Wasted Vows

by Colleen Charles

  “God,” I moaned.

  “Fuck me, Allegra. Ride me. Show me how you want it.” He buried his fingertips in the flesh at my hips. “Slide that wet pussy up and down my cock until I blow inside you. And don’t close your eyes. I want to see you. I want to look into your eyes the moment you come and realize that I possess you.”

  I grasped my breasts and gripped my taut nipples between the first two fingers of each hand. Then I did as I was told, slipping up his length painfully slow, then down again. My back arched as I grabbed the back of the sofa, brushing my breasts against his lips.

  He caught my nipples in his mouth and sucked, letting go of my hips to devour them, suckle and nibble and… oh God, I couldn’t take it anymore.

  I changed my rhythm, circling my hips, then bucking them with each thrust, alternating the flow effortlessly, seeking my pleasure instead of his. And he didn’t care. He welcomed it. Becoming more unglued the wilder I became. I placed one hand between my legs and played with my clit, using the perfect speed and motion until I felt that second orgasm building. Climbing higher and higher.

  “Yes,” I hissed as I stared him down.

  “Fuck, that’s amazing,” he said, between mouthfuls of my flesh. “Don’t stop, don’t you dare fucking stop. I love watching you touch yourself, Allegra. It makes me crazy.”

  I couldn’t stop, I needed more motion. More pressure. More. The peak was dead ahead, a crest which I rose upon, burning pleasure lifting me higher and higher. I quickened the pace, seeking more of him inside me, more of that feeling.

  Gabe slapped one hand on the back of my neck and forced me to stillness, then moved for us both. Hot skin on skin, driving himself into my warm, wet folds. Sweat dripping down his torso, tracing the lines between his stomach muscles.

  I circled my clit desperately and reached the peak.

  Gabe threw his head back and gave a guttural roar as he erupted inside me, just as I tightened around him, overthrown by the pleasure caressing my body and soul. We didn’t stop moving until he was empty and the last of my orgasmic aftershocks had abated.

  I sighed and captured his lips in a searing kiss. There would be time for regrets later Today belonged to us.

  Chapter 43

  Gabe

  I looked at her lying beside me in her bed and couldn’t help but reach out and touch her. I pressed my lips to her temple as I ran my fingers over the curve of her hip. Man, this was how it was supposed to be. Allegra was satisfied, fast asleep and breathing softly, her blonde hair spread on the pillow like a halo.

  She was my angel and I wouldn’t let anyone take that away from me, ever again. She made me feel saved. Whole. Like I’d had a damn date with John the Baptist and my sins had been washed clean. I’d go mad without her. When she was angry, when there was the off chance that she didn’t want to see me again, my life became a waking fucking nightmare.

  I ran my finger down the line of her jaw and rested it on her chin. She pouted and blew air out of the tiny parting of her lips, then snorted in a breath through her nose.

  Christ, could she be any cuter? Like every motion and emotion she exhibited was a musical note in the perfect concerto.

  I rolled onto my back and sat up slowly. It was past midnight, but I couldn’t sleep.

  My shit was not together, and that meant Allegra could get hurt. I wouldn’t stand for it after nearly losing her for what… the millionth time? Prick Extraordinaire, Donovan Moreno wouldn’t take no for an answer. But I’d make him see sense, even if it meant losing every cent. It was dirty blood money anyway. I didn’t need it. I didn’t want it.

  I stood and stretched, groaning at the tightness in my muscles. I grinned — that always happened after a session with Allegra. She worked every part of my body, teasing me to the edge and pushing me over while my nerve endings screamed for more, more, more.

  More Allegra. Because there could never be enough.

  I walked to the kitchen, enjoying the cold air on my ass. The heat of earlier had me on a low burn, and sweat tracked down my back. I needed a drink of water and to figure out how to approach my father about this.

  He had to realize that I couldn’t commit to Faith, and I certainly couldn’t commit to her baby without knowing that it really carried my DNA. Allegra had been right about that. I owed it to myself. Hell. I owed it to Faith too, even though she’d never admit it.

  I clicked on the kitchen light and headed for the sink. My ringtone sounded from the living room where I’d left my jeans.

  “Shit,” I said, turning on my heel and striding in that direction. This could only be work. I grabbed my jeans and wrestled the phone out of the front pocket.

  “Yeah?” I answered, discomfit brewing in my guts.

  “We got trouble, Gabby,” Roger roared into the phone. Gabby was his little joke, but I let him get away with it because he was fucking massive and could turn me into mincemeat in a minute or less. Besides, he meant it as an endearment. That three-hundred-pound linebacker loved my scrawny ass. He’d saved it a few times too.

  “What kind of trouble?”

  “Blaze at the Mill City Museum, man, get your ass down to Second Street before Chief has an aneurysm.” Roger hung up.

  “Fuck it,” I said, tempted to dump the jeans and phone on the sofa and go snuggle with Allegra instead. But duty called. I tugged on the jeans and got my shirt out from the sofa, then pulled on my coat and boots.

  I scribbled a note on the pad attached to her fridge so she’d know where I’d gone, then bolted out the door.

  Fuck it, a blaze? Roger hardly ever used that official sounding word. This shit had to be serious. I hit the street and trudged through the snow. There wasn’t too much of it, but it would make for a cold Valentine’s Day.

  Hopefully, Allegra would qualify as my sweetheart. Damn. I needed to get her a present. Something sparkly.

  I left my anger at Faith and my father in the snow and got into my vehicle. The car sped through the streets, skidding around corners and heading for the station so I could suit up. Once I was there, Rog filled me in on the details.

  “It’s getting real man, glad you made it in time,” he said, hanging onto the side of the truck. “We’ve got to go.”

  “Was the museum empty?” I asked, hopping up beside him and adjusting my uniform.

  “For the most part. We’ll still have to check it out.” Rog turned his attention to the road.

  The siren started up, red lights flashing, and we pulled out of the station. Adrenaline pounded through me, the pre-burn before the fire. Man, I loved what I did for a living, it was so good to do what I wanted to do, instead of what my father wanted me to do.

  This was life. The icy wind whipping against my cheeks, the cold bar beneath my fingertips and the uniform. All of it together made me breathe deeper, feel more.

  Fuck it, and none of it compares to Allegra. None of it compares to how I feel when I’m with her.

  And it wasn’t the sex either, it was deeper than that. Standing in her kitchen and making eggs while she slept was part of it, even if we’d abandoned the food to feast on each other instead.

  A haze lined the horizon, orange and red, accompanied by the thick smell of smoke. My eyes watered and I cleared my throat. We rounded the corner and the truck pulled up beside another.

  Firefighters ran left and right, setting up hoses, calling out to each other in the organized chaos. The heat, the acrid smog, would’ve been unbearable, but I was accustomed to it.

  We all were. This was just another day at the office. The fire chewed through the historical building in a fury. Flames licked out of windows, blackening the sills and reaching for the roof.

  It would tear the place down if it got a chance. And that would be a huge loss for this urban area. Hell, for the whole state really. Every time we fought a fire, I had the same thought, got the same feeling. The fire was as alive as we were. It was as hell-bent on destruction as we were on preservation. On occasion, it felt like it could think and m
ove at whim.

  Roger jumped down from the side of the truck and I followed.

  “Told you it’s a shit storm, Gabby.” Roger began unraveling the hose and I went over to help him.

  A cry rang out from a window overhead. Young and feral, filled with terror. My nerves tingled and I looked up immediately. A woman hung out of a top story window, waving furiously. The scream brought a wave of nausea with it. Reminding me of the night I’d saved my Allegra from the fire in her bakery. The night my entire life changed.

  Flames tumbled out of the window beside her, just a couple feet to the right.

  “Get the ladder up,” I yelled, slapping the side of the truck. Nothing could stop me from saving this young lady.

  I clambered onto it as it was raised, riding the bottom half until it hit the brick on the side of the building.

  “Don’t be a fucking hero, Gabby,” Roger called up after me, his flame retardant coat barely concealing his huge belly. I glanced down, but I’d already started the ascent. I wouldn’t let a soul die in that building. Not a fucking soul. Not on my watch.

  Our station was famous for its save rate. We hadn’t had a single death in over five years, an ongoing record we would uphold. I monkeyed up the ladder and called for the woman to back up a step, then I put my outstretched arms through the window to capture her and help her out on to the ladder.

  Smoke engulfed me as I gripped the damsel in distress and lowered her down on to the top rung. She clung to me a moment longer than was necessary out of fear, and I shielded her from a fall with my body, standing behind her as she climbed down.

  “Are you good to go, ma’am?”

  “Yes, I’m quite all right, thank you,” she said in a British accent. Probably a curator of the museum.

  “Great. Keep looking at the building, all right? I’m behind you all the way, you won’t fall while I’m here.”

  She nodded but didn’t say a word. Her mousy brown hair hung in sooty tangles down her back. She resembled Mrs. Bradshaw, my librarian back in high school. She used to give me her sternest look and censure me about my lack of reading the classics. I didn’t have the heart to tell her the only thing I ever read was my dad’s Playboy. It took us ten minutes to get all the way down, and we paused halfway when the window we’d come from erupted in a plume of smoke and fire.

  When I reached the bottom, I’d made up my mind. There wasn’t a slim chance in hell I’d ever let Allegra go, and that meant growing a pair and standing up to my father and to Faith. Once and for all.

  Chapter 44

  Gabe

  I stood on the stairs of the mansion on Summit and clapped my hands. A sharp slap to warm the skin beneath my gloves. Ice covered the front as usual, and the lawn was hidden beneath the snow.

  George Callahan, fuckwad that he was, had decorated the lawn in ice sculptures and the trees in twinkly lights to celebrate Christmas, apparently. Or the heaps of money he had lying around. Usually, gardeners would have brought that shit inside by New Year’s, but Faith had let it slip that she’d demanded the grounds crew leave it up until Valentine’s.

  I pressed the pearly white button and gritted my teeth. The colored glass reflected the morning light.

  Faith opened the front door, gripping the underside of her belly. “Hey, honey, I’ve been trying to get hold of you for hours. I heard about that fire on Second Street.” She grasped the doorjamb with her left hand, twiddling her engagement ring.

  It was a massive rock, something my father had picked out, bought and given to me for Faith. I’d left it on the kitchen counter and come back to find her wearing it. The minute I’d confronted her, Donovan had walked in and congratulated us on our engagement and my hefty inheritance.

  It was all staged. My entire fucking life had been staged like some Tennessee Williams play.

  “What’s the matter?” Faith looked out at the lawn. “Do you like the sculptures? Daddy had them put up yesterday and I think they’re just to die for.” She placed a hand over her breasts and heaved them theatrically. “I wish I could spend more time outside, but Mom says I might slip and hurt myself. Wouldn’t want to hurt the baby.”

  I looked at her bump, which had dropped lower and grown in the past three days. She wore a white fur coat to cover it, but it struggled to close around the front, a few of the buttons strained as if they’d pop off.

  “It’s getting close,” I said.

  “That’s right, almost time for you to be a daddy.”

  “That depends,” I replied, tucking my hands into the pockets of my jeans and staring her down. She’d pushed so hard for this end result. Why? What did she really stand to gain out of being with me when she had a rich ice-sculpture buying daddy?

  It couldn’t be love. She sure as fuck didn’t understand love and I hadn’t either until I’d met Allegra.

  Faith tapped her fingers on the door, and the rock clunked against it too. A deeper sound that made me want to rip it off her finger and hurl it at the nearest sculpture that looked like a flaccid cock wedged between two hearts. Maybe give cupid a teabag.

  “Would you care to explain that?” Faith tapped her heel in time with her fingers.

  “Losing your patience, Faith?” I asked, then pressed my palms together behind my back to keep from reaching for the ring. “So am I. I’m not going to support you and the baby until I know the baby is mine.”

  “I told you it’s yours,” she replied sullenly. “That should be enough for you.”

  “It’s not.” In fact, I wasn’t sure she’d ever been enough for me. Too much at times, in her darker moments, during the drunken sprees. But emotionally? No, she’d never be enough for me.

  “How can you say that? Don’t you know how upsetting it is? I mean, I’m heavily pregnant here. You wouldn’t want to be responsible for any harm to the baby, would you?”

  I gritted my teeth. “Don’t emotionally blackmail me, Faith. I wasn’t born yesterday.”

  “I’ll call my dad. He’s upstairs. Perhaps you should talk to him, explain why you can’t support his darling daughter. Tell him about your slimy little slut.” She cradled her belly in both arms, then leaned back as if to call up the stairs, then seemed to change her mind. “The one that’s such a redneck her school fight song was Dueling Banjos.”

  “Do it,” I replied, “fuck it, I don’t care anymore. I’m not going to be held hostage to your bullshit. Call him down here.”

  She snapped her gaze to my face, which was just now starting to regain feeling from the low exterior temperature. “You can’t be serious about this,” Faith said, “I thought we moved past this whole paternity test fiasco. We’re engaged.”

  “Not by my choice. You can take the ring off, by the way. It’s not my ring.”

  That got her eyebrows up. She gripped at her left hand instead of her stomach, holding the ring on like it would fall off just because I’d mentioned it.

  “I won’t take it off.” Faith ground those words out.

  “And I will never marry you.”

  Her hand fluttered to her chest, over her heart, and she flicked her mane of red hair in denial.

  “That’s right. I’m in love with Allegra and I’ll never marry you. Not even if that baby is mine. Do you get that?” I scuffed my feet on the icy front step to warm my toes, but it didn’t make much of a damn difference.

  “I-uh, what? She’s twisted your mind,” Faith said, rambling now between glances over her shoulder and fish-mouthed pouts. “Yeah, that’s it. She’s corrupted you and you don’t realize how much you need me. She’s like a vacuum. She sucks, blows and then gets rolled in the closet where her fat ass belongs. Jesus, Gabe. You couldn’t even be seen in public with that trash.”

  “I don’t need you.” Man, I felt like an ass for saying this shit to her while she was pregnant, but Faith didn’t get the point. She refused to acknowledge me in the simplest fucking ways and I wouldn’t stand for it any longer. I also wouldn’t stand for her constant digs at the woman I was in love
with.

  I got enough of that from my dad.

  “You’ve always needed me. Christ, you were nothing before we got together. Just some little rich kid who didn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground. Whatever. Don’t need me...” Faith’s face turned as red as the shock of hair protruding from the white scarf she’d tied around her roots. “You think it will be easy? Giving up on us means giving up on your inheritance, asshole.”

  “I’m fine with that,” I replied. Actually, the thought of freeing myself from my dad’s hold, financial and otherwise, made my brain do a breakdance of joy.

  “You’re fine with being poor?” Her lips twisted in opposite directions, like two sausages trying to pull apart at the corners. Like being poor was the worst possible outcome her addled mind could conjure. God, how had I ever thought I loved this tart? Even as my friend?

  She wasn’t beautiful inside or out. Though, that was probably because I could finally see her true colors.

  “I’m fine with being happy. God, I’m actually over the fucking moon. I’m telling you this once, Faith, so read my lips. I never thought I’d feel this good in my life.” I grinned, baring my teeth. “And it’s all thanks to Allegra.”

  “Douche,” Faith snapped.

  “I want a paternity test, Faith, and I won’t take no for an answer. If you don’t give it to me, I’ll tell daddy dearest about your fun and free college years. Understand?”

  “You wouldn’t dare.”

  We both knew that George would disown her if he found out about her ‘romantic’ history. Her father was as much of an asshole as she was. He blamed me for the pregnancy and believed that I’d tricked her into the sack.

  “I’ll do whatever it takes,” I replied. “I’ll tell him about your gang bangs, your threesomes with other women and even about that time you went down on the entire football team so you could win that bet at Michael Slatterley’s twenty-first birthday party. I think there might even be a cell phone video of that one. I’m done being Mr. Nice Guy.” I trudged down the front stairs and towards my car.

  “Don’t do this to me, Gabe,” Faith called after me. “You’ll regret it.”