The Arrangement: Collection C (Vol 7-9)

by Ward, H. M.

  “I don’t think you’d understand. It’s complicated.” Henry watches me sip. For some reason his words feel like an insult.

  I twirl the stem of the glass between my fingers and look up at him. “I’m smart. Try me.”

  “Very well, but first tell me who was keeping you from me yesterday and the day before? As soon as I found out the good news about my invention, I wanted to celebrate—and I wanted to do it with you—however your employer wouldn’t arrange it. So,” Henry slips his hands around my waist and pulls me to him so that our hips bump. His grip is firm, possessive. “Tell me who I’m playing second fiddle to this weekend.”

  I laugh lightly, like he’s funny. “Henry, you know there’s no one else that I’d rather be with—”

  “So Black was just creating supply issues to make me crave you more? Because I already crave you more than is reasonably healthy.”

  “Cravings can be good…” I throw back the rest of the contents in my glass and set it down.

  Henry’s gaze follows my movements. He tips his head to the side and whispers. “What are you craving, love?” Henry leans in and presses his lips to mine. He kisses me and I force myself to kiss him back, even though I don’t want to. When he pulls away, there’s a sparkle in his eye, like he knows something that I don’t.

  “What’s that look?” I ask.

  “You’re too sweet to me, always trying to protect my feelings, but I know who you were with this weekend. I saw you two together.” The floor of my stomach drops like someone cut the elevator cord. Before I can say anything, Henry stops me. “I knew you had other clients, but I didn’t imagine you were screwing him.” The idea of me fucking Sean obviously upset him.

  I touch Henry’s arm lightly and look into his eyes. “Then don’t. Tonight there is no one else, it’s just you and me.”

  He shakes his head. “It’ll never be just you and me. I should probably stow it and just shag you until I’m satisfied, but I can’t stand the idea of you being with him. Do you know who he is? What he’s done?”

  Things are spinning out of control. My pulse pounds faster, so that it’s banging in my head like a drum. “I don’t really get a say in things, Henry. I’m here with you now. I can celebrate with you now.” I try to touch him, but his hand flies out and he swats me away. The action surprises me and I don’t know what to say.

  Henry’s voice sounds light, like it doesn’t matter, but it clearly does. “Yeah? And how should I take you? I’d rather not share the same woman with Ferro, but if I have to, tell me where he fucked you so I don’t get his leftovers.”

  This isn’t like him. “Henry? What’s going on? You hired me. Did you really think you were the only client I had?”

  “I wanted you to myself.”

  “It doesn’t work that way.”

  Henry grabs my wrist hard and yanks me toward him. When Sean did things like that it felt exciting, but right now warning bells are going off in my head. Something isn’t right, but I think I’m overreacting.

  Henry’s jaw is clenched tight and his eyes narrow to thin slits. He hisses in my face, “Maybe it should.”

  “You’re hurting me.” I try to twist away from him, but I can’t. My pulse freaks out. This is wrong. Something has broken in this guy’s brain—I see it in his eyes. Every instinct I have is telling me to haul ass out of there, but the guy has a lobster-like hold on me and he’s fucking twisting. I bend my arm so that my wrist doesn’t snap and yell, “Henry, let go!”

  But he doesn’t release me. Instead, he gets up in my face. When he speaks, his breath washes over my face. I expect him to say something, like he’s hurting me on purpose, but he doesn’t. “You have to know what you did to me, how I felt when I called with good news and couldn’t see you for two days.

  “So, I waited, and the entire time I thought about you—and what he was doing to you—and how you let him. That’s unacceptable, and I intend to show you exactly what I mean, love. You’re mine.” It’s like he’s possessed. He continues to twist my wrist so hard that the skin burns, forcing it up behind my back. He holds it there, driving me onto my knees.

  I’m close to hysterically screaming. It’s climbing up my throat, accompanied by raw terror. Black didn’t seem to screen this guy for crazy, because Henry has bat-shit crazy coming out of his ears.

  Mind racing, I decide to go with what he wanted in the first place—me. Henry wanted me to be his girlfriend. He took this arrangement instead, because it was the only way to get me. Now, I see that he’s not the charming guy I thought he was. Sean is devious, wicked, and maybe even evil, but this guy is insane.

  And that’s the thing that scares me the most—crazy people are irrational—they do things that don’t make sense, and right now Henry is close to breaking my wrist. He doesn’t seem to realize that what he’s doing is bringing tears to my eyes and a tremor to my already strained voice. I try to talk him down, to bring him back enough to grab my bracelet and smash the black bead. All I have to do is get him to let go for a second.

  Steadying my voice, I say, “I’m here now, Henry. I want to hear about everything. We can do anything you want—anything at all. Just let go of my hand and I’m all yours.”

  His eyes blaze with fury. Holy fuck did I say the wrong thing. “No! You’re not! You were with him!” Henry makes a strangled sound in the back of his throat. He releases my wrist and throws me to the floor. “Do you know? Do you even know! That fucker ruined my life! He took her away and now he’s done it again! Because there is no way in hell that I am going to let that son of a bitch do it again!”

  Henry continues to bellow at me. I have no idea what he’s talking about, but there’s a river of bad blood between Henry and Sean. Holy shit, it’s like a deluge of hatred. His eyes aren’t even focused anymore. Henry looks as nuts as he sounds. He’s ranting, with his hands flying, screaming at me like I planned to do this to him.

  I never wanted to hurt him, but right now I’m so scared that he’s going to kick me and smash my ribs. I roll onto my side as he screams, then gracelessly crab-crawl away from him, and finally take a second to jump to my feet. Reaching for my wrist, I feel for the bracelet. Taking my eyes off of Henry would be beyond stupid right now, but my palm only grabs flesh. Frantically, I feel for the black bead, but it’s not there. I chance it and look down.

  Horror washes over me when I stare at my wrist. The bracelet is gone. It’s not there. My pulse pounds in my ears, drowning out everything the crazy man is saying. Henry’s ticking things off on his fingers and stepping toward me, like I personally fucked up his life. As I scan the floor of the room for the bracelet, his words finally sink in.

  “Are you even listening to me, you fucking whore!” Just as I look up, his palm collides with the side of my face. Pain explodes in my cheek as my face whips sideways. Henry grabs me by the shoulders and pins my arms to my sides.

  His voice gets freaky calm. The death grip he has on my shoulders loosens and he pets my arms like I’m a cat. “This is your fault, you know. I normally don’t get this bent out of shape over the little things.” As if fucking Sean was a little thing. How many times has this guy been cheated on? Is that why he’s freaking out? “Today could have been perfect. God knows how hard I tried, love. I tried to put it behind me, to forgive you, but once you walked in here with that slutty dress and that beautiful smile, I kept looking at your mouth. I thought about shoving my cock in between those hot lips and enjoying you like I should. I deserve a good time after what I’ve been through, I do. And you were supposed to be it, but then I kept thinking about it and looking at those lips, and those tits in that dress—and it just kills me that he had you first.” Henry takes a breath and tries to steady himself.

  “I’m a forgiving man, I am. Just ask any of my exes and they’ll tell you that I don’t hold a grudge under normal circumstances, but bloody hell—this is so far beyond normal that I can’t handle it. I can’t…” By the time he’s done talking, his voice is so high and airy that I
’m seriously considering jumping out the window. I can’t get past him to run out the door. What floor are we on? I’m pretty sure a three to four story jump will break my legs and I’m up higher than that.

  I’m talking. I don’t know what I’m saying, but my voice is soothing, soft. My palms are up towards him like he’s going to hurt me and I’m begging him to stop. “You can. You can handle anything, Henry. You can handle this.”

  Slowly, his eyes raise and he looks at me. A bolt of frigid fear shoots through my stomach and lodges in my gut. “Tell me something.”

  I nod. “Anything.” My gaze flicks around the room for the bracelet, but it’s gone. It’s so gone. The clasp must have been broken. It’s probably outside the building in a gutter. Gabe is going to find my chopped up body at Captree tomorrow if I don’t figure out how to get out of here. I make my decision and wait for his question.

  “How do you live with yourself? You see what you’ve done to me and I’m sure you’ve done it to other men. You’re an addiction, and an anomaly. You have a wickedly sinful body, like you’ve used it to get what you wanted your whole life, but there’s this wholesome, chaste thing about you—like you have no idea how to use that body—like you’re shocked when some guy looks at you like he wants you. You can’t be both. It’s not possible to be a virgin slut, but somehow you are.”

  I have no idea how to answer that. My eyes dart between Henry and the door. He notices and the corner of his mouth tugs up. “Do you want to leave? I haven’t even gotten what I paid for yet.”

  Yeah, there’s no way in hell I’m having sex with him now. I don’t do crazy. “I really think we should reschedule.”

  “Yeah?” He steps towards me and I step back. He grins like it’s funny, like he knows that he’s scaring me. “Why? Do you have another client after this? Or is it Ferro again?” Henry steps forward and I step back. He advances on me until my back hits the wall.

  “I want what I paid for, skank.” Henry places his hands on my shoulders and leans, forcing all his weight onto me. My knees buckle and I kneel between him and the wall. I don’t wait for him to whip it out, I act. With all the force I can muster, I draw back my fist and slam it into his junk, while his hands are occupied by his zipper. Henry gasps and doubles over.

  I jump out of the way before he can catch me, but I’m too close the wall. His hand grabs the back of my neck as I race past him. His other hand is there in a flash, strangling me. Rapidly, I step backward, trying to pry his fingers off my neck. I’m screaming at him, but my voice is being choked into silence.

  My knees hit the back of the bed and he pushes me down. The crazed look in his eyes tells me that he’s going to do more than fuck me. He has every intention of hurting me as much as he can. I can sense it even though he never says a word. The silence is thick, suffocating me. I watch in terror as Henry chokes me. A bead of sweat rolls down my temple. His eyes track it as his hands grab at my thighs and shoves my hem out of the way. The beautiful panty is ripped away. When Henry goes to crawl on top of me, something crunches on the floor under his foot. I hear it, but the sound doesn’t register. My heartbeat is a million times louder.

  Henry straddles me. His pants are still on, half undone, and his hands reach for my face. He leans in close, pinning me to the bed. Resting a hand on either side of my face, he strokes me over and over again—slow and creepy. The whites around his eyes are exposed as he stares at my neck without blinking. His hands drift there to the soft spot at the hollow of my throat. His thumb strokes the vulnerable place softly, like he knows that pressing into it will crush my windpipe.

  I’m going to die. My death wish is finally coming true, and it’s not until this moment that I realize how much I want to live. This can’t be the end, it can’t be. I worked too hard and came too damn far on my own to be killed by this man, but there’s nothing I can do. I can’t bite, kick, or claw my way out of this. It’s not until that instant that the tears start cascading down my cheeks.

  Henry closes his hand into a fist and positions his thumb on top of the soft skin on my neck, staring, like he’s mesmerized. He savors the moment, slowly twisting his wrist and feeling me gasping for air as the pressure increases, bit by bit. Before Henry pushes all the way down and buries his thumb in my neck, the door is kicked open. Wood shards fly across the room as the doorjamb breaks apart. Henry looks up just in time to see Gabe coming at him. One of the old guy’s beefy hands collides with Henry’s side.

  As Gabe lands the punch, he says, “Ride’s over, asshole.” Henry is launched off the bed and hits the floor like a rag doll. Gabe walks around and says, “This is from me, personally.” Gabe’s leg swings, and wheezing sounds of pain come from Henry.

  Jumping off the bed, I run over and grab Gabe’s arm before he can kick Henry again. “Don’t,” I plead and tug on his arm. “Just get me out of here. Please.”

  Gabe stops and turns back to look at me. “Gather your things, Miss Stanz, and meet me in the hallway. There are consequences for messing with Miss Black’s girls. I need to make sure the message is received.”

  I’m shaking. I don’t notice it until I try to nod and can’t. Taking my purse, I turn my back on them both and walk out the door.

  20

  “Avery, you all right?” Mel asks as she skewers a hotcake and pops it into her mouth. I couldn’t manage to tell her what happened with Henry. I covered the slight black and blue on my cheek and smile a lot, hoping that she won’t ask questions.

  As it was, Black asked a million questions and wasn’t convinced that it wasn’t my fault until Gabe spoke. The only bright side to today was the huge check. Apparently when a client tries to kill one of Black’s girls, we get compensated.

  The money is burning a hole in my pocket. I want to get rid of it, but I can’t. I know that would be stupid, but it feels tainted. I nearly died earning that bit of cash.

  “Yeah, you’ve been uncharacteristically quiet.” Marty picks up a sausage and makes an obscene gesture.

  Mel sneers at him. “Cut it out, dickwad. You don’t have to pretend to be bi or homo or whatever the hell you were doing before. And I think Avery forgave you way too fast for pulling shit like that, so don’t piss me off or I will stab you with my fork. Then, my pancakes will get bloody and I’ll have to kill you with my spoon.”

  Marty blinks at her. The shock is short lived. He grins. “I bet you’ve done lots of things with a spoon.” He winks at Mel and then stabs a sausage and hands it to her. “It’s demonstration time.”

  Mel’s amber eyes widen as her mouth falls open. “Holy shit. You did not just say that to me. Did he really just say that, Avery?”

  I’m lost in thought, wondering about everything and nothing. My mind skips between things that seemed pointless at the time, but now mean something. If that light at Prairie Drive didn’t take so damn long, I would have never met Sean. There are little things like that flooding my mind, and I can’t stop them.

  Mel bumps my shoulder. “Hello? What’s with you? He told me to suck off a sausage in the middle of IHOP.”

  I shrug. “So, do it.”

  Marty tries to hide his laughter under a napkin as Mel gives me a WTF face. She blinks and a second later, she grabs the fork and is doing sexy things to the sausage. I’m leaning on my hand, staring blankly, but I’m aware enough to know Marty is transfixed by whatever Mel is doing—and so are the guys in the next booth. They’d been talking about some game way too loudly and now all three of them are silently watching Mel give her breakfast a blowjob.

  I glance at her out of the corner of my eye, like I’m bored. “I wouldn’t swallow that if I were you. I’m pretty sure it’ll be all grease. You’ll gain ten pounds in one gulp.”

  Mel nearly chokes and puts the thing on her plate. The three guys are now staring at me, as well. Mel starts laughing, but she has a strange smile on her face. “You’re talking a bit too loud there, Avery.”

  “You’re blowing your breakfast, Mel. I don’t think it matters muc
h.” I glance up at her, after folding my napkin into a swan. My mom taught me how to fold napkins before she died. It was her last hobby.

  One of the guys across from us stands and walks over to our table. He gives Marty the guy nod and says to me and Mel, “There are very few women who demand attention the way you do.”

  Mel laughs, “Which one of us are you talking to there, Slick?”

  The guy smiles. He’s attractive, with sandy blonde hair that’s not too long or too short. Coupled with a firm body and blazing blue eyes, he’s a hottie. “What makes you think I was only talking to one of you?” He leans forward and places his hands on the table. There’s a silver ring at the base of his thumb. I stare at it for a second too long. He says to me, “Cock ring. Comes in handy, so I just carry it with me.”

  “It’s kind of small.” I flick my eyes up to his. I don’t feel like fending him off right now. It was the quickest shortcut to getting rid of him.

  He grins and looks at me. “There’s nothing small about me, baby.” Mel’s eyes flick between me and the guy. She’d normally cut off his balls, but today she isn’t.

  “Prove it,” Mel blurts out. “Whip that sucker out right now and show us the miraculous marvel that is tucked into those tight jeans.” Mel sweeps her eyes to his waist and then dips her gaze lower. When the guy doesn’t move, she glances up. “Well, come on. I don’t have all day. Besides, me and my friend here will only do a three way if the guy has a really big dick.”

  The guy swallows hard. “A three way?”

  “You walked over to the right table. In fact, my friend here is sometimes gay, so if you play your cards right, you might get a four way.” Mel laugh-smirks as she inclines her head toward Marty, who, in turn, wiggles the tips of his fingers at the guy. “So, whip it out and show us. If it’s big enough, we’ll make your wettest dreams come true.”