“I was young and believed true love lasts forever and all that. Until I heard you married a novelist.” Gerard was picking at the meringues, a habit with food that she well remembered. It was endearing as ever.
“I’m sorry, Gerard,” she said quietly and their eyes met. His eyes were weary and downcast, while hers were pleading with him to forgive her. Now more than ever, she knew exactly what it felt like to be discarded and abandoned.
“Why did you leave me, Sue?” he asked her. He wasn’t the same over-confident man she had met at the cafe a few days before. He was now the Gerard she had met at the Fresher’s party, awkward and fresh-faced.
“I don’t know.” Sue looked away from him and he stood up from his chair.
“Look at me. I deserve to know. It’s been twenty years and I still don’t know what I did wrong.” He had walked over to where she was sitting and was looming over her now. His big frame cast a dark shadow around her in the dim light and Sue hung her head low.
“Sue!” he raised his voice and she jerked her head up to look at him.
“I didn’t think you loved me. I thought you loved your work,” she said and this time, she couldn’t hold the tears back. They came gushing down her cheeks and to her surprise, Gerard bent down before her, kneeling with his hands on her knees.
“That wasn’t true. Why would you think that?” Gerard held her gaze, even though she was crying.
“You spent days cooped up in that garage. Towards the end of college, we barely spoke any longer. What was I supposed to think?” He pulled her towards him and she buried her face on his chest.
“I was close to writing the perfect code. I was crazy for perfection,” he whispered gruffly into her ear. Sue was sniffling into his clothes, her hands gripping his arms tightly as he held her against him.
“I’m sorry, Sue. I didn’t know I pushed you away. I thought you dumped me because I was a geek.” He almost laughed and so did she. “Sue…” he said her name and kissed her tear-streaked cheek gently. She bit down on her lip as he held her shying gaze and pulled her closer to him.
“Sue…” he said again and this time he kissed her. It was the kiss she remembered, but only more eager. Like he wanted to make up for lost time by devouring her whole. His lips massaged hers and his tongue soon found its way inside her mouth. His hands had now encircled her neck, gently stroking the base of her throat as he kissed her.
She bit his lower lip and she could feel him smiling against her face. He pulled himself away from her and she could finally breathe. His hair looked ruffled again, the way she remembered it and she ran her fingers through it and closed her eyes. She could feel his arms around her waist as he picked her up and placed her on the edge of the table. She leaned back immediately and he shoved the plate of meringues away from behind her.
“Best get that out of the way,” he said and she smiled at him. He lunged forward again and was kissing her and she couldn’t resist it any longer. She was pressed up against his chest, but she wanted more. Her fingers fumbled with the buttons of his jacket and he pulled away from her again, wriggling out of the jacket and lying down on top of her. The cold glass of the table-top pressed against her back and she relished the calming sensation.
The buttons on his shirt were easy to deal with and she popped them off, one by one, as they continued to kiss. His hands were busy pulling down the zipper on the side of her jumpsuit and she felt a cold tingle as her skin was exposed to the air. She remembered him being gentle, taking his time and this time too, she was the one in a hurry. His shirt came off and his pants soon followed, while he slowly began to maneuver her arms over and under the engineering of her jumpsuit.
“What on earth are you wearing, woman?!” he finally exclaimed, exasperated with it. Sue laughed and helped herself out of her clothes and lay back, in her undergarments, again.
“As ravishing as ever,” she heard him say, more to himself than to her. His hands were running all over her body, cupping her breasts, then feeling the nearly flat bump of her belly and running down the length of her legs. They finally settled between her thighs, where she was more wet than she could ever remember being, and Sue took in a sharp breath. His eyes were still darkened and he had a bewildered expression on his face, like he couldn’t believe this was happening.
He stood away from her to slip his own underwear off and his penis pointed towards her. She realized that she still remembered it well, very well. He didn’t tarry. Within seconds, he had peeled off her panties and pulled her towards him roughly. His gentleness had suddenly disappeared, he wanted her, now. Her legs dangled over the edge of the table as he thrust inside her, while staring at her shaking breasts.
Sue moaned and so did he. That moment, when he entered her, was like a continuation, like they had never stopped. His hands grabbed her breasts as he pushed and pushed inside her. They were both grimacing, and Sue knew she was going to cry. She had always loved this man, she had never stopped, she had forgotten to think about it, perhaps, but once he was inside her again, she knew she had only been fooling herself.
She gripped the table with her hands till her knuckles turned white. Neither of them cared that they were making a lot of noise. The table was creaking, her back against the glass made squeaking sounds that both Luke and Janine, no doubt, could hear. And, they were both moaning very loudly. Gerard pushed in and out with force, his hands travelled from her breasts, where he pinched both her nipples gently and then down to her waist for a better grip.
She knew he was struggling hard to control himself. She couldn’t help but think back on all those days, when they had sex on his slim single bed in his parents’ attic, how he lasted for nearly an hour every time. This night, he couldn’t control himself for very long, it was clearly too much for him to bear. She decided to come, to let go. She moaned loudly and arched her body towards him, with his penis still deep inside her she quivered against him, lifting herself upwards to fully enjoy the sensation. She could feel him coming inside her as well. Shuddering and groaning, his grip on her tightened and then relaxed.
“Oh my God, Sue,” he said, his breathing was ragged and he lay down flat on his face on the table, beside her.
“Looks like we still got it,” she said with a laugh. He lifted his head to look at her and smiled, then wrapped his arm around her belly and nuzzled his face in her hair.
“Gerard…” Sue waited a few seconds before saying. He didn’t reply, she knew he was awake.
“Gerard…” she tried again and he said Shhhh….
“We can talk about it later, if you really want to talk about it. Just enjoy the moment for what it is, Sue,” he said into her hair and she couldn’t help but smile. She couldn’t remember what she had been sad about a few hours ago.
Chapter 7
When Sue woke up, she was alone again. She stretched her arms and realized she was in somebody else’s bed and this bed was very very soft. She sat up with a start and ran her fingers over the spotlessly white bed linen, smooth like butter. She lay down again and her head sank into a pillow, which she was convinced was made from clouds or feathers.
“Rise and shine,” she heard his voice and smiled. She sat up again and fluffed up the pillows behind her to rest against. Gerard had stepped out of the bathroom and was in a blue satin robe, through which, the muscles of his thighs peeped out, from time to time. His hair was ruffled and he had a hint of a stubble on his chin. She nearly laughed.
“I don’t believe I’ve seen you with a beard before,” Sue said and he walked over to her side of the bed.
“Are you implying I wasn’t man enough to grow a beard in college?” He kissed her on her lips. That kiss was enough to remind her of the number of times they’d had sex in the past twelve hours and she blushed.
“What time is it?” Sue asked, looking around the room for a watch.
“Where do you need to be?” he asked and walked over to the arrangement of armchairs and a coffee table by the balcony doors.
&nb
sp; “It’s Monday morning…or afternoon. Don’t you have somewhere to be?” She watched him slide the glass doors open and a soft breeze blew in, billowing the white lace curtains in the room.
“I don’t remember, anymore, and I’ve ordered Luke to hold off all the messages.” He turned to look at her and Sue smiled.
“You never played hooky in college. God forbid!” she said and her hand flew to her mouth dramatically. Gerard laughed and started pouring coffee from a French press into two mugs on the table.
“I’m older now, and wiser,” he said without looking at her and Sue stepped out of bed. She found a matching blue satin robe laid out carefully on the ottoman at the end of the bed and she slipped into it while Gerard studied her naked body. She walked over to him and they both sat down facing each other. The balcony overlooked what seemed to be a forest and Sue assumed it was a part of Gerard’s property, his billionaire version of a backyard.
“What did you want to talk about last night, Sue?” He was blowing over his coffee. She smiled at him and did the same with hers. He remembered the way she liked her coffee.
“I don’t quite remember. It might have had something to do with the fact that we jumped into bed after twenty years of not seeing each other.” She raised an eyebrow and he laughed.
“Did it feel strange to you? Was it offensive?” he asked her and sat back in his chair.
“I can’t say that it did, but I still feel as though there is more conversation involved there. I don’t exactly know what,” she said and shied away from his gaze. She didn’t know how to talk about her feelings anymore. Vincent’s reaction to this would have been to storm out of the room, bang doors and stay somewhere else for the night.
“Maybe. Or maybe not,” he began and she looked up at him, surprised by the response. “It was unfortunate that we broke up, that you had to experience the pain of a failed marriage. But we’ve found each other again. Yes, we had a rough start, but look at us now,” he said and smiled widely. “Do we need to analyze it? Unless this was a one-time thing for you,” he said and his smile dropped.
Sue shook her head wildly. “No, it’s not a one-time thing, Gerard. I guess what I’ve been trying to say is that I want us to give it another try. I didn’t know if it was a one-time thing for you.” She looked away from him again, embarrassed.
“I never stopped loving you, Sue. You left, but I couldn’t forget you.” She detected a quiver in his voice and she looked at him.
“I was a fool. For not believing in you or your intentions. I love you,” Sue said and stifled a wail.
“Good. I’m glad you blame yourself because I’ve always blamed you.” She jerked her head up to look at him and he was grinning. She laughed and shook her head, wiping away tears from her cheeks. He always knew how to stop her from dissolving into a crying mess.
“Can we talk about more optimistic things now? Like when you’re moving in?” he asked casually.
“Shouldn’t we go on a few dates first? Shouldn’t you woo me and surprise me with a key to the house?”
“Why? To get to know you? I’ve known you for twenty-three years and nothing has changed. Other than the fact that I don’t live in my parents’ attic anymore, and I have a butler,” he said and they both laughed.
Sue placed the mug of coffee on the table, stood up and settled herself on Gerard’s lap. They kissed, for several minutes, and finally pulled away for air.
“I am truly sorry, Gerard,” she said while she played with a lock of his hair.
“You should be!” he admonished her like she was a small child. “So do you want to tell the others, or should I?”
“I feel like I’m getting my whole family back,” Sue said as Gerard nudged her off his lap and walked over to the cordless phone on his bedside table. He laughed while dialing Carl on speed-dial.
“I get the feeling that we’ll have to throw a dinner party again tonight,” he said, just as Carl answered the phone. Sue couldn’t stop giggling while the two men talked, they were back in college.
“You won’t believe the news I have for you!” Gerard spoke into the phone.
THE END
KING
Samantha Leal
Copyright ©2015 by Samantha Leal. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work!
1.
The club was quiet for a Thursday. Normally, Lexi would have been knocking back shots with some of the truckers passing through, or twirling herself around a pole while they looked on and tucked ten dollar bills into her panties. But as luck would have it (or not, as it turned out), the night was so quiet nothing was going to go unnoticed…
Marv was leaning against the back wall smoking a cigarette and biting the edge of his thumb nail. She had hated him from the second she started working there, but she knew she was going to have to suck it up and just get on with it. The girls of Slate Springs were all on the lookout for easy money, and it just so happened that Lexi had the body and the guts to be able to work in the town’s only strip club. She had watched others come and go, some had made it through one shift and other’s had managed a few weeks, but it usually ended the same… They just couldn’t hack it. There was only a small set of core girls that worked the poles in Red X, and Lexi was one of them. She had the power to switch off her brain and just engage her body. She needed the cash and that was all it was to her, a job. Some girls got too emotionally involved. She had even seen some of the poor suckers fall in love with the customers, and after feeling sorry for them, she usually just got angry. What did they expect from men who went there wanting to see titties for cash?
Marv eyed her from the back of the room, the smoke trails dancing up around his eyes, but he didn’t even blink. She wanted to give him the finger, but instead she turned her back on him and smiled at Jo, the only bartender working.
“Think he’ll get mad?” Jo asked Lexi as she cast her eyes to Marv over her shoulder.
“Who cares?” Lexi said as she swigged her vodka. “It’s not our fault it’s dead.”
“He’s watching you like a hawk,” she said uneasily. “Maybe just finish that one and then go back to the pole?”
Lexi had been sitting at the bar for around thirty minutes, and she knew it was driving him mad. She could feel his stare burning into the back of her skull. He didn’t like any of the girls taking drinks for free. They either paid for them themselves or got the customers to buy them for them. No one got a free ride… not even his best girl.
Lexi scrunched up her nose and rubbed her forehead. She didn’t even know why she was doing it. She easily could have afforded to buy herself booze there, but she just didn’t feel like it. As the weeks had passed by and things had become more strained at home, she found herself on the edge of something she’d never felt before. She didn’t know whether she was about to hit her own self-destruct button, but she felt the closest she had ever been to it.
She looked over her shoulder again, and Marv threw the butt of his smoke on the ground and stomped it out with his boot. She could tell from his folded arms and intense glare that he was coming for her. She turned back to Jo and knocked back the last in the glass.
“He’s coming,” Jo whispered through gritted teeth.
Before Lexi could turn around to smile, Marv was behind her, his hands on her shoulders.
“Lexi, Lexi, Lexi…” he said heavily. “Something up?” He slid onto the stool next to her, and his presence instantly made her skin crawl.
“Nope,” she said angrily, “Why would something be up?”
Marv sucked in a lung full of air and laughed.
“Well, you’re drinking my liquor for one,” he said as he leaned in closer to her. “And you’re not shaking your ass up there on stage
.”
Lexi bit back the venom she knew she was capable of spewing at him and smiled sweetly instead.
“Well, actually,” she began as she turned and stared at him dead in the eyes, “I thought you could take it out of my paycheck, seeing as, you know, you haven’t given it to me yet…”
“Paycheck,” he snorted at the joke. Marv only dealt in cash. “What are you getting at?”
“You owe me for two weeks of work,” she said seriously, “and don’t pretend like you don’t know that.”
Marv smiled and moved his mouth closer to her ear.
“Well, you better get up there and work for it then,” he said nastily.
Lexi bit her bottom lip and slid down from the stool. Even though she’d downed a couple of vodkas and was feeling the fire rise within her, she had to hold it together. What else would she do if she didn’t work at Red X? Putting up with Marv’s bullshit was just an unfortunate part of the job…
She walked away from him as tears stung the corners of her eyes. She was a tough girl—she had to be after the way her life had started. She had spent most of it longing for a father she had never met, taken cruelly by an accident before she was born. But even the tough could find things getting on top of them at times, and her problems at home weren’t helping anything. Her mother had been seeing someone she couldn’t stand and she was stuck there, desperate to move out. That’s why keeping her job was more important now than ever… If she didn’t keep the cash coming in, how could she branch out on her own?
She burst through the doors of the dressing room and one of the new girls, Candy, looked up at her.
“You okay?” she asked sweetly. She was exactly how her name would suggest, blonde hair and pink blushed cheeks on alabaster skin. A complete contrast to Lexi and her waist-length raven hair and olive tan.
“Sure,” she said as she walked to her corner and rooted through her bag. She found her make-up and sat down on the floor. As she pulled out her lipstick and pouted in the handheld mirror, her nerves started to calm.
Shifter Romance: BODHI (LOST CREEK SHIFTERS NOVELLAS Book 4) Page 66
