Dare to Trust (14 page)

“Okay,” Jason said as he remained at the foot of the bed. He was fighting the urge to take her into his arms. He hated feeling like this and hated seeing her hurt even more but with the mention of the baby, he withdrew. He didn’t want to talk about it. “I’ll wait, but I don’t know for how long I can.” He left her on the bed and walked out of the room. Mia heard the front door open and close and the motor of Jason’s car start and the car take off down the driveway.

Jason was pissed as he peeled out of the gravel driveway. He had no idea where he was headed and ended up driving south on route one to Brunswick until he picked up the Maine turnpike, finding himself on the route to Boston. Traffic was light. Jason’s attention was far more focused on the blow-up with Mia and her reaction to him physically. And the other guy, who had wined and dined her, kissed her. He couldn’t shake the image of Mia locked in Tyler’s embrace, their lips pressed together. He certainly wasn’t paying attention to his speed. The siren and flashing lights of the cruiser behind him took him by surprise. “God damn it,” he muttered as he pulled over to the shoulder.

The state trooper approached the BMW slowly. When he got to the window, he took a look at Jason, impatience written all over his face, and requested his license, registration and proof of insurance. With the requested documents in hand, he asked Jason if he knew why he had been pulled over. Jason shook his head, knowing full well he had earned a speeding ticket. “I’ll be back,” the trooper informed him as he left to go run a quick check on the car and driver. It didn’t take long for the state trooper to return, handing the documents back to Jason.

“Well, Detective Howard, even though you are probably used to getting a free pass back in Massachusetts, we abide by all of the laws here. You were doing almost fifteen over the speed limit. So, I am issuing you a ticket.” Jason could have sworn the trooper had smiled as he handed the ticket to him. “Try paying attention to the speed limit. And have a nice day.”

It was dark when he got back to Boston. Jason was tired and should have been hungry---he hadn’t eaten in hours, but he wasn’t. His head throbbed. Last night, he had been so sure his relationship with Mia was on its way to being mended. Not now. He was still angry and he felt defeated. He hadn’t felt that way in years, since he had moved away from the audacious house he had been brought up in and away from his mother.

As he entered the brownstone, cold air hit him. When Jason had left, he hadn’t left any heat on and there had been freezing temperatures overnight. The old residence held in hot or cold. Instead of turning the heat on, Jason planned on a hot shower and crawling into bed under the covers. His job was in turmoil, his relationship with Mia up in the air---he felt his world had crumbled around him.

On the way upstairs, Jason stopped in the kitchen to grab bottled water out of the fridge. Water in hand, heading back towards the staircase, Jason noticed the door that led from the kitchen into the small back yard was not latched. He stopped for a moment, trying to remember if he had forgotten to latch it and had accidently left it open. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been out back and figured with all the current drama playing out in his life, he must have.

The hot sprays of water from the shower helped relieve some of the tightness in his muscles. Jason stood beneath the water until it started to turn cool. He wrapped himself with a towel, didn’t bother to completely dry off or brush his teeth. He crawled into bed and as he closed his eyes, tried to forget that he used to share it with Mia. He slept several hours but awoke before daylight. Knowing there was no way to fall back asleep; Jason got up and threw on a t-shirt and running pants. He jogged through the Common as the sun rose.

V.

Mandy Jacobs had been a nurse and Tyler had fallen for her the first time he had met her, scribbling orders down in a patient’s chart. She had waited patiently for him to finish writing, reviewed the orders and had smiled shyly as she closed the patient chart. Tyler had been hooked by her big blue eyes and blonde wavy hair. As he got to know her, he learned that Mandy was smart, beautiful and he wanted her. So far in life, he had always gotten what he wanted. He went after her with the same intensity he did everything and for Mandy, no was not an option.

“Have lunch with me,” Tyler suggested after they had finished with a patient. Mandy was flattered but wasn’t sure if she should agree. “It’s just lunch,” Tyler told her in an attempt to convince her. “I’m buying.” He offered her a big grin that she couldn’t ignore.

For a few weeks, when their schedules allowed, they had lunch together. Tyler had sensed Mandy’s inexperience; usually he wasn’t willing to wait so long to get a woman to bed. With Mandy, he knew it would be worth the wait.

Lunch progressed into to dinner a few times. After their first official date, Tyler had sent flowers to Mandy. She was falling for his charm. By the third dinner, Tyler was confident he would be bringing Mandy to his apartment. Tyler’s desire for her had only grown over the past few weeks and he had decided tonight, he would have her. She had eagerly agreed to go back to his place for a drink. She had never physically been with a man, nor had she felt such desire for one. Mandy was head over heels for Tyler.

Tyler didn’t offer her a drink when they got inside the apartment. His mouth hungrily crushed down on hers. Mandy enjoyed the taste of him, the feel of his hard body against hers. It wasn’t until he had gathered her in his arms and dropped her onto his bed that she began to feel a little nervous. The anxiety grew as she felt his obvious erection straining against his pants. Tyler didn’t seem to notice as he was busily ridding Mandy of her clothes. “You are beautiful,” he told her as he undid her bra and her lips were all over her. Somehow Tyler had lost his shirt and pants, Mandy didn’t know when that had happened. And then he was naked, on top of her and she could feel the tip of him nudging her.

“Tyler, I’ve never…”

“It’s okay baby,” he told her as he thrust forward and Mandy felt a jab of pain. Tyler had known Mandy was inexperienced but hadn’t realized she had been a virgin. At the moment, with her heat and tightness, he didn’t care. He lost himself in the pleasure and the fact that she was writhing beneath him made it hotter.

“Tyler, it hurts,” Mandy tried to tell him, tried to move his big body off hers to no avail. “Stop,” she whispered. He didn’t hear her and kept thrusting, faster and deeper. Mandy started to cry; she felt like she was being ripped in two.

“Fuck, baby, you are so hot,” Tyler hissed as his body tensed and he started to climax. “Fuck!”

Mandy felt his heavy frame relax and finally he rolled off from her. As soon as she could, she bolted into the bathroom, grabbing her dress up off the floor along the way. She could feel something seeping from between her legs; she saw blood and his semen. My God, she thought, he hadn’t even used a condom.

After several minutes, Tyler got up from the bed and slipped on a pair of shorts. He gently knocked on the bathroom door. “Mandy, baby, are you okay?” He could hear soft whimpers through the door. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were…a virgin.” He couldn’t believe it, but the sex had been incredible! “I lost control, baby.”

She opened the door. She was still crying. “I asked you to stop.” Mandy looked up at him with a look of devastation in her eyes. “You hurt me.” She had been under the assumption that Tyler had actually cared about her, maybe not as much as she cared for him, but some. The realization, after the rough sex, that he had wined and dined her over the past few weeks just to get into her pants.

“Hey, I didn’t know you had never…” Tyler cleared his throat. After the sex they had just had, he didn’t want to blow it---he definitely wanted her again. “”I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I promise the next time will be better.” Tyler looked at her with a wide, sexy grin. “I can make it really good for you, baby. I promise.”

Mandy stood, leaning against the vanity, considering what he said. Sex for the first time had been a disappointment, but the thought that it could be good with Tyler was intriguing. She did find him incredibly sexy and hot. “Not tonight,” she told him, not closing the door on the possibility of being with him again.

“So you’re okay?”  She nodded. “Let me take you home,” Tyler suggested.

They stayed together for a few more months. Tyler delivered on his promise to show Mandy how good sex with him could be. But she was looking for more; Mandy wanted to be married and have kids. Tyler just wanted a companion to spend time and sleep with.

“I need to know this is something more than a roll in the hay with you,” Mandy said after Tyler finished with her. The sex had been fantastic, as always, but she as tired of him pulling away, emotionally and physically, after the deed was done. And she knew their relationship was common knowledge amongst their colleagues. Mandy was embarrassed to think they would all know she had just been used for a good time.

“You know I’m not that guy,” Tyler told Mandy as he rolled out of the bed away from her, grabbing his jeans to slide on. “I’ve told you from the beginning that I wasn’t into serious relationships.”

“I can’t do this anymore.” Mandy sat up, clutching the comforter around her naked breasts. “We’re done, Tyler. I think you should leave.”

“You think that’s it?” Tyler’s face tensed with anger.

“Just get out,” Mandy sighed. She didn’t want to have this argument with him again. He knew what she wanted and if he couldn’t deliver than it was done between them. It was as simple as that.

Tyler yanked down his jeans and jumped back onto the bed. Mandy was taken by surprise as he roughly threw her down onto the bed and was immediately on top of her. “You’re mine,” he told her in her ear as he forced himself into her.

“Stop it, Tyler! Stop it!” She tried to get him off her, slapped at his arms. It only seemed to encourage him, as Tyler grabbed her wrists and pinned them over her head, driving himself into her harder and faster.

“I own you.” His words were cold and menacing. “Oh, so good. Fuck!” His body quivered with his orgasm. And then he got up off her and again, slid into his jeans. “See you at the hospital, babe,” he sneered at her as he left her apartment.

Mandy couldn’t get out of bed for hours. She sobbed, on the verge of hysterics, almost not believing that Tyler had raped her. And threatened her. What was she going to do?

She called in sick to work the next day. No way could she face Tyler at the hospital. She hadn’t reported the rape; she couldn’t admit what she had let happen. And there was no way she could submit herself to the rape exam.

Tyler tried to call, but she didn’t pick up. He spent over ten minutes banging on her apartment door the next day before he left. “I know you called in to work,” he had yelled through the locked door. “I know you’re in there. Open the door!” His voice had been strange; Mandy recognized a loss of control in it that was so uncharacteristic of Tyler and it scared her. She didn’t get out of bed to open the door for him. Eventually, he had stopped banging it and had left.

“I need to go out of town, deal with some personal things,” she told her nurse manager on the phone. “It’s an emergency. I’m sorry.”

“Is everything alright?” Her boss was worried; she had caught the tremor and fear in Mandy’s voice.

“Everything is fine. Don’t worry. I just need a couple weeks.”

Mandy had packed her bag and was on her way out the door when Tyler caught up with her. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked as he roughly grabbed the bag out of her hands.

“Just give it back,” Mandy barked. She couldn’t even stand to look at him.

“I told you that I owned you and I meant it.” He had the bag in one hand and with the other; he roughly dug into her shoulder. “You’re coming with me.”

“Leave me alone!” She tried to wiggle out from underneath his hand but he applied more pressure and it hurt.

He led her to his car, opened up the front passenger door and pushed her to sit. Her bag got tossed into the back seat and they drove off. Two weeks later, when Mandy didn’t call or return to work at the hospital, her boss called the police. Mandy could not be found; she was missing.

Tyler had been questioned several times by the police. They found him at his home, at the hospital. Tyler quickly tired of seeing the detective approach him. He kept insisting that he didn’t know anything---he didn’t know where she was and hadn’t heard from Mandy. They didn’t believe anything he told them.

There was suspicion but nothing could be proved that Tyler had anything to do with Mandy’s disappearance. But at the hospital, their colleagues had known they had been seeing each other. Mandy had been a skilled and respected nurse; the rumors of Tyler having done something to her made his job at the hospital uncomfortable and difficult. After a few months of feeling the brunt of the silent accusations, Tyler moved to Maine.

***

Mia had fallen asleep while waiting for Jason to come back to the cottage. She awoke in the morning finding she was alone. She checked her cell phone, wondering if Jason had called. No call. She checked her email and found nothing but announcements of sales from her favorite stores. Where was he? She wondered as she brewed fresh coffee. Mia fought the urge to call him; she wouldn’t because obviously he didn’t want to be around or talk to her right now.

As she sat in the small eat-in kitchen, sun streaming in the expansive windows that gave a partial view of the ocean, her cell rang. Mia answered quickly, assuming it would be Jason. She was wrong.