Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
8
Tommy didn’t sleep much the night before, so I didn’t sleep much either.
He came into the bedroom and then he tied me to the bed with neck ties and the handcuffs Sarah had given as a gag gift. I was on my belly with one of my wrists cuffed to the headboard and my other wrist tied with a black necktie he’d fetched from somewhere (his father’s office?) that was fastened to the headboard and feet spread and tied to each of the cannonballs at the foot of the bed. Once secured where he wanted me, he did me hard via anal sex.
As much as I was in the moment when it was happening, I was not having very positive effects from it in the morning. It was a little too rough with not quite enough lube and now I was paying the price of not speaking up about it. I took a long soak before breakfast, wincing through the burning and hoping the swelling would go down soon and then as I headed downstairs, he was just waking up. I met Lisa and Sarah in the kitchen. Tessa was still upstairs getting the boys dressed.
Lisa seemed in pretty good spirits while we helped Sarah make breakfast but then she locked tight when Tommy came into the kitchen.
“Mornin’ girls,” he said and she paled and froze in her tracks. This was the first time she’d seen him since the day after our wedding when we saw them off.
“Mornin’ Tommy.” Sarah passed him a cup of coffee.
“Hi,” Lisa said, not looking at him, awkwardly looking anywhere else but at him.
I gave Tommy a shrug as he kissed me.
“What’s up, Leese?” Tommy asked.
She shook her head, looking at her nails. “Nothing. Sleep okay? Uh, welcome back.”
He eyed her warily. “Fine, yeah. Thanks.” He took his coffee to the table and grabbed the newspaper.
We had a pretty quiet and uneventful breakfast. Tommy kissed me goodbye as he was heading to Dare’s for a meeting and then that afternoon, he’d be picking me up to take me to Rose and Cal’s for dinner.
After he left, I got a moment alone with Lisa. “Everything okay?” I asked.
“Sure, Tia. Yeah.” She was tidying up the table.
“You sure?”
She nodded quickly, not looking at me, and left the room mumbling that she had to get ready for an appointment.
Alone, as Tess had taken the boys to the library for story time and Sarah was gone to clean Luc’s house, I picked up the phone and dialed Rose and Cal’s number.
Ruby answered.
“Hello?”
“Ruby?”
“Yeah?”
“Hi.”
“Who’s this?”
“It’s Tia.”
Silence. She totally knew it was me.
“Rubes?”
“Yeah?” She didn’t sound good.
“I, uh, I just wanted to confirm it’s still okay to come over today. We’re back. I assume you know all about my conversation with Mia and everything.”
“Yeah, I know, Tia. Ma’s expecting you so, yeah, see you at six.”
“Okay. Um, see you then. Can you tell Mia I checked in?”
“Uh huh,” she replied, her voice sounding hollow, “Bye.”
The line went dead and I was left sitting there holding the phone and feeling sick at heart.
I really should’ve tried to do things differently here. This was my fault.
When Tommy and I approached the house, Cal came out and greeted us. He gave me a hug and shook Tommy’s hand and waved us in. Everyone was already at the table.
The problem was that it wasn’t just Mia, Beth, Rose, and Ruby. Nick was there, too. And when we entered the dining room, I felt a vibe coming off Tommy at the sight of my ex-boyfriend that was not good.
Rose folded me into her arms, but didn’t say anything. She just squeezed me hard. She smiled at Tommy a little. Actually smiled. Weird.
I looked around. The rest of the girls were at the table, not speaking. Mia looked pissed off. Beth looked happy to see me, but also fidgeted nervously. Ruby was staring at the tablecloth with tears in her eyes.
Nick looked like he was filled with nervous energy. He was staring at me. He’d cut his hair short. That was surprising.
“Okay, sit everyone,” Cal said. “It seems there’s been some things happening that we should get out in the open so that we can move forward and have a nice meal together. Everything is ready and I’ve already had a conversation with these folks, but we’ll all have a little talk together first.”
Tommy and I sat down at the table. Rose was at the foot, Cal was at the head, Tommy and I to Cal’s left and across from me was Nick, across from Tommy was Mia. Ruby sat beside Nick. Beth sat beside her. The other chairs on the side Tommy and I sat on were empty. Everyone else in the house was absent.
“It seems,” Cal continued, “that everyone was a little bit worried about you, Tia, so they put their heads together, did some snooping and eavesdropping and found your last letter to us, and then went on a mission to find you. I’ve had several telephone conversations plus one long in-person conversation with your husband, before you both left the country, and I have to say that if anyone had come to me or Rose instead of going maverick, we could’ve saved a whole lot of angst. I won’t say that I don’t think you two didn’t jump the gun getting married so quickly but I will say that the few conversations I’ve had with your husband, Athena, have been good ones. He has earned my respect.”