“Uh…” I couldn’t speak my mouth had gone completely dry. Pete chuckled taking pity on me.
“There’s breakfast downstairs. If you’re hungry.” My stomach took that moment to growl. Pete’s eyes shined with laughter.
“Thanks,” I mumbled and moved from the bed still in my sleep shorts. Looking down, I raised an eyebrow at Pete. “Did you dress me?” I asked scandalized.
“I didn’t want you to be uncomfortable. Plus, it’s not anything I haven’t seen before babe.”
I huffed out a breath. “That’s so not the point.” I crossed my arms over my chest glaring at him. Pete moved towards me like a tiger ready to pounce.
“Should I have woken you?” His finger trailed down my arm and his eyes flared as the goosebumps pebbled my skin.
I found myself nodding at the same time my mouth let out a weary “No.” Instead of arguing, I rolled my eyes stomping to the bathroom and slamming the door. Muffled laughter met my ears as I turned on the water. Jesus, he could be such an ass sometimes.
When I finished in the bathroom, I made my way downstairs to the smell of bacon. My stomach gurgled loudly again and caused Pete to turn with a wide smile. “Here. I made a plate for you. I have to go to training for a couple of hours. What do you have planned for today?” He handed me the plate piled high with bacon eggs and sausage. My eyes widened at the sheer amount of food.
“Pete, there’s no way I can eat all this.”
“That’s fine, whatever you don’t eat just give to the dogs.”
“Is that safe?” My brows scrunched down.
“It’s probably not terribly healthy for them, but they like it.” He shrugged, kissing me on the forehead before making his way to the door. “You wanna go to lunch after my training session?”
“Sure, I think I’m gonna go have a chat with Dee this morning. Text me when you’re done?” I said around a slice of bacon.
“Sounds good.” He grinned at me before walking out the door.
Picking up my phone, I shot off a quick text to Delia and finished eating. When I couldn’t possibly stuff another piece of bacon in my mouth, I made my way over to the trash can. Shooting a sidelong glance at the dogs, I decided against it and threw the food in the garbage. I was pretty sure that greasy human food probably wasn’t good for them and I didn’t want to take any chances.
My phone chirped from the counter and I walked over picking it up.
Delia: I’ll be there in ten.
Me: See ya in a bit.
Delia: Great. There’s something I think you should see.
That last cryptic text had me stiffening. What the hell could she have seen that she thought I needed to see? I paced the living room waiting impatiently. A million scenarios running through my head as I waited. My hands started to sweat and I could feel the icy fingers of panic as they started to claw at my throat. I was halfway to a full-blown panic attack when the doorbell rang.
“What’s wrong?” Delia looked at me with shocked eyes.
“You can’t tell me stuff like that and make me wait to find out what it is. My mind wanders to the worst possible scenario,” I gasped out.
“I’m sorry. I should have taken into account the amount of stress you’re under.” She looked stricken. “I grabbed your mail for you because Pete said you weren’t going by the apartment until everything was fixed.” She pulled out a stack of envelopes and my breath caught when I saw the one on top. It was from the Nevada State Licensing board. My legs nearly collapsed beneath me as I stared at it.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” I chanted under my breath. “This is so bad.”
“What is it? You haven’t even opened it. It might not be anything bad.” She tried to reassure me, but I didn’t just get letters from the people who hold my career in their hands every day.
Tearing open the envelope, I wondered how my life got so messed up. It was like one bad thing after another.
Ms. Daniels,
It has come to our attention that you may have violated our code of ethics. An investigation is underway. Until such a time as a decision has been made, you are barred from seeing patients. Your license is hereby suspended pending an investigation.
Kind Regards
Reginald Cummings III
I sat down on the couch in stunned silence. What the fuck? I knew it was a bad idea for Pete to come to the group. Delia took the letter from my hand cursing as she dialed her phone. “What are you gonna do now, Darren?” she yelled into the phone. She didn’t even tell him what was going on before she started ripping into him. She went quiet and listened carefully to Darren before handing me the phone.
“Hello?” I asked more than answered.
“What happened, kid. Delia didn’t give me anything she just wanted to yell at me,” he chuckled.
“I’m suspended pending investigation.” I huffed. “Code of ethics violation.”
“Shit, I’m sorry. This is my fault,” Darren sounded genuine but it didn’t detract from the fact that I was now jobless.
“It’s fine. I’ll figure something out.”
“If you need anything, give me a call, okay?” he huffed out a breath. “I feel really bad.”
“It’s all right, Darren. Really, I’ll be okay.” I handed the phone back to Dee and slumped back on the couch. Delia finished the call and looked at me with pity.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Pete
Joe had been practicing. He also hadn’t quite forgiven me for messing with him at the animal shelter. Ducking under another punch, I danced away from him. “Come on, man. We’re on the same team. Quit trying to take my head off.”
Joe’s grin was evil. He didn’t have to talk for me to know he wasn’t about to let up. I danced around him a few more times egging him on.
“What’s the matter? Are you too slow?” I taunted he grunted holding up one of his gloved hands and giving me the middle finger.
Joe found whatever opening he thought he had and when he swung, I ducked pulling his arm behind his head and grinning. “You ready to tap out?” I taunted. Joe shook his head, but eventually, he did tap with a grunt and a shove. “Oh, come on. Don’t be like that,” I laughed.
“Collins. Get in my office,” Coach called from the door. I tried to think of what I could have possibly done to piss him off this time, but I kept coming up empty. I’d been good since I’d started seeing Brandy.
“The press is destroying that poor girls’ life.” He never was one to beat around the bush.
“What?” My mind began whirring trying to figure out what he could be talking about. Coach turned his computer and I saw the story. There were pictures of us with the dogs outside her office and somehow, they’d managed to go unseen at the dam. I cursed when I saw the headline. “Ethics violation, or True Love?”
“My thoughts exactly. Delia called me a little while ago screaming at me because Brandy got a letter from the licensing board.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I honestly didn’t think it would hurt her career.”
“What do you mean hurt her career?” All the air whooshed out of my lungs as I realized what was happening. They’d gone after her like a pack of angry wolves and it pissed me off more than anything. “I gotta go, coach.”
“I’ll drive you just give me a second.” Darren grabbed his keys and shouted something I didn’t quite catch over to one of the other trainers and made his way to the door. I was still rooted to the spot, and he shot me an impatient glare. That finally got me moving. I jogged out to his SUV and waited for Darren to unlock the doors.
It felt like Darren was driving at a snail’s pace. The guy was careful in everything he did including driving exactly the speed limit. It was infuriating. My foot tapped an anxious beat wondering if she’d end up leaving because of this. I didn’t know how I would take it if she did.
When we finally made it to the house, I didn’t let Darren come to a complete stop before I was jumping from the truck and jogging to the door. She was sitting there with
Delia looking stunned. Whatever was gripped in her hand she folded up and stuffed it in with the stack of mail Delia handed her. “Hey,” I said awkwardly.
“Hey.” She didn’t quite meet my eyes.
“Is everything okay?” I sat down next to her on the couch.
“Just peachy,” she huffed. I wrapped an arm around her not wanting to let her go for fear that if I did, she’d leave.
“I’m so sorry.” I had no idea what else to say. I was never actually a patient. This whole thing was because a bunch of damn vultures wanted to fuck with my life. I hugged her tighter to me. Delia and Darren took that moment to leave. They moved quietly to the door.
Grabbing the mail from her hands, I set it on the table. A paper slipped out of the stack and onto the floor. Before I could reach down to pick it up, Brandy pulled me back. “Just leave it. I’ll get it later. Just hold me please?” The way she was acting was starting to concern me. She seemed scared. Having her license suspended shouldn’t make her react like that. Something else was wrong, but I wasn’t sure how to get it out of her.
“What else is going on?” I asked her pulling her into my lap.
“Is that one of your questions?” she whispered so low I almost didn’t hear her.
“Yeah,” I chuckled.
“Veto.”
“Cheater. You only get one of those. You already used it.”
“Everything is just starting to catch up to me, you know? The break-in. The weird feeling I keep getting that I’m being watched, the random hang up phone calls I’m getting all the time and now this?” She waved her hands in the air clearly exasperated.
“What can I do?” I asked, knowing I’d do anything she asked of me.
“There’s nothing you can do.” She rubbed her hand over her eyes. “I’ll figure something out.”
I ran my fingers down her arm gently. “You don’t have to do it alone. I’m here for you.”
“Thank you.” She smiled snuggling in closer to my chest.
Chapter Thirty
Brandy
Delia hadn’t been talking about the letter from the board. I didn’t know how much worse than that it could be until she pulled another news clipping from her purse attached to a dried pressed rose and handed it to me. I still couldn’t get the words scribbled across the paper out of my head as Pete held me close.
He can’t love you like I do, Catherine.
That name alone was enough to make me want to puke. I hadn’t been called that since I was sixteen. It was written in sharpie over my face. Again, another newspaper article about the trial. I had no idea how someone kept finding the actual articles and not some printout from a news website on the internet.
Pete lovingly stroked my arm as I trembled. He knew that this wasn’t all about the letter from the board, but could I really tell him what was going on? Someone was stalking me. Taping my past up on my door and now sending it in the mailbox. The funny thing is there was no envelope and no address on the paper so it hadn’t been delivered through the mail. That made me even more nervous because the mailbox required a key to open it and only Dee and I had those keys. Who could have gotten in and planted that in my mailbox? The questions swirled in my brain as Pete kissed my forehead then each eyelid and made his way to press a featherlight kiss on my lips.
Fisting his shirt in both hands, I pressed my body as close to his as I could get. Opening for him giving him all the permission he needed to deepen the kiss. He didn’t disappoint. When Pete kisses it’s all-consuming. He drank me in until I could barely remember my own name. His arms tightened around me as if he couldn’t get close enough either.
Breaking the kiss, he pressed his forehead against mine. “If we don’t stop, I’m not gonna be able to,” the words sounded strangled.
“Then don’t,” I challenged him. He shook his head in exasperation. The next minute I was on my back on the soft cushions of the overstuffed couch.
“We’re not having sex right now. Not like this, but I can tell you need something. An escape? I can give it to you but not in the way you think.”
I watched in rapt fascination as he trailed his lips over the skin of my abdomen pulling my shirt up with every light brush of his fingers. My body shuddered at the soft touch.
He yanked my shirt up over my head and trailed his lips across the curve of my breasts before flicking the clasp of my bra and watching as my breasts sprang free. His hands travelled south slowly and deliberately. He grabbed the waistband of my shorts and slowly rolled them down my hips. His lips following in their wake until he was a breath away from where I needed him most. He smiled as he pulled his shirt over his head, and I was treated to the best view of his sculpted chest. I licked my lips and Pete chuckled as he threw my shorts and his discarded shirt over his head and went back to the task at hand.
“God you’re so beautiful,” he breathed against my skin. I felt his warm breath against my most sensitive area and squirmed beneath him.
His hands gripped my inner thighs holding them in place as he ran his nose up my slit. My fingers slid into his hair pulling at the ends when his tongue finally found me, my head thrashed back and forth. If he thought this was going to take long, he was sorely mistaken. All thought left my brain as he flicked my clit with his tongue. The white-hot ecstasy tore through me and my brain fogged over. I faintly heard someone screaming but it took a moment to realize the animalistic noises were coming from me.
Chapter Thirty-One
Pete
She was fucking perfect. Watching her come like that had me hardening to the point of pain. I didn’t think ten ice-cold showers would help after that. I sat up my arrogant smile crossing my lips as I looked at her closed lids as she came back down slowly.
“Stop looking at me like that,” her lazy tone had me chuckling.
“Like what?”
“Like a proud peacock,” she giggled finally cracking an eye open.
“What? I can’t help it. I think that may be the fastest I ever made a girl come before. I didn’t even use my best moves.” I shrugged still smiling at her. Her hand shot up and pulled at the track shorts I was wearing pulling me in for a kiss. I groaned into her mouth. “I need a cold shower,” I said breaking the kiss. Her brows scrunched down in confusion before a light clicked on, and she grinned almost evilly.
Her hand slid lower to cup my erection through the loose fabric. I closed my eyes trying desperately to calm myself down.
Brandy leaned toward me trailing her tongue up my collarbone up my neck and to my ear where she sucked the lobe into her mouth before whispering softly to me. “Let me help you out with that.”
She was so brazen. It was so different than she usually was about sex. She pushed me back on the couch and I let her. My brain was fogged over and the only thing I could see was how much I wanted her, all of her. It was an ache in my bones. I sat back letting her have the control. I would not have sex with her like this, but I told her we could do other stuff and if she was offering who was I to deny her?
Brandy slid to her knees in front of me licking her lips as she pulled my shorts down. I leaned up helping her get them off. “Don’t you ever wear underwear?” she laughed.
“Only when I have to.” I watched her the second she stopped laughing and her eyes widened at the sight in front of her. I was so hard I was leaking ready to explode any second. A strangled sound left her, and she licked her lips again.
I hadn’t been with a virgin since high school. Watching her eyes bulge and her finger come up and tentatively trace the vein going up the underside of my cock. Just that soft touch had my eyes rolling in the back of my head. I leaned my head back against the couch and tried to breathe. I tried to think about anything but her soft hand exploring my body with a shyness I should have expected but was so turned on by. “Babe, I need you to do something,” I moaned. I could feel her soft breast rub against my thigh as she moved. I couldn’t look. If I saw her completely naked kneeling in front of me right now, I wouldn’t be a
ble to control myself.
I felt something warm and wet glide up my dick to the head and I couldn’t control the whole body jerk that followed. She giggled lightly before swirling her tongue around the head. My head snapped up as I watched this perfect fucking angel take my cock into her mouth. She moaned around the head as she bobbed up and down.
“Look at me,” my voice was raspy and clouded with arousal. Her eyes snapped up to mine and I lost it. “Babe, I’m gonna come.” I meant it as a warning, but this girl who’d never done this before squeezed me in her hand and attacked me faster sucking harder until black spots started forming in my eyes and I felt the most epic orgasm of my life rip through me tearing me to shreds. The roaring in my ears wasn’t all the blood rushing in my ears, but my loud shout. I chanted her name in near reverence as I came down from the high. Brandy was still on her knees. Her hands were folded on her lap, and she was licking her lips smiling at me. The sight undid me and right then, I knew I wasn’t just going to be her first, I would be her only. I pulled her up onto the couch laying with her in my arms as I thought about the revelation I just had. Wondering if I could keep her. How long would it be before I screwed everything up?
Chapter Thirty-Two
Brandy
The morning activities were still running through my head hours later when we pulled up in front of the cutest little cottage style home. I raised an eyebrow at Pete, but he just shrugged. That big dimpled grin on his face was fucking adorable. I could tell he was excited and I couldn’t figure out why.
The garage door was open and I heard tools clanking as Pete came around and helped me out of the car. “Is that a 1969 GTO Judge?” I asked as I took a good look at the old car in front of me.
Addicted (Sin City Gym Book 2) Page 9
