The Princess and the Prospect

by Christine Michelle

  He slid a glass my way and plopped a straw down in it as he did so. “I’m not sure it’s my business to say anything, but this doesn’t look like the kind of place where someone in your condition should be,” he offered up as he glanced down at my slightly rounded belly. I just shrugged my shoulders.

  “Looks like I’m stuck here for a while.”

  I watched as Joker finished off a bottle of beer and tossed the empty into the trashcan near the pool table. Then he swatted one of the girl’s asses and she turned to head to the bar. She stood right beside me as she ordered two beers. One was for her and the other was for Joker. I knew the second was for him because as soon as she had them in hand, she gave me a quick smile and took off for the other side of the room and handed it to him while leaning her body into his. She was a pretty redhead with long legs and curves in all the right places. She wasn’t overly done like some of the fake women that used to creep around this place, but still. It was obvious she was flirting with him and getting cozy. She probably didn’t know he’d come straight here from getting married to me. I wondered if he would even tell her that he had. He didn’t seem to care that her boobs were pressed into his side, and the amount he cared about the display was proven when he threw his arm around her and pulled her closer. She leaned in, giggling, and I turned around unable to see anything else without bawling my eyes out.

  Seeing my empty drink the prospect smiled at me. “Can I get you another?”

  I shook my head knowing that if I overdid it with the soda I would have to pee – a lot – and I didn’t want to have to walk past the man I’d only just married as he carried on with another woman hanging all over him.

  “Is there anything else I can get for you? Are you waiting for anyone in particular? Need me to call someone for you?” The prospect rambled off the list of questions, obviously uncomfortable with having to deal with me sitting at the bar.

  “Nope,” I told him. Then I gave him my full attention. “I’m waiting on Joker. He’s supposed to take me to his house at some point.”

  The prospect gave me a doubtful look. “He’s working on his fourth beer at this point.” He pointed over to the small crowd that had gathered around the man in question. “Looks like they’re starting in on the shots too. Are you sure he knows you’re supposed to be going to his house later?” I could see why he was doubting me since Joker had traded out the redhead from earlier and now had a brunette wrapped around him, dancing on him like he was her own personal stripper pole.

  “I’m pretty sure that’s where he was supposed to take me.”

  “Do you need me to take you there instead? I’m sure I could get someone to cover for me for a little bit.”

  I shook my head, blushing with embarrassment once again. What did that make? At least five times today so far? I made a noise in the back of my throat that signified how fed up I was with the fact that I kept having to play off my own embarrassment. “I don’t have a key yet. He was supposed to have all that taken care of for me today.”

  The prospect gave me a dubious look then. “Are you sure?”

  I sighed. “Well, I was when he brought me here. Now, I don’t know, but either way I have nowhere else to go for now.”

  “There isn’t anyone else you can call?”

  “No one else cares,” I informed him. That probably wasn’t exactly true. I could call my mom or Ever and they would be here to get me in a heartbeat. I just didn’t want to see their faces when less than a few hours into my marriage I admitted defeat and asked to be bailed out. My father’s words echoed through my head once more. “You made your bed…” he kept saying every time he even caught wind of me complaining about the morning sickness I’d endured, or the tears I’d cried because pregnancy hormones were kicking my ass.

  He wasn’t saying it to be cruel, just to make me face the reality of my situation, and he was right. I had made this bed, and now I was watching as other women were about to lie in it while I was forgotten on the sidelines on my wedding day. Two hours went by at a sluggish pace considering I wasn’t one of the party revelers who was having fun. Time was probably speeding by like a bullet train for them. It was weird how all that worked. I had finally relented and had another soda and then some water. I needn’t have worried about drawing Joker’s attention as I made my way to the bathroom though because he didn’t notice any of the three times I made the trip down the back hallway that was situated just past the pool tables. Instead, I’d managed to get all the way back to the bar to be offered yet another pitying look from the prospect who was fetching more drinks as the number of people attending this particular party picked up.

  “Are you sure I can’t take you home, or to someone who you can stay with until Joker…” The prospect, who appeared to be leaving now, asked as he glanced over his shoulder. I wasn’t sure what he’d been about to say though. Until Joker remembers you’re alive? Until he sobers up? Who knows. It was all the same thing anyway. Obviously, I wouldn’t be getting back in that truck with him tonight. Not that I’d risk myself to riding with someone who was drinking and driving, but I definitely wasn’t about to risk my baby. I shook my head at the man.

  “No. If it goes too much later, I’ll see if I can borrow a room for the night.”

  “No offense lady, but the rooms are for the brothers and visiting guest, not chicks that were brought here and forgotten,” he countered. I knew he didn’t intentionally mean to be cruel because I watched as his face flushed. “I didn’t…”

  I held my hand up. “It’s okay. I get why you’d think the worst,” I told him as I glanced back at Joker, who now had two women hanging on him. I pointed in their direction. “It certainly doesn’t seem like I am someone who would need a room here tonight, unlike Joker there. I’m Anna, Double-D’s daughter,” I finally divulged. The prospect’s eyes went wide.

  “Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. Does he know you’re here? Do you need me to call him?” He cautiously glanced back at Joker then. “Does he know Joker’s supposed to be your ride?”

  “He knows, and I don’t need you to call him. Thank you though, for checking on me. I’ll be sure to tell daddy how nice you were to me.”

  I could see the relief in the man as his shoulders slid back down from where they were darn near plastered to his ears with tension. I smiled brightly at him and wished him a good night. I noticed him texting someone on his phone before he walked out, but other than a brief glance back at me and a quick wave of his hand he was gone and I was left there at the bar utterly alone for the first time all night. Sure, there were people hanging around, but none of them even bothered giving me a second glance, let alone caring about what might happen to me tonight.

  When I turned my attention back to the pool tables my stomach rolled and tumbled with the sight that greeted me. Joker had his hand wrapped in a blond woman’s hair and the other firmly holding her waist close to his own. Their lips were locked in a steamy kiss that seemed to go on forever. Her hands were each buried in a back pocket of his jeans and his hair. The clinch they were in was more along the lines of what I’d expected at my own wedding when the Justice of the Peace informed Joker he could now kiss his bride. Instead, I was given the cold shoulder, and now I was forced to watch as he gave that kiss to another woman and did it right in plain sight of me. If I thought anything else in this messed up day had hurt me, I’d been wrong, because nothing could top what I was feeling in that moment.

  Glancing down at the glass of water in my hand I suddenly wished, for a moment, that I wasn’t pregnant because then I could drink this day away too. Then again, if I wasn’t pregnant this day wouldn’t exist. I could have mourned the loss of Joker early on and then moved on with my life. Eventually. Instead, I had that image emblazoned on my mind as the only kiss that happened on my wedding night. My lips were doomed to be lonely for a long time, it seemed.

  “Anna?” I glanced up to see my father’s best friend – Merc – standing there watching me cautiously. “What are you
doing here so late, honey? Aren’t you supposed to be staying at Joker’s house?” He glanced around then and stiffened as he took in the site I was about to be sick from watching. Joker was still going at it hot and heavy with the blond. “Fucking hell, I’ll kill the bastard.” He moved, as if to go after Joker then, but I placed my hand on his arm to still him.

  “Please, don’t do that. He didn’t marry me because he loved me. I already know that,” I reasoned.

  “Honey, even if I thought for a minute you were okay with sharing your new husband with other women – and for the record I do not believe that – he has no business leaving you here this late at night like this. Especially not when he’s allowing you to witness this bullshit on top of knowing you’re pregnant with his child.” Merc shook his head, as if he could just make the anger disperse that way. “Told Double-D this was a bad fucking idea,” he mumbled under his breath. “Come on, I’m going to take you home with me. Tiger Lily will be there if you need someone to talk to about all this. Honestly though, I’m guessing you could use the rest. You look dead on your feet.”

  “I am sleepy,” I told him needlessly when I was overcome by a yawn that wouldn’t be contained. I hopped up off of the bar stool and moved to head in Joker’s direction.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I just want to let him know where I’ll be so he won’t worry.”

  “No!” Merc was adamant in his response as he grabbed hold of my upper arm and started moving me toward the door of the clubhouse. “Let’s allow him to stew in that worry. Honestly, I don’t expect him to remember you were even here until sometime tomorrow anyway.”

  My lower lip trembled and for the first time in hours I found myself trying really hard not to cry again. “He forgot me before I ever even made it in the building after him,” I admitted. I glanced back once to see he was still wrapped up in the blond woman’s presence and her arms. My heart plummeted into my stomach all over again at the sight. This was not the marriage I had always dreamed of having as a girl. I could have dealt with the shitty wedding, but I never thought for a minute that my own husband would cheat on me on our wedding night and do it so blatantly in front of me.

  Then again, it was made painfully obvious that he had been oblivious to my presence. So, maybe he hadn’t put on the blatant display for me, but it was just as bad that he’d forgotten about his pregnant wife being there, let alone being alive somewhere. He wasn’t concerned about hurting me or making a fool of me either. I guess I deserved the latter since he felt I’d made a fool of him not long ago when I didn’t tell him my full name or correct his assumptions about my age. I didn’t do it to be hurtful to him or play games though – as he’d accused me of doing. I did it because for once, I wanted something for myself without who my family was taking it away from me. I sighed as I tucked myself in on the back of Merc’s motorcycle and hung on to him as he sped us away to his house. My bag was forgotten in Joker’s truck. The only thing I had in my possession now was the cell phone in my back pocket. I hoped like heck it didn’t fall out onto the ground as we rode, but honestly who would be calling me anyway? Not my husband, that was for sure.

  Chapter 3

  “What the fuck?” I heard Deck yell as someone shook me awake. My whole body throbbed and felt off kilter with all the alcohol I had consumed. There was also a heavy weight bearing down on my chest that was pushing what remained of the alcohol in my stomach right up into my esophagus with an acidic burn from hell that was going to lead to me puking sooner rather than later.

  “I should kick your ass right now,” Deck was screaming at me. “But I want you to feel it and remember every single punch, mother fucker.”

  “What are you on about?” I grumbled just as the weight on my chest shifted and my hand landed on a juicy, naked ass that I just couldn’t keep my hand from squeezing. Maybe being married wouldn’t be so bad if Anna was gonna wake me up like this every morning. My dick sprung wood at the thought.

  “You can’t be serious right now. You’re really doing this? In front of me? In front of Ever?”

  Well, he had a point there. “Anna babe, get up,” I called out to my new wife who I realized had to be the one draped over me and causing me to want to vomit. Not because I didn’t like having her weight on me, but after the drinking I’d done, it wasn’t going to end pretty. Besides, there was the audience we had obviously collected standing by to see her body which I didn’t like to think about one bit. “Come on, Anna. Your bro shouldn’t be seeing your ass.”

  I heard Ever scoff. “That’s rich!” She huffed those words out, though I still hadn’t opened my eyes to see why because my eyelids felt like sandpaper already in their closed position. I knew it would hurt when I finally managed to open them. “You deal with this shit, Deck. I’ve got to find my sister. She’s probably devastated right now. Jesus, I can’t even imagine.”

  “Anna,” I fussed again, smacking the ass under my hand.

  “That’s not Anna, you stupid fucking prick!” Deck screamed at me causing my head to pound dramatically.

  “Baby, it’s Stacey, remember?” A strange feminine voice cooed near my ear. I jerked away from the sound and finally managed to prise my eyes open enough to see the blond hair that was in my face.

  “What the fuck?” I pushed the bitch off of me.

  “You told me to cuddle up with you after I sucked you off last night,” she said as her bottom lip poked out in a pout. She had remnants of red lipstick smeared on her face and I glanced down to see that my dick was still hanging out of my pants and sure as fuck there was a red ring around it that matched this bitch’s lipstick. No. “Oh, fuck no!” I moaned out loud.

  “Yeah, asshole.” Deck confirmed what I was seeing. I had forgotten for a moment that he was there until he spoke up again. “Got your dick wet with some strange bitch on your wedding night while your pregnant, 17-year-old wife probably had a front row seat to you doing it. Once you wrap your head around that, maybe you can pull the stick out of your ass and realize people fuck up, and what you just did – it makes her mistake pale in comparison.

  “Fucking hell,” I grumbled as I tucked my dick away inside my pants.

  “Now, where the fuck is my little sister-in-law? You were supposed to get her settled in at your place last night, asshole.”

  I tried to remember, but couldn’t place the last time I’d been aware of Anna. Maybe on the ride from the courthouse to the club? “Maybe she went back to her parent’s house?”

  “Are you shittin’ me right now?”

  “I don’t fuckin’ know. We got in the truck after that bullshit fucking wedding and I was so fucking lost…” I glanced around, and when everything seemed too fuzzy and started to spin I just glanced back down at my own lap. “I don’t even remember getting here. I don’t know where Anna is. Did you check my truck?”

  “Who the hell are you, man? There’s a pregnant, scared, heartbroken girl out there somewhere and you can’t remember anything? I don’t know what you did with my buddy, but it’d be great to have him back instead of this asshole before me.” He turned to walk away.

  “Where are you going?” I asked, even knowing my voice was filled with panic.

  “Someone has to find Anna and make sure she and your baby are okay, fucker.”

  “Check with Lucy,” I managed to get out.

  “She ain’t there!” He yelled the words back at me. “She wasn’t with me and Ever. She’s gone, and since you never took her to your place, I’m guessing she ain’t there either. That means she had no-fucking-where to go. Did you ever give her a key to your house? The address even?” At the near blank look on my face, save for the guilt I knew he could see, I had no answers. “Did you even give her your new phone number?”

  He could see by my reaction that I hadn’t. Truth be told, I hadn’t even thought about the fact that I’d changed the number when I was angry with her. She had texted me several times, apologizing profusely in each one and I couldn’t stand to look at
them any longer. So, I had changed the number. Deck shook his head at my obvious non-response. He was completely disgusted with me and not hiding it one bit. I felt the same about myself in that moment.

  “She’s 17 and she made a mistake while trying to live her life outside the shadow of the club. She just wanted to be a normal girl who had a regular boy she liked. I get why she did it. It makes sense, even if it hurt you, because you only saw your side of things. Your wounded pride is keeping you from seeing hers though. You are a grown man. This shit you pulled on that girl’s wedding night? She will never be able to forget this. So help me, if she’s hurt or that baby is, I will never forgive this.”

  What could I say to that? He wasn’t wrong. I was starting to see just how wrong I might have been about everything that went down with Anna. I’d never bothered to think about why she had done it. I just assumed she thought it was cute to play games with the prospect even though it never felt quite right to think that.

  “What do I do? I have no clue where she is.” He could see the misery written on my face, self-inflicted though it was.

  “I don’t know there’s anything you can do at this point. The whole scene Ever and I walked in on this morning was a situation there isn’t a whole lot of coming back from. I know you lost my respect and I’m not so certain Ever will speak to you again considering she just watched you disrespect her sister at your wedding yesterday and walked in to see you with some blond bitch draped on top of you and your dick still out?” He once again shook his head and then turned his back on me to walk away. “Find her sister. That might help. Considering Anna probably saw the shit you were up to last night, I’m guessing you have a lot more to atone for, and probably won’t be able to do it. Hope you don’t mind never seeing your kid, man. If I was her, I would make it impossible for you after that shit show.”

  I sighed, and knew there was one way to get answers. The club had video of the main room. I went in search of our security guy so I could find out what I’d been up to last night, and maybe get a lock on when Anna left and if she left with anyone. While it gave me some answers I might be able to work with to find Anna, I wished I hadn’t forced myself to watch the tapes. Even fast-forwarding through most of the night I could see the devastation on Anna’s face as she witnessed woman after woman pawing all over me as I did nothing to discourage it. Fuck.