by Vic Tyler
But I love him. I wasn’t allowed to, but I do. No matter what was actually happening, the heartache was going to kill me. If not now, then later. I couldn’t do this anymore.
chapter eight
Maria – Christina Aguilera
T he party was already in full swing when I arrived. Earlier at work, I offered to pick Maria up so we could go to the party together. The past week had been frantic, juggling work, transitioning Sam, planning for the Nat Geo assignment, and whatnot.
I hadn’t realized Maria was being distant and avoidant when I thought we were both just busy. But she looked cornered when I stopped her to ask if I could give her a ride, and the look in her eyes bothered me since. She hastened away and said she’d just see me at the party. It had been worrying me all day.
I sighed, tugging on my tie. I never liked suits — they were so suffocating. But Grant insisted that I dress up today since the venue required more formal wear.
As soon as I entered through the double doors, my eyes were drawn to Maria, elegantly dressed in a slim black dress with her long hair loosely curled. I started heading towards her when I saw her relaxed, laughing expression directed to the man in front of her.
“Even mice look delicious when you dress them right,” a disgustingly familiar voice purred next to me.
“Keep talking, Cooper, and pest control is going to be cleaning up the cockroaches feeding on your remains tonight.”
“I’ll make sure that mouse feeds on my cum when I shove my cock down her skinny little throat.”
“You go anywhere near her, and I’ll rip off that tiny little nub between your legs and stick it in your fat hemorrhoidal ass.”
“Always the empty threats, Reed,” Cooper snarled, shoving his boiling red face into mine. “Give it a try. Put your hand on me, and see yourself get chased out of New York.”
“I’ll leave dragging your lifeless carcass with me,” I snarled back.
“Benji.” Grant smoothly slid between Cooper and me, firmly pushing us away from each other. “You made it. Good to see you, Herbert, as always.”
Cooper straightened up. “If it isn’t Brie Hill’s knight in shining armor.”
Grant’s million–dollar smile shined at the fat lard next to him. “I do my best to ensure nothing sleazy, vile, and over two–hundred pounds defiles the air of the fairer sex.”
“Hah!” Cooper’s belly jiggled as he laughed. He raised his wine glass mockingly and started waddling away. “Can you really call it your best when you’re playing businessman with Daddy Bayer’s credit card?”
“Did he just admit to being sleazy and vile?”
“And about not being able to see his toes.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to survive staying in the same room as Cooper all night.”
“Thought you were going to bail.”
“I still might,” I said sourly, my eyes still following Maria.
Grant followed my gaze and smirked, clicking his tongue as he looked back at me. “Should’ve glued down that mangy nest on your head.”
“I put on the suit, so deal with it.”
“I should’ve put it in the contract: mandatory bimonthly haircuts and using at least a whole bottle of gel for scheduled events.”
“Pretty sure I would’ve noticed something that crazy.”
“Maybe. If you actually read the contract.” Grant looked at me, curiously. “Is there a reason you look like you’re pining over some lost love? I hope this story hasn’t ended already.”
I scowled. Grant raised a brow, inquisitively.
“Are you serious about her?”
Like I was fucking telling him that.
Suddenly, the man Maria was talking to reached out and stroked her cheek. She flinched slightly in surprise, and then said something, smiling warmly at him. What the hell?
Grant grimaced at the scene we both witnessed. “Let’s get something to drink, Benj.”
He led the way to the bar, occasionally pausing to say hello to random people. Grant had just ordered two whiskeys when Cheddar slapped us on the back. Some of the models she worked with waved to her as they walked away.
“How are things going?” Cheddar beamed at me.
I grunted. “Been seeing your face more often than I’d like to.”
She rolled her eyes. “Likewise. But —” She emphasized the last word, smiling as she grabbed a glass of wine from the counter. “Seeing you like this makes me happy.”
She cursed a complaint as I ruffled her perfectly styled hair. Cheddar had always been a good friend. In a weird way, I imagined having a sister around would be a lot like dealing with Cheddar all the time.
“Cheddar, we’re getting too familiar if I’m making you happy,” I chuckled, sipping my whiskey.
“Familiar enough to beg apparently.” She winked.
“You fucking wish. I wouldn’t beg you even if I was tossed out on the streets and homeless.”
“Well, you’re at my place all the time anyway. At this point, we might as well move in together,” Cheddar chirped, ducking my hand as I tried to cover her mouth.
Oh, shit. Grant raised a brow at me, his gaze threatening.
Cheddar stumbled back unceremoniously before Grant and I could catch her. Two large hands firmly propped her shoulders up, and Maria’s companion smiled down at her as he gently set her on her feet.
Maria popped out from behind him. She looked ecstatic as she greeted us and introduced us to the man.
“This is Johan,” she explained. “He’s an executive music producer in the area. His company’s doing some really cool work with films. Their latest one was with Wes Anderson. They’re expanding the project right now, and he offered to let me go in and take a look.”
Maria’s eyes shone brightly, her face lit with enthusiasm. Grant went into business mode, engaging Johan in some conversation about investments or something. Cheddar tapped out, mumbling that she drank too much and needed to go to the bathroom. Maria and I stood together in awkward silence.
“You two looked cozy together,” I said to Maria, sipping my glass.
She frowned at me. “We were talking about music applications. He seemed pretty interested in my background in music and photography, so he wanted to hear about my experience with them.”
“Are you sure that’s all he’s interested in?”
Maria’s face darkened. She was about to say something when my phone rang. Grant paused to give me an annoyed look. Oops.
I scrambled to take my phone out.
“Cheddar?”
There was a fair amount of clattering and unintelligible noises in the background.
“Hello? What do you want, Cheddar?”
“Help,” her voice screamed.
Then a heavy thud and her muffled cry echoed into the phone.
“You bitch.”
My skin crawled at the grotesque voice that growled at her. The line went dead.
When I looked at Grant, the panic buzzing through my body, his face darkened. Maria grabbed my arm worriedly as Grant sprinted out.
“Cooper’s got her,” I said before running after him.
We ran up the stairs to a dark hallway full of closed doors, frantically opening and kicking down each one. Maria and Johan followed us up shortly after.
Grant’s angry roar boomed from the far end, the echo ringing sharply in the cold, dark hall. A cold chill ran down my spine. He disappeared into the room, and I ran after him.
Brie was on the ground, unmoving with her clothes ripped and a dark bruise forming on her cheek. Grant was on top of a large mass of a body, his fists pounding furiously into it.
I yanked Grant off and saw a bloodied Cooper coughing and spurting blood.
“I’m going to kill you, you fucking brat,” he gargled, spitting out blood and a couple of teeth.
“Let me go,” Grant growled, his voice low and lethal.
His pristine white dress shirt was rumpled and splattered crimson. I tightened my grip.
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“Leave him to me,” I said, moving into Grant’s line of sight. “You need to help Brie.”
Grant didn’t move. Then his tense body loosened, turning his death glare from Cooper to look at Brie. He ran to her, where Maria and Johan were already sitting, Maria speaking in a panicked tone to a 911 operator. Grant took his jacket off and put it over Brie as he carefully picked her head up and held her. I turned to Cooper, his face drenched in bloody drool.
“Can you walk?” I asked.
He glared angrily at me but winced in pain. He nodded.
“Good, follow me,” I said, walking out the door.
He slowly followed, eager to leave the scene.
There isn’t really anything I want to say about what happened next. I’ve had my history of violence. And I wasn’t proud of any of it. Including this. But needless to say, Cooper didn’t get to leave. And after I was through with him, he was in need of intensive medical attention, maybe even more than Brie. Even though I didn’t need to tie his unconscious body, I grabbed a loose tassel and tied him up, just barely cutting off the circulation in his hands and feet.
Time was agonizingly slow as we waited, and I was scared that Grant was going to cry as he held Brie in his arms, raw devastation and fury mixed on his face. She hadn’t moved at all, but she was alive. After what felt like forever, the paramedics and police poured it, the scene quickly turning chaotic.
One of the paramedics came by and wrapped my hands in bandages. I hadn’t noticed my knuckles were red and raw.
An officer took each of us aside. Johan gave his statement first and quickly left. After Maria and I gave ours, we were given the OK to leave.
“I’m going with her.” Grant didn’t leave any room for argument, not that anyone would with how intensely his eyes never left her.
The paramedic nodded, and the whole crowd suddenly dispersed, following Brie’s body on the stretcher.
Maria and I made our way down slowly, stunned. The party had disbanded already, in the midst of the commotion that happened upstairs, the mess abandoned in the large empty room. Maria grabbed my sleeve and looked up at me, her eyes tormented and seeking.
“We need to talk,” she said, as she opened an adjoining door. It was a large, empty ballroom with every wall covered in mirrors from ceiling to floor.
“What?” I asked, the mess of emotions and everything that just happened fogging my mind.
“Why were you the first one she called?” Maria blurted out. She immediately covered her mouth in shock, a look of guilt washing over her face.
“What?” I was stunned. “What does it matter?”
The residual anger started seeping out. I couldn’t do this right now. I needed to separate myself from her or else I might say something I’d regret, and I didn’t want to take it out on Maria. “She just called the first person she could when that asshole cornered her.”
“I know,” Maria whispered, her face scrunched with the agony and confusion she felt. “But out of everyone she could’ve called, why was it you?”
“What are you saying?”
“Have you been seeing Brie?” Maria said, clenching her eyes shut.
“We just saw her.”
“No.” Maria’s face looked pained as she looked at me. She struggled to say the next words. “Have you and Brie been sleeping together?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I was too shocked to process what she just said. “Cheddar? Me? What the fuck?”
Maria groaned. Jesus, what was she thinking? Was she jealous? She thought I was sneaking off to do God–knows–what with Cheddar?
A burst of fresh, newfound anger shot through me.
“What about you?” I shot back, bitterly. Shit, I couldn’t stop the words from pouring out. “You’ve gone on dates with Amir. Who knows what happened there? And first chance you get, you’re off flirting and jumping into some other guy’s arms?”
“What are you talking about?” Maria asked incredulously. “Johan?”
“I saw you two whispering together, I saw him touching you.” I was regretting every word, all of my jealousy pouring despicably out of my mouth.
“He’s married,” Maria gritted, steadily growing angrier. “And what touch? Oh, my god. He was taking an eyelash off my cheek. He even used a napkin to do it. That’s just common human decency. Have you heard of it? And what do you care, Mr. I–Don’t–Do–Relationships?”
“Of course I’d be concerned about you,” I said, irritated.
“And I’m telling you there was no need to be concerned.” Maria was shaking with indignation. “And what’s with this possessiveness? All of a sudden, you think you have any reason to tell me what to do or who to see or talk to?”
“Then why do you care if I’m seeing Cheddar?”
Maria’s face paled. Shit.
“I,” she stammered, her eyes brimming with tears. Shit, shit, shit.
“Maria —”
She turned around and started running. I grabbed her arm and pulled her into my chest. She tried pushing away, but I held on tight.
“Jesus, Maria,” my voice low and hoarse. “What the hell are you talking about? You’re the only one I want. That hasn’t changed. What do I have to do to make you see that?”
My mouth crashed into hers, her red wine and my whiskey mingling with our saliva as we fervently claimed each others’ mouths. Our tongues explored each other, desperate to relapse into our addiction. She grasped my neck tightly, pulling me in, as I squeezed her small body into mine. She bit my bottom lip, and I growled into her mouth, as I grabbed her shoulders and whipped her around so that she was facing the mirror.
I wrapped one hand around her chin, gently but firmly holding it taut as I breathed her hair in — that intoxicating vanilla scent that I was hooked on the first time I smelled it. My other hand snaked down, flipping her dress up and roughly shoving into her stockings.
“Stop,” she panted, grabbing on my arms.
“You know the word if you really want me to stop.” My voice sounded unfamiliarly guttural and hoarse.
I traced her bottom lip with my finger, and when she didn’t say anything, I shoved my fingers into her mouth and her soaking pussy.
“Look how wet you are,” I murmured into her ear. “I want to see you watch yourself cum.”
There was no teasing, no gentle caresses or petting. My lust felt raw and heady, all restraint lost from the strain of today. There was no part of me that wasn’t going to pound forcefully into her. Every part of me was reduced to an animalistic urge. I needed to mark her. I needed to make her mine.
I bit into her shoulder and sucked, tasting her smooth skin, and her cry of pleasure rang in the room.
By now, I knew her body. The way her back arched when she was going to cum, the way her breath hitched before her moans grew loud and unrestrained, and she was reaching that point.
Fuck.
I yanked my hands out of her completely. She fell to her knees, her climax ripped away from her, and she turned to me, angry, confused, lustful.
I needed to get something. Meanwhile, I’d leave her wanting. I ran out of the room. After frantically looking for it, I carried it back, Maria still in the same position on the floor.
I slid the full–length mirror on the floor, up against the wall, and hoisted her above it, one stilettoed foot on each side.
“Put your hands against the wall,” I said, pushing her shoulders down so she was sharply bent with her ass facing me.
I took a few seconds drinking in the view. Her smooth, exposed back faced me, those curves within reach. The skin I could see all evening and barely keep myself from claiming, from ripping her clothes off and slamming into her for everyone to see. Those long, smooth legs toned by those unreasonable heels that I could never understand until now. Leading up to her round, full ass — her dress flipped over — with her black thong framing those round cheeks through the sheer black stockings that veiled that ass — the ass that belonged to me.
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br /> I gave it a sharp slap, her cheeks reverberating. She gasped.
I bent down and put my mouth against her slit, licking and sucking her through the fabric. Her juices thoroughly soaked her stockings. I grabbed the delicate fabric and ripped it, moving the thin strap of her thong aside.
God, I loved her pussy. Her swollen, fat lips dripping with glistening wetness from the folds of her pink little slit. It was so sensitive, and her moans came with every little lick as though her mouth had a direct line to her nether regions. I greedily slurped it all, moaning deep into her pussy as I tasted her musky juices. I almost lost myself in the pace of eating her out, having missed the taste of her in the long week we barely saw each other, before I remembered I wasn’t here for that right now.
I stood back up, unbuckling and unbuttoning my pants, staring at her reflection in the mirror. My cock jerked excitedly seeing her large chocolate eyes hooded with desire, her swollen red lips moist and parted, and her face begging me for release.
She was so fucking beautiful. It drove me crazy knowing that that expression on her face was because of me — for me.
“How long have you been on the pill?”
“A little over a month,” she said shakily.
“I’m going to fuck you raw. Any objections?”
She shuddered with anticipation and then shook her head. I dropped my cock onto her ass, the solid flesh feeling stiffer and heavier than usual, impatient from not cumming in the past week.
I moved it back so the tip of my head rubbed against her asshole, and she jerked up in surprise. I pushed her back down and smirked at her through the reflection. She glared as if to say no. Next time.
I slid the tip of my head down, rubbing it against her aching lips. The raw feeling of her juices coating my head made me harder than ever, and I was barely fighting back the instinct to feel for myself how her insides felt when we finally connected, flesh in flesh. When we became one.