Where the Streets Have No Name(25)

The blasted woman just gave him his first ever blow job. And now, she sat there smiling like the cat that got the cream, licking her lips. He didn’t know how, but he wanted to make her feel like she made him feel. Daniel reached for her but she jumped off the bed, shaking her head at him.

“It’s okay. I-I…” Amelia swallowed. Shook her head again. “I wanted to do that for you but that’s it. Nothing else.”

Her words slapped him in the face then stabbed into his chest. Darkness ebbed around him, closing in. Why was she being so elusive?

“Oh, no, Daniel, I…don’t be upset. I just, I don’t know if I can…”

The lass stumped him. One minute she was open and honest and the next, completely shut off. “Why?” he asked.

She shook her head, eyes shut, pain etched in her expression. “I…”

His heart broke for her. Daniel didn’t know what she meant. A number of scenarios flashed in his head but he didn’t want to believe any of them. She had to tell him. He needed to make her talk before he did something stupid like rob a bank and fly to wherever she came from to smash some heads against brick walls.

“Amelia, love, I’m honestly curious. If you don’t want to talk about it, then that’s fine, but I need to know more.”

“Need?”

Did he say need?

He meant want.

Or did he mean need?

“Aye,” he said, coming to a conclusion. “Need.”

She swallowed, coming back to sit next to him. Pain filled her eyes with tears – tears she held back.

“High school…for me, anyways, was awful. A smart girl with glasses and braces, taller than average and too gangly? I was a target. The popular girls…they…” Her chest shuddered “…they were horrible. But it was what they didn’t do that made my life hell.”

Daniel’s heart constricted. He held his tongue, waiting. This story belonged to her. Guessing, filling in the blanks, that wasn’t his place. He held her hand, hoping the action explained what he couldn’t say in words. I’m here.

“Someone…maybe even them…told a bunch of guys I’d be backstage in the auditorium during this school dance. I wasn’t there to dance, I was there as a favour to the principal, helping with music and lights. Said he’d rather pay me, someone he could trust, than someone who’d take a huge chunk of money and do a crap job.”

Amelia sucked in a deep breath.

Anger had him clenching his jaw; Daniel saw red. The idea that any man, let alone a bloody goddamned group of them, attacked her…

He’d certainly have a reason to be back in prison if he ever got his hands on the feckin’ bastards.

“Oh, no, I…” Amelia squeezed his hand, pulling him back from the blink of evil. “They didn’t…I mean, it wasn’t…r…” She shook her head. “I can’t say the word. No, they just…they beat me up. Bad.”

“That’s just as inexcusable! The bloody feckers.” His hands fisted. Knuckles cracked.

“Don’t be upset, Daniel, please. I’m fine now. I’m just… It usually takes a lot for me to trust someone, that’s all. I’m always terrified the same thing will happen again. I never did anything to them. They just hated me for no reason – no reason I’m aware of.”

“Feckin’ goddamned twat-waffles,” he seethed.

The blood in his veins turned to a raging fire. He’d hunt down every last one of them and lash them to the rocks of a cliff to drown if he could.

“Daniel?”

Softness in her voice drew him to her. Concern knotted her brow. A little pink tongue darted out over her lower lip. God, but he cared. Was it too much, too soon?

“Amelia?” He gripped her hand tight in his.

She smiled a sweet little smile up at him before snuggling into his arms. “Thank you.”

Thank you.

Thank you?

She just…

Daniel swallowed again, his tongue dry and sticking to the roof of his mouth. No use pretending he was worthy of her, but he’d be damned if he’d let her think she was anything less than what she was; beautiful, kind, passionate, smart, funny, and everything he wanted. Ever.

“Don’t you be thankin’ me for nothing at all,” he whispered. “It’s me should be thankin’ you.” His hands moved over her hair from the top of her head to the roots, straight down her spine. She felt so right in his arms. As if God himself created her to be held by him.

“I should be thankin’ you,” he repeated, kissing her forehead.

Amelia sighed, a sleepy sound. He meant to say more, but after spending hours tossing and turning, and then… Daniel was exhausted.