Scorching Heat Down South

Chapter 19

🌻🌻🌻🌻

"Claire?" Levi said softly when she had finally calmed down some. He felt her muscles beneath him weaken and loosen from exhaustion, all her energy spent. He lifted her chin to make her look at him but she wouldn't meet his eyes. "Darling, look at me." He said gently and she did. Her teary eyes hit him hard, like a sucker punch to the stomach.

"I'm not that drunk baby." He assured her and she simply nodded and tried to look away, "I'm so sorry." she whispered as if about to cry again. He kissed her tears away and rubbed her back in slow circular motions while whispering that it was alright.

"What's the matter?" He knew that her break down had more to do than with him being drunk. He knew it on an instinctive elemental level that something was very wrong. Something had happened to her to bring about such an intensely emotional reaction.

"I'm sorry." She said again and the crack in her voice made him want to badly hurt the bastard who'd caused her such pain.

She focused her gaze on the buttons of his shirt and remained silent. "Tell me baby." He cajoled.

She shyly met his gaze, started to speak, stopped and looked away. After a moment she reluctantly said, "When I was a child ... my mother ... she ... she used to bring men into the house and ... and ..." She paused and he felt a hot deep burning rage slowly build up inside him. "Go on." He softly encouraged, his anger barely suppressed.

"And they would get so drunk ... and the smell of alcohol ... I can't ... it was so horrible." She hiccuped and shook her head. "A few of them tried to ... hurt me." She quietly finished.

"Did they?" He choked on the words as a dark wave of fury, such as he'd never felt before rose up within him.

God, he wanted to find every single one of those fuckers and rip them apart piece by bloody fucking piece. He knew she'd been a virgin when they'd first had sex but damn, they could have hurt her in a number of varying ways. And she'd only been a child for Pete's sake!

"No, they didn't hurt me. They only ever managed to frighten me. They ... they groped me some ... but ... but nothing more than that." She said and hiccuped again.

He continued to gently rub her back as a wave of relief washed over him.

"And your mother? She just let all this go on?"

"She usually stopped them from hurting me further. She said. "I was at least grateful for that."

Now that she had calmed down, other sensations came rushing to the forefront and made themselves noticed. Like how good her bottom felt nestled snugly on his lap. He felt himself getting hard and silently cursed. Her breath suddenly caught when she felt him harden beneath her and her eyes turned into that dark, stormy blue that signalled her arousal. But that had to wait, he still needed some questions answered.

"Is that why you'd never had sex? You didn't want to end up like your mother?"

She looked away, "No, it's not that. I've just never met anyone who made me feel ... the way I feel when I'm with you."

He smiled and pulled her closer to him. "Neither have I baby. I damn near come just thinking about putting it inside you."

She blushed, that beautiful rosy tint he liked and he laughed. A low rusty, gravelly sound that came from deep in his chest. She was a little prude after all.

She quickly looked up at him, wide eyed with fascination, "I've never heard you laugh before."

She lifted her hand to his mouth and hesitantly traced his lower lip with her finger.