A Life Less Broken (20 page)

“Keep your
eyes open, so I can tell if it gets to be too much for you.”

“It’s not
too much, I’m just accepting you.”

Dominic
pushes more of himself inside me and my legs open further. He links our fingers
together with our hands resting on either side of my head, and his lips don’t
move from mine. He stretches me and I mold around him, a perfect fit.

He thrusts
all the way in, and I let out a little whimper. His mouth absorbs my cry as he
continues to kiss me. My breath becomes his; his breath melts with mine. Right
now, we’re one complete soul. Joined together, moving together, in love
together.

He lets go
of my hands and leans up on his elbows, his face incredibly close to mine.

Dominic
begins moving in and out of me, my own wetness coating his cock as he slides
back and forth with ease. His movements are incredibly slow, almost torturous
as his hips find a steady rhythm.

My nails
scratch up and down his back as I let the feeling of him take my body to a new
place.

My body
surrenders. He owns me. Every part of me. Mind. Body. Spirit. It all belongs to
him.

The tight pleasure
deep in my belly grows as his drive intensifies. My heart pounds with excitement.
My hot blood is frenzied by a maddening need for more.

He ravishes
me with powerful, rhythmic thrusts of his hips. I lift mine off the bed to meet
him and he hits a spot that increases my pleasure exponentially.

My desire
for more is morphing into a raw and sinful
need.

“More,” I
moan, moving my hips to match Dominic’s pace.

He gyrates
his hips as I writhe beneath him.

Dominic
speeds up, and I grind hard against him.  The friction of his pelvic bone
against my sex is driving me to the edge.

Not once do
his dark, intense orbs leave mine.

The hard
knot of excitement in my belly spreads, sending prickles all over my skin.

My breath is
coming out in strong, quick pants. My toes begin to tingle and I finally feel
free.

With deep,
fluid motions Dominic intensifies his power as he pounds into me.

A vein is sticking
out on his neck, and I can tell he’s holding back his own release, waiting for
me. Mine is close, and the faster he bucks, the more urgent it becomes for me
to just let go.

“I love you
so much.” Dominic’s voice is strained.

He pumps
faster. Now the primal need to come overtakes every other emotion.

Our bodies
are so close together, sharing the same passionate dialogue, talking without
words.
Completely in love
.

My mouth
falls open as I gasp for air. Dominic leans down and kisses me. His tongue takes
charge and commands me to submit. His body demands possession.

The spring
inside me finally snaps and I cry out. My body trembles against Dominic. He
thrusts into me hard, but holds me close to his taut, sweaty body.

He growls
into my mouth, as his plunging halts, and I know he’s just come inside me.

He remains inside
me, rocking gently, and kisses me for a long time, flooding me with love. I
feel the intense, consuming connection between us solidify. I’ve never felt
anything like this before.

When he moves
away, he slips out and lies on his back next to me, stretching an arm out toward
me and pulling me to his side.

“Thank you,
Dominic. I was afraid of having sex again. You made it perfect for me.”

“Sweetheart,
that wasn’t just sex. It was so much more. We became one.”

He felt it
too. The love that was shared freely between us. He completely owns me now, and
I own him. He said those words before, but now I really feel it.

I get up and
go to the bathroom to clean up. Dominic goes to the guest bathroom. When we return
to bed, I lie securely in his arms and his words replay over and over again.

“I love
you,” I say completely happy and satisfied as I yawn hugely.

“You gave me
a gift when you first said those three words, now you’ve given me something
I’ll treasure until I die. You’ve given me your heart, your spirit and your
body,” he replies.

I smile as
my eyelids droop closed.

Before long,
I hear Dominic’s soft snoring and my own breathing even out.

Then it hits
me.  I’m here, now, snuggling into the side of my lover and perfect partner.
I’ve overcome obstacles and I’m stretching my wings, soaring to new heights.

All because…

I found the
courage to open the door.

“In what appears
to be one of the largest and most horrific cases to hit America in the last
decade, prominent lawyer Oscar Shriver, policeman Michael Greene, and Rocky
Adams have all been sentenced to a combined one thousand and fifty-five years
in prison for the brutal rapes and murders of forty-two women. They’re each eligible
for parole in two hundred and three years. Oscar Shriver is the son of
disgraced financiers John and Doris Shriver, who are also currently under
investigation for their roles in this very disturbing case. According to court
documents, Oliver Shriver was the ring leader of the gang. Michael Greene
provided the break in the case after police seized his personal computer and
found thousands of images of the women they had brutalized. Greene was once
respected amongst his peers and known as a by-the-book police officer. Rocky
Adams, a drug addict and small-time thief, was the trio’s scout and hunted for their
victims.”

Dominic
switches the TV off and I’m left staring at a blank screen. Initially it was
believed that thirty-six girls were taken, all tortured for the monsters’ own
perverse pleasure and then killed.

The irony of
their sentence being handed down today is that it’s the anniversary of the most
horrific day of my life. It’s been exactly four years since they took me, and
altered my life. Exactly a year and two weeks since they arrested Oscar. His
friends were arrested soon after.

“Are you
alright?” Dominic asks as he places a hand on my knee.

“Do you know
that today is the anniversary of the day they took me?” I keep staring at the
black, reflective surface of the TV.

“Yes, I do,”
he confirms.

“Can we go
somewhere, right now? I just need to get outside, into the sun.” I turn my head
and see a look of surprise quickly pass over Dominic’s face. “What?” I ask, curious
about his response.

“You never
cease to surprise me, you know? Just when I think that you might revert back to
your shy, frightened ways, you prove me wrong. And now is no exception. You, my
beautiful girl, are the strongest and most courageous person that I’ve ever
met.” He reaches over to give me a hug.

Dominic
offers me his hand as he stands. I place my palm in his, and he pulls me up and
into his warm body.

The thrill
of his heat so close to me sends a jolt of electricity all the way down to my
core. His masculine scent soothes me, and his taut, solid body makes me feel so
secure. He’s perfect and he’s the love of my life.

“Where do
you want to go?” he asks as he rubs his nose across my hair. “Mmmm, you smell
so nice.” A deep, manly growl rumbles from within his chest. He moves my hair
to the side and peppers soft, feather-light kisses from the sensitive spot
behind my ear, all the way down the angle of my jaw.

My belly floods
with happy, excited butterflies and my heart beats with extra force as his
mouth skims my flaming skin.

“I…ah…mmm.”
His passionate touch distracts me, and if he keeps this up, I’m going to want
to stay here.
In bed.

“Where are
we going, love?” he asks again and gently sucks some of my skin into his mouth.
I tilt my head back to give him better access to my throat, arching my back so
my breasts press into his firm chest. His hand rests on the dip at the small of
my back as his other hand travels to my bottom. He grips my cheeks forcefully, pulling
me closer to him.

I can feel
his arousal pressing into the lower part of my belly, and my body reacts excitedly.

“Um,” I’m
finding it hard to form words. I want him, but I don’t want to use him like
this to avoid an emotional trigger. “Take me to the pond,” I finally say as he
continues his slow exploration of my body with his hands and mouth. He moves a
half-step back to look at my face.

“Alright, I’ll
get us a couple of jackets.” He releases me and moves away from me. The moment
he leaves, I miss him and want him back.

“I’ll grab
two of bottles of water.” I go to the kitchen while he goes upstairs.

“Ready,” we
say in unison as we meet by the front door. He kisses me once more and unlocks
and opens the doors.

I stand
looking at the alarm keypad for a moment and feel myself biting my lip and furrowing
my eyebrows together. The little green light is on, telling me the alarm’s off.

“What is
it?” Dominic asks as he steps through the door and holds it open for me.

“I don’t
remember turning the alarm on last night before we went to bed.”

“You don’t?”
He snickers.

“No I don’t,
did you turn it on?” I look at him and notice his cheeky smile.

“You haven’t
noticed then.”

“Noticed
what?” I say as I turn the alarm on, step over the threshold and close the
heavy wooden door behind me.

“You haven’t
tuned it on for two days.”

A tingle of
ice shoots up my spine, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention
as I take in a gulp of air. “It’s been off for two days?” I whisper completely
stunned at my own inattentiveness.

“Yeah, and
you left the kitchen window open, too.” He grins proudly.

“I did?”

We reach for
each other’s hand at the same moment and hook our pinkies together as we walk
the garden path to our car.

“You did.”

Dominic
opens my car door, and waits for me to put my seatbelt on before he closes it
and jogs around to the driver’s side. He drapes our jackets over the back of
the seat and starts the car.

Soft music
fills the car, and this time I feel so different about going to the pond. The
first time he took me, I was filled with dread and worry, nervous, not knowing
how I would react to seeing the place where I was dumped like garbage.

Now I’m
excited to see it for the beautiful site it is – perfect, the way nature
intended it to be, filled with the colors of wildflowers that God’s hand has touched.

When we get
to the pond, I don’t wait for Dominic’s strong hand. I open the car door myself
and step out in the small parking lot.

I stand in
front of the car and look up at the utterly blue sky. The rays of the sun are
warm and they touch me deeper than my skin. They illuminate the layers of my
soul as I openly accept the gifts I’ve been given.

“You ready?”
Dominic startles me from the gentle comfort I was taking from the sun.

“Yeah.” We
walk hand in hand out of the small parking area, and make our way through the
wildflowers to the pond. The stems are a luscious green and various other vibrant
colors are scattered throughout the field leading to the water.

When we get
to the edge of open water, Dominic lays a picnic blanket down. I didn’t even
realize he was carrying it until this very moment.

Dominic lies
down and props himself up on his elbows as he looks, watching a gentle breeze sending
small ripples to the water’s edge. I instinctively lie down and place my head
on Dominic’s stomach. He runs his fingers through my hair, calming me enough to
make my eyelids droop. My mind relaxes, knowing that no matter where I go,
he’ll always be there to protect me.

“I can’t
believe how my life’s changed,” I murmur as I appreciate Dominic’s gentle,
loving touch.

“I knew from
the moment I met you that all you needed was the right person to help you
blossom. And I’m so happy that person was me.”

“I’m not
sure how much longer I could’ve held on to that life,” I admit. “The best thing
I ever did was turning the TV on and watching that story of the three women
that were taken and kept as sex slaves for all those years. That’s how I found
you.”

“And I’m
eternally grateful that I was in the office the day you called.” Dominic takes
a deep breath. “Sit up,” he says as he taps me on the head once.

I sit up,
cross-legged, and face him as he does the same. Our knees are touching, our
hands are linked tightly together, and our eyes are looking deeply into each other’s.

“I’m completely
in love with you, Allyn. I want to be part of everything you do. I want to be
the man you need, and I want to take care of you. I want to push you when you
think you can’t do something, to hold your hand and tell you that you can. I
want to be the man that holds you and makes love to you under the stars as you
stare into my eyes and let me see deep into your soul. I want to be the only
man who hears your cries of pleasure, your small whimpers as your body begins
to tremble tightly around mine. I want it to be just you and me for this life
and the next. I want us to be together, to love each other completely and to
grow old in each other’s arms. Allyn, you’re the strongest and most angelic
woman I’ve ever met. Please say you’ll marry me.” Dominic lets go of my hand
and takes a small, pretty blue box with a white ribbon tied in a perfect bow
from the pocket of his jacket.

Tears fall freely
as he offers the box to me. I swipe at the saltwater that fall from my eyes and
reach out slowly to take the box in my trembling hands.

“Hey, don’t cry,
beautiful girl. I love you, and you love me. That’s all that matters in our
world.”

“I do love
you, so much more than I ever thought was possible.”

I don’t untie
the bow. I don’t need to look at the ring to know that it’s perfect. Dominic
chose it, so under the lid will be a rare beauty, shining brightly and conveying
a deep meaning. Because that is what Dominic does. He takes the ordinary and
turns it into the extraordinary.

“Yes,” I
whisper as I look into his eyes.

“I love
you,” he says as his mouth collides with mine.

He possesses
me, owns me, and his love has led me to a life less broken.