I rolled my eyes.
He raised his studded brow. “I wasn’t planning to get into any formal punishments, but I’ll change my mind if you wanna get sassy with me.”
“No, Sir.” I started to relax and stopped really straining against my bonds. He straddled my body.
“You’re mine.” He kissed me again. This time his lips were hot and hungry. There was no messing around. The second lesson was clear and effective. He owned me. Every stroke of his tongue proved it and every nip from his teeth confirmed it.
“Say it,” he ordered in a velvety growl, pinching my nipples hard enough that the tiny spike of pain became part of the pleasure.
“I’m yours.”
His whiskey colored eyes glittered as he stared expectantly at me.
“Sir,” I added obediently, and I could feel the satisfied grin on his lips when he took my mouth again. He kissed me as if his life depended upon his performance, as if it were the last time he’d get the chance, the pressure enticingly precise, the fervency so intense it made me lightheaded.
He ripped his mouth from mine and rained burning kisses down my neck and across my breasts merciless in his conquest. I began to walk my legs up the mattress, needing more and becoming desperate for it as the flames of urgency licked my body.
“Be still,” he ordered in that dominating tone I couldn’t resist. Though I didn’t consciously move anymore my body still vibrated visibly with the force of my need.
Eyes dark with intent, he lowered his head and went back to work on my breasts, lovingly laving the swells and sucking the nipples deep.
“Dizzy. Sir,” I begged. “More, please.” While watching me, he took a taut nipple into his mouth and bit down. “Harder,” I rasped and he did, pleasure arcing in a straight line from my breast to my core. I started to close my eyes, and he released my nipple with enough suction to make a loud pop.
“No, Kitten. Eyes open. I want to see you.” He rocked his rigid length against me. “You’re so wet,” he praised, moving down my body. His heated gaze met mine for just a moment. “Open for me.” He touched my knees and I immediately complied, loving what he was doing and wanting him so badly that I rattled the headboard pulling on my bonds in anticipation.
He kissed me there, lightly at first giving me a moment to get used to him before he increased the pressure. My head thrashed against the pillows each time his tongue circled. I felt his firm lips and the piercing and sometimes the edge of his teeth but he never touched the tight bundle of nerves where I wanted him most.
“Dizzy. Please. Please. Please.” I was nearly incoherent with want.
He lifted his head. His lips were wet from me and his expression nearly as feral as I felt. “You’ll leave him. You’ll meet me at the Mine after the hospital, and you’ll never go back to that apartment or him. Promise me.”
“Yes. Yes. I promise. I need you. I want you inside of me now.”
He looked at me continuing to hold my gaze. “Who do you belong to?” he asked cock poised so close to my entrance I could feel his heat.
“You. I belong to you. Only to you.”
“Damn straight.” He plunged into me, the full length, all the way to the hilt. No apologies. No regrets. No safe words. Only primal passion. His shoulders tensed. He lowered his lips to mine, knowing what I liked. I started coming as soon as he did. Tension retreating and pleasure expanding sharply in wave after shimmering wave.
I wished I never had to wake.
I wished I never had to let him go.
I wished I could stay right here within our dream.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Dizzy
“Hello, Sir.”
I awakened to the feel of her fingers in my hair. I opened my eyes to find her smiling down at me, her long hair soft and loose against my chest.
“I liked my lesson earlier. Very much.” Her sexy lips quirked higher.
“I’m glad.” I pulled her face down to mine and kissed her decisively. “What time is it? Do we have time for another?”
Her cheeks turned pink, her shyness so alluring considering all we had already done. I wanted to have her again. I lifted her on top of me, positioning her so I could explore her breasts with my mouth, slow and leisurely, watching her face between licks to gauge her response, repeating things she obviously liked. I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I didn’t hear the voices and neither did she.
“The fuck?” Sager exclaimed, standing in the doorway to my bedroom, blocking someone with his arm. April slid off me. I yanked the sheet up to cover her nudity as she turned. Sapphire eyes peeked under Sager’s arm widening then tightening as she took everything in.
“You bitch.”
“Mel,” April whispered, her lip trembling.
The betrayal in Mel’s voice stung both of us though the words were aimed at April. Mel fled the room. April scrambled off the bed with the sheet wrapped around her body, frantically searching for her clothes.
Sager shot me a murderous look before he left, too.
“Wait, April.” I grabbed her hand. “Don’t. Let me talk to her.”
She gave me a skeptical look.
“This is my fault. I should’ve latched the deadbolt. But more importantly I should’ve set Mel straight a long time ago.” I ran a hand through my hair, wishing I could turn back the clock.
I tagged my boxers from the floor and punched my legs into my jeans. “Don’t leave,” I commanded, but when I turned back around the sweet compliant woman that I’d had in my bed was gone. April looked totally and completely freaked. She had her clothes held to her chest, and was staring at the doorway as if by the power of her thoughts she could redraw the scene. “I’m serious.” I put my hands on her shoulders and shook her gently. “I’ll talk to her. It’ll be ok.”
“No, it won’t,” she said low, her gaze focused on my chest. “It’s over. It’s all over.”
“What are you talking about?” I lifted her chin. When I saw her eyes my heart dropped.
“This,” she said dully. “It should never have happened. It was a mistake.”
I stood there bleeding out from the raw wound she’d just opened up in my chest with those words. I couldn’t move. I watched the motion of her throat as she swallowed.
“I knew what I was doing. It’s my own fault. I just had hoped for a little more time.”
“Don’t do this, April,” I pleaded.
Something dark flickered in her gaze. “He’ll find out now. Everyone will know. How could I have been so stupid?”
Then I started to get mad. I wasn’t worried who knew, and I definitely could take care of that sadistic bastard of a husband. “April, stop it right now!” I shouted.
She flinched.
“So your friend found out. It had to happen sometime. But we’ll talk to her. You’ll talk to her. Everything’s going to be alright.”
She didn’t look like she believed me.
“It will. You’re gonna have to trust me. Go to the hospital. We’ll meet up later at the Mine just like we agreed.”
• • •
I caught up with Sager and Mel down in the parking garage. Mel was standing next to her Fiat. Her cheeks were stained with mascara trails, her eyes lasers of blue fire.
“Hold up, man.” Sager held up a hand to stop me from coming closer.
“Mel,” I called, shoving Sager’s arm aside. “Listen. I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I thought we were friends.”
“Funny, I got the feeling that I meant a lot more than that to you. Seems you’re not very good at communicating, but then I guess that’s not very important to a guy like you.” She made a disgusted sound. “I think you were just using me as a cover so her husband wouldn’t suspect the two of you.”
I cringed. She’d hit pretty damn close to the truth, but she needed to know why and it’d have to be April to tell her. “Please, come back upstairs so we can talk this out.”
“I’m done talking to you. Her, too. You can pass
along the message.” She flipped me off. Her gaze slid to Sager. “I’m done with all of you.” She slammed her door. Her engine roared to life. A moment later she peeled out, leaving my explanations and justifications in the dust.
“What a cluster,” I mumbled, staring at her tail lights. Completely blindsided, Sager clocked me, knocking me flat on my ass.
“Ponder that, you piece of shit.” Our bassist was usually pretty low key, but he was cranked up maximally now.
I scrambled to my feet, and rubbed my jaw. “What the fuck, man?”
“You royally screwed things over for me. What the hell? Her best friend? Her married best friend? Are you kidding me? Are there not enough bathroom skanks to shag?”
My eyes narrowed. “It’s not like that with April. You don’t understand.”
He studied me for a minute, his face loosening a fraction. “You’re serious about her.”
I nodded. “She’s leaving her husband.” I tugged up my jeans. They’d started to slip since I hadn’t bothered to button them all the way. I remedied that.
“Your business, I guess.” Sager frowned staring in the direction Mel had gone. “Stay away from the pixie, though. She’s mine.”
• • •
April
Mel wouldn’t answer her cell so I left a message. “I’m so sorry, honey. I never wanted to hurt you. I know it sounds cliché, but it’s complicated. Please give me a chance to explain.” My throat closed before I could think of what else to say. I heard a bloop letting me know I had another call. My heart raced when I saw the incoming caller id. “Mom what is it?” I asked.
“The nurse says it’s time, honey. Best if you come back right away.”
By the time I got to the hospital I was completely frazzled. I’d left Dizzy’s apartment in a daze and caught a taxi. My mom was waiting on one side of George’s bed. A nurse sat beside him on the other.
“That’s probably the last dose of morphine he’ll need to ease his passing.” The tiny nurse scooted past me. “I’ll leave you to say your goodbyes.”
I crossed to my mom, my eyes filling as were hers. I threw my arm around her and my brothers scooted in close. Michael’s eyes were large as drink coasters. John was trying real hard not to cry. My throat tightened. I leaned down and kissed George’s pale bristled cheek.
His breathing was irregular and labored. Soon he began to have long pauses between groups of shallow breaths. Finally, he exhaled softly, and then went still. My mom made a choking sound and threw her arms around him. We all knew. You could feel his absence without even looking at his stiff jaw or his vacant sunken gaze.
The man who’d been our pillar was gone.
Michael wept openly. John was still trying to be stoic. I gathered them both to me, each of us processing the loss differently, but we were together as a family, though a family reduced by one now.
We’d been prepared for this eventuality for the past two years, but the reality was still hard to bear, especially watching my mother grieve. She seemed to age ten years right before my eyes.
The nurse returned. There was paperwork to fill out. They covered his body. Soon someone came and rolled him away and that made my mom sob harder. I met with the representative from the funeral home. But eventually there was no more to be done.
We headed to the parking garage, I carried Michael, as much for my comfort as his. That’s where we ran into James. I took a step back, gaze sliding to the floor as guilt nearly greater than my grief slammed into me.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Brandee,” he told my mom. I sensed the sincerity in his condolence. I guess no one could look at my mom right now and not feel her pain. “Here let me, April.” He took the keys from my hand. “I’ll drive you all home.”
The boys drifted off to their rooms as soon as we got to mom’s house. I dropped my cell on the coffee table and went to the kitchen, making sandwiches for everyone and began calling the list of relatives and friends that needed to be notified. By the time I was through it was late, past the hour when I was supposed to have met Dizzy at the Mine.
I was pretty sure he’d figured out by then that I wasn’t coming. That James was back. That the brief time we’d had together was over. If my heart hadn’t already been broken, if my nerves hadn’t already been deadened by grief, the pain of that revelation would’ve been almost too excruciating to bear.
I tried to talk my mom into letting me stay the night with her, but after she and James exchanged a look I couldn’t interpret, she insisted that my place was with him.
James handed me my cell phone as we walked out the door, but didn’t speak to me on the way back. He kept his hands on the steering wheel, and I stared out at the lights wondering how I could possibly walk back into my apartment and resume living the lie with James after everything that had happened.
After we arrived, I took off my jacket and hung it on the hook in the entryway. I slid my cell out of my pocket, still hoping though I had no right, or reason, that Dizzy would’ve called or sent me a message through someone. At this point I would’ve been grateful for any crumb. Some small token or gesture to tell me that he cared and that though we were over, what we had shared had been just as real and meaningful to him as it had been to me.
Suddenly James stepped in front of me and knocked the cell out of my hand. I watched it skid across the floor, and then I was flying. I tried to grab the entry way table to break my fall, but my hands skimmed over it and the back of my head hit the wall. Hard. I blacked out for a minute, pain bursting behind my eyelids that was even worse when I came to.
Befuddled, I blinked up at James.
“I had an interesting conversation with your best friend today,” he told me his voice strangely soft, his eyes brimming with the threat of more violence.
Mel told him about Dizzy and me? In that moment, as that truth sank in, I didn’t really care what he did to me. My best friend had betrayed me. I probably deserved it, but the pain of that realization would leave a permanent scar somewhere deep where James and his brutality had never penetrated.
He leaned down over me then, his eyes sharp as razors. “How many times you let him fuck your cunt?” he demanded.
I shook my head tears burning my eyes.
“It’s a simple question, April.” He kicked me when I didn’t answer. I felt something crack, and then I felt like I couldn’t breathe. “You’re such a stupid bitch. I bet you didn’t even realize that prick was using you. He has a thing for sticking his dick where it doesn’t belong. Don’t know why, but he seems to like my seconds for some reason. It’s creepy. First Rebecca and then you. He tell you that?”
Dizzy and Rebecca, James’ mistress?
Something split wide open inside me that hurt worse than my broken ribs as I blinked at him and saw the truth in his eyes.
“He’s one selfish motherfucker that’s for sure.” My head spun as he continued to spew his poison. I tried to hold onto the good feelings, the dream I’d had with Dizzy. But it hadn’t been real. None of it. And now it faded away as if it had never existed, leaving me with nothing.
Hot tears scorched my face.
I’d lost my father, my lover, and my best friend all in one day.
Reality, I discovered, was one mean son of a bitch, and its’ name was James.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Dizzy
“Aw, shit, Lace. Why the hell did you do that?”
“You stink.” She wrinkled her nose. “And I’m sick of this.” She gestured at my boxers that I might have been wearing the past several days without washing. Or had it been a week AA? The days were all starting to run together.
I’d begun to arrange events in my mind as BA and AA. Before April and After April.
“I told you once already,” my sister continued, much too loudly given my massive hangover headache. Get your shit together and your ass downstairs to help me put up the streamers for Bridget and Justin’s engagement party in the pool room.” She narrowed her eyes, amber like mi
ne only hers weren’t bloodshot to hell. “Why do you think I kicked you? Got a guilty conscience?”
Not so much guilty as regretful. How the hell was I supposed to get over the only woman whose touch I’d welcomed? Who made me believe in things I’d once discounted. But then she ripped them away. Without warning. She’d promised, but it had been a lie.
It was Mel who had delivered the news, scooting into the barstool beside me at the Mine that night, a pitying expression on her face as she showed me the text April had sent. That it was over between us. That we were a mistake she never should have made. Basically, a repeat of what she told me herself before I’d chased after Mel earlier.
Afterward, my recall became a little hazy. I’d gotten completely shitfaced, but eventually the alcohol had worn off and it was time to swallow the bitter truth. I’d never had her, not in a way that counted, not the way I really wanted, and she wasn’t coming back.
“Get a shower, big brother.” Lace’s expression softened a bit. “And sober up and shave. You look as scary as you smell and that’s not good.”
She carefully made her way to the door, navigating around the empty cheese whiz containers and Jose Cuervo bottles. I had a very refined diet when I was on a bender. She paused to pick up the yellow pad I’d scribbled some lyrics on. I tried to get up off the couch to stop her from looking at them, but I wasn’t coordinated enough.
“This is good, Diz.” She gave me a funny look. “You’ve never written anything like this before.”
Yeah, apparently pain like a buzz saw through your sternum brought out the inner poet. Go figure. “Leave me alone,” I mumbled. “Stop busting my balls.”
“Alright,” she returned with a worried look over her shoulder. “But only when you rejoin the land of the living.”
I did my duty as de facto leader of the group. I got dressed and went downstairs pasting on a smile that was only skin deep, congratulating Justin and Bridget on their engagement only for all of us to be blindsided when more bad shit hit the fan. None of us could believe what we were seeing on the television. That War’s mother had been killed in a botched convenience store robbery.
The Complete Tempest World Box Set Page 122
