Pawned Virtue - #wattys2015 BK4 TPBS - Completed 1st draft

-5-

Not edited. I couldn't leave the story like it was and because this chapter doesn't affect HR I'm giving it to you now.  xxx

***********

"What?" There was no way that he heard that right.

"Sixteen."

His mind was reeling and he felt his legs go from under him and falling to the floor he couldn't help but feel absolutely filthy for what he did to her.What the fuck was she feeling?

Thoughts pushed into his skull and he was forced to push his hands into his scalp in a misguided effort to hold them back.

It all made sense now. The celebrant made her father sign as a witness because she was under eighteen years of age. He knew that he'd never have accepted his daughter if he knew her real age. The bastard knew!

The thoughts were getting stronger. He couldn't hold them back. He'd married a little girl. He'd fucked her! God dammit he'd stuck his dîck into a little kid! Why didn't he suspect something was wrong before?

Because he wanted an heir.

He was a low life fucking pervert! He disgusted himself! No fucking wonder she had no idea what sex was. She was probably saving herself for someone special and instead... she got him.

His body started to shake as thoughts of what he'd been thinking shredded the last piece of mortality he had. He was a monster. A pure, full blooded monster! He'd been thinking about her body and what he'd do to her... she was a fucking kid! Her body was developed like no other girl her age, at least none that he knew. The body of a temptress with the mind of a child.

He felt sick. Physically ill.

He reached into his pocket and called Simeon.

"Have you buried the fucker?"

"No boss. We're heading over there now".

"Burn him."

"But boss, his daughter, won't she want to go to his grave?"

"No. Burn the fucking cûnt."

"Yes boss."

He stayed holding the phone with fingers that would surely crush it if he gripped just slightly tighter. Burning Matthew was the only thing he could do to him. His final resting place would be where ever the council workers dumped the ash from the council's incinerator. He would never be given a plaque commemorating his life. No 'Here lies' or 'In memory'. The fucker didn't deserve it.

"Lucas" her voice sounded so fucking young!

"Yes?"

"Are you ok?"

She was asking him if he was ok?

"Fine."

He started to move unsteadily and used the chair standing at the dressing table to get up. His legs wanted to defy him again so he used the chair to stand and then sat down on it.

"Things have changed Tara." His face a blanket of stone features. "You won't be living here anymore."

"But.."

Where would she go? Her home? She no longer had one.

"I'll make all the arrangements for you to stay at my house at the beach. You won't be forced to do anything else but that. It'll be guarded constantly, you'll have a body guard. You'll go to school" he cringed "and decide what you want to do at university."

"But I can't afford any of that."

"You may be a child Tara but you're still my wife. I'll support you until you finish your education. It's what husband's do."

"Why?"

"Because Tara, your father was a fucked up piece of shit. He pawned your life for his. He sold you to save himself and what I did to you was just as bad if not worse."

He paused as she started to cry again. His heart wrenched.

"Tara, your father told me that you were a lot older than you are... and because..." he swallowed "well you aren't built like other sixteen year olds Tara."

Her sobbing stopped suddenly.

"Are you saying I'm fat?"

His eyed bulged.

"Oh fuck no! God girl anything but that."

"I don't understand" she whispered.

For the first time in a long time he truly felt like he was falling quickly into a deep hole... and there was no way out.

"Tara, I'm going to sit on the end of the bed ok?"

She looked up at him nervously.

"Just sit Tara. Sitting and talking. Nothing else."

She nodded slowly but as she saw him start to move she watched ever step that he took. When he finally sat down she breathed a sigh of relief.

A sigh he heard but chose not to acknowledge. He deserved her fear.

"Ok Tara. I should start at the beginning... well... as much as you need to know. Your father owed me a lot of money... and when I say a lot Tara I'm not talking a few dollars and cents. I'm talking multiple thousands" his mind drifted to the number forty seven thousand eight hundred and fifty three dollars and sixty four cents... give or take a little for the interest added after he'd seen the figure last.

"We put the pressure on for him to pay up which he didn't."

"We had no money" she whispered.

"Your father was a dickhead. He came to me a couple of months ago and offered a solution. The solution being that you and I would get married. At first I blew it off but the idea grew on me. A marriage would give me the chance to have kids and I wanted that. I still do but.."

He broke off at her whimper and his hands clenched.

"I will never touch you again Tara. What I did was rape. Apart from the moral reasons why I shouldn't have done what I did, that I shouldn't have used you like that, there would be no way in fucking hell I would have married you if I suspected your real age. Your father knew that. If my god damned ego wasn't so fucked up I would have looked at the paperwork properly and seen your age and this would never have happened. Legal marriage or not Tara, you won't be forced to have sex again."

"So what now?" she asked with her voice quivering.

"Now, like I said, you finish school, go to uni, choose a career. Whatever you want Tara."

"And the marriage?" she asked nervously.

"You'll stay married to me until you finish your studies. After that, it's your choice. But you will always have protection. Like I said, I have enemies and you need to be safe."

"So I won't be living with you, or seeing you ever again?"

"I'll be checking in on you from time to time Tara but no, you won't be living with me."

The room became deathly quiet as he let his words sink in. He could see that she was struggling and if she'd been his sister he would have pulled her into a hug to comfort her.

But she wasn't.

She was his wife. A wife who was rightly petrified of him.

*************

Ok as I've said before 16 is the legal age of consent in Australia to get married with a parents permission.

And if you're wondering about Lucas not knowing that she was 16 when he looked at her can I just say that at 15 I went into clubs with friends because everyone believed that I was 22.... oh and at that stage I was still a goodie two shoes and stuck to drinking coke... thank god I grew up!