Dean opened his mouth, world spinning, palms sweating, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
Her green eyes stuck to him like glue as she anxiously awaited his answer. “And I will know if you’re lying to me.”
Chapter Twenty
Brooke slammed the front door shut and turned off the porch light, the sun now high in the blue Wisconsin sky. She turned to Ben in the foyer and planted her hands on her curvy hips, looking up into his tired eyes. “Did you have sex with those gutter sluts?”
“What?” he laughed, setting a cooler full of empties underneath a sofa table. “You know that’s not my style, babe.”
She stared at him for a moment longer, weighing his words with great care. “Did Dean?”
“Not his style either and you know that, too.”
“Then why’d he have a giant cum stain all over his crotch?”
Ben’s eyebrows dipped. “It was whipped cream, and it was an accident. Will and I told you on the way to his hotel, we hit a mermaid and the stripper fell into him.”
“Mermaid my ass!” she scoffed, standing on her tip-toes. She sniffed at his neck for a bit and then settled back onto her heels. “Is that cheap perfume I smell?”
“No, it’s not cheap perfume.”
Brooke stepped back and studied him through scrutinizing eyes. “Take off your pants.”
Ben furrowed his brow. “What?”
Brooke crossed her arms over her chest. “I want to see your dick before you have a chance to wash the lipstick off in the bathroom.”
He laughed and turned for the fridge.
“I’m serious, Ben! This is what happens when you break the circle of trust. You have to prove yourself all over again.”
He stopped in front of the gas range and turned to face her. “I didn’t break the circle of trust.”
She stepped in front of him and unzipped his jeans. “We’ll just find out about that.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Evy slammed the front door to Dean’s condo, vibrating the pictures on the walls and shattering the silence between them with an earsplitting crack. Then the quiet was back and whole again, coiling around their legs and arms, pulling in different directions until the pain was unbearable.
“You’re seriously this pissed?”
Evy dropped the keys on the kitchen counter with a loud clatter and leaned over the sink, staring down the drain. “I’m just tired, and on top of everything else, Tasha is running the shop alone on a Sunday morning.”
Dean strolled closer, the smell of the outdoors heavy on his skin. He saw his hand reach out, could feel her warm stomach against his palm before even touching her, but pulled back instead. “I hope you believe me.”
She turned to face him, black rings encircling her eyes, stealing the green sparkle Dean had come to love. “Who gets a blowjob from some meth head stripper on a boat?”
Dean backpedalled into the living room and dropped his cell onto the coffee table. “I’ve never seen him do something like that before. Jon is in a weird place right now.”
She responded with an incredulous grunt. “I guess so.”
They stared at each other, sharing an agonizing moment that stretched way too long.
“And don’t even try telling me this was the first time your friends have ordered out, because I’m not buying it. Carrie told me Shaun knows the owner of Silk.”
“What do you want me to say, Evy?”
Defensively, she folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the counter. Dean wanted to wrap her in a bear hug and make it all go away. But they were past that now.
“Have you had sex with a hooker before?” she asked.
His jaw put a dent in the tiled floor. “You can’t be serious.”
An indifferent shrug pulled on her purple hoodie. She went into the bedroom and he followed. “I’m just trying to figure out who the real Dean Jacobs is before I marry him in less than two weeks.”
He reached out and took her arm. Evy pulled away, bumping into the unmade bed.
“I have never slept with a hooker. Jesus Christ!”
“What about a stripper?”
He hedged, but only for a split second. “Of course not.”
Although it wasn’t funny, she laughed and pushed past him. “I bet you were the kind of guy who booty-called people in the middle of the afternoon.”
His brow crumpled. “Where is this coming from?”
“Maybe I’m just getting to know the real you. The one people have warned me about.”
“Like who?” Dean waited for an answer that didn’t come. “Look, I had nothing to do with what happened out on that boat. I’m sorry it went down like it did but none of it gives you a free pass to start digging into the past. I admit I wasn’t perfect, but that was then.”
Evy unzipped her hoodie and threw it to the bed, refusing to make eye contact with him.
Dean came up behind her, drawn to her scent, needing to touch her, barely finding his breath. “This is now,” he said softly, pulling her into a hard, raw kiss.
Evy resisted at first, just like she had on that downtown street so long ago. But his touch was too much to bear and she melted into him just like before. She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him close until they were one. For a moment, everything else faded away. Their troubles were no match for the spark between them and when they pulled apart, they fell into each other’s eyes. Her sparkle was back.
Dean cupped her cheek and spoke with a confidence most will never find. “Now, I just want to be with you for the rest of my life. Only you.”
The sparkle began to soften. “And how long until you get bored?”
Dean’s face soured. “Bored?”
“Yeah, Dean, bored. Bored with me and the responsibilities that come with a house and family.” Her eyes thinned into slits. “You say you want kids but I have a hard time imagining you changing diapers.”
“Why does everyone keep saying that?”
“Maybe because you don’t exactly come off as the family man type.”
Hurt flashed in his eyes. Blood pounded thickly in his temples. His words came out in a hoarse whisper. “That’s not true and you know it.”
“Do I?”
Dean could hear the heavy breaths of air storming his lungs in the flabbergasted silence between them. He searched her face for a sign that she was joking and came up empty-handed. “I would never do anything to jeopardize our relationship. I love you!”
“But can you really leave the old you in the past? Forever?”
He set his jaw, anger building inside. “You act like I murdered someone.”
She rubbed her arms like she was cold and spoke gravely. “Your past will always haunt me.”
He studied her for a few seconds before laughing out loud. “Because of Megan or Richie?”
“Because of you, Dean! We can’t go anywhere without running into one of your little ex-bimbos.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it!”
“Oh really? How about that redhead we ran into at the Brewer’s game? Or that short girl at the grocery store?” Her eyebrows rose into her forehead. “Shall I go on?”
He hung his head, biting his tongue. With the wedding right around the corner, Dean knew the pressure was building and any little thing could ignite an explosive argument between them. He had seen it before with his own mom shortly before the car accident that stole his parents’ lives like a thief in the night. He could remember his mom scrambling to make her father’s second wedding – this time to a woman half his age – grumbling under her breath as she got dressed to the nines. They had been running late and Dean’s father couldn’t find the car keys. Even though they had a spare set, he refused to leave until finding them. After ten more minutes of searching, Dean’s mom had finally blown her top. It was all it had taken to launch his parents into a full scale war.
A set of lost keys.
Last night, made that pale in comparison and Dean knew it was
time to diffuse this bomb before anyone could get hurt further. He took a calming breath and released it. “You know what? I am way too tired to deal with this right now and so are you. Let me get a nap and then we’ll…”
“Fine,” she said curtly, grabbing her hoodie and stomping off. She stopped in the living room and whirled on her heels. “Oh, and guess who we ran into last night?”
He massaged his temples with both hands. “I have no idea.”
“You’re little friend, Megan.” Evy draped the hoodie over her arm.
His heart stuttered in his chest, beating out of rhythm. “No.”
“She’s quite the catch, Dean. I can only imagine how high your standards soared back then.”
Anger bubbled inside his veins. “Sorry I’m not as perfect as you, Evy, but guess what…sometimes shit don’t work out.” His chest heaved beneath his dirty shirt. A far off ringing in his ears threatened to set fire to the headache blooming behind his eyes. “Get over it…or get out.”
Hurt flickered across her face and time came to a halt. The walls throbbed with the tension between them, sucking the air from the room. “You got it,” Evy said, turning for the patio door.
“Busy feeding the homeless today, Mother Theresa?”
“Fuck you, Dean.” She slid the patio door back and stormed outside without closing it.
He rushed over and popped his head out, squinting in the bright sunshine. “Maybe adopting an orphan or saving a whale?”
She flipped him off without looking back, power walking her sneakers across the manicured courtyard to her car.
Dean slid the glass door shut on its track and drew the blinds in a noisy clatter. “Fuck!” he yelled, kicking the coffee table and knocking his cell phone to the floor. He snatched it up and threw it against the wall, shattering it into pieces and taking a chunk of chocolate colored drywall with it. His heart sank. The central air kicked on and hummed loudly in his head, feeding the dull thud behind his eyes.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Brooke stroked Ben’s cock until it showed off every square inch of its tattoo. She looked up at him with a gleam in her eye. “Looks like you were a good boy after all.”
“Told you,” he panted, snapping his head around to the hallway leading to the front door. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Her hand went faster, sliding down his shaft and rising up over the bulbous tip of his helmet. She knew what he liked and happily obliged.
“Nothing,” Ben replied, pulling her shirt up over her breasts and pinching her nipples. Her hand went faster and he closed his eyes, breath hot and heavy. In a flash, he yanked her sweats down to join the jeans already crumpled around his ankles. She kicked out of the sweats and he shoved her back onto the couch with a shriek bursting from her lips. He waddled closer and used his muscular arms to pin her legs back, rubbing his hard cock against her wet lips until she moaned his name in his ear.
“Put it in me,” she whispered, raking her nails down his back. “Hurry, I have to get to work.”
Ben reached down and slid it in, squeezing his eyes shut as her warmth wrapped around him like coming home. Brooke shuddered with the intrusion. He didn’t waste time with pleasantries and went in deep and held it there for a moment. She arched her back and groaned, feeling his cock twitch inside of her. Ben brushed hair from her face, watching her reaction. They kissed as he began pumping his hips, gyrating slowly at first.
“Oh, Ben,” she whispered, stretching the last letter of his name.
His thrusts quickly turned greedy. He tried kicking his jeans off to get a better angle but it was no use. They were locked in tight around his ankles. Nevertheless, he didn’t let it impede his progress and pounded into his wife until skin slapped on skin, watching her squirm beneath him with a guilty pleasure in his eyes.
“I love you so much,” she panted, breasts bouncing with each punishing plunge.
He stared down into her green eyes, his cock swelling even more. “I love you, too, baby.”
“Don’t stop!”
He hedged for a moment, knowing it would be the end of him if he fulfilled her request, and then laid into her like there was no tomorrow. Brooke pressed her head back into the couch and cried out to the ceiling fan above. Ben spread her legs wider, triceps bulging. Skin slapped against skin. The floor shook. His face tightened. He grunted her name and Brooke wrapped her legs around his hulking back and squeezed. Ben kept pumping, filling her with his seed, couch legs scraping. Brooke curled her toes and tensed every muscle in her body as a surge of ecstasy rippled through her, and at that very moment, they melted into something else, something impossible to put into words. A single entity that would always stand the test of time.
Together.
Ben slowed his roll and chased his breath, but didn’t stop. They stared into one another’s eyes, a silent understanding passing between them as she clenched her wet muscles around him. He caressed her cheek, feeling her heart beat against his.
“That was amazing,” she finally said, using her legs to pull him closer when he tried to pull out.
His chest heaved. His wrists ached. “You’re amazing.”
A wry grin tugged at the corner of Brooke’s smeared lips. “How did you ever live without me before?”
“I suffered through.”
“I guess you did.”
A clatter in the foyer drew Ben’s eyes. “What was that?”
“What was what?” she asked, running her hands over his full ass.
Ben pushed himself off the couch and pulled his jeans up with a quick hop. “Sounded like cans.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Dean stared at the broken pieces of his cell phone, cursing himself for losing his temper. Evy was probably trying to call him right now to apologize, or meet somewhere in the middle, and he would have no way of knowing until after a tedious trip to the Sprint store with its bright lights and drawn out customers. “Shit!” He kicked the broken pieces against the wall, knowing that trip would have to wait. His hands found his face and rubbed, regret setting in with exhaustion. They were to be married in less than two weeks and this happens. He snorted at the timing of it all, knowing that…
The patio door slid back on its tracks, jerking him from his thoughts. His heart jumped into his throat. She was back. He had left the door unlocked on the offshoot such a thing might happen. They had always agreed never to part ways angry and now Evy was back to live up to their promise. The blinds clattered against each other, moving back and forth in a plastic wave, giving him brief glimpses of her jeans. She divided the blinds with tented hands and brought the summer heat inside with her.
Dean stumbled back into the coffee table and nearly toppled over as Megan stepped into his condo in slow motion – like the Terminator in one of those frantic scenes where everyone is scrambling for safety. When she smiled at him, relief washed over him. He had fallen asleep and it was just a nightmare. The first few years after his parents’ sudden death, he could sometimes figure out he was in a nightmare and make himself wake up. And this was definitely one of those times because Megan would never have the balls to come over to his place, let alone smile at him like that. Not after everything she had put him through. No one was that crazy.
“I know what you’re thinking but before you kick me out, I just want to apologize for last night.”
He grappled for words, trying to blink himself awake and failing. He wiped sweat from his brow. “This is the last time I get a garden level condo,” he muttered, his voice sounding like someone else’s.
She crossed the living room in a pair of blue high heels that clacked against the dark hardwood flooring. Her pungent perfume reached out and trailed its claws over Dean’s face. His stomach rolled as the Victoria’s Secret fragrance scratched his cheeks, resurrecting painful memories inside. That first night with Megan here in this condo. The baby. Clay Crawford and Sugars. Dean swallowed dryly, his heart pumping blood too fast through his veins.
Mr. R
yder.
These thoughts haunted him like restless spirits inhabiting an old mansion he could not escape.
Then it hit him in the blink of an eye.
Evy and he would never escape. Not together. Together, the memories only doubled in pain.
“Get out,” he managed to say, sidestepping the coffee table.
She came closer, a sheepish look on her face. “I ran into Evy last night and…said some things I shouldn’t have.”
He shook his head to clear the cobwebs of a sleepless night. “I don’t care.”
“Dean,” she said, setting a warm hand on his chest. “I had a few too many last night and I just want you to know that will never happen again. I promise.”
He knocked her hand away and the realization that this wasn’t a dream hit him like a sledgehammer. “Just you having the nerve to come here, let alone speak to Evy last night, tells me that you are so fucking psycho there is no possible way you can raise a child. I’m calling social services.”
Her face softened. “Jack is doing just fine.” She paused with that goddamn smug look tacked onto her face. “He has your eyes.”
Dean’s pulse thumped in the hollow of his neck. His palms sweat. The room began a lazy spin. “You crazy bitch.”
She took a step toward him. “I know you and Evy are getting married soon. And I don’t want either of you worrying about seeing me ever again, because you won’t. And I mean it, Dean.”
He laughed, pressing up against a wall.
She looked up into his big browns and smiled warmly. “My family has put you through enough but if you ever need anything, I will always be here for you. I owe you at least that much.”
His face hardened, empowering his strong jaw line as his blood reached a boil. “The only thing you owe me is your absence from my life.”
Megan stared up at him in silence. Her blue eyes watered. Her lower lip trembled. “And that is exactly what you will get. I am so sorry for all of the pain my family has caused you. It wasn’t fair and I know that now. Unfortunately, it took my father going to prison to see it but I see it.”
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