“I’m sorry,” Liz cried. “I didn’t mean to cheat on you. I just got so angry and stupid. I’m never going to be like that again.”
At her words, his lips crashed down on hers. She let him have her. What else could she do? She had lost her fight. And she deserved much worse than a hard kiss. She deserved his fury, and him leaving her.
But he wasn’t leaving her. He was kissing her passionately, feverishly. His fingers were tangled in her long hair, pulling the life out of her. One of his hands found the zipper on her dress, and when he pulled it down, the material dropped to the ground in front of him. He snapped the clasp on her bra and she was left standing before him in nothing but her black thong.
“You’re mine,” he growled against her lips. “All of you. Every inch. Make it like he never touched you.”
Liz whimpered as he bit down on her bottom lip and sucked it back through his teeth. His hands were everywhere at once. Caressing, fondling, claiming, owning her body. She hardly even moved as he raked his hands down her skin. He had every right to his anger.
“Turn around,” he ordered, directing her until she was facing her bed.
She didn’t dare move. She had never seen Hayden like this. A part of her was crazy turned on by it, and another part knew that she should stop it. She shouldn’t let him do it. But she couldn’t. She deserved it.
Liz heard the zipper of his pants and the swish as they dropped to his feet. Her heart rate skyrocketed in the seconds that she waited for him to act. She could feel her body tingling in anticipation and fear, wondering what was coming next, what he would do to her.
Hayden bent Liz forward roughly at the waist, and she braced herself on her mattress.
“Hayden,” she whispered. “Please . . .”
He didn’t respond, just knelt behind her before dragging her thong down her lean legs. She trembled at the feel of his hands along her thighs. He helped her step out of the clothing, and then roughly spread her legs apart before him.
Hayden bent forward over her, and Liz turned her head to look up at him. “Shhh,” he whispered, collecting her hair in one hand and tugging on it lightly.
Where was this coming from? Nearly her entire body was telling her to stand up . . . to stop him. But she hadn’t up until this point, and she wasn’t going to now.
Then his dick was spreading her lips and sliding easily up inside of her. Liz gasped with the pressure of him filling her, unable to move with the way he had her pinned down. He gripped her hip with one hand and began to work himself in and out of her. His momentum picked up quickly. Soon he was driving into her hard enough to push her entire body forward into the bed.
She didn’t want to enjoy this. She didn’t want to derive pleasure from it. She didn’t want to feel anything at all. But her traitorous body refused to listen. He was fucking her with vengeance. Not just owning her, but staking his claim . . . asserting his right. He fucked her as if he didn’t want anyone else to even think about coming close to this.
And even when she tried to hold it off, her body cracked open for him. She saw black as her orgasm tore through her body. She tightened all around him and screamed her lungs out, until he drove into her for the last time, and emptied himself buried deep within her.
Chapter 21
HE HAD IT COMING
Hayden left the next morning without much more than a good-bye. Liz stayed in bed until well past the time that he walked out. He hadn’t left her. That was as much as she could say about their relationship at this point. He hadn’t left her, but things were far from okay.
Her brain and her body felt numb. What had happened last night? She had thought the worst thing would be for Hayden to leave her. But here she was lying in bed, feeling worse than she had before. Telling Hayden hadn’t gotten rid of her guilt; in fact, maybe she felt worse. He had proven that her guilt was warranted. She had been in the wrong and then lied to him about it for months. It made her stomach turn.
She finally forced herself out of bed, fumbling for a light on the nightstand. She stood and that’s when she saw it. The necklace. It was resting on the nightstand as if Hayden had never hurled it across the room. It mocked her from its position as if he wanted to say Here, take your necklace back, whore.
She felt her chest sliced open again and it took everything in her to reach for the necklace. She checked it to make sure that it wasn’t damaged. Another wave of guilt hit her that she should even care if it was broken. She hastily put it back into her jewelry box and stumbled into the shower. She turned the handle to the hottest setting and stepped into the hot spray.
She was most surprised by the fact that she didn’t cry. She didn’t shed one tear. It was as if she hurt all over and still she couldn’t feel anything.
Victoria had ended up staying at Daniel’s house, so Liz had the place to herself. After her shower she shut all the lights back off, crawled into bed, and slept the afternoon away. She couldn’t think about her neglected responsibilities when her body and mind weren’t functioning. Maybe tomorrow . . .
Valentine’s Day was coming up that next weekend. Liz had a hard time focusing on what she was going to do when she next saw Hayden. Their conversations were almost exclusively one-sided over the next couple days. Liz gave her input when necessary, but she had too much else on her mind to really be into it.
All she was doing was making Hayden more frustrated with her. Liz didn’t know how to stop it. She felt as if she was self-destructing.
Friday rolled around soon enough. It was the day Hayden was supposed to come back to Chapel Hill for Valentine’s Day. Liz had finally forced herself to start acting like a human again. She ate a full breakfast, went to all of her classes, ninety percent of which she had skipped earlier in the week, and made it into the paper. She had never lied to get out of work a day in her life before this week. She had left Massey in charge of editorial work while Savannah took over the Washington division.
The smell and feel of the office kicked her back into high gear. This was where she belonged. This made her blood flow and reminded her what she was doing with her life.
Savannah stopped her before she reached her office. “Hey, are you feeling any better?”
Liz smiled at Savannah and nodded. “A bit.”
She wished Savannah didn’t remind her so much of her brother. Brady was the last person she wanted to think about today. He was part of the reason she was in this whole mess to begin with.
“Good. We were worried about you. Can’t have a functional paper without the editor, and Massey is no editor,” Savannah said with an easy laugh. They started toward Liz’s office.
“I’m sure she held down the fort.”
“That’s one word for it.”
Liz laughed softly. It felt good to laugh. “Well, I’m back. So, no worries.”
They reached her office, and Savannah nodded her farewell. Liz stepped inside and shut the door. She wanted peace and quiet and the feel of being in control of something. She booted up her computer and plopped down in her chair.
As the screen came to life in front of her, her phone started vibrating. Liz fished it out of her pocket and stared down at the screen. The New York Times.
“Hello?” Liz asked. Normally when Nancy called, it was from her personal line. Liz had programmed the main line of the New York Times into her phone along with several other numbers Nancy had given her at the start of last semester, but Nancy had never used them.