by Rye Hart
“Because we were planning on spending a weekend together,” I said.
“Don’t play games with me, not now,” Theresa said. “The first time around. When Ike and I were still together. Why were you in town?”
“I was visiting. Needed to get away.”
“You’re still sticking with that story?”
“Is there another story you’ve heard?” I asked, starting to panic just slightly but trying not to show it.
“Does anything about an email ring a bell?”
I narrowed my eyes at her as I took a step in her direction.
“An email,” I said.
“Stop it. Because if you lie to me for one more second, whatever the hell this is between the two of us is done.”
“Theresa, what the hell are you trying to ask me?”
“The goddamn email Grant. My father told me about it.”
“What email are you talking about?” Though by now I had a pretty good idea which one she meant. But how would Glen know, unless…
“The email he sent you. About how I apparently needed you to come save me. Rescue me. Like some pathetic damsel in distress.”
I squinted my eyes as I took stock of her. The clenched fists. The rolled-back shoulders. The shallow breaths. Not only was Theresa upset, but she was telling the truth.
“Your dad emailed me?” I asked, shock rolling through my system.
“Stop playing stupid, Grant.”
“I swear to you I’m not playing stupid Theresa. I had no idea who sent it!”
“So, it’s true. You did get an email.”
“I did. Short and sweet. It said you needed me, so I packed my shit, got in my car, and drove.”
“Just like that?” she asked. “Without knowing what the hell I apparently needed saving from?”
“I’m sorry, is there an accusation in here somewhere?”
“You lied to me, Grant. About everything. Why you were in town. Why you were spending all that time with me. You didn’t come to town to visit or see Hollis. You weren’t hanging around me because you wanted to be around me. I was a mission to you.”
“Not even close,” I said. “I had no idea who sent that email, but the moment someone told me you were in trouble, I was in my car and headed here. No questions asked.”
“I didn’t need you.”
“I’m sorry, Theresa. But you were being manipulated by an abusive, cock-sucking asshole. Yes. You needed someone to talk some sense into you.”
“And then we broke up. And stayed broken up. Which meant you weren’t needed any longer. So, this is the part where you convince me you stayed to protect me from some attack you just knew was coming.”
“I have a question,” I said.
“This isn’t your forum.”
“Tough. Why in the world would your father send me that email? He doesn’t trust me. Hell, he doesn’t even like me! He threw me out on my ass at eighteen years old and told me to never come back. Why would he, of all people, be the one to reach out to me?”
I watched Theresa’s face soften as she drew in a deep breath. It didn’t make sense. Her father couldn’t have sent that email to me. If anything, I was waiting for Hollis to own up to the damn thing.
But Glen?
Theresa walked over to me and took my hands in hers. A stark contrast to the yelling she had just gotten done throwing my way. She dragged me out onto the balcony and sat us down at the wrought iron table on the deck, and the words that fell from her mouth were shocking.
“When I talked to my dad this morning, I told him everything. How disappointed I was with how he handled things with you and how you would never have touched me like that as a teenager. You just aren’t capable of it. And do you know what he said?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“He said he felt guilty for what happened.”
“And he should,” I said.
“Mom did, too.”
My heart stopped in my chest at those three words.
“None of this was Laura’s fault,” I said bitterly.
“Dad’s been beating himself up for years over this. Mom gave him hell for it, apparently. Blamed herself partially for not stepping in. My father told me he hated how he left things. How he let things careen so far out of control, and I believe him. He said—”
I watched Theresa fall back into her chair as she turned her eyes out toward the ocean.
“He said he emailed you because he was desperate to help me and knew you would come and try,” she said.
“Wish I’d known that at Laura’s funeral,” I said, mumbling.
“What was that?” Theresa asked.
I whipped my gaze over to hers and found her eyes growing wide.
“Nothing,” I said.
“No, you said something. What did you say?”
“It doesn't matter. It’s in the past.”
“For the love of fuck, Grant. What did you say?” she asked.
I was going to nail my own damn coffin shut with what I was about to say, but there was no getting out of it. Theresa didn’t know I’d been at her mother’s funeral. I’d kept myself out of her sight for a damn reason. Partially because I didn’t want to run into Glen and partially because I saw her with Ike and didn’t like what I saw. And I knew if I reconnected with her, I’d tell her exactly what I thought of that man.
In hindsight, maybe I should’ve said something at her mother’s funeral.
Maybe those bruises around her neck would never have happened had I manned the fuck up.
I planted my forearm on the table and watched as Theresa’s eyes grew wider. She’d heard me. I could tell by the look on her face. But she was trying to convince herself she hadn’t.
“I said, ‘I wish I had known about that at Laura’s funeral.’”
And I watched as tears brewed in Theresa’s eyes.
CHAPTER 29
THERESA
“You were there?” I asked.
My voice was weak. I could hear it. I tried blinking back the tears, but instead, they went the wrong way. Forced over my cheek instead of back behind my eyes.
“I was,” Grant said.
“Of course, you were there. You talked to Hollis, right? Hollis, but not me?”
“I did.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I couldn't believe it. I stood up from the chair on the balcony and brushed past him. I didn’t want to sit with him another second. He was at my mother’s funeral. He was there during the darkest day of my life, and he spoke to Hollis without speaking to me. It felt like a knife had pierced my gut. I felt my heart shattering inside my chest. If I had known that Grant had been there, maybe things would’ve turned out differently. If he had re-emerged during that time, maybe things could’ve been avoided with Ike. We could’ve started this way back then instead of trekking through all the bullshit and the lies and the deceit just to get to the moment we were at.
I could have had years with him. Years of happiness and love. Years of my life where I could’ve blossomed into the strong woman I felt myself finally becoming. I could’ve bypassed years of heartache and sorrow and manipulation if he had told me he was there. If he had wrapped his arms around me at my mother’s funeral.
But he didn’t.
And we would never know what could’ve become of us.
“Theresa, please don’t.”
Without thinking, I turned around and cracked my hand against Grant’s cheek. His head flew off to the side, and I watched his jaw clench with fury. My tears of sorrow and regret turned to tears of anger and frustration.
“You should have told me,” I said.
Grant slowly turned his gaze back to mine, and I watched as he grew in stature, hovering over me with his stoic eyes hooked onto mine.
“I was still struggling then, Theresa. I didn’t have anything to offer you.”
“I don’t give a shit about what you have to offer, Grant! What, you think I need this hotel and some oceanside vi
ew to be with you? You—you think I need money? Huh? Is that what you think?”
“No,” he said.
“Is that all I’ve amounted to? Some money-hungry gold-digger who can’t be with the man she loves without him tossing money around? Huh? Is that what you think?”
Grant’s eyes grew wild as my tirade continued.
“You think I needed anything from you back then except for you to look at me? To acknowledge that I wasn’t some ugly duckling fawning over the bad boy in a leather jacket. Am I still that stupid little girl to you, Grant?”
“I was still a kid five years ago, Theresa. A kid who barely had a pot to piss in. But I can give you what you deserve now.”
My fist came down on his chest.
“What? The truth? You couldn't even tell me why the hell you were really in town. You couldn’t tell me you were at my mother’s funeral! I was dying inside, Grant! Ike didn’t even let me stay for the fucking reception!”
I beat down on his chest again with both of my fists as he took a step back.
“He dragged me from the car and told me to stop crying,” I said as tears slid down my cheeks. “He told me to suck it up because my mother deserved my strength.”
I felt him grab onto my wrists to stop my fists from pounding into his muscles.
“And you were there,” I said breathlessly. “You could’ve done something when I was too weak to.”
“I’m sorry,” Grant said.
“We could’ve had years, Grant. Years. Ike was just a sorry substitute because I couldn’t have you. You were the only one I’ve ever wanted.”
My head fell to his chest as tears flowed unchecked. Grant dropped my wrists, and I cried into his shirt. He wrapped his arms around me, and I couldn’t handle it. I planted my hands into his stomach and shoved myself back, stumbling before I caught myself on the back of a chair.
“I deserve you,” I said. “It’s always been you, Grant. You. Just you.”
I felt my legs collapse from underneath me, and I fell to the floor. But before I hit the ground, a pair of strong arms caught my falling body. I looked up into Grant’s eyes and saw that stoic look I’d come to love so much. Riddled with the tiniest bit of worry and backdropped with the one thing I’d wanted to see all these years.
Love.
I grabbed his shirt and thrust my lips upon his. My arms clawed up his body and wrapped tightly around his neck. His arms picked me up effortlessly as he began to walk us over to the bed. I was panting. My tongue was overpowering his. We collapsed onto the bed, and I straddled him, shivering as his hands commanded my hips. I rolled deeply into his growing dick. My hands pawed at his clothes until I had his skin underneath my fingertips. I ripped his pants from his body and sank between his legs, taking his throbbing dick between my lips.
And I watched as his head fell back to the pillow.
I swallowed him down, gagging as his girth pulsed against the walls of my throat. My hands rushed up his body, rippling over his washboard abs and finding his hands. I laced our fingers together as he fucked my mouth, his hips rising from the bed as he groaned and grunted.
“Fucking hell, Theresa. That sinful mouth.”
I could taste his precum leaking onto the tip of my tongue before he pulled his dick from between my lips.
He fisted my hair and pulled me onto the bed where he stripped me naked. His lips were everywhere, placing open-mouthed kisses against my heated skin. His hands gripped my waist. My hips. My thighs. His tongue ran around my nipples and sucked on them until my pussy juices were dripping onto the bed below us. My heels pressed into the mattress and his mouth slid down my body, traveling to the place where I wanted him most.
But I was desperate for him, and I wasn’t willing to wait.
I grabbed his hair like he did mine and pulled him up to my lips. His muscles draped along my curves and molded me to him. He grinned into my lips as my legs wrapped around him, and I rubbed against his dripping dick as he lined himself up with me.
Then he slid in, inch by inch until nothing was separating us any longer.
“Grant. Fuck.”
“Don’t worry. I’m only getting started,” he said.
He drew back and slammed into me, causing me to arch into him. My hands gripped his arms, digging crescents into his skin from my nails. My moans filled the room as his cock stroked my pussy, filling me up and shooting electricity buzzing throughout my body. I raised my hips and met him with every thrust, clamoring for more as I writhed under him. I locked my legs around him as best as I could and pushed with all my might, tumbling us over until Grant was on his back.
Then I straddled his thick body and bounced in his lap.
“That’s it, Theresa. Ride that dick. Fuck, you’re so beautiful.”
My hands planted on his chest and I rode him with wild abandon. He lifted his head and kissed my tits, sucking my nipples between his teeth. I groaned his name and his eyes darkened. I felt his hands massaging my ass cheeks. He pulled me deeper into him until I was draped over him and hanging on as he lifted his hips to fuck me.
I could feel my juices dripping down his girth. I could feel my arousal coating his thighs. I kissed his neck and nibbled on his shoulder, drawing growls from his throat. I marked his skin the way he did mine, smiling at the welts I left behind. My lips captured his, and as our tongues touched he flipped us over again.
He threw my legs over his shoulders and bent me in half. My mouth fell open and my eyes bulged as his cock raked against a place I’d never felt before. He dove into me, pounding with his hips as his soaked balls smacked against my ass.
My vision was blurring with pleasure and stars were bursting in places I didn’t know they could.
“Grant! Shit, yes. Holy fuck!”
“Don’t hold back on me, Theresa. Don’t you dare.”
I reached for his face and cupped his cheeks. I tugged his face toward mine and sucked his bottom lip between my teeth. A rumble emanated from his throat that shook the whole of my body, and soon I felt his cock growing inside my pussy, pressing against my fluttering walls as his trimmed curls began raking against my clit.
Holy shit.
I couldn't stop shivering.
With every touch of his curls to my clit, my toes flexed deeper. My body pulled tighter. My pussy became more swollen. I couldn't take my eyes off Grant, off the primal look in his eyes. He was an animal, and I loved every single part of it. The sweat dripping from his brow. The cock throbbing inside my body. The way he threw me around like a rag doll in bed before making me feel like a queen.
“Grant. Oh, God. It’s coming. I’m going to come!”
“Let it go,” he said. “Come around my cock.”
My back arched, and my toes curled, and suddenly I was spiraling, falling down an endless sweet hole as low drones ripped from my throat. My entire body was convulsing, and my pussy was clamping down on his cock. He was pounding into me, bucking wildly against me. I could feel his muscles twitching as his hips began to stutter.
He rolled his hips into me one last time before our lips crashed together again.
Our sloppy kiss was the only thing we could hear. His cock pumped into my body sweet streams of cum I could feel painting my walls. I trapped him inside of me, held him in my grasp as my pussy continued to flutter around him. My legs slid off his shoulders and collapsed to the bed, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer to me.
Closer.
Even closer.
Until his massive body was lying on top of mine.
His hot breath caught in the crook of my shoulder as we both heaved for air. My pussy sheathed his cock and I never wanted him to move. My hands danced up and down his sweating back, tracing the outlines of his sculpted muscles. Our intermingled fluids were leaking from between my legs as Grant pulled away from me, but it wasn’t long before he rolled over and was pulling me into his arms.
We tangled our bodies up in the sheets of the bed as I laid myself against the cro
ok of his body.
“Grant?”
“Hmm?”
“I like it when you carry me to bed.”
He gazed down at me and grinned before he pulled me closer to his chest.
“I’ll do it every night if you’ll let me,” he said.
I soft smile crossed my cheeks, and I didn't want to say anything else. I didn't want to ruin the moment. So much had been ruined by so many poor decisions made from insecure places, and I didn't want to dwell on it any longer. I didn’t want to be angry at the lies and the deceit and the missed opportunities. Being angry at it would change nothing. I snuggled deeper into him and slid my leg between his. And as I sighed against his chest, his fingers found my hair and began to run through my tangled curls.
I loved it when he did that.
I was content for the moment but worried about what tomorrow would bring. I’d gotten my father on my side, or so it seemed. But Hollis was another beast altogether. He was fiercely protective and worse— Grant’s best friend.
And it would make me miserable if I ended up having a hand in ruining their lifelong friendship.
CHAPTER 30
GRANT
I looked over at Theresa sleeping in the bed, and I grinned. Seeing her naked bosom rising and falling with her breaths was peaceful to me. The bruises on her neck were finally beginning to fade, and the bruising on her thighs was following suit. Soon, the evidence of that bastard would no longer be apparent, and the only marks on her body would be ones I left behind with my mouth.
The only kind of marks she deserved.
I ripped my gaze away from her and turned it on all the emails I had. I needed to get back to Boston. Our financials were in prime condition for taking over my mentor’s company, but I would need to be there to sign off on the paperwork. Matt didn’t have the credentials to orchestrate something like that, which meant I would have to leave.
And the thought of leaving Theresa behind again made me sick.
I couldn't run my company from a hotel room, but I didn’t want to leave her. I didn’t want to risk her getting hurt again because I wasn’t around. I couldn't ask her to up and move for me. To pack up her life and come with me. She’d never go for it. A weekend, sure. That was recklessness with a deadline, which was what Theresa enjoyed. I loved her more than I could stand. My heart filled with joy at the mere prospect of looking upon her beautiful face. We’d whispered half promises all night long of exotic vacations and no more worries and a long future filled with adventure and orgasms that made us speechless.
