by Billy Storm
“Don’t do this.” Looking down, I see her hands are flat against my chest, pushing me away. Every time we’d come together before, her words might have been telling me to go to hell, but her fingers had always been pulling me closer. I doubt she’d even known she was doing it, but I was well aware.
I step back, and watch as she wraps her arms around herself, closing her body off from mine. I’ve really lost you.
“I love him,” Skye says and the burn in my chest increases. “I don’t know if he’ll take me back or not, but I have to try.”
“You haven’t asked—”
She shakes her head. “I haven’t really talked to him since that night.”
That night. The night I’d wished I’d been Rhett. I’d been the one with her body pressed tightly against mine. The night she’d been so lost with him that she hadn’t even noticed when I left. That’s what I did, you know…I watched as Rhett ran his hands over her body. Like some voyeur, I’d watched as he’d commanded her to look at him, demanded she say his name when she orgasmed. When she did? I left. Her words so faint I almost didn’t hear them with the rain still hitting the windows. They’d hit me hard. There may have been a storm raging outside, but it was nothing compared to the cyclone known as Skye that had me running for cover with my tail between my legs.
“Love isn’t real,” I say out of the blue. “It’s all bullshit.”
“I used to think that too—”
“But?”
She peered out the window between the slats of the blinds as if her words would be out there. “But now I think it was just me. “ She looks at me. “I pretended it wasn’t real because I was scared of being left again.” She sighs. “Love always left me, left me alone and feeling abandoned.”
“It always ends, because the facade is too much work to keep up.”
“You really believe that, Jaden?”
I nod.
“I did, too.”
My pulse picks up as she turns and walks back toward the door.
“What changed your mind?” My voice came out low and the need to clear my throat was strong.
When she so carelessly took hold of the doorknob, like my heart wasn’t about to pound out of my own fucking ribcage, I fought not to go to her and beg her not to leave.
And there was the smile I needed so desperately. Beautiful. Had I ever told her she was beautiful? Yeah, I had, when my dick was buried inside of her, and I’m not sure that counts.
“Someone told me that I was easy to love,” she says shaking her head. “I’d always thought the opposite.”
And…she walked out of the same door she’d used to walk into my life, leaving me more confused than I’d ever felt. My attraction for her confused the hell outta me. The off the fucking charts sex confused the hell outta me. And the thought that I regretted having said it was only sex between us, and it could never be anything more, truly confused the fuck outta me.
The urge to go after her was so strong that my quads began to cramp. Okay, it could’ve been the leg day yesterday making itself known, but I don’t think so. I felt like going to her and telling her…like telling her…she was easy to love. That thought? It was the reason I didn’t leave the safety of my office walls. Skye was too easy to love.
Chapter Eighteen
**Rhett**
These trips to Pasadena were going to break me. I can’t believe—okay, I can believe, that Ryan left rehab and went on a bender. It had been too good to be true when I’d seen him completely sober on the family weekend. I hadn’t seen Ryan sober in…well, in years.
What I hadn’t planned on was having to come down here and go looking for him myself. The therapist I’d spoken to on the phone told me that there was nothing I could do—it was on Ryan’s shoulders not mine. That by stepping in and cleaning up his messes over and over, I was enabling him to continue down this fucked up path he was on. Most likely? True. But, he was still my brother and even though I say it’s the last time every damn time I know I’ll still go to him when I think he needs me. Needs me? Ry needs nothing but the fucking bottle just like our old man, maybe even more so.
My ears pop from the plane changing altitude as the pilot prepares for landing. Looking out the window, I wonder when I started seeing this place as home?
“Can I get you another seven & seven, sir?”
I notice immediately when the stewardess leaves her hand on my shoulder as she leans much farther down than necessary, giving me quite the view down her shirt. Wendy hasn’t been very coy since I boarded the flight leaving Pasadena. She’s flirted with me shamelessly and I know flirting without shame. I see it every day at work. The girls make it an art form at the club. The club. Thinking of going back to work tomorrow has my stomach turning—
“Can I get you anything, sir?” Wendy asks again.
I shake my head.
Nate told me that Skye works the same shift I do tomorrow. He’s also told me that she hasn’t been herself all week. I know I haven’t either. Ever since the threesome.
It’d started—rather I started it, because I wanted to prove to her that she was wanted. Crazy ass woman thought I’d taken my time with her because I wasn’t attracted to her? That couldn’t be the farthest thing from the truth. My way of thinking was that slow and steady wins the race, right? I wanted to win Skye for good. I’d known almost from the beginning that I wanted to be able to call her mine. I know it goes against her feminist attitude, but I’m just being truthful. Wanting Skye as mine for the long haul is what kept me from taking what I knew she’d given me so much sooner.
I thought I’d give her something Jaden hadn’t given her. A threesome. What I hadn’t expected was to want to kill the man when he had his hands on her skin. I’d hated him for knowing what it was like to be inside of my woman. I’d hated her for having her mouth on his cock even though I’d told her to do it. And most of all, I’d hated myself when I’d started fucking her with him there only to prove to Jaden exactly who Skye belonged to.
Jesus, it’s been over a week, and I haven’t reached out to her a single time. Nightly, I fought with myself when I wanted nothing more than to call her and tell her everything about Ryan, about how I missed her, and how I wanted to give us another try. Pride kept me from making that call though and maybe a little bit of fear. She’d cheated on me with that asshole—actually we never said we were exclusive, and we’d done nothing more than kissing. No wait, we’d done a shit ton more. We’d talked—really talked and I’d told her things I’d never shared with anyone before. That nothing was a whole lot of building a foundation for a relationship. Skye shook the hell outta that foundation, but I think we can move on and just keep building…if she’s willing to try. I’d swear on everything she’s worth it.
I’d pushed her into it that night with Jaden. Dickhead. Running my hand through my hair reminds me I really need to get it buzzed again. I’d given her an experience that she’d never forget. I wish I could forget. Not that I’d want to forget the way it felt to finally have her in my arms, being buried deep inside of her, or when she unraveled around me with my name falling from her lips. She’d told me that her pussy was mine because that’s what I’d demanded of her, but I wanted to hear that all of her was mine. We are so much more than the sex we’d had. We both deserved more than we’d given each other.
I’m positive Jaden’s gone. He’s no longer a threat; he never was—not really. He was nothing but some cheap thrills, a distraction. There’d be no more distractions.
“Are you okay, sir? You have this look—”
Annnnnd she’s back.
“I’m fine, just anxious to land already.” When I witness her eyes travel across my shoulders and down my chest before coming back up to meet mine, I add, “Missing my girlfriend.”
Her smile is as fake as her tits. “We’ll be on the ground in minutes.”
This time, when she walks down the aisle, there’s a little less sashay in her sway.
This is only the third time I�
��d referred to Skye as my girlfriend and the first time was in a red hued rage on Skye’s driveway in the pouring rain. The second? After I’d found Ryan passed out on a bench in Brookside Park, just a handful of miles from the rehab facility. He had no recollection of how he got there or how long he’d been there. Clothes filthy, the smell of cheap bourbon radiated off of him, and he was missing his shoes. His fucking shoes. My bet was while he was passed out, somebody helped themselves to his damn near new pair of Jordans. I’d taken him back to the hotel to clean up before I planned on dropping him back off at the clinic.
My clothes hung off his thin frame, but what the fuck would he care; he’d been comatose in a fucking park with no goddamn shoes earlier. I dropped him off once more and got on the next plane home, home to Skye. Ryan’s days started over, and all I could do was hope for more but expect less. On the drive back to rehab, I’d told Ry about Skye and how I’d like him to get his shit together so I could introduce my brother to her. My real brother, not the shell he’d become. When he’d asked me if I’d be making him wear a monkey suit anytime soon and or learn to change diapers? I didn’t freak like I had before. Panic had always set in when I thought a woman might be looking for something more or wanted to take the next step. With Skye? The thought didn’t scare me.
I’m more afraid that she’ll want nothing more to do with me. That I, too, was nothing more than a distraction. Like him. Maybe I’d pushed her too far with the three-way. I sure as shit had pushed myself too far. I’d never be in that situation again. It killed me to see another man’s hands on her body. I wasn’t built to share, nope; I wasn’t made that way. I wanted to be the one and only man to have free range of her curvy self, the only one to come inside of her. I’d never been inside of a woman without a condom, but I demanded it with Skye. I demanded a lot that night, but Skye never faltered when I’d shown her that side of me, and finding out she’d liked a man who took control in the bedroom was even more proof that woman in particular was made just for me.
**Skye**
“You’re going to swallow tonight, beautiful.” Looking up, I pull him back into my mouth. With my hands on his ass, I can pull him closer so I can practically swallow him whole. Feeling him shudder, it’s clear he hadn’t expected that.
“Jesus!”
When he starts bumping his groin against my face, I fight my gag reflex. Every time my eyes close tight and I gasp for breath, I get wetter. He starts thrusting in and out of my mouth, slowly pulling out then sliding back in, his eyes remain locked on mine below him.
“You can take me deeper, beautiful,” he says through clenched teeth.
“Mmmhmm,” is all I can say around his shaft.
Pulling all the way out of my mouth, he speaks with a controlled reverence. “I’m about to come and you’re going to swallow every drop, understood?” He may have said it like a question, but I see it for what it is…a command. His breathing is labored and his filthy words are hot as hell. “Then I’m going to eat you until you scream my name and then after some recovery time, I’m going to fill my pussy up.”
“W-whatever you want.” His eyes show the desire in them, he’s clearly as turned on as I am.
“It is my pussy, right?” He strokes his cock still refusing to look away from my mouth.
“Yes, only yours,” I answer, licking my lips and rubbing my thighs together.
He growls.
After a few more strokes, he’s pushing back into my mouth. Gripping my hair as he thrusts repeatedly, each thrust a little harder than the last.
Knowing he’s getting closer to blowing, I wrap my right hand around his balls, massaging them even as they’re strung tight. I love being on my knees in front of such a powerful man, him telling me what to do as he loses himself in me; I want to be the one who gives him the pleasure he demands.
“Oh yeah, suck me hard.” Grabbing his ass with both hands, I hold him as close to me as I can and swallow over and over. Tensing up, he pushes in until my face is against his groin, I swallow his come as his release pulses into my throat. Once, twice, three times, before he pulls out of my mouth and jerks off the remainder of his climax with it landing in my open mouth.
“Oh fuck! Skye! Don’t you dare swallow that yet,” he groans as he comes more. Hot droplets hit my tongue and the last pearl lands on my lip, slowly running from the corner of my mouth. Taking his finger, he wipes my bottom lip and holds it to mouth he’s yet to look away from. “Suck,” he orders and I, of course, obey. “Now swallow and say thank you, Jaden.”
As his very essence goes down I say, “Thank you…”
“What!” Bolting upright, it takes me a second to understand it had all been a dream. No, not a dream but a nightmare. Nothing more than my imagination. It had been Rhett in my mouth, in my hands, in my ears the whole time but then Jaden in the end. He still haunts me and I imagine he will for some time to come.
I blocked his phone number and deleted all of his text messages and to be quite honest, I haven’t thought of him since I walked out of his office. That is, until tonight. Apparently dreams aren’t off limits when it comes to guilt.
A loud knock coming from my front door has me picking up my cell phone and checking the time. Who would be knocking on my door at three-thirty in the morning? I jump when the phone starts to vibrate in my hand. The security guard is calling me?
“Hello?”
“Is this Skye Blake?”
“It is.”
Walking to the door, I look out the peephole and almost drop my phone when I see who is on the other side of the door.
“Miss?”
“Yes, I’m here.”
“I said that a Mr. Rhett Baxter was allowed to go through the gate since his name was on file, but due to the hour, I figured it warranted a pho—”
Flipping the deadbolt, I opened the door.
“Yes, yes, thank you. He’s here now.”
“Very well, Miss. Good night.”
I step back as Rhett walks into the house, closing and locking the door behind him.
“Good night.” I say pressing the end button on the phone, while I watch Rhett making himself at home in my living room.
“Was that the guard at that gate?”
I nod.
“Good, good, he was doing his job. I like that.” He stands and rubs his palms down the front of his jeans. Why would he be nervous? “Can you come here, please?” he asks as he starts cracking his knuckles one by one. He’s going to tell you that he can’t forgive you and it’s over before it really started.
Setting my phone down on the coffee table, I start to sit down when I am pulled onto his lap.
When he says nothing, I break the silence. “It’s three-thirty in the morning, Rhett.” His low chuckle has me smiling.
“Fitting.” He must see the confusion on my face. “Almost all of our time spent together has been in the night.” True. “I’m here because I tried to sleep and I fully intended to come to you tomorrow before our shift starts at the club, but I couldn’t wait.” Finally, he pressed his lips against mine, and I breathed him in; it was him, and not some dream, not a figment of my imagination, but Rhett in all his glory. “I can’t spend another day without you in it.” When his big hands stroke my back, goose bumps form at the intimate touch. “Not going back to where we were, beautiful.” This time when he kisses me, his lips catch the single tear that just began to fall. “Don’t cry, beautiful.”
“I’m so sorry—” I plea.
“No more looking back on our mistakes—”
“Jaden wasn’t only a mistake, but he was my weapon against you.”
Eyes widening at that statement, I know he has questions, but this time I’ll answer before he has to ask. “I needed a weapon to fight…fight the love that I was starting to feel for you.”
“You love me?”
I nod. “Anyone who’s ever said they loved me always left, and I couldn’t love you only to wait for the day you too left.”
“You love
me?” He asks again.
His eyes search mine, uncertainty warring in his head. Right now, I need him to think with his heart though not his head. One by one, I see his emotions each take their turn. Disbelief. Hope. Fear makes an appearance, before his eyes soften and the corners of his mouth turn up. And, that? That’s when I know Rhett’s accepted my love.
“I loved you from the first day I think, when you wouldn’t even tell me your real name.” His eyes shine with the unshed tears that match mine. “I’d love you as Sunny as much as I love you as Skye.” Resting his forehead against mine, I know now there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep this man forever. This sweet, strong—so strong and forgiving man.
This time as we walk down the hallway to my bedroom, I know he won’t leave me with a goodnight kiss only to sleep alone.
Unlike the other times we had fallen asleep on my bed fully clothed, we undressed each other neither hiding the hunger between us.
“We’re not done talking, beautiful, not done,” he pants against my lips as I fumble with his belt buckle. “But I need to be inside of you…without an audience this time.” I can’t agree more.
Sitting on the bed, I’m eye level with the bulge behind the zipper. Belt off finally, I reach out to lower his zipper, when his hands wrap around my wrists. Looking up, I give him my full attention, well, a different part of him when he speaks. “I’ll never share you again, I can’t, and I won’t. Nobody else in our bed, on our couch, fucking anywhere. I’ll never share you again, understood?”
“Yes, I want that, too. I don’t want anyone but you. Ever again.” I mean every word.
“Another thing you need to know, Skye, is that I run the show in the bedroom. It’s not some game we’ll play from time to time.” When he lifts my chin and rubs the pad of his thumb over my lips again and again, I can feel the power in his hands. I trust it, I trust him with it. “It’s who I am and it’s how I’ll stay.” Sucking his thumb into my mouth, I swirl my tongue around it, telling him without words I’m more than okay with that.