Copyright © 2020 by Kelli Callahan
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No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
Forbidden Kiss
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Also by Kelli Callahan
Prologue
Lucy
There were a million things I thought I would never see or do. Space? I was a secretary, not an astronaut. President of the United States? My career trajectory didn’t go that high. I couldn’t even go a single day without using my hands to count. It was a bad habit I was scolded for when I was a child but never managed to overcome it.
Those were reasonable expectations and limitations.
It was just life. It was how it was. Logical, just like me.
What I never thought I’d see— something completely illogical— was my boyfriend of ten years holding another woman in his arms.
In. My. Bed.
The same bed we slept together in every single night since college. He didn’t even see me. I stood in the doorway, holding take-out in my hand from our favorite diner and a bottle of wine, watching him fuck her in a way he never fucked me. Hard, hand around her throat, and plowing into her like he wasn’t worried about causing her pain. My eyes were glued to him, unable to look away from the scene in front of me. It was like a car wreck. I knew I should look away, but the shock made me wonder if what I saw was real.
The girl was a brunette, of course. He always made comments about that—like I should change my hair color at his whim because we were together. I never thought it was a deal breaker.
Our bed smacked against the wall, and both of them were grunting like wild animals. He had sweat on his back, so they had been going at it for a while now. Why did I notice that? It was the last thing I should have been focused on.
“Fuck yeah, you like that, bitch?” He sneered at her, and I flinched because I never wanted to be spoken to like that.
She seemed to love it because she leaned up on her forearms and bit his lips.
“Yes, Daddy. Just like that. Harder. More!” She groaned like she was in the middle of a porn movie. Her pleasure didn’t even sound real.
And Daddy? I would have called him that—if he asked. Hearing it on her lips sent a shiver of disgust through me. The bottle of wine dropped from my hand, and it landed on the floor; the sound of it shattering didn’t even break the shocked daze I found myself in. Red wine soaked my feet, and the dark green glass flew everywhere. It almost cut my feet. I don’t even know if I would have noticed it if it did.
“Oh my god! Brian!” The porn star in my bed pushed my boyfriend off and covered herself up with my blanket.
Brian’s head snapped in my direction, and the color drained from his face as he pulled out of her, his cock wet, and rolled off the bed. “Lucy! I can explain, okay? Baby, listen—”
“Baby!?” The sex doll gave him a confused stare. “You said you were single!”
“I’d offer to introduce myself, but I know exactly where your hand has been. I’m Lucy. Brian’s girlfriend of ten years.”
“Ten…” Her eyes rounded, and her hand flies to her mouth. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry!”
She started to cry, big messy tears, and the only thing I could think about was how I needed to change the sheets again. Actually, I’d burn them.
“She’s nothing, baby. I promise. Listen to me,” Brian wrapped the sheet around his waist and walked around the bed, his cock was hard, and I could see through the white sheet that he wasn’t wearing a condom with this girl. “Janette,” he turned to the girl he had been having sex with. “Wait.” He tried to keep her from leaving by reaching out to her, but she got out of bed and bent down for her clothes.
His attempt to grab her arm resulted in her yanking it away. “You’re an asshole,” she said, tugging on her shirt. She had tears in her eyes, but it didn’t exactly break my heart.
I was obviously in shock. Still trying to process what I was seeing. The fact that he was in our bed with another woman—not even bothering to use protection.
“I can’t believe you. You liar! I don’t mean anything? After you’ve been fucking me for six months, Brian. Six!”
Having sex without protection was our thing. We were each other’s first. We were supposed to be each other’s last.
“Six?” The word left my lips on an exhaled breath. I glanced around the apartment and noticed how all of my things were put away and only his were out. I usually worked until midnight on Wednesdays. So this was what he did. “Get out,” I finally managed to say. I pointed toward the door, and my temper started to catch up with me as my chest rose and fell in rapid breathes from the effort of trying to hold myself together. “Get the fuck out!” I screamed. “Get out of my fucking apartment!” I threw his cologne at him, and the woman took the opportunity to dash out the door, only in panties and a t-shirt.
He dodged the cologne and held up his hands to try and placate me. “Baby, it wasn’t what it looked like.”
I grabbed the lamp and tossed it at him next. The bulb broke as soon as it hit the floor. “So, you weren’t fucking her?” I threw the Rolex watch his father got him and it slammed against the wall, right behind his head. “You’re a real piece of shit!”
“You know I love you. It’s just been always you. You know? I slipped okay. I made a mistake—” He took a step closer.
“No.” I grabbed my jewelry box, lifted it above my head, and grunted when I slung it through the air.
“Lucy! Oh my god!” The wooden box hit his foot, and he collapsed to the bed, groaning and holding his toes in pain.
Good. I hope I broke them!
“—I love you.” His words came out as a whine. “I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you.”
I pressed my palms to my eyes when they started to burn. I’m going to cry. It was all catching up with me now. “You never loved me. You have been cheating on me for how long?”
He didn’t say anything.
“How long!”
“A few years,” he mumbled, tightening the sheet around his waist.
A laugh that could only be described as disbelief expelled from my lungs. “A few years?” A million scenarios played in my head. Did he have sex with all of them without a condom? How many women? I had to get tested now. It had been a few months since we last had sex, but I never thought he would do this to me. I never thought he was so cruel. “Get out. I never want to see you again.”
“Muffin,” he used the pet name he gave me ten years ago on our first date because I had muffin on the side of my mouth. “Please—”
“You don’t ever get to call me that again. Get out.”
He held his arms out for
me, and tears swam in his eyes. The nerve of him! “I said leave!” My voice broke, and he slowly took his keys in hand, gathered his wallet, and stepped over the mess of glass on the floor. “We need to talk about this. We will talk once things calm down. I don’t care how I need to fix this, but I will. I love you. It’s always been you. I fucked up.”
“You’re only sorry because you got caught,” I whispered as he stood next to me. I didn’t look at him. I kept my eyes forward, hating the warmth coming from his body right now. Hating how I smelled the sweat and sex in the air. “I never want to see you again, Brian.” A tear rolled down my face, and I stepped forward, my boots crunching on the glass. I needed to get away from him.
“Lucy—”
“−−−Are you stupid? I said leave,” I shouted, pushing him against his chest. He stumbled backwards and out the door, his hand flew to the sheet hanging on his hips when he threatened to fall, and I slammed the door in his face. I locked the handle, the deadbolt, and the chain. I turned around and slid down the wood and finally let go and cry.
Heavy sobs wracked my body to the point where I couldn’t breathe. I thought about all the memories we shared, all the laughs, all the times he told me he loved me, and everything was a lie. My first love was nothing but lies.
The wine was still spreading, the puddle expanding as if it had a mind of its own. It got closer to me. Sadness replaced my anger again. I stood, wiped the tears off my face, and marched to the bed. Forcing my hands between the mattress and the box spring, I squatted and used my raged fueled muscles to lift.
Well, I tried to lift, but wow, I did not remember mattresses being this heavy. I grunted, trying again, but all I ended up doing was sliding it over. Sniffling, I wiped my cheek against my shirt and unzipped my purse, grabbing my phone and called my brother Logan.
It rang four times, and for a split second, I didn’t think he was going to answer. “Hey, sis. What’s up?” the voice I depend on the most comforts me instantly, but the pain from the person I loved more than life still lingered.
“Logan.”
“What’s wrong?” He was alert, and I heard his truck starting in the background. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”
“He cheated on me,” I sobbed, holding my hand over my heart to keep it from shattering into a billion pieces. “I saw it, Logan. In the bed. In our bed.”
“That piece of shit. I’m going to kill him.” Logan’s deadly tone made me shiver, and I knew he meant what he said. He never liked Brian. He always told me to break up with him and get away, that I could do better.
I took what he said with a grain of salt because Brian and I had been together for so long, I didn’t want to put effort into someone else. Brian was never perfect; none of us are, but to cheat? I guess Logan had been right all along. He called it. Logan said years ago that Brian was going to hurt me. I asked how he knew, and all he said was, “I can see it in his eyes.”
At the time, I shrugged it off because I didn’t know what that meant.
I do now.
“Can you come help me get the mattress and blankets out of my apartment? I don’t want them here. I don’t want to be here. I can’t think.”
Is this all a dream? Maybe I’m living a nightmare, and I will wake up soon.
Logan stood in the doorway, and that’s when I noticed I had the phone to my ear still from when he hung up a few minutes ago. He took a quick look around, scanning the place to make sure I was safe before he ran to me and took me into a strong hug. “It’s okay. I got you, Lucy. It’s okay.” He kissed my forehead, and the tenderness from my brother only made me cry harder. I felt so pathetic for crying. Brian wasn’t worth the tears, but the betrayal I felt went so deep.
“Come on, let’s get this mattress out of here and then we will go back to my place, watch movies and drink some beer.”
“I just want to get some sleep,” I said and got on the other side of the mattress as Logan lifted it up. Once it was on its side, we slid it through the wine, and the white material got stained red. Logan dropped the tailgate and lifted the mattress onto the bed of his truck.
“How about we set this on fire first? What do you say?” He stretched a free hand out to me and waited for me to take it. “Me and you, Luce. I’ll always have you.”
Ever since our parents died when I was sixteen and Logan was eighteen, he took care of me. We had grown together, and he had become my best friend. I didn’t know what I’d do without him. A life without Brian I’d be able to get used to. A life without Logan?
There wouldn’t be one.
“A bonfire sounds nice.”
“I’ll let you do the honors then,” he said.
Ten minutes later, we pulled up to an empty plot of land where partiers frequently came, and Logan poured lighter fluid all over the mattress and blankets. I lit a match and watched the flame burn the stick for a moment before tossing it onto the ruined pile of memories.
Just like that, my previous life was going up in smoke and fire. I just hoped my heart could be reborn from the ashes.
Chapter One
Lucy
I unloaded the last box from the truck and dropped it in the elevator, pressing the button that would take me to floor seven. Logan and I just moved to New York City yesterday, and while change usually frightened me, I couldn’t wait for the adventure that this was going to bring. This year had been the longest year of my life. Brian kept coming around, and I had to get a restraining order against him. He became unbearable and everything Logan warned me about, I saw over the past three−hundred−and−sixty−five days.
My brother was protective of me, and he got really sick of Brian always getting away with his stalkerish tendencies. He applied to a company in New York that built some of the tallest buildings in the world. I could tell he was trying not to get my hopes up when he told me the chances of him getting it were slim to none because he was just a good old boy from the south that built homes, not skyscrapers.
Apparently, it was the chance of a lifetime for Logan, and he got the job. When he told me he wanted me to get away from Atlanta, away from Brian, and away from the death of our parents, I had no reason to say no to him. So I said yes because a life without my brother would have sucked anyway.
So here I was, unpacking our boxes in our new apartment while Logan worked. He hadn’t been able to help much since he started work the day after we got here. I told him not to worry about it and that I’d make our apartment feel like a home in no time. I was so stinking proud of him for doing this. More than half the skyscrapers in this city are made by Stoneridge Corporations. Logan was kind of a big deal now.
And so was the money that he made.
It kind of made me feel like a bum because here Logan was, Mr. Bigshot builder, and I was unemployed with no job. I knew it took time, but rent in Brooklyn was still crazy expensive. This two-bedroom apartment was three−thousand dollars a month. Logan made enough to cover that and more, but that wasn’t fair to him. I wanted to help. He told me to take my time settling in, but I knew he only said that because he didn’t want to pressure me.
The elevator dinged, and the doors opened, revealing hardwood floors that lead to apartment number 707—my new home. I was so excited to be in a new place! I could hardly believe it. Opening the front door, I set the last box on the kitchen floor and sighed when my back popped.
“I know how you feel. Moving sucks.”
I screamed and held my hand to my heart when I saw a young girl standing in my doorway, holding a margarita pitcher in one hand and chicken wings in another. “Holy shit, you scared me.” The wings smelled so good; my stomach reminded me how hungry I was by grumbling.
“Sorry. I noticed you guys were moving in, and I wanted to introduce myself. I’m Maria,” she said with a bright smile on her face and stepped forward. “I would shake your hand but…” she lifted the wings and the margarita mix up in the air and shook them a bit. “I came with goodies.” She did a little dance to show her excite
ment.
“I can see that. I’m Lucy. My brother is Logan, but he isn’t here right now. He is at work.”
“Just us girls. Cool. Do you have any glasses that I can use? I can help you unpack, or you can take a break.”
A break sounded nice. I had been unloading the U-Haul since eight this morning. It was noon now, and my stomach was growling for those wings in her hand. “Sure. I’ll grab some plates. Sorry, we don’t have a couch yet. We are going to have to hang out on the floor.”
“That’s fine. I’m just glad someone around my age finally lives in the building.” She set the pitcher down on the counter and dug through a few boxes that were labeled ‘kitchen’ just making herself at home.
She was humorous with her huge ball of personality. I could tell. She was one of those women that everyone noticed when they walked into the room because of her robust energy. She was a little taller than me with a short blonde bob. It had a stripe of blue in it, making her sapphire eyes shined with mischief. The black shirt she wore hung off her shoulder, showing golden sun−kissed skin. The front said, ‘Nirvana’, and I wondered if she was actually a fan or just the type that wore the shirt.
My brother was going to love her. He always had a thing for girls that have a bit of a rock and roll edge to them. Maria had tattoos up and down both of her arms in bright colors and fun patterns. I wished I was daring like her, but I’ve never had the courage to lay down for hours to have a needle hit my skin over and over again.
Pain scared the shit out of me.
“Here we go,” she said, reaching into the box. She pulled out two cups and two plates and handed them to me. She acted as if we had been best friends the way she stormed in here and took control. “Can you grab the wings and margarita mix? Thanks, Red.” She hurried to the middle of the living room and sat down on the beige carpet. Boxes surrounded her, and the only thing that worked was the tv and DVD player. We hadn’t been able to call to get the internet yet. I had been applying for jobs on my phone since the Wi−Fi couldn’t be installed until Friday.
Kiss my Boss (Plot Twist, I'm Pregnant Book 1) Page 1
