by Brooke Page
I grabbed her wrist, bringing it to my lips. “I will, once you’re sated in my arms.”
Her brows relaxed and her lips parted.
Yes, beautiful girl, I’m going to own you tonight.
Chapter Seventeen
Lauren
His stare was sultry, a lust-filled, hypnotic gaze I had never witnessed. Every muscle in his body was tense, the definition of his abdomen flexed with each inhale of breath. I’d have been scared of him if I didn’t see the tender side he only gave bits and pieces of on the beach and in this bed. Something was bothering him, and I hoped he would help me put the pieces together and relieve his obvious troubles.
Finding the belt loops of his shorts, he swiftly dropped them to the floor, boxers and all. My gaze followed his hands, a small gasp falling from my lips when he grabbed his shaft with his palm, pumping it with a firm grip while the other reached to tug on my panties.
I helped him in an instant, shimmying out of the lace fabric to become as bare as he was.
His stare never left my eyes, the intensity causing me to step backward and fall onto the bed. He smirked at my clumsiness, gliding up my body like a lion in search of his prey.
My voice was dry. “Don’t hurt yourself.”
“This will heal me,” he murmured against my lips, an unexpected tenderness plucking away my worry. Both my hands skidded along his ribcage, cautious to keep the pressure light around his wound.
“How could it heal you?” I gasped, losing my breath from his fluid entrance to my core., even though I was expecting it. He moved in and out slowly, his eyes rolling to the back of his head when his scrotum sac brushed against my ass cheeks.
“You heal me,” he breathed, remaining still. “Being as close to you as possible, the softness of your skin, the smell of citrus and sand that surrounds you.” He took a long blink, his eyelashes becoming heavy. “Those penetrating blue eyes…, it’s as if you see right through my bullshit.”
“Whatever you’ve got going on, I don’t care about,” I hummed, trailing my hands up his spine and into his hair. “You can tell me anything, Vance.”
He shuddered from the simple touch. “That’s what I mean,” he murmured, gently retreating his hips, only to slide back inside. “You don’t care if I’m a monster.”
I massaged the back of his head, bucking my hips into his effortless movements. “You could never be a monster,” I whispered against his lips, “You’re my knight in shining armor.”
He grunted, his hips pumping faster. “I’m a dark knight.”
I gripped his head, forcing him to meet my eyes. “Dark or light, you’ve saved my life, and I will always love you for it.”
He sucked in a breath, then crushed his mouth to mine, prodding my lips open with his tongue, licking deep inside. I rubbed my tongue with his in attempts for him to slow down, but he only kept ravishing me. Did I upset him? Was it too much? Was his heart racing from my confession?
Because mine was in overdrive. Prying my lips from his, I hugged his head, his ear near my lips. “I love you so much, Vance.”
Another shudder swept through his body, and both his arms captured me, pressing our bodies so they were meshed together. He was holding me as close as possible, his cock buried inside of me. It was overwhelming. My skin was on fire, burning in his essence. He didn’t need to say he loved me back, I could tell by his reaction. He clung to me, nuzzled into my neck, wetness seeping from his eyelashes against my cheek. It wasn’t like the sweat coating our bodies, it was tears of emotion. Maybe he was finally letting out his fears, giving them to me as I had done to him. The vulnerability in his heart was bursting, and while he showed me with his body how he cared, I kept telling him with my words.
“I’m here for you, always,” I whispered. “I trust you, with everything.”
“Lauren,” he pleaded, rotating us to our sides, keeping our bodies synced together. He hiked my leg over his hip, grabbing a handful of my butt and squeezing. The new angle was sensational, and I dipped my head back, only to have Vance find my throat, making a path with his tongue to my jaw then sucking wildly.
I knew he wouldn’t hurt my heart, there’s no way he could with how he was connecting with me now. Whatever monster he thought he was, could only be a small bump in our road. I’d seen real life monsters through the crack of my mother’s closet door, and Vance wasn’t one of them.
His forearm made its way around my shoulder blades, pinning me to his chest. The warmth of his short breaths heated my cheek. “Remember this… how perfect we fit together,” he whispered.
My skin trembled at his words, and he kept his pace, our bodies molding together while time passed, until we both finally gave in, losing all our senses and erupting together into a profound bliss.
***
Vance was quiet while he held me in bed, both arms hugging me tight. He peppered kisses along my forehead and cheeks, taking my arm and planting more kisses along my wrist and palm.
“You’re very affectionate tonight,” I sighed. It felt heavenly.
He smiled, but it didn’t meet his eyes. I sat up on my elbow, stroking his chest with my other hand. “Is something wrong?” Maybe I had confessed too much to him in the heat of our passion. I had always kept my teenage girly butterfly feelings to myself, but I had more than some crush, and I had to tell him how I truly felt.
He cupped my jaw. “I’m just taking as much of you in as I can.”
I furrowed my brows, not understanding.
He chuckled. “I know I don’t get to keep you all night.”
My eyebrows relaxed, but my gaze fixated on his pec. “I didn’t know if I said anything to scare you away.”
Rubbing my jaw, he forced my head to look back up at him. “You could never scare me away. If anything, it’d be the other way around.”
I resituated, sitting upright. “Why do you think you’re a monster?”
Watching the bump travel down his throat, I waited for him to give me a reason.
His lips finally parted. “I’m a bitter guy.”
I held in my laugh. “So, we all are. You’ve got a right to be upset about what happened to your mom, but that doesn’t make you a monster.”
He sat up so we were nose to nose. “The visions in my head make me a monster. I want revenge.”
“Revenge on what?” I asked, puzzled. “Her dealers? The drug itself? It won’t solve anything, Vance.”
He ran his fingers through his hair and blew out air. “You’re right, and I know, but something inside of me can’t let it go. Unless…” he cupped my cheek. “… I’m with you. Then it all goes away.”
I smiled. “Then I guess I better stick around.”
He grinned, but it faded. Kissing my forehead, he moseyed from the bed, finding his boxers and shorts, slipping them on while I blatantly watched.
“Works for me,” he sighed. “But, I’m going to have to share you with YaYa.”
He grabbed my dress and held his other hand out for me to take. “You’d think we were still in high school.”
Vance shrugged, helping me slip the dress over my head. He fussed with the bottom until it was in the right position. “She has good intentions. I wouldn’t want someone I cared about walking around The Shore at night. Especially wearing this.”
I blushed. “I wasn’t sure if you’d like it.”
He raised a brow. “I like it, a lot.”
“Maybe I’ll keep my panties off on the way to get Colt and Marcy.”
Now both his eyebrows rose. “That could lead to possibilities.”
I giggled, then skirted by him into the bathroom. Why was I so worried he wasn’t interested in me?
Checking myself out in the mirror, I fluffed my curls and splashed some water on the top of my head, needing the after-sex fuzz to fade before we went back to the bar to get Marcy and Colt. There was no way I’d be able to get rid of the glow of happiness. Hopefully, Marcy would have one as well, forgiving Colt for being overbearing.
When I turned off the water, a buzzing sound caught my ear. Was it my phone? Probably Marcy wondering where we were, but I left my phone in my purse in Vance’s car. The sound was nagging me to come and find it. Was it behind the mirror? I didn’t think it were one of those cabinets.
I was wrong, sure enough, when I touched the edge of the mirror and pulled, it unlatched, revealing a medicine cabinet. Except, there wasn’t medicine inside of it, but phones with chargers.
I scowled, wondering why Vance would have so many phones. Including a beeper? What would he need them for?
The phone on the end buzzed again. Biting my lip, I contemplated if I should grab it. They were obviously hidden, considering his personal phone and work phone plugged into the outlet by his bed.
It buzzed again, and I held my breath, reaching for the phone and reading the screen.
Abby: I can’t wait until Friday. I need to see you now.
If I didn’t know what a broken heart was before, I sure knew now. I couldn’t help myself from flipping the old phone opened, checking out the text messages and previous ones before.
I clung to the counter, needing it to keep me from falling to the ground.
He lied.
He lied so well and I fell for all of it. He wasn’t showing me with his body how much he loved me, he was distracting me, so I’d stop asking questions and let him fuck me.
Tears burned the back of my eyes with each text I read, correlating the times with all the lies he spit at me.
Even when he swore he traveled to California, he didn’t. He had texts from Abby over the course of time he was supposedly there. The same exact day he ‘flew in early to surprise me.’
Fuck him.
Fuck The Shore.
Fuck love.
Chapter Eighteen
Lauren
“You ready?” Vance asked casually. He walked into the bathroom while buttoning up his shirt.
I shook with anger while holding the phone, my other arm gripping my hip.
Although my throat felt like a million needles were pressing into it, I managed to ask, “I’m ready to hear why you lied to me.”
His head lifted from his shirt and his gaze bounced from me to the medicine cabinet. The color drained from his face when he saw I was holding a phone.
“It’s not what you think.” He stepped toward me, but I threw it at him before he reached me.
I didn’t need to be holding the root of his lies any longer, it had already burned a hole inside of me beyond repair.
“Vance, I love your mouth, I can’t wait to find out what else it can do on Friday night,” I repeated, my voice cracking and betraying me. I stomped passed him. “You’re such a lying asshole.”
“Lauren, wait!” he called after me. “It’s not like that!”
I flew through his front door and down the steps to his car, whipping open the passenger door to get my purse. I’d walk back to YaYa’s before I got inside of his car with him.
“Lauren, stop!” He demanded, catching up to me. I kept walking, not bothering to put on my flip flops. The cool sand felt good on my bare feet. I’d walk along the ocean until I found the main drag, then I’d have a better sense of where I was.
“Don’t bother, Vance,” I shouted, keeping my pace. “I’ve seen all I needed to see.”
“Damn it, Lauren.” He grabbed my arm, halting me in my tracks. “Listen, she is a co-worker, I kissed her a long time ago, it was a mistake, and it’s nothing more.”
I smacked his hand from my arm. “So while you were in California, you never saw her?”
His lips tightened, and my phone began ringing in my purse. I ignored it.
“You never went to California, did you?”
He still kept his mouth shut, only the damn electronic ring of my phone continuing to play.
“You’re such a fucking coward. You can’t even tell me the truth.”
“You can’t know the truth,” he groaned, both his hands finding the back of his neck. “I can’t tell you why I didn’t go to California.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Obviously, you didn’t go because you were fucking someone else.”
“No, I’ve never fucked her. You can read through all of my messages with her, nothing physical besides a kiss ever happened between us.”
“Yeah, because I’m the only dumb blonde you fuck. I can’t believe I fell for you.” Tears plunged from my eyes, even though I fought to keep them away. I couldn’t help it; my heart was broken.
My phone continued to ring, and I furiously searched for it in my purse to silence it.
“If something this ridiculous is going to get in-between us, then we were never meant to be,” he shouted at me while I walked.
I paused, distraught and confused. I knew he was trying to manipulate me, and damn it, I still loved him, and I wanted him to hold me while I cried, even though he was the cause of my tears.
But he lied, and if I let him know he could lie to me, then I’d spiral out of control like my mother, allowing the wrong men to take advantage of me.
“Then maybe we weren’t,” I mumbled, no clue if he had heard me or not.
My phone rang again. “For fuck’s sake!” I shouted, digging through my bag.
It was Colby. He had been trying to get a hold of me for over an hour straight.
I glanced at Vance, then picked up the phone, walking down toward the ocean and away from him in search for privacy. He kept his distance, but his eyes never left me.
“Hey, Colby. Sorry I was busy.”
“Hey, Lauren,” he answered stiffly. I stopped in my tracks. His tone wasn’t his normal cheery and playful range.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“It’s your mom,” he murmured into the phone. There were voices in the background at first, but then they faded. “I came to check on her tonight. She had been doing so well, so I didn’t come by for a few days.”
I bit my lip, knowing what he was going to tell me. “She relapsed, didn’t she?” I sighed, shaking my head. “I knew her intentions were too good to be true. Why did I actually believe she would change this time? How long do they think she’ll be in the hospital?”
Colby paused before he answered. “She won’t be in the hospital, Lauren.”
I sighed. “Oh, was she high? I guess that’s better. Then she won’t get sent to jail. Sorry you had to see that again--”
Colby cut me off. “No, she took too much.”
My feet stopped myself from pacing. “What?”
He paused. “I found her with a needle in her arm. She overdosed. Lauren, I’m so sorry.”
“She does it all the time,” I joked, although my chest felt like a ton of bricks were sitting on top of it.
“She’s gone, Lo,” Colby whispered.
My breath caught, a pain consuming me so strongly I fell to my knees. “She’s dead?”
“Yes,” he sighed. “Fuck, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have told you over the phone. I should have made you come home first. Damn it.”
“No,” I gasped, trying to catch my breath. “I’m glad you told me.” Tears burned down my cheeks. “I’ll call you back.”
I hung up before Colby could say anything.
Crossing my arms, my palms found the back of my neck, and I rocked, the burn of shock rushing throughout my body. She was gone, really gone, and I hadn’t seen her in over a month. I ran away from her. If I wouldn’t have left home, she never would have overdosed. She begged me to come back and be with her, and I blatantly ignored her needs for my wants.
I couldn’t breathe now, my airway slowly closing. I gagged as if I were choking, gasping for breaths between sobs while the darkness took over.
Strong arms grabbed me, lifting me from the sand while a shook with disbelief.
My mom was gone, and I was all alone.
Suddenly, I was sitting on Vance’s kitchen countertop, his brows crinkled with concern while he tried to get my attention. “Lauren? What happened?”
�
��She’s gone,” I finally croaked, more tears dripping down my face.
“Who’s gone?” he asked more bluntly, gently shaking my arms. “Lauren, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”
My body trembled. “Mom...”
Vance’s shoulders sagged, his frown deepening. “Baby,” he hushed, folding me in his arms. I couldn’t process what was happening, only shook with fear and regret.
His chin nuzzled my neck and his arms surrounded me like an angel. He was warm and inviting, and for how badly my heart was ripped out of my body and stomped on, the ache seemed to soothe for the slightest moment while he held me.
How did this happen? She was so sure of herself on the phone about getting better. I truly heard the change in her tone, the will to survive poking through her fucked up way of life. Colby had been keeping an eye on her, and I’m sure he was blaming himself over and over.
Seeing him would help with the pain. He’d been there from the start, watching over me whenever the familiar trucks and cars would show up in the pebbled driveway of my mother’s trailer. She wasn’t his responsibility, though. It was up to me to keep my mother in check, and I failed her miserably. I would have found her in time to get the toxic waste out of her body.
Instead I was here, falling for a man I thought loved me, a man I was willing to give everything too, and he had other woman on the side. For all I knew, each of those phones belonged to a different girl.
I had never felt so small in my life, and here I sat on his countertop in his arms, never wanting him to let me go. I became so weak from a man’s touch. This was a mistake, falling in love with Vance Everett was beginning to hurt more than it felt good.
I pressed my palms to his chest, pushing him away with a small force. I should have shoved him and kicked him in the balls, but I was too upset and didn’t have the strength.
“I need to go,” I whispered, hopping down from the counter.
“Let me take you back to YaYa’s.” He reached for my hand. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’ll sit with you as long as you want. I’ll sneak into YaYa’s house and lay with you if she causes a fuss about me walking you inside.”
