“You aren’t going in?” I asked her.
“Not after the surgery. Whose house is this?”
“Mine.”
She looked at me like I had answered the question wrong.
“Why? I mean, how?”
“You think we’re breaking and entering?”
“No. That came out wrong... it’s just, how? You are free every time I call you. I’m just curious. How can you afford this place?” At least she wasn’t sugarcoating it.
“To be fair, I don’t live here. I do own it though.”
“So, what? You rent it out?”
“Yup. It’s too much house for just one guy, but not everyone thinks so.”
She kept looking at me like she wasn’t convinced.
“Do you want to go inside? I have a key,” I said.
“Yes. Let’s,” she said walking ahead of me. She walked round to the front of the house. I produced the key and unlocked the front door. She walked in. It had come with furniture already in it, and I hadn’t bothered to change anything. Didn’t make a difference to me. The floors were this dark wood that was hard to keep clean which Veronica likely knew the name of if I asked her.
“Do you like it?”
“It’s gorgeous,” she said. “You still haven’t told me what you do for a living.”
“I work in security,” I told her.
“What kind?”
“Private security.”
“What are you? A bodyguard?”
“Sometimes.”
“Thaddeus, why can’t you tell me? Is it something illegal?”
“Not in this country,” I said. She looked at me with her lips parted.
“What do you do? What job is this that allows you to buy places like this while living somewhere else entirely?”
“I work for a private military company. We aren’t US army, and we get to sort of choose how often and when to deploy. I’m a contract soldier.”
“You’re a mercenary?”
I sighed. There was that word again.
“Not exactly, but yes, everywhere but Russia, China, the UK and here.”
She looked at me. Whatever was on her face was not an emotion I could read.
“What are you thinking?” I asked, suddenly concerned.
“I don’t know what to think,” she admitted. Indifference was better than disgust and disgust was better than fear. Unless she was scared. I walked towards her, and she took a step back, stopped by the wall. We were in the part of the house which was like its own room, but it was just the space between the door and the rest of the house. I rested an arm on the wall. She looked at it before she looked at me.
“What did Michael do?” I asked.
“He worked in tech,” she said. San Jose. Silicon Valley. Of course.
“Sounds like a good job. Respectable,” I said.
She nodded.
“He did well,” she agreed.
I leaned into her, measuring her response. If she wanted to leave, she needed to do it before I got any closer.
“Sounds a little boring,” I said.
“A little.”
There were inches between us then. She licked her lips silently, looking up at me. She hadn’t backed away. She hadn’t run away. I was calling this an in. I closed the space between us. Her lips parted immediately, and she opened up to me. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders, and I lifted her up, holding her by her thighs. Her arms pressed our bodies together, so we were completely flush. That was not the way you kissed someone you were scared of.
My hand went under her dress and ran over her covered pussy a couple of times. She moaned in response, grinding into me with her hips. I was getting hard thinking about feeling her squeeze around me. She wasn’t upset or scared about what I had told her. If she was, she was hornier than both those feelings and was going to let it slide. I broke the kiss and remembered what she had said outside about going in the pool.
“Can you... I mean, it won’t fuck anything up, will it?” I asked, referring to her procedure.
“No, the bleeding stopped a few days ago,” she said.
“Hold up, the what?” I asked her.
“The bleeding. When you get a D&C... I don’t want to talk about that, Thaddeus. Not now,” she said pointedly. I lowered her to the floor and braced myself against the wall, so I could look at her.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Ronnie. Look, I understand if it will take a few weeks-”
“Why do you think it will take a few weeks?” she asked.
“That was the amount of time most people cited,” I said.
“Cited where?”
Was this the time that I told her about just how much research I had done about her D&C? It was only prudent. If we were going to be fucking, I needed to know all the ways I could potentially hurt her and avoid them.
“Here and there. Online,” I said vaguely. If you googled ‘D&C on my phone right then, it was all purple links. “I looked up what you had done. The doctor gutted you like a fucking trout. I understand if you can’t right now,” I said.
“All the doctor told me to do was wait till the bleeding stopped,” she said.
“No cramps? Lower back pain?” I asked her.
“This is the least sexy conversation I have ever had with anybody,” she said. “If it bothers you that much, we can just... we can wait a couple of weeks,” she said.
We were not waiting a couple of weeks, not when she was ready to go now. I was just trying to be nice; if she was all healed up down there, I was not trying to wait any fucking longer. I kissed her, lifting her back up against the wall and pushing against her. She wrapped her legs around me and pulled me closer into her. She was in a dress, so the only thing between us was her panties.
“I don’t have a condom,” I whispered to her. This was a problem, but it didn’t have to be if she didn’t think it was or if she had thought of a way around it.
“I’ve only had sex with Michael for the last six years,” she said. Did she have to say it like that? Just saying she was clean would have been enough. We didn’t need to bring up the unfortunate past when we were about to do it.
“I always use them with other girls,” I told her. I cupped her tit over her dress and kissed her neck.
“Thaddeus,” she said breathily, “Thaddeus, wait.”
I stopped.
“What is it?”
“I haven’t been with anyone since I was with Michael,” she said, bringing him up again.
“You just told me that.”
“No, I mean, I haven’t slept with anyone else in my life besides him,” she said.
I paused. What… why… was that supposed to turn me on? Why would she volunteer that information? I did some counting. That meant that Michael had been her first time, and she was like what? Twenty-three? Twenty-five? She really was something. She had only fucked the one guy that she had eventually married. It didn’t make a difference to me how many guys she had or hadn’t fucked; it just made me irrationally jealous of Michael. It also creeped me out. How old was he? How old was he when they got together?
Six years put her at about seventeen or eighteen… which meant… she got married out of high school, and that man had been with her since she was a teenager. I felt fucking gross. My body felt tight and tense like it was rejecting the thought of Michael’s grown adult ass going after Veronica when she was still in high school. Ugh. Fuck. I knew I had a good reason to hate him. He was a damn cradle robber. She touched my cheek, catching my attention.
“Should I stop?” I asked her.
“No, I just… don’t want it to be bad for you,” she said. This was the same girl who had woken me up with a blowjob. This was the same girl who had let me finger her in the laundry room when the kids were a room away. This was the same girl who had kept my dick hard since I had met her, and she was nervous that I wouldn’t like fucking her?
What did that guy do to her? He was a piece of shit; obviously, but why would she think s
omething like that? I reached for the front of my pants, freeing my cock and letting her feel it through her panties. She gasped, and her face started turning pink.
“Can I tell you how many times I’ve thought about this pussy while I was alone?” I said into her ear. I used my hands to move her panties to the side and rub her clit. She jumped like she was being electrocuted.
“Do you know how many times I’ve used my hand, this hand and wished it was you?”
She didn’t reply. She just ground her pussy into my hand, trying to make me penetrate her. No, I wasn’t doing that again. This time, we were going all the way.
“Should I stop?”
“No, please. I want to feel you,” she pleaded. Veronica was wet and ready in front of me. Whatever had happened in the past with Michael was obviously gross and fucked up, but that didn’t mean it always had to be that way. I guided my dick past her lips, slow so she could feel every inch. Her eyes shut, and she was silent like she was holding her breath. She was tight and slippery. I slid in balls deep.
Her small hand clutched my bicep. I used the wall as leverage to thrust into her. It had clearly been a while, or maybe she had just never gotten it this good before. Maybe Michael was such an ass-hat because little Mike could never get the job done. Her face flushed and sweat broke out on her forehead.
She moaned and leaned back against the wall. Her brow creased, and she bit her lip. So sexy. So fucking sexy. I thrust into her, watching her face. She had a stranglehold on my cock, and I was not going to last long.
“Is that good, Buttercup?” I asked her. My balls were tightening. Any minute now and I’d be busting.
“Faster,” she whispered. I used my hand to stroke her clit and the way her body spasmed and shook nearly pushed me off of her. I held her steady against the wall as I finished inside her—the best place to come.
I kissed her as my cock slid out of her.
“I should go check on the kids,” she said. I wanted to laugh; she was so cute. Talk about a boner killer. I really was the first guy after her relationship was Michael. Her skills were a little rusty, but that was okay.
I was a patient and capable teacher.
16
Veronica
“Tell me something good, Benjamin,” I said into the phone.
The kids were outside, and my hands were covered in shredded cheese. Mom had called and asked whether she could have them for a couple of days back in Berkeley before they started at their new school in Monterey. They had been thrilled by the idea. I was making sandwiches for the road trip.
“Veronica Mansfield is no more. Miss. Kingsley, you are now a divorcée,” Ben told me down the phone. There were just a couple more things to file, but that was that. That was it.
Veronica Kingsley. God, it felt good to be back.
“How do you feel?” he asked.
“Fantastic. Thank you so much. When can I expect your bill?”
“Later today. I hope this is what you wanted.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.” I thanked him again and wrapped the sandwiches in saran wrap before packing them into brown bags.
This was great. This was me. New and improved. Back again. Veronica Kingsley reloaded. Once the kids were going to school, I could get all my documents changed back. Michael could be just a sad chapter in my past.
I had to tell Thad.
Who else was this information important to if not him and me? It wasn’t even that important to him, really. We were already having sex. That was what he wanted, and what I wanted and both of us were getting it. I had to tell someone though. Bart was away, my parents needed to hear it in person, and the last option was the kids, and they weren’t going to be exposed to that.
I dialed Thad’s number and waited for him to pick up.
“Hello?”
“Guess what?” I asked.
“What?”
“I have something to tell you that might make you very happy,” I said.
“Ronnie, is this a booty call? Usually, these are done at night. I know, you haven’t been in the game for a while.”
“No, this isn’t a booty call,” I said, smiling. “I have some news. I talked to my lawyer today. My divorce has gone through. I’m not married anymore.”
“Oh yeah? You sound happy about that.”
“I am. Are you?”
“That’s great news. Do you still say congratulations to people even when their marriage ends?” he asked.
“You do if their marriage was ruining their life. I thought you of all people would want to know.”
“Does this mean I’m not your lover anymore? This isn’t a torrid affair anymore? You being married was like, half of your appeal,” he said, dramatically.
“What do I have going for me now? My looks? My sense of humor? My personality? Was the shitty marriage all that was keeping you?”
“It was,” he sighed. I giggled.
“Is this the end then?”
“I guess it is.”
“Shame, the kids will miss you. What are you doing, did I wake you?”
“Nope. Nothing much. What are you doing?”
The kids trotted into the house and seeing me, rushed up to see what their snack was.
“Packing a couple of snacks and things to go on the road soon.”
“Where are you going?”
“Berkeley. My parents want the kids for a couple of days.”
“Is that Thad?” Christopher asked.
“Mm-hmm,” I told him.
“Ask him if he wants to come with us.”
“He’s probably busy today, sweetie.”
“Who’s busy today?” Thad asked. “Is that the kids?”
“Yeah, Chris is asking whether you can come to Berkeley with us.”
“Oh yeah? Put them on,” he said.
I turned the speaker on and put the phone down on the counter.
“Hi Thad,” Chris said leaning up to the phone.
“Hi Thad,” said Nikki. “Aunt Ron says you’re busy and can’t come to Berkeley with us,” she said, telling on me.
“What? No way, I can totally come. How are you guys traveling there?”
“Aunt Ron was going to drive.”
“Tell her I can drive you guys there.”
Tell her. Was asking me whether he could come and whether he could drive us there such a novel idea? I wasn’t even mad, I didn’t particularly want to make the drive myself, and it would have been nice to have another adult there, specifically him, but he could have asked. Michael did the bossy thing too, but I wasn’t as receptive for obvious reasons.
“Aunt Ron, Thad said-”
“I know what he said sweetie; I can hear him too,” I told Chris gently. “We leave in an hour,” I said so he could hear me over the speaker. “I’ll pack you a sandwich,” I added.
“Peanut butter only. I don’t like jelly,” he said. He said bye to the kids, adding that he’d be there in an hour.
There we were again. I couldn’t speak on the way that Thad was with the kids when they were alone, but it had to be good because here they were, asking him to tag along when he wasn’t necessarily needed. It was like the day I thought he had lost them, but they were just having ice cream and then we went to the playground, all over again. I didn’t want to make assumptions, but Thad liked them. Nicolette and Christopher had a fan.
The thought crossed my mind that maybe he was just being like this because he liked me and wanted to cozy up to me any way he knew how, including with the kids… and I didn’t mind that one too much either. The guy was driving all the way to Berkeley for us. That was something. It was more than something.
I got the kids out of the car, and they ran up to the house ringing the doorbell. I approached slowly seeing my mother hug and greet the kids before they disappeared behind her into the house.
“Hi Mom,” I said carefully. My mother looked like and was the kind of mother who deserved to have her children live near her, so she could bake pies and
cookies for her grandkids. The lines around her eyes and mouth were the only things that betrayed her age. She was beautiful, and I had wounded her deeply when I got married and moved out at eighteen. Bart too, when he dropped out and joined the Navy at nineteen.
Fuck, we were terrible. At least Laurie had turned up with the kids, so she had spent a lot of time with them growing up. She was the kind of mom that wouldn’t have kicked us out even if we were still living with her. She hugged me and looked at me, with her head to the side.
“You cut your hair.”
“I did. The kids were really excited about coming here one last time before school starts.”
“Don’t be silly; it’s a two-hour drive. You can make it here on weekends. Don’t just stand there Veronica, come in.”
“Actually, I really have to be getting back. I got a lift here from a friend.” Mom wasn’t listening to me. Her eye had drifted from my face, to over my shoulder and she was watching with a look of fascination and slight horror at whatever was behind me. I turned and saw Thad approaching with both hands in his pockets.
“Uh, Mom-”
“What is that?” she asked. I frowned. So the guy wasn’t someone I would have presented to my mother without warning first. He wasn’t a fucking creature. He wasn’t an animal. She was looking at him like he was one false move away from having the cops or animal control called on him.
“Ronnie, I just wanted to ask whether you were staying,” he said, climbing up to the doorstep. He looked at my mother and smiled at her. If you took it all away or cleaned it up a bit; a haircut, extensive laser tattoo removal, a Gillette razor to the scruff, he would look absolutely fine. His face was symmetrical, he had all his teeth, and a full head of hair. He was very handsome, I thought defensively. The argument was most likely not going to work on my mom just then.
“You must be Mrs. Kingsley,” he said, politely. He offered his hand for her to shake. I held my breath, thinking Mom wouldn’t take it, but she did. “I’m Thaddeus Lowell,” he said. I realized standing there that I was also just learning what his last name was. “I went through SEAL training with Bart. He and I were on the same team for our first few years.”
Thaddeus (Heartbreakers & Troublemakers Book 2) Page 12
