The Wrong Groom

by Emelia Blair

  He then moved his other hand lower, his fingers moved over the slit of my pussy, up and down, just teasing the entrance. I bit my tongue when one thick finger entered and slowly fucked me, steady strokes that didn’t quite interrupt my reading, but made my voice hitch every now and then when he brushed against a sensitive area.

  “Is something wrong, Charlotte?”

  I heard the smugness in his voice, and bit out, “Just peachy.”

  He chuckled at the stubbornness in my tone, “Hmm, maybe I’m not going fast enough for you.”

  Sure enough, his finger picked up pace, and he inserted another one, stretching out my passage and making me groan at how he curled up his fingers inside of my pussy, deliberately brushing against my G- spot.

  Two fingers thrusting into me, my voice shook when his other hand tortured my clit, as he used the melting ice cube to rub circles around it.

  I tried to maintain my focus when he was so effectively driving me wild with just his hands. My body tensed when I felt an orgasm creep up.

  He added a third finger.

  I was stretched so wide that my mind was going blank with the pleasure as he kept moving in and out.

  My head lowered as I moaned, and heard him laugh.

  However, I didn’t care.

  When he picked up his pace, the room was filled with my small gasps and cries as he dragged me to the edge and let me fall.

  My head fell on the book as he kept pumping my pussy throughout my orgasm, drawing out the blinding sensation till I was completely drained.

  Then, when he removed his fingers, I felt the aching emptiness and I made a sound of protest.

  Something dropped on the carpeted floor before I felt his hard cock against my entrance.

  I was already so drenched that he just pushed in and suddenly I was full to the brim, my mouth open in a silent scream.

  It wasn’t soft.

  It wasn’t gentle.

  It was a good, hard fucking.

  He jackhammered my pussy, his hands pinning mine to the bed, as he had his way with me. I moaned and whimpered under his grip, as he had me completely at his mercy.

  Then he changed angles, just lifting my hips slightly.

  The penetration went so deep that I couldn’t stop the small scream from escaping.

  He fucked me into the mattress, his movements harsh and rough.

  And I enjoyed it.

  “P-Philip!” I begged. For what, I had no idea.

  Hearing me scream his name, he picked up his pace that I found myself tumbling down a dark cliff, all my senses on fire as he kept fucking me right into the next orgasm.

  This time when I came, he came right with me and as he emptied himself inside of me, I vaguely remembered protection, but the thought went away just as it came.

  He collapsed on top of me, and then rolled over.

  When I managed to turn my head towards him, he was laughing silently, exhaustion written all over his face.

  “What?” I asked, hoarsely, his mirth contagious as I too chuckled.

  “You lost,” He snickered. Then he threw his arms over his eyes, “But now I want to take a nap with you, so I lost, too.”

  That was funny, I mused.

  And when he kept laughing, I found myself right there with him, joining his hysterical, nonsensical laughter.

  15

  Philip

  I watched Charlotte put her books in her bag.

  She was humming to herself, excited about her class and the fact that the bakery had been cleared for opening tomorrow. When I saw her stuff a small can of mace in her bag, I blinked.

  “What’s that for?”

  She looked up to see what I was pointing at, and made a face, “That’s for unwanted attention.”

  Why my eyes grew hard, she shook her head, “Force of habit, actually. I used to take the bus back from campus. And that late at night, a woman has to be armed.”

  “Do you still need it?” I asked, leaning halfway over the counter, “You’ll have the car, plus the body guards.”

  She hesitated for a second, before saying firmly, “No. It’s better to be safe than sorry. In fact,” She picked up a small bag with a long strap and placed it across her body, till it settled on her hip.

  The mace was put there, along with her wallet.

  I didn’t like that she felt the need to arm herself, but I didn’t comment on it.

  Besides, she looked so cute, getting ready for school.

  I didn’t know I had said that out loud, till she made a face, “That’s not funny.”

  I grinned at her indignation and then said, “You know I could drop you myself.”

  She smiled at me, “Yeah, but you have work to do. I know you’ve been lagging because you’ve been spending all your time here with me.”

  I studied her and then straightened, before walking over to her and capturing her in my arms, pressing a soft kiss to her lips, “Are you happy? With me?”

  The question was serious, and she realized it, because her eyes dropped to my chest, and she played with the button of my shirt, as she admitted in a low tone, “I’m not unhappy.”

  “That’s not what I meant, Charlotte,” I chastised, gently.

  She glanced up at me, her dark eyes uncertain, “What do you want me to say?”

  “Am I being a good husband? Can you see yourself as my wife in the next five years?”

  She pursed her lips and then sighed, “It’s only been a few weeks, Philip. And we’ve been through a rollercoaster of drama together. I’ve got loan sharks after me. My ex fiancé is trying to paint me as a whore. His girlfriend might be trying to kill me. I mean-”

  She shook her head, “-Any answer I give you would be based on how we’ve been thrown together in this adrenaline rushed time.”

  I already knew the answer to my next question, or at least part of the answer, “But do you think you could love me?”

  Charlotte blushed then, her cheeks turning a dusty red, “Do you have to ask?”

  “Yes,” I answered, honestly.

  She lowered her forehead to my chest, “Of course, I love you, Philip.”

  She let out a breath, and then sounded almost vaguely annoyed as she looked up at me, “I’ve always been in love with you. You’ve always been the yardstick I measured every other man to. I also blame you for all my failed attempted relationships, however, few they were.”

  I found myself grinning, “Yeah?”

  She frowned, “Don’t look so pleased with yourself. You know I tried everything, right? I tried to hate you. I tried to move on. I - Stop smiling like that!”

  I couldn’t help it.

  Her admission made me feel like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I wanted to drag her off to bed. I wanted to place the world at her feet.

  However, I settled for the only thing that time allowed, and I cupped her face, forcing her to meet my gaze, “I love you, too. More and more each day.”

  When she blushed again, I kissed her, a sweet kiss filled with love and longing.

  Her eyes were dazed when I moved away a moment later.

  However, that moment didn’t last for long, because her eyes fell on the clock behind me and she made a small sound of distress and pulled away from me, grabbing her bag, “I’m getting late! I’ll see you at eleven!”

  I was left grasping for air, as she quickly rushed to the door and slammed it behind her.

  I knew Tim and Jim were going to drive her there and one would remain in the car while the other would be standing outside her classroom door, protecting her. Although happiness was like a physical thing inside of me, as I stared at the windows that looked into the city of Chicago, the rolling dark clouds that warned of imminent rain and promised deafening thunder made a sliver of uneasiness unfold inside of me.

  I picked up my laptop and put it to charge as I looked around for the contracts that I needed to review. The crashing thunder sounded just minutes after I had settled on the couch made me look u
p and I felt the phone vibrate in my pocket.

  I blinked at the caller ID.

  It was Agatha’s friend, the medical practitioner, who had done a full check-up of Charlotte last week. I hadn’t been too keen on Zayn’s dubious doctor.

  I answered the phone, “Brenda, hi. How can I help you?”

  Her voice held a little static, probably due to the thunderstorm outside, “Philip. There was something I needed to check with you, since you’re Charlotte’s husband and all.”

  “Yeah?” I asked, my voice wary at where this might lead to.

  “Charlotte told me she was barren. She sounded very confident about it. But, uh, the results I’m seeing say otherwise.”

  I froze, hope blooming in my chest, “Are you saying she’s not barren?”

  “No. I don’t know why she thinks she is. The tests are very conclusive. I have them in front of me, right now.”

  My eyes stared blankly outside as the first raindrops started falling on the terrace floor, “Thank you for letting us know.”

  I don’t know what she said after that because of the thundering blood in my ears. It took me a few minutes to understand what had happened.

  Charlotte wasn’t barren.

  And we had unprotected sex.

  I wasn’t allowed to finish my train of thoughts because the door banged open and Fergus and Zayn marched in.

  “We have news!” Fergus declared.

  He stopped short on seeing the look on my face, “What’s wrong with you?”

  “I had unprotected sex,” I heard myself muttering.

  Zayn raised a brow, “Oops?”

  I glared at his snark, “Charlotte thought she was barren. Must’ve been that dick bastard that she was going to marry. And we’ve had a lot of sex, but no protection. What if she’s pregnant right now?”

  I didn’t know why I was panicking.

  “If it’s any consolation, at least the child wouldn’t be born out of wedlock,” Zayn offered.

  “That’s not helpful,” I glared at him.

  Zayn shrugged, “Yes, well. I tried.”

  Fergus rolled his eyes at him, and then looked at me, “We have important info right here. You’re going to want to hear this, so get your shit together. Zayn, go make him some tea. He looks like he’s had a stroke.”

  Zayn settled down on the couch, next to me, “Man, I’m not making anybody tea. It’s his house. Tell him to make me some tea.”

  “You’re such a comfort, Zayn,” I told him.

  When he smirked at me, I punched him in the side, making him double over with a groan. Then, I looked at Fergus, “You were saying?”

  The punch made me feel a little better and I rubbed my fist.

  Fergus pushed the papers on the coffee table and took a seat there, showing me a paper, which had a lot of phone numbers on it. One of the numbers was circled a few times in random places.

  “So, the guy had a burner, right. We managed to trace the call that led them to the restaurant. That’s where they followed you from.”

  He held up his phone to show me a clip of the exterior of his restaurant. It was time stamped.

  “The call was made at exactly six forty-four and lasted for two minutes. Now, watch this.”

  He played the clip for me and I saw Erik and his girlfriend walk in at six twenty-five. After roughly fifteen minutes, Madison walked out, and put her phone to her ear.

  My eyes flew to the time stamp.

  Six forty-four.

  She argued with someone on the phone, gesturing with her hands, and then after two minutes, she closed her phone and walked back in.

  I stared at Fergus, and then at Zayn, “It was her? So, Charlotte was right?”

  Zayn took out a cigarette and lit it, inhaling and the letting out a stream of smoke, before saying, “Yeah. We tracked her number down, confirmed it. And we even got her.”

  My eyes narrowed at him, “What do you mean you got her?”

  The smile on Zayn’s face was a satisfied one, with hints of anger in it, “I mean, we called her to your office, under guise of being you. Then cornered her and started throwing out facts. She came clean when we pressed her. But she’s going to be charged with sex trafficking, attempted kidnapping, along with a few defamation suits that will be aimed at both her and Erik. The moron didn’t know about her side plans. All she had told him to do was lead Charlotte on and then ditch her at the altar.”

  “That’s probably the only mistake she made,” Fergus interrupted. “She was so desperate to humiliate Charlotte, that she screwed up.”

  “I’m not following,” I frowned. “What’s her grudge against Charlotte?”

  Zayn looked at me, “You are.”

  I blinked, feeling myself unable to connect the dots.

  Zayn made an annoyed sound, “Ten years ago, when you drove Charlotte away, you were with a woman that night. You had been seeing this woman on and off, enough that she thought you two were in a relationship. You brushed her off the day after Charlotte left. Remember when Agatha told you that Charlotte was going out of town to stay with an aunt and you became this kind of cold woman-hating asshole for the next few months because you were pining after her?”

  I pursed my lips, wryly, “Thanks for the in-depth detail. I really needed a walk down memory lane. That woman was Madison?”

  Zayn whistled, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. I didn’t recognize her in the video because she had some work done on herself. And by little, I mean, a lot. She looks like a completely different person. You brushed her off and with that you laid waste to her dream of becoming Mrs. McCoy. The lady’s very ambitious. Even now she had some delusions about comforting you after Charlotte’s disappearance and then there was some five-year plan she mentioned.”

  Fergus looked at me, “The point is that she admitted that the men at the church had been there to kidnap Charlotte. They’re low level operatives of the loan sharks. We still don’t know whether the actual men involved ten years ago were aware of this or not. But once everybody had left, the men were going to snatch Charlotte. She had sent them after her at the flea market. She, however, knew in detail what they wanted to do to Charlotte. Which is why her sentence is going to be a long one.”

  “What about the bakery?” I straightened up. “What did she say about that?”

  Zayn and Fergus shared a look, “She swore she had nothing to do with that. She told us that she just wanted revenge on Charlotte for being the cause of ruining her plans ten years ago because you happened to be in love with her. Charlotte’s death sounded too easy to her.”

  I got up and started pacing, “So, there’s someone else out there who wants Charlotte dead? That’s comforting!”

  Fergus took my abandoned seat to watch me, “It could have been an extreme burglary.”

  I eyed him, feeling a tingling in the base of my spine, “He wasn’t interested in taking anything. What about Detective John? You looked into him as well?”

  Zayn frowned, “About that. I got somebody I know to check him out. That one case that he had which involved Charlotte, was the only one he was involved in anything relating to the gang. And that case remained a cold case. He moved on to bank heists and things like that. He came off a little strong because that one case stung him. The man’s got an exemplary record.”

  Fergus broke in, “But he was suspended from duty the day he and the other guy came to take Charlotte’s statement. And nobody has seen him since. He’s missing. The claims against him were strange, something about tampered evidence. The man that Zayn has on the inside swears by John’s integrity.”

  I stared outside as the rain lashed against the windows and thunder raged across the sky in blinding flashes, “The detective went missing?”

  Zayn puffed at his cigarette, his eyes fixed on me, “His partner claims he’s gone on vacation, but my man says that John didn’t have that kind of money.”

  “Who’s his partner?”

  I already knew the answer, but Zayn’s v
oice made my insides run cold, “Clarence Thomson.”

  16

  Charlotte

  I glanced out the window, “It’s really coming down, huh?”

  Tim made a sound of agreement, “The forecast didn’t mention a thunderstorm.”

  Jim was silent as he focused on the road.

  The two had become quite comfortable around me, and although they weren’t very chatty, they were nice enough.

  I always hated that Woodworth College was in such an isolated area. The college had acres and acres of land surrounding it, most of which were still woods. However, the aloofness of its location also charmed a lot of the elite.

  It was quite a distance from the city centre where Philip’s apartment was located, and I wished he was here with me. His presence was like a solace to me. I didn’t know when I had become so dependent on him always being there for me, but right now as I sat in this car, I felt so alone.

  I wanted to be wrapped in his warmth as he peppered my face with wet kisses and teased me, relentlessly. Every minute with him made me feel alive, like a whole new person.

  When he had asked me today if I could see myself married to him in the next five years, I had wanted to say yes. Because I could see it.

  I could imagine endless nights of going to bed with and waking up next to him. I could almost reach the dream that was him, but I didn’t know why I hadn’t given him a definitive answer.

  My ringtone startled me, and I fumbled in the bag for my phone.

  A wide smile grew on my face.

  It was Philip.

  I answered, “Philip, I was just-“

  I didn’t know what happened next.

  Tim was shouting at me.

  I was grabbing at something to anchor myself.

  The physical jolt as something huge crashed against the car.

  My screams as I felt the car flip.

  The pain in my head before I blacked out.

  When I came to my senses, I was being dragged out of the car. I was dazed and disorientated. I mumbled weakly, “What happened?”

  A familiar voice reassured me, “You’re going to be okay, Charlotte.”