by Mj Fields
“Pace!”
“What? His dad was cheating on her anyway, and she was fucking begging for it.” He shrugs.
“Oh, my God, you’re awful,” I say, laughing.
“It was simply out of vengeance, but when his dad got gonorrhea, then his mom, and his sisters found out they got it, too, so did Warren.” He shrugs, and I see a ghost of a smile on his face.
“You gave them an STI?”
“Well, one of them gave it to me; I just spread it around.” Now he chuckles.
I laugh. “Did you know before you screwed half the town?”
He shakes his head. “Wish I had, but no.”
Laughing, we walk out of the bathroom and sit on the chairs again.
“I think that’s why he went after Dad with an offer to finance the business and gave him some bullshit about lowering his interest. I wish he’d have talked to me, or at very least let me look over the paperwork. But Paige, I can’t bring myself to tell him. I feel like I failed him.”
“Well, actually …” I sigh. “I may have been the one to cause this.”
When I finish telling Pace about the frat party and cattle call. Then about the summer after, the one after his accident, I fell under his spell, again. I tell him—how he promised me that he never wanted anyone like he did me and begged me to let him help me get in shape. I told him how I bought into his shit, because I wanted so badly to have a boy like Warren Black want a girl like me. How he gave me a meal plan and exercise routine. How I nearly starved myself trying to be what he wanted, what I convinced myself I wanted. And how he humiliated me once again that summer. After I tell Pace all that, I literally have to sit on him to stop him from “killing that bastard.” I ask him to save it until I try to get him to refinance or hold off until I can get the money from my retirement account.
He warns me that he doesn’t think it’ll work, and then we jokingly agree that I have one day, and if it doesn’t, we can both kill him together.
If Pace only knew the rest of the story, he surely would want to kill him. And he may not even like me.
In the morning, I leave Mom and Babička at the hospital to run errands.
When I walk into Black Financial, I have to bite back a laugh when I see his sisters, Wanda and Wendy, at the reception desk. I can’t believe Pace did that!
Dressed to the nines, I walk up to them and smile. “Hey, y’all. I was wondering if I could get a couple minutes of Warren’s time to discuss this.” I slap the foreclosure paperwork on the desk then take a pretend call.
“This is Miss Arnesen.” I pause. “I told you exactly how I wanted it handled. Can you do it, or do you need me there to hold your hand?” I pause again. “Good. Make it happen.” I hang up the phone, sighing dramatically before looking back at them and smiling, “I only have a couple minutes.”
“Paige?”
I see Warren walk out of his office with a big smile on his face. Unfortunately, my fantasy about him having a beer gut and aging horribly isn’t reality. He looks the same. Fucker.
“Hey, Warren.” I smile like I’m not nauseated at the sight of him, which I am. “You got a minute?”
“For you, I have two.” He winks like it’s a joke, but in reality, two minutes is pushing it.
I walk past him and into his office. Again, I feel sick when I hear the door shut.
“My God, you look better than ever.” He motions to the leather seat, and I sit. Instead of walking behind his desk, he sits beside me. “I know why you’re here, but can I just take a minute to look at you?”
“Well, if you think we can hash this out in a minute, I’ll give you a full sixty seconds to look me over.”
“You know I’ve always thought you were the most beautiful girl in this godforsaken town, right?”
Just too fat, I want to remind him.
“Well, thank you, Warren. You know how much that always meant to me.” I shift in my seat, giving off the illusion I’m hot for him. It works.
“Damn.” He licks his lips like he actually knows how to use that mouth. He doesn’t.
Vincent does, I think to myself. God, that man has skill.
The way Warren looks at me, is still looking at me, I know he wants me. I also know he needs a size four on his arm to make him somehow feel like a man. It almost makes me feel sorry for him. How must it be to live in a world where you need to make people envy you? How must it be to live in a world where you envy everyone?
Realization hits. I know all too well how that feels.
With that realization, I feel so much lighter, figuratively of course.
“Paige?” Warren asks as he grips my knee. It makes me sick again.
“Sorry, Warren, I have a lot on my mind right now.”
“Yes, I’m sorry to hear about your family’s inability to keep up on the mortgage.” He shakes his head and frowns.
“Well, I have a solution for that issue. I’d like to buy the business. My credit is impeccable, and if you’d give me an extra twenty-four hours, I may be able to come up with the full three hundred thousand.”
He nods. “Of course.” Then he reaches forward again and squeezes my knee. “Anything for an old friend.”
Friend? What-the-fuck-ever.
He looks at his watch. “My sister can give you the paperwork. I have another meeting I need to get to. How about you and I discuss it over dinner tonight?”
My stomach lurches as I stand. “My number will be on the application. Call me, and I’ll see what I can do.” I turn and head for the door.
“What do you mean, what you can do, Paige? I asked you to dinner.”
“I know, Warren.” I attempt to mask the disdain in my tone. “I do have to check on my father and see that he’s okay.” I look back at him.
“Right, his heart. He’s in my thoughts.”
Then take him the fuck out, I think as I walk out the door.
“I’d like an—”
His sister slides the paperwork across the desk toward me.
Twenty minutes later, I’m in my moms car, trying to gain the courage to call Cheryl when a Facetime request pops up.
I hit accept and see Vincent’s handsome face.
“Good morning.” Again, he looks everywhere around me.
“Morning.” I try to hide my smile.
“Where are you?”
“Just leaving the bank.”
He looks at me now and narrows his eyes. “What bank?”
“The only one in town now. Why? You looking for a new one? I’d suggest not here.” I laugh.
“Why?”
I continue to laugh as I shake my head. “Because it sucks.”
“I see.” He looks me over. “You slept well?”
“I did.”
“Your hair isn’t in braids and your shirt … it’s very low cut. Why?”
“What do you mean, why?”
“I mean, why? Are you on a date?” His nostrils flare a bit, and for some reason, I like it.
“No, but I may have a dinner date this evening.”
He narrows his eyes and leans in. “You owe me, no one else.”
“Are you asking me on a date, Vincent?”
He rolls his eyes.
“Then I suggest you don’t worry about it.”
“Paige, don’t taunt me.”
“Vincent, is there something I can do for you?”
He nods. “Make it go away.”
“Make what go away?”
“The need for you.”
I would laugh, but he doesn’t seem to be joking.
“How do I do that?”
“Give me what you promised,” he tells me.
“Vincent …” I do laugh now. “You are very well-endowed, but not transatlantic.”
“I’m going to come back stateside. When can you meet me at Valentina’s place?”
I smirk. “So you can fuck my ass?”
He nods, licks his lips, and then swallows hard.
“Well, let’s see … My fa
ther is still not home from the hospital. When he gets out, he’ll need to rest and recover for six to eight weeks, and then maybe I can make the excuse to leave here and go get my car. I’ll bend over the hood and let you fuck my ass if that’s what will make this all better for you.”
He shakes his head. “Sooner.”
I laugh. “I have to go.”
“Paige, do it.”
Chapter 9
Bounty On My Head
Vincent
Saying goodbye to the girls was so much harder than expected, but I know they’ll be fine. I know my mentor is a good man, and their uncle Dominic is even better.
Valentina had a harder time than I expected saying goodbye, and I know it made Franco uneasy, which is another reason I am leaving. They needed a chance without insecurities, and apparently, I am feeding his.
The girls made it so even I felt sorry for him because of it. Although, it was of his own doing.
Packing my belongings in my room at the New Jersey home, which Valentina offered me for nothing since they wouldn’t be coming back until Franco could get his paperwork in order, I am ready for a new start.
This morning, before boarding a commercial flight to New jersey, I went to my bank and made two major transactions, leaving my account considerably lower than I was comfortable with. One was for a new bigger, faster boat, with more comforts than my other one, already waiting for me at the marina. Those who say money can’t buy happiness haven’t a clue. This boat will surely make me happy.
The other transaction is pending acceptance.
I knew Paige wouldn’t be accepting of coming here. However, I didn’t expect her to have a date already in the works, nor did I expect her to be sitting in the parking lot of Black Financial.
I would fly down this minute, but I have a boat to check out. I would drive her car to her, but that completely fucks up my plan. And this feeling, this awful feeling in my chest when I think of her, only one other person has made me feel the same in my chest, and it didn’t end well.
With less than eight hundred nautical miles, I plan to use them to get my fucking head on straight by the time I see her. I need to try to decide if I’m fucking losing my mind because of all the changes in my life, or if there is something worth exploring with her. If I’m wrong, I will make damn sure that door is closed, sealed, and this hate you/want you situation I’m in and know she is as well, is sealed forever.
Two days, three tops, and I will see her in person to work out the issue she has created within me. This feeling of hopelessness and hope. The one of pain and pleasure. The one that has incited the worst kind of jealousy I have ever experienced. The desire to once again believe that maybe all women are not weak and so needy that they will drain you and destroy anyone around them for their own personal gain.
Of all women, it had to be her.
But, the chest wants what the chest wants. And her chest, her tits, I want them in my fucking mouth again.
After signing the paperwork, I am starting the engine of my sixty-two-foot, black and silver Predator 62. My dream boat. My retirement plan. My home with no boundaries.
I am in awe of her. She is number seven. For seven years, I have bought and paid for a boat, then traded it in and upgraded. This one is it, though. She will not be upgraded.
Three days later, I am docked at Arnesen Marina and walking down the worn wooden planks toward the building where I will pay to keep my beauty until I no longer need to.
I see a tall man. He’s blond and, as he approaches, I see he has the same blue eyes as Paige. Through research, I know it’s Pace Arnesen, Paige’s brother. Had I not already known, the resemblance would have given it away.
“What can we do for you?” he asks, wiping his hands on a towel.
“I’d like to dock here,” I tell him.
“You sure about that?” He smiles at my boat. “There’re a few places that she won’t stick out like a sore thumb around here.”
“I’m fine here,” I tell him.
“Well, we have a month until new ownership takes over. So, I guess a week is fine, if you’re sure about that.”
I nod. “I’m sure.”
“Well, you’ll have to give me some time to figure out who the payment goes to.”
“I give you my word, I won’t skip out on you.”
His phone rings, and he pulls it out of his pocket and groans, “Dammit.” Then he looks up at me and sighs. “Give me a couple minutes. I have an angry woman to deal with. Then I’ll get you the paperwork and try to figure this all out.”
I nod as he answers, “Hello?” He holds the phone away from his ear as the woman on the other line curses and yells.
Oddly, I think I know the voice.
He turns his back and begins walking toward the building that reads: Arnesen Family Charter Service.
“Not a damn thing we can do about it, Pea.”
I follow him as he continues.
“No, don’t come over. You get … Well, great. I’ll see you inside.” He ends the call with a, “Fuck.”
He looks back and sighs. “I want to apologize for whatever comes out of her mouth.”
“No worries.” I hide a smile, knowing I am right. It’s her.
Walking into the building, I immediately notice how clean it is. I certainly wouldn’t have expected it to be from the outside.
Pace waves his hand toward a seating area with a coffee machine. “Help yourself to some shitty coffee.”
“Thank you.”
“Pace!”
I turn my back when I see a door open, wishing I had waited outside.
“I’m gonna kill him. I swear to you, I’m going to …” She stops and gasps.
“Pea, this man is going to be docking with us. I’m sorry … I didn’t catch your name.”
I turn around to see Paige slap her hand over her mouth.
“My name is Vincent. Hello, Paige.”
“Pea? You okay?” Pace laughs.
She points at me. “What …? What are you …? What are you doing here?”
I scratch my head, unsure of where to begin, but I start with, “I was in the neighborhood.”
“You know each other?” Pace asks.
When she doesn’t respond, I answer for her. “Yes, I worked for her friend, Valentina.”
She places her hands over her stomach then dashes into a room.
“For God’s sake,” Pace grumbles then looks at me. “You sure you don’t want to dock somewhere else?”
Just then, Paige walks back into the room.
“You need to go.”
Not the welcome I was looking for.
“Jesus, Pea. Manners,” her brother scolds her.
“Mind yours,” she snaps back at him as she quickly walks toward me. She grabs my arm and drags me toward the door. “Which ones yours?” she asks as we step outside. “Oh, my God, Vincent, that thing’s huge.”
“That’s what she said.” I chuckle.
She clearly doesn’t think it’s funny.
“You need to get on your ship—”
“It’s a boat,” I correct.
“No, Vincent, that’s a boat.” She points to an old fishing boat that has clearly been well-maintained.
“A fishing boat.” I point to mine. “That’s a boat, as well.”
Clearly flustered, she stammers, “Well, you need to get on it and go far, far away. This place is toxic.”
I don’t say anything. I just look at her. God, she looks beautiful.
“Come with me.”
“Is this about my ass? Because, right now is not the time for ass talk.” She pokes me in the chest.
“Well …” I sigh, “I suppose I’ll have to stick around until you’re ready to talk ass.”
“Don’t you have a job?” she asks, palming her face.
I pull her hand away and see her smiling.
“Let’s try this again, without the yelling, the running away, or trying to ignore the fact that your asshole is puckeri
ng in fear that I’m only here to fuck it. Let’s start over, Paige. Hello.”
Her face falls into a frown before she whispers, “Hi.”
“You’re tired again.” I tug at her braided pigtail.
“I’m exhausted, and I really don’t want you here right now.”
Now my smile falls and turns into a frown … momentarily.
“Things are so … embarrassing right now. So humiliating. I just—”
“More humiliating than a finger in the ass by a woman you’ve stroked it to for years?”
“You loved it,” she jokes.
“I loved your pussy on my face. I want your pussy on my face again. I want to eat you for days, not a fucking hour. I want you to get on my boat right now, unhook those … those …” I scratch my head, trying to figure out what the hell she’s wearing.
“Overalls.” She smiles, running her thumbs beneath the thick denim straps, somehow making them sexy.
“Let them drop to the floor.” I reach out and rub my thumb just under them, immediately feeling the effect I have on her. Nipples hard as stone. “This time, I’ll tie you up and eat your cunt until my face and my bed are so soaked with your cum and you’ve passed out from so many fucking orgasms.”
Her back arches, pushing her tit against my thumb, so I turn my hand and pinch her sexy as fuck nipple.
“That’s a long way to come to eat a pussy,” she moans out.
“Your pussy. To eat your pussy, Paige.”
“And fuck my ass?”
This time when my cock in her ass is mentioned, it isn’t with disdain or fear; it’s like she wants it. Fuck if I will deny her.
I nod and step closer, licking my lips. Then I bend in to kiss her when I hear a crazed woman screaming in a language I have never fucking heard.
Paige jumps back and turns, nearly falling off the dock. I grab her arms, and then she looks up at me with pleading eyes.
“Please, just go.”
When she turns and runs down the dock, I don’t just go. I follow her, hard-on and all.
“Babička!” she yells. “He’s not worth it!”
He?
Now my steps speed up, and as I get closer, I see an old woman swinging a big black bag while screaming at a man.
