Page 17 of Reanimated Ruin (Hearts In Horror #1)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Cat

BOTH OF OUR heads snapped to the doorway to see Jules standing there looking at us with a disgusted look on his face. Dom quickly removed his hand that was covering my mouth...and the one in my shorts then sat up off me. I rushed to pull my shirt back covering my tits and scrambled away from him up against the headboard.

For a moment the three of us just stared at each other, Jules’s eyes flicking back and forth between us, not knowing who to start on first. I stayed silent because I didn’t want to get accused of just trying to make excuses again, especially this time because I didn’t have any good ones.

“Hey, look man, I’m sorry. I know you probably want to beat the shit out of-” Dom tried to start but Jules cut him off.

“Don’t. I’d like to say I’m surprised but you can always expect the unexpected with you, huh, Cat? It’s fine, it’s fine. I can handle the rejection. I’ve done it before. What’s one more time with my best fucking friend?” He said, talking to me even though Dom was the one who’d said something.

“Come on, man. Don’t take it out on her. I kissed her. She came in here cause she heard me having a nightmare from across the hall. I almost attacked her and had her pinned to the bed. Don’t blame her. If you’re gonna be mad at someone, be mad at me.” Dom tried to defend me.

“Oh, don’t worry, I am mad at you,” Jules spat. “Also, don’t worry about your shift for watch. I’m not even remotely close to tired now. Seems like you have your hands pretty full at the moment, anyway.”

He stormed off back downstairs, shutting the door behind him even though it was open to begin with. Maybe he was trying to make a point. We should have been more cautious about that fact, but it wasn’t like this was something we had planned for to happen. Had I wanted it to? Yeah, one hundred percent.

The second I was underneath him, despite the blade, I was immediately turned on. We got caught up in the moment and completely forgot how fucked we’d be if Jules walked in, which he did and we are. We were in for an awkward next couple of days, not being able to get away from each other. I just feel bad for Sadie, who I got stuck right in the middle of our drama.

I was sitting there with my thoughts going in circles when I could feel Dom staring at me. He still had some smoldering embers left over in his eyes. When I met his gaze, he raised the two fingers that had been inside of me to his mouth. I watched him swirl his tongue around them, licking them clean of my taste and getting hot myself all over again. I shook my head to fight the haze of lust trying to cloud over my mind once again, threatening to take over as I had been just about to finish when we were interrupted.

“Stop, we can’t just pretend like Jules didn’t walk in on us. Now he’s really never going to forgive me,” I whined. “What happened with Scott was bad enough, but now you, too? I’ll be lucky if he ever talks to me again.”

“Hey don’t go comparing you and me to what happened with Scott,” he replied. “For starters, I’m not only after one night with you to get some sick video to make my evil girlfriend jealous cause she’s still not over her ex.”

“You think that’s why he did it?” I questioned.

“I mean, I spent a lot of time thinking about it. Why else would he take the video? I don’t condone it but I can see wanting to cheat on Mallory, I guess, she sucks. But why record it, then send it to everyone? Plus, it was a little ‘fuck you’ to Jules cause he chose you to do it with.”

I took a deep breath, thinking long and hard for a moment. One of my closest kept secrets was on the tip of my tongue. With taking so many giant steps back with Jules just now, I was seriously contemplating telling Dom the truth of what happened that night. He had stood up for me with Jules just now.

Thinking back to earlier when he’d asked me to trust him, I was beginning to think that was a possibility.

With what seemed like the world ending around me, who knew if I’d ever even live to see Rhiannon again, let alone be able to make the trek to her with all the infected running around outside. Did I really want to leave this world with so many hidden truths locked away inside my heart?

“Mallory put him up to it,” I revealed, so quietly for a moment I didn’t know if I’d actually said it aloud or not.

“What?” He asked incredulously. “What do you mean, she put him up to it? She broke up with him publicly the next Monday at school, cried and screamed at him in front of the whole lunchroom.”

“I don’t know about any of that, but I know that she did. I’m pretty sure it was her whole reason for even inviting me to the party in the first place,” I slowly began recounting the night. “She made sure I drank half my weight in alcohol, made sure you two were distracted, then had her minion, Alicia, send me into the house by myself. She told me that you were looking for me and Mallory was all over Jules. I just wanted to go home at that point.”

Dom was sitting there listening silently, letting the words flow freely, not wanting to interrupt and risk losing the chance to hear the true story he’d been begging me to reveal. Now that I had begun telling it, I didn’t even think I could stop if I tried. So desperately I’d wanted to tell them, for them to understand.

“I thought maybe you went upstairs to look for me, so I started checking rooms. When I got to one of the guest rooms, Scott came up behind me and backed me into it. The camera was already set up in there and he said ‘Mallory said you’d be nice and easy’. I said no. I tried to fight him off, but he held me down, then edited that part out to make it look like I wanted it, but I didn’t. I never wanted to sleep with him, Dom. I hate him as much as you guys do. Probably even more now.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” He asked, horror clear across his face.

“I tried. You guys wouldn’t let me get a word out. And I was so drunk that I was slurring most of the ones I did manage anyway, so they didn’t make sense.”

“Did you tell your parents? The police?” He inquired, not having moved a single bone in his body this entire time, immobilized with shock at what he was hearing.

“Yes, I told them. The next morning and we did go to the police to report it,” I continued. “He was arrested but bailed out almost immediately. He was a minor at the time, so the case got sealed. That’s how it managed to stay a secret. His dad was old college buddies with the sheriff, so they said no identities could be verified from the film and it couldn’t be used as evidence. We hired a lawyer for court but it never even went that far. That waste of money and my parents both agreed we’d never win the case, so it was in our best interest to settle outside of the justice system. So that’s what I did, then signed a pretty little NDA along with it, which prevented me from ever telling anyone that he fucking raped me.”

He rushed forward, taking me into his arms, squeezing so tightly I could barely breathe. It was like he was afraid I’d shatter into a million pieces in front of him if he didn’t, but I’d long since glued the broken shards of my heart from that night back into place.

Killing Harry had definitely been a nice little self healing detour I’d taken along the way and I was feeling particularly freed after it, but he’d never know about that. I’d take the secret of that assault and subsequent murder to my grave. Which shouldn’t be hard because now if there was anyone left to look into it, he was infected, so a stab wound to the head wouldn’t be surprising.

“I’m so sorry, I had no idea,” Dom said into my hair, his voice sounding strained. “If I knew, I would have fucking killed him then and there with my bare hands. If I ever see that sorry sack of shit again I’m going to-”

“NO!” I gasped. “No one can know that you know. If anyone finds out and it gets back to him or his parents, they can sue me for their money back. My dad spent all of it so there’s no ‘giving it back’. I’d have to hand over all the money I’ve spent the last year saving up and then still be on the hook for so much more. That’s a hole I’ll never be able to dig myself out of.”

“Cat, baby, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I don’t know if there’s going to be anyone left to prosecute you,” he said and smoothed a hand down my hair. “I’ll tell you what, your secret is safe with me. But if the world truly has come to the end of it as we know it and there are no more consequences for you, if I ever run into him again, he’s going to wish the infected got to him first.”

He leaned forward and kissed me gently, as if to seal it as a deal. It was a quick one, but the passion lying just beneath the surface could still be felt. I knew Jules was upset with us. That I shouldn’t be enjoying Dom’s lips pressed to mine so much, so soon after getting caught, but I couldn’t help the feeling in my chest that was crying out for him to do it again and again. Before being reunited with them, I’d never had any romantic feelings for Dom. I had to admit now there was something swirling and growing in my chest.

I had to try and control them, though. Dom wasn’t the kind of guy who liked clingy girls. As much as I was sure he cared about me, it likely had more to do with the fact that I was one of two girls trapped with him than it did with him catching feelings for me. Clearly he had no problem with this being something physical, which I could definitely get on board with once I sorted out shit with Jules. I’d just have to take emotions out of it, which shouldn’t be hard. I’d been practicing for years.

“I should try to talk to Jules and smooth shit over,” I finally said. “It’s not like him and I ever had a conversation about truly being together. I can understand him being upset but not possessive of me if he never even claimed me in the first place. He has no right.”

“I know. I’ll try to talk to him first. Calm him down. It’s just I don’t think he ever stopped waiting for you, Cat. He didn’t date anyone after you left, didn’t even entertain the thought. I know I just took a big part in putting another rift between you guys, but try and give him a bit of a break. He’s had a really hard time trying to get over you. I know it was hard to tell me, but maybe consider telling him about what happened. I promise I won’t, but I can also promise you that you can trust him just as much as you did me just now.”

He had a point. Besides the one fight we had at the party, Jules had never betrayed my trust or done anything to hurt me. Trusting him with my big secret might be just the thing to put us back on the right track, not that I’m using my trauma as ammo. It just felt really good to let Dom in just now, and he did have a point. Infected were running around the streets biting people and I just hopefully got away with murder. Did I really have to worry about being sued over telling my two best friends the truth?

“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll tell him.”

“Really?” His eyes lit up. “Well, still, let me talk to him first. I’ll go down there, handle it, then take my shift and send him to bed. I’m basically a professional Jules mood swing wrangler at this point. I’ll also fill him in on us heading to Efferville together. You go get some more sleep, again so sorry for almost stabbing you, but not sorry for kissing you. We can talk about that later, more pending issues and all that bullshit, but just to throw it out there, I’m not a jealous person like him. If you want to explore something with him, I’m not going to stop you. I know how to share.”

He gave me a parting kiss on the top of my head at my door before I retreated into my room to go back to bed. I watched after him as he trotted down the stairs and hoped Jules wouldn’t go too hard on him before he managed to calm him down. As I curled back into bed, I hoped that my conversation with Jules tomorrow wasn’t going to turn into a screaming match. For one, we couldn’t afford the sound drawing more attention our way and two, I was sick of fighting with him.

If he was truly still wanting something with me, as Dom said, I was open to it. Obviously, that was a whole other conversation, though, because I wasn’t looking to settle down. I don’t want to be owned. Every man who’d had a piece of me before took it like I was just an object.

The only person who’d ever lay claim and decide who touched my body from here on out would be me. Maybe there had been a time where I could have been a kept woman, but not anymore. I’d never had control of my body, had the freedom to explore my sexuality but it was a side of me itching to get out.

Men were allowed to do it. Why couldn’t I? Many times I’d heard boys at school say their older brothers or fathers told them to sleep with as many women as possible in college before settling down. Why were females expected to maintain their purity, save themselves for marriage when men are encouraged to do the exact opposite? I’d never had a boyfriend, let alone consensual sex.

I’d decided I had to tell Jules about the night of the assault. It’d be the only way he’d have a chance of understanding me. Of understanding that while I did have feelings for him, I also was interested in Dom and wanted to explore the physical aspects of that too. I’d just have to hope he’d accept it because I don’t think I could handle losing him twice.