Say It

Chapter 15: Flashback

Lincolns POV:

I don't give this piece of s**t a chance to hit me or even move for that matter. I whale on his face. Applying one blow after the other. I feel small hands trying to stop me and pretty soon, someone or a couple of someones are pulling me of the bloody mess of a person lying on the floor. "DON'T YOU EVER LAY ANOTHER HAND ON HER!" I yell loud enough that everyone who has stopped to watch or heard the commotion knew exactly why that asshat had his face punched in by their boss.

I look up to see Stacy. Her chest is rising and falling quick. Her little hands placed on either side of her face. A face that's drenched in shock and fear. I watch as her eyes move over behind me and travel down slightly. I follow the gaze to Cassie's arms as she realizes he had caused the bruises that engulfed her perfect little chubby arms. I quickly turn to wrap my arm around her to stop the shaking that had over taken her body. Thankfully, she doesn't protest and rests in my arms. I rest my chin on the top of her head, just breathing in the scent of her. I knew that asshat would harm her in some way, but I had no way of knowing he would lay his hands on her.

I rub small circles on her back to sooth the stress. Feeling guilty for having caused her the stress I have. "Shh, baby. You'll never need to worry about him again." I say in a whisper so any she can hear me. "I've got you from here on out. Even if you don't need me." I feel a slight shaver run through her body as her body begins to relax under my touch. "I'm sorry." I say causing her to pull away and stare up at me in confusion.

"Why on earth are you sorry?" She ask allowing her southern accent slip. My lips curve up loving it.

"Because," I look back as paramedics are cleaning Jameus' face and talking to him. The bastard is wide awake which is more than he deserves. "I caused this mess." I sigh as I turn back to her.

Her hand reaches up softly coating my cheek with the most sincere look in her eyes. "You have nothing to be sorry for. He hurt me," She says and I see the regret in her eyes as they dart down as my face shows my anger again just by hearing her admit that he caused this. Not that I needed her words. I seen it written all over her face when he rounded that wall. I saw fear mixed with and mostly masked by anger. I knew just by the look in her eyes, he had caused those ugly bruises that were dark purple and in the shape of two large hands, on her arms. "I'm sorry." Her small voice drawing back my attention.

I pull her back in my arms gently squeezing her, giving a loving kiss to her head. "No way. Don't ever say that when you've done nothing."

Stacy slowly touches my arm. I had honestly forgotten that anyone else was here. My wide eyes stare back at her as she shakes a little. No doubt from watching her older brother beat the s**t of someone. I release one arm from Cassie and rub Stacy's shoulder. I nod at her letting her know we are okay. Well, as okay as we can be. "Damn." Eastons loud mouth snaps all our head to the door as he stands there smirking at Jameus sitting in a chair in the corner of the office battered to hell. "When you said you would take care of him, I didn't think it would like this." He says as his eyes stares at my girl with pride. His eyes then scan over my hands, coming to the realization that the blood on the wall, literally, was caused by me.

I look between Cassie and Easton coming to my own realization. I spin so fast I get dizzy and point an accusing finger at Easton. "You knew about this s**t?" I gently grip Cassie's arms so he knew what I was talking about. Guilt spread across his face like a fire and I take a step toward just as Cas grabs my arm.

"Lincoln, no." My breathing has picked up again as I stare into those beautiful honey gems. "He accidentally saw them earlier today. I begged him not to say anything because I was trying to come up with a plan, a way to take care of all of this."

Jameus scoffs, reminding us all he is still sitting in the room. "You couldn't handle me sweetheart." he spits out. I jolt toward him ready to land another blow to his already f****d up face. Cassie quickly grabs my left arm as Easton stands in front of me, blocking my view of him.

"Linc," Cassie's small voice captures me. I stop, closing my eyes and taking deep breaths. She grabs my other with her other hand and rests her head on my back. Just like that, I'm mush in her hand. She makes me mushy. She makes me shiver. She makes me excited. She makes me calm. I feel things I've never felt before with just a look from her beautiful honey eyes. As my breath steadies out, she moves around me. "You," she points to Jameus. "are nothing but a f*****g loser who will never be anything more than a bully. You are a coward who couldn't even man up and raise your own child and now, you can't feel your balls unless you assault women."

He leaps from the chair to attack Cassie, but before anyone can move in her defense, she raises and thrust her leg into his throat. It's quite the miracle considering how much shorter than him she is. As he falls gasping for air, she lifts her knee, striking him in the nose. A loud crack echos through the office just as he screams out in pain. "It's best you stay the f**k down." Cassie says in her fuming state. The paramedics and cops stare back at her in admiration, knowing they should have stopped the damage she had just caused to him and didn't. One EMT moves slowly to his side, checking his nose and, without warning, she snaps it back into place, allowing us to hear the little boy holler again.

She doesn't move or turn back to us, so I wrap myself around her protectively because, honestly, it helps us both. I can feel every effect I have on her, so I can feel and see her body visibly relax in my arms. I'm not sure where this thing between will go or if there will even be an us, but I'm damn sure going to try. No more pushing her away like a little kid because I'm afraid she won't need or want me. No more showing out or acting possessive over her. She isn't the type of girl who wants to be kept. She isn't like any girl I've ever gone after and it's a refreshing change because she's so much better.

Finally, after a couple of hours dealing with the police and paperwork, we actually have a moment alone. "Cassie, why didn't you tell someone as soon as it happened?"

Cassie's POV:

"Honestly, I'm trying to figure that out myself." I look at is beautifully confused face and smile sadly. "After Trey broke me down and I was able to get away, I was lost in a world of hurt I never knew existed." I sigh and stand, walking to look at the incredible view from his office. "I swore, after I moved on from self pity and wallowing in my pajamas for far to long, that I would never allow someone to lay there hands on me without my permission again. I took every self-defense class they had available in a 20-mile radius. It made me feel stronger than I knew possible. But that was only physical. For some reason, my mind never seemed to get the memo and I constantly relived everything. I was still bruised on the inside and I wasn't sure," I take another breath as fresh tears fall. "I'm still not sure that the bruises will ever go away. I fight them every day. Anytime I'm cornered. Anytime a guy touches me, hits on me, even stares at me for too long, I flinch away. I hate that I'm always scared because it's not who I am or who I was." I glance back to him. His elbows are resting on his knees with his hands clasped together, staring at the floor, so I look back out window. "Anyway, I'm ashamed that I let it get that far. Ashamed I didn't fight back. Ashamed I was afraid."I finish, thinking over my words. I'm also ashamed I still blame myself for others' actions, especially arrogant small-d**k men such as Jameus.

I sit on the floor in front of the large window, watching the rivulet of water race down as the rain falls. I bring my knees to my chest even though my skirt's tight and hug my legs tight to my body. Shielding me from whatever else could happen today.

Days when Trey would have a 'day', I would sit at the window seat in my old bedroom while my dad wasn't home and hug legs for hours, thinking over every piece of my life and wondering how I had ended up there. "I blamed myself mostly, but I blamed my mom for not being there. I blamed society for allowing a man that much power. I blamed my dad sometimes. I use to tell myself if he wasn't so busy with grief, with Susanne, with work that he would have noticed his little girl hurting as bad as I was, but I knew it wasn't his fault." I was a great liar then. "It's funny I blamed every one and thing except Trey. I wanted to believe he was a product of this world, or societal standards, but it was never his fault. Same with this, partly. I blamed myself because I trusted him. I still blame myself. It's embarrassing to know he left these ugly ass marks on my arm and I allowed it to happen. I'm f*****g pathetic."

There's a loud thud behind me causing me to jolt up from my spot on the floor. I spin around to find Lincoln on his face looking as enraged as before. "Stop blaming yourself. Stop putting yourself down by saying s**t like that. You aren't pathetic, far from it actually." Soft tears flow down his face as he becomes unable to control the storm inside. "You are f*****g amazing. Every story you tell me about your life blows me away with your strength. Everytime I learn something new about you, a little piece of my heart leaves me and settles in yours. Every cell in my brain telling me to protect you, but I know you don't need me to because you do that yourself. If I could go back in time, I would take every ounce of pain, of darkness away and stop it from happening because I want to be the reason you're safe. But I know that I can't because it has made you into the rambunctious woman that you are standing right here in front of me and I admire the hell out her. Her strength is impeccable. Unlike any person I have seen on this earth." he stalks towards, mind made up that his next action is going to be made. "And I'm determined remained her of that every f*****g day I live."

His lips smash down to mine, claiming every inch. His hands rest firmly on either side of my face, keeping my steady and in place as he devours my mouth. It takes all of 5 seconds for the shock to fade and I meet his hunger with desperation. I cling to his shirt with both hand entangled in the fabric, pulling him closer, deeper. Our mouths move in rhythm, meant to dance like waves crashing to shore. Every thing about this, about him feels blissful. Natural. To halves of a whole finally molding together. Our tongues fight for dominance, knowing he'll win.

His hands traveled south, capturing my stumpy thighs in his large hands. Hoisting me up, I wrap my legs around his overly perfect waist. I string my arms around his neck pulling him in deeper as he moves over his desk and rests me gently on it. And in true movie fashion, he swipes everything to the floor and papers fly. As I lay back, he moves to assault my neck with sweet, sensual kisses. "I'll clmmmm mmmmer." was all I could make out while he was buried in the creak of my neck. I just hum in answer.

He travels further down to the exposed skin of my chest and I fumble with the buttons of his shirts. And fumble is the correct word because I can not for the life of me undo past the first 3. Realizes my frustration, he moves back a little and rips the shirt off like superman. Thank goodness there's not a super suit under it though and I get to see his bare chiseled chest in all its sweat-glistening glory. A finer man has never stood before me and I'm convinced none ever will. My dark, I'm sure, eyes devour him watching his every move. Hungry for more, I lean up bringing him back down on me, taking his lips.

But, alas, our bliss is short lived when someone knocks softly on the door. He breaks the kiss apart and rests his forehead on my collarbone. We're both panting like dogs so speaking would give away what we were just doing so the person knocks again after a few seconds. "Just a minute." Lincoln rises up and says. My body collapses to the desk, disappointed by the loss of connections. He smirks down at me and extends his hand to help me to my feet. Feeling a small breeze, I glance down to realize that some where in the heat of it, Lincoln had undone my entire shirt, leaving my deep blue no-pad bra exposed. And my very hard and now sad n*****s. I quickly button it and fix my hair just as Lincoln returns from a small closet with a whole new shirt. He looks too fresh for what just transpired here.

He opens the door and I can see the small frame of a woman as he speaks with her about a book. Their interaction is brief as she hands him a thick file and leaves just as she came. He waltz back to the office tossing the file on the desk. He looks down at the floor and smirks. He picks everything up pretty fast and lays it down. "Sorry." I shyly say.

"I'm not." He wraps an arm around my waist, resting his hand just on the top and center of my ass. Still slightly on my back and pulls me tight to his body and kisses me with slightly less, slightly, hunger but all the passion. This kiss is a lot shorter, but still very hot."I'll never get tired of you or those perfect lips." He softly bites down and I wince forgetting about the sore Jameus left me with. Noticing the slight jerk of my head, he stares down at me waiting for an answer.

"Jameus kissed me Friday as well and he, um," I fiddle with my fingers. Catching on to my nervous tick, he grabs them and holds them still. "He bit my lip, drawing blood." I pull my hand from his and show him the sore he left behind. He closes his eyes and inhales deeply to calm hisself.

Instead of saying anything, he wraps his other arm around me, pulling my impossibly tighter. He lowers his forehead to mine and my body relaxes once again. I close my eyes too, joining him in the comfortable silence. I'm not sure how this is going to work or if it even can work, but I want it to. I want to try. I want this.

I want him.

In the part where Lincoln defends his woman to his woman, I was listening to Calum Scott - You are the reason. I really believe it just fit my scene and I didn't even try. And I know it's a little early in the relationship to feel that way, but you're going to see them fall rather quickly even if they won't admit it to themselves. I think it's already happened.

Another song I listened to was The Only Exception by Paramore and I know that is going to be truth for our sweet MCs. I really hope you're enjoying thus far into it. Happy readings!