Insatiable (6 page)

"Now don’t go starting anything Ken, I don’t want no trouble. Aurora Collins is good people, she only wants to help." Larry was a manager at the lumber yard and wanted nothing to do with Ken and his ignorance. "Just let her be Ken."

Ken shook his head and made a beeline towards Aurora.

"She's got to pay for putting the cops on my ass."

"Hey you stupid little bitch!" He shouted.

Aurora gripped the handle of the cart tightly, and Liam felt the muscles in his jaw tense up. His first day volunteering and he was going to have to kick someone's ass.

"Just keep walking Liam, ignore him."

"I said hey you little bitch! Or should I say big bitch? I'm talking to you ya whore."

Aurora could feel the anger rising inside of her but refused to give into Ken's witlessness. And she didn’t want Liam to give in either.

She stopped pushing the cart and turned to face ken.

"Liam this is Ken, don’t pay any attention to him, he's just angry because he won't be able to use his wife as a punching bag anymore!" Aurora shouted.

Ken made a fierce move towards her but Liam stepped in the way.

"I hope we aren't going to have a problem," Liam barked, his voice deep and intimidating.

Ken threw up his hands in surrender. "No, we won't have a problem just as long as you tell your bitch to keep her big, fat trap shut."

"See, now why'd you have to go and say that?" Liam stepped closer to the man. Aurora was sure that she saw Ken tremble. 
Maybe he'll feel a smidgen of what his wife felt right before he hit her.

She needed to put a stop to things before they got out of hand. She did the only thing she could, she took hold of Liam. "Come on he's not worth it, no one here is. Let's just go." She turned towards Ken before leading Liam away. "You know, I hope someday soon, someone takes it upon themselves to teach you a lesson that you'll never forget," she snarled.

Liam stood stoic for a moment longer and glared at Ken before turning his back to him and walking away. He protectively put his arm around Aurora while they walked back to the car.

"I'm sorry about old Ken Aurora," Larry shouted after them. "He don’t mean any harm. Don’t you want your lumber?"

Aurora let Liam help her into the car. "No thanks Larry, I don’t like the atmosphere here today, it stinks like shit," she shouted back.

Her hands shook as she put the key in the ignition. It had been a long time since she felt that way. Ken hadn't scared her; he'd gotten her so angry that she was shaking. She then thought of how his wife must have felt each and every time he'd hit her. The angry degrading words and the spittle coming from the side of his mouth. It made her stomach churn.

"You okay?" Liam rested a hand on her shoulder. He could feel her body shaking and wanted to do something to help.

"I'm fine," she said and slipped the key into the ignition. When they got back home Aurora was no longer in the mood for company. It wasn’t even lunch time yet and she was thinking about dismissing her newest volunteer.

"Come on, there must be something that I can do?" Liam begged. He wasn’t ready to leave her company just yet, hell he wasn’t sure if he'd ever be ready. So far Aurora Collins had proven to be one of the strongest women he'd ever met. 
This woman doesn’t back down, 
he thought to himself.

Had it been up to him he would have liked to have strung Ken up by his balls and then gutted him like a fish but Aurora had stopped him. And he knew that it was good that she did. The last thing he needed was to get arrested over some low life piece of shit. He had a clean record and wanted to keep it that way, but if the guy came near her again, he'd have no choice but to do something about it.

Aurora interrupted his thoughts. "Well since you’re here I suppose I should introduce you," she said and made her way towards the house.

Mari and Rosie already had the front door open.

"What happened? Where's the lumber? I thought you guys were going to get some wood to repair the fence?" Mari asked.

Aurora rubbed the side of her temples. "Just give me a moment guy's okay, I'll be right back. Liam you can introduce yourself can't you?" She made her way into the bedroom.

A look of confusion came over their faces and the two women turned to Liam for answers.

"We had a run in with an ex-husband at the lumber yard. It seems that he was a bit upset that our Aurora here helped his wife."

"What happened?" Rosie asked and held out a plate of cinnamon buns.

"Oh nothing she couldn’t handle, the guy was all mouth, nothing more."

"Well it doesn’t seem like nothing," Rosie and Mari grew concerned for Aurora.

"The guy said some pretty disgusting things to her."

"And you didn’t knock his lights out?" Mari scolded him.

"I tried, believe me. But Aurora asked me not to, she led me away before I could do anything," Liam informed them.

"Well maybe you ought to go for now. We'll go and talk to her. It was nice meeting you," Rosie dismissed him.

Liam let out a sigh, his first day there and he'd not been able to get to know Aurora like he wanted to. He wanted to make sure that she was okay but her friends were going to make that impossible. At least for the time being anyway.

"Please tell her that I hope she's okay and that I'll call her later, just to check on her."

Rosie and Mari nodded their heads and led him out. The two made their way to the guest room and gently knocked.

"Everything alright?" They both asked and eased their way inside. Aurora stood staring out the window as the two approached.

"Everything is fine. Just had a bad run-in with an ignorant loser that's all. I'll be fine, I promise. I just needed a moment," she said and took a deep breath.

"No matter how much I hope that some people will change its inevitable that they just refuse to take a look in the mirror and say, "It's me, I'm the one who's got the problem. I'm the one who is the bully, the one who is so insecure about my own life that I have to degrade the woman that I claim to love."

Mari came closer and rested a hand on her shoulder.

"You're right Aurora; some people won't change not because they can't but because they won't. They don’t think that they have any reason to change. Take Ronnie for instance, I bet right now he's going about his business working and drinking and still blaming me for every wrong thing that has happened in his life. Why? Because it's easier for him to blame me than to blame himself. Well I for one am done with being blamed.

I don’t care if I wind up penniless and alone, I'm alive and that's all I need. I was on the edge, but I wouldn’t let Ronnie push me over."

For the first time in a long time, Mari felt triumphant. "I'm proud of you," Rosie beamed for her friend.

"The both of you are well on your way to getting your lives back. You've got your freedom and soon, you'll have your redemption." Aurora smiled at them.

"You've taken the first step, and that, you both know is the hardest. Everything else is just going to fall into place," she said and took hold of their hands.

"Thanks for thinking of me, friends. I know that you both have a lot on your minds. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

"We are all going to be okay," Rosie grinned. "We're all going to be okay."

Liam couldn’t stop thinking about Aurora. He hoped that she was alright and at that moment, wished that he'd done a bit more than just comply with her wishes. 
I should have socked that guy in his fat fucking mouth
, he thought angrily to himself. 
The fucker needs to be taught a lesson and this time I won't let anyone stop me.

He didn’t know why he was having such strong feelings against the guy, yes he did. This Ken person had disrespected a woman, but not just any woman; it was a woman who he wanted very much to get to know. And had Ken not insulted her, Liam was sure that he and Aurora would have had a very nice day.

The guy had been downright vulgar, and it reminded him of the way his father used to treat his mother. He remembered one time when he was ten years old, his mother and father had just come home from having dinner with some friends. At first everything seemed to be alright, but once his father paid the babysitter and sent her on her way, all hell broke loose.

He remembered his father screaming and yelling at his mother, telling her that she was a louse and a no good whore. He said that she had been flirting with a man while they were at the dinner party, and it made him look bad. Even though his mother vehemently denied ever having such a conversation with any man, his father continued shouting at her.

He had gotten so afraid for his mother that he climbed out of bed, he wanted to help her in any way that he could. And when he reached the middle of the stairs, Liam saw his father remove his belt and begin striking heavy, thunderous blows onto his wife's back. The screaming was earth shattering, but it seemed to spur his father on even more.

Liam tried to shut his eyes and cover his ears, but it was no use, his mother's cries carried over his small hands and eyelids.

Then just as suddenly as he had begun, his father stopped beating his mother, and as she lay sprawled out on the kitchen floor her eyes were fixated on him. In fact so were his fathers. Liam didn’t realize it but when his mother started screaming so did he. He'd been screaming so loud and frantic that he'd become hysterical, and his mother, who was already beaten and battered struggled to her feet and went to him.

She'd pulled him into her embrace, and he could feel the dampness of her skin, her face was tear stained and red. When he hugged her, she winced in pain. As he placed his hands around her, he could feel the burning skin through her satin dress; the welts had already begun to form.

"It's alright baby," his mom whispered to him. "Let's get you back to bed."

Liam sniffled back tears and looked at his father. "You better stop babying that fucking boy. I don’t want no goddamn sissy for a son!" He shouted and shook the heavy end of his belt in Liam's face.

His mother instinctively positioned herself in front of little Liam. "I'm just going to put him to bed," she repeated and took hold of her son's hand. "Come on son."

When his father didn’t object, she quietly led Liam up the stairs. She stayed with him until she thought he'd fallen asleep. But as the night grew darker, and the light in the hallway dimmed, he lie awake watching his mother who'd fallen asleep in the small twin bed next to him. She'd quietly cried herself to sleep that night, and it was a night that he would never forget.

Chapter Five

After some more girl time with Rosie and Mari, Aurora took a call from Liam.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing," he said, his voice soft and soothing.

"I'm fine," Aurora replied. "Thank you though for being so concerned. And thank you for not getting into any altercations with that asshole."

"You're welcome Aurora. But I want you to know, had you not stopped me I would have…"

Aurora smiled. As barbaric as it may have seemed, she would have liked to watch ken get his teeth kicked out and his ass beat.

"I know you would have, but I'm glad you didn’t," she said. "Thank you for your chivalry," she smiled again.

"Anytime Aurora, anytime. And since you think me chivalrous might I be so bold as to offer you an invitation to dinner?"

"Liam I am …"

"Now before you say no, let me just say that you did just call me chivalrous and where I come from that means that you find me utterly irresistible so you can't possibly turn me down. Please? Accept my invitation, you won't be sorry."

Aurora let out a sigh before answering. "Alright, but only because you asked so nicely," she said.

"Great, tomorrow evening sound good? What time shall I pick you up?"

"Geez, you don’t waste any time do you?" She giggled.

"Not when I know what I want."

"Hmmm," she said. "How about seven?"

"Seven sounds perfect, see you then Aurora."

Her first date in years and she barely knew the guy. Barely? Hell she didn’t know him at all. When she'd called one of the board members and asked about Liam, they'd told her that he was an upstanding guy and a major contributor to their cause. "You could do a lot worse for volunteers. Not to mention the guy is some kind of distant relative to the Vanderbilt's," board member Scott told her. "His family owns a lot of real estate in Newport but his old man is a big time entrepreneur in Boston. He owns several real estate offices and caters to the wealthy; he also owns several high end apartment buildings. But Liam runs his own real estate office in Newport; he does pretty damn well for himself too. He caters to the rich as well but he's very grounded considering that his family comes from old money. If you ask me, the guy can't stand being around the glitz and glam like his old man does. In fact he hardly spends anytime with his father." Aurora's interest was now peaked. "Do you know why?"

"Sure don’t," Scott said. "Liam Hunt may have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth but as soon as he turned eighteen, he took it out and found his own way in the world. He's good solid people and I'm told that unless his heart is in it one hundred percent, Liam Hunt never volunteers for anything. So whatever you're doing there at
Aurora's place
, keep on doing it," Scott said.

Aurora had known Scott for years so his word was as good as any. Of course she would make the final decision as to whether or not she would keep him on as a volunteer. 
But there's no rush
, she thought to herself. 
I'll see where things lead
 
and besides, Liam Hunt might be a fly by night sort of guy. Just because he got the sudden urge to do the whole humanitarian thing doesn’t mean that he won't want to move on just as quickly. One can never be so sure with his type. His type always seemed to be restless, never wanting to stop and find something that they can really sink their teeth into, never happy.

When she told her friends about her upcoming date with Liam and voiced her concerns, they just had to set her straight. Mari held up a hand. "It's a date Aurora, not a marriage proposal. Although a marriage proposal from a hunk like that wouldn’t seem so bad," she joked.