Scarred (Damaged Souls) (13 page)

“I traveled all around the country in my aunt’s prized Mustang. Once he was released and I didn’t hear from him or see him, I figured it was finally safe to make my way here, where I wanted to stay for good. So here I am.” Lexi finished her story on a sigh.

“
You said you ‘figured it was finally safe’. So that was him that called you the day you walked into that alley. And it was him that called you on our way back from the hardware store, that made you freak out.” Sloan stated.

“Y…yes. He’s threatening to find me.
” Lexi admitted.

“I’ll kill him if he so much as looks at you.” Sloan said with certainty, his voice cold and hard as steel.

Lexi knew that when most people said they were going to kill someone it was a joke, a turn of phrase, but she had no doubt that Sloan would do it. He was trained in combat and warfare, a legally trained killer. She knew Eric would do well not to come anywhere near her.

“We might have to get you a gun
or something. Luckily you have that restraining order against him and it’s on record that he attacked you before. Because if that bastard comes anywhere near you, you can’t be held accountable if he turns up dead, especially if he comes hundreds of miles out of his way to get to you.” Sloan stated matter-of-factly.

“Maybe I should, but I hate that I have to buy a gun because of some past jackass. And I have to admit that I do feel safer with you and Tank around, but Sloan this shouldn’t have to be your problem. You should
n’t have to threaten to kill someone for me.” Lexi said in frustration.

“First of all, it isn’t a threat. It’s a fact. And second, I c…care about you, so I feel it’s my job to protect you.” Sloan stuttered out wanting to say ‘I love you’, but knowing she wasn’t ready for that.

“Well, I appreciate that. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t come to that.” Lexi said and then took a sip of the refreshing beer that did in fact compliment the chicken to perfection. “So anyway, if a career in construction doesn’t work for you, then I think you may have a future in the culinary arts. Because you definitely know your way around a kitchen!” Lexi said, still in awe of his cooking skills.
Hmm…if he said that he works well with his hands in the kitchen and the bedroom and his cooking is
this
good, then I wonder…yeah right! Like sex hasn’t always been painful and humiliating. I doubt it’ll be any different with him, no matter how much he can work me up with words and little caresses here and there.

They finished up their meal and sat chit chatting about their plans for the house.
Afterwards when it was getting late and the emotional and physical exhaustion of the day finally took its toll on them, they decided to turn in for the night.

They walked into the downstairs bedroom
and together they reassembled the full-size bed. Sloan carried in Tank’s new dog bed, in which the big dog promptly spun around a couple of times and then settled into whatever spot he found most comfortable.

“So is it alright if I sleep with you again?” Sloan asked, suddenly becoming bashful.

“Sure. Besides, there aren’t too many options at this point. It’s either in this bed or the floor. And you seemed to behave yourself last night, so I’m okay with it.” Lexi smiled slightly at him.

“Thanks.” Sloan said putting the two pillows down the middle of the bed as an added barrier again for Lexi’s benefit.

They slid into the bed, on their respective sides after Sloan came back from changing into sweats in the bathroom. The bed was small and the extra space taken up by the pillows between them as well as the heightened sexual tension that had been building all day, seemed to make the bed shrink two sizes since the previous night.

Sloan turned towards Lexi and held out his right hand over the pillow. Lexi looked at him and then pulled her right hand out from under her pillow and laid it on the pillow and he clasped her hand tightly.

“Goodnight, Alexis.” Sloan said softly into the darkness.

“Goodnight, Sloan.” Lexi said before yawning.

Chapter 10

“
No Ordinary Love”

Lexi’s eyes popped open
, just after dawn to the feel of a strong arm banded around her waist and a full on erection pressed into her backside. Freezing in place, Lexi realized that Sloan was still deep in sleep, his breath deep and steady. Taking a few deep breaths herself, Lexi gently clasped Sloan’s wrist with her index finger and thumb, and slowly lifted it and placed it back on his thigh. She then scooted away from his hard body. Once to the edge of the bed she looked back and saw the evidence of the massive morning wood that Sloan was sporting through the sweatpants.
Jesus, that’s not morning wood, that’s more like morning tree trunk!

Lexi decided it was best if she extricated herself from the room stat, before Sloan woke up and both of them were embarrassed. She already felt a flush spreading across her cheeks and the only one in the room paying
any attention to her was Tank. She held her finger up to her lips, telling the dog to keep quiet. She quickly and gently slid the rest of the way out of bed and tiptoed to her temporary chest of drawers and grabbed some clothes and then crept to the door, Tank following quietly behind her.

Once outside of the room, Lexi closed the door quietly and breathed a sigh
of relief that she escaped the potentially awkward encounter. She walked to the back of the house to let Tank out and then headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth and take a shower.

When she pulled the shower curtain back, she saw the knife that she had left in the bathroom the other evening
, was now sitting on the edge of the tub.
Shit! Sloan saw it in the tub! He probably thinks I’ve been cutting myself.
Lexi shook her head in embarrassment. But looking at the knife, Lexi realized that so much had changed since that night she had almost cut again. Her urge to cut wasn’t completely gone, but it didn’t feel as strong as before. She felt in control, she felt…happy.
It’s Sloan. It’s this house!

Lexi picked up the knife with a steady hand and placed it on the sink and then turned on the water. She quickly washed and then got out of the shower excited to paint Sloan. She couldn’t wait to show him the way she saw him through her eyes.
Feeling the humidity in the air, she decided to forego any moisturizers, especially since most of the day would be spent outside. She pulled on her wild pair of palazzo pants again and a black tank. She realized that she forgot to grab a bra in her hurry to get out of the room, so she’d just have to wait till Sloan was awake.
I’m not going back in there with
all
that going on!

She let Tank back into the house and she walked to the kitchen to fill his dog bowl and fi
x a bowl of cereal for herself and hoped to finish eating and get everything ready before Sloan woke up.

~~~

Sloan woke up from an amazing dream where he had made love to Lexi passionately for hours. He opened his eyes to an empty bed and the pillows that should have been in front of him appeared to have made their way to the floor and he was sporting an impressive erection.
Shit! Please don’t tell me that she woke up to me giving her a friendly morning poke in the back. Fuck! She’ll probably never let me back in this bed.

Sloan tried to calm down and clear his mind, hoping that his erection would go down. But he continued to get flashes of the heated dream. He tried to do math equations in this head and think of the most unpleasant
unsexy things he could imagine, but nothing was going to get the hard-on to go away.
Nothing but Lexi herself, it’s been too fucking long and she torments me daily.

Sloan got up and grabbed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that Lexi had gotten for him and headed out the bedroom to take an ice cold shower. He opened the bedroom door and his eyes drew automatically to the kitchen across the hall. Lexi was bent over pouring dog food into Tank’s bowl, her large round ripe ass up in the air, begging to be caressed. Sensing his presence, Lexi quickly stood up and turned to look at him. Sloan’s eyes instantly zeroed in on the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra. Her nipples were hard and straining against the thin tank top.

Sloan heard her breath catch and her eyes quickly looked down and then back up at him with a blush. Sloan looked down and realized that his boner was making his sweats tent out in front of him and it was pointing directly at Lexi. His face instantly turned beet red and he covered his situation with the clothes clutched in his hands.

“Uh…I’m gonna jump in the shower really quick.” Sloan said looking away and then quickly disappeared into the bathroom.

“Fuck!” Sloan whispered to himself as he pressed his back against the door.
What am I a horny fucking teenager? When was the last fucking time I couldn’t control an erection?

Sloan jumped in the shower, turned the cold water on full blast and shivered through an uncomfortable shower, barely able to calm his traitorous body down
and knowing that masturbating wasn’t going to help.
There’s only one thing. Scratch that, one
person
that can fix this ache.

When he felt that he was decent enough to make an appearance, he got out of the shower, dried off and got dressed. Finger combing his damp hair back out of his face, Sloan took a deep breath and opened the door.

Lexi was nowhere to be seen. On the table she had left him a clean empty bowl with a box of cereal next to it. He poured himself a bowl and then grabbed some milk out of the fridge. Sloan quickly ate at the table. When he was finished he cleaned his bowl, put it away and went on the hunt to find where Lexi had ran off to.

He checked up stairs first, but saw no signs of her. He came back downstairs and called out her name, but there wa
s no response. He peeked out front to see if her car was gone, but found it still in the driveway. Finally he walked to the back of the house and onto the back porch.

Sloan found her setting up her easel in front of the collapsing gazebo. Her curly afro was pulled back with a colorful scarf and the breeze blew through the soft cloud of hair. He saw that while he was in the shower she had put on a bra, which he knew was probably a good thing, but he still couldn’t help but b
e a little disappointed as well as a little embarrassed that she witnessed how much he couldn’t control his body earlier.

Taking a fortifying breath he started to walk towards her.

“Hey.” He said softly behind her.

Turning around suddenly, she looked at him and blushed, obviously remembering the earlier
uncomfortable encounter.

“Hi.” Lexi replied bashfully.

“Look, Alexis. I’m really sorry about earlier. That was really embarrassing and I feel like a fucking adolescent boy. And I apologize if I crossed any boundaries in my sleep. I swear I didn’t do it on purpose.” Sloan said wanting to clear the air right away.

“It’s okay Sloan. I didn’t think that
you tried anything on purpose. No harm done, so don’t beat yourself up about it.” Lexi assured him.

“Alright. So…I see that you’re pretty much all set up here. Are you still sure that you want to paint me? You can take it back if you want. I won’t be offended.” Sloan said voice filled with hope.

“Sloan Stryker, just sit your butt down on the steps and stop trying to get out of it. I want to paint you and that’s final.” Lexi said surprising herself and Sloan by her assertive and confident tone.

“Yes ma’am!” Sloan
saluted her before sitting on one of the three steps of the gazebo.

Lexi walked over to Sloan to position him in the pose and
best angle that she wanted him in. All her previous bravado of a few seconds ago flew right out the window as she stood in front of him, trying to figure out where she was going to have to touch him first. She reached out with trembling fingers, hesitated, and then dropped her hands to her sides and took a few steps backward. She looked at him for a few moments, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she concentrated, envisioning how she wanted him.

“Okay, so…uh…if you could sit on the top step.” Lexi said deciding to verbally direct him for most of it and Sloan followed her instruction without pause. “Okay, good. Now lean back against the pillar and drop your left foot to the bottom step. Great.” Lexi smiled shyly as he
obeyed her commands, never taking his eyes off of her. “Alright, bring your right foot up to the top step with your knee bent.” Lexi finished as she stepped towards him again.

She reached out and clasped Sloan’s right wrist and laid it on top of his bent knee, leaving his hand hanging over it and arm outstretched. She then pl
aced his left hand on top of his thigh, his arm bent at the elbow at his side. She stepped back again to get a better look at him. A small smile played at his lips as he stared back at her.

“Do you know that you’re adorable when you’re concentrating? You have this faraway looking in your eyes and you bite the side of your bottom lip constantly. It’s sexy as hell.” Sloan said quietly.

Lexi blushed and immediately released her lip, not realizing that she was even doing it.

“Aw, don’t stop on my account.” Sloan teased her.

“Oh hush and let me think.” Lexi scolded him as she tried to figure out what was off about his pose.

“I like you all bossy.
” Sloan’s lips spread into a huge smile.

“And you’re an ass.” Lexi said
squeezing her lips together trying not to give in to his infectious smile, but in the end failed and grinned back at him.

Lexi
came towards him again and bent over to wrap her hands behind each of his knees and pulled him slightly away from the pillar. When she was satisfied she straightened back up and stepped closer to him. She gently clasped his shoulders and leaned him back against the old faded pillar. Standing back she checked to make sure everything was how she wanted it for the painting. She almost bit her lip again deep in thought, but Sloan’s Cheshire Cat smile stopped her. There was something missing and the moment she realized what it was, a flush spread across her face.

“What?” Sloan asked, noticing her embarrassment.

“So…uh…would it bother you if I asked you to take your shirt off?” Lexi said staring at his chin, not able to make eye contact.

“I guess…if you really want me to.” Sloan said sweetly.

Sloan gripped the bottom of his t-shirt and pulled it up over his head, revealing the dog tags that rested on his muscular chest, ripped abs, corded arms and scars marring his left side. Lexi swallowed hard at the vision he made, wondering how he was able to stay in such great shape during the two years he was homeless. He placed his arms back where she had originally had them. Lexi took his shirt from him and draped it over his right shoulder. And then with shaking hands she combed her fingers through his hair, letting the hair on the right side hang slightly in his face. And the left side, she tucked the hair behind his ear fully exposing his scars. Before she pulled away Sloan turned his face towards hers and gave her a quick kiss on the side of her mouth. Lexi gave him a wide-eyed questioning look.

“I haven’t g
otten a kiss today. I figured I deserved at least one for being your muse for the day.” Sloan winked at her, his former cocky flirtatious nature making more frequent appearances.

“You’re a mess.” Lexi said shaking her head while she walked back to her easel and position
ed it at an angle to face Sloan. “Now just relax and look at me. At first I’m going to just sketch you. After that, you can get up and stretch before I start painting.” Lexi informed him before grabbing a pencil and sharpening it.

Sloan watched her work. It was easy for him to sit still because he was so absorbed in watching her every move. He loved finally having the freedom to watch her
unfettered, without feeling like a creeper. Her movements were graceful, being in her element, doing what she loved to do. And finding her rhythm, she once again bit down on her lip unconsciously.

Every moment that he spent with Lexi, every mannerism
of her face and body and nuisance of her personality that he drank in, he fell deeper in love with her. Sloan thanked his lucky stars that he was sitting in the park that first day he’d laid eyes on her. She captivated him and there was no going back.

Lexi was so deep in concentration that she didn’t notice the intense gaze that Sloan had focused on her, until she was finished with her sketch.
When her mind cleared and she really looked at him, not with an artist’s eye but as a woman her breath caught in her throat. He wasn’t just looking at her with bored aloofness, that most models would when having to sit for long periods of time. Sloan’s eyes looked upon her with softness, yet laser precision, taking in her every movement. A look that should’ve made her clothes burst into flames. The awareness between them was thick with tension and she was frozen under his burning stare, unable to look away.

Then a
s if in a trance, as if she was under his spell, Lexi started to walk towards him. Once she stood in front of him, Sloan looked up at her with agonizing blue-gray eyes. She reached out a quivering hand, grazed her fingers down his face, dancing over his scar. And with the lightest touch, traced the scar on his lips with her fingertips. His control snapping, Sloan shot up from the stairs, banding his arms around her waist and under her ass, lifting Lexi off of her feet with lightning speed. And his mouth crushed against hers in a punishing kiss.