“Oh shit. Corey, I’m so sorry.”
“We all thought it would be fine. Dad’s been in the army all his life and worked his way up the ranks; he should have had a decent amount of money behind him. Mum sure seemed to think he did. Turned out a younger woman wasn’t the only thing he was hiding, because he’d lost everything gambling online.
“Thankfully, my sisters’ tuition had already been paid. But Mum came back with nowhere to live, and nothing to her name.”
“Fucking hell. What an asshole.”
I nod, unable to do anything but agree. “We found my mum a flat, and my sisters moved in with her to save on their own rent. Then debt collector letters started appearing for credit cards and loans Dad had taken out in Mum’s name.” I blow out a breath as I remember the devastation on her face when she admitted just how many there were. “I came over here for a couple of weeks to get away. Things were already hard, and finding out all that about my parents didn’t really help. I’d already left London, and then I found the studio here and things just started falling into place. My boss, Zach, he’s always looking to expand his empire, and when I sent him the details, he bought it without even visiting. He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, and here I am.”
“You left your mum and sisters behind?” Guilt twists my stomach that they’re in London, fighting daily. But my reality isn’t much better.
“Yeah,” I admit sadly. “I was already living miles away and unable to visit much. I earn more here, so although I’m in a different country, I’m able to help more by sending more back to help dig my mum out of the debt she’s drowning in.”
“Corey,” she says softly, her head tilting to the side. “You’re sending everything back to them, aren’t you?”
“Everything I can, yeah.”
Putting her knife and fork down, she pushes from her chair and walks toward me. Seeing her intention, I push my own chair back and allow her the space she needs to drop down onto my lap.
“Thank you,” she says, placing her palm on my rough cheek and looking into my eyes.
I shake my head slightly. “Believe it or not, that’s the least dramatic part of what I left behind.” Her eyes widen at my admission, but she doesn’t ask. I knew she wouldn’t.
“You’re pretty amazing. You know that?”
“Nah. I’m just trying to do right by my family while trying to run from my nightmares.”
She leans forward, resting her forehead against mine. “Your mum must be so proud of you.”
Forcing her to look up, I find her eyes full of unshed tears. “Yours too,” I whisper so quietly that I’m unsure if she heard me until a sob erupts from her throat.
“Shit. I’m sorry.” She’s up and off my lap before I have a chance to pull her back.
“Harlow, it’s okay. You don’t have to—”
“Just give me a minute.” Before I know what’s going on, she’s disappeared toward the bathroom and left me alone with my thoughts.
She’s the first person aside from Zach that I’ve properly explained any of that to. When I told Zach, I was in the middle of dealing with it all and trying to get Mum moved. But telling Harlow just then was so easy. I have no idea if it’s because the dust has settled and my life right now is normal, or if it’s her. Part of me wants to tell her the rest, the things that keep me up at night, but I doubt those words will come as easily.
After only a few minutes, she returns and drops into her seat.
“So I guess that helps to explain this place,” she says, taking the heat off her.
“I haven’t really had the time or effort to deal with this place. I’ve lived and breathed the studio since I got here. This has been forgotten. I just turn up to sleep, really.”
“It’s a nice place. And I love that you can see the ocean.”
“Definite perk,” I agree, returning my focus to dinner.
Chapter Twenty
Harlow
Corey snores lightly behind me with his hand resting possessively on my hip, but my head is spinning, and I know I’ve got no chance of shutting off any time soon.
My own memories from our conversation flick in and out of my mind along with his reality. No wonder this place is what it is, and why he was so behind on his rent. He’s literally sending every penny he earns back to his mom. The second the words were out of his mouth, I regretted not following through with my intention of helping the other day. Out of everyone I’ve ever met, he deserves it.
My heart aches for this kind guy who’s fighting daily for those he loves. I could see the guilt in his eyes when he talked about moving over here and leaving them behind. But he doesn’t need to feel that. He’s doing everything for them right now. He’s about to be homeless, for fuck’s sake, all because he’s more concerned about them having a roof over their heads than he is his own.
Unable to lay here any longer, I slip from Corey’s hold. His snoring doesn’t falter as I pull one of the sheets from the bed and wrap it around myself.
The curtain blows from the door we left slightly open last night. Walking over, I slip outside and take a deep breath of fresh ocean air.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to see the ocean from a bedroom window.
Suddenly, as I stand there, I’m a kid again.
The ocean was always my happy place, whether I was on the beach or just at my window. When things weren’t going my way, when I was in trouble or when I was fighting with my sister, it gave me the escape I needed to be able to clear my head.
It took me a lot of years to go back to the beach and to be able to find the same peace as the waves crashed in.
I stand there for the longest time just staring at the inky black ocean with the moon and stars reflecting in its enticing water.
I lose myself in memories from the past and thoughts of my future. It’s weird, I’ve never really looked much further than the end of the week or the month, but suddenly, I have images of years down the line. All of which include Corey.
It seems he’s managed to do things that others spent years attempting. He’s scaled my walls and somehow managed to take up residence on the inside. And as scary as it is, I don’t want him to leave.
The door opening behind me breaks the silence before Corey’s arms slip around my waist and his chin rests on my shoulder.
“Hey. I thought you’d left again.”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
Turning, he places a kiss on my neck. A shudder runs up my spine at the softness.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Really? I got you talking earlier.”
“Honestly, it’s fine. I needed it. I needed to tell you.”
“Yeah?” I can hear his delight in that one word. He knows how much it means for me to tell him about a life that I hold so close to my chest. He understands.
“My parents had this incredible house,” I say quietly, his arms tightening around my middle. “I had this huge window seat in my bedroom that looked out over the ocean. It was so peaceful. I would sit there for hours, reading, doing homework, listening to music. It was my happy place.
“Then one day, it was all gone. They were all gone, and I was taken from the house to start a new, unwanted life.”
Corey peppers kisses along the length of my shoulder as I speak. He’s just letting me know that he’s here and listening. It means everything.
My heart clenches, but it’s not just with sadness as I think about my family. For the first time ever, there’s more there. There’s hope, joy, possibility. All because of this beautifully broken man behind me.
“It was my ninth birthday. I had friends coming around for a party that night. I’d told my mum that I’d wanted a birthday cake like my friend had a few weeks previously. She didn’t take it seriously and instead made me one herself.” My teeth grind as I remember what a selfish little bitch I was as I looked at the cake she’d so lovingly made. I wince as I say the next few words. “I t
old her I didn’t want it. That she had to go to the store and get me the other one. I’d told all my friends it was what I was having and I couldn’t be seen lying.
“Mom was angry. I remember seeing it in her eyes, but she never let on. She just listened to me, and after a few minutes she told me to go upstairs and sort myself out. I turned my music up loud and tried to calm down. I was a kid; to me, the wrong cake meant the party was ruined. My life was over.
“I had no idea how true that was until a few hours later.”
“Harlow,” Corey breathes, clearly assuming parts of what happened next.
“Mom called up the stairs that they were going out. It had already been arranged that they were picking up a couple of my friends for the sleepover. I was still sulking, so I refused to go. I had no idea, but they’d decided to stop by the store to get the right cake.
“Only, they never made it out of the mall, because some madman with a gun decided that that day, that hour, those few fucking minutes would be the perfect time to unleash hell on some unsuspecting, innocent people.”
Corey gasps as I shudder out a breath, trying to keep myself together.
“They only went there because I was too fucking selfish to appreciate a handmade cake Mom had spent hours icing for me. I was a spoiled little brat who only cared what her friends thought.” My words crack, and Corey turns me to face him, pulling me into his arms and holding me tight against his body.
My body trembles with the regret, guilt and grief that wash through it like a crashing wave.
I don’t feel myself moving until I find myself wrapped in Corey’s arms and back on his bed.
He holds me so tightly that it brings more tears to my eyes. It’s just a hug. It’s just his arms holding me to him. But it feels different to any I’ve had before.
Most were just full of sympathy. A few were empathetic. But without going through something similar, something so life changing, it’s hard to really understand just how agonizing it is.
His lips press against the top of my head as I cling to him as if he’ll single-handedly stop me from drowning.
Maybe he will.
Maybe that’s why I fell into his lap a few weeks ago.
His kisses move down to my face before he finds my lips.
I don’t react at first. I can’t. I’m still too lost in the images of that day—some reality, but many I’ve made up over the years as I tried to piece together what really happened in that mall. I’ve seen enough mass shootings in the news that I’ve been able to build up a pretty clear picture. I know where they were found. I know they had the cake. I know it’s all my fault.
Corey doesn’t say anything, and for that I’m grateful.
So instead of telling me that he understands, that he can’t imagine how hard it must be, he shows me.
He kisses across my jaw and down my neck. His tongue licks at the sensitive spot under my ear and a moan falls from my lips.
Awkwardly, he manages to unwrap me from the sheet, and my skin burns when his hand lands on my waist.
My entire body heats as the pain of those memories begins to subside, the feeling of Corey’s touch forcing me back to the here and now.
His lips brush across my breasts, my nipples puckering as he kisses around them. Teasing me. Taking me away from the pain.
“Oh God.” His tongue flicks my nipple once, and a bolt of lust shoots down to my core. “More,” I moan. I need more. I need everything. Everything he can offer me.
Slowly, he kisses down my stomach, his tongue dipping into my navel before he blows a stream of air across my sensitive core.
“Oh God,” I repeat, my hips lifting from the bed in need.
His tattooed fingers wrap around my thighs to hold me in place, and I can’t take my eyes away from him.
He’s so gentle with me as he parts my lips that it brings tears to my eyes. I watch as he stares at me for a beat, before the soft and gentle man between my legs vanishes and the one I’m much more used to appears.
He dives forward, his lips capturing my clit, and I scream as he sucks and flicks my little bundle of nerves with his tongue.
My hands thread into his hair and tug in an attempt to get him even closer.
“Fuck, Corey. I need you.” And I do, I need him so fucking badly. I need his hands on me, burning into my skin. I want his lips on mine. I need him stretching me open so that the only thing I can think about is him and what he does to me. “More,” I cry. “More.”
At my demand, he slides two fingers inside me. The sensation engulfs me, and it gives me exactly what I need. Everything in my head fades away, and the only thing I can think about is this very moment as he plays my body toward the ultimate pleasure.
He never lets up. His tongue licks, his teeth nip, and his fingers find that mind-spinning place inside me until my arms give up and I fall back on the bed, unable to continue watching what he’s doing.
“Come,” he rumbles against me as he ups the ante.
My body is a trembling mess by the time he pushes me off that ledge. And fuck, do I fucking fly.
My chest is heaving, my body covered in a sheen of sweat when he crawls back up my body.
He doesn’t miss a beat. The second he’s hovering over me, his hand slides over my collar bone and wraps possessively around my throat. Our eyes connect for the briefest moment before he captures my lips in a bruising kiss. Tasting myself on his tongue only spurs me on.
My legs wrap around his waist and I shift myself until his cock is right where I want it.
His kiss doesn’t falter as his hand begins trailing around my body, driving me crazy with need.
“Corey, please.” I thrust my hips up, trying to gain some friction.
“Condom,” he groans in my ear, reminding me that we weren’t so careful last night.
“It’s okay, we’re safe right now.”
“Vixen.” His need and torment over doing the right thing are clear in his voice.
“I’m due in—”
Clearly unable to wait any longer and deciding that he trusts me, he surges forward and fills me in one move. My back arches, my pussy contracting around him as I adjust to the sudden invasion.
“Jesus, Harlow.” It’s only then that I realize he’s stopped moving.
“Corey, are you—”
I don’t get to ask before he moves once more. His tongue sweeps into my mouth and his cock thrusts deeper inside me. His hand lands on my hip with a bruising grip, but the bite of pain only adds to the pleasure and I lose myself even deeper to this incredible man.
His kisses, bites, and sucks at every bit of skin he can find as the rhythm of his hips gets faster and faster until we’re both forced to pull our lips away in favor of breathing as we race toward our climaxes.
“Oh God, Corey.”
“Come, Harlow. Let me feel you… fuuuuuck.” He doesn’t even get the demand out and I detonate, my pussy pulling him in even deeper until he stills, groans, and releases everything he has inside me. His muscles pull tight, his ink flexing and stretching over the top in the most delicious way as he loses control.
Falling down on top of me, I wrap my arms around him and hold as tight as I can. I’ve used sex a lot to forget, to drown out the pain in my heart and the endless images in my head, but never has it been quite like that.
Bailey was right. Corey isn’t like those of my past. He’s so, so much more.
He wasn’t chasing the thrill of the high. He wasn’t just desperate for some action. That was about me. About helping me to forget, to push away my demons.
Finding his rough chin, I encourage his face from the crook of my neck. It takes him a few seconds to move, but when he does and our eyes connect, something in his makes my breath catch.
The blue is dark from pleasure, but there’s more to it than that, and as much as it might scare me, excitement tingles beneath my skin about what it is we might have found here... two lost souls desperate for something to cling on to as their lives spin o
ut of control around them.
“Corey, I—”
He shakes his head, cutting off my words. “No. No more talking.”
I nod, unable to agree verbally.
His lips find mine and we make out in his bed for hours. There’s no more, just his incredible kiss and burning touch until we both pass out, wrapped in each other’s arms.
We’re finally awoken when my alarm starts blaring from wherever I abandoned my cell phone last night.
“No,” Corey groans, pulling me back tighter into his body.
As my cell falls silent, the temptation to close my eyes once more and drift back off is strong, but I know I can’t. Not only will it start up again momentarily, but I’ve got to go to work.
Why did I get a job again?
Spinning in his arms, I lay my palm to his rough cheek. His eyes remain shut, but his lips twitch with a smile.
“You stay there. Go back to sleep.”
“I don’t think so, Vixen.”
He rolls onto his back, pulling me with him so I have no choice but to straddle his waist. His cock is hard and ready beneath me, and a rush of heat heads south in my body.
Sadly, before I get a chance to do anything about it, my alarm starts up again.
“Fucking hell.”
Corey rocks his hips into me.
“Either stop it and come back, or ignore it.”
I look from him to where my purse sits on the chair at the other side of the room.
“Just give me a second.”
I climb from his lap and walk over. The entire time his eyes burn into my back.
“I know you’re staring.”
“Good.”
I laugh at him as I silence my cell. Spinning on the tips of my toes, I find Corey exactly how I left him—head on his pillow, his body fully exposed from where I threw the covers off, and his cock hard and resting well up onto his stomach.
“Now this is the kind of wake-up call I could really get used to.”
“Me too, Vixen.” He winks and gestures for me to rejoin him, which I do almost instantly.
Inked: A Driven World Novel (The Driven World) Page 18
