Short Stories - Romance

#16 - To Love Again

"It looks worse than it feels," I said after Linda's umpteenth stare at my swollen knuckles. Honestly, they would have felt just as bad as they looked if not for the pain meds I took which were doing wonders. And even if I hadn't taken anything for the pain, knowing that she was safe and would be after what I'd done, more than made up for it.

"I promise." I added when her worried gaze remained on my hands. She only sighed and I wanted nothing more than pulling her in and locking her in my arms, but I wasn't so sure she'd want me that close after what I'd done. I saw how she'd looked at me when I let that creep have it. Like I was a beast of some sort, which to be honest I did feel in the moment. After watching her leave with that ex of hers, I lost it and only Craig's appearance and cool head kept me sane while we followed after them. That didn't last though as the sight of her naked, shackled to that bed drove me to madness instantly.

Besides, I didn't know where we stood...where I stood after the kiss with Claire which I now knew Linda witnessed. That was the whole reason I'd stood by the door once I entered the loft. I hoped I was wrong though, and that she would come running up to me, but when she stayed rooted on the bed, I got the message. Loud and clear.

"Won't you ask me about it?" She said after a long silence, her voice breaking and I couldn't just stand by anymore. Even when I didn't know what she was asking, I made it across the room in a flash and sat on the edge of the bed facing her. My chest tightened when she wouldn't look at me, but I didn't move, resolving to give her whatever she needed from me in the moment. "What Gerald said-"

"Do you want to talk about it?" I'd gotten enough from that bastard who'd taken her, but I could agree the vulgar story he'd painted had done little to satisfy my curiosity. I still wanted to know how she'd gotten involved in all of it. From Gerald's words, it all began with her mother, but that was as far as he'd gotten before I beat the creep to pulp. "I wouldn't want you talking about-"

"I want to." She cut me off, sounding determined, but her eyes betrayed her. It was the first time I'd seen her so insecure. So terrified. Did she think I was here to judge her? God!

I took her hand in mine and was glad when I felt some of her tension bleed out. "Tell me," I said softly, hoping I sounded it too.

"I am an only child. Born to a prostitute." She began, her tone bitter and I couldn't help but draw her in, wrapping her in my arms. She didn't fight me, thankfully. "I do not know who my father is, neither did my mother. I was sort of an accident. An unwanted accident-" If her tone could get any more bitter, it would have when she said that. "While pregnant, I remained an inconvinience in my mother's line of work. Well, unless there was a client with some kind of fetish about pregnant women. My mother told me as much when I was little. While drunk of course and she would apologise for it first thing when she sobered. I forgave her because, well, she was all I had and she loved me. In her own way. Protected me from all the creeps who wanted a piece of me. But she could only do so much-" Linda paused, her body shaking and I couldn't help the fury I felt. At whoever had done to her what she was yet to speak of. I was furious at the universe for dealing her such a terrible and terrifying hand.

"I was barely twelve when I woke up to someone groping me. A client my mother had been entertaining that night. She'd been sleeping and was woken by my screams. She knocked the man out cold with an empty wine bottle, or so she thought. It turned out that he died. Only then did I get to know how much she'd sacrificed to keep me out of the Opulent Temptress Troupe.

She'd taken on more clients than she could, just so I could have a semblance of a normal life. The murder made it worse. It turned out the client was too important. A cash cow if you will. That erased all the priviledges she held which meant she couldn't protect me anymore. But that did not stop her as she made one more deal whose details I do not know even now. Except that it won me my freedom. I promised that I would repay her by getting her own freedom back. She left me all alone before I could-" My grip tightened while she fell apart. "I couldn't even do that for her-"

Because I recognized the pain that came with one blaming themselves for something they would not have had control over even if they wanted to, I pulled her in even closer. "It's not your fault."

Those big teary doe eyes turned to me, confusion swimming in them. "How can you say that? And why are you not running away from me? You know Gerald was right, its in my blood. I could never be anything-" She pushed against me, but I held her in place, refusing to let her drown in this unfortunate picture she'd painted of herself.

"All I heard is how this out of this world beautiful you chose a life of her own when everything was ready to keep her down and accept her circumstances. You may not have given your mother what you promised, but you were working on it. Blame it on time for taking her away before you could." The debts, her disappointment and fury when she didn't get the job at Easton Corp. made sense now. I hated that my decision not to hire her brought her so much distress, but I was also grateful that it had led her straight to my heart. Because I had never been more ready to love again than now.

"Be mine. Let me protect you. Let me love you, Linda." I should have been mumbling something to comfort, but watching her beat herself about a life she had not chosen, her resignation to a life of solitude, never to be loved as she deserved, suffering the blame of something that wasn't her fault, I couldn't help baring my heart.

Those puffy eyes only stared at me like I'd grown a second head. "I just told you my life story and all you can say is be mine?"