Page 35 of Daring to Love You (Priestly Family #3)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“ O h, sweet Jesus,” Dorian whispered, the words falling from her lips before she covered her mouth with her hands. “H—how?” Was all she could get out, and it didn’t seem appropriate to ask for details about something so heinous.

No wonder he’d had a reaction when coming face-to-face with Marisela. Dorian didn’t even know the details, but she couldn’t imagine what seeing her again must’ve been like for him.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said, his body tense and a small bead of sweat broke out on his forehead.

Then he stood, leaving her on the sofa, and she watched him pace the room.

“You’re wondering how someone her size got the jump on me.”

“You said she drugged you.”

Noting he was getting more agitated as he walked back and forth, Dorian stood and slowly approached him. He stopped when she neared, watched her, and then his shoulders relaxed.

“Is it easier for you to talk about it while you’re moving? Or would it be better for us to sit down?”

He released a long breath and ran his hand over his low haircut. “There is nothing about this story that’s easy to talk about, Dee. I haven’t spoken of the incident in years, and besides me and Marisela, only my brother Omari and my old college roommate, Jake, know what happened.”

“Your parents…” she started, but he shook his head.

“No, they don’t know. It was one of the most humiliating times in my life. I wished no one knew, and the only reason I’m discussing it now is because I don’t want any secrets between us.”

Dorian’s heart squeezed at his admission, only making her fall for him even more. “I don’t want that either, but I also don’t like to see you hurting,” she said. She moved closer, trying to gauge whether it was a good idea to hug him. If he didn’t need one, she sure did.

As if sensing her dilemma, he opened his arms to her, and she walked into them. They stood holding each other for what seemed like forever but was only a minute or two before he slowly released her.

“Let’s have a seat,” she said, pointing to the sofa.

“I’ll give you the short version of what happened,” he said, leaning forward with his legs spread apart and his elbows on his muscular thighs. “Weeks after breaking things off with Marisela, I attended a party with some buddies, and I ran into her.

“Before that, she’d been calling and stopping by—basically not handling the breakup well, and I did everything to ignore her. I didn’t accept any of her calls and whenever she dropped by my room, I’d have my roommate tell her I wasn’t there.

“Eventually, she backed off, and I figured she had finally moved on. When I saw her at the party, she said as much. Told me it was my loss and I’d given up on a good thing.

Then she suggested we toast to being rid of each other.

We did, and one drink led to three, which was my limit, but I started feeling lightheaded after that last one.

“I was a big guy even back then and could hold my liquor, but my head was spinning, and I basically felt like shit. I figured maybe I was dehydrated, so I drank a few bottles of water that seemed to help. Still, I knew something was wrong.

“I couldn’t find my friends, so I went outside for some air hoping it would help.”

“Did it?” Dorian asked, gently rubbing his back, hoping to provide some comfort.

“A little, but I still felt out of it. I sat on a stoop with my eyes closed and my head in my hands. I don’t know how long I was out there when I thought I heard Marisela asking someone to help get her fiancé back to the dorms. She could always talk people into doing her bidding for her.

When we were kids, I thought it was cool because I often benefited from whatever she acquired. ”

Lynix cursed under his breath and rubbed his beard methodically with the back of his hand. Seconds ticked by, and Dorian waited patiently, wanting to hear the rest. Or as much as he’d share. When she laid her head against his shoulder, he continued.

“My memory is still spotty regarding how I got back to the dorms, but I vaguely remember telling Marisela she couldn’t stay. Then I closed my room door and passed out on top of the bed. The rest of the night was a blur… until I watched the video the next day.”

“Oh, my God! What?” Dorian snapped. “That witch videotaped you?”

Lynix never thought he’d have to tell this story again, and if it were anyone other than Dorian sitting next to him, he wouldn’t. He loved her so much, but telling her about the attempted rape was hard to do.

“No, the video came from Jake,” Lynix continued. “My roommate was a techie who used to take electronics apart and tweak them to make them better. He was also a computer science major who loved gadgets.

“Anyway, someone’s dorm room had recently gotten broken into, and Jake thought it a good idea to have a hidden camera set up in our room in hopes of catching the perp. Assuming they’d try to break into our room. It was motion activated and had some other wild features.

“The night of the party, Jake was studying somewhere in the building and got an alert on his phone that someone had entered our room. It was me. Once he saw me crash onto the bed, he didn’t think much of it, especially after a party.”

Lynix swallowed hard. “A few minutes later, Jake received another alert but didn’t check the feed that time. Not right away at least. When he did finally look at the live footage, Marisela was in the room… on top of me.”

Dorian moved closer, still rubbing his back as he tried to force the rest of the words out.

“Jake almost ignored what he was seeing, but what gave him pause was I wasn’t moving, and my wrists and ankles were tied to the bed posts.”

“Oh. My. God.” Dorian whimpered next to him, and he could feel her trembling. Lynix wanted to hold her, comfort her, but if he didn’t keep going, she wouldn’t hear the rest.

“The video included sound and showed Marisela on her cell phone, telling someone that she might’ve spiked my drink too much.

That she was having trouble getting me aroused.

That’s when Jake came running. He burst through the door, catching her off guard, and yanked her off me.

All of it was captured on tape from when she reentered the room, struggled to get me undressed and tied up, to Jake getting her out of there. ”

Dorian lifted her head. “Wait. He didn’t call the cops?”

Lynix grunted. “No. He was too busy freaking out.”

In watching the video, Lynix saw his friend cover him up, then frantically trying to wake him.

“I couldn’t tell by watching the video, but Jake said I told him, call Omari. No parents. No cops . He said it was like I knew what was happening, but I struggled to move and fell in and out of consciousness.”

“What did Jake do?” Dorian asked, swiping at her tears.

Lynix sat back and pulled her against his body, holding her close. “He called Omari, told him what he saw, told him about the video, and told him what I said to do. My brother told him to call 911 and to not mention the video or Marisela.

“Keep in mind, we all came from influential families who kept personal shit in-house. With four boys, my dad was always warning us to stay out of trouble. That we represented the family, and that we all had too much to lose if we made wrong choices. That our decisions not only affected us, but also the family and the family business. Basically, he didn’t want any negative press to touch us.

“So Omari told Jake to make the ties disappear, say nothing about the video, and to tell anyone who asked what happened that he’d found me barely breathing and called 911. He also told Jake if anyone asked about my parents to tell them that Omari was my guardian.”

“Wow. Is your brother a lawyer?”

“At the time, he was in his last year of his undergrad, majoring in political science. He has a law degree now, but he doesn’t practice law.”

“I just don’t understand. Why would Marisela do something like this? Surely, her father was like your father and gave her similar speeches about her actions, consequences, and protecting the family.”

“I don’t know if she got the same speeches as me and my brothers. My guess would be she didn’t. As for her motivation for doing what she did to me, she wanted me to get her pregnant.”

Dorian gasped and slammed her fist against the sofa cushion.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! I hate her so much!

What if whatever she slipped into your drink had killed you?

What if you would’ve died?” she said. “She was reckless, selfish, and stupid! That… that, urgh! I don’t even know what to call her! ”

Dorian’s anger-filled words pierced Lynix in the chest. He kissed the top of her head, hating that she was all riled up on his behalf, but he loved her for it.

Besides maybe his mother, no other woman had ever come to his defense for any reason or cared enough to be angry on his behalf.

Of course, that could be because he never let a woman get close to him before.

“Marisela assumed if she was pregnant with my child, then my father would force me to marry her,” he continued. “Twisted thinking, I know. But that was her excuse.”

“Please don’t tell me she got away with what she did.”

“I know you’re not going to understand my reasoning, but I didn’t want anyone to know about what happened—especially my parents or my other brothers.

Maybe it’s a guy thing, I don’t know, but I was embarrassed and humiliated.

Omari agreed to keep my secret, but I had to promise to go to therapy, which I did. ”

Lynix probably should’ve turned Marisela in, shared the video, and maybe even told his parents, but he hadn’t.

He and Omari did confront Marisela who’d apologized profusely.

She’d been scared to death of what they’d do to her, especially after finding out there was a video.

She cried and begged them not to turn her in.

She also begged them not to tell her father.

They had conceded, but she had to agree to stay away from Lynix forever and never speak of the incident.

They all had kept their word, and Lynix hadn’t seen Marisela until that day at his parents’ house recently.

Technically, she had violated their agreement.

She probably showed up for dinner that night thinking he wouldn’t say anything about what had happened in college. And that’s what he told Dorian.

“Did you see her on campus after the incident?” she asked, and snuggled deeper into him, probably getting sleepy.

“I finished out the semester, then transferred to the school Omari was attending. He and I were really close, and my parents didn’t think anything of me wanting to go to the same university as him.”

There was more that happened that night of the party and the next day, but Lynix felt Dorian had heard enough.

“Do you still have access to the video?” Dorian asked, surprising Lynix.

“Dee, there’s no way in hell I’m showing you the video if that’s what you’re asking,” Lynix ground out.

“So you do still have it,” she said calmly, and he didn’t confirm or deny. “I’m only asking because Marisela broke the agreement. That witch should pay. I’m just saying. She shouldn’t be able to just waltz back into your life and stir up trouble the way she tried to do tonight.”

Lynix had been thinking the same thing. He just hadn’t decided how he was going to handle Marisela yet, but he would.

Dorian yawned loudly, then pulled out of his hold. It was after two in the morning, and no doubt she was tired because he was.

He pulled her onto his lap, liking the way she straddled him. “Stay the night with me?” he asked, hoping she would but prepared to take her home if she wanted.

She met his gaze and nodded. “I’d like that.”

“To sleep,” he added quickly, wanting her to know he wasn’t trying to get her in his bed for sex. “Just sleep.”

She smiled. “Fine. I think I can handle that.”

Lynix stood with her in his arms, and she held on as he headed to his bedroom.

She placed a kiss near his ear. “I could get used to you carrying me everywhere.”

He chuckled, feeling lighter than he’d felt in the last couple of hours. “It would be my pleasure to carry you anytime, anywhere.”

Dorian rested her head on his shoulder and released a long sigh, and Lynix knew tonight was a momentous turning point in their life together. He wanted more than anything to tell her how he felt about her but not right now.

Maybe tomorrow.