by Amy Brent
Candice
After getting unceremoniously fired and escorted from the building on Monday morning, I immediately tried to call Tanner, but found that he had blocked my number from calling his phone.
I immediately knew that something was wrong.
Tanner might have put on the bad boy billionaire persona to everyone else, but to me, he was just Tanner, the amazing man that I couldn’t stop thinking about. The man that made passionate, sweet love to me and in whose arms, I fell asleep every night.
There was no way I was just a fling.
I knew it in my heart.
There wasn’t a shadow of doubt in my mind that Tanner cared deeply for me.
And I cared just as deeply – if not more -- for him.
I could feel it in my bones.
I flagged down a cab and climbed into the back and gave the driver my home address. I tried Tanner’s phone again with the same result.
The little electronic voice told me to fuck off, my number had been blocked.
The voice was wrong.
Tanner would not block my calls.
Something else was going on.
My suspicious mind went into overdrive. It didn’t take long for me to realize that Henry Costas was the one keeping us apart. He had blocked me from calling Tanner’s phone. He had ordered Stan to fire me.
But why?
How was I a threat to him?
You’re not a threat to him, the little voice said.
It’s your relationship with Tanner that’s the threat.
Henry Costas, you slimy douchebag cocksucker.
I’d had red flags waving in my mind since the moment I met him…
Little red flags waving in the air…
Little numbers flying by…
I slid open the contact for Ruth Bennett and called her office. “Ruth Bennett, please. Yes, it’s Candice Carlson.” Happy hold music filled my ear for a moment, then Ruth’s cheerful voice came on the line.
“Candice? Hi, what’s up?”
“Ruth, I may have a problem” I said. “And I need your help.
Candice
“Yes, mom. No, mom. I know mom. No, I haven’t found a job. Because I haven’t looked. Mom, it’s only been four days since they fired me. I know. I should sue. I know. You warned me about men. I know. You told me so. Yes, you did.”
My phone was on the bathroom counter and I had the Bluetooth thingamabob in my ear. It was Friday night in one of the biggest cities on the planet, and there I was in my bra and panties, shaving my legs in the bathroom sink.
I know, it was sad, the things you did when you were an unemployed, unattached, single girl in the big city.
You shave your fucking legs in the bathroom sink, you eat a gallon of Haagen-Dazs chocolate chip ice cream, and you cry yourself to sleep watching a rerun of Bridget Jones Diary on cable.
I tapped the soap off the razor and picked up a towel to dry my leg. The call waiting tone pinged in my ear. Thank god, a reason to get off the phone with my mother.
“Mom, that’s someone calling. No, I don’t know who it is. Mom, if you’ll let me hang up I’ll find out who it is. Okay, love you to. Kisses to daddy.”
I tapped the little button on the Bluetooth without looking at the caller ID on my phone.
“Hello?”
“Hi,” Tanner’s voice breezed softly in my ear.
“Hi yourself,” I said with a sigh. I put a hand over my heart to keep it from pounding through my chest. I lowered myself onto the toilet. My legs were shaking. I didn’t think I could stand.
I asked, “How are you?”
“I’m fine. How are you?”
I struggled to keep the tears at bay. “I’m okay. I heard about Costas being arrested. I’m sorry if I killed your deal. I had to protect you. I hope you understand that.”
“I can forgive you if you can forgive me,” he said. “I was a fool to listen to Henry. I was a fool to let him keep you from me. I won’t ever let anyone keep me from you again.”
The tears began to flow despite my best efforts to keep them locked away.
He asked, “Can I see you?”
I asked, “Yes, where are you.”
He said, “In the hallway outside your door.”
EPILOGUE: Candice
Six months later…
I stood at the bathroom sink, wiping steam off the mirror with the back of my hand. My long hair was wrapped in a towel. My naked body was covered with little beads of water that ran down between my breasts and sluiced through my short pubic hair to my clit.
Tanner appeared behind me, naked, wet, hard and ready. He wrapped his arms around me and cupped my breasts in his palms. He began to gently massage my breasts. He brushed his fingers over my nipples. They never failed to snap to attention at the touch of his fingers or lips.
His hot mouth was on my neck. I leaned my head to the side and moaned as he nibbled his way to my ear. I could feel his hard cock pressing into my back as he pulled me against him.
He moved his hips to slide the shaft up and down against the wet crack of my ass. I could feel his balls mashing into me. I could feel the hot juices pooling in my pussy in anticipation of his cock impaling me. I could feel the juice running down the inside of my thigh and thought, what a waste.
Tanner’s hands slid down my body and found my clit hard and ready beneath the hood. He rolled my clit between his thumbs and slid his fingers into my folds, working his fingers back and forth, soaking them with my juices.
I reached around and took his cock in one hand and his balls in the other. I gently massaged his balls and tugged on his cock. He moaned in my ear.
“I love you,” he sighed.
I opened my eyes to find him staring at me in the mirror.
“I love you, too,” I said.
“You do?” he said.
“I do.”
“Show me.”
I turned to face him. He pressed his lips to mine as my hand slowly stroked his cocked. Our tongues dueled like angry snakes. I rubbed the underside of the head of his cock on my belly, leaving a trail of his salty juice on my skin.
Tanner put his hands under my arms and lifted me onto the sink. With my ass on the edge of the counter, I spread my legs for him and he moved in closer. He hooked his arms under my knees to support my legs and ass. I took his cock in my hand and guided him into me. The head slid inside me and we both smiled.
I braced my palms on the counter top. With his arms under my legs, he lifted my ass off the counter and slid fully into me in one thrust. It pushed the breath from my lungs and made me gasp in the most glorious way.
Tanner slid his cock in and out of me, slowly at first, then a little faster, then a little faster still. His cock and balls were quickly covered in glistening juice that filled the air with the tangy aroma of sex.
We both looked down to watch ourselves fuck. I loved to see his cock sliding in and out of me. He loved to watch my pussy lips grab and hold onto his cock as it slid past them.
This was our favorite position because it gave both of us an amazing view of our carnal connection. It was almost like watching your own porno, only better.
Tanner thrust into me and a shudder quaked through my body.
He was pounding into me faster now, harder.
The slap of our flesh joined the sound of our heavy breathing.
I glanced up at Tanner. Every muscle in his body was flexing.
His head was back.
His teeth were clenched.
His eyes were closed.
He breathed through his nostrils like an angry bull.
“I’m… cumming…” he moaned. “Come… with me…”
I closed my eyes and joined him for the ride.
A few more deep thrusts and Tanner pushed his cock into me as far as it would go and growled as he came.
As he filled me with his hot cum, my own orgasm hit.
I threw my head back and squeezed my eyes shut and felt my entire body shake as th
e orgasm overtook me and sent me over the moon.
When I was over, we opened our eyes and looked down.
We were a hot mess.
And we wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Untitled
THE END
The Happily Ever After Book
A 2 Step Game
I clicked on my email inbox and rolled my neck to ease the pain in my muscles as it came up. I’d been studying so much lately, and I just wanted a full night’s sleep, but no. There were still tests for me, and I was going to enjoy this personal break to check into life outside of college for a moment. I read through them, groaning at all of the spam about meeting Russian women (no thanks) as well as people that wanted to tell me my future. Ah, there was something a little more personal. I clicked on the email from my mom and assumed she wanted to talk about the upcoming Christmas holiday.
I read through the words and frowned as my eyes stayed glued to the first paragraph. She’d be here in Colorado for business next week and wanted
me to meet her fiancée. Fiancée? When was Mom even dating anyone seriously? I rolled my eyes and thought back to her last attempts at a boyfriend since she was a little bit of a gold digger and traveled a lot as a buyer for one of the best boutiques in San Diego. Mom didn’t even need the money of a man, but she liked living the glamorous life, which made the song pop into my head as I bobbed my head. I read through the rest of the email that talked about the month I’d be home with her and my new stepfather and how excited she was to become a little family. The idea made me puke in my mouth a little bit since I still missed my father a lot. He’d been killed in a robbery near the house that Mom still lived in when I was ten, eleven years ago. I was grown up now, but I still missed him and wondered what it would be like with the new man.
Mom didn’t always pick bad guys. A lot of them were decent people, but something was in the mix that caused it not to work out. When I was younger, I suspected that I was a problem for the kind of people that wanted to travel even though Mom had no issues leaving me behind in the car of a friend. Some of the time, it was her or may be her overbearing attitude. It was probably all kinds of things, but I wouldn’t let myself think too much into that. I was trying to release any guilt from my mother not being happy being left with me. My therapist from a few years ago worked hard on that with me, and I did it myself to this day.
Oh, well. At any rate, it was a nice dinner in Denver that I was not going to be paying for. It was a break from the day-to-day stuff. There was a good chance that I may never meet this guy and even if I did, it might not last, to begin with.
I jumped as someone stepped into my apartment as I was closing down the email. “Hey, Larisa. I brought coffee and those sandwiches that you like so much. Let’s get back to this.” I turned and smiled at my best friend Cole as he set a bag down on the coffee table and smiled. He was in a lot of my classes, sharing the same major of Literature. That’s where I met him, and we clicked immediately. Of course, everyone thought that we were dating because he was a male and I was a female.
Cole was a handsome guy with dirty blonde hair and gorgeous emerald eyes, tall and broad so I suppose I could see where our friends would think that. I was cute enough as well with my cinnamon colored eyes and bright caramel hair, and my affinity of doing yoga when I was stressed out. I learned that was a coping mechanism early on and I ran with it since it kept my curves in check. I was tall at five foot ten and carried myself well, but I loved to do yoga in the wee hours of the morning as well when I couldn’t sleep. I knew it wasn’t healthy, but it worked for me and allowed me to eat things such as this hot and cheesy pastrami sandwich that he was pulling out of the bag.
Cole didn’t have to worry about that either since he was part of the football team at the college. I didn’t even see him that much between classes, practice, and games. He just liked to study with me for tests because we seemed to help each other so much.
“Let’s do this,” I secured my thick hair into a messy bun and slid my reading glasses back up my nose as we settled on the couch to eat and read through our flashcards again. We worked well together, mixing the seriousness of the situation with humor and jokes over the next several hours.
Once the clock hit one in the morning, Cole looked at his phone and groaned. “Shit, Ris. I have practice at seven tomorrow, and Coach will kick my ass if it’s dragging at all. Are you good here?” He looked at me with concerned eyes and I smiled and took my glasses off. “You’ll go to sleep and not obsess all night?”
“Yes, of course,” I replied as I leaned back on the couch. He grabbed the bag and shoved his empty coffee cup into it since I’d refilled mine a few times throughout the night. “Get some rest, Cole.”
He smiled at me and looked at me for a few seconds before he headed to the front door. “Lock this,” Cole told me as I stood and walked over to the door. I closed it behind him and locked the deadbolt and the chain before turning around to look at the living room.
My apartment was lovely, with a spacious living room and kitchen in addition to a large bedroom off in the short hallway. Dad had set aside money for my college and Mom let it sit and gain interest so I could focus on my grades. I was lucky that I didn’t have to work and I turned off my kitchen light and walked over to the couch. I debated on going through my cards just one more time and decided to clean up for the following morning before class. I grabbed my kitten Mushy and carried her to my room to sleep with me for a few hours before I had to wake up.
I tossed and turned, thinking of Mom with a new guy and Dad. I was closer to him than Mom. It just worked out that way since Mom worked so much even when I was smaller, where Dad ran a tax business from home. Once he was gone, I was left with family and friends so she could keep working. Dad didn’t leave enough behind to let her stay at home, not that I think she wanted to. He just focused on my college.
I closed my eyes and curled up in the fetal position as Mushy purred and stretched her paws towards my head. Getting her at the shelter was one of the best things I’d ever done, and I finally felt myself relaxing into sleep.
The test went smoothly for both Cole and me, who made it by the skin of his teeth to class. He ran a little late with Coach, and the teacher stared him down as he slipped into the seat beside me. We finished around the same time and grabbed some lunch before running to our other classes for the day. I knew that his days were full and was used to that, which meant that I spent a fair amount of time alone. I had other casual friends; acquaintances. We’d grab a bite to eat or hang out at the bar that served us, but most of the time, I was home. I liked it that way and valued the time to myself.
The week crept along, and I knew that dinner was in just a couple of days. I caught up on everything that I needed so I could relax for the night and dressed in some thick black tights with a plum colored sweater dress. I wore high boots and did my hair in wavy curls that dried as I added a little liner to my eyes with some mascara.
I got into the modest five-year-old Camry that Mom bought for me when I left for college and started the engine as I shivered in my thick coat. I was already feeling uncomfortable, and I scowled as I backed up and headed to the main street to go into the city. I’d talked to Mom and Brett would indeed be there. She gushed about him and how he was just a few years younger than her at thirty-seven but gorgeous. Mom was forty-two but pretty with blue eyes and my hair so I didn’t doubt she could land a younger man. He wasn’t even that much younger, and I wondered if he had any kids, which reminded me of some of the kids that I’d met in the last. That was so awkward. I was an only child, and I suspect that Mom wasn’t into a big family because Dad seemed to love having me around. I never wondered what it would be like to have siblings until it was just Mom and me, deciding that it became lonely fast.
I saw Rioja up ahead and looked for a parking spot in the small lot nearby that would not require me to valet park. I hated spending the extra money on something that I could do myself. Once I was settle
d, I looked in the mirror and forced a smile on my face before I slipped my keys into my purse and headed towards the front door. It was a cute place with a small intimate room and a clear need for reservations, based on the line that was out of the front door by a few feet. I hoped that Mom had done that since I was starving for anything other than the fast stuff that I ate on a daily basis. I excused myself into the door as I felt eyes on my back and shook my head to approach the hostess station. “I’m here to meet Rayna Jones for dinner,” I told her in a soft, slow voice as I heard the raised voices of the angry people behind me.
“Let me see,” the blonde smiled as she went down and list and nodded. “She’s here already, and I think…over there.” The hostess pointed to a corner of the room as I glanced at her name tag and nodded as I saw Mom reading a menu.
“Thank you, Nadine,” I told her as she looked at me with a grin. I made my way to the corner and smiled as Mom glanced up.
“Larisa, there you are.” She stood, and we hugged before she kissed my cheek. “You look lovely.”
“Thanks. So do you,” I told her as she smiled brilliantly. Mom was blessed with great genes that I hoped she was generous with and looked healthy. I knew that her schedule was crazy, and she traveled a lot, but somehow she looked rested now.
“Thank you,” Mom said as she watched a waiter hand me a menu and ask what I wanted to drink. I requested soda to keep myself awake and slipped my jacket off as I looked around. “Cute place.”
“Isn’t it? Brett loves it here,” she said as she ran her left hand through her sleek bob, revealing the sparkling diamond wedding set on her finger.
“Mom, are you-” I started to ask when her eyes settled on someone behind me and she smiled dreamily.
“Brett, I want you to meet my daughter. Larisa, this is Brett, my husband.” Mom stood, and my mouth dropped open as I took in her words.
