Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“Excuse me,” she blurted. “I…I have to visit the lady’s room—now!”
“Abbey? Are you well, sweetheart? What’s wrong?” Solon sounded really worried but Abbey was already turning away from him. Luckily, she bumped into Maria who grabbed her arm.
“Oh honey, I’m so sorry—I was just coming to tell you I saw him in here,” she murmured in Abbey’s ear.
“Please—get me away from him!” Abbey begged her.
“Come on—let’s go.”
Without another word, Maria guided her through the crowded dance floor and away from the nightmare of her past which had suddenly come to haunt her in the present.
35
SOLON
Solon frowned at Abbey’s abrupt departure. Something was wrong—terribly wrong—and he had an idea it had something to do with the human male still standing beside him, holding a bottle of alcohol and grinning stupidly.
“Huh—she must have had to take a leak. You know women—the only organ smaller than their bladder is their brain,” the male said and then laughed uproariously, as though he’d made an extremely funny joke.
“I don’t find that to be true at all,” Solon said coldly. “Why do you find denigrating women amusing?”
“Well, fuck—excuse me, Mr. Serious,” the male threw out his arms in an exaggerated apology, tipping the bottle he was holding in the process. Some of the alcohol sloshed out onto the dance floor but he didn’t seem to notice.
“Who are you, anyway?” Solon asked. “And how do you know my mate-to-be?”
“I’m Chris Brander!” the male exclaimed, as though Solon ought to know him. “I’m surprised Abbey hasn’t talked about me. I was kind of the big man on campus back in the day, ya know? Go Lions! Speaking of which, you look kind of like our mascot. I mean, except for the horns.”
This meant nothing to Solon, but he still wanted to know why Abbey had run so quickly as soon as the human male showed up.
“How do you know Abbey?” he asked again, trying to get to the point.
“Oh, well your lady and I had a little ‘fun’ one time after football practice, if you know what I mean.” The male winked broadly and nudged Solon with his elbow, spilling more alcohol on the floor. “You wouldn’t think it to look at her back then, because she was this shy, mousy little thing with these big Coke bottle glasses, but she was actually pretty wild in the sack! Or maybe I should say under the bleachers, ‘cause that’s where we got it on.”
Solon frowned. This male seemed to be insinuating that he and Abbey had engaged in a sexual encounter when they went to school together. Had she run away simply because she was embarrassed for Solon to meet an old partner?
But no—embarrassment wasn’t the feeling he’d gotten from her before she tore herself away and left the dance floor. Her face had gone pale and her lovely eyes were wide. Fear, anger, disgust, horror…those were the emotions he’d picked up the moment she heard this Chris Brander’s voice.
He suddenly remembered that Abbey had told her someone had sexually assaulted her while she was in school. She had claimed that she “didn’t even think about it anymore” but that was clearly not the case. She had overcome her Shadowed Past, but it had definitely left a mark on her.
“Tell me,” he said to the human male. “This ‘fun’ that you and Abbey had under the bleachers—who exactly initiated the encounter?”
“Wow, man—you talk like fucking Spock or something,” Chris Brander muttered. “I don’t know who, uh, initiated it—it just kind of happened, you know? I mean, there she was, bending over. She said she was looking for something but I could tell she was just trying to show me that juicy ass of hers.” He made a kissing sound. “I fucking love a woman with a heart-shaped ass, you know?”
“So she was bending over and you took that as an invitation to have sex with her?” Solon demanded.
He was beginning to get a clearer picture of what had happened between Abbey and this Chris Brander and it wasn’t good. Already, the edges of his vision were red and his blood was getting hot as the Rage crept up on him, but he wanted to be sure he was understanding correctly before it overtook him.
“You just decided to take her because she was bent over?” he asked again, since Brander hadn’t answered before.
“Well, I mean, it was obviously a come-on, you know? You have to understand, man—I have this kind of animal magnetism. Even back then, the girls were all over me.” He shrugged. “Abbey wanted me—I could tell.”
“How could you tell? Did she ask you to have sex with her?” Solon growled. “Did she invite you to continue once you started?”
“What? No. I mean, she wiggled and struggled some—girls love playing hard to get, you know? But she enjoyed it—don’t you worry about that.” He laughed coarsely. “Man, I fucked her so good she was crying by the end of it!”