Axel:A Bad Boy Romance(2)

He bit her shoulder and with one final thrust she felt her body tense.  She screamed out the word yes as her body convulsed around him. She  squeezed her eyes shut as she rode her orgasm to finish and pleasure  washed over her. She finally opened her eyes in time to watch as he took  her by the shoulders and, with a groan and a final thrust he came into  her.         

     



 



With a gasp Maria De Santa woke. Her heart was pounding. She took a  gasping breath and looked around the strange motel room. She listened  for a moment, but heard nothing strange or suspicious. Just the distant  sound of cars on a faraway road.



It was just a dream she said to herself. A very intense dream. She  looked over at the other twin bed in the room. Her daughter was asleep  silently in her own bed. Marie lay back down and closed her eyes as she  tried to calm her pounding heart. She'd had a lot of strange dreams  these last couple of nights, but none like that.





Chapter Two



Sitting up in bed Marie ran her hands through her long, dark hair. It  was messy and needed to be washed. She had been too scared the last few  days to take a long shower. Being in the shower meant leaving Cate to  herself and Marie still hated letting her daughter out of her sight.  Instead, she had just been tossing it up in a tight bun and ignoring it  as best she could. But today, for the first time in seven days, she  would finally have the time to wash, dry, and style it.



A thin strip of daylight was pouring through a crack in the faded and  stained motel curtains. This was their second night at the Gilfoyle  Motel. It was an old-fashioned motel set far back in the woods and  well-hidden from the road. The sign for the motel showed a woodsman type  man with an axe slung over one shoulder. He was winking as a large,  wooden word-bubble inviting visitors to come by.



The walls were painted mustard yellow and they were scratched and marked  and dented. The carpet was a mottled red and black, which was only a  good combination if you wanted to hide stains. There was a dresser with  an old TV on it, two twin beds, and not much else. It was sad and, yet,  Marie could barely hide her smile as she looked around at it.



He still hadn't found her. All those months ago, when she had first  started thinking about leaving, she had never even dreamed she would get  this far. She had been sure he was going to catch her before she even  left Arizona. For the first few days on the road she kept seeing her ex  everywhere. He was standing by the side of the road or waiting in line  to check out at a gas station. But it had only been her eyes and  paranoia playing tricks on her. It had been over seven days and there  was still no sight of him. For the first time, she was starting to  believe there was a chance she was actually going to pull this off, but  she was still a little too scared to really believe it.



Marie looked over at the other twin bed and the sleeping face of her  daughter, Cate. Her mouth was open a little and her blonde hair was  splayed on the pillow behind her. Her little cheeks were pink and Marie  had to stop herself from just staring. Cate was five years old and  perfect. From the moment she had been born Marie loved her more than  anything else. Everything she had done had been for Cate.



Marie leaned over and stroked her daughter's cheek, feeling the warmth  that resided there. At five, Cate had a million questions about  everything. She wanted to know the name of every tree they passed. She  liked to lie on her back on the ground and count all of the birds that  passed overhead. She liked slowly working her way through a picture  book, noting each detail of every image on all the pages. She was  curious and inquisitive and sweet and nothing at all like her father.



Marie got out of bed silently and moved the curtains aside so she could  take in the parking lot. Last night she had memorized every car that sat  there. A green Mazda, a red Ford, a grey Camry, they were all still  there and there were none that were new. Letting out a breath she didn't  know she was holding, Marie waited at the window to see if anything  looked suspicious. But it was a typical, quiet, early morning.



She closed the blinds and checked the lock. Cate was still sleeping  soundly as Marie moved to the small motel bathroom. There was a shower  stall that at least looked clean, which was a pleasant surprise. Marie  slipped out of her baggy t-shirt and sweatpants letting them fall to a  pile on the floor. She rolled her shoulders and wondered when she would  finally stop having to worry about Austin finding her.



She let the hot water stream down her hair and face and over her  shoulders and down her body. She liked the water scalding, hot enough to  cook a lobster, as she liked to joke. The bathroom filled with steam as  she closed her eyes and washed her hair and her body with the soap she  brought from home.



She had always liked showering, though Austin had always gone out of his  way to try and ruin it for her. Somehow taking a long, relaxing shower  was selfish in Austin's eyes. He used to demand to know who Marie  thought she was spending so much time in there for. Didn't she have any  work to do around the house? Weren't there better ways she could spend  her time? She was still expecting to hear Austin screaming at her  through the door. He used to love to bother her when she was in the  shower. Where's dinner? Where are my shoes? Deal with Cate! There was  always something for Austin to be screaming about.         

     



 



She stepped out of the shower and smiled to herself. Not anymore. She  was gone, she had left and Austin was never going to scream at her or  hit her again. She had done the thing she had been threatening to do for  years: she left him. Seven days ago she had just up and left. No  forwarding information, no reason given, just a note saying she was  taking Cate and he would never see either of them again.



The last time she had seen Austin it was through a black left eye. She  had been packing his suitcase for him and he had been standing over her,  berating her about the terrible job she was doing. He was the one who  worked, as he was always reminding her. She was the stay at home mom so  things like cooking, cleaning, shopping, watching Cate, packing were all  her jobs even when she had to do all of those things at the same time.  He was never happy with what Marie did. She was never good enough; there  was always something she was messing up.



Austin worked as the head of Security for Gregory Peters, a billionaire  investor. Gregory had a big investment conference in New York City. He  would be gone for three whole days and Austin needed to be there to  personally protect his boss. Marie had been folding Austin's underwear  when the plan began to form. She had been saving up money secretly for  years. She had five thousand dollars tucked away; it was enough. It  would have to be. Austin never checked in when he was out of town for  work. He always claimed he was too busy to call, but Marie was pretty  sure he was spending his time with other girls. But she didn't care  about that now; she hoped he spent every second in the arms of another  woman not thinking about Marie at all. She was happy for the radio  silence. It gave her at least a three-day head start to take her  daughter and go.



She had heard about the job on a mommy message board. It was in the  middle of nowhere in a small town in Pennsylvania. Buried deep in a  large forest was the small town of Harksburg. In the small town of  Harksburg was the Harksburg Historical Home. It was the ancestral home  of the town's founding family, the Hawks family. The house was over two  hundred years old and had been turned into a museum in the seventies.  The museum needed a caretaker. Someone to live in the apartment in the  attic and run the museum and gift shop and make sure that nothing inside  was damaged. It was the perfect job.



"Hi, Mamma!" Cate said as Marie stepped out of the bathroom. She was  wrapped in a fluffy pink robe and her wet hair was wrapped up in a  towel. Cate was sitting cross-legged on the bed eating a cereal bar and  watching Sesame Street on TV.



"Hi, baby," Marie said, walking over and kissing Cate on the head. She  had been so good through all of this. The little five-year-old had just  left everything she knew behind and she was handling it so well. Cate  hadn't asked about her dad and Marie wasn't sure how she was going to  answer that question when Cate finally wondered why Austin had not come  up with them.



She called about twenty minutes after Austin had left. They told her the  position was still available. She sent over her résumé and without  waiting for an answer she packed herself and her daughter in her car and  took off. They called the next day and offered her the job. She wasn't  sure what she would have done if they had said no.



Dressed in her nicest clothes, a black pencil skirt with a pristine  white top, Marie curled her hair into large loose curls that fell  elegantly onto her shoulders. She put on a simple bit of makeup and then  took a deep breath as she looked at herself in the mirror. The woman  staring back at her had tan skin, brown eyes, and long, sleek, dark  hair. Marie smiled at herself in the mirror. This was it, the chance to  start a whole new life free from Austin.