WARNING.
If you are uncomfortable with sexual situations, and may be triggered by such between an abuser and victim please note that such occurs at the end of this chapter.
I don't own Finn, Rachel, or Brody. I do own Ione and Ayla as well as any original characters and the plot. No stealing. Thanks. Special thanks to Lauren and my mom for all their help :).
Chapter 3Rachel woke up with a start. She immediately regretted the action as her arms screamed from the ache; the memories of yesterday afternoon and the evening that followed came back to her in screaming colour. She took a moment to take a deep breath, wincing at the tenderness she still felt in her stomach. She closed her eyes to try and align herself, letting a deep exhale escape her nose. She laid back against the pillow for a moment to regain herself before the alarm clock at the side of her bed caught her eye.
"Shit," she exclaimed as she quickly threw back the cover.
They had slept in. As she ran her fingers through her tangled and matted hair she desperately searched around the room for her uniform. She ignored the pain that was radiating in her arms as she finally found it and stripped her pajamas off quickly before she threw on the red and white uniform. She grabbed a hair tie off her side table and hurried out of the bedroom while trying to tie her hair back. Rachel skidded to a stop in front of the girls bedroom once her hair was messily tied at the back of her head. She took a calming breath before she reached for the door and took a moment to just peek in on them.
She had half a mind to say fuck it all. As she looked in on the girls, sleeping peacefully in their beds she felt like going back to her bedroom, slipping her pajamas back on and spending a lazy day at home with her girls. But the reality was, she couldn't. She couldn't afford to take a day off from work no matter how shitty the pay was, and even if she knew where he had gone - there was not a chance in hell that she would leave her girls with Brody. She bit her lip as the thoughts ran through her mind as she stared at the girls. They looked so peaceful, so innocent. Ayla was fast asleep on her pink pillow, arms thrown back over her head and her little pink lips puckered in a perfect pout. When she turned to look at Ione she felt a pain tug in her heart that wasn't unlike the pain she was feeling in her arms. Even in sleep the little girl had creases and frown lines dotting her small forehead and Rachel's heart ached. Ione was a worrier, carried the weight on her shoulders and most days it worried her; and days like today it scared her.
She shook her head at the thoughts, bringing herself back to reality. She sprang into action in that moment, crossing the bedroom in a flash. She decided in that moment to let Ione sleep for just a few extra moments. Ione was a little girl who did best on a schedule. She thrived on predictability and even though their life was often chaotic and a messy, Rachel did her best to keep it as stable as possible, whenever possible.
Ayla was easy to wake up. She stretched her arms higher above her head and woke up with a smile on her face. Ayla was her resilient one, Ayla was her fighter and her optimist. Ayla was her little guiding light.
"Wass wrong Mommy?" she slurred as she pushed her unruly hair back from her face.
"It's time for school princess, let's go - come on, we're late," she moved across the room as she spoke, throwing open the girls closet and grabbing an outfit for each of them. She rushed back over to Ayla and helped her change quickly before sending her to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She dropped Ione's clothes on the abandoned bed before kneeling beside Ione's bed and approaching her a little more gently. But when Ione didn't stir at first, Rachel immediately had to exert more effort.
"Ione, sweetheart, come on," she urged.
"Mommy?" Ione whispered.
"Come on, you need to get dressed. We're going to be late," she tried to relay the information as gently as she could. But the moment the word late left her lips, Ione seemed to shoot up from bed like a bullet.
"It's so late Mommy!" she whimpered when her green eyes caught the alarm clock on the side of her bed. She jumped out of bed and started to frantically pace the bedroom floor before Rachel pointed out that she had gotten her outfit together already.
"I know, I know," Rachel rushed. "Get dressed and go brush your teeth..." She got up from the floor and headed for the bedroom door as Ayla called out that she was finished brushing her teeth. She had no choice but to leave Ione to her own devices and hysteria to go and tend to her younger daughter and find something quick for breakfast.
But she found herself pausing in the hallway as Ione's mumbling and fretting started to get the best of her as she heard her trash the room behind her apparently looking for her other sneaker. Rachel leaned her head against the wall outside in the hallway. She closed her eyes and tried to center herself as the door to the bedroom banged open and Ione flew past her, running towards the bathroom to brush her teeth.
By the time Rachel managed to get the girls hauled out the door, she was already feeling exhausted Her nerves were shot because of the way Ione was acting, her anxiety and fear about being late and scolded at school rubbing off on her. She frantically put together lunches for the girls and found breakfast bars for them to eat while Ione paced the living room floor and wrung her hands as Ayla watched. By the time they were out the door she felt all of her energy drain from her pores. Her own anxiety was surging with each step they took towards the school as memories of the night before flashed behind her eyes as her muscles ached as she tugged Ayla's hand to get her to walk faster.
Ione trailed a few steps behind her and she had to turn around a few times to make sure she hadn't just up and stopped.
"Ione, come on sweetheart," she tried to keep the irritation from her voice. "We're all already late, there's no time to just drag your toes sweetheart."
She heard Ione sigh in response and Rachel halted her feet to turn back and look at her again.
"Ione, please," she sighed as she held out her hand to her. They were half way to school, she was about ten minutes away from being late for work and they were already ten minutes late for school. A feat she wasn't sure how they had accomplished with how late they woke up.
They made it to the school and she rushed them up the stairs and into the building. She rushed Ayla to her classroom and kissed her head before making sure she made it inside and turned to take Ione.
"Will you be here to pick us up?" Ione asked as they approached her classroom. Rachel felt her tug her to a stop just in front of her door. Rachel dropped to her knees and pushed her hair behind her ear and quickly brushed a crumb away from her upper lip.
"I'll be here," she whispered before placing a quick kiss on her forehead and standing up once more. She reached for the classroom door and gestured for Ione to step in.
"I love you Ione," she sighed as the little girl trudged into the classroom. Rachel stood back for a moment as she trudged inside the classroom. She waited a beat; she wanted so badly to call her back out into the hallway to apologize for being abrupt but a quick look at her watch caused her eyes to widen and her to get going to work. She shoved her hands in the pockets of the sweater she wore and headed for the exit of the school.
Finn stopped speaking the moment the door to the classroom opened and Ione slipped in. He dropped his clipboard that held his attendance sheet down to his side as he watched her enter the classroom with her eyes drawn to the floor as she moved quickly to the back. He couldn't help but notice the tired expression she was wearing as she hurriedly makes it to her desk. The class started to chatter while he paused to watch her come in and he could see the attention has made her sheepish. She dropped the book she had been carrying when she tried to quickly and quietly slip into her seat. When the book hit the ground the commotion that had started up in the classroom stopped as everyone turned to look at her. He immediately felt bad when he noticed the flush of embarrassment on her cheeks as she bent down to scoop up her book. He started to take a step forward to help her pick it up when he saw that she was struggling, but stopped from going further when she reached it and brought it back up to her desk.
"Okay class," he called as he brought his clipboard back up to reading level. He picked up on roll call where he left off in an attempt to get the kids under control and the attention even away from Ione. "Jackson, are you here?"
"Yes, sir," he heard.
"Very good. Kayla?"
Rachel rushed into the diner only a few minutes behind schedule. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that it was still empty, and her boss, Trevor wasn't anywhere to be found. She has made it on time, thank god, with enough time to get herself a cup of coffee and maybe straighten out her hair. Her nerves were shot because of how crazy the morning had been and honestly she just wanted one moment to calm herself. She headed immediately to the back of the diner and punched in, giving Jessica a brief nod before heading back into the kitchen to grab herself a cup of coffee. She sighed when she felt Jessica following behind her and bit her lip when she heard her place her own coffee cup down in the sink before leaning on the counter beside her. She could feel Jessica staring her down and tried to ignore it as she fixed her coffee. She didn't have time for games and Jessica's approach was making her uneasy. She was used to the other woman's quirkiness but it didn't mean she appreciated it or fed into it. She picked up her coffee and mirrored her for a moment, leaning against the counter and took a deep inhale of the beverage. They only had a few moments instead of the usual twenty that she afforded herself in the morning.
She offered Jessica a small smile when she looked up and noticed that she was still staring at her.
"What? Do I have something on my face?" she offered as she took another sip. She closed her eyes for a moment as the hot liquid coursed through her and soothed her anxious thoughts, if just for a moment.
"No no," Jessica laughed as she leaned back a little further on the counter. "You're just drinking that coffee so quickly it's like your life depends on it," she chuckled.
Rachel blushed a little as she looked down at her cup. "We overslept this morning," she sighed. "And between getting the girls up, dressed and to school there really wasn't time for anything else. I'm going to need all the coffee in the world today."
She watched as a smile crept across Jessica's face as the words left her mouth and she took a moment to take another sip of her coffee. They were interrupted by Trevor moments later, who urged them to start getting ready for the day so they could open the store. Rachel sighed and took once last gulp of her coffee before placing the cup down in the sink and rinsing it out before rushing to prepare herself and help with the tables.
Rachel blew a breath as she walked from table to table, making sure each one had salt and pepper and enough sugar for the morning crowd of coffee drinkers. She turned around and almost ran directly into Jessica who had been wiping any tables that looked like they needed it.
"So you must have had a hot night then," she winked as she bent to wipe the table Rachel had just checked.
Rachel froze as her eyes dropped to the floor. She wondered if Jessica could tell just how wrong she was. She instinctively crossed her arms and rubbed her arms where Brody had grabbed last night. She bit her lip before turning on her heel and going to set up the hostess station as she saw Trevor march over to the doors to unlock them.
By the time lunch time came around, Finn Hudson felt himself becoming a little uneasy. He has always prided himself on having good intuition, and it didn't always stop when it came to his students. He couldn't help but notice how quiet Ione had been throughout the first half of the day. The little girl who he has come to know over the past few weeks is quiet in general, but there is something about how quiet she is today that he just can't place. He watched as she pulled her lunch from her backpack and quietly walked back to her seat to sit beside another quiet little girl, Madeline and unpacked her lunch. He watched from his desk until another student broke his attention asking for help opening a fruit cup. He turned back to Ione in time to watch her pull out a book from her desk as the rest of the classroom chats around her, even Madeline.
He only had to stay in his classroom for fifteen minutes, before he can have the rest of the hour long lunch to himself. But once he leaves, closing the door behind the cacophony of noise he can't shake the look in Ione's eyes from his mind.
He noticed them the moment he stepped out of his classroom. It was hard not to notice them, because the smaller one was wearing a bright pink sweater and seemed to be chattering up a storm. He stopped to watch them for a moment from a distance away. It was just yesterday that he noticed them sitting there for the first time, and as he stares at them now he can't help but wonder if there were days before that he had missed. He is sure they're safe, because the receptionist Mrs. Patterson is surely watching over them as they're sitting right outside the office. But he can't stop his feet from moving and walking towards them.
He sat down beside Ione quietly after placing his bag on the floor. She didn't look over him at first, instead she continued to focus on the hair tie she was playing with in her hands. He watched her stretch it a few times to the brink while Ayla continued to sit beside her and swing her legs back and forth. She clutched what looked like a drawing in her hands.
"What do you have there Ayla?" he asked in an attempt to get the two girls to open up to him.
"It's my drawing!" she answered in a squeaky voice. She held up the flimsy piece of drawing paper so he could see what she had drew. "It's a drawing for Mommy. She was sad this morning."
Ione's head shot up at Ayla's words. "Ayla," she whispered harshly.
The younger girl looked up at Ione with a questioning glance. She then turned towards Finn. "We slept in this morning," she shrugged as she placed her picture down on the bench beside her. "Mommy was sad because she didn't get to eat breakfast." she paused. "We had breakfast bars and bananas."
"What kind of breakfast bar?"Finn asked, attempting to get Ayla to keep talking to him.
"Mine was oatmeal and cranberry," Ayla smiled. "They're my favourite," she turned to Ione who had focused her eyes on the floor once more. "What kind was yours Ione?"
He watched as Ione's mouth twitched as if she was fighting against herself to answer.
"Oatmeal and raisin," she mumbled.
Finn nodded. "So it kind of tastes like a oatmeal raisin cookie then?"
Ione shrugged and dragged her eyes to the door again, something she had been doing every couple of seconds since he sat down.
"Mommy likes the oatmeal and blueberry ones," Ayla chattered. Finn turned his attention to her as her voice brought him back from watching Ione. "I think she likes them because the wrapper is blue and blue is her favourite colour."
"No it's not," Ione mumbled. "Mommy's favourite colour is yellow."
Ayla turned to look at her. "Then why did she pick blue paint when we wented to the paint store before? To paint her room?" She turned back to look at Finn. "My favourite colour is pink. Mommy is going to let me paint our bedroom pink even though Ione doesn't like it," she sighed.
"Blue is Brody's favourite colour," Ione mumbled lowly under her breath. Finn barely caught the words she had spoke as he focused on Ayla's words. "That's why they're painting their room blue," she sighed. "My favourite colour is purple."
"Purple's a good colour," Finn confirmed as he offered Ione a small smile before looking at Ayla. "And so is pink."
"What's your favourite colour Mr. Hudson?" Ayla smiled as she swung her legs back and forth.
"My favourite colour?" he asked with a chuckle. "My favourite colour is red."
Ayla seemed to giggle at his answer and pulled up her picture that she had drew once more, instantly going into a story about how she was going to colour the fish in her picture red but she couldn't find her red pencil crayon. She seemed to take off with the conversation then, divulging to Finn that her favourite movie was Sleeping Beauty while Ione's was the Sound of Music.
"What's your favourite song from the movie?" Finn asked Ione quietly as Ayla continued to basically outline the entire plot of Sleeping Beauty.
Ione turned to look at him once more, her eyes darting from the front door once more to where he was sitting.
"You know what Sound of Music is?" she asked quietly as she cocked her head to the side. He thought he saw the hint of a smile peaking out at the corners of her lips.
He gave her a soft smile and leaned his arms on his knees as he felt her continue to stare at him as Ayla turned her attention to her picture.
"Of course I know what Sound of Music is," he shrugged. "I used to watch it with my mom all the time when I was younger..."
"You don't anymore?"
He shrugged. "Sometimes. When I go home to see her..."
Ione gave him the first small smile he had ever seen her give. "My Favourite Things. My favourite song is My Favourite Things."
Finn sat back and leaned against the wall before crossing his arms over his chest. "That's a good one," he nodded. "I do prefer Do-Re-Mi sometimes."
Ione smiled softly once more. When the door to the school flung open the smile dropped from Ione's features and the same worried and concerned expression flooded her features. Gone was even the smallest smile he had just gotten to peak at.
The moment Rachel came into view, her hurried footsteps clapped against the tiles as she came closer to them. Finn stood up from the bench as Ione bolted from the bench herself before Ayla could even blink. He gave her a soft smile while he crossed his arms over his chest once more. He felt his smile falter as he watched how tightly Ione clung to Rachel's waist as Rachel ran her fingers through her messy hair. He didn't miss the way Rachel seemed to cling to her in return.
"Thank you," he heard her mumble after a beat had passed and Ayla had finally hopped off the bench. No word of an apology, nothing.
"Not a problem," he shrugged. He stuck his hands in his pockets as he watched them grab their stuff before turning to leave the building. He couldn't help but watch them go.
"Those poor girls," Finn heard behind him. He turned around to find Mrs. Patterson, the receptionist standing behind him with her arms crossed over her chest. "Those poor girls." She repeated, as if Finn hadn't had a chance to hear her before. He must have given her a look that said go on, because she continued. "Their mother is always late. I have half a mind to call Children's Aid or something on her." She clicked her tongue as Finn continued to watch the door they had just left out of.
"That's not really a reason to call, Maryanne," he commented as he finally turned away. "Being late twice isn't an emergency. Yet," he added under his breath.
"Two times in a row though, Mr. Hudson," Maryanne added with an arch to her eyebrow. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.
He stepped away from the older woman to grab his bag and head out for the parking lot. It had started to rain since school was dismissed and he huffed as he jogged to his SUV that was parked half way down the lot. In the distance he could see Ione and her family walking down the street, the three of them huddled under one umbrella. His interest piqued, but the rain pelting down on his body forced him to jump into his own truck and head home.
The girls wanted tacos. And after today, she hadn't really felt like making much for dinner but Ione had asked and she really couldn't say no. She stood in the kitchen chopping tomatoes while she waited for the ground beef to finish browning. She hummed a song under her breath as she continued to chop the last tomato before she slid the bits into the bowl. She finally finished with the vegetables and moved to grab the cheese from the fridge. She froze when she heard the door to the apartment open, the telltale heaviness of the steps that followed told her that Brody was back. She tensed as she stood in front of the fridge, holding on to the door of the fridge as she waited to see where he was going. She closed the door after grabbing the cheese while waiting to see where he was headed. She was always on high alert after a fight, hell she was on high alert most of the time when he was around even without a fight. She tried to preoccupy herself with searching for the cheese grater and taking the meat off the burner as she kept an ear out for Brody. She tensed as she listened to him shuffling out in the living room, and she silently thanked the girls for playing nicely in their room as she waited for Brody to come to her. She tried to fight against the impulse she had to run out and meet him, but it was taking all of her strength. She tried not to overreact. She relaxed, only slightly when she heard his footsteps start to move again and relaxed even more when she could hear him coming closer to her. His footsteps weren't hurried or clumsy; years of dealing with his personality and sidestepping around his moods have taught her that the speed of his feet are true telltale signs that things might be alright. She bit her lip when she felt him come closer to her and tried not to flinch when she felt his arms wrap around her waist. She closed her eyes and tried not to speak for a moment. She tried to just be in the moment, but when she opened her eyes after a few minutes she looked down to find a small bouquet of brightly coloured flowers pressed against her abdomen.
At one time she loved flowers. She supposed she could again but right now she equated flowers with apologies. They're his go to when he needs to apologize; apologize for hitting her, yelling at her, or making her ultimately feel like shit. She had received a huge bouquet from him the day after Ayla was born, complete with roses and baby's breath. He had missed her birth by hours, and had come to the hospital to pick her up with a wild look in his eyes. That had been the first time she never truly appreciated a bouquet of flowers. Flowers stopped meaning something when they held so little, at least to her. She took hold of the small bouquet and brought them up to her nose. Rachel closed her eyes as she inhaled the aroma of the fresh flowers. She always accepted them, because it was nice sometimes to pretend that even for a minute he still liked her, that at one moment he may have even loved her. She opened her eyes when she was finished and turned around in his arms, abandoning the cheese for a minute.
"Thanks for the flowers," she whispered quietly as she tentatively looked up at him.
He gave her a smile before he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. His lips lingered on her skin and she closed her eyes before he pulled away. When he did, she slowly opened them when he slowly dragged his hands up and down her arms.
"I'm sorry for yesterday," he sighed as his hands reached hers and he tugged one free, bringing it up to his mouth to give her fingers a gentle kiss. "I just wish you wouldn't make me so mad, yeah?" He gave her another grin before pecking her cheek. She untangled herself from his arms and turned around to find a vase for the flowers and finish dinner.
He sat at the table and watched her finish getting dinner together and didn't move a muscle to help her set the table or finish up the dishes. When she had set everything on the table she called the girls in a steady and cheerful voice and didn't flinch when she saw Ione's eyes widen when she saw Brody sitting at the head of the table. Ayla for her part smiled wide and skipped over to him, allowing him to scoop her up into his lap for a minute before she took her place at the table. She waited with baited breath for something, anything to happen and she felt her shoulders relax when she saw Brody offer Ione a small smile. She knew the kind of smile, it was one he gave her often - especially after a particularly bad blow up. She wondered if Ione knew how to read it too. She blew out a breath as Ione slowly walked over to her seat and she brought the last of the dishes over to the table and took her own space.
Ayla dominated the conversation as she chatted about her day, and Rachel watched as she maintained Brody's attention. He asked her endless questions with the same charming smile on his face that he had given Ione. For her part, Ione quietly picked at her taco that she had dressed herself, choosing to eat the filling before dipping what was left of her wrap in a mixture of salsa and sour cream on the side of her plate. Rachel noticed a pensive look on her face as she looked down at her food, and she furrowed her own brow for a moment. She waited for a break in Ayla's long winded speech about what happened at recess today to bring Ione into the conversation.
She quietly answered Rachel's questions about how her day was, before she brought up that she had a spelling test earlier that day. Rachel froze as she watched Ione look back down at her plate in front of her and Rachel instantly feared the worst. In all of the commotion of last night she had neglected to check in with either Ione or Ayla about homework and she gripped the glass she had just reached for a little tighter. She opened her mouth to question her about the test but Brody beat her to it.
"Well, how did you do Ione?" he asked with feigned interest as he grabbed his glass as well. She flipped her glance between Brody and Ione nervously. Ione, for her part, had continued to stare down at her plate for a minute before she looked up and stared right at Rachel. Rachel nodded and offered her an encouraging smile to go on as she chewed her own lip.
"I only got one wrong," she announced as she nervously looked over at Brody, twisting her fingers together as the words left her lips.
He offered her a smile wider than the one he had been offering Ayla only minutes before, and Rachel released one more sigh of relief. She was always proud of her girls, no matter how well they did in school but it always made her nervous to mention such things around Brody. The eggshells she had to walk on spanned every facet of their lives.
"Well, only one wrong huh? I would say that calls for ice cream after dinner, what do you think Mom?" Brody grinned at her from across the table. She breathed a sigh of relief as she leaned back in her chair. She nodded instantly and turned to Ione.
"We'll have to go get some though, we're all out. But we can go after we're done here."
Ione smiled softly and nodded before turning her attention back to her taco and continued to eat her dinner.
"Can we get strawberry?" she asked after she swallowed her next bite.
Rachel smiled widely and nodded before biting into her own taco.
Rachel stood in the bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror. She sighed as she ran her fingertips lightly over her stomach, tracing the spot where he had elbowed her the night before. The spot was red and tender to the touch. She blew a breath between her lips as she stared at herself, the bruises on her arms catching her attention. He had clutched her so hard the night before that they had bruised instantly, and the spots were dark and heavy against her olive toned skin. She was reminded as she stood there, of other times he had marked her skin, other times that he had left bruises on her skin. She was so lost in her thoughts, her fingers running along the band of the bra she wore to trace a spot where she had a scar from a severe burn he had inflicted on her, that she didn't hear the door to the bathroom creak open and Brody slipped in. Her breath caught in her throat when he appeared in the mirror and approached her, winding his arms around her waist and pulling her against him.
She stood frozen as his fingertips danced on the exposed part of her stomach, her stance tense against his touch. He brought one of his hands up and gently brushed her hair away from her back and swept it over her left shoulder. She felt his hot breath on her neck and she closed her eyes as she felt his lips press the crook of her neck.
"Why are you so quiet tonight babe?"he whispered as he dragged his lips lazily up her neck. She could feel the trail his lips were leaving on her skin and she closed her eyes against the sensation. His hands pulled her closer by the hips as he continued to lave at her skin for a few minutes. "Cat got your tongue?" he sighed as his thumbs found her hipbones.
"I'm just tired," she sighed as his fingers delved under the elastic of the floral pajama pants she was wearing. She exhaled when she felt his touch move upwards again, flinching slightly when his fingers grazed over the spot where he had elbowed her.
"I'm so sorry baby," he whispered into her neck. She was quiet as his fingers circled the area that was still tender to the touch. His fingers glided up her arm down to her wrist and raised it just high enough so he could reach the bruise on her arm. "So sorry." He repeated the action with her other arm before gently placing them at her sides and going back to her neck. His hands continued the path they had left off, and instead of stopping at the elastic waistband, they delved below as she trembled against his touch and clenched her eyes closed.
"Let's go to bed," he whispered as he tentatively bit down at the juncture between her neck and shoulder before gently soothing the mark with his tongue.
She blindly followed his lead as he guided her from behind towards their bedroom. Numbly she allowed him to peel off her pajamas pants as she reached back to unsnap her bra. She dropped her eyes to the floor when she caught sight of how he was looking at her and moved over to the bed while he dropped his jeans and boxers to the ground.
Rachel inhaled sharply as he climbed onto the bed beside her and he tentatively reached over and pushed her hair back from her face. She swallowed hard when his fingers skirted her face. She gave him a tentative nod as she took her bottom lip between her teeth as he settled his body above he. He swiped his thumb across her forehead once more to catch the few strands that had fallen back in her face.
"My girl," he grinned as he leaned down and pressed quick, insistent kisses all over her face. "You're so beautiful." His voice was full of lust as his hands started to burn a trail all over the exposed skin he could touch.
She closed her eyes as he touched her and inhaled quickly when his lips descended on hers. She moaned as he touched her intimately, and she could feel the smile come over his lips and his arousal rising between her legs.
The moment he entered her, Rachel felt her back arch and her hands immediately went to his back. She gasped as he thrust into her, his speed building. She tightened her legs around him as he started to piston his lips faster and faster, his head buried in the side of her neck. His hot breath caused the skin of her neck to flush. Her breath came out in short bursts as he started to grunt and move his hands to her breasts as she arched into him.
"Are you close?" he grunted as squeezed her breast a little too hard. She clenched her eyes closed. "I'm so close..." he gasped. She tightened her legs around him at the question, moving her hand to wind around his arms and tried to touch herself to get herself there.
But it all ended quickly as Brody grunted one last time and collapsed on top of her, breathing heavily into her neck as he tried to calm his racing heart. Rachel let her legs and arms go slack around him and blew out a breath herself as she waited for him to move. She sighed quietly as he rolled off of her. She went to roll over onto her side but Brody's hand on her arm caused her to freeze.
"That was so good," he grinned as he leaned over and kissed her shoulder. She laid still and her eyes were fixed on the spot he kissed her, right below where the bruise he had caused was. He didn't seem to notice the how quiet she had become. When he finally rolled over onto his other side, Rachel took that as her moment to slide off the bed.
"Where are you going?" He sat up in bed as she started to slide her robe over her shoulders. He sent her a grin and patted the space on the mattress beside her. "We can go for round two," he winked.
"I'm just going to the washroom," she gave him a gentle smile as she pulled the tie of her robe closed and headed for the door. She didn't turn around when she heard him shuffle around on the bed. Instead, she headed out to the hallway and breathed a deep sigh of relief as she headed towards the bathroom.
Once she was in the safety of the bathroom, she started the shower. She waited for the water to warm up before she dropped her robe on top of the vanity before climbing into the hot water. As she stood under the spray she crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes as she let the water drench her from head to toe. As she stood there, thoughts of how the day had gone, the events of the evening all swirled around. As she thought about Brody and how as usual she welcomed him back with open arms she couldn't help but allow her lip to tremble. She uncrossed her arms and used them to lean against the wall, her head falling forward and hitting the tile with a clunk. She squeezed her eyes tight as she began to cry as silently as she could. She felt dirty, used, unworthy. It had made her feel good for a moment when he called her beautiful and said my girl but now as she thought about it all, heard his words and grunts in her head it made her feel like her skin was going to crawl off her bones. She leaned forward and turned the water up hotter as she began to cry in earnest.