Memory: Book Two (Scars 2)
Read Memory: Book Two (Scars 2) Online
Authors: Sinden West
Memory
Book
Two: Scars Series
By
Sinden
West
Copyright
© 2014 Sinden West
All
rights reserved
No
part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without
permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by reviewer, who
may quote short excerpts in a review.
This
book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are
products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance
to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover
Design by James, GoOnWrite.com
Table
Of Contents
I
sat on the beach with the sun beating down on me, running my fingers through
the warm sand as I read my book. Perfect. Everything was perfect right there at
that moment; being alone on that beach with the ocean stretching out ahead of
me, endless and full of promise. Yachts and huge launches dotted the landscape,
riding out the swell of the water, and I wondered about what adventures their
occupants were going on and what they were escaping.
A
blonde boy jogged down the beach and for a moment I thought he was Finn, my
ex-boyfriend who belonged to another life. But that wasn’t really another life;
that had merely been playing pretend. This was my life now, where mistrust and
deceit reigned, except whereas before my mother was the queen and I a mere
handmaiden, now Aaron ruled and I was never sure of my place. I fingered the
necklace that lay at the base of my throat, its symbolism never far from my
thoughts.
It
wasn’t Finn. This boy was older, much older, a man really, with broader
shoulders and a well-developed chest which was bared and shiny with sweat. He
veered away from his route by the water’s edge and headed up to where I sat as
I enjoyed my solitude.
“Hey.”
He was breathing hard, hands on his hips and showing off his physique. This guy
was broader than Aaron, like he worked out just to show off; unlike Aaron whose
rigorous training regime had the end goal of being as lethal and effective as
possible.
“Hi,”
I replied coolly, slightly resentful that my tranquility was interrupted but I
didn’t know why. Much of my time was spent alone. Thomas was my only friend,
along, perhaps, with Antony, and of course there was Aaron…
If
my icy tone bothered him, he didn’t let it show. He held out his sweaty hand
and I shook it with my sandy one. “I’m Ryan. I live a few doors down from you.”
He flashed a grin of perfect teeth that were an example of dentistry at its
finest. This guy had money dripping from him. The address, the looks…this was
privilege and wealth wrapped up in one perfect package.
“I’m
Paige.” It was funny how the name didn’t roll off my tongue with ease anymore.
I was so used to being called Rachel that sometimes I was scared that I would
forget who Paige was. At night I would lie awake in the dark, mouthing
Paige,
Paige, Paige,
over and over as Aaron lay in an untroubled sleep next to me.
“Nice
to meet you.” He sat down beside me. “I’ve seen you around here for a while now
and always wanted to say hi.” His chest muscles moved as he breathed. He was
the embodiment of health and normality. For a bizarre instant I imagined myself
in black and white next to him, while he was vivid in Technicolor.
I
forced myself to smile in response, and it felt like a foreign action, as if I
were ice and my face had to crack for that smile to form.
“Anyway,
we’re having a party on the beach tonight. It’d be cool if you could come.”
That perfect grin never died.
“I’m
not really into parties,” I told him, and that was the truth. I liked them well
enough when Mara and Torrance were alive, but that felt forever ago now.
He
lifted a shoulder like it didn’t matter, rejection probably just bounced off
someone like him. “Just come for a drink, if you want.” He got to his feet. “I
hope I see you later. Bye, Paige.”
“Bye,
Ryan.”
The
teeth flashed and he was off, running like he had somewhere to go and I watched
until he disappeared down the beach before I gathered my book and stood. I made
my way up the sandy path that led up to the wall which kept Aaron’s house
divided from the beach. It was strange that someone who had such a high tech security
system in his home would have a property that bordered the public beach where
anyone could walk up undetected. It made me think of him as human, that maybe
he needed the freedom and openness that only the ocean could bring. Sometimes,
I allowed myself the fantasy that he needed that wide ocean on his doorstep due
to a fear that one day he would end up locked in a prison and confined to a
tiny, dark cell. Although, the idea was a silly notion; Aaron feared nothing.
I
entered the code to the gate and it swung open, buzzing sharply in contrast to
the sounds of the beach and nature around us as a signal that I was entering a
different world. The disturbing sound only ceased once I had the gate securely
closed behind me and the picturesque ocean was locked away from my view. I
padded up the stone path and past the lap pool in my bare, sandy feet, wiping
them as I arrived at the door of the glass architecturally designed house in
which I cohabited with Aaron. Of course, I made sure that I was clean before I
entered. He did not like mess, and his home always needed to be pristine,
perfect, and blinding white.
I
found him in his gym, on the treadmill and sprinting hard. I stood in the
doorway and watched him, his muscles moved under his skin like he was some kind
of machine. As far as men went, he was perfectly formed. Slim but muscled,
everything about him was hard. On those occasions that we went out together,
other women would stare at him. They always seemed to be the pretty innocent
type; they could obviously tell that there was something dark lurking within
him and subconsciously perhaps, they wished that he would eat them up like the
big bad wolf. If he were darkness, then I was the ice queen: unsmiling with
frozen blood locked in my veins.
The
treadmill faced the mural that stained an entire wall. The twisted tree with
the creepy faces hidden within kept me out of this room normally, and I
wondered why he was running toward it. He slowed the treadmill down to a slow
jog before he stopped it altogether. He stepped off it easily, grabbing a towel
and wiping his face.
“I’m
going out soon.” He hadn’t even turned to look at me, nor given any indication
that he knew I was in the room. I didn’t act surprised; Aaron was like an
animal with razor sharp instincts and I had made it my mission to never show
surprise or weakness in front of him, but it wasn’t always that easy.
I
moved into the room, lifting my chin and acting like the mural didn’t creep me
out. I gave my attention instead to the other wall. Old weapons hung there —
crossbows, longbows and swords. He collected them and it was the only interest
he had that I knew of.
I
plucked a crossbow from the wall. The wood was intricately carved and I
wondered how old it was. Aaron was watching me now openly, and on impulse I
raised the crossbow to my eye level and pointed it at him. I had his still
figure right in my sights, and if it were loaded I was confident in my ability
to unload an arrow right between his eyes. He stood still, as if waiting for
something and I had the distinct feeling that he was laughing at me.
I
looked away, just for an instant. It took a mere moment for him to be at my
side and twisting the weapon from my grip. Before I knew what had happened, the
crossbow was now firmly in his possession and I had been turned so my back was
against his hard chest and my wrists held tightly in front of me.
I
let out a barely perceptible huff of indignation, but he heard it. It was rare
that he missed anything. “You’re weak,” he told me, his breath hot on my cheek.
“You should start lifting weights.”
I
turned my head so I could look him in the eye. “Strength would never help me
against you.”
He
watched me with his predator eyes, and then released me just as suddenly as he
had taken me. His lips flicked up slightly as he positioned the crossbow back
on the wall, taking great care to ensure that it was secure.
“You’re
probably right.”
I
liked it when he smiled, even if often it was in mocking, or if it were just an
attempt at normality or manipulation. It was because of that smile that I
gripped the bottom of my white tank top and pulled it over my head before
slipping out of my denim shorts so I stood before him in my bra and panties. I
wanted sex, I wanted contact. Someone needed to touch me. Once my body had been
used to get me things, but now I yearned for touch for selfish reasons.
His
eyes were on me but unlike most men, they didn’t rake down my body. Instead
they stayed on my face like that was more important, and for an instant that
annoyed me. I wanted him to look at me like that Ryan guy had, with undisguised
lust. With Aaron, it was impossible to know what he was thinking, and if he
looked at me with animal-like desire in his eyes then I knew that I had him.
That he would be whipped by me and, to an extent, controlled. I frowned as I
realized that I was thinking like my mother, and then my frown became deeper as
I realized that he wasn’t making a move toward me.
“Well?”
I said, pissed off and hands on my hips to show him all I had to offer.
“I’m
going to take a shower.” He slung his towel over his shoulder and walked past
me. I didn’t move, keeping my face frozen as if its immobility were protection
for my pride.
Motherfucker.
I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.
My toned limbs, my long blonde hair… men had rarely ever rejected me. Even when
they knew that what they were doing was wrong on every level, they were still
drawn to me almost like an addiction. Not that Aaron was really a man, only
when he was drunk perhaps. Otherwise he was a machine: cold and calculating in
a perfect body.
I
lifted my chin. I’d be damned if I let him know that he bothered me.
I
was in the kitchen when he came down, freshly showered and hair wet and slicked
back to show off every sharp feature of his pretty face. As always, he wore
dark clothes and moved silently. The kitchen was a mess. I was baking chicken
drumsticks and the marinade had run over the pristine white counter top. I had
yet to clean it up and it sat like a dark scar on the pale stone. I knew it
would irritate him. He liked everything clean as if no one lived here and it
was just for show.
“Dinner’s
nearly ready,” I told him as I finished chopping a tomato, its red juice
staining the board. Vegetables always seemed brighter in this house, more
vibrant and their color more vivid against everything else in this structure.
His
eyes moved from the mess to me. “I’ll get something when I’m out. I need to
leave in a minute.”
Don’t
you eat before kills, Aaron?
I had never asked that question,
although there was no doubt in my mind that it was true. In the time that we
had been living together, I had noticed that there was a pattern in that he
rarely ate before going out to ‘work.’ It gave me some comfort to know that
what he did obviously unsettled his stomach somewhat, it made him nearly human.
Nearly,
but not quite.
“Okay.
When will you be back?” I finally took a cloth and began to mop up the mess,
but not before I saw him look at me with a raised eyebrow. I never asked him
this. I accepted his comings and goings, and once I had relished having this
glass house to myself, but more and more I found myself hunger for company, or
so I told myself. Sometimes I feared that it were really him that I was
craving.
“Tonight.”
“Okay.
Well…okay.” It was on the tip of my tongue to say ‘be safe’ but I didn’t
because it was a stupid thing to say to Aaron, and furthermore, it would
indicate that I cared somewhat and it was far easier to never let those kind of
things cross my mind.
He
stepped toward me, trapping me in the corner of the kitchen so that there would
be nowhere to go. He was good at that — trapping people. He captured my chin
between his thumb and forefinger and gave me a kiss on the lips. It was brief,
but had me yearning for more. But then he released me and took a step back, his
face emotionless like the kiss had meant nothing to him.
“Don’t
forget to set the alarm system after I’m gone.” With that, he picked up his
bag and left without giving me a second glance. I stared at the door long after
he had gone, until I finally sat and ate by myself at the cold stone counter.