Leaving His Mark Read online

  Earlier today as I was coming back from the toilets at the shopping centre Gabe handed me a paper bag. When I opened it, I found a brand new Kindle inside, even better than the one I had before. With tears in my eyes I had grabbed him and held on tight. He whispered in my ear that he wanted to know if Archer got the girl or not. After hearing that the tears had flowed down my cheeks, no one had even done something so nice for me before. Just the thought that he knew how important reading was to me, that he had selflessly spent his money on me for no reason other than to make me happy was just too much to handle.

  So now I'm sitting here with a brand new kindle in my hand and a smile on my face. With my books uploaded and my hair colouring I get comfortable and start reading. I need to be able to tell Gabe if Archer got the girl.

  I finish drying my hair for the second time and smile at my reflection. I like the blue section that’s now there, my hair has been pink for so long it’s nice to have a bit of a change. I grab my kindle and walk through to the living room. I know Gabe said he would be late but I want to wait up for him and make sure he gets home safe. I laugh at the thought. I don’t know what I would be able to do to keep him safe that he couldn’t do himself, I mean the guy is like twice my size. I sit on the chair that I’ve been dying to try, it’s a big round love seat and it looks like it’s designed to read in. I start reading again and it doesn’t take me long to get lost in the story.

  Suddenly, the front door slams and I jump in fright. I see Gabe coming around the corner and I'm surprised he’s home so early. I smile as he notices me.

  “You’re home early.” Shit. I made that sound like this was my home, our home, like we are a couple and I'm waiting on him. Right on cue with my racing thoughts is the heat that burns my cheeks.

  “I'm not, Rhys. It’s one thirty, why are you still up?” One thirty? He has to be wrong. I stand from the chair and walk through to the kitchen to check the clock. He’s not lying, I’ve been sitting reading for three hours now and didn’t notice the time.

  “Wow. I had no idea it had gotten so late. How was your night?”

  “Tiring.” He rubs his hands over his face before stretching them above his head, arching his back until I hear it click. My eyes move down his body as his shirt rides up his abdomen and I nearly swallow my tongue. I have never seen his body apart from his arms, I knew he would be toned but his body is just crazy. He looks like he doesn’t have an inch of fat over the muscles he’s sporting. His skin looks soft and hairless apart from that line under his belly button leading into the top of his jeans. I would love to know where that leads but my eyes are stuck on the tattoo marks his body just above the edge of his jeans. I can’t take my eyes of it as I read it over and over again, the words ringing through my head in recognition. Veni, vidi, vici. I came, I saw, I conquered. It’s the only Latin that I remember from school and it has always stuck with me, something that I wanted to aspire to. To get my life to the point that I finally felt I had conquered my demons. To see it tattooed on Gabe’s body causes heat to flood through me.

  “My eyes are up here, Rhys.” I tear my eyes away from his stomach but only long enough to acknowledge that I heard him before they’re drawn back down again.

  “I know, sorry. But god, Gabe, that tattoo.” He looks down like he forgot he had it. He rubs his hand over it, his little finger disappearing under his jeans. A tiny moan escapes me as I find myself wishing I was his pinky. His hand stops and the smile on his lips when I look up through my lashes tells me he heard me. Damn. Thankfully he decides to be nice to me and doesn’t mention it.

  “It’s Latin.” I nod my head and take a step closer to him, wanting to see it clearer.

  “I came, I saw, I conquered.” His eyes widen in shock obviously not expecting me to know the meaning. If he sticks around long enough I hope to surprise him some more.

  “I'm impressed, most people don’t have a clue unless they Google it. Do you have any more hidden talents?” This comment makes me look up. I finally see how tired he looks and I wonder what he’s been up to but it’s probably better if I don’t know.

  “You will just have to wait and see about that. You look really tired.” He nods his head and walks past me to the fridge where he grabs a bottle of water.

  “It was a long night. I’m going to hit the sack and sleep for maybe ten hours.” He walks to the fridge and grabs a bottle of water, drinking half of it in one go. He’s lowering the bottle when it stops in mid air and he stares at me with a confused look on his face. He walks towards me and takes my hair between his fingers. The gentle tug registers in places it shouldn’t, making my nipples hard and my knickers wet. I try to keep my eyes open but I can feel them fluttering closed.

  “Your hair is blue.” He pulls a little more and I can feel my toes curl on the cool tiles.

  “Yeah, I felt like a change.” I can feel my nipples rubbing against my vest top as I breathe heavily and I know there is no way that Gabe hasn’t noticed how hard they are. I’m about to lose the ability to stand when he leans forward and press his lips against the edge of my ear, his tongue briefly touching it.

  “I like blue. Good night, Rhys.” My breath gets stuck in my throat as he drops my hair and walks out of the kitchen. I place my hand against my heart and try to get it to calm down. I swear I think that guy is going to give me a heart attack, the way he gets my body to overreact by the simplest of touches. It takes me a few minutes before I can make my body move and take me to bed.

  Bad, bad, bad. So very bad. I stare at my reflection in the mirror and wonder why the hell I just did that. It was like one bad decision just led naturally to the next until I had to leave before I had an unfortunate accident in my jeans. Seeing her hair blue had been a surprise, I think I’ve seen her with every colour except that one and it looked amazing. Once I’d noticed, I needed to touch it. The blue matched my eyes perfectly and made her hair look so soft, so touchable and I just couldn’t resist. It had felt like silk between my fingers and I just wanted to wrap it around my hand and pull … hard. I must have pulled it without realising, the urge taking over all conscious thought because I heard her gasp. A gasp that made me want to feel it against my tongue. Then when I saw that her nipples had hardened, making them poke through her top I had wanted to drop to my knees and worship them. I should have left then, taken my stupid arse straight to my room but no, I had to torture myself a little more. I swear when I went to whisper in her ear I had no intention of licking her but I did. I know she felt it and I know I definitely did, especially in my dick.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid. I drop my head forward and close my eyes. Every time I decide to do the right thing, to make this friendship thing work I do something to give her the wrong idea and me a hard on. I need to stop leading her on, no matter how much I want to lose myself in her body I can’t. Too much is at stake. I need to get her out of my house and into a new place, one that’s safe of course. Once she leaves, everything will go back to normal, it’s being in the same house that’s causing the crazy chemistry. I undress and get into the shower, the warm water soothing the muscles I overused cleaning Rhys’s house. I’m tired and in pain but it’s totally worth it. When we left her place it had looked immaculate, the floor completely clear and all the broken furniture removed. It took longer than we had planned but when we had finished it looked liveable again, not that Rhys would be back there to stay.

  After washing my body and hair I turn off the water, and wrap a towel around my waist. There’s a gentle knock at my bedroom door and I answer it to see Rhys standing there. Her eyes drop to my body and I can feel myself harden under her stare. It’s the same feeling I got when she was staring at my tattoo, it looked like she wanted to reach out and touch it, and thats the same expression she’s giving me now. I stand for a minute just enjoying her looking at me, but once it becomes too difficult to hide my erection I know I need to speak.

  “Is everything okay, Shorty?” She is pulled from her daze and she shakes her head slightly,
focusing intently on my eyes. I resist the urge to smile while watching her eyes trying hard to stay focused on my face and not drift down at my naked chest.

  “I answered your phone, I hope that’s okay?” She hands me the house phone and I can feel nerves in my stomach. A phone call at this time of night is never a good thing, it only ever brings bad news. My mind automatically thinks of Uncle Greg and I take the phone. I nod at Rhys and she smiles before walking across the hall to her room. She closes the door quietly as I put the phone to my ear.

  “Hello?” I brace myself for the worst but I could never have prepared myself for what I got.

  “Hello, Son. How are you?” My stomach drops and I can feel my body starting to shake at the sound of his voice. I close my eyes and try to block the memories that start to flood my mind. I have become an expert at blocking them out but hearing his voice always brings them crashing back.

  “What do you want?” I try to keep my voice strong but I know I sound like the scared little boy I always was.

  “Can’t a father call his son to say hi? I haven’t spoken to you in a long time and I thought it was maybe time to catch up.” He sounds older now but still as powerful. It’s his voice I remember the most, despite all the beatings and pain, it’s that voice that haunts me. I remember lying on the floor once as he stood above me, his voice the only thing that I could focus on, the hate and disgust evident in his tone.

  “I’ve nothing I want to say to you. You need to stop calling me, I don’t want to talk to you.” I keep my voice level, needing to show him that he has no power over me anymore, show him that I'm not that little boy who would take a beating without fighting back.

  “Oh, but I want to talk to you. I’ve a lot to say to you and I think you will want to hear it. I have something to offer you that no one else can, boy.” I take deep breaths trying to keep my anger at bay. It’s like this every time. My fear leads to anger and when I show my anger it’s like he gets some perverse pleasure from it, like I'm proving I'm just like him. I have spent my entire life trying to prove I’m nothing like him.

  “You have nothing to offer me.” Laughter meets my ears and I clench my free hand against my side, the nails digging into the palm of my hand. The pain clears my head a little and I let the breath I was holding out slowly.

  “But that’s where you’re wrong, Son. I’m the only one who knows what happened that day. The only one who can tell you how she died.” I’ve heard enough. The mention of my mum and I can’t take anymore. I hang up and turn the handset off making sure he can’t call back. It’s the same every time. He wants me to go visit him, promising that he will tell me how he killed her. I’m tempted to go, just to find out why he did it, why he took the only person that loved me away from me.

  I throw the handset on the chair in the corner of the room and turn off the main light, leaving only the bedside light on. I drop my towel and climb into bed, slipping under the duvet and getting comfortable. I want to stay awake but I'm finding it hard after getting very little sleep last night and being so busy today. I always try to avoid sleeping when he calls, the nightmares are always worse on those nights. Reliving the worst days of my life when he used my body as a way to relieve his anger. I’ve never understood why my dad hates me so much. Was he just actually incapable of love, or did he get jealous that he didn’t have my mum’s full attention when I was around. It could have simply been that he hated everyone and I wasn’t big enough to fight back.

  My eyes start to flutter as sleep starts to win, but I don’t want to sleep, I should get up and go for a walk, get some fresh air. I keep thinking this as I slip off to sleep. The last thought in my head is me hoping that it’s a dreamless sleep. I don’t want to see my mum dying again.

  Chapter Ten

  I don’t know what pulls me from my sleep but I wake up in complete darkness. I turn over and lie on my back listening to see if I can hear anything. I’m greeted by silence so I stretch before snuggling into the duvet again, if it’s still dark outside then it’s too early to be awake.

  I can feel myself dropping off again when I hear it, a noise from outside my room. My eyes widen as I sit up in the bed, straining to hear the noise again. My heart is racing and I try to keep my breathing quiet so I can listen closely. I shuffle to the edge of the bed and put my feet on the floor. I haven’t heard anything else but I know there is no way I’ll get back to sleep if I don’t check the house. I take a deep breath and raise myself quietly from the bed. I tip toe over to the door doing my best Mission Impossible impression, opening the door just enough that I can see out into the hall. It’s dark but nothing looks out of place and I brave opening the door completely. My hands are shaking like and I have the urge to rush back under the duvet, I mean if anything bad happens I'm sure Gabe would notice and save the day.

  I look over to his door and notice that it’s open, the brightness of a lamp shining through the crack. Why hasn’t he heard anything? I would think that he would be the first out to investigate a suspicious noise. I step further into the hall and move very slowly down it. Just as I reach the end of the hall I hear a noise coming from Gabe’s room. I let out a tiny squeal and I cover my mouth with my hand. If someone’s broken in then I’ve just told them exactly where I am.

  I quietly walk back to Gabe’s room and peek through the door. I can see the shape of Gabe under the sheet, his body is restless and thrashing from side to side. I push the door open and walk to the side of his bed. Small moans escape from his mouth and I realise it was Gabe I heard from my room. His head jerks around like he is trying to escape from a nightmare.

  “No. Stop!” He cries out and I can feel his pain vibrate through my soul. I don’t know what his demons are but I know they’ve caught up with him tonight. I reach my hand down determined to wake him, to give him the escape he needs. I understand nightmares. There’s no escaping them once you are stuck, you either see them through to the end or someone helps you by waking you up. I shake him gently on his shoulder trying to wake him gently.

  “Gabe? You need to wake up.” I shake a little harder as he doesn’t seem to notice I'm there. I get a fright when his hand moves quickly and grabs me by the wrist. His eyes flash open and look at me but his glazed over eyes aren’t seeing me. He pulls on my wrist sharply and I fall over his body but that’s not where I stay. He moves quickly and before I can push myself up off him, my back is against the mattress and his hard body is on top of mine pinning me in place. He’s looking into my eyes but I swear he still isn’t seeing me. One hand still holds my wrist and the other is leaning on the pillow next to my head, keeping his chest raised from mine so I can still breathe. I can’t take my eyes of him. He looks so tortured, his eyes showing fear and panic. I don’t know where he was during his nightmare but I think part of him is still stuck there.

  With my free hand I reach up and place it over his cheek, my thumb rubbing gently under his eye. His eyes close and his head drops against my hand, snuggling into my palm. The creases on his forehead smooth out and he looks like he is relaxing with my touch. I feel butterflies fluttering in my stomach with the thought of me having a relaxing effect on him, that just my touch can give him peace. I continue to rub my thumb, allowing him the time he needs to come back to the present, to leave his demons where they belong. I know how badly they can hold onto you, nothing is able to chase them away for long.

  His eyes open and he looks into my eyes but this time I can see him in there. It’s like something inside him has switched on and he comes back to me, seeing what’s in front of him not what’s in his head.

  “Rhys?” I smile gently at him letting him know that I'm fine, that he hasn’t hurt me.

  “Welcome back. I lost you for a little while there.” I keep my voice gentle. He moves and it’s then I realise how we’re lying. Now that I'm not focused on bringing him out of his dream I can feel him, all of him. I am cradling him between my legs and he’s pressed up against me from his groin to his chest. I know the exact moment t
hat he notices our position because his dick starts to harden, pressing the area that I want him to the most. He thrusts is hips slightly adding pressure against my pussy and it incites a moan from me. My head falls back against the mattress and I close my eyes enjoying the pleasure he is creating within me. His hips keep moving as his head drops to my shoulder and a deep groan leaves him. I know I need to stop him but I just need one more minute, just a little longer to enjoy him.

  His lips brush against my neck making me shudder and when his tongue flicks out, tasting my skin, I think I might die. My breathing has become erratic and my body temperature is through the roof. The grip he has on my wrist increases as he pushes me into the mattress, holding me in place. It registers in my mind that I should be panicking, that him pinning me down with his body should have me screaming but it doesn’t. Instead, the pressure is making me feel secure, cherished and more importantly, alive. I don’t know what it is about Gabe but he just makes me feel like he would go to the ends of the earth to protect me. His lips move down my skin, brushing over my neck and across my shoulder. My body arches off the bed as I try to get closer to his mouth and nibbling teeth, his gentle bites are making my nerves go crazy. Gentle fingers caress my shoulder and move down my arm, taking the strap of my vest with it. I feel the material moving down my breast until it it’s tugged over my hard nipple, leaving me bare. He moves his head away from my body and meets my gaze. There is so much heat and lust there, he looks like he is about to devour me whole.