by T. L Smith
* * *
Your grandmother is here insulting me.
* * *
I don’t need to explain to him where I am, he will know. He always knows. My cell starts ringing before she can open her vile mouth again, and Gunner’s voice sounds through my phone when I answer it.
“Speaker, now, Everly.” I do as he requests.
“It’s on,” I say, looking up at the old bitch as she turns her evil eye to me.
“Grandmother!” his voice rings through the dining room and she stills as she stares at me.
“Gunner,” she replies in a sweet tone.
“Why are you at the Thorne home?”
Her eyes narrow at me. “I came to sort this mess out,” she says as if it’s obvious.
“No. You will do no such thing. You will thank the Thornes for hosting you, and you will leave. If I hear you’ve said one more word to Everly… don’t deny it either… I will cut our contact.” His words are strong and we all know he means them.
The old woman eyes me, hate evident in them.
“But—”
“This is your only warning. And don’t visit again.” He hangs up.
She stands and places her folded napkin on the table and looks to me. “You may have him fooled, but, one day, he will wake up, girl. And you better hope when that day comes, I’m buried.”
“Leave. Before I bury you myself, Nakita,” my father threatens.
She turns and walks out the door. None of us get up to help her, or show her out the door. When we hear the front door slam, my father sighs, “I’m sorry, angel, we didn’t know.”
“You had no way of knowing.” I shrug. “Would you mind if I spent the day with you?” I ask and my mother nods her head excitedly.
“I’ve got all those new movies you love to watch. We can, as you kids say, ‘Netflix and chill.’” She giggles.
“Lord help me,” my father says, putting his hands on his head but with a smile on his face.
My cell dings as the plates begin to be cleared away and I look down to see his name on the screen.
* * *
Next time you see her, you call me. She is not to be around you.
* * *
I shake my head at his words. What the fuck?
* * *
She was here when I got here…
* * *
It’s all I can say. I don’t want to get into a texting war with him.
* * *
Goodbye, Everly.
* * *
I place my cell on the table and don’t respond. I don’t know what that ‘goodbye’ means because there have been so many from him. And I don’t want to think of what it means either. It hurts too much to think about him and his goodbyes.
I crawl up on the sofa as my mother and father sit to start a movie.
I lean on my mother and she brushes my hair back, and soon, soon I’m dreaming of a man with curly hair and haunting eyes.
17
Gunner
“I told you not to visit her.” I pace back and forth in front of my grandmother who simply rolls her eyes.
“She has you under a damn spell and you need to break it,” she chimes in, making me stop.
“No. She does not. Leave her alone,” I seethe.
She waves me off as if my words mean nothing. “You are in love with her. Even when you said that would never happen. And you let her go. Lost all chance of pursuing the business they hold.”
“That’s all this is for you, isn’t it? You want what they have?”
“It’s ours,” she screams. “We’ve earned it.”
“No. No it’s not. It’s his. And he can have it. I don’t need it.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying. She really did a number on you, didn’t she?” She shakes her head in utter contempt for me right now.
“I don’t need to deal with illegally imported goods. I don’t need to deal with any of their shit. Soon, Grandmother… I will be the richest fucking man in this town and I will own it.”
“You plan to own it?” she says, smiling.
“Yes. Now keep out of my shit.” I turn, walking to the door as she calls out, “He would hand it all over to you, you know. For her.” I know she’s right, but that wouldn’t be fair. I want to buy it. I want to own as much as possible, and I want to do it my way.
“Goodnight, Grandmother. Leave. Her. Alone.” I walk out into the cold air.
This was the last thing I wanted to be dealing with today. The fucking last. I had a girl at home. A girl I was going to fuck. To fuck her out of my system. Everly’s stuck to me like glue. I can’t seem to remove her, no matter how much I try.
I thought if I went back to who I was.
Before Everly.
It would be easy.
It isn’t.
There’s no after Everly. There’s only Everly.
I don’t even know when it happened—the minute I knew she was it for me.
Because she is—she is it. Mine.
No other woman, no matter how fucking gorgeous or right for me, will ever be her.
Dammit!
Everly Reid is an enigma and one that’s all mine.
Arriving back to my house, the girl’s still waiting, and I don’t even know her name. Don’t care to know it. She’s here simply to give me what I need. And now that so-called need has passed.
She stands at the top of my steps, and when I walk up, she smiles at me. “You’re back.”
“You waited?” I start shaking my head. I told her to go. She obviously has a hard time hearing, or perhaps that should be following instructions.
“I know what you need. Let me give you what you need.” She moves forward to touch me. Her hands on my stomach slowly drop to my cock. She grabs it and leans in close to bite my ear. “Let me show you.”
It’s like I’m on autopilot. I’m a starving man, so I nod my head as I open my door. She follows me inside, dropping her hand from my cock and starts stripping. She pushes me onto my sofa, then removes her dress. She has nothing on underneath.
As she reaches me, she says, “You’ve been a bad boy.” She climbs on my lap and tears my shirt open.
My cock twitches, but there’s nothing more.
No reaction at all.
She starts to grind on me, moving her bare pussy over my soft cock. “Do you want to tie me up and spank me?” she whispers into my ear, then bites it. “Maybe fuck me like the naughty girl I am.”
My hands stay at my side.
What the fuck?
Nothing’s happening. She’s giving me everything I need, and I still don’t have a hard cock.
When she realizes, she pushes back and stares at me, looks down between us and grabs my cock then looks back to me.
“What’s this?”
“You can feel what that is.”
She shakes her head at my words. “Why isn’t your dick hard? This is what you like… a submissive. I will submit to you as long as you fuck me,” she says, her eyes watching me closely. “Tie me down and have me. Gosh…” She gets up and puts her hands behind her back, showing me her bare ass, clutches her cheeks together, and bends over, showing me her ass and pussy while she looks over her shoulder. “Tie me up. I’m ready.”
I sigh, rubbing my face and stand. “Get dressed and leave.”
She stays where she is, bent over, hands still behind her as she watches me. “You can do whatever you want. Just take me,” she whines.
I pick up her dress from the floor and hold it out for her. “Get dressed and leave. Don’t make me repeat myself,” I growl at her.
She snaps out of it and snatches the dress from my hand and pulls it on. She huffs as she does, and I hold the door open for her as she goes to leave, but she stops, turns back to look at me. “They’ve all said you’ve gone soft. I guess they’re right.”
My hand snatches out quickly and grabs her throat. I smile at her. This is what she wants, for me to touch her, she likes it rough.
�
��No, I just have higher standards now.” I drop my hand and wait for her to leave.
“From what I’ve seen, Everly isn’t high.” She walks fast, preventing me from grabbing her again, the name leaving her lips shocks me so much, it took me too long to react to her little statement.
Slamming the door, I go back inside and wonder when Everly will leave my head.
When will I be over her?
The answer to that question is a million-dollar one and it scares me the most.
18
Everly
“You’re officially divorced,” May says, popping a bottle of champagne in front of my face.
I shake my head at her words, not even bothering to smile. How do you smile when this is what you want but don’t want all wrapped in a nice neat parcel?
The process was faster than I’d anticipated. I didn’t expect for this all to be happening this soon. It’s been one month. Is that usual? I don’t even know. He probably had something to do with getting it through so quickly.
“Why aren’t you smiling?” she questions me, one hand on the open bottle the other on her hip.
“I’m just not in the celebrating mood.”
She waves me off. “Of course you are. Come on, let’s go dancing.” I shake my head at her as she pulls me up, not taking no for an answer. Ryan hired a private area at the concert that May wanted to go to. So here we are, dressed as hippies, our bodies covered in glitter, our hair multiple colors, looking like we just stepped out of a sugar factory and ready to dance to May’s next obsession.
And trust me, she gets a lot of obsessions.
“You can now finally get laid, girl. Preferably by Buck.” She cackles, shaking her ass as she pushes through the throng of people. We finally get to the front and she bounces up and down as her singer comes on. I move with her, being forced and having nowhere else to go. When the song finally ends, she screams and jumps up and down, almost deafening me in the process.
“Hey, who’s that?” She points back to our tent. I look over and see long, wavy hair covered in glitter standing there with her back to us. Before I can speak, May starts pulling me in the direction of our tent. When she gets there, she stops and the girl turns around smiling. Ryan smiles, lost in his own world as May slips up to him and puts her arm around him, claiming him in front of her.
“I thought that was you, but it was hard to see. Gunner told me to leave you be, but I wanted to say hello,” Isadora says. She smiles at May who raises an eyebrow.
“He’s here?” I ask her.
I didn’t expect to hear that. To be honest, I didn’t expect to ever see him again. Our paths haven’t crossed since the night of my parents’ party, so why would they now?
“Yep, sitting over there with Jasper.” She waves in their direction and I see Jasper smiling my way with Gunner next to him not looking at me at all. “We saw you dancing in the crowd, and I wanted to know if you want to have a drink with me? As you can imagine, the boys are boring, and I don’t do any of these things. It’s all new to me.”
I look back to May who’s currently not paying much attention as she leans over Ryan, her face fused with his. Buck was meant to be coming later, once he closed the bar, and I was looking forward to seeing him. Now that I know Gunner’s here, it might be harder to get enthused to see him. Gunner has this effect on me—I think it’s called buzzkill.
“Sure.”
She smiles at me and reaches for my hand, pulling me in her direction. At first, I think we’re going straight to where the two men are, but she turns at the last minute and heads to a private bar. She orders drinks.
“Jasper asked me to bring you over, but I first thought you may need one of these.” She chuckles, handing me a tequila.
“Or ten,” I murmur, but she hears me and laughs. “Why are you here again?”
“Gunner and Jasper have a business deal, or so I heard. I tend to stay out of all of Jasper’s dealings unless I’m needed.”
“Are they friends?” I ask as she downs the shot. She coughs and places the glass down, and I do the same.
“I don’t really know. Does Gunner have friends? I don’t even know if he likes him or just puts up with him. He doesn’t make conversation and always has a sour look on his face.” She smiles. “But you’d know that… you married him.”
“Divorced,” I say, rectifying that little misconception.
“Oh, wow! Sorry. Or should I say congrats?” She bites her lip.
“Congrats,” I say, taking a deep breath.
“Okay, are you ready? Or do you want another shot?”
“Ready.” We start walking and I watch him the whole time. His back is to me, so all I can see is his head—the back of it anyway. His curls aren’t as tamed as they usually are, but they are tied back loosely. I remember running my hands through that hair, and how much I loved it.
“Everly, what a surprise,” Jasper says while standing. He walks over and touches my arm as he leans in and kisses my cheek. He pulls back and smiles.
“Gunner,” I say, smiling down at him. It’s fake. I’ve mastered the art of fake smiles, and if I do say so myself, they actually don’t look it. But if he looked up, he would see that it’s fake because he knows me so well. But he doesn’t.
“Everly….” is all I get in return.
Isadora lets go of me and sits next to Jasper, who in return, offers me a seat, right next to Gunner.
“I can’t stay, I’m here with friends.” I turn around just in time to see Buck arrive. I cringe when they all start looking around for me. Buck spots me first and offers me a wave, so I return it and turn away. Hopefully, they won’t come over, and May will keep him there with her.
“Of course. We wanted to say hello, it’s been so long since we’ve seen you,” Jasper says.
It’s then I notice another guy standing not too far away from Jasper, eyeing everything.
“Oh, don’t worry, that’s just one of my men,” Jasper says, watching me.
He takes his attention from me and turns to Gunner. “You aren’t going to say hello to your wife, Gunner? Not very professional of you.”
I can feel him sitting next to me, but not once does he speak or even look my way.
Sunglasses cover his eyes, and when I look at him, he’s looking in the direction of Jasper.
“Ex-wife,” I say, rectifying that little fact.
Gunner’s head snaps to me then. Looking me over he shakes his head. “Yes. Thank God for that. What are you? A teenager?” he asks, and I feel his eyes on my bare legs.
I stand, looking away from him and then back to them. “Thanks for the drink.” I smile at Isadora who offers me a sad smile in return. “Nice seeing you again. I have to get back to my date.”
Jasper’s lip ticks while fighting a smile as I turn to leave. I don’t even bother looking back to Gunner as I walk away. When I reach our area, Buck is sitting and smiles up at me, so I lean down and hug him.
“Whoa! That was a nice hello,” he says, genuinely happy.
This is the type of reaction I need, not a moody piece of shit.
“Umm… Ev,” I hear May say.
“It’s been a long time. How have you been?”
“Ev…” May says again, making me turn around to face her.
As I do, I’m lifted and thrown over a shoulder, and I know who it is straight away as I watch the ground as his strong legs start walking.
“Bye, Ev.” I hear May giggle as I hold on to him as he walks. Thankfully he has hold of my skirt, so my ass isn’t on show for all to see.
“Put me down, Gunner.”
He doesn’t say a word, just keeps on walking with me, but then he starts to slow down. “Leave,” he commands, and someone moves. I hear the scurry of their feet before he walks in and kicks the door shut, then slides me down the front of his body.
“What on earth are you doing?”
“A date?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes. You know… that thing that two norm
al people do,” I say with an eye roll. I look around and see we’re in a bathroom, and his body is blocking the only way out. Great.
“We dated. We were far from normal.”
“We didn’t date. You appeased me until you had me where you wanted me.”
He steps closer. “And where did I want you?” he asks, his breath heavy, his glasses removed, so I can now see his dark stare directed at me.
“Right where you had me… a fool in love.”
He smirks. “Obviously you weren’t, if it was that easy to leave me, Everly.” He says my name slowly and sensually.
I miss the way he touches my body and how good he makes me feel.
“I need to go,” I say, looking over his shoulder at the door.
“No, you don’t. We are here. Now talk.”
I snap my eyes back to him. “Where was the talking when I was dangling from a fucking ceiling, you asshole,” I snap.
He smirks.
My fists close, and before I know it, I’m hitting his chest. He lets me get a few hits in before he grabs hold of both of my wrists and bends down so he’s at eye-level with me.
“I made a mistake. You weren’t ready for my life. I thought you were. I thought I could break you into liking it…” He pauses. “I was wrong.” And before I can stop him, his lips attack mine while he continues to grip my wrists, not letting go. His lips bruise mine and tears stream down my cheeks.
How many times have I dreamed of this?
How long was I love drunk on him, and now I thought I had sobered up.
What a fool I am.
Will I ever be sober?
The answer is probably no.
A love like ours is carved from the depths of hell and made from the purest of angels.
It was bound to go wrong.
So. Fucking. Wrong.
His lips open and he demands entrance to my mouth. I part my lips like the silly girl I am while he still holds my wrists trapped in his hands. I try to pull free while he takes my mouth, but he’s good at that—taking without asking.
