by Lucia Black
“You need to quit your job,” Papa said pulling me out of my fond memory and back into a harsh reality. “I’ve written your notice; you just need to sign and deliver it.”
“What? Why?” It wasn’t a complete shock. I knew it would happen eventually. This was just too soon. “Cal and I aren’t even engaged yet.”
My dad and Cal shared a look, a look that left me feeling like an outsider in my own life.
“No, but you will be soon because you’ll be hitting the campaign trail. You need to use this time to be seen as a strong, confident, and deeply in love couple.”
“The campaign trail? When? For how long?” Of course, I knew that this would be happening. But it was all too fast and too soon. I wasn’t ready to be with Cal on the road. It didn’t help to know Preston would be there too.
“We leave in about a week,” Cal said.
Just one week. I couldn’t even give the college a proper two weeks’ notice. That wasn’t even enough time for Preston to cool off enough to be able to look at me again.
“But . . .” I didn’t even know what to argue.
“You know we are proud of you for getting your masters, Mari, but the campaign trail can’t wait. I know education is important to you, so you can put your focus into that platform. You need to dress and act like you’re already a First Lady. Your mother is out shopping for a new wardrobe for you as we speak.”
“Oh.” I shrugged, all out of excuses and objections. “You’ve thought of everything.”
Cal’s phone rang; the emergency-only line. He produced it from his jacket pocket and looked at the screen. “Excuse me, Bruno. I need to take this.”
“Of course.” Papa gestured to the door. He always understood the need to take care of business.
“Michael will be your new bodyguard,” my father continued after Cal left. “He stayed outside your apartment last night. He informed me Cal had just gone up to see you, and I told him to stay outside. It would be better that way.”
“Okay, but I’m not entirely comfortable with a new person right now. I just need some time.” I still didn’t trust anyone, but I knew fighting it wouldn’t get me anywhere.
“He’ll only be with you for the week. Please don’t interact with him the way you have with your last six bodyguards.”
“What?” I spluttered. “You knew?”
And he said six bodyguards, which meant he not only knew, but he knew about every single one. My jaw nearly hit the floor. I’d thought I’d been stealthy with my trysts. In fact, I would’ve gone as far as to say no one knew about them except me and the bodyguards, and they weren’t going to tell my father what they’d been doing to me.
But I was wrong. And I was an idiot. Of course Papa would know because he knew everything. I had a fleeting thought of him having installed a camera in my apartment, but pushed it aside. He wouldn’t go that far.
“Of course, I knew. I just didn’t care. If you were with them, it kept you out of trouble with someone else who I couldn’t control quite as easily. So it didn’t matter what you did with them. Now it does. Your appearances are important. The eyes of the world are on you. Don’t jeopardize this.”
It felt wrong, dirty even, that my own father knew what I was doing, and with whom. I didn’t want to look at him. “Yes, Papa.” I said it because I knew it was what he wanted me to say.
“Once you leave, you will be taken care of by Cal’s security detail. I don’t think I need to tell you that they are strictly off-limits as well. No fraternizing of any kind. Friendly and innocent, or otherwise.” He leveled me with his glare, and I gaped at him in return.
“If you think so little of me that you—”
“Sorry about that,” Cal interrupted, coming back into the library. He ran his hand through his hair and tucked his phone back into his pocket.
It was probably for the best that he came in when he did. Arguing with Papa always left me feeling worse. Not better.
“Did I miss anything?” Cal asked.
“Nope.” I gave Papa a saccharine smile. “My father was just telling me about my new bodyguard, and I was telling him how uneasy it makes me to have a new guy when the last one did this to me.” I pointed to my bruised cheek just to make sure he remembered what I’d gone through whether I’d fucked Jimmy or not.
“That’s understandable,” Cal said. Papa shifted in his seat, and I could tell he wanted to say more to me but wouldn’t with Cal present.
“But it’s only a week, right? I’ll be fine.” I tried to brush it off as if it didn’t matter.
“I imagine we’ll both be busy tying up loose ends until we leave,” Cal said.
“Yeah . . . it’s just. It’s a lot to take in,” I admitted to him.
“Stay with me,” he said. I could hear the request in his voice. Even though he hadn’t phrased it like a question, he clearly meant for it to be one.
I couldn’t react or answer before my father did.
“That’s an excellent idea. You two might as well get ahead on the living situation.”
I wanted to ignore his presence. After everything that had happened between Cal and I the night before, I wanted this moment to be between us. So I did. I acted as though he never spoke, and I looked at Cal. “Really?” I asked.
“Of course. I have a guest room with an en suite. I want you to be comfortable and feel safe. My staff will see to your every need. Please. Stay with me.”
“Okay.” I said. “I’d really like that.”
Cal gave me a half-smile. “We’ll go to your place and you can pack whatever you’ll need.
My father clapped his hands, jolting me back into the reality of where I was sitting. “Well that settles that.”
Chapter 26
A week wasn’t nearly enough time to tie up the loose ends of my life in New York, but I’d run out of time. Whatever was left undone would have to stay that way, or I would have to handle it while on the road.
I’d practically been living out of my suitcase since I decided to stay at Cal’s, but there I was packing it up again. With all my brand-new clothes neatly tucked inside the suitcases, I wore far too short cotton shorts and a threadbare t-shirt.
It was time for bed. That was another thing. Living with Cal wasn’t entirely unpleasant, but it had been tense. After dinner, when Cal would be in for the rest of the night, I’d excuse myself to my bedroom and fall asleep early. It was easier than dealing with the fallout of what I’d done.
There was a light tap on the door. “Come in,” I said.
Cal walked through the door. His gaze swept over me and his eyes lingered on my thighs and breasts. There was no mistaking he liked what he saw.
He still wore his black slacks and white button-down from the day, but he’d taken the tie off and loosened the collar. I caught a glimpse of his toned chest and smirked.
“Yes?” I asked, slightly amused at his ogling.
“I just wanted you to know the car is scheduled to pick us up at five in the morning, so I wanted to give you enough time to be ready. But it looks like you’re on top of it.”
I groaned. “I know I said I liked mornings, but that’s not what I meant.” I don’t know why I was complaining.
“I’m not looking forward to it either. I’ve taken the liberty of having coffee and breakfast waiting for you in the car. It’ll be one less thing to think about.”
“Thanks, Cal. That was nice of you.”
Not that he’d been a jerk to me over the last week, but much of the progress we had made with each other had almost been destroyed when he found out about Preston. So while it may not have been completely ruined, it was certainly stalled. Ordering breakfast was the first nice thing he’d done for me all week.
Cal nodded and turned for the door, but I couldn’t let him go. If we were going to be on the road together, things had to get at least a little better or I’d lose my mind.
“Cal, wait.” He paused. “Are you still upset with me?”
“Yes.”
“Can we—can we talk about this? Please? I’m so sorry. I know I’ve said it before, but I just . . .” I knew how much I was hurting. I knew I had done damage. But we couldn’t go on like this.
Cal turned around and his stance softened. “I know I haven’t been easy to deal with.”
“I know I’ve fucked up. I know I hurt you.”
“Yes. You did.”
“See? That. Is that yes, I fucked up? Or yes, I hurt you?”
I stood there waiting for him to answer and he didn’t. He just took a deep breath, waiting for me to continue.
I considered my words. “I just don’t understand you, Cal. And that would be okay if you gave me something so I could figure you out, but that’s not happening here.” I gestured between us. “You said you were guarded, and I get that, but you won’t let me in.”
“Can you blame me for being guarded? Your attention has been elsewhere.” He raised his eyebrows, daring me to argue that he was wrong.
“No, I suppose I can’t. But you were guarded before I told you what happened. I didn’t tell either of you what was going on, and I regret it, truly I do. But I can’t change it. And it doesn’t change the fact that I do have feelings for you.” I sat down on the bed next to my suitcase. Cal chose not to join me, but at least he hadn’t left. “I just don’t know what kind of feelings yet, but they’re there. I need you to meet me halfway. You can either make this arrangement amazing, or fucking terrible.”
Cal half laughed, half sighed, then moved my suitcase to the floor and sat beside me on the bed. “So what do you want to do about it?”
I’d been thinking about that for a whole week. I knew exactly what we needed.
“I want more open communication between us if this is going to work out.”
“I can agree to that.”
“I’m serious. We were doing okay for a minute there. I know I fucked it up, but whatever is between us . . . we need to communicate from now on—when the cameras aren’t looking, and the press isn’t in the room, and we are behind closed doors.”
He shifted closer, his thigh nearly flush with mine. “What are we doing behind these closed doors?”
“I suppose it’s a lot of talking. Learning about each other. Actually telling each other the truth.”
“Yes, I suppose.” Cal shifted even closer leaving no space between us and stretched his arm behind my back. His hand just barely cupped the curve of my ass. “We’re behind closed doors now. No press. No advisors. No cameras. Tell me the truth now . . .” He’d lowered his voice and lost the pleasant tone he typically used.
“What do you want to know?”
“Why Preston?”
My cheeks flamed. “Cal, this isn’t what I meant. This isn’t a good idea. He’s your best friend. If you and I are going to get married, the last thing I need to do is come between you two more than I already have.”
“Answer the question.” He said the words in my ear, his breath hot against my skin.
“Why? Why does it matter?”
“I want to know. Why him?”
The commanding tone of his voice got me every time. And I did just say we needed to tell each other the truth. “I . . . I don’t know. He made me feel like I could be myself. Like he understood me. He’s funny and kind and charming, but he’s also arrogant and self-assured and he could have any girl in the room, but he was taken with me.”
Cal brushed the hair out of my face and wrapped a strand around his finger. He looked deeply into my eyes, but I didn’t see any anger there; only interest. “Is that what you like? The arrogant and self-assured playboy?”
“When I said I wanted us to be honest, I didn’t mean to a fault, or to use it as a weapon against each other. This isn’t—”
“Is that what you like?” he asked me again, slower in his enunciation.
“I like the bad boy, okay? I always have, and it’s fucked me every time, but I keep going back for it. Happy?” I sighed. I didn’t know what he was getting at.
“Did he fuck you every time?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Perhaps not, but that’s what I meant.”
“Uh . . . no, we didn’t.” My head started to spin. Of all the possible ways this conversation could’ve gone, I never would’ve guessed like this. “But I also really don’t want to talk about this part.”
“But I do. How did he fuck you?”
He tugged on my hair a little, a sharp tickle on my scalp that made me hold my breath for a moment.
“Wh—what? Why do you want to know that? So you can compare dick sizes?”
“I don’t need to.” He lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug. “We’re about the same.”
I moved my hand to Cal’s leg as if I had the guts to whip him out right there and check. I didn’t. So instead I rested my hand on his taut thigh and tried to steady my breathing. “Wh—how do you even know that?”
“It’s unimportant. But I still want you to answer the question. How . . . did . . . he . . . fuck . . .you?” Each word in the question was punctuated with a tug of my hair. Each getting harder and harder. Each making me wetter. The bulge in Cal’s pants swelled to an impressive size. I didn’t understand why it was turning me on so much, but knowing it was doing the same to Cal only spurred me on.
I blew out a long breath. It was getting increasingly difficult to concentrate on his questions when all I wanted was for him to touch me. “I don’t know how you want me to answer that.”
“Was he rough? Gentle?”
“Cal . . .”
Using both hands, Cal turned to me and fisted my hair in his palms. He tugged hard and I gasped at the pleasure as it mixed with pain.
“Was he rough?” he asked again.
“Yes.” I could hardly get the word out because Cal started moving his hands down my body. He slipped one down the front of my shorts and my legs automatically widened for him. He skimmed my slit with two fingers then slowly pushed them inside. He found me wet and warm.
“Was it on a bed? In a shower? In an alley outside a bar?” He murmured the words into my neck as if they were sweet nothings.
“On a . . . on my bed. And . . . and up against a bathroom wall.”
He was hovering over me in an instant and then pushed me back onto the bed. He hooked his arm under my leg and pulled it up so he had ample room to rub his clothes-covered erection into my greedy cunt.
“Did it feel good?” he asked while pressing against me. “Having Preston fuck you?
“I . . .” I couldn’t answer. All I could think about was grinding my hips into Cal’s to find just a little more pressure. He was going to make me come and he hadn’t even taken his clothes off yet.
But then he stopped. He moved off of me but laid right next to me. He buried his hand in my shorts and quickly found my throbbing clit.
“Was. It. Good?”
“Yes . . .” I mumbled the word, too focused on his fingers lightly stroking me to care about anything else.
“Say it.” He took a finger and pushed it inside me, then slowly pumped it in and out. “Tell me it felt good when Preston fucked you.” As if to punctuate the sentence, he took his thumb and pressed down on my clit.
“It felt good when Preston fucked me,” I said quickly.
“Did he make you come?” He worked another finger inside me while keeping a steady rhythm.
“Yes, he made me come,” I breathed out.
“Do you want me to make you come?” He picked up the pace going from slow and leisurely strokes, to fast and focused.
“Oh god, yes,” I moaned, so close to finding my release.
“Ask me nicely, Tessa.”
“Oh. My. God.” I squirmed under him. “Will you please make me come?” I was so close, my canal rippled and clenched around his fingers.
“Not yet.”
He stopped touching me completely and I whimpered at his absence. Cal reached under my arm, picked me up, and moved me to the center of the be
d. I couldn’t take it anymore. My breath came out in pants and all my thoughts were centered on getting off. I peeled myself out of my shorts and reached down to stroke my own clit.
“Why did you do that?”
Cal knocked my hand away, then pinned my wrist to the bed. I struggled against him, desperate for an orgasm, but then Cal palmed my sex.
“If you want this to stop at any time, just tell me. I know this is all new to you, but this is all in your control.
“Mmhmm,” I moaned. I didn’t give a damn what he said as long as he kept touching me.
“Do you want to play, or not?”
I gave him a languid nod while I breathed heavily.
“Say, ‘yes, Sir’.”
“What?”
He pinched my clit between his fingers taking away the pleasure and bringing only pain.
I cried out. “Yes, Sir.”
“Yes sir, what?” he asked, going back to gently stroking my clit.
“Yes, Sir. I want to come.”
“On your knees,” he ordered.
I did as he said. Cal reached behind my back and tugged my shirt up over my head leaving me completely naked and him fully clothed. He walked a wide circle around the bed, inspecting me from every side.
“Don’t move.”
I didn’t. The only movement I made came from my hard swallow of anticipation, need, and a hint of fear. While he was still behind me, Cal stripped, the sound of his pants hitting the floor the only clue I had until he tossed his shirt near my head. It took everything in me not to turn and look, but he’d told me not to move.
He didn’t make me wait long to see him. He strode confidently around to the front of my bed where he was on full display to me. He was right. His length, rock hard and glistening, was just about the same size as Preston’s.
“Come here, to the edge of the bed.”
I did as instructed. Cal guided my head until my lips were only an inch away from the thick head of his cock.
“I want your mouth.”
I licked my lips making sure they were fully moistened, then took him in as far as I could. God, it felt good to taste him. I sucked long and deep working him in as far as I could, then pulling him out. My head bobbed up and down, sucking and swirling my tongue as I did. I took him out completely and rubbed the tip along my lips.
