by Ali Parker
“You broke up with him, right?” Aubrey set our coffees down and gave me a stern big-sister look.
“No.” I took my cup and glanced down at it. “It’s not that easy.”
“What? You can’t stay with him, Emily. That’s horrible.” Aubrey reached for my hand.
“I’m living with him right now. All my shit is over there. I stay with Tasha from time to time, but we redid the room and the beds are pushed together for her to sleep on. All her stuff is everywhere. I literally moved in with him to save money because I’m broke.”
“What happened to your mom paying for the extra stuff your academic scholarships didn’t cover?”
“She’s been drinking again.” I shrugged and picked up my coffee. “I’m going to break things off with Brody, but it’s not happening for a little while. I can’t just pick up and live on the streets. Life doesn’t work like that.”
“So stay with us,” Layla offered and worked on trying to take a drink of her coffee around her busted lip. “We can share a bed. You can’t go back with him.”
“I can, and I have to.” I took a drink of my coffee and tossed my long hair over my shoulder. “My mom lost her job, and her older sister, Dara, is taking care of most of my sister Cally’s needs. She’s only sixteen and I swear she’s following in Mom’s footsteps.”
A shiver raced down my spine at the thought. Me being at Providence wasn’t helping anything, and it was insanely selfish of me not to pack up and head back home, but living in the broken down piece of shit house my mother provided with her and my sister would have been the death of me.
“Damn.” Aubrey let out a long sigh. “Lucas is leaving soon. Maybe we can work something out so that you can rent his apartment.”
“No. I mean it when I say I’m totally broke.” I forced a smile. “This isn’t the first time my life’s been turned upside down. I’ll figure things out. I have no other choice, right?”
“Right,” Aubrey mumbled and glanced down at the table, leaving me to feel even worse than when we came in.
She was ashamed of me and my weakness. I couldn’t blame her.
I was ashamed too.
Chapter 6
Jacob
“Oh man. I hate this kind of shit.” Micah walked up on the porch and went back into the house.
“I’ll be inside in a few minutes, girls.” I kissed each of the three girls hugging on me and untangled myself from them to go after him. Seeing Emily torn up had my stomach in knots, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. She hated me for good reason. I was just like Brody from her perspective, but one thing she didn’t know was that I would never in a million years cheat on a woman I was with. I just wasn’t with anyone, nor did I intend to be.
Relationships were too hard. Too messy. Women were fickle creatures that loved you one minute and destroyed your world the next.
“Micah,” I called after him and jogged up the stairs as he disappeared upstairs.
“Jacob, there you are. I was looking for you all night.” A pretty Hispanic girl I knew I’d taken to bed a few times stopped on the stairs and pulled at my T-shirt. “Come home with me tonight. I have my mom’s place all to myself.”
“Not tonight, pretty girl, but soon.” I ran my hands down her side and let my eyes drag down the front of her. “You look good. Really good.”
“What’s my name?” She giggled, and I knew I was in trouble.
“I gotta catch up with Micah. He’s having what we call a man-meltdown. You have my digits. Call me.”
“I don’t have—”
I didn’t hear the rest as I jogged upstairs, taking two stairs at a time. No one had my phone number aside from my pops, Layla, Micah and Lucas. No one else needed it.
“Micah, slow down, fucker.” I moved through the people lining the halls and finally reached his bedroom as the door started to shut. I put my hand out and moved into the room with him, closing the door behind me. “Come on, man. Don’t let this ruin the night.”
“Fuck you, man. Emily is a really great girl. She’s a rare find, and that douche she’s dating is going to work his way right back into her life.” He walked toward the window at the far end of his room. “You don’t know her story.”
“So tell me. I’m interested.”
“Why, so you can use it to get into her pants? No way. Get the fuck out. I’m disgusted by all of this shit right now.” He ran his fingers through his dark hair and kept his back to me. “It’s like all the good people are gone or are leaving.”
“We’re still here.” I walked over to his bed and jumped on it. “I’m not an asshole. I like to sleep around because it feels good to be wanted, all right? You know this shit. Stop treating me like herpes and come snuggle up.”
“Hell no.” He glanced back at me and smirked. “You’re stupid, you know that?”
“Yeah, stupidly lost over that girl you just let get away.” I slipped my hands behind my head and closed my eyes, imagining our night together as if it were yesterday. “You know why I like her so much?”
“Emily?”
“No, Mrs. Claus. Yeah, Emily. Keep up. Shit.” I gave him a cocky grin and turned onto my side. “Because she is a good woman. I’ve been watching her from the sidelines for the last three years, and she’s been nothing but good and sweet, kind and loving.”
“And?” He glanced over at me.
“And she’s got a thing for dating assholes, Micah. We can talk about all of her great traits, and there are loads of them, but she dates jerks.”
“I know, but it’s because she’s poor.”
“What?” I sat up. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. I’m poor and I don’t date bitches that tear my heart out.”
“Right, but that’s you. You just keep everyone at arm’s length and you don’t have to feel anything.” He reached his hands toward me as if to emphasize my weakness. “She pulls them in close and prays that they’ll be good enough to her that she won’t have to face the music. Her mom’s an alcoholic and her dad walked away when she was in junior high. It’s been a rough life, Jacob.”
“I know about rough lives.” I stood up and slipped my hands into my pockets. “I’m not trying to make light of her situation or say anything negative about her, but she’s going to have to stop looking for love in some rich guy’s bed. It’s not going to happen.”
He snorted. “You’re looking for affection in everyone’s bed. Why do you get to say what will and won’t work? Just because you’ve been hurt too, you think you have the answers to life.”
“Fuck you for that.” I turned and walked to the door. I wasn’t about to lean on the fact that my life before Providence was a fucking joke. I didn’t need to. I made my life what it was, and unlike Emily, I wasn’t willing to sit where abuse was being handed out, not even when it was the truth.
“Jacob. Dude. Wait.”
I closed the door and glanced down the hall, looking for a few girls to fill up my night with moaning. A pretty blonde stood at the end of the hall, talking to a few guys and laughing a little too loudly.
“Hey,” I called down the hall and motioned for her to come toward me as she glanced my way. “You look awfully pretty tonight. Have we met?”
“No. I’m a transfer from Texas, but I’ve heard all about you. President of the Omegas and the biggest name in soccer around here.” She lifted her beer to her lips.
“I’m Jacob. What’s your name, baby?”
“Maggie.”
“Well, Maggie. My bed’s open for the night and there are about twenty girls downstairs that are hoping to fill it. I’m not in the mood for something conventional if you know what I mean.” I took her hand into mine and lifted it to my lips, kissing her knuckles softly as her expression softened. I had her.
Micah’s door opened and I reached for mine.
“Jacob—”
I shook my head at him but kept my eyes on the pretty girl in front of me. “Not now.”
She glanced back toward M
icah as I pulled her into my room and closed the door. She didn’t get a word out before I pressed her to the wall behind her and pressed my lips to hers. The soft moan that left her was good enough to get my blood pumping and my imagination running wild.
“You like to suck dick?” I licked her lips and smiled as she nodded.
“Love it.”
“Good. Get to it.”
She gripped my jeans and worked them open before moving down to her knees and pulling my cock free from its prison. A smile spread across her lips that shot a hot blast of satisfaction through me. Being hung had a few disadvantages, but the look on a woman’s face when she got excited over my size wasn’t one of them.
“Wow.” She glanced up at me and licked her lips. “I scored big.”
“You sure did.” I slid my hands into her hair and leaned in, bending my knees and lining my cock up with her pretty pink lips. She went to town, and I helped her out where I could, thrusting a little harder than I should have and jerking her to take more when she started to lighten up.
The deep moans coming from her had my balls tightening and the world spinning before I knew what was happening. They could take me all the way to the edge, but that was it. I hung there, suspended in time and locked in a mild form of pleasure as my heart raced and sweat broke out on my forehead.
“Come on,” I whispered as she mouthed something around my shaft. “Not you, baby. Me. I’m so close.”
She started to speak and I thrust again, not wanting her to break the spell. Her voice would shatter the image moving through my mind and stall me even further. Emily.
“Don’t hurt me,” she whispered and wrapped her taut legs around my waist as I pressed her to the bed below. Beautiful won’t begin to describe her.
“Never. Just tell me if you can’t take me. I’ll be fine either way.” I licked the side of her neck and pressed my cock against her tight entrance. “You smell so fucking good.”
“I’ve wanted you since the first night you came to the football game with your friends.” She arched and whimpered loudly.
Chills broke out across my body as my cock started to throb. We hadn’t even started and I was so close. It had everything to do with her and little to do with me getting laid again. She was too much woman for me, and I fucking knew it.
“Why didn’t you just tell me, hmm? I’d have given in a lot sooner.” I pressed my chest to hers, wishing she would have let me take her shirt off but understanding her modesty.
“I was scared you wouldn’t want me.” She groaned again and reached down to grip my bare ass, pulling hard as she forced more inside of her. We shared a moan as she opened her thighs wider and let me in. Never before had a woman taken me so well. I was sold on giving her anything she wanted, especially if it was me.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I moved up to rest my elbows beside her head and brushed her hair back as I rolled my hips and massaged her tightness, hoping to help her come fast for the first time.
“You feel so good. Don’t stop. Please.” She blinked slowly, the alcohol in her system having set in.
“I won’t. Not even if you tell me to.” I pressed my lips to hers as she gripped my back, moaning against my lips and rolling her hips, meeting me stroke for stroke.
Everything about her set me on fire.
“Fuck,” I groaned and pulled out, reaching down to stroke myself as the pretty whore on the floor before me opened her mouth and welcomed my sticky warmth. I pumped my flesh until my legs grew weak. “Close the door on your way out.”
“What?” She jerked back as I tucked my dick into my pants and walked to the bed, falling face first on it and letting the high of orgasm lull me toward sleep.
“Close the door on your way out.”
“You’re kidding, right?” She walked over to the bed and poked at me.
I glanced up and snorted. “Get out. You served your purpose. Now go find someone else to hang out with. Send Brody Jackson this way if you see him.”
“Fuck you, asshole. Get him yourself.” She turned and walked to the door, opening it and leaving it open as she walked away angrily.
“Was it me?” I smiled against my pillow and let out a long sigh. I’d find Brody later and fuck him up. Someone needed to, and I was just the asshole for the job.
Chapter 7
Emily
I hated myself for going back to the apartment, but I had very few places I could have stayed that night. I would placate Brody until I got back on my feet and found a safe place to stay. It would be a few weeks, but maybe I’d let Aubrey and Layla talk me into staying with them. Hell, staying with Natasha would work too. She was my best friend and had been my roommate for the last three years.
Maybe I was staying in a personal hell because I was scared to be alone.
The bed moved behind me the next morning, and I stiffened as Brody pressed himself to my back, his cock stiff and thick as he rubbed it along my rear.
“Where did you go last night, hm?” He kissed the back of my neck and slipped his hand under my T-shirt, rubbing my breasts and playing with my nipple. “You weren’t mad about that shit you saw, right? I didn’t fuck anybody.”
“Yeah, you did.” I pulled his hand from my chest and started to move from the bed.
“No, I didn’t.” He gripped me harder and pulled me back down.
Fear rushed through me, and I tried hard to let it go. He wasn’t going to hurt me, and I belonged to him as much as he still belonged to me. We hadn’t broken up yet, so why wouldn’t he think I was still good with being together? I was in his bed, his place, and still his woman.
“Letting someone suck you off is just as bad as sleeping with them, Brody. You cheated on me last night. How am I supposed to feel about that?” I let out a soft sigh as tears burned my eyes. I had to get up, but I knew he wasn’t going to let me.
“I’m sorry. You know that I love you. I drank too much, and as per usual, you fucking disappeared. Why do you think I ask you to stay at those parties with me? It’s to make sure that when I get turned on, it’s you that I toss over my damn shoulder and take my aggression out on.” He slid his hand down and cupped my mound, squeezing softly as he brushed his nose against my ear. “Please don’t be pissy with me. My head is killing me, and you know I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing.”
“Would you forgive me?” Tendrils of pleasure danced up my stomach as he slipped his hand into my panties. I needed to move, wanted to, but it wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t up and leave just yet. I had nothing. Soon. I would leave soon.
“Of course I would.” He slipped his finger deep inside of me and licked the side of my throat. “Someone’s wet for me.”
“I hate you.” I moaned softly, hating myself far more than I hated him. How had I ended up in another borderline abusive relationship? He hadn’t hit me like some of the men in my past had, nor was he verbally slinging me around the room, but his actions tore at the very fabric of my worth.
“I know you do, but it’s okay. I’ll make it up to you, baby. Just forgive me for fucking up. It’s been a long time since I’ve been stupid, and I wasn’t sneaking around, right?”
“You were in a room without me. I would call that—” I groaned as he brushed his thumb over my clit. I loved sex like Jacob and Brody combined, but where they were whores for giving it up at the drop of a hat, I’d been very selective with who I slept with and worked to never have a one-night stand after my experiment with Jacob years back.
“I was drunk and I wasn’t sneaking around. I invited you to the party to help watch me, and you failed. I forgive you.” He pressed his teeth into the side of my neck and pulled his fingers from me, rubbing my clit slow and hard.
“I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“And you didn’t do anything right either, did you?” He reached down and moved my panties to the side before shifting his hips and pressing his cock against my tightness. “Hush with all this and let me make love to you like I wanted to last
night. I fucked up. I’ll own it, but you’re my woman and the only one I’m gonna take care of from here on out. Let me love you.”
Tears blurred my vision as I nodded and gripped the sheets, wanting his words to be true and knowing that they weren’t. He would fuck up again and again and again, and it was my fault for letting him get away with it.
He pressed into me and shifted, forcing me to roll onto my stomach as he worked me hard and deep, lighting my body on fire in ways that I had become addicted to. The sweet innocent girl everyone believed me to be was trapped under the protective coating I’d constructed years before when my father left.
The worst part wasn’t that I let Brody fuck me within an inch of my life for the next hour but that I imagined him to be the worst possible rebound for me when I was finally able to walk away.
Jacob Wright.
A few hours later, I headed toward the south side of town to pick up my little sister for the first day of cheer camp at Providence. Why they decided to start on a Friday was a mystery to me, but after a quick shower, I left Brody asleep on the bed and drove the twenty-minute drive in silence.
I expected to have a million things run through my head, but eerily enough, there was nothing. Not a sound, not a thought—nothing. It was peaceful.
My phone buzzed as I took the exit for my mother’s place, and I scooped it up and checked to make sure it wasn’t someone I didn’t want to talk to. Mom. Great.
“Hey, Mom. I’m almost there. Is Cally up and dressed?” I tried hard to keep my voice even as if I wasn’t dreading seeing her and my sister.