Almost Gothic Read online

  “Rus?”

  He startled, suddenly aware Eliza was standing there next to him. He’d blanked out so completely he hadn’t even been aware of her approach.

  She pulled him into her arms. “Sorry. I didn’t know you were going to do this or I would have stalled you and moved it first.”

  “It’s okay, Ma’am.”

  “You’re trembling. Let’s go inside.”

  “No. I don’t want him in your car.”

  “I damn sure don’t want him in the house.”

  “I’ll put him in the trunk of my car until I decide what to do.”

  “You sure?”

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  “I’ll do it. You go inside.”

  He didn’t argue.

  She followed him inside to get his keys and went back out. When she returned he was curled up on the couch and gladly put his head in her lap.

  “What can I do, Rus?” she softly asked.

  Boo walked over and shoved her face into his. Before he could move, she’d snorted dog snot all over him.

  He started laughing, which at some point devolved into tears, and back into laughter. Eliza had wiped his face with the hem of her T-shirt and stared down at him. “Shower?”

  He nodded. “Shower, please, Ma’am.”

  “Are you okay?”

  He nodded. “I’m going to get some good beatings this weekend. I don’t want one tonight.”

  “You sure?”

  He took a deep breath and hesitated before answering, thinking, taking mental inventory.

  He looked up into her sweet brown eyes, remembering that morning he had his first hangover, and seeing how black and purple and swollen her hand had been and for a moment panicking and worrying he’d somehow hurt her.

  “I’m sure, Li.”

  She smiled. “Let’s go wash off the bully slobber then.”

  “Gladly.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Then

  The next day, Monday morning, Eliza wasn’t expecting it when Rusty showed up before school to pick her up and drive her.

  “But I have lessons this afternoon.”

  “I know. I’ll take you.” There was something different about him now. An easy, quiet feeling, like his previous restlessness was gone.

  It suited him.

  She cocked her head as she studied him, trying to puzzle this out in her mind before speaking. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

  “I want to do this for you, Ma’am,” he softly said. “Please?”

  It was the way his eyes briefly looked too bright, how he quickly blinked, combined with the ragged, tattered thread in his tone that sharpened her focus and knocked full understanding into her brain.

  She opted to use humor, to pull this around and refocus him onto something positive. She reached out and poked him in the stomach. “I always wanted a pet barbarian.”

  It worked. His smile lit her soul. “Ma’am always gets what she wants.”

  Her mom walked in, dressed for work. “Oh, good morning, Rusty. What are you doing here?”

  “I came to drive Eliza to school today, Mrs. Markham.”

  “Oh.” She frowned. “Is something wrong with your car, honey?”

  Eliza smiled. “No, ma’am. He lost a bet Saturday during practice. We’re taking mine.” Eliza met Rusty’s gaze and winked. “He’s going to start driving me a lot now. We can save gas this way.”

  Donna Markham laughed and started to turn away from them to head for the kitchen. “Oh, you should have known better than to bet Eliza anything, Rusty. Especially combat.”

  He returned Eliza’s smile and wink. “Yes, ma’am. You’d think I know better, but that’s okay. I didn’t mind losing this bet.”

  Her mom turned back, the smile fading from her lips. “Look, I know you guys are…close.” She walked over to them. “If you need…” Her face turned red. “Eliza’s on the pill, but that’s not foolproof. You both have college to think about, okay? If you need extra…anything, I’ll buy it for you. Got it?”

  It was Eliza’s turn to blush. “Mom!”

  “I’m just saying. I’d be stupid to think me telling you not to have sex would work. I’d rather us be the parents you can come to rather than the parents who get broadsided by an unplanned grandbaby. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Rusty said, looking completely unfazed. “We don’t want that to happen either.” His green eyes focused on Eliza, intense, driven. “Not until after we’ve been married a few years, at least. But I swear, we’re not having sex yet.”

  Eliza’s throat went dry, and she spotted the way his lips quirked in that smile that always sucked her in.

  Come play with me.

  She nodded. But then again, hadn’t she already proposed to him Sunday morning in her bed?

  “I promise we won’t freak out if you are,” her mom said.

  “We’re not, Mom,” Eliza said. “We’ve…kissed and some stuff, but believe it or not, Rusty told me he wants us to wait.”

  Her mom’s smile widened, and she threw her arms around Rusty in a hug. “I love you, kiddo. I really do.” She waggled a finger at him. “No eloping, huh? We’ll help out with the wedding as long as you wait until after graduation. Preferably until after college graduation, but I won’t get picky if you get married after your high school graduation. Please?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, still staring into Eliza’s eyes. “I promise.”

  Eliza found herself blinking away tears as her mom wrapped her arms around them and hugged them both.

  Rusty’s smile warmed Eliza’s heart and…other places.

  Her dad walked in, carrying his blazer, his tie perfectly knotted. “Hey, Rusty. What’s up?”

  “Bill,” her mom said, “I won the bet.”

  “What bet?”

  “They’re going to get married.”

  He draped his blazer over a dining room chair and walked over. “After graduation?”

  “Yes, sir,” Rusty said. “After.”

  He hugged Rusty. “Well, congratulations, you two. We’d been wondering. Donna was convinced, but I thought for sure Eliza would shoot you down. No offense, as many times as she’s said she didn’t want to ever get married…eh, still going to college, right?”

  “Yes, sir,” they both said.

  Bill brightened. “Great! You two better get moving or you’ll be late for school.”

  Eliza tossed Rusty her keys and he snagged them out of mid-air. Rusty grabbed Eliza’s backpack and practice bag from the couch and started for the front door, opening it and holding it for her.

  She picked up her purse and walked past him, lightly touching the top of his foot with hers as she passed. “Thanks, barbarian.”

  “You’re welcome, Ma’am.”

  Once they were in his car and away from her house, she laid her hand on his thigh. They hadn’t talked more yesterday. They’d cuddled together on the couch all morning and afternoon, watching their favorite movies as she’d fed him and kept him hydrated as he tried to get rid of the horrendous headache he had from his hangover.

  And she loved him.

  She loved him more than anything or anyone in the world, and she understood him now. The dark fires that fueled his shadows.

  Instead of a restless yearning for something she thought she wanted, she now felt completely at peace, content to wait as long as he needed her to wait.

  Rusty completely belonged to her, heart and soul and body. She would do what she could to heal his soul, to sand the jagged edges of his battered psyche down enough that they didn’t gouge him, to love him through the bad memories and make sweet new ones with him.

  She would wait. She’d wait as long as he needed her to, knowing now that yes, it would be better for him.

  He needed this.

  He needed her.

  His hand covered hers and he gently squeezed.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Yes, Ma’am.”<
br />
  “You don’t have to call me that all the time if you don’t want to.”

  “What if I want to?” They’d reached a stoplight. He focused his green gaze on her and she fought the urge to squirm in her seat.

  “Then I guess that’s fine. But I don’t want you to do what I say all the time just because I say it. I don’t want to boss you around and get you mad at me.”

  “I won’t.”

  “What if there’s something you want?”

  He thought about it as his focus returned to the road ahead and he let up off the brake when the light turned green. “Then I’ll use your name instead of Ma’am. I belong to you. You’ve earned my trust and my love and your word is my law.”

  This wasn’t a game, wasn’t a mock combat or playing around in a LARP or SCA or acting like one of their characters.

  This was serious.

  This was their life.

  “You want me to be in charge?”

  “As much or as little as you want to be, Ma’am. If there are things you want me to do, you tell me that, and I’ll do them. I still consider it you being in charge.”

  She suppressed more squirming. Unlike most girls who dreamed about a prince riding in on a horse to sweep her off her feet and fix the world for her, she’d always wanted a loyal and faithful knight to do her bidding, hanging off her every word, simply awaiting her next order. That’s why she’d clicked so well and quickly with Rusty.

  Now, she had him at her beck and call.

  Literally.

  What the hell do I do with him?

  “Did you mean it about getting married?”

  He glanced her way again. “I gave you my oath, M’lady. I meant every word.”

  She brought his hand to her lips and kissed it, then pressed it against her chest, over her heart, so he could feel it beating. His certainty terrified her in a good way, because it meant if she was insane, at least she wasn’t alone in her madness.

  “I’m sorry I got mad at you when you said you wanted to wait.”

  He shrugged but the tension had returned to his jaw. “It’s okay. You didn’t know.”

  * * * *

  Rusty tried not to let his nerves get the better of him. All day, he was expecting to be yanked out of class and questioned, or hear that Eliza was arrested, but…

  Nothing.

  They got out of school twenty minutes before Corey did and were waiting for him in the pick-up line.

  “Yay! Air-conditioning!” He buckled himself into the backseat. “Hey, Eliza.”

  “Hey, squirt. We’ll be picking you up in my car from now on.”

  “What happened to the Beast?” It was their nickname for Rusty’s POS.

  “Nothing,” Rusty said. “Eliza’s being nice. What do you say?”

  “Thanks, Eliza!”

  “You’re welcome, kiddo. Want to come with us and watch my class?”

  “Sure. I can do my homework.”

  “That’s what I’m going to do,” Rusty said as he pulled away from the curb.

  They even ended up eating dinner at Eliza’s house, after a quick stop by home to leave a note for their mom.

  No cops.

  No cops awaiting them at Eliza’s.

  No messages on the answering machine at home, either. Rusty had checked while making Corey wait out in the car with Eliza.

  Could I be that lucky?

  If they tried to arrest Eliza, of course he’d lie and say he did it. Protect her. But as the week progressed and nothing…happened, he felt tension tightly winding inside him.

  Friday morning, on his way to Eliza’s after taking Corey to school, he swung past Borden’s house and noted the For Rent sign in the yard.

  Relief so strong and fierce he almost cried washed through him but he’d managed to pull himself together by the time he reached Eliza’s.

  Later, for the first night in years, he slept without nightmares.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Now

  Early Thursday afternoon, Rusty grabbed one of the dollies from the back of the truck and walked back to where Sean was unlocking the trailer. Cali, Eliza, and Max were inside the hotel, scoping out their booth in the vendor room up on the second floor. This was the designated load-in time, and other vendors were hauling carts and dollies and hand-carrying totes of stuff back and forth through the loading dock area adjacent to a service hallway that connected to the service elevators and back hallway that led into the vendor room.

  They’d already checked in at the hotel and for the convention itself, and had unloaded their luggage into their rooms. Cali and Eliza drove up to Tampa in Eliza’s SUV, with Rusty riding with Sean and Max. Now they just had to beat the afternoon thunderstorms threatening to unload on them any minute.

  “Man, we really appreciate this,” Sean said. “We have a ton of stuff to move. Even if you want to do nothing else this weekend except help with load-in and load-out, we’ll be happy with that. Been so long since we’ve done a large show like this, I forgot what they’re like.”

  “Eliza and Cali have been planning,” Rusty said. “I think I’m going to end up spending most of the weekend in costume and playing guard-whatever. Beware the Bondage T-Rex. Rawr.”

  Sean snorted. “Better you than me, dude. I don’t mind the website shoots, or at a private party, or even at the club. I have fun with those. But big events like this, I don’t want to be in a costume.”

  “Eh, it’s fun. I volunteered. I’d rather have my face covered, quite honestly. Not much chance of running into any vanilla people I know here, but just in case.”

  “Oh, dude, I’m sorry. You don’t have a morals clause or something, do you?”

  “No worries. Not for anything like this, no. If this was some sort of banking event, yeah, that could be a conflict of interest if I was working it.”

  Max walked out to meet them. “We found our booth. Man, it’s bigger than I was thinking it’d be. Glad Cali packed the extra tablecloths and stuff. She wasn’t kidding when she said we’d have plenty of room.”

  “How big?” Sean asked.

  “End of the aisle, both sides. Great placement. Right across from one of the big clip booths.”

  “Holy cow. How’d she manage that?” Sean asked.

  “Our girl is that good, buddy,” Max said. “We are a couple of lucky bastards.”

  “I thought you were crafty bastards?” Rusty teased.

  Sean smiled. “That, too.”

  Rusty helped Sean load a couple of the dollies. Then Rusty followed Max, who’d grabbed one of the dollies, into the hotel and the vendor room. Cali and Eliza were surveying the table setups.

  “Holy cow,” Rusty said. “This is big.”

  Eliza grinned. “I’m thinking guard T-Rex to start with. With the bondage harness on you, people will want to take pictures with you. It’ll be a great draw!”

  Rusty unloaded the boxes. “Whatever Ma’am wants.” He leaned in for a kiss. “Will I need a mask under the costume?”

  “Gotcha covered,” Cali said. “Eh, no pun intended.” She dug into one of the boxes she had brought in and pulled out a very simple Lone Ranger-style mask. “How’s that? Not as hot as a hood.”

  “Perfect.” He held it up to his face. “The Masked Kinkster.”

  It took them less than an hour to unload and help Cali arrange the displays and merchandise the way she wanted them. Then they unfolded tarps over everything, clamping them down to cover it all, and they were the last people out of the vendor room before the convention’s security locked the door. No one would be allowed in outside of the open times, so there wasn’t much chance of anything being stolen.

  The five of them headed for the elevators. “I need a shower,” Cali said. “And a back rub.”

  “Ditto,” Eliza said. “When do we need to be back down here?”

  Cali looked at her phone. “Two hours.”

  “Any ideas about dinner?” Rusty asked.

  “If you want to get something from th
e hotel restaurant or room service and charge it to your room, go ahead,” Cali said. “That’s what we’re going to do.”

  “Winnah, winnah, chicken dinnah,” Eliza said as she stepped onto the elevator when it slid open in front of them. “Sounds like a plan.”

  They had adjoining rooms, but right now the doors were closed between them. After they’d locked themselves into their room, Eliza stripped off the T-shirt she’d been wearing and dropped her convention name badge onto the dresser. “How’s the ass feel?”

  Rusty dropped his clothes onto the extra bed. “Stuffed, Ma’am.” His smile pulled a sexy one from her in return. “Did you bring extra batteries? Because at this rate, it’ll probably be dead by Sunday.”

  She pulled the vibrating butt plug’s controller from the pocket of her shorts and switched it off, then handed it to him. “Take it out and clean up. You’ve earned a break.”

  He gave her boo-boo lip. “Aww.”

  She turned, playful evilness painted across her expression. “Don’t worry, barbarian. I have other things planned for you.”

  “Yay!”

  He headed to the bathroom to remove and wash the butt plug and take care of business. When he returned, she lay naked on her stomach on the bed they were sleeping in.

  They’d designated the spare bed for raunchy sex and playing, as opposed to just sleeping.

  He knew what she wanted, and as he headed over, she stopped him. “Order us food first, please.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.” He detoured to the room’s desk, where a menu sat. “Any preference?”

  “Burger.”

  He got their order placed with room service. That done, he straddled her on the bed and started massaging her shoulders.

  Of course he was hard, he couldn’t help it.

  That was kind of the point of her tormenting him ever since that morning with the vibrating butt plug.

  One of the points.

  The other point, he knew, was to keep his mind distracted.

  Knowing she had something planned, which likely wouldn’t happen until after their food arrived, only made him hornier. He knew she’d packed a variety of toys and implements for the weekend, including a few things she hadn’t used on him in a while.