Locks of Love IV
Locks of Love: The Beginning
~~~***~~~
I didn’t get sick, but when I heaved into his palm, he must have thought I had; that the moisture was either retch or bile, because he launched me away from him so quickly, and with such incredible force that I flew backward, slipped on the slick tile and, once again, lost my footing and landed square on my ass.
The hard fall knocked the breath from me with an abrupt, violent vocal burst when I hit the floor, and as my lungs expanded after the impact, it ended with a gulping hiccup that sounded almost comical, even to me.
Only I wasn’t laughing.
I was getting real tired of beating myself up for his amusement. And that fall would, no doubt, leave some deep bruising, I thought, and felt my lips thin with his humiliating response to my plight.
He had not bothered to withhold a spontaneous barking laugh that seemed to lower by the octave until it slinked into a low, menacingly cruel chuckle that sent a chill crawling over my skin. He fixed me in place when he bared his teeth with a devious smile and a cold, hard stare that made me shudder.
And He noticed.
His sharp features suddenly went passive but quite serious. He bored into me with those dark eyes of his; probing and pushing into places that he couldn‘t possibly know existed, though, I could certainly feel its affect on me.
Somehow, through the confusion, he was siphoning away the gnawing fear – fear that should have grown, not dissipated.
I never uttered a word, but I also did not take my eyes from his, as I placed my hands on the floor, wrestled my pained body into a squat position, and hauled myself back onto my feet – very calmly and, maybe a little too slowly for his comfort, because I watched his body language shift in anticipation of my next move as I sat back on my haunches, placed my elbows on my knees and guesstimated the odds.
When I leaned forward into a crouch and glared at him, it pushed the wrong button because his eyes sparked with the acknowledgement of my reckless and foolish daring, then grew wide as he spat, ‘What the fuck is wrong with you, you crazy. fucking. cunt!’ and made a jumping motion at me, acting as though he was going to attack.
I was seething. ‘Nothing is wrong with me, now what could possibly have given you that idea,’ as I shot a glance toward the door, ’this crazy. fucking. cunt. really wants to know,’ slithered out of my mouth with a sarcastic taunt that made his nostrils flare and his face redden in anger.
He just shook his head. ‘You tried that move already, remember? See how far it got you, smart girl?’ mocking me with a couple twists of his neck as he said ‘smart girl’, and then he lunged. All I could see coming toward me was this towering, muscular man, who could likely snap me like a twig, with fire in his eyes and those large, powerful hands reaching for my throat…
That’s when I saw the blood on them – my blood.
The same blood that was still flowing from my damaged lips; warm as it trickled a slow path down my chin, slid under my jaw, and sloped down my neck; cooling as it thinned. I was able to follow it mentally; registering it‘s course as the warmth evaporated into the air. Then my eyes lit up. He saw it written all over my face when I stood up.
It was my turn to sneer.
He stopped in his tracks, turned his palms back and looked at them with a grimace that made my stomach fist. Then he made a jerky movement in my direction, and chuckled again when I flinched, but I didn‘t try to get away from him.
I just watched.
When I saw his muscles tense, and his jaw begin to clench, I waited…
Something came over me. I don’t know exactly what it was, but I felt my face twist into something that I imagined as ugly and repulsive as I traced the bruised, swollen flesh of my bloody mouth with the tip of my tongue in a slow, mocking motion.
And that was what propelled him forward.
It happened in a flash. Before I realized what hit me, he’d slapped my face so hard that the contact created a sharp, thudding noise and a bright blast of white that rocked my balance, made my vision swim, and sounded like tinkling waterfalls inside my head. The force of the impact dizzied and shocked me.
Although I was taken aback, I managed to shake off the vertigo that threatened to drop me…
He had come dangerously close to my ear, which fueled a surge of intense rage inside me that rendered me so calm that it was actually frightening. It instantly reminded me of the hateful coward who’d slapped me in a fit of jealousy that perforated the eardrum of my left ear, costing me forty percent of my hearing in the end.
I palmed my cheek, registering the stinging, burning pain as the heat crept into my hand, and looked at him with eyes of steel. It was a horrific struggle to gain control over my emotions, and restrain the need to tear into him.
I could feel the tendons stand out in my neck when the words crawled out of my mouth. They fell very deliberately as I enunciated every icy syllable, “Watch the fuck-ing ear, some-one al-read-y had their fun with that side of my face… you…” and he slapped me again, making my head snap sideways…
…subduing me enough that I grounded.
~~~***~~~
Locks of Love: Part V
