by Vivian Ward
Hell, for all we knew, they were in another country by now. I hoped I was wrong for Mr. Turner’s sake. I didn’t want to be the one to cause his death by telling him his daughter had been lost in a human trafficking ring.
Shit must have been taking its toll on Lee too because he was hammering down drinks just as fast as I was. I’d never seen him keep up with me, and by 9:00, he was toasted.
I ordered a cab and slid a hundred toward the bartender and said, “Keep the change” as I dragged him out of the bar. It wouldn’t be long before he’d pass out, and I was too fucked up to carry his ass into the hotel room and put him to bed.
When the cab dropped us off, we staggered through the hotel lobby, making our way to our room where Lee plopped down on the couch in the living area while I took a leak in the bathroom. I was zipping up my pants when I heard a knock on the door.
“Hey, baby,” Sparkles said, walking past me. “I saw you and your friend walking through the lobby while I was getting some ice.”
I shut the door, turning to watch her ass wiggle across the room as I stood near the doorway. She was wearing a strapless top with a pair of booty shorts that showed off the bottom of her ass cheeks.
“Oh yeah?” my lips turned into a knowing smile; it was no secret that she was putting on a little show for me, and I was willing to play along.
She stood next to the bed where she spread her legs wide and planted one of her feet on the mattress. “Yeah,” she grabbed a handful of ice cubes. “Cuz it’s hot in here.”
She grabbed the top of her blouse and yanked it down, allowing her tits to spill right out of it. Her nipples hardened as she rubbed the ice cubes all over her breasts and the melted ice made her skin glisten in the light of the room.
“But it’s not the only thing that’s hot,” she hissed, grabbing more ice cubes from the bucket.
This was the hottest show I’d ever seen. Mesmerized by her actions, my eyes stayed glued to her as the bulge in my pants continued to grow, straining behind the zipper in my pants. I could already feel my balls beginning to ache, throbbing for release.
Her hand slipped down the front of her shorts, still holding the ice cubes, and her mouth formed the perfect ‘O’ as her eyes lit up and she tossed her head back with a laugh.
When she pulled her hand out of her shorts, she opened it, showing me her palm; the ice was gone. Grinning at me, she nodded toward her crotch.
“Hope that doesn’t make your cock too cold,” she sucked the melted ice off her fingers.
Fucking shit! She’d pushed all of them inside of her. The material of my jeans pulled taut against my throbbing cock, straining to get out. I was going to lose my damned mind if I didn’t bust a load inside her soon.
Grabbing her shoulders, I threw her down onto the mattress and gripped her wrists.
“You like teasing me, baby?” I growled in her ear as I bit along her neck. “That’s not nice. You know what I do to teases like you?”
Letting go of her wrists, I reached down and yanked off her shorts in one swift motion, leaving her wet pussy completely exposed before me. My dick jerked at the thought of entering her.
As horny as I was, I kicked off my shoes and pulled my pants down around my knees before I plunged my cock deep inside of her.
The side of her face pressed into the pillow as the weight of my body pushed her into the mattress, and my hips went into auto-pilot.
Her fingernails dug into my shoulders, tearing and burning my skin as she raked them down my back. Fucking her faster, my balls tightened as she groaned and called out my name.
I heard a rapping noise, and I didn’t know if it was the headboard beating into the wall or if it were the neighbors telling us to keep it down, but I didn’t care.
I picked up my pace and pistoned in and out of her with lightning speed as I felt her pussy grip my cock while her eyes rolled the back of her head, moaning and panting.
“That’s it, baby, let me feel you come,” I grunted, burying myself deeper.
She tilted her hips just right, making her feel tighter than before, and I fucking lost it. With a few more hard pumps, I came into the condom and collapsed next to her, panting for air.
“Damn,” she said, scooting next to me in bed, resting her head on my chest. “You need to drink more often.”
Looking down at her, smiling, I said, “I might just do that, and you need to bring ice with you more often.”
Out of nowhere, the door swung open and slammed against the wall.
“What the fuck?” Julie said, her mouth gaping open. “Oh hell no!” she turned to walk out.
Jumping off the bed, I ripped the sheet away from Sparkles and chased after her. I had already let her get away once; it wasn’t happening twice.
“Julie, wait,” I grabbed her arm, spinning her around. “What are you doing here? How did you get in?”
Her eyes seared into me, burning me a thousand times over. I felt the pain in her eyes; she didn’t have to say a word.
Damn it, Damon. Why do you always have to fuck things up?
I hated myself and blamed myself for everything. What kind of a heartless bastard hurts a sweet girl like Julie? The answer? An evil bastard like me, that’s who.
Lee swayed behind me, bumping into me.
“I let her in,” his words slurred. “She knocked, and I knew who she was.”
Fucking dipshit.
She started to leave again, but I wouldn’t let go of her. My hand was still gripped around her arm. “Why are you here?”
Her watery eyes looked into mine, and the pit of my stomach dropped. Something wasn’t right; everything was wrong. Everything, from my end to hers. This wasn’t all about Sparkles and me. There was more to it.
“I needed your help,” she whispered, refusing to look at me a moment longer.
“Baby, who is she?” Sparkles walked out of the bedroom with her clothes on.
It didn’t matter if she was dressed or not. She still looked like a two-dollar hooker.
“Get out,” I said, my eyes fixated on Julie, who was wiggling her arm away from me. She was crazy if she thought she could escape my death grip.
“But baby, I just—”
“Get out!” I snarled at her.
“I can see your busy,” Julie said, struggling harder to get away.
Sparkles grabbed her purse off the table and slid past us on her way out the door.
“Tell me what’s going on, Julie. I know there’s something wrong.”
She stood in the doorway, tears streaming down her face. I was the world’s biggest piece of shit, but I was going to make it up to her; somehow.
Chapter 5
Julie
My heart plummeted, and my knees failed me when I saw him with that whore and tried to get the hell away from him. I couldn’t believe his drunken friend let me in knowing that he was in there fucking the brains out of that girl.
Why would he do that?
I tried not to look at him when he grabbed a hold of me wearing nothing except a white sheet, but it hung loosely off of his perfectly sculpted abs and toned waist. It was impossible not to stare at him.
His whole body was teasing me, taunting me to take it all in but I refused to take a peek of the large swell in the sheet between his legs.
He blew it. Not only had he left and stayed gone for almost two years, but he was also a drinking, whoring asshole.
And now he was trying to act innocent like he did nothing wrong, but it didn’t change the fact that we still needed his help. I had to talk to him.
“Come inside,” he closed the door. “I’m going to throw some clothes back on.”
“Don’t tell me that was your girlfriend,” I snorted, sitting on the couch.
“You’re shitting me?” he laughed. “That girl is nothing to me, just a whore to blow off some steam.”
“Yeah, I bet she blows all right.”
I knew it was cold, but I didn’t care. He was the one who decided to walk
out of my life, and then decided to lose my number.
“You’re a piece of work! Do you know that Julie?” he pulled on his pants. “Maybe I wouldn’t have had to turn to her if you wouldn’t have given me the cold shoulder when I saw you the other night. Do you even care that was my first night back in town? Maybe we could have reignited that old flame between us, but you decided to shut it down. Not me.”
Ouch. Another slap in the face, and it stung.
We had both made mistakes and were equally guilty. I lied and hid his son from him, and he was dirty. Tainted. But that wasn’t all my fault—was it?
“You’re right. I never cared about you, and I sent you into the arms of that whore, right?”
“For Christ’s sake, you’ve got to be kidding me,” he sat next to me, kicking his friend out of the room.
I knew that I had to tell him about what was going on around the property, but aside from that, the rest of it was up in the air. I knew deep down that he was flawed, he wasn’t father material, much less husband material. The way things stood, we were both too damaged, too hurt.
But I would do everything I could to protect my son and keep him safe while protecting my own heart. I knew I could do it as long as I held onto my good senses. All I had to do was tell him about what my dad and I had discovered, and the rest would work itself out. It had to, right?
I took a deep breath and slowly shook my head as I told him about expanding the car lot and how we had stumbled across our findings in the woods. He listened in utter silence as his jaw hung open and shook his head in disbelief.
“And this was all on your property?”
“Yeah. I can show you where most of it is, but you should be able to find it by following the path that we walked in the woods because we spray painted several trees to be cut down.” He nodded, “But we can’t do anything with this stuff on our property.”
I wanted to ask him if he knew about any of it, but I was scared. What if he did? What would I do then? Or what if I knew too much? Would he even tell me?
“What else is wrong?” he asked, reaching into his mini fridge to grab out a bottle of water.
“Nothing.”
The corners of his mouth turned down, and he shook his head. He knew that I was lying. I couldn’t help it; I’d never been good at lying.
“Do you know anything about this stuff? Are you connected to it?”
“What? How would I know what the hell is buried on your property?”
He seemed shocked by my question, and I immediately regretted asking him as soon as the words left my mouth.
“It’s just that you came back, and then we found this stuff, and it all looked freshly buried. I don’t know, it just kind of made sense.”
“Look, Julie, we both know that I’ve not always been on the up and up, but burying explosives and bombs on private property? That’s out of my league and not my style at all, but it’s nice to know that’s what you think about me,” he sneered.
“I don’t know,” I eyed him. “You’ve always done what you’ve wanted. Why would now be any different than the past?”
“That’s not fair,” he leaned in, invading my personal space. “I’ve never had parents who gave a shit, I never got good grades, my teachers never praised me. Everything I’ve ever had, I got by busting my ass for it, Julie. It was great that you had all that shit growing up, but not everyone’s that lucky. I had to leave to better myself.”
I didn’t know what to believe anymore. Even though all of that was true, and it was a great speech, it didn’t excuse his behavior.
It didn’t excuse his actions, and I didn’t forgive him for anything; not for leaving and not for being absent. We both had cell phones; he could have called me at any time. He was the one with the new number; I’d had the same ten digits for six years.
“I still don’t know why you’re here or where you’ve been.”
“Do you ever think some things are just better left alone?” his eyes burned into me, and his words cut me. He didn’t want to tell me anything. “I’ve been working private security,” he finally said, satisfying my curiosity just enough to make me stop asking questions.
“When can you come over?”
“I’ll be there in the morning—late morning,” he added after looking toward where his friend was passed out.
I stood and walked toward the door, thinking about the woman who he had kicked out of the room.
I bet she’s waiting around, waiting for me to leave.
“You need anything else?” he asked as I lingered in the doorway.
“No, and when you come in the morning or afternoon, I’ll be in the office at the dealership.”
As he walked me down the hotel corridor, I wondered what things would be like if I had never gotten pregnant. Would I care that he had another woman in bed? Would I care where he had been or what he had been doing?
That was when it hit me, and I realized that there was nothing but emptiness between us. We used to have a connection; lust, love and infatuation all rolled up into one.
There was once a time when neither of us could have kept our hands off each other, and nobody could stop us from being together, but now? Things felt more like an awkward favor.
I was asking him to help me, help my family, and offering nothing in return. But I knew Damon, and he would want something for repayment. After all, he was the one who taught me that nothing in life is free, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe he felt bad about deserting me—and unknowingly, Bentley—and he was helping me out as a favor, a payback.
For a moment, I wished he did want a favor. Getting a look at his huge, muscular stature pushed me right over the edge. I wanted to feel those sharp canine teeth sink into my soft breasts and his big, powerful hands grabbing my hips, fucking my brains out but that would be a recipe for disaster. Nothing good could come out of us hooking back up.
And then I thought about Bentley. He was the whole reason I was here, but not for the reason that it should have been. A good woman would have come to the hotel and told the father about his son, but I was only here to seek protection for him without Damon even fully realizing exactly who he was protecting.
“If anything happens before I get there, call me,” he handed me a card with his number on it.
It had all of his info on it and read, “Private Security,” in between his name and phone number. I noted there were fancy “S’s” in the center of the card.
“Do you give this to all your hoes now?”
“What? No, Julie. That’s my business card; I wanted you to have my number.”
“What’s this logo on it, in the background?”
“Turner Security. It’s the company I work for,” he looked into my eyes and could see my doubt. “Really. My boss’s name is David Turner. You can Google it and call in the morning if you don’t believe me.”
“I’ll be at the car lot around 9 AM,” I slid into my car and fired up the engine, staring at the moonlight bouncing off his chest.
Why didn’t he at least put a shirt on?
Damn. His barrel-chested torso made my mouth water, but I had to smolder this old flame if I was going to move forward. I couldn’t have him in mine or Bentley’s life if he were going to walk in and out of it, doing what he pleased.
But I would do whatever I had to—at any cost—to keep my son safe. I just needed to keep my wits about me and hold onto my good senses; even if it meant getting a chastity belt and locking myself up until everything had blown over.
By the time I got home, all of the lights were off, and I had missed Bentley’s bedtime. Creeping through the house, I hung my purse on the hook near the living room closet and started making my way into the kitchen to fix myself something to eat before I went to bed.
“Julie, where have you been?” my dad startled me.
Clutching my chest, I panted, flipping on the light. “Jesus, you scared me!” I whispered. “Why were you sitting in the dark?”
“I went to sleep after
your mom and Bentley, but I kept having bad dreams about that stuff that we found in the woods and I didn’t want to turn on any lights. I was just sitting here watching things.”
I glanced out the kitchen window into the dark woods that surrounded our house. “See anything?” I kept my voice low.
“No, it’s too dark out there.”
He looked at me, raising his eyebrow. “I assume you found Damon?”
“Yeah, I found him.” I could feel the heat leaving my cheeks as I stood before my dad and thought about how I’d found him in bed with that woman. As late as it was, I hope he didn’t think I’d been out, tangled in bed with him. “He said he’ll come to the car lot in the morning.”
“Did he know what was going on? I mean, is he involved in any of it?”
I shook my head, walking over to the fridge where I found a plate of leftovers mom had made me from dinner. “No, he didn’t know anything; just said he was back in town on business and left it at that.”
Sliding my plate into the microwave, I pushed the buttons and began pouring myself a glass of tea.
“Do you believe him?” my dad asked.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged my shoulders. “He doesn’t have a reason to lie.”
“Did you tell him about Bentley?” his eyes looked up at the ceiling, where Bentley and my mom were sleeping on the floor above us.
There was no beating around the bush with my dad. He’d give it to you straight.
“No, daddy. I didn’t tell him.”
“What are you going to do when he sees that boy? A damn near reflection of himself when he gets here?”
“Please, daddy, it’s late. I just want to eat and go to bed; I’ve had a long day.”
He planted a kiss on top of my head. “Good night, darling. I know you’ll do the right thing.”
A stake drove into my heart just a little more when he said that.
I knew it was morally wrong not to tell him about his son who still weighed heavily in my heart and my mind, but when was I supposed to have done it?
When he was wrapped up naked in the sheet or after his whore slithered out of the hotel room like a well-oiled snake? Up until then, that was the first opportunity that I had to tell him about Bentley.