by Kayt Miller
He steps closer to me, close enough I can feel his breath on the top of my head. His hands slide up my hips beneath my sweatshirt. “JoJo,” he whispers in a husky voice. “We’re not a couple. I’m not a cheater. The fact that I took you back to my hotel and fucked you sideways—”
I look up and to the side, trying to remember if he did, in fact, fuck me sideways. And you know what? I think he did.
He continues, “—should tell you that me and your sister are not together. It’s fake.”
“Uh-huh.” I’m a little distracted now because his big, warm hands have made their way further up into my shirt. They’re now resting right below my braless boobs. “Well, I can’t pretend you and I didn’t hook up, so you’d better tell Gisele about last night, because if she finds out any other way, all hell will break loose. T-t-trust me.” Damn, his fingers have found my nipples. I step back far enough his hands are forced out of my shirt. “Even though we just had a little fun last night. I know it was casual, but I still can’t stand the thought of my sister hating me for one more thing.”
He looks at me, and I watch his eyes change from thoughtful to a tad angry. Stepping closer to me, he bends until we’re face to face. “I spotted you in the bar the moment I walked in. You’re the kind of woman that makes my cock hard, JoJo. Your red hair”—he touches my hair—“your pretty little nose and full, luscious lips”—he touches those too—“your sparkling brown eyes and this body.” He looks down at me. “It’s made for sin, JoJo.”
“Yeah, well….”
“And the sex?” He leans in closer until our lips are only a sliver apart.
“Yeah?”
“The sex was the b—”
“What the hell is going on in here?”
Oh shit! Gisele has some serious ninja skills. I didn’t hear her coming.
Chapter Five
William is a quick thinker. He stands up quickly and turns to my sister. “She had something in her eye. I was just trying to get a look.”
“Right.” My voice sounds suddenly tired. Some would call it sad.
Gisele has her hands on her hips again. “It looked like she was about to kiss you.”
See, now why did she assume I was going to kiss him? That’s bullshit. “Yuck. Like I’d want your sloppy seconds.” I snap right back. I peek up at William, and I swear he looks hurt. No matter, this mess is all on him. He should never have picked up a random at the bar last night. Not when he’s supposed to be pretending to be with my sister. This is a small town. People gossip.
Shit. That’s right. People gossip.
Just then, the doorbell rings. “I’ve got it,” yells my dad from the living room.
“Shit.”
“What?” he asks me.
“Clancy.”
“Who?” He bends down closer.
“Her idiot best friend.”
“She’s not an idiot.” I turn to Billy. “She went to MIT.” Sure, she only went a year then transferred to a college closer to home, but isn’t it enough she was accepted to MIT? Yeah, I think so.
“For a year, barely,” my sister hisses. “She flunked out.”
“No. She didn’t.” She did. Gizzy is right, but there was a very good reason for that, but I’m not about to share that with my bitch of a sister.
“Yo!” I hear her before I even see the kitchen door swing open.
“Clancy!” I shout right back. I’m about to rush her to push her back out, but I’m too slow.
“Billy? What are you doing here?” She smirks. “She must have had quite the impact on you to get you over here for The Annual Foster Family Christmas Eve Breakfast.”
She has always called it that, like it deserves a title or something.
“Billy?” My sister is staring at Clancy.
“No!” I shout just as Clancy speaks.
“Sure, we met him at the bar last night. Your sister must have made quite the impression.” She then uses her elbow to nudge my sister, adding several winks to the mix. “Know what I mean?”
“No.” Gisele isn’t smiling. I’d call it more of a snarl. Turning to me, she snaps. “What is she talking about?”
I shrug. “I’ve no idea. I think she’s drunk.”
“I am not.” Clancy laughs. “You went home with that hot piece of you-know-what and now you’re saying I’m drunk?”
“I….” I can’t think of anything else to say right now. I’m just going to wait to let the dust settle. Hell, maybe the asshole to blame for all of this will step in.
“You slut,” my sister spits.
“What?” I screech. I turn to Billy, who is rubbing his face with both hands. Turning back to my sister, I watch, like it’s in slow motion, as she charges for me, her long fingers and nails are up in the air like panther claws. I take a step back and end up bumping into the man himself.
Just as I’m about to run, Billy steps in front of me. With his hands up in the universal stopping gesture, he says, “Gisele. Stop.”
She doesn’t. When she gets to him, her body stops, but her arms don’t. Reaching behind him, she swipes at me and makes direct contact with my face. She scratches me starting at my eye down my cheek. It hurts. A lot. So much so I scream.
A second later, my dad flies through the swinging kitchen door looking like the house is on fire. When he sees the scene before him, his eyes look wild. “What the hell is going on here?”
I hold my face with my palm to keep her from getting another swipe at me. Billy stands his ground in front of me.
“Sh-she fucked him.” Gisele is pointing at me and panting like she just ran a marathon.
“Who? Who, uh, did that?” asks my dad.
“Jo.” She grits her teeth. “Jo fucked William.”
“Just now? In the kitchen?” Dad’s voice has gone up an octave. “We’ve only just finished breakfast.”
I giggle. I can’t help it. Leave it to my dad to say something funny without intending to. Stepping out from behind Billy, I avoid my sister and quickly move over to Dad. “Last night. I met him at the bar. I didn’t know he was her William.” I point right back at her. “He told me his name was Billy.”
Dad is staring down at me. I can practically see the wheels turning in his head. Then, slowly, so slowly it’s almost eerie, his eyes move up until they meet Williams. “You cheated on my daughter?”
“No, sir—”
“Don’t ‘sir’ me, young man. Did you or did you not step out on my daughter.”
Just as William says “No,” Gisele says, “Yes.” But she keeps going. “But it’s Jo’s fault, Daddy. She tricked him.”
“What?” I yell at the top of my lungs. “I did no such thing.”
“What in heaven’s name is going on here?”
Great. Mom’s here now. This is only going to get uglier, and I know exactly how it’s going to play out. Mom’s going to believe Gisele. How do I know? Because she always believes Gisele. Even when I was really young, Gisele would tell Mom I was to blame for things, things that she did. Then, I’d get punished. For example, there was the time she cut her own hair, then blamed me. Another time, she got into Mom’s makeup and trashed all of her expensive eyeshadows and blushes. She blamed me. It didn’t stop either. Even when we were older, Gisele was still blaming me.
Once, Gisele ran Mom’s car into a post, and she blamed me because “I distracted her while she was driving.” Here’s the thing, I wasn’t with her when that happened. But it didn’t matter. In each of those instances, I was punished, and Gisele pranced along on her merry way never blinking an eye. She’s seriously sociopathic.
So, here we are again. Except this time, it’s about her fake boyfriend and me. A fake boyfriend I had no clue about until I woke up this morning.
So, I could stand here and defend myself, but I’d be wasting my breath. You don’t believe me? Just watch and listen.
“What happened, Gisele?” my mom is by her side in seconds.
“Jo. She slept with William last night. She lure
d him from the bar in town and took him home and had s-sex with him.” Gisele’s crying now, and they look like real tears. I’ve got to hand it to her, this is an Academy Award-winning performance. She ends with a sob and the words, “M-my William.”
I’d love to clap, but there’s no time.
“Josephine!” Mom exclaims. “You…. Tell me you didn’t do that!”
Sure, I could launch into all the ways Gisele’s theory doesn’t hold water, but why bother? So, I shrug. “I slept with him.” It’s the truth. I’m not going to draw out the inevitable.
“Mom!” Gisele blubbers. “Make her leave.”
I’m way ahead of her. I’ve already made it to the swinging kitchen door. When I look back, the first person I make eye contact with is Billy. He’s standing in the corner leaning on the cabinets, his arms are crossed. He hasn’t said a word since my dad walked into the kitchen.
It figures.
I turn away and start to push the door open when my mom says, “I don’t think you should stay here, Josephine.”
Great. I’ve been kicked out of my own house. On Christmas fucking Eve. I turn back to Billy again, but he’s not looking at me. I feel someone’s hand take mine. Clancy is pulling me out of the kitchen and away. Outside the kitchen, I whisper to her, “I need to pack a bag.”
“I’ll help. You can stay with us.” Yay, I get to spend Christmas with the Clancys. They’re nice. I love them. But they aren’t mine.
I hope they don’t mind me crashing at their place for a night or two. I need some time to sort myself out. At least I’ve got a job. Sort of.
Chapter Six
“Why does your mom do that?”
I know what she’s talking about, but I’ll play along. “Do what?”
“Always side with Gisele. She didn’t even give you a chance for rebuttal.”
“It wouldn’t matter.” I touch my cheek and wince. My eye hurts too. Gisele’s nails are long and coffin shaped, so I’ve probably got long welts on my cheek. Deciding to worry about my face later, I grab a duffle bag and start stuffing it with clothes. I walk to the man-bath and gather up my hair supplies, toothbrush, and what’s left of my toothpaste. Slinging it over my shoulder, I nod to Clancy. “Ready. Let’s go.”
We make our way up the steps and turn right at the top and beeline it to the front door. There’s no reason to speak to anyone again. It’ll only end up worse than it is now.
“And what about that dickless wonder, Billy? You’d think he could have stepped in to help you out.”
“Uh-huh.” She’s been talking nonstop since we jumped in her car. Luckily, Clancy only lives about a mile from my house. I mean, my parents’ house.
“I can’t believe he just stood there like a fucking pussy.”
“Right?” I’m doing my best to play along, but that excuse was weak. Knowing what Clancy is saying is the truth makes my heart break just a little bit more. You see… I’m not as strong as I appear. I’m quite the opposite, actually. I’ve had to pretend that I’ve got a hard shell built around me to withstand, well, life—not just Gisele, even though she’s a big part of the reason I feel like I’ve got no redeeming qualities. She’s always picked at anything good that ever happened to me until I just believed she was right that I’m not special. I’m not funny or pretty or smart. I’m not trustworthy or talented or capable of doing anything worthwhile in life.
And while I know she’s not completely right, a big part of me believes a lot of what she’s said throughout the years. So, yeah, I created this crusty shell around me and learned how to banter and snap back at her. I’ve had to, or I’d cry all the damn time. Even her text messages to me are nasty. There isn’t one instance that she doesn’t give me the eye-roll emoji at least once during a text message conversation. That doesn’t sound like much, but it is to me. She finds me eye-roll worthy.
“God, and your dad….”
Clancy’s still going on about the incident in the kitchen. She’s right though. Like always, my dad just stood by and let Gisele and Mom control the conversation. He’s never liked getting involved in arguments. “Go whine to your mother” was a common response when I attempted to defend myself. I learned to leave him out of it after a while.
“You need to get away from that place. It’s toxic.”
And that does it. The waterworks start. I’m not worried about crying in front of Clancy. She’s seen this kind of thing a million times over the years. It’s just, I feel ridiculous crying over this bullshit.
“Oh, Jo,” she says softly. “Please don’t cry. Not over Gisele.”
The thing is, I’m not crying over Gisele. She can burn in a fiery hell as far as I’m concerned. It’s everyone else in that kitchen that makes me so sad. And do you want to know which one makes me cry the most? You guessed it. Billy.
Even though I knew it didn’t mean anything, last night was amazing. Sure, it was dirty and raw, but it was sweet too. We walked to his hotel since the bar was across the street and down one block. We talked and laughed all the way to the place. Hell, he even held my hand in order to help me avoid an icy patch on the sidewalk—a gesture that not even my old boyfriends, there are only two of them, did for me. On the way, I did most of the talking, telling him about our small town and some of the funniest gossip. It’s ironic that the most delicious gossip comes out of the smallest towns. When we got to his motel room, he unlocked the door then picked me up to take me over the threshold. I giggled the entire way until he tossed me on the bed and said in a raspy voice, “Get naked, JoJo.”
That’s when things got serious. Seriously good.
I had to scoot off the bed in order to take off my winter coat, hat, and gloves. Then, I unhooked the straps of my denim overalls. Unbuttoning the sides, I let them slip down to the floor. I kicked those off along with my short boots. Left in only a turtleneck and my underwear, I looked up to see him staring at me. His eyes roamed down, stopping at my center. It’s also the widest part of me because my hips are not narrow.
“Keep going, babe.” I watched Billy as he sat in the one and only chair in the room. He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. Then, he rested his chin in his hands, his eyes never leaving me.
As slow as I could, I dragged the turtleneck up over my soft belly past my bra and over my head, making my braids flip up then back down to my shoulders and back. Left in just my double-D bra and panties, I waited for his next command.
I’ve never been with a domineering man before. I’ve read about them plenty, and I’ve enjoyed those stories, but I’ve never experienced it firsthand, and I’m not going to lie, I like it. A lot.
“The panties first. Save the bra for last. I can’t wait to see your tits, JoJo.”
Slipping my fingers into the waistband of my boy shorts undies, I wiggled a little until those hit the floor too. Kicking them away, I reached back and unhooked my bra. It was probably a good thing he was across the room because these babies are big.
Slipping the straps off my shoulders, I let the bra fall down in front of me. I heard him groan, and it gave me the confidence I needed to keep going. When it was off, I held my arm out to my side and let the bra slip off my wrist to the floor. Not knowing what to do next, I put my arms down to my side and stared back at him. I was nervous. That’s why my feet were fidgeting a little.
“On the bed now, JoJo.”
I moved to the bed and sat.
“Scoot into the middle. Lie on your back. Open those legs.”
I quickly did as he commanded.
“Jesus,” he murmured like he was talking to himself. “You’re even more gorgeous than I imagined.”
I snorted. He was so full of shit. Nobody, and I mean nobody, imagines me naked.
“Does someone need a spanking?”
“No,” I answered quickly but wished I’d said “yes” instead.
“Then don’t make that noise when I compliment you. You get me?”
“Yes.” No. But I’d stick with my initial response.
“Are you going to take your clothes off?” I asked tentatively. I wanted to see him too. It was only fair.
“You want to see me, JoJo?”
Fuck yeah. “Yes. Please.” Did you see how obedient I was just then? I was a natural at this submissive shit.
Slowly, Billy undressed starting with his dress shirt, never taking his eyes off mine. He undid one button at a time like he was a damn stripper. When the shirt was off, I started to salivate because the top half of this man was better than I imagined. And believe me, I imagined. At one point in the evening, I was standing so close to Billy at the bar I could feel his breath on my neck as well as the hardness of his chest against my arm. He’s got broad shoulders that taper down to a fairly narrow waist, but not that narrow. He’s not skinny. I’d called him bulky, actually. And I like it.
When he reached for his belt, I felt wetness between my legs. This man was sex on two legs. I’d never in my life seen anything like him. Sure, maybe on the internet but not like this. Privately. The sound of his zipper drew my eyes to that part of him. My breathing was getting labored as I waited for him to do it. To show me. He didn’t make me wait long. In the sexiest way possible, he put his thumbs on either side of his jeans and slid them in and down until he was pulling off his boxers right along with his pants. When his dick popped free, I literally gasped. He was semi erect and already the biggest man I’d ever seen. Granted, I’ve only slept with a couple people, but they can’t hold a candle to this guy.
As I stared, he palmed himself then stroked up and down. “You want this?” he asked, talking about his penis like he was the third person in the room. Judging by the size of him, he was.
“Yeah. I want that.” No reason to beat around the bush, right?
**snort** Bush.
He stepped toward the bed like a stealthy lion. I guess that made me the prey. With one knee on the bed, he pushed up until he was directly on top of me. “I’m naked. Now what do you want me to do?”
Oh, fuck. On a sigh, I said only one word. “Everything.”
