by S. Van Horne
Not giving any of them a chance to talk, I walked her out of the room and over to the elevators. I needed to be inside Tab. Now.
TABITHA
We fell through the door of the hotel room, before stumbling over to the nearest surface which just so happened to be the couch.
Leaning me against it, Damian unzipped the back of my dress and pushed it off my shoulders, not once breaking the kiss that had started back in the elevator.
I’d put on my new sexy bra and had left my panties off hoping to surprise him later, but this totally worked for me. His shirt was half way undone, so I pulled back and lifted it over his head. The move gave him the opportunity to see my undergarments, or lack of.
“Jesus,” he hissed. “You were wearing that the entire night?”
His hands moved up from my ribs to the fine lace of my bra, and whispered over my nipples, teasing me with the lack of pressure. My head fell back, and I let out a whimper as his fingers ghosted back down over them. Obviously, that was enough for him because he yanked on the tops of the cups and pulled it down baring me for him.
Letting out a deep growl, he swooped down and took a nipple in his mouth, laving it and gently nipping with his teeth.
I was about to rip his hair out when he stood up, turned me around and bent me over the couch.
“Sorry baby, I can’t go slow,” he panted over the sound of his belt buckle being undone and his zipper lowering.
I’d just flipped the front opening on my bra, when I felt the pressure of him at my entrance and then he was slamming into me. Shrieking, my back arched and my nails dug into the cushions of the couch in front of me.
“Oh, fucking hell,” he rasped, circling his hips. “You feel like heaven.”
Reaching back, I dug my nails into his ass cheek encouraging him without words to move. I was so wound up that all I could do was grunt and groan as he started thrusting into me. Every time my nails dug deeper, he would thrust harder and faster until all that could be heard in the room was the frantic smacking of skin meeting and our groans.
“You’re mine,” he growled, startling me with a smack to my ass cheek. The sound hit me before the burn did, making me jerk. “Whose are you?” He punctuated it with another smack, this time on the other side, and as I jerked my clit hit the back of the couch, providing enough friction to send me over.
“Yours,” I screamed as I came, tightening around him hard.
He gave three more hard thrusts before he stopped on his hardest thrust yet and groaned as he spilled his release into me. It seemed to go on forever and I could feel it slipping out of me. Releasing my grip on the cushions, I lay my head on whatever part of the couch was actually in front of me and tried to catch my breath.
“Yeah, baby,” he whispered from where his head was resting on my back. “You’re mine.” He punctuated it with a final hard thrust and smack on my ass, sending me over again.
CHAPTER SIX
DAMIAN
WE’D MADE IT THROUGH THE most pretentious wedding in the history of man. The bride had cried while she said her vows, and had then stopped and proceeded to look bored out of her mind for the rest of the service. When Grant had put the ring on her finger, she’d looked at it and sniffed before turning away with a disappointed look on her face. The whole thing had been a comedy show really, and Tabitha and I had elbowed each other on numerous occasions when we’d failed to keep the volume of our laughs down to zero.
Now, we were back at a table with her parents; her mother wearing the most gaudy hat I’d ever seen in my life. It was about three feet wide and had massive fake roses all over it with sparkly diamante things glued everywhere. She’d pretended to cry with happiness during the ceremony and even now she intermittently sniffed and dabbed at her eyes that were as dry as the desert.
Brett and his parents were pushing their luck. They had come to sit down at the table while the coffee was being drunk, and people were now getting over the overwhelming smell of bullshit from the speeches and the wedding itself.
For the last thirty-seven minutes, I’d had to listen to them reminiscing about the ‘good old days’ which basically consisted of stories of Tabitha and Brett’s relationship. I’d done well to tune them out, but the more they droned on, the more irritated I got because it was impossible to ignore them.
I know I had a nerve being upset about Tabitha having a past, especially given what my job had been up until…shit it was still my job. I hadn’t quit it. Jax could be taking orders from women for Tenderloin as I sat here suffering.
Reaching into my coat pocket, I pulled out my phone and tapped out a text to him informing him of an immediate change of availability before hitting send and putting it away. I couldn’t face doing anything like that with anyone else ever again.
“And remember how Tabitha came back in smiling with twigs and grass in her hair,” Philippa said through a fake laugh as I tuned back in. “She had mud on her knees and elbows and everyone knew what they’d been up to, but they were so in love that it didn’t matter.”
Tab downed the rest of her wine and reached for mine, downing that too before looking around and grabbing the attention of a waiter with a tray of wine. Taking a glass, she placed it in front of me, before turning back and taking another two which she put in front of herself.
“Or, that one time when…”
I’d hit my limit. “It’s funny, all these stories coming from your mother where you supposedly banged Tab’s brains out, but she’s never spoke of your abilities with your dick in high regard.” I kept the language as formal as I could to mock them further. “In fact, she said that she’d never come with a man until our first night together.” Whoops, slipped.
Brett’s bruised face twisted viciously.
“And when I spoke to some of the chicks that you’d fucked behind Tab’s back, they said that it hadn’t been worth it because your dick was no larger than this.” I held up one of the baby carrots that had fallen off someone’s plate onto the table that hadn’t been cleaned. Lucky coincidence that one. Turning to his mother, I asked the question that I’d thought up during story number one. “Tell me, how do you know how good your son is in bed? I mean, you keep implying it, so you must have an idea, right?”
His mother gasped and grabbed her bag off the table before storming off with her son sliding along behind her.
I was about to lay into her mother when I heard a familiar voice behind me.
“Damian Taylor?”
My heart sank as I turned around to face one of the biggest gossips in my parents’ circle of twats.
Pretending not to recognize her, I held my hand out. “Wonderful to meet you. And you are?”
Holding my hand between her thumb and finger like it was a dead rat, she didn’t even give it one full shake before she’d dropped it and was rubbing her hand on her thigh.
“Wilma Bedford, as you well know. I’ve been friends with your parents for the last twenty years,” she sniffed, looking around the room as she spoke no doubt looking for more gossip. When she found none, she turned back to the table. “Or at least, I was. As they’re no longer…” she paused looking for the word. “Eligible, I haven’t seen them.”
I shook my head and went to turn around, hoping that she’d get the hint when the word registered with me and I swung around to face her.
“Eligible?”
“Yes,” she puffed her hair with her hand even though it wouldn’t move a millimeter with the amount of hairspray she had in it. “The case against your father for extortion led to their assets being seized. They’re staying in some cabin that belonged to someone in your family, I believe.”
I wanted to laugh at the justice and karma that had been served to them, but I was aware of the whispers behind me and how still Tab had become.
“I have nothing to do with them now, so your story is lost on me,” I said dismissively, turning back around in my seat and reaching for my wine.
“Of course,” Wilma said, not getting
the hint. “You’ve been away from them for years now, after your marriage ended. That poor, poor Kayla,” she tutted, and the grip I had on my wine glass tightened as I heard the gasp from beside me. I hadn’t had the chance to tell Tab about what my family had put me through, and I was ashamed of the marriage as it was, so hearing it like this must have gutted her. “But, you’ve landed on your feet haven’t you. I mean, you won’t have to worry financially being with a Dixon. You might even be able to help your parents out.”
Anything else that she was saying muted in my head as I turned to Tab, begging her with my eyes not to believe a word that the old bag was saying.
The tears that were pouring down her face were a stab to the heart for me. Grabbing her purse, she pushed her seat back and made quickly for the exit with her head down. Not acknowledging anyone, I ran after her.
“Tab!” I said, willing her to slow down, but she just continued walking. “Tabitha, please!’
At that, she spun around and the devastation that I saw on her face made me flinch. Fuck me, I’d fucked up.
“I was going to tell you all of it, but I was embarrassed,” I started.
“You were going to tell me that you were using me for money?” She sneered at me through the tears.
“What? No.” How could she think that?
“Know what, Harry,” her use and emphasis of my Meat Market name was a kick to the balls and a punch to the heart at the same time. “Thank you for your service, but I no longer require you. You’ll still be paid well for everything that you did to me.”
And with that final parting stab, she turned around and walked out of the exit. I’d never felt so cheap, dirty and ashamed in my life.
CHAPTER SEVEN
DAMIAN
IT HAD BEEN THREE WEEKS since my world had fallen apart at the wedding. Twenty-one days of trying to figure out exactly when would have been the best time to tell her what my family had put me through. I couldn’t have told her about them being in shit like they are because I hadn’t known, but I could have and should have told her everything else.
I’d gone and collected our shit from the hotel room and had called Tab repeatedly to find out where she was, begging her in my voicemails to let me know that she was okay. Then I’d gotten angry that after everything we’d been through together, that she had just believed the first bit of bullshit that had come up and had then thrown it in my face.
On my drive home, I’d called Penny to find out if she knew about our parents, but she didn’t know a thing either. Once she’d graduated and got a high paying job as a financial consultant, she’d closed the doors on them. I’d told her everything after Kayla had died and she was nearing graduation. She’d only been two years into her degree when it had happened, so I waited another two years and told her a week before her big day when I was drunk out of my mind. She’d cut my parents out of her life and had moved on to bigger better things.
Now, I was moping around my home. Everything I had reminded me of Tab and it was killing me. I’d driven past her apartment that first night and her lights had been on in her bedroom so I’d continued on, thinking that if I gave her time she’d call me. I was so fucking wrong.
Sitting staring at the pair of scrubs that she had left here, an idea came to me. I knew exactly how to get Tab back.
Grabbing my phone, I rang a friend of mine named Rory and told him my plan. He agreed to help me out like I knew he would. Now, it was on.
TABITHA
I regretted what I’d done, but Brett had used and hurt me so much that when that woman had said that he’d benefit financially from me, I’d freaked out and lashed out. I didn’t know how to fix it.
Damian had left me voicemails on my phone, but I’d been too afraid to listen to any of them in case he was yelling at me. Then a couple of days became a week and I realized that he’d have gone back to work and probably back to the Meat Market too. The night I’d remembered about the agency I’d cried myself to sleep at the thought of him with someone else.
The only thing that had gotten me through the worst of it was my little Toby, but I’d come in on Monday to discover that he’d been adopted. Someone had wanted an obese flatulent dog whose stomach rubbed the floor as it waddled. That had led to me bawling in the break room and going home early. I’d even called in sick the next day and had missed my classes. Now, I was back at work and the place wasn’t the same without him.
We’d just given a German Shephard a good tooth cleaning and he was now in recovery and would be going home in a couple of hours. I was walking to call the next appointment through when the door buzzed and in walked Damian.
DAMIAN
She had swollen eyes and looked like she hadn’t slept in days, but she was still the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
On the drive over here, I’d almost crashed my car into a bush when the little asshole under my arm had let one rip in the car. I’d opened the windows, but my eyes had already been streaming by then and I was gasping for air. Rory had brought up the farting to Tab’s boss when he’d adopted the dog for me and he’d almost shit himself as he slept on the table while Rory signed the papers. The vet had recommended a certain diet food for him which I’d bought almost the entire stock of later that day. So far, I was pretty certain it was getting more rancid than less fragrant.
I’d got here through some miracle, though. As we’d been walking across the lot, I’d been impatient to get to Tabitha and regardless of the tugging on his lead, Toby could only go at one speed with his girth. Losing patience, I’d picked him up, being careful not to squeeze his middle, and had jogged to the door when I’d seen her coming into the waiting area. He was wearing a hat again today, but this was a special one for Tabitha.
Walking up to her, I put my free arm around her and pulled her to me, burying my nose in her hair. “Fuck, I missed you!”
I expected her to push me away and to lash out verbally, but instead she burst into tears and held on tight. “I thought I’d never see you again,” she wailed.
I didn’t want to let her go, but there was a room of nosy bastards watching the show that we were providing them. “Baby, is there somewhere that we can go to talk?”
“Exam room three is free,” her boss said from behind us, scaring the shit out of me.
Turning around, I nodded at him gratefully as I steered us down the hall to the free room. Guiding her in, I closed the door behind us by which point she’d stopped crying and was now standing staring at Gaseous Maximus in my arms.
“Why do you have Toby?” She asked. “How do you have him?”
Passing the weight over to her, I shook my numb arm out. “He’s mine. Well, no he’s ours.” She just stood there staring at me in shock. “Look, I adopted the farting little fucker for you. I knew that you loved him for whatever reason, be it damage from the gas that he’s let out around you or whatever. But, I figured that he needed a home and you were the best person for it,” she stood listening as it all came pouring out of me. “I have a house and a garden so he has space to exerci…” I stopped, thinking back to him trying to walk across the lot just minutes before. “To do his shit,” I corrected, then stood waiting for her to say something. The wait was painful.
“You adopted him?” I nodded. “For me?” I nodded. “To live with you?” Another nod. “Both of us.”
Sighing, I walked up to her and took her face in my hands. “I’m in love with you, Tab. You’re the first thing that I think of every morning, and the last thing I see every night. These last three weeks have been hell without you and quite frankly I can’t function without you.”
The tears were rolling slowly down her face. “But what about the agency? I can’t share you.” She sounded so pained by the prospect that I felt like crying for her when I thought of how I’d feel in her shoes.
“Baby, I quit. You were my last order.”
“Holy shit.”
Nodding solemnly, I wiped the tears away. “And what that bitch said, I would never
use you for anything. Well, maybe sex, but you’d be using me too,” I added the joke in to make her smile because the tears were killing me. It worked and she rolled her eyes. “But I didn’t know about their current state financially because I left them behind years ago. They made me marry a living fucking nightmare who took drugs, drank, fucked guys all over my home and then killed herself sucking a guy off while he drove.”
“You can’t be fucking serious?” She asked, her voice slightly shocked, but a lot angry.
“Yup. And it was my car.” I added that point in, because really it was pertinent to the story and how much shit she’d put me through. I mean, a man and his car have a sacred bond and she’d killed my car.
“I’m so fucking sorry, Damian,” she whispered, putting the farting fatso on the floor. “I hate that they put you through that.” She wrapped her arms around me and buried her face in my neck. Every time I held her, I had to bend down for her to do this, but it was always a pleasure and never a chore to have her so wrapped around me. “I hate that I put you through shit too.” She was crying again.
“It’s done,” I said firmly, and it was. I had to think that if had been through everything she had, I wouldn’t have reacted well to the implication that she was using me either. It had been a shit weekend filled with stress, so I could let her off this one time. “Just don’t do it again.”
“I won’t,” she promised as she tugged me to her even tighter. My body was starting to wake up and the exam table beside us wasn’t looking too bad when I saw a pair of dirty gloves in the trash beside us with what looked like brown smears on them. Fuck that.
“Baby, please stop,” I begged, lifting her head away from where it was nestled and looking her in her beautiful eyes. “It’s over.”
Nodding, she took a deep breath in, and smiled up at me. “I’ve missed you so much.” I can’t say I was tired of hearing her say that, in fact it healed something inside me when she did. “I can’t believe you adopted Toby for me…” she looked behind me in what I assumed was the little shithead’s direction. “Why is he wearing a hat?”
