Free THE TOKEN by Tamara Blodgett Page B

crying?”
    My eyes squeeze shut, but the tears don't care. They slip out, impervious to my unwillingness for them to escape. I sob and break apart as the one man who's made me feel alive holds me captive against my wall.
    My emotions crumble as the tea kettle shrieks.
    My eyes spring open, and Mick is a wavering image seen through desperate tears.
    His face never comes into focus as he takes my mouth.
    And I let him as the tea kettle sings its symphony behind us.

~ 12 ~
     
    He punishes me tenderly. Each kiss erases the hurt of his words. A man could never speak an apology as perfect as the one he makes with his mouth.
    Mick drops my hands, and they grip his tailor-made suit, crumpling the shoulders without mercy as the kettle sings. With a casual slap, Mick hits the kettle off the burner. It skitters across the surface, screaming its anger at the rough treatment, as he plunders my mouth.
    His body begs to take mine, his every hard line against my soft ones. I forget again, my body melding to his as though it's always been meant to.
    Then my cell alarm chimes.
    Once, twice.
    Three times. I lift my head. My early alert before work.
    “Let it go,” he says, kissing me into oblivion. Our tongues twine in an intimate dance.
    I almost do. Then I think of Mom. The sinful selling of my morals needs to continue for her to live.
    She has less than a handful of years to exist, but they have to be on my terms. A state home is not part of the plan.
    I gently push Mick away. His lips are slightly swollen, and I can't imagine what mine must look like. No collagen needed for these babies . My sarcasm doesn’t make a dent in my grief.
    “What?” Mick asks.
    “I have a second job... That's my alarm...”
    Don't ask.
    Mick smiles, his sexiness lighting him from the inside. “I know what you do, Faren. It's fine.” His fingers bite into my hips, a fraction away from a location too intimate for anything but consummating what we've begun.
    My stomach drops. “You do?”
    He nods. “I know you're a physical therapist. I know about your mom.”
    The air in my lungs freezes into shards of glass that cut me from the inside. Only Kiki knows about my mom. Now Mr. Perfect Billionaire knows.
    “I think you should leave.” It creeps me out that he's stalking me, checking my background. It’s a small relief he doesn't know about that job.
    Guilt.
    I assume he knows I was attacked by my psychotic stepfather and saved by my mom. Who was beaten into a coma by fists that know no mercy.
    Double guilt.
    I’m not interested in being somebody's pity case. I have enough pity.
    I want to forget.
    Can Mick distract me? I roll my lip into my teeth.
    His eyes track the movement. He leans down and touches my mangled lip with his own. “I want you.”
    “It's not enough,” I say.
    Mick puts his hands on either side of my head, caging me, and cocks his head to study me with hard-edged eyes. “I thought you didn't want a relationship? Think of what I can give you. Think of what we can have.”
    I think those thoughts until it repeats in an endless loop. It's all I think of lately. It's all I can. “You know more about me than anyone else, Mick. You've seen to that.” I can't keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
    “I don't know everything.” He's so close I taste his breath, yearn for it. “I want to know more. All.”
    He moves aside the strip of dress across my breast and presses his mouth to my nipple in a possessive suckle. A thread of connection I didn't realize existed that tethers my breast to my core begins, and a slow ache steals my will. I arch into his lips and moan.
    How can I stand anyone else doing this to me?
    He lifts his head, wraps my full breast in his palm, and squeezes just shy of true pain. I begin to pant.
    “Do you like this, Faren?”
    I can only nod as I step away to deny myself. By the look on his face, I deny Mick as well.
    “I can't talk you into staying?” he asks, his voice so low I strain to catch it.
    “No, you won't