Chapter 166: Cecile XIII—Please, Don’t
“They did what?” Cecile exclaimed. She sat straight up in the seat, staring through at Danny, his profile lit only by the traffic lights in the car. He didn’t look back at her, of course, he had to keep his eyes on the road.
“Seriously!” Danny said with a sort of nervous giggle. “They did.”
Cecile frowned and finally understood that this wasn’t a joke. Michele and Debbie had…. “Um… why?” Cecile finally asked. Danny hadn’t even kissed her when they had met each other after the game. He had said “hi” in that goofy voice and said nothing else as they had walked to the car. Cecile had been wondering what was on his mind to be distracting him so, and then he blurted out what Mimi and Debbie had done in the locker room.
“It was for a good cause,” Danny said, “I guess. I mean the team made them do it.”
Cecile’s eyes widened in horror, this was getting more horrible by the minute!
“What?” she exclaimed. “They were forced? Mr. Sakic let this happen?”
Her mother told her and had always told her what disgusting, dirty animals hockey players were. Cecile had always looked at Danny and Mr. Sakic as coins of proof that her mother was wrong. And now this happened? Poor Mimi and Debbie!
Danny coughed. “Well no not really. Joe didn’t want this to happen or Patty.”
“Ew,” Cecile said, her stomach twisting at the thought. Why did guys like seeing that sort of degrading thing? Then it hit her, guys like seeing that sort of thing. Danny hadn’t even kissed her when they… Cecile frowned and looked at him. “And what did you think of it?”
“Huh?” Danny said with a boyish squeak. “What I think? Well I mean it got them…”
“Did you like it?” Cecile asked, not hiding the aggravated edge to her voice.
Danny shook his head. “I didn’t see anything. The guys threw me, Joey, Patty and Tangers into the equipment room when we protested.”
Cecile calmed down, a little. “Why again? Tell me why?”
“The charity game you girls cooked up,” Danny said easily, “I guess you girls get what ya want now, you’re gonna be playing a game against us.”
Cecile’s heart stopped and her toes curled in horror. “What?” she gasped.
“Yeah,” Danny said in that goofy voice. “I’m gonna haveta teach ya some skills baby. It’ll be great! You’ll have the best little hip check on the team!”
Cecile closed her eyes thinking of the pain in her feet the only time she skated, the intimidating force Peter Forsberg was as he held her hands in his large ones, and then Debbie… She had been sitting with Debbie during the game, Mitchell in her lap. Debbie hadn’t said one thing about this! Kissing…. Ew!
“You scared?” Danny asked.
“Of course I am!” Cecile exclaimed. “I don’t even know how to skate properly!”
“Hey,” Danny said, “think of the kiddies and how happy it’ll make ‘em over at the hospital. Charity money and seats at the game. I thought you like charities!”
Cecile pressed her hand against her breast. “Of course I like charities Danny but I’m just not… I just…”
Danny laughed. “Come on! You’re not gonna let old hockey mommies like Mimi and Debbie outdo you are ya?”
Cecile narrowed her eyes at Danny. How dare he throw the ultimate gauntlet to her feet. Of course he knew what to say. “Of course not,” she sniffed. “I can learn, you’ll see.”
Danny gave
her a long, soft kiss before she crawled out of the car to the
Cecile
smiled and then scampered into the house. It was past
Whatever Cecile had been dreaming melted fast from her brain as she was awoken by the heavy steps banging on the stairs. Someone was coming into the basement, someone heavy and male. It took only a moment for Cecile to process this and she hoped to herself that perhaps it was one of the children or Mimi, or even Patrick. She hoped that she was still dreaming. She pulled the covers tight around her body, realizing that she was only in her underwear.
When he had entered the basement he fumbled by her bedside until he found the lamp and flicked it on. It was Patrick, clad only in slippers and pajama bottoms and the look in his eyes made Cecile actually wish that he were a burglar, she decided that she would have felt safer then.
Cecile sat up, clutching the blanket around her body. Her pulse was hammering within her chest. “Mr. Roy!” she exclaimed. “Sir are you…”
He didn’t answer her but he looked straight into her eyes and the words died within her mouth. There was something wrong with him, she could tell that right away. It was in those eyes, a pulsing, deep blue color that just seemed unnatural. It had to be the lighting in the room. There really wasn’t another explanation for it.
She felt a trembling in her belly and she finally whispered. “Sir?”
His lips were tightened into an angry line, there was color in his cheeks, and there was a pink blushing on the pale skin of his throat and on his chest… and.. Cecile held her breath and bit her lip, looking away, ashamed at herself for even…
His hand was on her cheek, she could feel the heat from his body slide next to her on the bed. She closed her eyes, still unable to breathe as he turned her face towards him. She wanted to push his hand away but she knew if she did, then that would make her blanket fall away from her body. She couldn’t reveal herself like that. Pricklings of goosebumps and sweat began to dot her skin.
His other hand slid over the skin of her throat, she could feel how smooth and warm and huge it was. The slight discomfort she was feeling in her body was fast turning into a sweltering dampness, and she couldn’t stop trembling either. Fear, desire? Which was it?
She didn’t open her eyes though. She knew that it would be fatal to do that, she couldn’t look at him or she’d fall apart, she knew she would. What could she do? She wanted to scream but suddenly she thought of what a scream could do. It would save her body for certain, but the children? What would be the aftermath for them knowing what their father was capable of? She had to find some other way to get rid of him.
She gasped when she felt his hand slide down from her throat and over the line of her collarbone, over her shoulder, pushing at her bra strap and pushing the blanket away. She heard his sudden intake of breath, his surprise no doubt at finding her this scantily clad.
Open your eyes! Save yourself girl!
I can’t.
The air was cold on her body, the blanket was warm and bundled around her waist but nowhere anymore on the top of her body. She was ruined for certain.
“You’re beautiful,” he finally said in a low, warm voice. In French.
His voice opened her eyes and she saw him leaning to her, his breath hovering and burning over the skin of her throat and she slid her hand and pressed it against his mouth, stopping him.
“No!” she exclaimed, pushing at him.
She saw the anger flash through his eyes as he sat back and she pulled the blanket back around herself. Every point in her body was quivering so violently now that her joints were becoming sore. There was also something new, a pain that felt as if her breast was dripping blood.
“Please, don’t,” she murmured.
“What are you saving it for, girl?” he snapped in French.
Cecile heard the taunt, the contempt, the brattish pout of the denied in his voice and she felt her courage and her anger rise up within her. She answered him in French. “Certainly not for you, I belong to Danny and if not him, God. I belong to love!”
He frowned, wrinkling his nose like a child would and then pinning an aggravated, pale almost unstrung expression on her. “Love?” he spat. “Love? You are a fool, child! Love is a delusion; pleasure is the only immediate, viable truth. Love is only a ploy to receive that pleasure.”
Cecile glared at him, felt the blood in her cheeks, in her anger and in her voice, “Danny loves me and that is something obviously high above your reach.”
He narrowed his eyes, not yelling but the harshness in his voice made it seem as if he was. “How can you be so certain, girl that he’s not just fooling you to get that precious treasure of yours?”
Cecile raised her eyebrows, feeling stronger and calm. “I can see it in his heart, his generosity and in his naiveté. And if I’m wrong I think I would catch that too sooner or later. Ultimately I belong to God, He is the one who truly owns me. Not Danny, not Mom and not you. Why can you not understand this? Why does it anger you so much?
Why can’t you accept pure love? Everything you have is worthless if you cannot see that and I feel sorry for you.”
“You pity me?” he said quietly, not looking so much angry as he did suddenly… helpless? Was that what he was looking like? “You think you can pity me?”
Cecile pulled the blanket tighter around her body. “Please, don’t, not anymore. Just leave.”
And he did. He looked at her for only a moment before he stood up and stormed up the stairs leaving her to tremble under her blanket, wishing for the morning.
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