Falling for a Bentley

by Adriana Law

  “I’m glad you’re here,” he suddenly says, his nostril flaring as he runs his hands down over my hair to the tips. His eyes glisten with real emotion that causes my heart to stutter.

  “Me too,” is all I can manage.

  He leans in, kisses me, gentle at first, then becoming more aggressive and demanding. A hand slides up under the shirt, a thumb circling my nipple. He groans, deepening the kiss. Needing a breath he pulls back, his eyes hooded, dark with desire. His intense gaze slowly undresses me. I work frantically at unfastening the button on his jeans, images of me easing down on his rock hard length until he is buried deep inside me very vivid in my mind.

  His zipper slides noisily down.

  The way Sterling stares at my lips and then my neck … I assume he is picturing the same thing. He tilts his head a fraction before he hugs me tight, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

  My hands fall from his shoulders. “Are you okay,” I ask, thinking he’s finally lost it.

  “I’m sorry,” murmurs into my hair, and then he burst into unrestraint laughter, deep and husky.

  “I don’t understand.” I pout, not liking being laughed at. “Did I do something funny?”

  He struggles to catch his breath, to talk. His hold around my waist tightens. “Give me a second,” is chuckled into the hollow spot at the base of my throat. His hair tickles my skin.

  “You know what … forget it, Sterling. You’ve ruined the mood.” I pry his arms off from around my waist and make a move to crawl off his lap.

  “You’re going to kick my ass.” He covers up a delayed chuckle with a fist, his eyes dancing with mirth.

  I’m half raised off of him, glaring down at him.

  “Why? What did you do?”

  “You might want to go look in the mirror.”

  Immediately I wipe under my nose thinking I have a booger that he hasn’t bothered to tell me about. My horrified expression sends him into another fit of laughter. After I stand up he falls over onto the couch cushion holding his stomach as if it hurts from laughing too much.

  Good. I hope he cracks a rib.

  “You’re a jerk.” I shove his arm, storming off to the bathroom, my eyes widening as I step in front of the mirror.

  “Sterling!” I yell, “You gave me a hickey!” Correction: not one, but two.

  He appears in the doorway and leans against the doorjamb, arms crossed over his chest barely containing his happiness over officially branding me. “So what.”

  “So I look like a slut.” I inspect the two purplish patches on my neck up close in the mirror; they’re bad, really bad: one on the side of my neck and the other at the base near my collarbone. There is no way I’m going to be able to cover them up with concealer. If I had any.

  “It’s not funny!” I throw over my shoulder.

  “I don’t know why you’re getting so bent out of shape,” he returns, taking the couple of steps that brings him to my backside. His hands grip my hips, his chin resting on my shoulder. “It’s just a hickey, baby. It’ll go away. It’s not like it’s permanent.”

  Twisting free I put some distance between us. He always does this, makes light of everything. “You don’t get it. I promised Starr I would help her at the restaurant tonight. She asked me yesterday when one of her waitress asked for the night off. I can’t work with hickeys on my neck. What will her customers think?”

  “I don’t give a shit what they think,” he spits out. “And why did you tell her you’d help?” His expression darkens. “Didn’t you think you should ask me before you agreed?”

  “You expected me to ask you for permission?” I laugh out loud. This is insane! Okay, maybe I overacted about the hickeys but is he really trying to tell me I should ask for permission.

  “Considering you’re staying in my apartment, sleeping in my bed … I think I should have had at least some say in your decision. What if I made plans for us tonight? What if I wanted you here with me tonight?”

  “Are you serious?” I return. “Do you hear yourself? You promised your father you’d come help him anyways. You just want to know I’m sitting here alone all evening waiting on you! That is so messed up.”

  “I’m not sure how it was between you and Colton but you running around only thinking about yourself … that’s not going to fly with me.”

  “Oh my God! I should have known you’d be the possessive type who doesn’t know how to share his toys!” I shake my head in disbelief, storming past him.

  He spins around following me out into the main part of the apartment. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means look at your father! You’re acting just like him!” I yell, sliding on my tennis shoes, heading for the door. I need to be able to breathe and right now I can’t around him.

  “Well you’re acting like your psychotic mother,” he says on my heels. “Is it wrong for me to want to spend time with my girlfriend?”

  I pause, my hand out on the handle of the steel door, on the other side is space away from Sterling.

  “My mother is not psychotic.”

  “Yeah. Whatever,” he chuckles, sarcasm pouring off of his demeanor. “Keep telling yourself that, baby. You leave now, before we work this out and I won’t be here when you get back?”

  “Is that a threat?”

  “I’m just telling it like it is.”

  My stomach knots. I believe him. Sterling isn’t the kind of guy to sit around waiting on a girl to get home. The first boring night without me here and he’ll be out picking up a girl. Sterling can’t be alone. It’s impossible. Am I prepared to follow him around every second of every day to keep him from having sex with another girl? Do I want to be with someone I have to watch every second?

  “I promised Starr. Get over yourself,” I snarl before walking out.

  The Unexpected

  Victoria

  I use the key Sterling gave me, wrestling to keep a hold on the heavy grocery bags dangling from my hands, the weight of the bags starting to cut into my fingers. The apartment is dark. I’m out of breath from carrying the grocery up, the only drawback to having an apartment on the top floor. I nudge the steel door open with the toe of my tennis shoe, and use my butt to prop it open, the light from the hallway giving me ample light to find the switch. I bump the switch with an elbow, turning on the overhead track lighting.

  “Sterling” I call out.

  Movement from in the apartment gives me my answer. He’s already home from working with his father, removed his jacket, rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt and stretched out on the couch. I’ve learned his routine.

  “I wasn’t sure you’d be home yet. I was hoping, but I wasn’t sure. I bought stuff to make lasagna.” I smile, plunking the bags down on the counter, anxious to go straddle Sterling’s hips and kiss him. I regret what happened earlier. I’d overreacted. Starr pointed out how hard it must have been for Sterling to refer to me as his girlfriend.

  “Sterling? You’re not still mad are you?”

  He doesn’t answer.

  “I’m sorry. I overreacted. This is kind of new to me too.” I sigh, removing the ripe tomatoes for the sauce from the shopping bag. I step around the bar. “I’ve never felt like this either—” I freeze mid-step. Oh God! No!

  The breath had been knocked from my lungs the day I’d tumbled out of my bedroom window landing on my back. I can still remember the pain from the fall like it was yesterday. This is no different. In fact, I believe this is worse. A hand goes to my chest as I struggle to breathe.

  This is a kick to the gut.

  But my heart hurts the most.

  Sterling is stretched out on the couch, a naked girl blanketing the top of him. The girl pushes up on her elbows, the tips of her blond hair brushing his bare chest. My skin crawls with disgust. It’s the girl from the crack house. My nails dig into my palms as I clench my hands into fist. He brought her here. Sterling lifts his head off the couch. His eyes are cloudy with lust and drugs.

  �
��Hey baby,” he drawls barely able to keep his gaze focused on me. “I thought you had to work.” There’s resentment in his tone.

  “Obviously,” I snarl already headed for the bathroom. The slam of the bathroom door causes the walls to tremble. I go down on my knees in front of the toilet and puke up the acid churning in the pit of my stomach. After I’m finished I fall back against the side of the Jacuzzi tub and press my forehead to my bent knees. Sobs rack my body as I curse the day I met Sterling Bentley. I curse God for bringing him into my life.

  “Why would he do this?” I ask the room, God, I don’t know. “Why would he rip my heart out like this?”

  I can hear movement beyond the door: muffled words and then the front door shuts.

  Good. I hope he left so I will never have to see his face again. That’s a lie. I want to see him again so I can tear his heart from his chest the way he has mine. My mother warned me. Charlotte warned me. Even Keria warned me. I hug my legs tighter and cry into my knees.

  A fist banging on the door causes my head to snap up.

  “Go away!” I yell. “I don’t want to talk to you!”

  “Too bad,” he says, a thump sounding against the door. I can picture him on the other side of the door wearing nothing but his dress slacks from work with his forehead pressed against the cold wood. Fifteen minutes ago I would have given anything to be that cold wood. A tiny ping of empathy creeps in, gone the instant he shouts, “You’re going to have to come out eventually.”

  “I said leave me alone!”

  Bam, bam, bam, bam!

  “I’ll stand outside this damn door all night if I have to,” he bellows. “If you don’t believe me, try me.”

  Releasing all the tension pent up in my chest in one long breath I push up from the floor. I dread facing him, but to leave, I’ll have to walk past him. The bathroom lock clicks and the door swings open. I level him with all the hatred I’m feeling.

  “I’m leaving, Sterling,” I tell him.

  He looks like a guy who just made out with someone: lipstick stained swollen lips, wild hair and sexy half-closed bedroom eyes. His forehead thumps against the doorjamb for a brief second and then he stretches out a hand for me to take, the dimples unleashed.

  “Come on, let’s just go to bed and fuck,” he says looking unaffected by what’s happened, unknowing of what is coming.

  A wild growl erupts from deep inside my chest and I go after him. My intention is to hurt him like he has hurt me. “You’re a selfish heartless asshole!” I rage, tears spilling. My fists slam into his chest repeatedly. He makes me crazy.

  He takes a step back and stiffens; jamming his hands in his dress slacks, letting me hit his chest until I’m exhausted from it.

  “Finished yet,” he finally says shooting an irritated glare down at me.

  “Why did you bring HER here? Did you want me to see?”

  He drags his gaze down my body and I notice the sway in his own. His eyes burn a trail over my flesh. An unsteady hand comes up to caress my cheek. A thumb over my bottom lip has my resolve weakening.

  “You need to loosen up.” His breath warms my lips. “I can give you something to loosen you up, baby. I can make you feel things you never thought were possible, if you’ll trust me.”

  I tense at his offer.

  He continues, “There is a reason sex, drugs and rock-n-roll are always grouped together. The three make for an exciting unforgettable ride. Take that ride with me once, please, I’d give anything to watch you lose control.”

  I don’t respond. I’m too hurt to respond.

  “Come on, Phoenix,” he drawls in his most convincing voice while stroking my arm. “It’ll be fun. You only live once. Haven’t you ever wondered?”

  “Do you know who you sound like?”

  “Who do I sound like?” he smirks.

  “Lucifer.”

  He barks with laughter. “So now I’m the devil?”

  “No. You’re not the devil, but he’s got a strong hold on you and he doesn’t want you to be happy. The only way he can win is if you’re as miserable as he is.”

  “Please, just this once.” He is relentless.

  “I don’t like you when you’re like this, Sterling. It’s not attractive.” I lean in close making him think, regardless of the venom dripping from my words I’m going to kiss him. I lower my lashes and part me lips, teasing him. He angles his head, waiting. “You have another girl’s lipstick on your mouth,” I say slipping around him.

  He slaps a palm on the doorjamb, his expression hardening. “You know what? You’re boring and uptight. You’re a bitch. How the hell do you expect me to be happy with that?” He smears the scarlet lipstick with the back of his hand before meeting my gaze again.

  “I don’t.” I tilt my head up at him, exasperated. “Still there.” I shove him. “I expect you to keep doing what you’re doing … getting wasted, screwing a different girl every night, sleeping all day while your father continues to support you. That is what I expect you to do, Sterling! Your right, YOUR shit is affecting me.”

  “Cut me some slack.” He takes a step toward me. “I never made you any promises.”

  “You’re right. You didn’t promise me anything.”

  He sighs heavily. “Okay. I think you’re taking this all wrong. I don’t want to be with anybody else.” The smirk is gone, desperation settling in. He tugs at my arm, trying to pull me up against him. I resist.

  “I hated the way she smelled. I hated the way she tasted. I hated that she wasn’t you. BUT you weren’t here! I never claimed to be perfect. I suck at being alone. I’m horrible at it. When I’m alone … I think way too damn much. You’re expecting me to change overnight, Phoenix. It’s impossible. You’re impossible.”

  “Why do you call me that?”

  “Call you what? A bitch?” A dark brow rises.

  “Phoenix.”

  “I don’t know. You like birds … it seemed fitting.”

  “You didn’t know I liked birds the first time we meet in the hallway, but you called that … before you knew.”

  “There you go trying to turn nothing into something,” he says the exact words Colton told me countless times. Although this wasn’t nothing considering my dreams and the fact that the only words I could put together in French was you are my fire.

  Was he?

  Was Sterling Bentley my fire?

  I felt like I was changing just like in the dream, headed somewhere new.

  If this was my meant-to-be then it sucked.

  “I never expected you to be perfect,” I mutter. “What I expected was … I don’t know … respect maybe? It doesn’t matter because it will never be me again. I’m done.”

  His eyes dip to stare at my parted lips. “You don’t mean that.”

  “Yes I do, Sterling.” A dark eyebrow rises at my sharp tone. “I can’t even stand to look at you. When I look at you it makes me sick to my stomach.” I turn to walk away.

  He blocks me. “That’s because you’re in love with me.”

  I scoff at his words but don’t deny it. “Move out of the way!”

  “Where are you going?”

  “The great part of working for Starr tonight is I made money. I’m going home.”

  “No,” he simply says.

  “Move. I’m serious. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

  His eyes narrow in a challenge. “You’re not leaving me.”

  “You can’t stop me!”

  His jaw clenches and he studies me intently, his eyes searching my face. “You belong here, here with me.”

  “Not anymore.”

  “Dammit!!” he rages. “You have no idea how hard it is!! How can you … you’ve never been addicted to anything.”

  My gaze slides to his, tears spilling over. He is wrong. I understand what it feels like to be addicted to something. I’m addicted to him.

  His voice cracks, his fingers circling my wrist, his thumb rubbing my skin. “Baby, please, if you’ll just come
to bed with me everything will be better in the morning. I promise. I had a shitty day. My father… it doesn’t matter. It’s no excuse. I fucked up. It won’t happen again.”

  “Yes, it will. You will always be messing up and saying you’re sorry.” I laugh out loud, even though I’m withering and dying inside. “I can’t believe I actually thought we could live in this little fantasy world we’ve created and nothing bad would ever touch us. I was wrong. It’s not what’s out there that’s the problem. It’s what’s in here, with us. We can’t pretend everything is okay.”

  “All couples have problems,” he reasons.

  “You’re addiction needs to be addressed, Sterling. I can’t do it for you. You need more help than I can give.”

  “You’re wrong.” His hold tightens to near painful. “All I need is you.”

  I wrench my arm free, covering my mouth with a palm to muffle a sob. I finally have what I want … love. I finally found what and who I was searching for but I still feel empty. In fact I feel worse. I’m grasping at something that I can never have and that has to be the most terrifying feeling in the world, losing.

  “I can’t—I can’t be with you.” I yank my arm. “Please, let me go!”

  Sterling’s eyes blaze. “Then go on, fuckin’ leave! That’s what you wanted all along… that’s why you agreed to work in the first place and don’t pretend it’s not! You don’t want to be here … I don’t want you here anyways. You Bitch too damn much!”

  “You’re….”

  “Fucked up?” he soberly cuts me off before I can finish.

  “I was going to say confused.” I fight to catch my breath, chocking on the panic of walking away from the only man I have ever loved. I take a step back only to have him move closer not giving me the space I need. Blood whooshes in my ears. He pinches my chin between his fingers forcing it up and I stop breathing. His eyes are dark, his long lashes lowered over them. His grip on my chin tightens. He brushes a soft kiss at the corner of my mouth and I tense all over.