by Mia Carson
“Are you offering?”
“Maybe.”
I forced a grin as I drank my beer, giving me time to think as I furiously tried to figure out how to get her to admit to drugging Ella’s beer. I held my bottle out. “To friends and lovers, may they always be the same.”
She clinked her bottle to mine. “To friends and lovers.”
She leaned in a little, offering to kiss me. I thought about doing it, just to keep the momentum going, but I couldn’t do that to Ella, even to try to clear her name. I didn’t pull away. Instead, I ignored it, like I didn’t get the hint as I struggled with how to broach the subject of drug.
“Did Ella really slap you in McDonalds?” I asked, stalling for time and looking for a crack in her story I could exploit.
Cat leaned back, clearly a bit annoyed that I’d ignored her. She probably wasn’t used to that. “She slapped the shit out of me.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t kick her ass.”
“I was surprised and hurt, mostly. Hurt feelings, I mean. I took her to the party just to have a good time, and she blamed me for what happened.”
A thought occurred to me on a way to get Cat to admit what she had done. It was all I could come up with, so it was worth a try.
“I’m still surprised you didn’t kick her ass. As I recall, you didn’t take shit off anyone.”
She snorted and rolled her eyes playfully. “Yeah. Still don’t.” I shook my head and forced a grin as I began to play my hand. “What?” she asked.
I forced the grin wider. “Sorry. My imagination was running away with me.”
She looked at me in that way women have. “Did you want me to kick her ass?”
I held her gaze, my smiled becoming a leer. “What guy wouldn’t? Two sexy women fighting over him? That’s the kind of shit guys dream about.”
“Really?” she asked, drawing the word out. “What if I’d won?”
“I’d have probably taken you somewhere and worn your ass out.”
She chewed her bottom lip. “You could do that now.”
I held her gaze. “Maybe I will. You think you could take her? Ella’s a lot bigger than you.”
“And I’m a lot nastier…in the best ways.”
“I bet you are,” I rumbled, leading her on. “I bet you could seriously fuck her up.”
“You know it. Want me to fuck you up?”
“Tell me what you’d have done to her.”
“Seriously?” she asked, her tone lilting up in surprise.
“Yeah. You into role playing? Tell me what you’d have done to her, and I’ll show you what I’d have done to the winner.”
She softened as she chewed on her bottom lip again. “Kinky. I’ve never done anything like this. Okay, let me see—”
“You’re at the barn and she slapped you for drugging her beer,” I prompted, steering her where I wanted her to go.
“Okay, I’d drugged her beer, and—”
“How?” I interrupted, fishing for details.
“Easy. I took it from Mom. She takes Ambien to help her sleep. I opened Ella’s beer and dropped it inside. She finds out and slaps me. I get up and call her a bitch. I…uh…I grab her hair and she grabs mine.” She looked at me questioningly.
“Hot! Then what?” I encouraged to keep her talking.
She smiled, clearly humoring me and finding my kink amusing. “Then I rip her shirt off and throw her to the ground. She drags me down too, tearing my shirt as she does. We roll around on the ground, screaming at each other. She calls me a whore and I call her a cunt. I…er…let me think…I tell her she doesn’t deserve you and that I can out fuck her any day of the week. You’re cheering me on, telling me to kick her ass. I…uh…I hit her in the face and make her nose bleed and she gives up.”
“Hot as shit!” I said as if her description was turning me on.
“Then you take me into the barn and…” she said, allowing her voice to trail away. Clearly she was waiting for me to take over the story and show her what happened next.
“Would you have really fought for me?” I asked.
“If you wanted me to,” she purred, leaning in closer and putting her hand on my crotch. I left it because I felt she was close to revealing the truth.
“Did you drug Ella’s beer to break us up, just so you could have a shot at me?” I asked, leaning in.
“Did you want me to break you two up?”
“I like a woman that will fight for and take what she wants, one that isn’t afraid to get down and dirty.”
“I’d fight for you, Levi. If I’d known, I’d have fought for you, and I’d have kill the first bitch that got in my way.”
“So you didn’t do it to break us up? Did you do it for Steve?”
“What? No,” she said with a shake of her head. “What happened was an accident. I slipped the tablet into her second beer before I brought it to her. I just wanted her to relax a little and have a little fun. I didn’t know it was going to knock her on her ass like that. It was just a sleeping pill, for Christ’s sake. Mom takes two and I only gave Ella one. She’s such a lightweight.” Cat paused and smiled at me. “If I’d known fighting for you would turn you on, I’d have jumped in her shit a long time ago. Trust me, baby, she wouldn’t need to be drugged for me to handle her. After I’d kicked her ass, I’d have taken good care of you, and you would’ve forgotten all about Ella. Just like I’m going to tonight,” she breathed as she closed in to kiss me.
I’d heard enough. Her explanation of why she’d drugged Ella had the ring of truth. I grabbed her by her hair as I glared at her, preventing her lips from reaching mine.
“You like it rough?” she sneered, her eyes bright with excitement. “You want a woman that’ll fight for you? I’ll fucking fight for you, and I’ll fuck up any bitch that stands in my way. Come on, show me that big cock of yours! I’ll fuck you good.”
“You’re one nasty fucking bitch!” I growled, no longer pretending.
“Yeah, I’m your nasty fucking bitch! Come on, you want to fuck me? I want you to fuck the shit out of me, you bastard.” I threw her away from me. She sneered at me as I stood. She still didn’t get it. “That’s right,” she sneered as she got to her feet. “You want it? I bet you know how to use that big cock of yours, don’t you?”
“You drugged the woman I was going to marry, you whore,” I growled, my voice low and threatening. Her smile slowly faded. “I’m damn sure not going to put my cock where I wouldn’t poke a stick.”
“What? I don’t understand? I thought you wanted…” She paused as her face hardened. “You fucking prick! You lying fucking asshole! This was all a lie!” She paused as she glared at me with a mixture of anger, hate, and fear. “Joke’s on you, asshole! I made it all up because I thought that’s what you wanted to hear! You can’t prove a fucking thing!”
“I don’t need to. I know the truth when I hear it, and I’m going to tell everyone who will listen what you did.”
“It’ll be your word against mine! Nobody’ll believe you! Nobody cares anymore!”
“Mine and Ella’s word, and I care.”
“Get out! Get out before I call the cops, you fucking piece of shit!”
I smiled nastily and touched my forehead with two fingers in a parting salute before I turned for the door. “You’re a fucking asshole!” she screamed. “You always were!” I was still smiling as I shut the door on her without a backwards glance.
20
Ella
I was washing my face and getting ready for bed. I couldn’t believe how much I missed Levi. After him spending only two nights with me, my bed seemed dreadfully lonely without him. I watched myself in the mirror as I scrubbed with the cotton ball. It wasn’t the sex. I smiled at my reflection. Well, it wasn’t just the sex. As much as I liked having my toes curled, going to sleep in his arms and waking up there the next morning was even better. My smile spread. Okay, maybe not better, but it was just as good, and my bed seemed so much more warm and comfort
able when he was in it.
The weather had been good for several days, so the parts counter had been slow as the farmers worked to bring in their crops. That had given me plenty of time to daydream as I went about my normal tasks. We hadn’t made love this morning, but even the five minutes of snuggling I allowed myself after the alarm went off had been wonderful. When I got out of the shower, breakfast was waiting. Normally Abby and I had cereal, but scrambled eggs with cheese, toast, milk, and coffee was even better. He’d even kissed us both as we left, Abby on the forehead and me on the lips.
Abby and I had a long talk on the way to Mom’s about Levi spending the night. I didn’t lie to her or ask her to not tell Grandma, but I explained that Levi and I were ‘friends’ and he’d spent the night. She’d wanted to know where he slept, and after she found out he’d slept with me, she decided that was totally unfair since I wouldn’t let her sleep with me. She also decided she wanted him to sleep with her the next time. With a grin, I’d exerted mommy privilege and claimed him all for myself.
He’d gone back to his family tonight. I was glad he was working it out with his mom and dad, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t wishing he was here. And not for the sex. My lips cracked into another grin as I tossed the cotton ball into the toilet. Well, not just the sex.
My phone rang as I was squirting toothpaste onto my toothbrush. I hurried to the phone and picked it up from my nightstand, beaming when I saw who it was. He was calling later than normal. I didn’t think he was going to call me tonight.
“Hey,” I said, accepting the call and sitting down on my bed.
“I did it,” Levi said. I could hear the contained excitement in his voice.
“What?”
“I talked to Cat and she admitted she drugged your beer. One Ambien tablet, stolen from her mother.”
“You’re kidding?”
“No. I’m on my way home from her place now.”
“Can you stop by? I’d like to hear all about it.”
“I can be there in ten minutes.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
“See you in ten. Love you.”
“Love you,” I repeated and hung up.
My heart was thudding in my chest. I couldn’t believe it! He’d actually gotten her to admit it!
I was standing in the front of the trailer, watching, when I saw headlights pull into my drive. I cracked the door, peeking through the crack in my jams until he got close when I swung the door wide in silent invitation. The moment he stepped in, he swooped me into his arms and kissed me thoroughly.
“Come and sit down! I can’t believe she admitted to it! How’d you get her to do that?”
He sat down on the couch and I sat in the chair across from him so I was facing him. I hadn’t turned on any lights, but there was enough light coming from my bedroom for me to see his face.
“Wits and trickery. I told her I wanted to get together for a drink. I met her at her place, and I let her think you and I were on the outs after that blowout with Steve. I suggested that maybe she and I could hook up, and she spilled it.”
I leaned forward, placing my elbows on my knees. “For some reason I doubt it was that simple.”
He grinned. “It wasn’t much more difficult than that. I made her think I liked a woman who was willing to play dirty to get what she wanted.”
“And she told you about the drug?”
“More or less.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means she’s denying it again, and she’s plenty pissed off at me, but yeah, she admitted it as part of her spiel about how she should have kicked your ass back in high school and taken me away from you.”
“If she’d tried, I’d have stomped her ass into the ground.”
He chuckled. “Don’t I know it. I asked her if she did it for Steve, but she said no. She did it to try to relax you, whatever that means.”
I sighed. “I was so dammed bummed by you being gone. I’d been moping for a week. I guess she was trying to help me feel better. Maybe her heart was in the right place, but that doesn’t change the fact that she screwed me over good.”
“I know.”
“And she told you all this because she wanted to hook up with you?”
“Yeah. I guess she thought it would impress me.”
I could tell he was holding something back. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing.”
“Levi? This is no time to lie to me. You didn’t fuck her, did you?”
“What? No! In fact, I told her ‘I wasn’t putting my cock where I wouldn’t poke a stick.’ She didn’t like that at all.”
I grinned, enjoying the thought of Levi verbally slapping Cat. “So what is it, then?”
He sighed softly. “I implied that I’d wished I slept with her in high school.”
“Did you?”
“No!”
That wasn’t nearly as bad as I was afraid it was going to be. “What else did you tell her?”
He shrugged. “I called her a nasty bitch, but she took that as a compliment. I also told her if you and her were to fight, I thought she’d win. You know, egging her on.” He shrugged. “That’s it. Before you ask, yes, I know you’d mop the floor with her.”
“You’re damn straight! So now what? Can we go to the police?”
“No.”
“No? Why not?”
“Because she’ll just deny saying it again.”
“Didn’t you record it or something?”
“No. No reason to. She’d just disavow the recording. In fact, she’s already started claiming it was all a lie. As I was walking out, between calling me names, she was yelling at me about how she made it all up because she thought that was what I wanted her to say. It was woven into her story about what she was going to do to you, kick your ass, that sort of thing, to win me from you, but I could tell when she said it, it was the truth. So no, legally, you’re no better off than you were before.”
“So you accomplished nothing,” I said, my hopes crushed again.
“I wouldn’t say that. I got what I wanted. The only thing I care about right now is getting Mom and Dad on your side. They’ll believe me when I tell them Cat admitted to drugging you.”
“I guess,” I muttered.
“Hey,” he said with a smile. “How do you eat an elephant?”
“What?”
“How do you eat an elephant?”
I sighed. “I don’t know. How?”
“One bite at a time. We’ll change people’s minds one person at a time, starting with Mom and Dad.”
“I want to see that asshole Steve in jail for what he did!”
“I know, Ella. I do too, but that’s a long shot. Let’s worry about getting the truth out there first, then we can worry about that, okay?”
He was right, but I’d gotten my hopes up again. “Yeah, I know. You’re right.”
He smiled. “We might not be able to have him arrested, but we can damn sure gut him with public opinion. Let him have a taste of what you went through. The difference is, for him, it’ll be the truth.”
I felt a smile tugging at my lips as I thought about it. That would be sweet justice indeed. “I like the way that sounds, actually.”
“I thought you might.”
I got up and moved to the couch to sit beside him. I turned his face to mine and kissed him slowly. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, but I did it for purely selfish reasons.”
“And those were?”
“I want Mom and Dad on my side, our side.”
“You think this will be enough?”
“It’ll have to be. Dad said all they wanted was a shred of evidence and they’d believe you. Well, now I have it.”
I smiled as I stood, turned, and sat on his lap, facing him, my knees on the couch to either side of his legs. “Thank you, Levi, for everything.”
He smiled up at me as he placed his hands on my sides and slowly slid them up and down as he cares
sed me through my pajamas. “You’re welcome. I’m just sorry I wasn’t—”
I placed my hand over his mouth. “We talked about that.”
He placed his hand over mine and kissed my palm at the base of my fingers. “Remember the last time we did this?” he asked as he pulled my hand from his lips.
“When I gave you a lap dance?”
“You made me come in my pants, remember?”
“I remember. It was for your nineteenth birthday. God, that was sexy. I think that was the first time I actually made you come.”
“You’re a much better dancer now,” he said, watching my eyes.
“You’re a pretty good bed dancer yourself.”
He chuckled. “Is that what we’re doing, bed dancing?” he asked as he slowly kissed me between the breasts through my top.
I pushed his head to my chest. “I thought that was the least I could do, considering.”
“Considering what?” he asked, his hands sliding under my shirt to caress my skin.
The dim light from the lamp in my bedroom at the far end of the trailer gave the room a romantic glow. I was wearing my winter PJs, the deep blue pair with the long sleeves and the long pants, but if he kept that up, I wasn’t going to be wearing them very long.
“Don’t you remember? Two or three weeks before, when we sat in your truck and you reached into my shorts?”
“Oh yeah. That was the first time I’d ever seen a woman climax. God was that hot.”
“We shouldn’t have waited. Maybe if we’d—”
“Shhh…” he whispered as he held my gaze. “We talked about that,” he said, parroting my words back to me.
I smiled down at him. “I know. So many mistakes.”
“Waiting wasn’t a mistake. We only made one mistake, and we both made the same one. We didn’t believe in and trust each other. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“I won’t either.” He was still slowly caressing my back, his hands feeling wonderful on my skin. “Can you stay?”
“No. I promised Mom and Dad I’d be home tonight.” He could read my disappointment. “I told them not to wait up and I might be late, so why don’t I hold you for a while?”
