by Cora Davies
"What happened?" She whispered. "Did you fall asleep?"
"I wanted to kill him." Eric knew his voice was muffled in the mattress. He turned and her face was only inches from his own. "I would have killed him if you hadn't looked at me like you did."
"Like what?" Hailey asked quietly.
"Like you can fix the world." He looked at her now, and that feeling of peace washed over him again. She is my Novocaine.
He wanted to talk to her, tell her what happened since he last saw her. He wanted to tell her how she was the only thing that could hold him together. But more than anything else, he wanted her in the most primal way.
He was on top of her, knees on either side of her hips. His mouth pressed against hers forcing her lips open, worshiping her mouth the way she should always be worshiped. Her tongue tortured his own with its skilled dance, and he held her wrists above her head with one hand. She moaned into the kiss, and he could take the slow dance no longer. His free hand was at her zipper, jerking her jeans off her hips and searching for the home for his cock he had thought about so often. He craved nothing more than to be connected to her, filling every inch of her.
He released her mouth and looked down at her hips to see tiny lacy black panties. His cock throbbed at the sight. He sat up and pulled her shirt over her head and found a matching bra. Part of him wanted to pull it all off and drive himself into her at astounding speeds. But part of him was filled with jealousy.
"Who is he?" Eric growled.
"What?" Hailey asked cocking her head, brought into this new moment with him, confusion and all. "Who is who?"
"Mr. It's-Not-Serious. In my experience, most women don't wear the matching lacy stuff unless they plan on seeing someone intimately that night." Eric ignored his throbbing cock and watched her expression. He waited for her to give something away. Was she dating someone? "So who is he?"
"Oh," she said through a laugh. "Can't a girl just doll herself up every once in a while?"
"Hailey." Eric had a steel edge to his voice, but he laid his head on one of her thighs, his hand stroking the other. "Is it serious?"
"There's no one," she said gasping as his hand traveled up her leg. "There was going to be a girls night at Tony's last night."
"You wore this for a girl's night out?" Eric snapped her panty elastic.
"Just in case," she said, and then she turned away from him. "It's been a long time."
Eric's hand slid through the lace edging of her underwear, and he found her moist. He could tell her mound's anticipation for his hand was strong as her hips began to writhe under his touch. How long had it been for her? Had it been as long as it had been for him? Six long months of his cock missing another human's touch. "How long?"
He slid a finger inside her, pleased to find how much tighter it had become in his absence. It had been a long time. Her hips bucked immediately at his entrance. Eric loved the way he could make her squirm. He had been with lots of women in his lifetime, and most claimed to be satisfied customers, but Hailey did not squirm to please him. He always wondered that about women who used him to get ahead at work or cross movie star off their bucket list.
He stroked her heat with his thumb as his mouth traveled up her body, slowly lapping across her stomach as he moved. His mouth finally grazed across the swell of her breast, then landed on her hard nipple. He slashed his tongue along the rough textured flesh and felt her arch into him. He sucked and pulled her taut nipple between his front teeth and grazed the bump with his tongue.
"Oh, my god, Eric," she cried out as her hips thrust forward driving his finger further in. "I want you."
He smiled against her skin, then moved to her free breast. He slid another finger inside her, feeling her clench as he stretched her tight hole. Her hands grabbed the back of his head and pressed him closer against her breast as she moaned his name. He let her finish on his hand, then slowly slid away from her and stood up. He could wait no longer to be inside her.
"I haven't been with anyone since you," he said as he quickly ripped his clothes off. He stood over her, naked with his mushroom tip at her hole, waiting for her words. Waiting for her invitation.
She opened her eyes, breathed heavily, still coming down from her orgasm. "I haven't been with anyone since you either, and I'm on birth control."
He watched her as he began to slide his tip against her slit. He wanted to be inside, but he needed the words. "I need you to invite me in."
"Like a vampire?" she asked sarcastically.
"Like a vampire," he said watching her face as he slid back and forth against her wet folds. He could see her thinking. Could she trust him? Would she? He felt like he was going to die, being so close to what he had dreamed of for so long, then not being able to have it. He stood between her legs, waiting for her answer.
Eric was about to step away and walk to Hailey's side table, hoping she still had a condom in there. But, Hailey wrapped her legs around him and pulled him into her, slowly taking the tip at first. Her thrust strengthened and his naked shaft slammed into her, feeling every bare tickle and kiss of her canal as it went. He growled as his full length was enveloped inside of her. He stood against her, afraid to move when she cried out. "Are you okay?'
"More than," she said breathlessly. Her nails dug into his thighs and left a trail of goose bumps as they dragged across his skin. He moved at a rhythm that kept them both on the edge while he watched her face. Hailey's eyes never left his as she took her breasts, one in each hand. He pulled his full length out of her, and perched at her hole again before diving back in. She screamed in delight each time he did this, and with each scream, he felt his speed increase, though he still waited outside of her hole for a beat before filling her again.
His mind kept darting to places they never went during sex. He was a man who was good at keeping his head empty as he pounded into a woman, but right now, all he could think was how he wanted this to last forever. How he wanted Hailey to want that too. How he hoped she believed and trusted everything he said, because everything was so real.
As real as his unsheathed cock within her body, and that was a feeling he had not felt since he was a teenager. Since hormones ran wild and he thought he might actually be in love. But he never had been truly in love, he knew that now. He knew that every time he thought of Hailey and how she made him feel. He released her breasts and fell against her, finding her mouth, and sending his tongue into her mouth to search. He felt like if he could dive deep enough into her, he'd be able to find a place here to stay forever. To make Hailey want to be with him forever.
"I love you," he said as he broke away from her mouth. She did not answer, but groaned as he drove into her deeper with his hips. Nothing had turned him on more in his life than his love for this woman. "I'll love you forever if you'll let me."
Hailey squeezed her legs around him tighter still, and arched her back as she hit climax. He watched her wiggle in ecstasy and wanted to join her. Her juices flowed over his naked cock, and lubricated him more. He pushed her legs back by her head and shoved mercilessly into her tight hole. She screamed out in a mixture of pleasure and pain as he drove into her. He slammed into her one more time, feeling everything release from inside him and she trembled from his depth.
He fell onto the bed with her, and there they lay, breathing heavily as they watched the branches blow outside the bedroom window. He pulled her back against him, cradled her, and kissed her shoulder.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Hailey's head throbbed, settling somewhere in between the pain of Jason's betrayal and her fall down the stairs. Everything spent from her body and life, she convinced Eric to leave the comfort of her bed and follow her downstairs for a meal. Finished eating now, they stood side by side at the sink as Eric washed the dishes.
"What do you usually do when you're in between movies?" She gently kicked Eric's leg, then dragged her foot slowly against his calf, teasing him.
"Sleep, travel, or just bug someone until they give
me another role." He turned the water on and rinsed their dinner pan. Hailey argued with him when he offered to do the dishes. It was not because he was her guest, but because she was afraid he would have no idea what he was doing. He only broke one bowl-so far. She called it a victory. He washed his hands, then they sat down at the table. She placed a chocolate bar in front of them, and he broke off a small piece and popped it into his mouth. She watched as he rolled it over, probably letting it melt, and savoring all the flavors. That was what she would do if she was on Eric's strict diet and only ate chocolate every once in a great while.
"I was hoping you'd tell me what I'm doing this time, in between projects. Is there anything that needs fixing around the house?" Eric pulled a John Wayne accent from his comedy depths when he asked, and Hailey giggled. She had not felt this light, this relaxed, in months. Not since the last time she had been with Eric. It was the opposite of how she should feel with the ordeal she just went through with Jason. The thought of Jason made her head hurt again, and she focused her attention on Eric instead.
"I think the sugar's getting to your head." She noticed he did look a little giddy, a little childlike.
"I think the sugar is making you see more of my charming ways," Eric said. He reached across the table and took Hailey's hand in his own and brought it to his mouth. She felt a tingle as his lips grazed against the back of her hand. "If we spend the next few weeks together before I go back to work, we're gonna have to soundproof your bedroom."
She cocked an eyebrow. His words made her feel warm on the inside, but she could not get past that too good to be true feeling. "Who said anything about you staying?"
Eric shrugged and seemed to inspect her, taking in everything from the tomato at the end of her fork, to the curls that formed at the edge of her wet hair.
"You should come back with me."
"No, I shouldn't."
"Give me one reason why."
"I'll do you one better." Hailey began to tick the reasons off on her fingers as she spoke. "Risa. The ranch. My mom. My poor mom."
"Bring them with you." Eric looked serious when he said this. Hailey considered it for a moment. She thought about the four of them at his home in LA and she immediately imagined a castle. She shook her head, it might be a fairy tale, but it would not be a castle. Something that placed them all on display.
"Bring the ranch with me? I don't think it's going anywhere..." she teased as she lifted her imaginary wall of defense back up around her.
"No," Eric said and shook his head. "Your family. It would be good for them to get out of here for a while, after everything that's happened."
"They don't even know what's happened yet. I can't just dump that on them, then pull them across the country with me. And the ranch... what would I do with the ranch? I would have to sell it." Hailey scratched her fingernail on the table. "I can't do that to Risa. She's doing so well at school, and this is her senior year. I couldn't just pull her out."
"Okay, then I'll take the year off and stay here. Afterward, you don't have to sell the ranch, just find someone to run it. Someone who isn't a homicidal maniac."
Hailey blew out a large gust of air and felt as her bangs lifted from her face. "You can't take a year off."
"Give me a reason why."
Hailey raised her hand to tick off another list, but she heard the front door open. Her body froze and heart rate spiked.
"Another stalker?" Eric whispered jokingly, and then laughed when Hailey's face went pale. "Isn't it Risa?"
As if on cue, Risa yelled. "Mom!"
Hailey listened to Risa clomp through the house in her heavy boots and braced herself for the conversation she was about to have, when Risa screamed again. This time a little more frantically. "Mom! Are you okay?"
Hailey remembered the mess in the living room, and hopped up. "Fuck."
She threw open the door to the living room and found Risa standing with a chunk of a broken angel in her hand, wing dangling by a wire. Most of the debris had been swept, but the trashcan stood in the middle of the living room with the broom still propped against it. The can was full of those damned memories, smashed by Jason's-no, Christian's-outburst. The emotions could only be buried so long before they flowed over the dam and destroyed a house. Destroyed Risa's childhood knickknacks and memories.
"What is this?" Risa picked through the trashcan at her side. She looked up but her gaze went past Hailey's shoulder. Risa's jaw set in a way that made her look like Hailey when she was disappointed. "What is he doing here?"
Hailey did not need to turn to know that Eric had joined them in the living room. "Ris-"
"You've got to be kidding me, mom! You're back with this jackass?" Risa yelled. Hailey made a mental note to tell Eric later not to take Risa's outburst too personally. Teenage girls and all that. "Did you guys wreck the living room?"
"No, but I have something important I need to tell you," Hailey said. Risa sat down on the couch and smiled, looking in between them.
"First, I have something I want to tell you. You know how Grandma tells me everything?" Risa had a huge smile plastered across her face. "I know what happened, why you guys broke up. I know about the spying stuff."
Hailey inhaled sharply. "Your grandmother tells you too much. She tells you stuff you're too young to hear, or understand."
"I'm seventeen," Risa said quietly. Her daughter was trying to grow up too quickly. What else was new this Saturday evening?
"Age is not necessarily-" Hailey said, but was quickly interrupted. She was not surprised to be interrupted, but she was bewildered to find it was Eric who had spoken-not Risa.
"She has a point," Eric said. Hailey opened her mouth, but Eric was not done. "You have to tell her about Jason, you might as well tell her about what I did."
Eric looked away, and Hailey knew he was embarrassed. Even after all these months, and his assertion that he had been right, he was still not used to people being mad at him. People who mattered. And Hailey realized for the first time, it was more than just her that mattered to Eric. Risa did too. Eric cared that she was mad at him. It bothered him.
Hailey focused on Risa and started at the beginning. She told her about the letters, the threats, and the manuscript. She told her daughter about Guy Templeton, the flutist, and the crazy painter. She left some of the darker details out of her confession, but when she said "trust me, you'd rather not know this part," Risa did not question her mother. She believed her because she told her the truth about everything else. Almost everything. She did not tell her about her father's worst secrets. About what he had done in the Army in order to save his daughter. She could not lay that kind of guilt on Risa, ever. Even when it was Paul's decision to do what he had done, in order to ensure he had enough money to get Risa treatment. Risa would not see it as Paul's choice, but she would find blame in it for herself.
Hailey wondered when she had started keeping so many things from her daughter. They used to be partners in crime, and she told her everything. They were best friends; for the longest time, it had been just the two of them. Even when Paul was alive, he was gone for work so often, that they had to learn how to be a two-piece unit that could take on the world alone. Now, Hailey realized there was so much she kept from her daughter the past year or so. The older she had gotten, the more Hailey tried to shield her. Maybe some of it was guilt for being too honest with a young Risa. Maybe some of it was because Risa seemed to have her own young adult life, she did not want to burden her daughter with the heaviness of the rest of the world. She did not want to burden her with all of Hailey's problems.
When she finished, Hailey stared at her wide-eyed, her mouth shaped like the letter "O".
"Why didn't you tell me? I could have helped, too." Risa pouted slightly, and Hailey resisted the urge to tuck her chin up. Hailey knew better than to say what she was thinking aloud. How could Risa help, when she was still so young?
"I thought I was protecting you," Hailey said patting her daughter's knee. "Be
sides, what could you have done?" Hailey watched Risa's face screw up in thought. She waited for Risa to answer her, not wanting to dismiss her again.
"Eric thought he was protecting you, too, didn't he?" Risa finally asked. Hailey pinched the bridge of her nose.
The answer had to be worded perfectly. Hailey had forgiven Eric, and understood why he had done it. Why he thought it was the right thing to do. But, Hailey could not let Risa think his actions had been completely okay. "In his own way."
Teenagers were quicker to bounce back than Hailey gave them credit for, and her daughter said nothing before she almost seemed to change the subject, her eyes lighting up. "But, you know who else knows about the spying stuff now? Turner Williams."
Hailey turned to Eric to explain who Turner Williams was, but he was gone.
"Oh, where'd he go? Mom, you know he has to be the one who did it."
"Did what?"
"The pictures. Someone turned in pictures of Turner Williams. I think he's gonna get arrested." Risa had a devilish smile on her face. "I think Eric did it. Even though he's a jackass and you deserve way better, but better than a boring banker, too. He fucking did it!"
"Did what? And don't say fuck."
"You say fuck."
"I'm old, I have gray hairs, I have earned the right. Tell me, you think Eric did what?"
"The pictures that got Turner in trouble. I think he found them, or no... paid someone to find them, and get Turner in trouble."
"Are you serious?" Hailey could find no other words to sum up her questioning.
Risa walked behind the couch and picked up the photograph of her with her parents. Eric had laced it into a rip in the curtain. Even today, he still brought Paul back. He made sure Paul was part of her world. But after what she had learned from Jason, she was not entirely sure she wanted Paul to be a part of their world, did she? He was not the man she always thought he was.