Gemma
My eyes sprungopen when the sound of iron against iron rang out. I’d know that sound anywhere, at any time. Chains. My throat closed, and my heart skipped a beat. I kept my back turned to Sloane, facing the wall, which meant that I couldn’t see who was opening my door. I listened as the chain clamored against the wood, and I held my breath. Was it Sloane? The room had a faint glow to it from the fairy lights that Sloane had hung over each of our beds. We usually turned them off when we went to sleep, but after Sloane caught on that I wasn’t sleeping, she kept them on, hoping it’d chase away the nightmares.
It didn’t. But it was a sweet gesture.
I listened closely to her breathing, realizing that she was, in fact, still in her bed. I felt the cool air of the hallway float into our cozy room, and I shut my eyes. Shit. I moved my hand slightly, reaching for the phone under my pillow. It had to have been well into the middle of the night, but hopefully Isaiah had his phone on.
Not that he could do anything for me. By the time he’d answer, it’d be too late.
Whoever was in my room would be done with me by then.
And if it was Richard, we’d be long gone.
I held back a whimper and pushed back on the fear that was too familiar to me. My stomach was tied in knots, and my heart raced. I was hot and tingly from panic, and I didn’t know what to do.
It’s not Richard. It’s not Richard. It’s not Richard.
My mouth tasted of blood as I began to feel lightheaded. Terror coursed through me, and when a strong hand landed on my shoulder, I wanted to die right there.
I wouldn't survive if Richard took me.
“Baby.”
A shaky gasp left me unable to speak. I quickly turned over and dug my fingers into Isaiah’s hand, seeing the worry etched over every perfect curve of his face through the shadows of my room. His dark eyes went directly to my mouth, and his thumb hurriedly brushed over my parted lips.
“Why is your mouth bleeding?”
My eyes shut again as a shudder traveled through my body. I swiped my tongue over my lips, tasting the metallic liquid before swallowing. My whisper was like a broken record playing off in the distance. “You scared me.”
Isaiah cursed under his breath, slowly trailing his hand down my arm and clasping our fingers together. I peeked through my heavy lids, willing my heart to calm down as he pulled me up. The covers fell to my lap, and I blinked a few times. “What are you doing here?”
I caught Sloane’s staring eyes from across our small room, and she rolled them before turning her back to us. “Fucking knock next time, Isaiah.”
He said nothing. He didn’t even look in her direction. His skin felt hot against my palm, and worry nudged me. “Are you okay?”
Again, he said nothing, but his body language said enough. He was tense. All over. He pulled me to my feet, his fingers clenching mine tightly. We padded over the soft rug, and he opened my door, pulling me out into the hallway. “Isaiah, what’s going on?”
My mind was reeling. My thoughts were wavering over a fine line of panic and suspicion. I glanced behind me, seeing nothing but the flickering sconces on the wall and the dark-red carpet that lined the hallway. Goosebumps were covering my skin as Isaiah pulled me even faster down the girls’ hall and then quickly down the boys’ hall until we were outside a door.
“Isa—” I didn’t get a chance to finish his name before he opened the door and pushed me inside. It slammed shut, and I realized it was the first time I’d ever been in his room. It was dark, and the bed on the left was messy, whereas the one on the right was made. I wondered where Cade was, since they were roommates, and a part of me wanted to ask, but Isaiah’s face was suddenly in front of mine, and he peered down into my eyes with something unreadable passing behind his. He looked unguarded and almost vulnerable.
I raised my hand, my chest rising and falling with concern, as everything else faded away. All of our uncertainties were gone, and I was seconds from feeling his warm cheek pressed to my palm, but he caught my hand in his instead. His stare drove into mine, and with the silvery moonlight streaming through the window behind him, he didn't even look human. He looked too perfect to be real.
My sleeve was slowly pushed up to my elbow with the work of Isaiah’s fingers, and I saw that his hands were shaking. What was wrong with him? My arm was extended, and I held my breath, briefly glancing down to my scars. He’d seen them already, but he was staring at them with a tight face. I pushed back on the need to secure my wrist to my chest when his lips touched the side of my delicate skin.
“What are you doing?” My voice was breathy as I watched him trail light kisses around the entire diameter of my scarred wrist. Isaiah’s mouth stayed on my skin until he slowly dropped that arm and started on the other. The air whooshed over me, and something clicked inside, telling me just how much I enjoyed his lips on my flesh. My wrists didn’t get touched often. They didn’t even feel the misty air most days. They were sensitive, and Isaiah’s mouth overtop of them made heat spread to my stomach.
“Isaiah,” I whispered again, my heart bouncing all over the place.
His eyes moved to mine when he dropped my arm. We stayed like that as he fingered the hem of my long sleep shirt and pulled it up over my body. I was too confused and worked up in all the right places to stop him. His touches were soft, but urgent too, like he was cautiously branding every inch of my skin with his.
Isaiah suddenly crowded my space, pushing me up against his door. My back hit the hard wood, and his chest was pushed against my front. I was suddenly frustrated that I’d put on a tight tank top underneath my long sleeve shirt because the fabric felt itchy against my skin. My hands were flat against the solid wood, and my heart climbed with speed as he suddenly gripped my nape and tilted my head up. His mouth grazed the base of my throat, and I was certain he could feel my pulse thumping. The softness of his lips caressed me, and he laid kisses on every part of my neck, dipping just below my collarbone.
“Isaiah, I thought we weren’t doing this anymore. After Sat—” To be honest, I wasn’t sure what we were doing, but I didn’t think it mattered at the moment.
His hands fells to my hips, and he forced me around, covering my back with his heat immediately. My mouth slammed shut, and my eyes widened. My core shrunk as heat pooled in between my legs. The feel of his large hands, so sturdy and protective, gripping my waist had every thought vanishing.
This was just who we were when we were alone.
Too desperate to think of anything but each other.
“I need to touch you,” he whispered, his hot breath coating my ear. A shiver raced down my body, and my back bowed, pushing my butt onto his hard front. “Let me touch you, baby. Please.”
My cheeks heated, and I smashed my lips together.
His tongue ran a line all the way from my ear to the back of my shoulders, landing over my spine. I wanted to turn around and plant my mouth on his, but something stopped me from doing so. His hands left my hips, and his fingers slipped underneath the thin straps of my tank top. He pulled them down slowly, and a ragged breath left my mouth. The way he was touching me was sensual. He wasn’t rushing to strip me naked. He was taking his time. He was slowly running his lips over parts of my body that had only been touched one other time.
My eyes sprung even wider at the thought. Wait. My body tensed when his lips touched the skin of my back that I didn’t think about often. No one saw my back, not even when he and I had sex. Could he see it in the dark?
I stepped one foot back in between his and tried to turn around in a blur of panic, but Isaiah quickly crowded me again so I was unable to move.
“No.” His voice was gravelly, and his chest rose quickly against my skin.
“Isaiah,” I rasped.
“He doesn’t get to touch you anymore.” His lips landed on the faint marks that had since healed and faded. It’d been at least a year or two since Richard had gotten that brutal, probably disgusted with the ugly marks that he had put there. Isaiah pulled the straps the rest of the way down and quickly yanked on my tank top, leaving it to rest along my hips. I was bare in the front, and despite the sudden rush of panic and confusion, my nipples were hard and begged for his touch. His touch did things to me. It quieted me and coaxed me to be in the present.
Isaiah’s nose grazed the side of my cheek from behind, his fingers diving low beneath the waistband of my shorts. “Where else has he hurt you, Gemma? I want to remove his fucking touch from your perfect little body.”
Tears sprang to my eyes, and my answer was blunt. “Everywhere. He’s hurt me everywhere.”
Isaiah stiffened from behind me. He wanted to ask me more. I knew he did. But I didn’t want to talk anymore. I just wanted this solace I had with him. I wanted to just be. With him.
And I think he knew that because he quickly untensed, gripping the waistband of my shorts and pulling them down my legs slowly. My core tightened, and I almost moaned. The fabric ran over my thighs, and it sent tingles up to my middle. My head tipped backward, my hair tickling the bareness of my back.
“He doesn’t get to hurt you anymore.” His fingers hooked into my panties, and I turned my head, locking onto his eyes. They were wild and untamed, and I wanted to stoke the fire I saw. The passion. There was an unbelievable amount of torture attached to this moment. For us to touch like this, knowing that there wasn’t a future. It was almost forbidden from the beginning. With every threat from Richard, Bain, and his father. Yet, here we were, knocking them down one by one for just a little taste.
My mouth was claimed by his, and our kiss was deep. His tongue coaxed mine to life as if he were sucking my soul up my throat and down his. “Put your hands on the door above your head.”
Excitement flared, and thoughts of the past were floating away like ashes from a fire. Isaiah’s fingers dove further into my panties as he held me in place with his other hand, digging into my hip bone. His finger skimmed over the sensitive bundle of nerves, and my legs grew unsteady. “Mine,” he growled, nipping my lips again. “And I will break every one of his fingers for hurting you.”
I sucked in air as he circled me, and I felt my wetness coat him. I whimpered, almost begging him to touch me in the way that I wanted, in the way that I deserved. If I could just stay here with Isaiah, in this room, for the rest of forever, I would.
“I’ll protect you, Gemma. Even when you’re gone.”
His finger inched inside of me, and I whimpered, throwing my head back onto his shoulder. Isaiah ground into me, and the tight grip he had on me never wavered, and I loved it. I loved feeling his strong hands. I felt safe with Isaiah, even after I questioned my trust in him.
The dip in my confidence was only a reaction to my past.
I knew all along that Isaiah would never hurt me.
“That’s it,” Isaiah said, putting another finger inside of me. I moved my hips, basking in the curl deep in my belly. It felt so good. All of it did. His fingers. His lips on my sweaty skin. His hard length rubbing me from behind. “Feel me inside of you. Fuck my fingers and know that you deserve to be worshiped. Do what feels good for you and only you.”
I moaned, moving quicker. My hands started to slip from the door as I threw my head back. My legs started to get wobbly. Isaiah’s grip on my hip left, and he cupped me around the waist, holding me up. “There it is, baby.” His mouth was on mine, and his teeth sunk into my bottom lip. “I fucking love feeling you come apart for me. I fucking love feeling you move against me, chasing that high that you deserve over and over again. It’s addicting, and I can’t stop myself from wanting every single part of you.”
Crashing waves hit me from the core and pulled me to the brim of insanity. I yelled out, and Isaiah’s mouth came over mine as he quickly removed his fingers and shoved my panties down to the floor. I was still moving my hips, riding out my orgasm, as he spun me around and propped my leg up around his hip. He gripped my bare ass with his hand. “You are fucking beautiful, and you deserve the world,” he said, pulling his pants down and pushing himself into my sensitive middle.
Stars coated my vision when he entered me, and it nearly brought me to the edge again.
“Isaiah,” I gasped, wrapping my hands around his neck. His muscles were moving fluidly under my touch as he pulled back and entered me again and again. I matched his pace, basking in the way my body was humming. Blood was rushing to every part of my body, and the room was spinning. We met each other's middles, thrusting and gripping one another as if we were about to slip from the other’s grasp.
Isaiah pulled away from my mouth, and his eyes bounced back and forth in between mine. “I fucking love you, Gemma. So much that I would burn the world down for you.”
My eyes shut as tears pooled. Hearing those words did something to me. It opened up a gate inside my chest that I couldn’t seem to close.
“Do you understand me?” he asked, thrusting into me again. I gasped at the rising ecstasy in my blood. “I love you, and I will not stop trying to make the world a better place for someone like you.” I could read between the lines. Isaiah knew something about Richard, something that I didn’t even want to touch.
I nodded against his chest, placing small kisses over the sweaty skin. I couldn’t say anything back to him because I knew if I opened my mouth and said those three little words, I would break in half. So, instead of saying anything, I brought my lips to his, and I kissed him. I kissed him with everything I had, and he kissed me back just as passionately. We met each other with deep thrusts, and I moaned into his mouth, feeling my high come back. His fingers drove into my skin, and I bit down on his lip, feeling myself let loose around him. He pushed in a few more times as I moved my hips, and his hands suddenly left me, bringing my tingling legs back down to the ground before he pressed his hand against the door and shot something warm down the front of my belly.
He hissed in between his teeth as he gripped himself, sweat falling from his forehead and running down the side of his cheek. I watched in awe as he stroked himself as the white liquid left him. Wow.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered, glancing up at me sharply with hooded eyes and swollen lips. He was still gripping himself, and I bit my swollen lip, not wanting to leave his room to go back into our uncertain realities. I didn’t want to think about anything other than this moment right here.
Isaiah shook his head back and forth slowly as he dropped himself and crowded my space yet again. He bent down, grabbed his shirt, and slowly ran it down the front of my belly to clean me. Then, he threw it to the side, gripped my ass again, and picked me up, wrapping my legs around his body.
“Fuck tomorrow,” he whispered before depositing us both on the bed until morning.