by Lee Heaven
I panted and moaned at his words. I could hear his fist pulling on his cock as he masturbated. Closer and closer we both brought ourselves to the edge.
Tobias’s grunted words penetrated my brain just as my orgasm hit, “Maggie…feel me…fill…you…fuck!”
We both lied there painting, trying to get our breath back. When my breath was even and I laid there spent and sure I was about to fall asleep, I heard Tobias shuffle the phone “Maggie sweetheart, close your eyes and go to sleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
He hung up before I could even respond, like always. I had asked him about it once and he just said he never liked goodbyes, so instead of saying it he would just hang up instead. I could understand that, so I never questioned him more.
Chapter 13
Construction on the apartment was nearing completion, only a few more weeks were needed. Sarah, Josie and I have been staying at Tobias’s apartment and the boys should be home and joining us here tomorrow.
Chelsea and Chrissy were at the apartment just about every day. After Josie was dropped at school, we girls would just wonder around Central Park or window shop on 5th Ave, our body guards trailing a distance behind, for a few hours a day.
The first few days there when we left I didn’t feel Jon watching me. I’m sure the switch on the apartment was done quietly, but I’m guessing when he hadn’t seen any of us for a few days, it was only a matter of time before he figured out that we had changed apartments.
Sarah’s ever growing baby bump was getting bigger and bigger. She was only five months along but with carrying twins she looked more like she was going to pop. She was having a very rough pregnancy and the doctors wanted her on bed rest except for two hours of moderate walking to make sure she didn’t get blood clots in her legs. So those two hours we made sure she was out in the fresh air instead of in the apartment cleaning and doing other household chores.
After our daily walk and morning snack of stale street cart pretzels we were headed back to the apartment when my phone beeped. Pulling it out of the pocket I saw a text from Jacob Williams. What the fuck did Jacob want? I hadn’t heard from him in over a year.
I slid the phone open and stopped dead in my tracks. Liam bumped into my back and mumbled a ‘what the fuck’. Hot tears burned my eyes. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be real. It had to be photo shopped. I really couldn’t be looking at a picture of Tobias in a jewelry store with some other girl and his arm around her waist.
Chrissy took the phone from my hand and hissed, “What the hell!”, while handing the phone to Chelsea and then Sarah taking it from them. I couldn’t hold the tears back when I saw the sad look flash across her face.
“Maybe it’s a cousin,” Chrissy said.
“I’ve met his complete family at Thanksgiving except for some ninety-eight year old great aunt and she does not look ninety-eight to me,” I said pointing to the phone that Sarah was still holding. I didn’t even bother taking the phone back from her or waiting for the girls as I turned and walked as fast as I could towards the apartment.
Rage, anger, hurt, pain, it was all building up inside me. It was all going to boil over at any minute and I did not want to be on the street in plain view when it happened. I knew the camera’s were always around and just waiting for something juicy to plaster across the covers.
I could hear Liam behind me and knew he was pacing me, making sure I wasn’t alone, but staying out of the way so I didn’t snap on him. Walking through the lobby of Tobias’s apartment I didn’t even bother heading for the elevator. I was through the stairwell and headed down the stairs into the garage while pulling the car keys out of my purse. As I hit the unlock button Liam grabbed my arm.
“Don’t follow me,” I whispered. “Give me time to calm down. Don’t follow me.”
He nodded at me and then reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone and held it out to me. “The girls have yours still. Please take mine. I need to be able to reach you or you me if there’s an issue. I’ll take yours from the girls so you can call me on that. Please.”
I hesitated for a moment and then grabbed the phone out of his hand. As I opened the door I turned back to him, “I mean it, don’t follow me. I’ll know if you do. I’ll fire you if you do.”
He nodded at me and I closed the door. I backed out of the spot and floored the Audi TT. Tobias had replaced my Durango a few months ago. Said it was too big for the city.
I wasn’t even out of the parking garage and I was going as fast as I could. I don’t even think the gate was up all the way when I sped out of the garage. I was soon headed into the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and headed towards the LIE. I wasn’t sure where I was going but I knew I had to get out of the city and away from everything that reminded me of Tobias.
How? How could he betray me like this? What did I do wrong? Who was this girl? Why was she so special that she was getting jewelry from him?
I hit the radio button and Fall Out Boys, Sugar, We’re Going Down started playing. I turned the volume up as loud as it could go. So loud that the rearview mirror was vibrating and the cars behind me looked like a blur.
One song faded into another, then another and another. Two hours later I was pulling into a parking lot and looking at the beach. Southhampton. How had I come this far and not realize it? I climbed from the car and walked into the cool sand.
Liam’s phone started ringing from my pocket. I pulled it out to see Tobias’s name. I hit the ignore button. The thing started ringing almost immediately again. Again looking at the screen I saw his name again and hit ignore sending him to voicemail. It started ringing a third time and I clicked the little switch and turned the volume off.
I wasn’t sure how long I was sitting there. The sound of the ocean washing over me, the calm that it always brought, relieved a tiny bit of the pain seeping into my chest.
I looked at the phone and saw I had been sitting here for almost two hours. It was pushing close to four in the afternoon. There were twenty-five missed calls from Tobias, three from my own phone and two from Sarah.
Just as I was going to put the phone away a text message came through from Sarah.
*Hounds are everywhere. Hope your ok. I love you*
I didn’t bother to respond but looked down the beach to notice a crowded starting to form not far from where I was sitting. They were all looking down towards me and a few were looking at their phones and pointing towards me.
I was quickly on my feet and in the car peeling out of the parking lot before anyone could tell it was really me. At least I hoped they knew it wasn’t me. I was back on the LIE and driving in a haze. Before I knew what I was doing, I was in my old neighborhood.
I don’t know why I was here. I didn’t know anybody here except Jon and Jacob. My house wasn’t even my house and I couldn’t go there. But suddenly I was pulling in a driveway and ringing a doorbell.
~~~
When the door opened I stood there staring at him, he stared right back at me. For long minutes we stood there like that. He finally held his hand out and said “I’ll put the car in the garage so no one sees it.”
I handed him the key to my car and walked into the house. The setup was almost the same as my parent’s house. I headed straight to the kitchen and opened cabinet’s, I didn’t even bother closing the doors. On the third cabinet I found a bottle of Jack Daniels.
I was chugging the bottle when he walked into the kitchen. He sat at the table and looked at me. I held the bottle out to him and he shook his head no at me. I shrugged at him and went back to pulling the amber liquid out of the bottle. It burned as it went down my throat and I welcomed the feeling of anything in my numb state.
When the bottle was half way empty, he looked at me and said “Are you done?” When I didn’t answer he got up and put the bottle back in the cabinet, then grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and handed it to me.
“Who?” I finally asked.
“Cami
lla James,” he said.
Fuck! Camilla James was his supermodel ex-girlfriend. They were on and off for years and rumor had it that it was his unwillingness to settle that caused the finally breakup. She’s a fucking supermodel. I could not compete with that. I couldn’t.
I went back towards the cabinet where he had put the bottle of Jack. “No,” he said behind me. “Drink the water.”
I didn’t want the water. I didn’t even want the Jack. I just wanted to go back to this morning when I was happy and Tobias was still mine and I didn’t hurt.
I collapsed to the floor in a crying blubbering mess. I felt hands slid under my legs and around my back, lifting me off the ground. I felt him moving through the house, up the stairs and being placed on a bed. He wrapped himself around me and I cried into his chest.
It was sometime later I woke in daze and cocooned in a blanket. I knew this blanket. It was a blanket that I had had picnics on as a child. I was suddenly regretting my decision to come here, to come to his house. To come to him.
What was I thinking?!
A movement at the door startled me and I looked over to see a little pixie standing at the door with a steaming cup of something. I startled for a moment and she noticed.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. I just wanted to come check on you,” she said.
“And you are?” I question.
“I’m sorry. Jane Phillips.”
“Maggie Hemsworth,” I said back to her.
“I know who you are. Here this is for you,” she said as she held the steaming cup of tea at me. “There’s a tree of a man sitting in the living room downstairs.”
“Liam’s here?” I groaned at her.
She shook her head, “I wasn’t supposed to tell you, but I didn’t want you to be surprised when you went downstairs.”
“How did he find me?” I mumbled more to myself but loud enough Jane could hear.
I guess she thought I was asking here because she answered, “I’m guessing that hot little number in the garage has a GPS tracking device. Either that or your phone, that has been sitting on the counter going crazy with calls and text messages.”
I placed the cup on the small table next to the bed and dropped my head into my hands. I started crying again. I felt Jane wrap her arms around me and I collapsed into her shoulder. I couldn’t believe my life, I was now crying on the arm of a woman I didn’t even know.
I pulled myself together with a mumbled sorry and Jane patted my arm, “We’ve all been there. We’re downstairs if you need anything.” Then she was gone.
I wasn’t even sure who Jane was and why she was here. I wasn’t even sure why I was here. Why did I turn to him of all people? I made my way down the steps and crossed the living room. Liam looked up at me and the look I gave him froze him to his spot on the couch.
I walked into the kitchen to find him standing at the stove cooking dinner. He half turned and gave me a smile, “You hungry?” He asked. I nodded my head at him, I was starving I hadn’t eaten since that pretzel this morning. “Good, it will be ready in a little while.” He turned to look at me fully now as he said “You are welcome to stay here as long as you need. I take it “the tree” would be staying too which is fine.” His lips thinned and he took a deep breath before he said his next words, “I normally wouldn’t get involved or I would convince you that he’s an asshole and you could do so much better, but I’m not. You need to talk to him. He hasn’t stopped calling. I swear Liam has answered his phone and yours at least a hundred times in the past hour and half.”
I wasn’t sure if I was ready to talk to Tobias again. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to hear whatever excuse he was going come up with. I looked up at him, “I need to make a phone call. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
I walked back into the living room glaring at Liam. “How?”
“The car,” he said quietly.
“Why?”
“Tobias would kill me if you were alone.”
“Well who gives a fuck what Tobias wants now,” I huffed as I grabbed a phone off the table and went upstairs.
Two swipes of the phone and it was ringing. “Hello,” her tiny voice said through the line.
“Hi,” I said.
“Oh Maggie, are you ok?”
“I don’t know. What went wrong? How could he do this to me?”
“Maggie have you talked to Tobias?”
“No, I don’t want to hear his excuses right now. All I wanted was time to think without everything reminding me of him and now I can’t even do that since fucking Liam had to follow me and I doubt I’m going to get rid of him.”
“I sent Liam after you. I was worried about you. You weren’t even answering the phone for me. I was afraid something happened. Then Liam said your car was pinging on your old street and I was even more worried. I sent him.”
“I’m sorry for making you worry Sarah. Please forgive me. I just hurt so bad. A year, a fucking year and he does this. Why?”
“Maggie talk to him. Maybe it’s not what it seems.”
“Sarah don’t give me that. If that was Decker in the picture with one of his ex’s wouldn’t you be feeling the same as me right now? Wouldn’t you be pissed? If I talk to him right now it will go one of two ways, either I’ll give into to whatever lame excuse he has, I’ll believe it and fall back all over him or I’ll be to pissed off to hear whatever it is he has to say and just maybe there is a good excuse and I won’t believe it and walk away forever. I don’t want either way right now. Right now I want to be pissed and when I’m ready I’ll talk to him with a sound mind.”
“I understand Maggie. But please talk to him soon.”
“Have you talked to him?”
She sighed and I knew she had talked to him. “He sounds utterly crushed right now. He won’t explain anything to anyone. Just keeps saying that you have to hear it first. I don’t know what could be so important but Maggie you need to talk to him.”
“I will at some point. I have to go Sarah. I love you. You rest tonight. Is Chrissy or Chelsea staying with you?”
“Both of them and Jimmy’s here to.”
“Good. Give them all my love and Josie some kisses and I’ll talk to you later.”
I hung up feeling even more deflated. Camilla James, how could he! Then again what did I expect? I was playing in a field of player’s way out of my league. Millionaires, famous millionaires at that. Ones who could get any women they wanted. Ones who had women practically throwing themselves at just the chance to touch one of these guys.
~~~
It was four in the morning and I could no longer sleep. I got up stepped over Liam who sleeping on the floor and quietly made my way downstairs. I unlatched the sliding door and slipped onto the back porch. The cool air surrounded me and I walked to the edge. I stood there staring into the dark back yard.
After a while of standing there I heard the sliding door open and close behind me. I didn’t need to turn around to tell who it was. I knew. The smell of his cologne, it told me everything. I turned and walked over to the brick wall under the small roof covering the porch. I ran my hand along the bricks stopping at a certain one. “Is it still the same?”
“Yes,” he responded.
I popped the fake brick off the wall and pulled out the pack of cigarettes and a lighter. I pulled one from the pack and lit it. Handing the pack and lighter to him. “Your parent’s don’t live here anymore, you don’t have to hide them,” I said as he lit his own.
I hadn’t had a cigarette in probably five years. But this, this stupid little stick is what I needed now.
“I know. Force of habit,” he said as he pulled a chair out from the patio table for me and then lowered himself into one of his own. “Plus it keeps me from smoking inside.”
We sat there in silence for a few minutes. Just smoking and not saying a word. “Who’s Jane?” I finally asked.
He hesitated as if I wasn’t going to like his answer, “My girlfriend. We’ve bee
n seeing each other on and off since college.”
I nodded at him, “She seems nice.”
“She is, but I just don’t know if I ever want to settle with anyone but…” he stopped and looked at me. “Maggie it’s always been you. I’ve loved you since I could remember.”
“Jacob…” I sighed as I looked at him. “You have to move on. I’m never gonna love you that way. I can’t do that to you. I can’t let you wait for me and give you nothing in return. Even if things don’t work out between Tobias and me, I could never love you that way.”
“I know Maggie. It’s why I’ve tried to move on. It’s why I keep going back to Jane. I’m lucky she keeps taking me back after all the things I’ve done to her.”
“She obviously is in love with her. If you even have a smidgen of feelings for her then do the right thing and try and love her more. Holding out, hoping I’ll love you back is going to do nothing but wind up leaving you alone for the rest of your life.”
“Are you going to talk to Tobias?”
“Not yet. I’m to mad.”
He nodded at me, “I can understand that. I want you to be happy Maggie. Whether it’s with me or someone else I want you to be happy for the rest of your life with no doubts about anything.”
I smiled at Jacob, “I want the same for you.”
I must have dozed off at some point because I suddenly felt the cigarette removed from my fingers and someone picking me up. I nuzzled into the bare chest and from the smell of the cologne I knew it was Liam.
He placed me in the bed and went to leave. I grabbed his wrist and whispered “Just hold me. I don’t want to be alone.”
I could feel him hesitate. This was a huge boundary to cross. He was my body guard after all. We had never crossed over into a realm of anything besides business. Hell I don’t think there was ever a time we were actually alone, there was always someone around.