The memory of removing the bandage above her mound that night and seeing her reflection as JT stood over her watching made her shudder with revulsion.
“JT watched as I got my first look in the mirror at home. I looked up into his eyes after I saw what he’d done to me, and, Del, I swear I saw Satan in his eyes. Something in him changed that night. He took me—” No, don’t tell him that! “Things were different from then on. I was scared of him after that.”
“Wait, Lily. He ‘took’ you…What were you going to say?” He sounded like he was gritting his teeth. When she remained silent, her mind flooding with painful memories, he stroked her jaw. “Will you trust me, Lily?”
Who deserved her trust more than this man? She’d stupidly trusted the wrong man, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t trust Del and his brother. “He took me by the hair and dragged me to bed. He was rough with me that night and I don’t mean in a good way. I think he had a rapist fantasy he liked to play out with me. He acted on it several times that night.”
Del’s entire body shook as he held her, his touch gentle as though he sought to make up for the way JT had treated her.
She reached out and cupped his cheek. “I absolutely hate that you know about the tattoo, and that you’ve seen it. It’s a horrible, horrible thing. I’ll never forget how I felt when I realized what he’d done, making it a mirror image so I could read it every time I looked in the mirror. I h–hate it.” Her voice broke, and he pressed his forehead against hers.
“Maybe something can be done about it. I want to do permanent damage to him for what he made you suffer.”
How could they not question the fact that she’d stayed with JT as long as she had? She gave voice to the fear that had been uppermost in her mind as she’d worried over telling either of them her story. “I feel at least partially responsible for the shape I was in when I arrived in Divine. I was compliant in the way he treated me. I should’ve left years ago. I was married to him for twelve years.”
“You feel responsible?”
“No. But I do feel complicitous. It took me twelve years to act. Do you have any idea how stupid I feel for waiting that long? For defending him every time I had to go to the hospital and tell them that I had fallen again? I was mortified at the thought of either you or Clay seeing the tattoo. There was no easy way to explain it and it’s obvious I held still for it. How can I explain that without looking like a fool?”
“You trusted him. There was a part of his personality that appealed to you but underneath he was evil. I’m sorry, Lily. I wish I’d known.”
“What could you have done?”
She would’ve been too ashamed to call old friends she’d lost touch with years before to rescue her, but she wished that she’d considered it. As it was she’d felt totally alone.
“We would’ve come and gotten you. We would’ve defended you. We will defend you if he ever shows up here.” Del tucked her head against his shoulder under his chin and whispered, “I almost hope he does show up, so I can show him what happens when he picks on someone his own size. Just thirty minutes alone with him. That’s all I want.”
“You wouldn’t kill him, would you?” She’d just found Del, and she couldn’t risk losing him now.
“No. But I’d make him wish he were dead before I was finished with him.” A growl rumbled in his chest. “I want you to know what it feels like to trust a good man.” He eased her to her back and loomed over her. “Two good men, actually.”
His body was pressed to hers from head to toe as he tilted his head and pressed a trail of warm, damp kisses beneath her jaw to below her ear. Her body turned to languid heat beneath him as the seconds stretched out and his lips lingered before drifting in a tantalizingly slow path to her collarbone. Shivers rippled over her as she tensed with anticipation.
She wondered if perhaps Clay had shared about her sensitive collarbones with Del when he chuckled and, instead of traveling down to that sensitive area, he moved across her throat and pressed kisses beneath her other ear. She groaned plaintively, and he shifted over her, making her aware of the large, stiff ridge pressing against her hip.
Her pussy responded with a rush of heat and swelling arousal. She slid her arms around Del’s back and pressed her lips against his shoulder. Like Clay, he felt solid and comforting, but his physique and build were different, leaner and hard muscled from years in the service.
The sandy-blond scruff on his jaw and upper lip tickled as he rubbed it lightly against her throat, and she was struck by the disparity of emotions she’d experienced in the last few minutes and felt almost manic with the desire to please him. She slid her hand between them and caressed what she could of his hard, hot length, but he had it mashed against her.