by Kristy Love
“Roxie, you can’t beat yourself up like that.” Cassie was always so willing to forgive and forget.
“No, it was a shitty thing to do. I should have never abandoned you. I’m so sorry, Cassie. My God, I’m so freaking sorry. I can’t even tell you.”
“Don’t apologize. I’m just so glad you called me now. If Dad’s so adamant that you don’t call me, why are you calling now?”
I let out a breath. “Dad’s dead.” Saying the words out loud brought some kind of peace over me. His reign of terror was over. I could have my sister back. I could have my life back.
She gasped. “He’s dead? What do you mean he’s dead?”
“He had a heart attack a few days ago and then ended up fighting for his life in the hospital. He didn’t make it.”
“Are you guys okay?”
“I feel like I can breathe, Cassie. For the first time in my life, I feel like I can breathe and live.”
“How’s Mom?”
Leave it to Cassie. She was taking all of this so well and I was amazed she even cared how our mother was doing. “She’s okay. She’s sad, obviously, but not as sad as I think someone’d be after losing their husband, you know? Things weren’t good after he disowned you. Mom tried to fight back, but he threatened her, too. He never hurt us, but he manipulated us into doing what he wanted. It was always more devious, more hateful. Sometimes I think he didn’t really love us, Cassie. We were just pawns in his game, the people he needed to keep his political career afloat.” I didn’t want to tell her the nitty gritty details. She didn’t need to hear how bad things had gotten or that he had hurt our mother after she left.
“I’ve thought that too. When was the funeral?”
“That’s why I’m calling. It’s in two days. Mom’s been really busy trying to plan it and she asked that I call you and ask you to come.”
She was silent for a long time, so long that I wondered if this was when she told me to fuck off. “I would, but I can’t. I have work and Ben and money’s a little tight right now.”
A small whimper came from the back of my throat before it closed. I had a nephew. “His name is Ben?”
“Yeah, my son’s name is Ben.” Her voice was soft and so full of love. It gutted me that I missed this much of her life.
“I never thought I’d know his name.” I took a moment and soaked that in. “Mom said to make sure you come, no matter what. She said she’ll wire you money, send you a driver, whatever it takes to get you to come. She misses you and she hates that it took this to potentially bring us together.”
“I’d love to, Roxie. I’d really love to, but I’m not sure if I can. I have to work tonight and I need the money to keep my electricity on, and my car’s almost out of gas.”
“Please, Cassie, please.” I wasn’t above begging.
“I don’t know, I just don’t see how it’s possible.”
“Let me talk to Mom and I’ll call you back, okay? You’ll answer this time?”
“I’ll answer, I promise.”
“Okay, good. I love you, Cassie. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Love you too, Roxie.”
I hung up and held the phone to my lips, trying hard not to fall apart. She had to come home. I stood and ran down the stairs. My mom was on the phone, but as soon as she saw my face, which I was sure was red and splotchy from crying, she quickly hung up.
“What’s wrong?”
“Cassie. She can’t afford to come home. Mom, we have to get her home. I’ll drive and get her myself. Please.”
“Get her bank account information. I’ll transfer more than enough so she can make the trip. We need her home.”
For the first time in what felt like years, I flung myself around my mom and hugged her tight, tears leaking out and soaking her shoulder. I pulled away and wiped my eyes, then immediately called Cassie back to get her bank information. My mom watched me on the phone with her, her eyes shadowed and her lips pulled down.
Cassie said she’d be here tomorrow.
Tomorrow I’d see my sister for the first time in almost three years.
I needed to get out. I needed to lose myself in music and, maybe, a warm body. “Mom, I’m going to go out for a little bit.”
She frowned. “Don’t you work tomorrow?”
I sighed. Of course. My employers let me have flexible hours, but I still had to go in to keep my job and get a paycheck. “Yes. I’ll be fine. I won’t stay out late. I won’t drink much.”
She nodded, but I could tell she didn’t fully believe me. I wasn’t sure if I believed me. “Do you need help with funeral stuff?”
“No. Surprisingly, your father had it all planned out.” She was silent a moment as she scanned a piece of paper on the table. “Maybe that’s not too surprising. Your dad was a control freak.”
“You can say that again.”
She chuckled. “He had a plot picked out and all the arrangements made and paid for. I just need to contact people to let them know he passed.”
“If you need me to stay home, I’ll help you out.”
“No, it’s fine. The next few days will be hard enough. Go. Enjoy yourself.” She smiled, but it was stiff and didn’t meet her eyes. She turned away and I went up to my room, pulling on a dress and my high heeled boots. I shot a text to Harper.
Roxie: I’m going out. Do you want to come or are you staying in?
I fixed my hair up a little, though I didn’t put much effort into it. Then I applied some makeup. I wasn’t feeling it, but I needed to get out of this house. It was suffocating me.
As I pulled my jacket on, I heard from Harper.
Harper: No, I have work early tomorrow. Don’t want to be hungover or tired. Are you sure you want to go out? Are you okay? Do you want to come over here instead? Please be safe. You aren’t alone.
I typed a quick reply that I was fine and then left. I’d figure it out tomorrow. The problems would still be here in the morning.
THE CROWDS AT Trinity were thin this early. I ordered a Sex on the Beach and scanned the room from the bar. I normally went for something a bit less fruity, but tonight I wanted something different. When the drink was placed in front of me, I put some money down on the counter and took a sip. It was delicious. Peachy and fruity and so damned good.
After I finished my drink, I went out to the dance floor. I didn’t need a guy to have a good time or to dance, it was just a perk. Tonight, I’d go solo.
As I danced, the tension, sadness, anxiety all left. I didn’t worry how I looked, I just let loose. I danced until my hair stuck to my face with sweat and I was out of breath. And I felt better.
I needed another drink, but first I stopped by the bathroom to blot my face with paper towels. Surprisingly, I didn’t look too bad when I finally made my way to a mirror. My face was a little flushed and I tucked damp clumps of hair behind my ears. Luckily, since my hair was so thick, they were largely hidden. I touched up my lipstick before leaving the bathroom.
I scanned the crowd hugging the bar as I moved that way. There seemed to be mostly couples with only a few single guys, though none caught my interest. My eyes fell on a guy sitting by himself at the far end, facing me.
I drank him in slowly as I made my way over. He wore a gray suit with a red tie and filled the suit out perfectly. His hair was slightly curly, though he had it well contained. I wanted to run my fingers through it. Dark stubble dusted his chin. I knew it would feel delicious running against my skin. Everything about him from a distance was unbelievably sexy.
Then I got close enough to notice his eyes, and they were a piercing blue. Bedroom eyes, as though he were in the throes of passion. He flicked them toward me before he turned his attention back to the rum in front of him, and it seemed he looked right through me.
He was, undeniably, the sexiest man I’d ever seen, especially here at Trinity. He looked like a model, fresh from the pages of a magazine. I ordered another Sex on the Beach and his eyes lifted to meet mine again and he smirked,
though only one side of his mouth came up.
I needed him tonight. He was the perfect distraction to make me forget my shitty day.
“What?” I asked as I wrapped my lips around my straw. His eyes dropped briefly to my mouth before coming back up to meet my eyes.
“Sex on the Beach? I didn’t think anyone actually drank those.” My heart skipped a beat. His voice was deep and smooth. And he had a British accent. Dear God. Accents were my weakness. It didn’t matter what kind of accent it was. There was just something about them that made me weak in the knees. Desire coursed through me. He was one sexy motherfucker. Hopefully, he’d be with me tonight.
I hummed with my lips still around the straw. His eyes dropped to my lips again and stayed there. I licked my lower lip before talking, enjoying this game. “I normally don’t, but I wanted something . . . tasty tonight.”
His eyes scanned my body, making me glad I wore my new red dress that hugged me in all the right places. It gave a promise of cleavage I most definitely wanted to deliver on. “Tasty,” he mused.
“Mmm hmm.” I slipped the straw between my lips again and sipped. He rewarded me with the sexy half smirk. “What brings you in to Trinity tonight?”
“I had a meeting next door and needed a drink afterwards.”
I turned so my body faced him and moved nearer until his warm breath fanned my cheek. I could hear him just fine over the music, but I wanted to be closer, so he knew exactly what I had in mind. I let the front of my body brush against his. “Was it a tough meeting?” Innuendo and desire dripped off my words. I wanted him in bed. Badly. More than any man I’d ever bedded before. I just knew he would live up to the promise in his eyes.
“You could say that.” He threw back the rest of his rum and signaled for another. The bartender, a woman, came over immediately and filled it. She leaned over the corner of the bar, pressing her overflowing breasts so they popped out of her neckline even more.
“Anything else?” she purred.
He didn’t spare her another look or word, just laid money down on the bar. The bartender glared at me before turning away. I smiled, happy that he ignored her and happy his eyes were back on me.
“I think she wanted your attention.”
His gaze slid down my body again before meeting my own. “I already have the attention of one gorgeous woman. Who needs another?”
My heart nearly burst from my chest. My panties had to be on fire with the way he looked at me. “Confident.”
“I know what I want.”
“How do you know what I want?”
His lips quirked up. “Because I saw you watching me, stalking me from across the room.”
He’d been watching me? I warmed at that thought. “Oh, really?”
His hand fell on my hip, where my skin was on fire. What would happen when he touched my bare skin? He turned to the side and pulled me between his legs, pressed me close with a hand on my lower back, so low he almost touched my ass. “I know what you want.” He ran his nose along my jaw and tingles ran across my whole body. He stopped with his lips right next to my ear. “And I know I want you.”
I wanted to pass out on the floor. He was one smooth bastard. “I don’t even know your name.”
His lips stayed by my ear, brushing it as they moved. “David.”
“David,” I repeated, mostly in a daze. His other hand abandoned his glass and joined its twin on my lower back. I was pressed so tightly against him that I felt his reaction to me. My breath caught in my throat.
I was in over my head.
“Why don’t you tell me your name?” His voice murmuring in my ear made my brain stop functioning.
“Roxie.” My voice was so breathy and full of desire, I was amazed he heard it.
“Roxie.” The way he said it was so sexy. God, this was hot. Him holding me, talking in my ear, pressed intimately against me. I put my hands around his neck and toyed with the hair that brushed the collar of his shirt.
“It’s nice to meet you, David.”
His response was to nuzzle my neck and trail light kisses there. I shivered. Actually shivered. No man had ever caused a reaction like this in me. “I’m staying in the hotel across the street. Want to come to my room?” he whispered in my ear.
“Yes,” I breathed.
He grabbed my hand and led me out of the club.
AS SOON AS we got to David’s hotel room, he pressed me against the door, holding my hands above my head and pinning me in place with his hips. For the first time, I felt his lips fully against my own. It was a damned good thing he held me in place because my knees weakened. His lips crushed mine and his tongue immediately invaded my mouth. His arousal pressed into my stomach as he leaned over. He kissed me so fervently that I lost my mind. I moaned into his mouth and could hardly breathe.
“You taste incredible,” he said against my lips.
“It’s the peaches from the drink.” I had no idea how I was able to form words because all my effort was going into breathing in and out and staying upright.
“No, it’s you.”
I melted into him even more. He slid one of his hands down my arm, back up and over my shoulder, and then down my side, hiking my dress around my waist before grabbing my leg and wrapping it around his waist. I was on my tiptoes, almost hovering above the ground, but he held me up somehow. He continued to kiss me as his hand delved under my dress, tracing the line of my panties against the inside of my thigh. His fingers danced along that line for so long I was ready to pull my lips from his and beg him to just fucking touch me already. Instead, his fingers grazed up my stomach and to the bottom of my bra. I was afraid of the same wicked dance there, where he’d get close to touching me without actually touching me. I was already panting, my arms still pinned overhead. I wanted him to take me against this door. My original plan of wanting him naked was out the window. I was so aroused, so ready to go, that I just wanted him. I wanted to feel him fill me.
Instead, he moved the cups of my bra over my breasts and took the full weight of them in his palms. His lips curved up in a smile as he kept kissing me.
“Nice,” he said, then went back to kissing me. His hand went behind my back and undid my bra, then he pulled me away from the door, making sure I was still standing upright. He unzipped my dress and it fell to the floor. My bra skated down my arms to land atop it.
I stood nearly naked. David was still in his suit, though he loosened his tie as his eyes skimmed down my body. It felt as if he was touching me with his gaze. He slipped his jacket and tie off and threw them on a chair behind him. I was still leaning against the door, breathing heavily as I watched him undress.
He removed his belt and threw it in the direction of the chair. It hit the arm and slithered to the carpet. His shoes and socks followed. I reached forward to unbutton his shirt, but he stopped my hands and shook his head. Instead, I watched him, desire heating me. How was watching him undress foreplay? It made no sense. His shirt joined the rest of his clothes and then he was back on me. Kissing me, pinning me against the door and stealing my breath.
His hands roamed freely over my skin, touching me everywhere except where I needed him most. I yanked his undershirt and shoved my hands underneath, touching his abs. And he had abs. Not just a flat stomach, but rigid muscle. I sagged against him more.
I pushed my hands higher, found more muscles, more deliciousness that I wanted to explore. I shoved his shirt up to uncover it and he left my lips long enough for me to strip it off. And good God, his torso was divine. Dips and curves around well-cut definition, a small trail of hair that disappeared into his pants. I ran my palms down his chest and went to the button of his pants.
Over the months, I’d hooked up with a fair share of guys. Not hundreds, but a good amount. They were all hot, every single one. I thought I’d seen muscles before, but David put everyone to shame. He was a work of art. I dragged my lips from his mouth and moved them to trail over his chest, tasting his skin, tracing my tongue over the d
efined ridges of his abs.
With a snap of my wrist, his pants came unbuttoned. I pulled him free, stroking him lazily as I met his heated gaze. His eyes grew intense and he pressed his hand against the back of my head, inviting me forward. I obliged. His taste invaded my mouth and I kept my eyes locked on his until he flung his head back and his fingers tensed against my scalp.
I continued rubbing in a torturous rhythm, not going fast enough to bring him relief. Eventually, he yanked me free and hauled me up. He dropped his pants and stepped out of them, then turned us and walked us back to his bed.
I hadn’t even noticed a bed in the room. The only thing I’d seen was David. He was the only thing registering. My knees hit the mattress and we both fell on it, him landing on top of me. We continued kissing; my hands drank in his skin. He slid down, hooked his fingers in my panties and slid them off my legs and to the floor. Kneeling down at the end of the bed, he grabbed my hips and tugged me to the edge of the bed.
Holy shit. Then his mouth and tongue were on me, playing me perfectly, causing my back to arch and my fingers to bury in his hair. He brought me to the edge, but never let me tip over. It seemed he devoured me for seconds and for hours, all at once. He crawled up my body finally, kissing and licking along my skin, driving me closer and closer to my breaking point.
Probably more accurately, if I didn’t get to my breaking point soon, I’d kill him.
I closed my eyes, trying like hell to calm my heart and my breathing, and I heard the crinkle of a wrapper. Before I even had a chance to finish collecting myself, he shoved himself inside me. My back arched off the bed and I wrapped myself around him. He set a punishing rhythm and whispered sexy things in my ear. Between his accent and the pounding of his ruthless thrusts inside me, I finally hit the breaking point. I exploded and screamed his name.
He didn’t even pause. Instead, he kept the pace, dragging my orgasm out, making my toes curl. Right when I thought I was coming down, he leaned down and took my nipple in his mouth. I exploded around him again, my voice hoarse.
