by Sophia Gray
I said nothing. Instead, I bit the inside of my cheek, because I didn’t want to moan when he squeezed my cheeks. His left hand released the cheek it’d been holding so he could come back and smack it hard. The skin stung and burned a little where he’d made contact, but it didn’t really hurt. Instead, I felt myself grow a little wetter.
I don’t like it, I don’t like it. I tried to tell myself that over and over again, but I was already beginning to lose myself to the pleasure.
His hands moved back around to my hips. “You’ve got a woman’s body, Diana. I like that. I think you’re my new favorite toy.”
I bit my cheek harder until I tasted blood because I could feel the moan build up in my chest.
I felt his fingers as they dipped beneath the waistband of my panties. He played with the elastic there for a minute, contemplating. After a bit, he told me, “I like when you leave here without your panties. I think I’m going to make a new rule. You don’t get to wear panties anymore, baby.”
Then he ripped them off me. I gasped as the fabric tore and I pictured myself going back to work without underwear. It shouldn’t have turned me on, but it did.
He threw the fabric aside somewhere, then his hand returned to my hip. I felt it move inwards along my inner thigh then slip upwards. When he came to my core, he grinned. “Already soaking. That’s my hot little momma. So wet you’re practically dripping.”
I let out a whimper, making his grin widen.
His hand slipped between my labia, and I felt his finger begin to slide into my folds. Despite trying to hold it back, I let out a groan when his finger finally entered me. His other hand reached around and grabbed me from behind, jerking me forward. I stumbled a little and fell into Ethan, my hands landing against his hard, muscled chest, still a little damp from the shower. Against my thigh, I felt his hard length.
Pulling his finger from my core, he brought it up the length of my body until it lingered near my mouth. “Want a taste?” he asked me, his tone deep with lust and hunger.
I wanted to tell him no, that I didn’t care to taste myself or him, but my body had other plans. My lips were already parting, inviting his finger inside. He grinned at me as he slipped his finger into my mouth. I tasted myself on his finger, tangy and a little sweet. When I’d sucked his finger clean, he pulled it out.
“You’re such a dirty little slut,” he told me and I shivered.
His hand went back down to my entrance and this time he thrust three large fingers inside of me. I let out a cry before I could stop myself.
“I knew you’d come around, Diana,” he told me. “You act like this is the worst thing in the world, but then you come here and all I have to do is put my fingers in your pussy and you’re like putty in my hands.”
“Bastard,” I managed to get out. It was the worst thing I could call him and get away with.
He laughed, plunging his fingers in and out of my moist core. “Maybe. But that doesn’t change the fact that you like it. That you want it.”
I found myself clinging to his shoulders as he fingered me. I didn’t want him to be right. I refused to admit it, but some part of me knew it was true. I was enjoying this, at least in some way.
He continued to slide his fingers in and out of me while his thumb started to move up between my pussy lips. This was part of being with Ethan, I found. He wanted me to come. Maybe once, maybe twice, maybe even three times, but I wouldn’t leave his presence until I did. Sometimes he’d make me touch myself while he watched, but other times he insisted on doing it himself.
His thumb found my clit and, with just a flick of it, I was jerking against him shamelessly.
“Oh, you’re going to be easy today,” he told me, his mouth coming down to my neck. He suckled there as he continued to touch me. “I love it when your body just begs me to take you.”
“No,” I tried to tell him, but the word lost its power as I let out a cry of pleasure. He was right; I was already so close.
“Yes. You know the rules, Diana. You come for me or I’ll use your body until you’re begging for release. And you know I’m a man of my word.”
I wanted to tell him he was a despicable, manipulating son of a bitch, but instead I just moaned and rocked my hips against his hand. I felt the pressure build until it was overwhelming. I felt like I was standing on the edge of something, begging him to push me over.
He lifted his lips to my ear and whispered, “Come.”
That was it. I fell.
Pleasure came crashing down around me. I cried out, clinging to him like we were really lovers, and not stuck in the business arrangement from hell.
I was hazy after that. Coming down from my orgasm took a minute, but I was vaguely aware of him lifting me up and carrying me. Then he laid me down. I was aware of the cool sheets against my back and of Ethan crawling over me.
By the time he was spreading my legs and pressing the head of his cock at my entrance, I was back. Then he thrust inside me and we both cried out.
“Fuck!” he yelled and began a hard and fast rhythm that had him panting in minutes. He was aggressive today, determined to use my body to sate whatever lust and tension had taken root inside him. And while I was still boneless from my orgasm, I couldn’t make myself care like I should have. I let him have me, lying back as he plunged inside me again and again.
“You’re mine,” he told me and I clenched my eyes shut against the words. “You’ll always be mine.” Then he pulled out, spilling himself across my stomach, breasts, and the bed beneath us. Marking me. All the while, I wondered just how true his statement was.
# # #
Louis dropped me off after my payment was made. He said nothing and I didn’t even look at him. He got out of the car to open the door for me, but I was already slamming it. I headed up to The Cut to find it empty except for Jessie who was sweeping. She didn’t look happy.
“Where have you been?” she demanded when the little bell sounded over the door.
I adjusted my blouse, feeling suddenly like my tryst was written all over my face and clothes. “I told you. The insurance—”
“This is not about the insurance,” she interrupted, turning to face me. “You were gone for over an hour! And off with some delivery guy? What the hell did he have to do with your insurance company? And I saw those bananas in the back—”
Before she could say another word, I rushed over to her and grabbed her harshly by the shoulders. I gave her a little shake. “Don’t ever do that again. Whatever I’m storing back there is my business. Just stay out of it.”
She stared at me in shock. “Diana, what’s going on?” she asked in a quieter voice. The anger was gone and in its place was just plain old worry. She was scared for me.
Clenching my eyes shut, I released her. A second later, I opened them again and fell back into one of the chairs. A sigh escaped my lips as I accepted I was going to have to tell her something. “I…It’s Chambers,” I blurted.
Jessie’s eyes went wide. “Ethan Chambers? I thought you already told him no?”
I nodded. “I did. That didn’t go over well.”
Frowning, Jessie came to sit in the chair beside me. She swiveled us around so we were facing each other. “What happened?”
I explained. The fire, the deal, the payments…“He’s got me backed into a corner, Jessie, and I don’t know how to get out of it.”
Sympathy washed over Jessie’s face and I was grateful that she didn’t seem to think any less of me. “Oh, honey, that’s horrible. Have you gone to the police?”
I laughed. “Yeah, right. I’ll just go and tell the guys who asked if I committed insurance fraud and determined conclusively that the fire was due to an electrical short that Ethan Chambers is blackmailing me. I’m sure none of them are in his back pocket.”
Jessie fell silent. We both knew Ethan had at least some of the cops on his payroll. We just didn’t know which ones. And that was worse. It meant that while there were some good cops on the force, i
t was impossible to tell which was which. They might as well have all been bad.
We sat like that for a long time until I finally couldn’t take it. Changing the subject, I asked about Mrs. Walsh. “How did it go?”
Jessie groaned. “It was bad. I cut her hair, like, three inches too short and it’s uneven.”
I should have been horrified, but instead I let out a belting laughter. “Three inches?”
Covering her face, Jessie shook her head. “I know, I know. It’s bad. She was furious.”
“I told you to trim it!”
She lifted her shoulders as though to say I have no idea. “You said cut off the dead ends! Her hair had a ton of them.”
I laughed again. “Of course it does. That doesn’t mean she wants to get her hair cut off at the shoulders.”
“How was I supposed to know that?”
We bickered on like that for a while and I finally started to relax again. I promised to give Jessie some styling and hair cutting training and she promised to be there whenever I needed her. There were a half dozen more customers that day, then it was time to head home. We stopped at the daycare center on the way home from school to pick Cody up, and by the time I walked through the door, I was utterly exhausted.
This new deal was going to be the death of me.
Chapter 10
Deliveries to The Cut became the regular. Louis would drop off shipments regularly, as would a quiet young man named Todd who rarely spared me a glance. They were the only two who would deal with me directly.
My payments to Ethan were kept low key and private. Well, mostly private. Sometimes Louis stayed to watch. Sometimes he left us to ourselves. But outside of the three of us, no one saw us together.
If anyone did, they might think that we had a friends with benefits relationship or something along those lines, but the idea was to keep the two of us as separate as possible. As I understood it, that was the whole point. Ethan needed somewhere that wasn’t directly linked to him. I happened to be one of a handful of places that he didn’t have his fingers dipped in.
Of course, he had his fingers in me six days a week. Despite my anger at the whole thing, I was starting to wonder. Wonder if I was actually enjoying my payments to Ethan.
The answer was mixed up in the complications of my own desires and the requirements of Ethan’s. I couldn’t tell if he got off on controlling me or if he was just using sex to manipulate me. There was a part of me that hoped he just enjoyed our time together, but that was a little part of me I often tried to squash.
I didn’t want him to enjoy our time any more than I wanted to enjoy our time. It was better if this really was just a business arrangement.
It was a Monday at The Cut, early in the afternoon. Jessie was practicing on a wig I’d dug up from the back, styling it and trimming it to my specifications. I was finishing up with a regular’s styling when the little bell above the door rang, indicating someone was here. I glanced over to see it was Todd.
I sighed. “Give me a second, Todd,” I told him. He waited patiently by the door. I finished up with Selene first. “All set.”
Selene examined her hair in the mirror, fluffing the back of it and making a fish face as she sucked in her cheeks. Satisfied, she smiled at me. “Thanks, sugar. It looks like gold.”
“You’re welcome. Jessie will take care of you at the register.”
She thanked me again then walked over to meet Jessie at the dilapidated register. I’d yet to replace the half-charred thing, instead cleaning it up as best I could. Jessie met her there, sending me a grim look at Todd’s presence.
Jessie wasn’t thrilled with the influx of shipments I was getting, nor was she happy with those goons that delivered them. And I didn’t blame her. I couldn’t say I was happy with Ethan’s men or with the drugs trickling into my store.
But unlike Jessie, I was beginning to accept my lot in life. Especially since the last six weeks since my deal with Ethan had been busier than ever. Suddenly, I had people in that I’d never seen before. Sure, the regulars stayed regular and the off the street walk-ins dropped by on discount days. But I’d been noticing a different sort of clientele stopping by.
Men who wanted a wash, a shave, and a little gel. Women who spent their days as navigators for the long-haul truckers. People that were just passing through and for reasons unknown decided they needed a cut and a shave.
I headed over to Todd, taking the clipboard he offered me and signing off on the items there. I didn’t even bother to look at what they were anymore; it was all bunk anyway. Last week it was potatoes.
“How are you, Todd?” I found myself asking. It was still a little odd to be making small talk with a drug delivery man. But I was becoming more familiar with these people and more used to their presence.
He shrugged, a wad of chewing tobacco shoved in his front lip. “I’m good. Old lady’s bitching about the hours, but you know.”
I smiled at him. “Charlotte doesn’t really seem like she’s on board with your…” I trailed off. I’d been about to say something that indicated his illicit affairs, but caught myself just in time. There were a handful of things I wasn’t, under any circumstances, supposed to do. Talking about the arrangement or any of the illegal things that might be connected to it was number one on that list. Offering a sheepish grin, I shrugged. “Your working hours,” I finished lamely.
Todd frowned a little at me, undoubtedly noticing my slip, but just shrugged again. “Chicks are trouble like that. What can you do?”
He helped with the last few crates heading into my shop, then tipped an invisible hat in my direction as he left. He was a strange man, but I was getting used to strange.
# # #
It was the end of the day when I got a text from Louis saying I had a payment due. I sighed and shook my head. This wasn’t exactly my idea of romantic, but of course it wasn’t supposed to be. It was business.
“The least that bastard can do is text me himself,” I muttered under my breath. Of course, I knew that was unreasonable. The whole point was to keep the two of us completely unconnected so his rivals, whoever the hell they were, wouldn’t find his newest warehouse. Still, it irked me that Louis had to be the one to tell me to come over and fuck his boss.
“Did you say something?” called Jessie from the back where she was putting things away.
“Nothing!” I responded as I started to text Louis back.
You’re a dick. I’ll be there in twenty.
Just because Ethan didn’t want me to call him names didn’t mean I couldn’t say whatever the hell I wanted to Louis. Usually I kept it pretty mild since he was huge, intimidating, and reported directly to Ethan. But still.
Now, was the text I got in return.
Irked, I thought about arguing, then just sighed. If Ethan said now, he meant now. Or his mouthpiece did. And making him wait usually caused me more problems than just biting the bullet and going. So I sighed and texted back that I was leaving.
Shoving my phone into my pocket, I caught Jessie as she came out of the back room. “I have to go.”
Instantly, she frowned. “Are you serious?”
I nodded. “Duty calls.”
She made a face, indicating how grossed out she was. But the funny thing was, I wasn’t as grossed out anymore. Sure, I hated being at Ethan’s beck and call, but I’d found that Zen place where I could convince myself this was just sex. This was just two people who needed a release and that was it. It took some lying to myself to reach that point, but it kept me sane and marginally happy.
“Are you sure there’s nothing we can do?” Jessie asked me quietly, her expression switching to one of sympathy.
I lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “You know the deal. There’s no one to go to, no one to tell. I’m Ethan’s until he’s done with me.”
Her eyes grew shiny and I felt bad for even telling her any of this. She blinked back her tears, but crossed the space between us to embrace me. Her thin arms wrapped around me and
held me tightly against her. I returned the gesture, though the hopelessness in her didn’t resonate within me like it once did.
This was just another part of life.
When she pulled back, she discretely wiped at her cheeks and sniffled. Composing herself, she offered me a strong smile. “I’ve got Cody. Call me if you need anything.”
I nodded as another text came in. I rolled my eyes when I saw that it was Louis again, telling me to get my ass into the car already. “Thanks Jessie. I’ve got to go. Lock up for me?”