streets and have the tourists looking for cover. This is most likely all the rain we’ll see this month, and it’s shown up at the worst time. It takes me twenty minutes to get from Ethan’s place in Tule Springs to Finn’s huge house in the Spanish Hills. When my taxi swings into the driveway, a man comes out to speak to the driver and then walks around the side of the car to speak to me. I’m soaked from my head to my shoes, and my hand slips on the button when I go to roll the window down.
“Ma’am?” the man asks, bending down to speak to me. Raindrops fly off the hat he’s wearing and peck me in the face. “Are you in the right place?”
“I’m Devin,” I say, wrapping my arms around myself to stop the shivering. It’s not even cold, but the adrenaline from earlier is starting to burn off, and I can’t seem to sit still. “You know that name, right? Can I come inside?”
The man’s eyes go wide. “Of course, Miss Scott. I apologize. You’re welcome anytime.” He opens the door for me, but when I lean forward to hand the driver enough money to cover the trip, a large chunk of my tip money from yesterday, the man at my door, who I can only assume is a security guard, waves me off.
“No, Miss Scott. You go inside. I’ll take care of the cab fare.”
I don’t have the energy to argue with him, so I rush up to the double doors and throw one open. I’m standing in a grand entryway, dripping on the tile floor, when Finn finds me. I can tell from the look on his face, the way his eyes go wide and his mouth parts slightly, that he knows something is wrong.
“Hey,” he says. "I thought I wasn't seeing you tonight." That’s all it takes for the tears to start.
I cover my face with my hands, and Finn rushes over to me, wrapping his arms around me, even though I’m soaked. He presses his mouth to my wet hair and says, “Shhh. Shhh,” over and over again, until I’ve got my head on his shoulder and most of my body weight has been transferred to him. He’s practically holding me upright.
“What happened?” he asks, running a hand over my hair. “What’s going on? Is it Bonnie?”
I press my face into his shirt, breathing in the comforting smell of him, and shake my head. I feel the way his body goes stiff, his muscles pulling taut, when he asks, “Is it Ethan?”
I pull away enough so that I can look up into his face. Looking him right in the eye seems terrifying, but Finn is the strongest person I know, and I need some of that strength now, even if it kills me. “I think he was going to rape me.”
If I thought he was tense before, Finn is very suddenly vibrating. “He was going towhat?”
“He held me down and—”
Finn lunges for the door. His eyes are almost black, the muscles in his arms corded and strained as he yanks it open.
“Finn!” I grab onto him before he can plunge out into the rain, trying to drag him back inside. “Finn, no. Finn!” I know I don’t have the power to stop him, that he’s bigger and stronger than I am. He’s not even looking at me, his dark eyes focused on his car, parked in front of the house. So I do the only thing I can think to. I jump up into his arms and wrap myself around him.
He does exactly what I expect him to, grinding to a halt and clutching me to him with both arms.
“Don’t go,” I say into his ear, my voice thick with tears. “I need you here. Please, Finn. Please stay with me.”
“I’ll kill him,” he growls in my ear, and I shake my head.
“No, you won’t. I’m with you now. He can’t hurt me.”
He clutches me harder, fingers digging into my flesh in an oddly reassuring way. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you.”
“I know,” I whisper into his ear. “I know. Take me inside.”
He turns. He doesn’t put me down, and I don’t try to make him. With measured steps, he walks me back into the house and slowly up the stairs. This isn’t how I wanted to see his home for the first time, barely noticing anything as he carries me through it, but right now, I don’t care. When we get to his bedroom, he sets me on the edge of the bed and digs out clothes for me to change into. He takes my wet clothes and leaves while I strip all the way down to my skin before putting on the T-shirt and athletic shorts he gave me.
When he comes back into the room, he’s only in his boxer briefs, and the sight of his skin is an unexpected comfort.
