Mated to Two Beasts

by T. S. Ryder

  I switched on my phone again as I walked over to the kitchen to make myself some tea. Oscar had sent me a text, which I hesitated to open.

  What did he even want from me anymore? How many other ways could he possibly find to embarrass me? He had won. He was the one who left me heartbroken, but unlike mama, I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life pining away for him.

  I read the text anyway.

  The deal was that you keep seeing me till I say it has to stop. I assumed you stuck to your deals. I’m going to be waiting at my place for you.

  My heart was racing again. I didn’t think I could bear the overwhelming sensation of falling down an open dark pit. Oscar was playing me again. He knew if he said that to me, I would have no other choice but to show up. He knew me well, even though he didn’t know me at all. I wasn’t one to backtrack on a contract. Besides, I did want to see him. That was the truth. Even if it was just to end it once and for all.

  This time was going to be different. I wasn’t going to sleep with him. I could still feel his arms around me holding me tightly, pinned to his desk. The way he had looked at me, the way he had worked me up to the edge and then held me back, teasing me, watching me struggle against my own orgasm. He had whispered my name and I was sure he had seen in my eyes how I felt about him. He had to have known that this was more to me now than just a contract.

  I couldn’t give in again, I wouldn’t. If I did go over to his house, it would have to be just to talk. Just to end it.

  I was pacing the floor, milling the thoughts over and over in my mind. The other option was to simply not go. To end it at this. That would be the more sensible thing to do. That was what he deserved.

  If he had been discussing me with his brother, if I was just a part of his jokes, one of his many conquests, he didn’t deserve my respect for keeping my word. No matter what I felt for him, I wasn’t going to be mama and allow a man to do with me as he pleased.

  No, the right thing to do would be to ignore the text, to not turn up at his house, at his every beck and call. The contract ended when his brother insulted me in front of an office full of my colleagues, when he didn’t stand up for me. The contract should never even have begun.

  My sadness and misery had now turned to boiling rage. I suddenly felt like I hated him. That I should have never crossed the boundary, that he had seduced me with his charm.

  I was stupid to think that I could use Oscar Connell, that I could hold him up as some kind of example to all men who mistreat women. I was stupid to think that I could prove some kind of point.

  The truth was that I wasn’t a hero. I was like every other girl who fell for a man she could never have.

  I had made my decision now, I wasn’t going to fall for another of his cheap tricks. That text message meant nothing to me. He could send as many of them as he wanted, but there was no honor left in upholding that contract.

  I boiled a kettle of water and poured it into a mug with a tea bag. I needed to cut back on costs, it would have to be tea and crackers for dinner for me. If I could just save enough money to pay this month’s hospital bills for mama, then it would see us through for a few more weeks.

  I thought about Oscar in his penthouse, enjoying caviar and champagne for dinner and I couldn’t imagine hating anybody more. He was a spoilt rich boy, that’s all he was. Just like my father had been. How dare he assume that he could entice me into visiting him again, after all that happened today, by reminding me that this was a contract?

  I sipped my tea gingerly and felt another tear roll down my cheeks. Mama was right, I couldn’t remember the last time I had cried so much. Yes, I was in love with Oscar Connell, but that didn’t mean he deserved my love. I was angry with myself for falling in love with a man I didn’t even like. Someone who tried to bait me into sleeping with him again, only hours after his brother made a joke out of me.

  Chapter Twelve

  Oscar

  Just like the first time she came over, this time too I didn’t expect her to turn up. But she did. It was eight in the evening by the time I heard the door bell ring. I opened the door, swung it wide but she remained standing before me. I could see that she had been crying. I wanted to hold her, to stroke her hair, to make her feel safe and to trust me. But she was holding her head high and glaring into my eyes.

  This wasn’t the Kayla Edwards whose body I wanted to ravish when I first met her. This Kayla was different. She was in a pair of jeans and an old oversized t-shirt that nearly reached her knees. Her hair was left loose, but un-styled. She had no makeup on.

  This was the Kayla I wanted to hold in my arms. This was the woman who I wanted to go to sleep with.

  “I didn’t expect you to come,” I said, breaking the silence.

  “I shouldn’t have,” she said, pushing her hands into the pockets of her jeans.

  “I’m glad you did. You should come in,” I said and I saw her eyes fall on my bruised knuckles. A look of concern washed over her face but she was quick to hide it.

  “What happened to your hand?” she asked, making her voice sound as casual as possible. I could see she didn’t want to cross the line. How could I tell her that I wanted to cross it? How could I tell her how happy I was to see her?

  “Jonathan’s nose,” I said, holding it up for her to see. She didn’t come closer to me or look particularly interested.

  “You punched your brother?” she asked and I nodded.

  “It felt good. He deserved it, after what he said to you,” I said and she looked at me in silence. Then she brushed past me and walked into the house. I closed the door and followed her to the living room.

  “Drink?” I asked as she walked over to the window. It made me happy to realize that she really did like the view.

  “I’m not here for refreshments, Oscar. I’m here to put a stop to this,” she said, turning to me, and looking at me from under her heavy long lashes. I licked my lips and nodded. I’d prepared a speech for her, I had it in my head, what I wanted to say, but it was all lost on me. I couldn’t remember what those words were, I was drawing a blank.

  “I understand and I agree,” I said quietly and noticed the look of slight surprise on her face. She wasn’t expecting me to agree to this so easily. Did she think she would have to put up a fight?

  “Good,” she said and leaned with her back against the wall.

  “I’m sorry for all the embarrassment that you’ve had to go through. I wish you didn’t. I wish it was as smooth sailing as I imagined it would be,” I said, maintaining a few feet of distance between us. I didn’t want her to get the wrong impression of my intentions.

  “It’s not your fault. It was a contract, after all, it was good while it lasted,” she said, tucking in loose strands of her hair behind her ears. She had never looked more beautiful, of that I was sure.

  “It was good while it lasted indeed,” I said and she looked away from me and there was silence in the room again.

  “I’m quitting my job,” I said and she jerked her head to look at me.

  “You don’t have to do that. It’s your family business. I’ve decided to quit anyway,” she said. I smiled and shook my head.

  “Remember the rule you came up with? That you’d maintain your position after this ends,” I said and a soft smile graced Kayla’s lips at the memory. So much had changed since then.

  “I was being stupidly naive,” she said and I shook my head again.

  “You can stay, Kayla. I’m holding on to my end of the contract, you get to keep your position,” I said and she stared at me in silence.

  “I can’t work there anymore,” she replied.

  “I can talk to father and make sure you’re transferred to our California offices if you don’t mind moving. You don’t have to work with these people anymore.” I could see that she was thinking as she stared at me with her large chocolate colored eyes.

  “I know you’ve worked hard at your job Kayla, and you’re a prized possession at the company. You don’t
deserve to leave all this behind. Especially since it’ll suit me better to quit anyway,” I said and she licked her lips and sighed.

  “I’ll think about it,” she said, holding her head high. That was the Kayla who was so good at her job: confident, professional and never backing away from a good deal. I smiled at her, but she only tried. I could see she was still hurting, but she was too proud to say it. As was I. I didn’t know if I was prepared to lay my heart out in the open like that, for another woman to come and trample all over.

  We were quiet for a few minutes.

  “So aren’t you going to ask me for a last time?” she asked, her voice dropping and growing softer.

  “Ask you for what?” I asked, and I saw her jaws clenching.

  “Sex,” she replied.

  “No. I won’t,” I said and her eyes widened. “It’s over. That is over. I would rather have you first, as someone real, to talk to, and then your body.” For the first time she really looked at me, straight into my eyes and my arms shook in fear of what she was going to say.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kayla

  I couldn’t decide if this was a part of some kind of trick that he was playing on me. I wasn’t even sure if I had heard him correctly. He wanted me as a person? He said that when I had practically just offered him my body?

  I stared at him, while he looked back at me, his eyes boring into me intensely. He wasn’t smiling, he was serious.

  “I don’t know if I understand what you mean,” I managed to say after several seconds of silence.

  “I mean Kayla, that I want you. Of course I want you. But not just as a part of a contract,” he said. I could see his lips moving, his blue eyes sparkling in the dim light of his living room. His strong shoulders squared and tight. He was as defensive as I was. I didn’t know what to say to him, this wasn’t what I expected. I prided myself in being able to judge people accurately. In Oscar’s case, I had missed the mark by miles.

  “Kayla, I know you don’t trust me…I know you’re scared,” he began and something in me made me interrupt him.

  “It’s not you, Oscar. It’s my own family, or rather the lack thereof,” I blurted out and I saw his face change. His defenses came down a little.

  “You don’t trust me because of your family?” he asked, confused.

  “Because of my father.”

  “What did he do to you?” There was a glint of rage in his eyes as he said it. I could see now how the punch on Jonathan’s face came about.

  “Nothing. He was my mother’s boss. He left her when she got pregnant with me. I’ve never met him, I don’t even know who he is,” I blurted it all out, and only at the end of it did I realize that I was crying.

  Oscar lunged towards me, enveloping me in his arms as he held me to his chest.

  “I’m sorry you had to go through that, Kayla,” he said as he stroked my hair. I held on to his chest for dear life. I felt safe in his arms. Besides mama, nobody had ever made me feel like they genuinely cared. This man, who I thought I had all figured out, did.

  “Is that why you pushed me away? Because you thought I would do the same to you?” he asked and I nodded.

  “I kept pushing you away because of an ex-girlfriend who cheated on me,” he said and I pulled away from him to look into his eyes.

  “That bad huh?” I asked and he raised his eyebrows.

  “She slept with Jonathan,” he said and I nearly broke into a laugh. Who would ever choose Jonathan over Oscar?

  “So that punch was a long time coming then,” I said and he squeezed his arms around me a little more.

  “Kayla, can we start over?” he asked and I nodded. There was nothing more that I wanted. I hadn’t even realized that this was what I wanted. I had been so angry with myself for falling in love that I had refused to acknowledge that falling in love could also be beautiful and mean happiness.

  And the last person I had expected to feel happy about was Oscar Connell.

  “I have never been this excited to have a contract of sexual favors ending,” he said, and I raised an eyebrow at him.

  “How many have you had?” I asked him, lightly punching his arm. He laughed and then held me even tighter in his grip.

  “I’m not going to lie, a few of them,” he said. It didn’t surprise me. His proposal had been too casual, too easy. He had done it a few times before.

  “But never before did I end the contract so I could date the girl, Kayla. This is a first,” he said, softly kissing my forehead. I licked my lips and accepted the kiss. I could live with that. As long as what he was offering now was real, it was a good deal.

  “Is this the part where you rip my clothes apart and take me here on the carpet?” I asked him, but he pulled away from me and shook his head.

  “I could if you really want to. But I was thinking that the best way to start over would be to get Maria to set us a candlelit dinner, where I ask you about where you grew up and what kind of ice cream you like. You can maybe ask me what colors don’t suit me and who my best friends are. You know, like normal people,” he said, drawing away from me as I laughed.

  “You may be right, but normal is boring,” I said and he was laughing too. Then I felt his hands on the buttons of my jeans. The next thing I knew was that his hands were on my bra under my t-shirt. He was making me moan already, his hands finding their way into my pants. I was on the carpet, tugging at his clothes and he was smiling, watching me as he kept me pinned to the floor.

  I was not tired of him yet, he had got it wrong. I would never be tired of him. Oscar Connell was one of a kind, and I was wrong to assume that all men were like my father.

  No, Oscar Connell was the love of my life and I could see it in his eyes as he entered me, that he loved me back.

  *****

  THE END

  The Rock Star's Baby

  Description

  He rocks like a bad boy. She’s there to save his reputation.

  “You look comfortable,” he said, as she stood at the end of the bed. Heidi was continually tucking her loose curls behind her ears out of nervousness. What was she supposed to do next? Just get into bed with him? She had never done this before.

  Declan Xavier is the new rock sensation. He makes his audience scream, the girls swoon and the paparazzi go nuts. The blue-eyed, blonde haired bad boy is not only the latest musical craze, but the media love him because he gives them something new to write about every day.

  His manager and friend, David Scott, knows this can only mean trouble. The only solution for Declan Xavier is to get a fake girlfriend to save his reputation.

  Heidi Scott has big plans to open a bakery. If she works hard enough and long enough, she’ll have the money she needs to invest in the bakery in a few years. But then, an unlikely incident causes a major setback for her plan. That is, until her brother, David, introduces her to Declan Xavier.

  Declan offers her a deal: being his fake girlfriend in exchange for all the money she needs for her bakery.

  It all makes sense, until it doesn’t.

  Chapter One

  Heidi couldn’t stop staring at the clock on the wall. Fifteen more minutes and her shift would end. Finally. These eight-hour shifts were grueling, especially because keeping a smile pasted on her face was a necessity. She felt her phone vibrate in the pocket of her apron and pulled it out. It was a text from her brother David. She didn’t know he was in town! He wanted her to come over and meet him backstage at the Spire. Declan Xavier had a concert there that evening. Heidi sighed and remembered to smile again.

  There were still a few tables she needed to clear out before her shift ended, but the people sitting at them looked like they had no intention of leaving any time soon. She looked at the clock again. Thirteen minutes more.

  “Was everything alright? Can I get you guys anything else?” Heidi walked up to one of the tables and stood in front of them with a wide smile on her face.

  “No thanks. Just the bill, please,” one of the men sa
id. He was looking at her with large, leery eyes, but Heidi tried to keep smiling. She was used to the creeps by now. Just as long as he didn’t touch her, she could deal with it. It was what she needed to do to get an extra tip.

  “Sure thing,” she said, collecting the empty plates from the table. The man winked at her as she walked away, and she was dying to roll her eyes, but she didn’t; as long as she maintained that smile on her face, she could be assured an extra tip.

  “Off soon?” Barry, another member of the waiting staff and her only friend at the cafe, asked as she walked over to place the plates on the collection table.

  “Can’t wait. I have to go meet my brother after this.” Heidi sighed, dusting off her hands. Barry followed her over to the cash register, where she entered the table number.

  “Your brother? You mean the guy who manages Declan Xavier?” Barry was excited. Heidi smiled, concentrating on printing out the bill for the table.

  “That’s him. My big brother David, a rock star’s manager.” She said in an exaggerated sing-song voice. Everyone she knew had the same reaction when they found out her brother was David Scott, Declan Xavier’s manager and best friend. By association, it should have also made Heidi successful and “cool”, but Heidi knew she was far from it. It was two years since she had graduated from college with a Hotel Management degree and she was still working for other people, and no closer to owning the bakery she dreamed of opening.

  “Why are you still working here, Heidi? Can’t your brother get you a swanky job in the music industry?” Barry was still following her and Heidi stopped in her tracks to look at him.