Necessary Evil of Nathan Miller by Demelza Carlton Read Free Book Online Page B

you can do to stop me."
    Fuck, but he was fast. He grabbed my
arms and stomped his boot down on both of my bare feet. I tried to
pull free, but he knew what he was doing. He twisted my arms up
behind me and held them with one hand. The other he plunged into my
hair, grabbing a handful and twisting that, too. I couldn't move my
head without ripping out my hair. I swallowed a scream.
    "Now kiss me, bitch." He smiled.
    "Why?" I spat.
    "Because you can. You may as well enjoy
the last man you ever have."
    "Fuck you!"
    Shouldn't have opened my mouth. He
tasted of ash, stale beer and worse. I retched as he shoved his
tongue halfway down my throat, but his body pinning mine to the
wall kept me upright. Worse, he enjoyed it. I could feel him
hardening against my tummy. I’d have bitten his tongue off if I
could’ve stopped choking.
    If one horrible kiss is such a
violation, how much worse can rape be? Oh God, I don't want to find
out. He'll hurt me.
    Mike broke his lip-lock and grinned.
"You will, little bitch. You'll fuck me more than you can
handle."
    "Don't you fucking touch me!" I shouted
again, trying to squirm away from him.
    "She's mine!" Chris protested. "You
promised!" He sounded five years old, instead of a bloke bigger
than me.
    Mike swung me around by my twisted
arms, my muscles screaming in pain, slamming my body into Chris's.
"The little bitch is all yours if you fuck her right here and
now."
    I spun around to face Chris. My voice
came out as a whisper. "No…"

Part 20
    Nathan’s voice told me I was okay. I
relaxed, ready to go from dark nightmare to peaceful sleep once
more, but I realised that the arms holding me tightly were anything
but okay. Then they were gone.
    I could hear footsteps and breathing in
the dark, but no one touched me. "Nathan?" I asked quietly, hoping
it was his breathing I’d heard.
    Someone touched me again and my
reaction was automatic and unexpected. Instead of wanting to claw
his eyes out, I found myself relaxing into his embrace. This was
not fucking okay. What if it had been someone else, someone I
couldn’t trust?
    I shoved at him and he let go of me. I
tried to ignore the hurt look on his face as I demanded, "What are
you doing? Why were you touching me when I woke up?"
    His expression went from hurt to
horrified and he didn’t know how to explain. "You’ve been having a
lot of really bad nightmares and you wouldn’t wake up. You…were
screaming. Screaming for me to help you. You…didn’t scream as much
if I…hugged you."
    It started to dawn on me that I had no
idea just how much he’d done while I was asleep. I was sure I’d
heard his voice while I slept and I needed to know if what I
remembered was real or just part of one of my many fucked-up
dreams.
    "How often have you…hugged me?" I asked
carefully.
    If I’d dragged the answer out of him
with pliers, it wouldn’t have come any easier. "Whenever you had
nightmares, until you stopped screaming."
    I held his gaze, trying to be sure he
was telling the truth. He’d been here for every nightmare, every
scream. My first thought was to wonder why he’d bothered, but I
wasn’t ready to ask him that yet.
    He started to elaborate without a word
from me. "I did it because I couldn’t wake you up. I promised…I
promised I wouldn’t let them hurt you and they were hurting you in
your dreams. I couldn’t just sit by and do nothing." He looked
scared.
    Somehow, I decided that he was telling
the truth. It had been his voice I'd heard, telling me to keep
fighting, through all the bad dreams and hellish nightmares.
    He kept going, his voice climbing
higher in his desperation to make me believe him, but I wasn’t
paying attention to his words any more in his rising panic.
    I cut in as he paused for breath. "That
explains…some things," I finished, not willing to tell him how many
times his voice had broken into my nightmares, nor that I felt
comfortable in his arms. I couldn’t afford to be comfortable in
anyone’s arms, not