assholes who told you that you have nice tits. You like that, right? Being treated like you're garbage? Well, I can treat you like that if you want."
"I don't want..." I started to object, something inside me understanding that look in his eyes. The anger mixed with something else heated that turned my stomach sour, even though I had never seen it before. A woman knew that look. That was the look of a man who didn't give a shit what you wanted, they were going to take what they wanted from you.
"You want me to tell you that you have nice tits?" he asked, backing me into the corner, his hand moving out, grabbing my breast, squeezing to the point of pain. "Nice tits," he said, voice getting a little rougher as his fingers moved to pinch inward, looking for my nipple. "This is what you like, right? A man who takes charge? Takes what he wants?" he asked as his body pressed closer, his hard dick pushing against my hip.
No.
No no no no.
This couldn't be happening.
Tears filled my eyes as a strange sort of helplessness paralyzed me again, leaving me standing there, unresponsive as his hand went under my shirt, pawed at me without any barriers.
"Yeah, this is what you like. A man to take control," he said, nuzzling into my neck even as the first tear slipped down my cheek. "Are you crying?" he growled, pulling back, jaw tight again, eyes more enraged than turned on.
"Don't do this," I begged, trying to tell my arms to lift, to smack him, to shove him back. Something. Anything. What was wrong with me?
"Don't do what?" Kit growled. "Treat you like shit? Like all those other men do? Grab at you like this?" he asked, hand pressing between my legs, over my shorts, but the revulsion rose up, threatened to make the bile finally force its way out.
I don't know where the words came from, why, when there were so many others that could be said, these were the ones that came out, but they did.
"Huck didn't treat me like shit," I snapped, feeling a righteous anger start to replace the strange numbness in my body.
"Dragging you around. Forcing you to move in with him!" Kit raged.
"Like you are doing?" I snapped, watching as his face fell for a moment before the anger returned.
"Don't compare us. We're not the same. I care about you. I've always looked out for you."
"You're right," I said, feeling an unexpected calmness settling over me. "You're not the same. He's twice the man you are. And you—"
"Shut up," Kit snapped, hand moving from between my legs, pressing into the lowest part of my throat, uncomfortable, but not cutting off any air.
"He will be looking for me, you know," I added, knowing it right down to my bones. He would look for me. He would move heaven and earth to bring me back, to hurt someone who hurt me. That was the kind of man he was. Good, but ruthless. Fair, but unforgiving.
"I'm not scared of him."
"You should be," I said, raising my chin, feeling strength unfurling in my body, making my hands curl into fists.
"He's too stupid to find me," he declared, the corner of his eye twitching ever so slightly.
Was Huck a genius? No. But neither was I. Neither were most of us. But he wasn't dumb. And when it came to the criminal underbelly, he knew what he was doing. And, what said even more about him as a man, if he didn't know, he outsourced to those who did. He wasn't too proud to ask for help.
"He thinks it was the drive-by guys who hit that guy in the woods when he chased me off. He'll be chasing them around while you and I get to know each other," he said, making my stomach flip over.
"We already know each other."
"Not in all the ways I want us to know each other."
"What if I don't want that?"
"You'll learn to," he said, shrugging, anger draining, once again replaced by the lust that made me feel oddly powerless.
But I wasn't powerless.
I wasn't.
I could at least try.
I had to get out of the damn closet.
There was nothing in there to fend him off with.
If I could at least get into the bedroom, I could find something to strike him with.
If it was him or me, I wanted it to be him, damnit.
I had to try.
No matter how scared I was, how uncertain.
I couldn't sit and wait