His hips started humping against her as his mouth moved, nipped, and laved, and his fingers pinched, caressed, and then groped and squeezed. His moaning was the most arousing part of it, and every time she reacted to his touch, and he heard her cries and whimpers, he’d groan in response and push his hard length against her.
When he reached for her hand, he pinned it to the bed at her shoulder. He used his chest to push her body onto her stomach, and then he started tormenting her with his teeth again. He moved down her back, clamping his teeth down and pulling small mouthfuls of her skin between his teeth. The pressure was controlled but intense, and he took his time, kissing, sucking, biting, and licking his way down her back. He yanked the back of her dress down to her waist, and when he reached her lower back, he pushed the skirt of her dress up and swiftly pulled her underwear down her bottom. His mouth found the round cheeks of her naked bottom, and she cried out as his teeth sank into her skin there too.
He pulled her cheeks apart, and she tried to wriggle away from the exposed position he had her in. He nipped again, and she yelped before he started laving the spot with his tongue. She was flooding with wetness, and her body was bouncing between fear that he’d bite too hard and desperation for him to keep going. He kept going, and she let him. He moved to the side of her, and his fingers stroked around to the front to tease and toy with her hip bone. He moved slowly back up her body, letting the hard bulge in his pants touch and rub against her skin, finally settling against her bottom as his mouth returned to her ear.
“Did I hurt you?” He was tracing his finger along the skin of her shoulder. It felt slightly bruised and still slick from the trail his tongue had been running.
“No. Sorry to disappoint.” He froze in place for half a second before he pushed off her and stood from the bed. When she rolled to see him, he was raking his hands through his hair, and he looked annoyed. She pulled her dress quickly over her breasts as he rolled his eyes.
“Is that what you think?” His hands were on his hips.
“I don’t know what to think.”
His jaw clenched tight in response, and he turned to the door. When he reached it, he paused and then turned back to her. “I’m off the next couple days, so I guess I’ll see you in a few days.” He didn’t wait for a response, and she heard his bedroom door close shortly after that. She wanted to go after him, but she also needed to get away from him. She was telling the truth when she said she didn’t know what to think. She didn’t have a fucking clue, especially now. What the hell had just happened?
Five minutes after she walked through her front door, her phone rang. It was three-thirty in the morning, so there was little question who it was. “You’ve been avoiding me.” He didn’t bother even greeting her when she answered the phone.
“Is that why you didn’t call me to tell me when you’d be home from the hospital tonight? So I couldn’t leave?”
“You’re goddamn right!” Then he hung up on her.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Four Months Before
Her mother wrapped her tightly in her arms as Bailey emerged from the door. She assumed there was some hidden side door where they let criminal graduates leave—some secret hidden passage, but no. It was the front lobby and front door that ushered Bailey out to her waiting mother. The day was warm for early January, but then, it was southern Texas. It was sunny and warm, and the second Bailey stepped out into the open, she started to panic.
What if there was a mistake? What if they’d accidentally screwed up her paperwork? What if they’d just changed their minds? Were they going to catch her before she made it to her mom’s car to tell her they’d made a mistake? Would it be wrong to run? God, she just wanted to get away from here before something ended this all-too-good moment. But her mom had a giant bear hug waiting, and while Bailey was falling apart in happiness and tears, she couldn’t shake the paranoia that the nightmare wasn’t over.
“Mom, can we please just go? I’m sorry, I just really want to get away before they realize they made a mistake.” Her mother looked at her with concern showing in her eyes. Maybe she thought her daughter was cracking up after five years behind bars.
“Sure, hon. Let’s hit the road. Long way to go before we’re home.”
Home. What did that even mean anymore?
Bailey fell asleep quickly as her mom held her hand. It had been a sleepless night before—hell the entire last week. She’d never been so paranoid in her life, but with the end of this nightmare so near, there was no other word for how she felt. Paranoid.
When she woke, her mom was pulling into a little roadside hotel. The nine-and-a-half hour trip from Texas back home was too far to travel in one day when she’d not been released until early afternoon, and as Bailey sank into the small bed with her mother by her side, she fell instantly back to sleep.
She woke early. Her mom was still sound asleep, and given the slight pink tinge to the night sky, it was only just breaking dawn. She retreated to the bathroom, running a deep bath in the bathtub. She didn’t even like baths. She was a shower sorta gal, but after years without this, she just wanted to sink into the deep, warm water. She let her ears submerge, and she listened as the water filled the tub around her. Her eardrums tickled as the water slowly filled her ear canals. She soaked, she washed, and she stayed until the water cooled. When she climbed out, she stared at herself in the mirror.
She’d gained weight since going into prison. Not something you’d expect to hear, but three squares a day and no more daily running, and she’d put on fifteen pounds. She was small to begin with, and as she stared at her slightly curvier look, she studied her body. Her boobs were bigger. Her hips contrasted her small waist more than they used to, and her ass was definitely rounder. She actually liked her post-prison bod. Though she needed to get back to jogging if her curves weren’t going to turn to jiggly Jell-O. So far she was still toned and fit, thanks to plenty of time to exercise. Didn’t mean she felt much like doing it as much as she ought to in that place, but it could be worse. She combed her long auburn locks, before pulling them back in a ponytail, and then she returned to the bedroom to find her mom.
Coffee was percolating in the small coffeemaker, and her mom was just pulling a sweatshirt on. “Ready?”
Bailey nodded. “Just have to call my parole officer and let him know our status.” She fished the contact information from her pocket, and she borrowed her mom’s cell phone. It took little more than a minute to assure the man they were headed to Savoy. She’d been paroled there rather than someplace in Texas, and the journey home left her out of touch with the parole system for longer than they appreciated.
Soon they had disposable coffee cups filled, and they were back on the road. She started recognizing landmarks a few hours later, and that was when the anxiety hit. She started fidgeting; she started taking big, gulping breaths of air to calm the nerves. It didn’t go unnoticed by her mom, and soon her mom’s eyes started flitting to Bailey in concern.
“Bailey, you’re going to be fine.” She nodded but said nothing. She wasn’t at all convinced. “Um . . . Darren is working in Savoy. In the hospital somewhere, I think.” Bailey’s heart skipped a beat.
“What? You mean, he’s not in Little Rock? I thought . . . I don’t know. I just thought he’d want to stay. He wasn’t planning on coming back to Savoy once he was through residency.”
“I didn’t know that. He told you that, I assume.” Her mom was watching her curiously. “Yeah. Long time ago. Well, fuck.” It just slipped out. She wasn’t really used to having to watch her tongue.