Never by Blue Saffire

Chapter 6

Bare Bones

Sal

Do I feel him?Oh, I feel him in every cell of my body. Even as he sits at the foot of the bed, not touching me at all, I can feel him. His eyes are cutting through to my soul.

I want to be his and it excites and scares the fuck out of me all at once. I wait for my flight instinct to kick in, but it never happens. I’m rooted to this bed and don’t plan to move.

“I feel you,” I whisper as I look him back in his eyes.

That dark look returns to his orbs as he reaches for my ankle and pulls me to him. I yelp in surprise, but I don’t fight him. Gutter plucks me up from the bed by my waist and drops me into his lap. His arms go around my back, and he simply stares at me for a moment.

I bite my lip, feeling my bare crotch meet the heat of his lap. His hard member presses up between my cheeks with his towel as the only barrier between us. I had to take my panties off, along with my pants. They were soaked through from our earlier encounter.

“One promise, Salalia. After I bare my bones, you will do the same. I see it. I know you’re bearing a cross of your own. You will lay that one on me. I will carry it for you, after I hand you my shit,” he says gruffly.

I nod my head and draw out a breath. “All right.”

He cups my face and runs his finger over my bottom lip when I allow it to pop free from my mouth. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. I notice his once rock-hard erection softening.

“My birth given name is, Pierson Jeremy Bridges, the third. My father was Pierson Bridges, the second, of the Crestwood Bridges. I come from the kind of money that runs deep and moves the world around it.” He pauses as his jaw works. Turmoil flashes in his eyes.

“My father and mother were amazing. They loved me and Terry with everything they had. Terry is my cousin. We are two days apart. His mother died in childbirth and his father committed suicide a few nights after.

“My parents raised him like he was my brother. We were as close as twins. We sort of looked like twins too,” Gutter snorts and a faint smile touches his lips. Then his face turns grim once again. “Our looks would be our downfall in the end.”

“My mother, she…” He trails off and shakes his head. “She was killed in a car accident, when I was nine. My father was a mess after. Some days, I don’t even think he would shower. He threw himself into his work and on one of his business trips, he met his second wife.”

Gutter’s haunted eyes lift and lock onto mine. “Baby girl, when I tell you I lived the nightmare version of Cinderella, I did, no exaggeration. My dad married Melody within two months, and he died of a heart attack two months later. He left everything in her name, including custody of Terry and me and our trust funds.

“The woman was pure evil. She paraded the two of us around, bragging on how lucky she was to have two boys who were so beautiful. She would throw these parties with all of her sick friends who would come to ogle the two of us.

“Melody intentionally grew our hair out, so we’d appealed to everyone with our fair looks.” Gutter clenches his jaw so hard, I think it might break. “It started with the women. They would make us pet them, then it graduated to more touching and intimacy. I lost my virginity at thirteen. The woman had to be in her late thirties.”

He shakes his head and continues. “I pissed Melody off when I started to fill out. I wasn’t as soft and feminine as she could pass Terry off for. When we turned seventeen, the men were tired of just looking and touching here and there.

“Melody promised them a taste. I still can’t get that night out of my head. I thought it would be like always. I would pleasure one of her horny friends, while her husband or boyfriend watched. Then, I would be left alone after. Only, things were different this time. The husband wanted to be alone with me.

“After his wife got off, he told her to leave. That motherfucker climbed in the bed and tried to force himself on me. Like I said, I had filled out. I was no small seventeen-year-old. I nearly beat the life out of that son of a bitch.”

He turns away from me, but he keeps talking. “What I didn’t know was that Melody had promised that monster and one other, they could break me and Terry in that night. I didn’t know, while I was fighting to keep that shit from happening to me, Terry was down the hall being…” His words trail off and he becomes silent.

“Later that night, Terry came crawling into my bed. He broke down sobbing and told me everything. We were just close like that. We told each other everything. I couldn’t let us go through that shit anymore. I already knew Melody was going to find a way to punish me for what I’d done.

“We grabbed what we could take and left that night. I’m not proud of the shit we had to do to survive in the beginning, but it was our choice to do it. It wasn’t being forced on us.

“I got lucky. One of the bouncers at a club I stripped at, made me on my age. His name was Kirk. He took me in and got me into security. I tried to help Terry, but he was too fucked up back then. We both were, but he got into drugs and a bunch of other shit. I couldn’t save him without him pulling me into all of that shit.

“I had to let him go. I failed him for the second time.” He runs his hand over the scar that flows from his neck behind his ear. “I tried. I really did, before I had to wash my hands of him. I ended up in the hospital cut up.

“Some guy Terry was caught up with beat his ass and when I showed up, the fucker was ready with his boys. They jumped me. It was the only way they could take me down. I took at least three of them down with me, before one of them sliced me open.

“Terry showed up at the hospital once, after. High out of his fucking mind, screaming at me for beating up his boyfriend. I was done.

“When I got out of the hospital, I had nothing and no one. Terry really fucked shit up for the both of us. Kirk thought I was involved in some shit, so I lost my job and my place,” Gutter huffs.

He has a haunted look in his eyes. It’s clear he’s somewhere else, lost in the thoughts of the past. My heart aches for him.

“I roamed the street for a while before some old dude found me to tell me Melody had met with a barrel of a gun. He’d been searching for me and Terry for some time. Apparently, she caught the blowback from that ass whipping I handed out.

“I don’t know what broke me more. The fact that we didn’t have to be out on the street, doing all the shit we did. Or that after all we went through, we were still fucked up, no matter how much money we had waiting for us.

“I didn’t want to go back there. I left the house for Terry to do whatever he wanted. He eventually got his shit together, but things changed so much between us.

“I bought my bike and just got lost. I didn’t worry about money. Hell, I blew so much of it, not giving a fuck. I went wherever the wind blew me. Then I walked into some bar one night and watched a bunch of guys surround some blond dude with dreads.

“I don’t know what made me get involved, but I did. I’ve been a Lost Soul since. King says I helped save his life, but he’s the one who saved me. He helped me put my skills and what money I had left to use.” He shrugs, then turns back to me.

“I’m all kinds of fucked up in the head, Salalia. I didn’t stop because of you. I stopped because I have these voices in my head that are constantly reminding me of my past. You’re too beautiful for me to soil you with my filthy past.”