“Could you give me a ride to the bus station?”
She laughed. “Are you going to catch a bus wearing your wrestling trunks?”
He had forgotten he had gone outside straight from the ring.
“Give me a minute to go get my gear.”
“Sure, I’ll go ahead and pull my car around.”
Billy was in such a hurry to get out of there he didn’t bother to change. He just grabbed his bag and beat it out the back door.
“I’m going to take you by my house to let you shower and change,” she said as he slid into the car.
He didn’t have the strength left to argue with her.
Chapter 25
“Is he not yummy?” Elena eyed Al Hurtz like a piece of meat as he walked past them on his way out the door.
“Not as yummy as Billy.”
“You mind if I follow Mr. Yummy Pants out to his car?”
“Go for it.”
PJ had taken them backstage after the show and Lizzie had to admit she was getting a little nervous waiting to see how Daddy was taking the news of her and Billy getting married.
It didn’t help matters any that her best friend had ditched her and her kid brother had left her there to go out to the parking lot to do who knows what with that goofy little blond. After talking to her for less than a minute, Lizzie knew Elena had been right about her being the type of girl that gives blondes a bad name.
“There’s my girl.” Daddy came out of the dressing room to greet her with a big smile and a kiss on the cheek. “What did you think of your old man’s match?”
“I’m just glad you aren’t hurt.” After the pounding he’d taken in the ring she hadn’t expected him to be in such a good mood.
“I love working with Valentine. You have to respect a man who can take it just as hard as he dishes it out. Boy, did we tear the house down or what?”
“You were amazing as always.” The man who must have been the promoter handed him an envelope that Paul slipped into his jacket pocket.
“Joe, I don’t believe you’ve met my daughter. This is Elizabeth.” Her daddy gave her that look that always made her feel like the very center of his universe. “Lizzie, this is Joe Murnick, the man who runs the shows here in Raleigh.”
“Nice to meet you,” Lizzie said politely.
“Same here, I swear Paul she’s the spitting image of Glenda,” he said, shaking Lizzie’s hand. “You tell your grandma I said hello. That Glenda was quite a looker back in the day.”
“She still is and I bet she could still go in the ring if she had to,” Daddy said with a laugh.
“Where’s Billy?” she asked as soon as Mr. Murnick went back into the dressing room.
“He rode over to the Lodestone with some of the others. I told him we would meet him there to grab a bite to eat.”
Her daddy sat down his bag to count the money in his pay envelope.
“Always a good payoff when me and Valentine knock the shit out of each other,” he said, tucking the bills into his wallet. “I’ll be sore as hell by the time we finish this loop, but I’ll be going home with a big fat wallet.”
He put his arm around her, “Come on Pumpkin, I need a ride over to the Lodestone.”
“You’re going to let PJ drive by himself?”
“Why sure. He’s an excellent driver and I know he wants to spend a little quality time with his girl.”
“I can’t believe you set him up with one of your groupies.”
“She’s a nice kid.”
“She’s a nineteen year old woman.”
“Your brother is very mature for his age,” he said, leading her to the door. “Although I would appreciate it if you didn’t discuss his love life with Carol Ann.”
“What about my love life?”
“We’ll talk about that in the car.”
***
Lizzie scanned the dining room of the Lodestone and didn’t see Billy, her brother or Elena. As long as her daddy had taken to sign autographs and chat with fans outside the building, Billy should have gotten there a long time ago.
“We’ll have two loaded cheeseburger plates, and make my burger a double.” Daddy told the waitress, not bothering to ask Lizzie what she wanted or wait for Billy.
“Aren’t we going to wait for PJ?” She asked, “And where is Billy?”
“My car’s in the lot, so your brother has probably already gone up to our room.”
“You’re letting him be alone with a girl in a motel room?”
Talk about a double standard.
“Yeah, I trust him,” he said with a wink and a grin. “About Billy, Sweetie, I hate to have to be the one to tell you this, but one of the girls over there told me Billy left the building with that slut who follows William around.”
“No he didn’t.”
“Lizzie, I have no reason to lie to you.”
“Yes, you do. You lied to me about him being with that girl in Japan.”
“Honestly, we went outside after his match and had a nice talk. He told me about the wedding and I said I didn’t approve, but if that was what you wanted then I would just have to accept it.”
“You told him it was okay for us to get married on Saturday?”
“Yes, I did. I can’t believe you would make plans to go off and get married and not even ask me to walk you down the aisle.” He paused while the waitress sat their burgers down on the table. “I have to say that really hurt my feelings, Elizabeth.”
She knew it wasn’t good when he went with Elizabeth. He only used her full name when he was angry.
“How about my feelings?”
“I’ve been trying to protect them from the day you met Billy. I never should have allowed Glenda to invite him over for Christmas dinner.”
“I don’t know where Billy is, but I know he didn’t leave with some whore. He would not do that to me.”
“Do you think I’m enjoying this? I hate to be the one who always has to pick up the pieces.”
“Daddy, just stop lying to me. I’m so sick of all your lies to try to break us up.”
He waved over two of the girls he had pointed to earlier. “Would you ladies be so kind as to tell my daughter who you saw Billy Dalton leave the building with?”
“He got in the car with that weird red haired girl.”
“The one who usually sees William,” the second girl added.
“What’s going on?” Elena asked.
Lizzie didn’t know when she had ever been so glad to see her best friend.
“They are trying to make me believe that Billy left the building with some slut,” Lizzie said as she scooted over so Elena could join them.
“The only sluts I see are the ones hovering over this table.” Elena glared at the two girls. “Stop stirring shit just because you’re jealous of Billy having a fiancée.”
“I saw him get in a car with that witch. I swear I did.”
“Just because he got in a car with a girl doesn’t mean he was messing around with her. Believe it or not, there are women who can give a man a ride without sucking his dick. I know I’ve given Paul a ride before and he kept his pants on the whole time we were in the car, right Paul?”
Her daddy shooed the girls off and went back to his burger, ignoring all of them.
“I’m guessing Billy got to feeling bad from the jet lag and told Paul to let you know he was going to go on back to the hotel to get some rest. Your daddy is once again, trying to cause problems.” She smirked at him. “Odessa is so hung up on William that she wouldn’t do anything with Billy or anyone else for that matter. I’m sure she was just being polite by offering him a ride.”
“Whose dick have you been sucking tonight?” Paul reached over and wiped her smeared lipstick with his napkin.
She smacked his hand away. “That’s none of your business.”
“Let’s go back to the hotel,” Lizzie pleaded.
“Stop worrying and finish your burger.” Elena gave her knee a gentle squeeze under the t
able. “I guarantee you that Billy is back there sound asleep.”
“Or he’s off screwing that redhead’s brains out.” Her daddy reached for the check and stood to flag down their waitress. “I’ll be in room 116 when you learn the truth and need my shoulder to cry on.”
***
“See, I told you he would be right…” Elena stopped in mid-sentence.
The bed was empty. The bathroom was empty. There was no trace of Billy anywhere in that hotel room.
“This cannot be happening. Not after last night.” Lizzie crumpled onto the bed. “It was all so perfect, I can’t believe he would do this to me.”
“So far the only proof we have of anything is him not being in this room,” Elena said, sitting down beside her.
“Stop defending him. Just stop it,” Lizzie cried. “This is my payback for being such a horrible selfish bitch and throwing a tantrum on him yesterday.”
“Waking him up isn’t a temper tantrum.” She wrapped a confronting arm around Lizzie’s shoulder. “I’m sure there is a good reason why he’s not here.”
“Yeah, he’s off screwing that witch.”
“I’ve never seen Odessa with anyone but William and one other person. She only comes to the shows when he’s in town. She never hangs around the Lodestone. She’s really weird and all, but I wouldn’t call her a rat.”
“Who’s the other person besides William?”
“Your daddy. She was with Paul before she met William.” Elena laughed. “In fact, I saw her pour a pitcher of beer in Paul’s lap the night she left with William. I thought Carol Ann was going to beat her ass when she came out of the bathroom and saw the whole thing.”
“I wish Carol Ann had beat her up.”
“I don’t believe she just showed up out of the blue to steal away your man. If she was there, and I do mean if, I’m sure William sent her there to check on Billy.
“Really?” Lizzie so wanted to believe Elena.
“Why don’t you call William?”
“I don’t know. It is getting late.”
“They’re an hour behind us in New Orleans. Call Dinera and find out where he’s working tonight.
Lizzie got her address book and found Dinera’s number. Taking a huge gulp, she dialed the hotel operator for an outside line.
“Hello, Lizzie darling.” Dinera always weirded her out by knowing who it was every time she called. “Are you okay?”
“I’m sorry to bother you. I was just wondering where William was wrestling tonight. Billy wanted to ask him something.” Lizzie lied, hoping Dinera wouldn’t pick up on my nervousness.
“Are you sure nothing is wrong?”
“I’ll be alright after we talk to William.”
“Hold on a moment while I get his date book.” Lizzie waited in silence until Dinera came back on the line. “He’s in California this week.”
Lizzie wrote down the number of the hotel and told Dinera goodbye. Her hand shook so bad, she could hardly dial the phone.
“Hello,” he answered on the second ring.
“William, this is Lizzie.”
“Did Billy make it home okay?”
“You’ve not talked to him?”
“No, not since I put him on a plane back to Japan. Lizzie, what’s wrong?”
“He’s left me for Odessa.”
“Do what?”
“Daddy told me he left the building with Odessa.”
“My Odessa?”
How many Odessa’s were there in Raleigh? It wasn’t like that was a common name.
“Your Daddy is once again showing his ass to try to break you two up.” William laughed heartily. “I can assure you that Billy is not with Dess. I just got off the phone with her not ten minutes ago and she was in bed all by herself.”
Okay, if he wasn’t with this Odessa chick, then where the hell was he?
Chapter 26
It was all Billy could do to stand there in the shower letting the scalding water pelt his back. Still, it wasn’t hot enough to wash away the stench of what he had done - screwing around with his own sister. Loving his sister in a way that was much more than brotherly. Of all the women in the entire world, why did it have to turn out that Lizzie was his baby sister?
The self-hatred gnawed into his gut, hurting him worse than any physical blow that Paul could have dealt. He was such a damn coward that he had ran away from Lizzie after only last night promising to never leave her again.
He just couldn’t do it. He could not go back to that hotel room and tell her that he would never be able to make love to her again. What kind of sick motherfucker wants to marry his own sister?
Minnesota was not going to be enough distance between them. He was going to have to get on the line with Hasegawa and beg the man to let him come back to Japan for good. Maybe if he stayed halfway across the world, he would somehow get on with what was left of his life. He was still going to love her, but at least he wouldn’t be tempted to act on it.
God help him, he hated his mother. He hated her for fucking Paul Bryson and he hated her for having him. Hate wasn’t a strong enough word for his feelings towards Paul. Some father he was, letting Pap take him back to that trailer in Texas when Paul could have given him anything in this whole world he could have ever wanted or needed, all without missing a damn cent. As far as Billy was concerned, Paul Bryson was his father only in the fact that the man’s sperm had ruined his life.
Lizzie was the only one he couldn’t hate. No matter how hard he tried. Sure it irked him that she had been the child Paul had wanted, the little girl who got it all. She got a sports car and a college degree. He got turned into a grown up before he ever had a chance to be a teenager. Billy loved his job but he knew that with nothing to fall back on, he was going wind up just like Pap, dead in the middle of the ring with nothing to show for it.
Yeah, he was throwing himself one hell of a pity party. He would have taken a knife and peeled off his own skin if he thought it would mask this horrible pain of losing his Lizzie.
All because Paul fucking Bryson couldn’t keep his famous dick in his pants!
Out of complete frustration, he punched his fist right through the glass shower stall. The pain felt good, real good. Billy looked down at his bleeding hand like it belonged to someone else.
Then he looked up and saw Odessa on the other side of the shattered glass. She just stood there, frozen like a pinup model in a girly magazine, wearing a little black lacy gown that left next to nothing to his imagination.
He tried to look away, but she had him mesmerized to where all he could do was scan the length of those long legs of hers. No panties, she was a genuine redhead. Perfect little tits with her nipples pressed taunt against the black lace. That creamy pale skin, so white it was almost translucent.
A fucking Goddess of a woman!
A Goddess he wanted to fuck until he could no longer think straight.
When he stepped out of the shower she wrapped a towel around his hand and sank down in front of him on her knees. Billy couldn’t take his eyes off that hair. Sleek and long, down past her ass in a violent cascade of crimson, as straight and smooth as Lizzie’s hair was curly.
He wanted to bury his face in that hair and breathe in until he suffocated with pleasure.
“I’m sorry about your shower.” Billy somehow managed to make his mouth form words. “I’ll pay to get it fixed.”
“It’s alright, I understand.” She looked up at him with her emerald eyes blazing and once again he saw that tigress ready to pounce.
What she did next shocked the hell out of him. She pulled back the towel and started lapping the blood off his hand, giving him a hard on like nobody’s business. Since he was butt naked there was no hiding the obvious.
By the time she licked every drop of blood off his hand, Billy was about ready to explode without her even touching him anywhere else.
He tried to reach for the towel she had tossed aside, but she batted away his good hand.
“
You are magnificent,” she said with her eyes on his manhood.
She stood, and with a graceful swoop wrapped her arms around his neck. Even in her bare feet, she was tall enough for their eyes to lock.
“Billy, will you please take my body to do with as thy will?”
He never had a woman ask for it like that before. Her hand wrapped around his hard on and he was a goner. He would have crawled across broken glass to follow her to bed.
Luckily all he had to do was walk across the hallway. Her bed stood up on a platform like some type of an altar with enormous dark wooden bedposts. The only light came from a candelabra mounted to the wall over the carved headboard.
“Let me feed off your pain and sorrow,” she said, pulling the gown over her head to stand before him in all her glorious nakedness. “Let me make you whole again.”
Billy lay back against the down pillows and she sprang on top of him, taking him without any type of foreplay.
“Your cock feels so wonderful.”
That Dess sure had a way with words.
She rode him hard, grinding her hips until he was right on the edge. Then she slowed the pace, leaning backwards, arching her spine to put her breasts on display.
“You keep that up and I ain’t gonna be able to last much longer.”
“Baby, we got the whole night ahead of us. Don’t hold back, I’ll get you hard again as long as you want to keep going.”
“How about forever?”
“Your wish is my command.”
She ran her hands over her breasts, squeezing them together, rubbing her thumbs over her nipples. Rocking her body against his, she bent forward, presenting her tits to his mouth like an offering.
Billy suckled on her breasts in devoted worship.
”Harder. I like a man who’s not afraid to bite.”
In that moment he wanted to eat her up. Devour all that beautiful flesh. Take back everything Paul had taken away from him.
She came with an ear splitting scream. Her body convulsing so hard she took him right along for the ride with his own roaring release.
Desire Page 18
