Rejection Runs Deep (The Canleigh Series, book 1: A chilling psychological family drama) by Carole Williams (uplifting novels TXT) 📕

to say to extricate herself and get back upstairs.  She wished Charles hadn’t decided to go to bed.  This wouldn’t have happened if he had still been here.

“This is a … a shock.  I can’t take it all in.  I’ll have to think about it, Richard.  Please.  Can we talk in the morning?”

“No!”  Richard’s tone was sharp, making her jump.  “You must give me an answer now, Ruth.  Otherwise I shall know for sure you want Father,” he said, hating his peevishness.  He sounded childish and irrational but he remembered again the way Ruth and his father had been tonight, cocooned in their own little world.  A powerful surge of jealousy washed over him.  He knew he wouldn’t be content unless Ruth agreed to marry him.

Ruth’s patience snapped.  “You’re being extremely foolish,” she said quickly, standing up again.

“Just admit it, Ruth,” he urged. “I saw the way you looked at each other tonight.  There is something between you, isn’t there?  Otherwise you would say yes.”

Ruth turned to the door, indignation written all over her face.  “You’re stretching our friendship to the limit, Richard.  If I cannot talk to a perfectly delightful man and enjoy his attentions without having to suffer your offensive insults, I don’t think we have anything else to say to each other.  A marriage between us would be a complete disaster.”

“You’re very defensive,” he goaded.

“I’ve had enough of this.  Goodnight.”

Richard crossed quickly to the door and placed an arm across it, preventing Ruth from leaving.  He was desperately angry and wanted to shake her, make her agree to marry him, kiss him, love him, and want him; just as he wanted her.  He looked down at her bathrobe, loose on her shoulders.  He could see the slight swell of her breasts, gently rising up and down as the pace of her breathing increased.  He imagined his father caressing them, kissing them … it was sick … obscene.  Before he knew what he was doing Richard’s hand shot out and tugged at Ruth’s belt.  The bathrobe fell open, revealing her thin cotton nightdress through which could be seen the outline of her body.

Richard groaned with desire and pulled her close to him, nuzzling her neck with his mouth.  “You can’t want an old man, Ruth … you’re too young … too beautiful … it would be such a waste.”

Ruth stood transfixed with shock but suddenly sprung into action.  She struggled but Richard’s grip on her arms tightened as his mouth ravaged hers.  His hands were big and it only took one to grip both of hers behind her back while the other pulled up her nightdress and prised her legs apart with his good one.

Ruth panicked.  He towered over her alarmingly and she had to do something to get him off her before he raped her, here in the chilly kitchen of his family home.  There was no-one around to hear her if she screamed.  The walls were far too thick.  Terrified, she struggled harder.  Remembering how Delia had dealt with him earlier, she lashed out with her teeth, biting his lip and drawing blood.  She kicked hard but he crushed her against the wall with the full weight of his body, keeping tight hold of her hands behind her back while pulling down the zip of his trousers with his free hand.

“Don’t pretend, Ruth.  You really want me.  You know you do,” he panted in her ear.

“Get off me, Richard.  You can’t do this.  Your father ….”

Richard’s laugh was brittle and Ruth trembled with fear.  “Oh yes … Father … do you wish it was him here with you, Ruth?  His hands on your flesh, his mouth on yours … would you fight him off?  No, Ruth, of course you wouldn’t.  You’d say, please Charles … I want more … that’s what you’d say, isn’t it, Ruth?”

With a quick thrust of her hips, Ruth managed to get herself to the angle she had wanted all along, forcing her leg up with all the strength she could muster, kneeing Richard violently in the groin.  Gasping with pain he staggered backwards, clasping his genitals with both hands.

“Christ!  You bitch,” he hissed.

Ruth’s whole body was trembling although, to her surprise, when she opened her mouth to speak her voice sounded strong and calm.

“Don’t you ever … ever try that again,” she warned, ready to bolt out of the kitchen if he moved towards her.  “And if that’s your idea of a proposal, you might have guessed by now what my answer is … and if I were you I should seriously consider changing my approach before asking some other unfortunate female.”

Richard was a pitiful sight with a bloodied lip, a bandaged leg and writhing in agony on the floor nursing his genitals.  His eyes darkened with loathing and contempt as he glared at Ruth but he didn’t speak.

Ruth looked down at him, unable to believe what the young man she had so liked and respected had turned into it.  He looked so similar to his twin, the same look of anger and yes, even wildness, on his face. The twins were obviously highly strung and unpredictable.  Where on earth did they get it from?  Certainly not Charles.  It must be their mother.  They both looked like her.  There were no pictures of her in the house but Richard had shown her a family photograph he kept in his wallet with Margaret and Charles side by side with their three children sitting at their feet on the lawns outside the Hall.

“You’re behaving like a complete fool, Richard.  A jealous, stupid fool.  I don’t suppose for one minute your father and I will ever set eyes on each other again after tomorrow.  Now, I’m definitely going to bed and in the morning I shall catch a train back to Oxford.  I couldn’t stomach another moment in your company and if you