“This stalker case with Charlotte has been amping up lately and it seems to have come to a head last night.”
“Everything seems to be coming to a head for Charlotte, Ken,” another voice cut in. “The guys over at Blue Donor are reporting something very interesting.”
I opened my eyes.
“Blue Donor?”
“Yeah, Ken. Blue Donor. Those are the guys who do the big tell-alls on smaller celebrities. They’ve apparently had Charlotte Crier-Banks in their crosshairs for some time now.”
Oh, fuck.
And, like some sort of black magic, brought on through the karma of me lying to people for my living for so many years, Tucker walked into my hospital room, looking every bit the frantic mess I’d wanted to see him in, just as a full-screen image of him popped onto the TV. Well, him and me. Plastered against a brick wall, my head thrown back in an obvious orgasm.
He was saying something, his hands lightly running over me, his face twisted in fear. Behind him trailed an anxious-looking nurse who seemed to be worried by the crazed-looking retired navy SEAL running through the hospital. She took one look at the horrified look on my face and then at the TV and then back at me, where Tucker was fretting over me, clueless to the mess happening behind him.
The nurse’s face blanched and then she quickly left the room.
I finally looked up and met Tucker’s worried eyes. “Oh, shit.”
His forehead wrinkled and he frowned. “What, Charlie? What the fuck happened? Where’s Gerald? I told him to take care of you. This isn’t taking care of you. I’m sorry. I would’ve been here sooner, but I didn’t hear about it until Lauren called me and told me.”
I forgot about the TV for a second. “You told him to take care of me?”
He stroked my forehead. “Of course I did. I was fucking terrified something like this would happen.”
“Why didn’t you call?” Suddenly, I felt like crying. I didn’t, though. It would be crazy to cry over him not calling when I hadn’t cried about someone trying to murder me yet.
Tucker looked ashamed. He hung his head and when he looked back at me, it was with a puppy-dog expression. “I was waiting on you to call.”
I wanted to be annoyed but the TV caught my eye again and I sank back into my pillow. “Well. I think I’m about to have a lot more free time to make that call.”
Tucker glanced back over his shoulder and stood up straight. “Oh, shit.”
There, playing across the screen was a series of images. Sharon and Carlos sneaking in and out of the house. Mary, the cleaning lady whom Gerald had hired, Gerald, and all of the rest of the people on the team who made Charlotte Charlotte. All of them were captured going and coming from the house. More images of Tucker pressing me against that wall. Images of us on the day that we’d snuck out and had breakfast. A picture of me leaving his house in the same clothes.
“Wow, Ken. These are some serious accusations against the sweetheart of Arkansas. What do you think of all of this?”
“Well… I am shocked, as I’m sure most of Charlotte’s fans are going to be. Who is the real Charlotte? I’m sure that no one imagined she’d be the woman plastered against some dirty alley wall with a security guard in place of her husband.”
“Well, that’s another thing being reported, Ken. There may be a reason that John wasn’t at home with Charlotte last night.”
My mouth fell open as images played across the screen of Gerald and John cuddled together. Their faces were too close, too intimate to look like a normal conversation.
“Apparently, John Banks and Charlotte’s manager, Gerald, are closer than anyone could’ve imagined. Ken, I don’t know what to say. I just know that my buddies and I don’t get that close to talk.”
Tucker looked over at me and raised his eyebrows. “Well, shit.”
“Yep.” I turned the TV off and closed my eyes. “Shit.”
Chapter 22
Charlie
I’d started calling the “before the outage” stage of my life BO. Room service during BO was always above par. I stayed in nice rooms, and hotel staff went out of their way to make sure I was well taken care of. AO—or “after outage”—I was scum. I was lucky the hotel I was staying at even had room service. When it did come, it was late and the food was cold.
People hated me AO. The room-service example was probably a petty one, but there were others, far worse. Like the woman I’d run into while grabbing ice from the ice machine earlier. She hated me.
It was honestly like everyone hated me. Once I’d been exposed as a fake, a cheater, and a liar, people seemed to think I’d personally offended them. I wanted to say I got it, but I didn’t. They had gotten the pretty Charlotte for so many years. They’d gotten rainbows-and-sunshine Charlotte. They should’ve at least been happy that for over ten years they weren’t imprisoned inside of her.
No one got it, though. I wasn’t going to chance losing everything even more than I already had to explain it, either. I was staying in a dirt-cheap hotel, just in case the management firm decided to lash out and take everything. I couldn’t tell my side of things. Not that they’d even care. Not that I even cared, at the end of the day. Well, I didn’t enjoy people screaming at me over cheating on John, but I was free.
I hadn’t heard anything from Gerald or John since before the fire. They’d practically vanished. There hadn’t been anything on the news about them, either. Unlike me. I’d been covered on all the gossip sites to hell and back. I’d even seen one late-night show dissect my orgasm face, which was just great.
I’d been staying out of sight. I didn’t want to be hounded by the media, but I also didn’t want the fire-wielding maniac to come find me, either. Not that I’d heard a peep from him, either. It was like Sam had vanished, too. Maybe he was letting things cool down before he tried again. Or maybe there was something else entirely going on. I’d been having nightmares of John attacking me.
I didn’t think it was him. It didn’t make sense. My mind was having a field day with it, though. Things were just weird. Sam had been so active, leaving threats and increasing the violence. Just to suddenly stop was weird. It made me sick, I was so nervous. What if he was planning something huge? What if I just thought he’d disappeared? What if it was John?
No one knew where I was. Except for Tucker and the woman in the hallway who thought I was a giant bitch who deserved everything I got. Yep, she had strong feelings about me. Maybe she was Sam.
She’d also called me fat. Bitch. I wasn’t a fan of hers, either. I’d been eating plenty of cold room service and I’d put on a couple of pounds in the few days I’d been in hiding, but I wasn’t fat. At least I didn’t think I was.
Everything was just so weird. I’d gone from constant business to nothing. No one wanted me. All of my jobs had distanced themselves from me and I was basically a pariah.
Then there was Tucker. He knew where I was. He stopped by every day to make sure I had what I needed. But, he was… just working, it seemed. He was distant and never came into the room. He kept at least an arm’s length between us and he acted cold. It was kind of awful. I didn’t know what to do about him. Then again, maybe he was making it obvious what I should do. He wasn’t exactly giving me a green light.
I flopped back on the bed and groaned. I didn’t even know why I was so worried about it. I was free from everything. Everything I’d wanted so for long was happening. I hadn’t exactly planned that it’d happen in such an explosive way, but I wasn’t under the control of Gerald anymore. No more bleaching my hair, no more stupid contacts or fancy dresses. I could sleep in as late as I wanted and go to bed as early as I wanted. I could eat anything that I wanted. I could sit around and read a book all day long, if I wanted to. I could do whatever the hell I wanted to.
Which made me think. I had freedom and all I was doing was moping in my hotel room. I couldn’t exactly go crazy, with Sam on the loose still, but I could start getting away from Charlotte.
I opened my pho
ne and used a delivery app to order a load full of stuff. I figured I needed to use at least some of my money before Gerald and his team took it away. I added a big burrito to the list of things and then watched court TV while waiting on it to show up.
Things were going to change. It was time to make them change.
Chapter 23
Tucker
I stood up and stretched as a jaw-splitting yawn escaped from my mouth. Looking over at Vince, I shrugged. “Sorry.”
He looked up from the screen he’d been watching and frowned at me. “Dude. You may as well go home. You’re useless to me.”
I tried to shake my body out, and the exhaustion out with it. “No, I’m good. I just need to go grab a coffee.”
“Your sixth one? Brother, you’re pushing yourself. Why don’t you just go over to the hotel and stay with her?”
I grimaced and walked over to the coffee pot. Had I really had five cups already? I poured another black cup and sat back down in front of the monitors. We were watching the security cameras for a couple of jobs running through BDS. It’d gotten chilly the night before, so Black Dog was on the floor, at our feet. It normally would’ve been a peaceful job, but between feeling like I was about to fall over from sleep deprivation and stress about Charlie, I was almost done for.
I couldn’t just go over to see her, though. Making that step meant something. She wasn’t a job. If I went over there and stayed with her, it would mean it was something else—a relationship something else. I didn’t do relationships. They got messy. They made things messy.
Sure, I’d nearly had a fucking heart attack when she’d been attacked, and again when I’d heard about the fire. I’d been torn up seeing her in the hospital bed, thinking about how she’d found herself back in the same position as she’d been in when she was young and her parents had died. Hearing about how she’d thrown herself off the second floor to escape the fire had nearly sent me down a dark path. But still. Relationships were fucked up.
“Seriously, Tucker? I get it. You want to fuck around. It’s fine. It just doesn’t make any sense to do what you’re doing. You can’t work all day and guard her all night, though.”
I winced. The urge to deny that I wanted to be with anyone else was on the tip of my tongue. That was crazy, though. Of course I wanted to be with other women. I just hadn’t had time for them. At least that’s what I told myself.
“Do you not want to fuck other women?”
I scoffed. “Come on, Vince. I’m too tired for this shit.”
“I noticed you didn’t deny it.”
“Because it’s stupid. Now, focus on your screen.”
“Still no denial.” He laughed. “You like her. I saw that picture of the two of you against the wall. Looked like you really liked her.”
I stood up. “My shift’s almost over. I’m going.”
“Say hi to Charlotte for me.”
I shook my head as I left him sitting there. I wasn’t going to Charlie. Well, I was, but I wasn’t going in. I’d just sit out in my truck and make sure no one bothered her.
When I pulled into the lot, I immediately saw a reporter snooping around the hotel lobby. Worried about her, I pulled my baseball hat low on my face and hurried into the building and took the stairs up to her floor. I knocked twice and waited for her to answer with anticipation in my stomach. I just wanted to make sure she was okay.
The door swung open and I took a step back. Shock hit me like a shovel to the back of the head. I might’ve even swayed.
Charlie, at least I thought it was Charlie, smirked at me and stepped aside. “Come in. There’s a reporter sniffing around down there. If the bitch at the other end of the hall has anything to do with it, he’ll be knocking on my door within the minute.”
My feet moved my body forward, somehow, and then I was standing a few feet closer to her. I realized I was gaping. “Your hair.”
She grinned up at me and fluffed it with her hands. What had been long, golden hair was now officially dark brown and chin length. She had bangs. Her eyes were darker blue and the freckles across her nose and cheeks were a tease. They were delicate and innocent-looking, but her eyes read something completely different. She looked like some kind of Bond girl with her hair like that.
I took my time looking her over, slowly moving down her body. She’d filled out some since I’d first met her. Her breasts and hips were fuller and she was showcasing them beautifully in tight black leggings and a fitted ripped-up black T-shirt. Her feet were bare, but her toenails were painted black.
She’d been busy. And I’d gone from sure that I wasn’t going in to check on her to shocked stupid and nearly drooling.
“I changed a few things.” She turned and walked over to the couch, where a takeout bag rested on the coffee table close by. She pulled out a bag of cookies and took a big bite out of one. “What’s up?”
I put my hands on my hips and shook my head in an attempt to clear it. “What’s up?”
Charlie stretched forward and grabbed a bottle of beer. “Yeah. What’s up? Did something happen? Do you need something?”
I scowled. “Do I need something?”
She laughed. “You’ve turned into a parrot, Tucker.”
Feeling angry for some reason, I moved over to the couch and leaned down so we were face to face. “What the fuck is going on?”
She casually popped another cookie into her mouth and chewed while staring into my eyes. When she was finished chewing, she swallowed, licked her lips, and then went up onto her knees on the couch. “Hey, Tucker?”
Fuck. I’d walked into a trap. She was even talking deeper, almost breathy. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was trying to seduce me. “Are you trying to seduce me?”
She laughed and I mentally slapped myself. Why had I said that? What the fuck was wrong with me?
Then I felt her hand on the buckle of my pants. “Tell me, Tucker, how do you feel about me?”
I actually stuttered. “What do you mean?”
She cocked her head to the side and it somehow made her look even sexier. “You’ve been avoiding me. First, you were all hot and heavy. You gave me the only orgasm a man’s ever given me. Then, you acted like you cared. You wanted to protect me and I got the feeling that it was more than just because it was your job. After everything, though, you just… vanished. You pulled back. Is it because you don’t really want me and now that you can have me, I’m just another woman you’d like to put behind you?”
My dick was rock hard, but I tried to restrain it so I could think. “That’s not it, Charlie.”
“Is it because I’m too much? Too much drama and near misses with death?”
“Charlie…”
“I’ve put on some weight. Is it that? I think it all went to good places.” She ran her hand down the side of her chest and waist.
“Fuck, Charlie. I don’t do relationships.” There. I’d said it. “I don’t do them. You clearly are going to want one. Relationships are shit. They’re terrible and they just fuck shit up.”
Her eyes brightened. “Oh, Tucker.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What?”
“You think so highly of yourself.” She smoothed her hand down my dick and cupped me. “I don’t want a relationship with you.”
I frowned. “You don’t?”
She shook her head and then turned and moved away from me, leaving my dick cold and lonely. “I don’t. I’m still married, legally. And since my loving husband is nowhere to be found, I’d have to say that I’m going to stay married for a while.”
“It can be annulled.”
“After a ten-year relationship, I doubt I should rush into another one. You get it, I’m sure.” She sauntered off to the bed and leaned back on it. Her breasts pressed out, stretching the thin T-shirt until I could see her hard nipples.
“Goddammit, Charlie.” She was fucking with my head and I was having a hard time thinking straight. “Come here.”
I watched a shiver run do
wn her back. “Make me.”
Chapter 24
Charlie
Oh, my God. What the fuck was wrong with me? I was talking too big of a game. I just didn’t want him to run away because he was scared. If he wanted me, I wanted him to take me. If I was being honest with myself, of course I wanted a relationship with him. He was a good guy. Why wouldn’t I? Who knew if I was ready, though? The things I’d said were true. I was married and I probably would be for a while.
Would I be willing to have sex with him to get at least a little of him? Because while I was toying with him, he’d clearly been serious when he’d said he didn’t do relationships.
“Charlie, you’re playing a dangerous game.”
I swallowed. Everyone hated me. My reputation was shit. I was probably going to be homeless and broke in a few more days. I was unemployed. I had nothing to lose.
I stood up and pulled my shirt over my head. Fluffing up my hair, I walked over to him and pressed the black lace of my bra against his firm chest. “Tucker, I’ve been playing dead for ten years. If you think I’m afraid of you, you’re wrong.”
His hands balled up at his sides and I could see he was fighting for control. That was the thing, though. I didn’t want him to have any. I dropped to my knees in front of him and grabbed his buckle again. Looking up at him through my lashes, I smiled and then unbuckled him.
“Charlie…”
I pushed his pants down to his knees and then took a deep breath before pulling his briefs down, too. His shaft bobbed out at my face and I did my best not to look shocked. He was very large. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do much with him, but I’d seen some porn back in the day. I knew how to try. Plus, I was handy. I’d figure it out.
Tucker came apart at the seams as soon as I put my mouth on him. Hearing him moan my name was the biggest turn-on and I couldn’t help but hope his recovery phase would be fast. I took him deep in my mouth and treated him to all the skills I’d learned from reading erotic novels. I cupped, I sucked; I did all the tricks. I knew they were working because Tucker’s vocab got more and more vivid with curses and his hands lodged in my hair and held my head.
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