by Marni Mann
But she did.
And, when I looked down, a little blood was underneath her fingers.
“Stab me harder,” I barked. “I want my blood dripping from your nails.”
“Yes,” she hissed.
I felt her puncture more of my skin. “Just like that.”
Layla was grinding that motherfucking dildo with the same amount of pressure I used. She twisted it in, glided it out a little, and drove it right back.
It only took a few more strokes before I saw the tremble in the stripper’s stomach.
“Layla, go rub her clit.”
She left me in charge of the dildo, which I continued to stroke the stripper with, and moved to her clit. With two fingers, she brushed them back and forth, and a scream pierced my ears. The sound made the cum start to load in my cock, but I held back when the flow of liquid shot from her pussy. It hit my legs, stinging the wounds her nails had made. Then, immediately, another scream followed. Layla’s hand slapped against the stripper’s cunt, causing a second stream to eject into the air.
“Lick her,” I ordered.
Layla’s tongue flicked over the stripper’s clit. The girlfriend screamed again and gave us a third and final squirt. Layla stayed down there, lapping up the liquid, while I slowed my strokes.
She hadn’t disappointed me. Her sounds had been just what I’d wanted to hear. I’d felt her ass clench as she came. Her splashes had wet the three of us. My cuts burned like hell from all the acid in her piss. And Layla’s face, all sticky and dripping, was exactly what I wanted to kiss.
“You good?” I asked the stripper.
“Fuck, baby. I’m more than good.”
I looked at Layla. “Go sit on her face.”
She crawled up the stripper’s body and put her pussy right over her lips. Jesus, the sight was even hotter than what I’d visualized in my head.
I moved behind Layla, switched out the condom again, and slid my cock into her cunt. As I twisted my hips, gliding back and forth, the stripper played with my balls.
There had been so much buildup to this point, my dick couldn’t hold off much longer. Not when Layla was shouting so loud, her yelling so close to a scream. I just needed it a little higher, a little more drawn out.
“That’s it,” I told her. “Scream for me.”
Her pussy tightened, and it began to milk me, sucking every bit of cum I had. Her screams shuddered through me, driving my orgasm straight down my goddamn legs. I even felt it tingle in my hands.
When I finally pulled out, the stripper was there to take off the condom. She licked all around my head, gently sucking my crown and moving down my shaft. Layla was there, too. The women kissed, sharing what was in their mouths.
“Next time, I want you in my cunt,” the stripper said.
Layla rubbed her tits against my chest and giggled. “You know what that means, right?” She waited for me to respond, but I didn’t. “It means, she wants you again right now.”
I rubbed my fingers over the stripper’s pussy. She didn’t back away, didn’t wince out in pain.
“You’re not too sore?” I knew I hadn’t been inside that hole, but I hadn’t exactly been gentle with the other one.
One of them started stroking my cock.
“Oh no, baby. Not even close.”
Mina
Present Day
I kissed each of the tattoos inked on his knuckles and quietly slipped out of bed. I grabbed a robe on my way out of the bedroom and tiptoed to the balcony. So the phone wouldn’t wake him, I shut the door and called headquarters.
“I’m sorry I’m so late,” I said as Arman answered my call.
“Five hours isn’t late, Mina. It’s fucking ignorant, disrespectful, and completely out of character for you. I’m too pissed off to listen to your excuse.”
I looked through the window that led to my bedroom and smiled. “I’m sorry.”
“Would you accept an apology from one of your girls? Because I know you write them off quicker than they’re even capable of speaking those words.”
“It won’t happen again, Arman. Now, tell me what news you have.”
I heard him sigh, my tardiness clearly still making him cranky.
“Audrey has been taken care of, like you asked. I assume things are all cleaned up on your end?”
I hated giving him an answer without checking with Wynter first, but after calling him so late, I certainly wasn’t in a position to avoid his question. “Yes. Of course. Everything has been handled on this end.”
“Good. At least you’re not a complete disappointment today.”
I rolled my eyes and moved over to the edge of the balcony, rubbing my fingers over the rough stucco. If Arman weren’t my boss, I would have told him to go fuck himself a long time ago. But, knowing how we all worked, myself included, that would only get me a death sentence.
“Arman, do you have any other news to tell me?”
“News? No. But I’d like to know why your head has been up your fucking ass this week. Have you looked at the goddamn numbers? They’re an embarrassment. Tell me you’ll be fixing that immediately.”
“The girls have been off. I promise, I’m working on it.” Knowing Arman, he wasn’t convinced. “You can count on me. I won’t let you down.”
“We’ve been here before, Mina. Let’s just make sure this loss doesn’t last as long as the previous one.” The snappiness in his voice seemed to be growing. “Put those girls on a shorter leash if you have to. You give them too much freedom. They need discipline, rules, structure. This isn’t a fucking holiday. This is a job. You’re far too lenient on them.”
I looked down at my nails. One of the tips had chipped, and it was missing a gemstone. I’d been doing too much work with my hands lately. I’d have to remember to get it fixed today.
To appease him, I said, “Yes, Arman, I agree.”
“We talked about putting all the girls in a house. Maybe it’s time to make that happen.”
This was where I really started paying attention because the suggestion he’d made would affect me. Putting the girls into one place would certainly make it easier to control their moves and monitor their activities. But that meant I would have to live there with them. And I wouldn’t just be their boss; I’d be their babysitter, too.
I glanced inside again, remembering how loud I had moaned just a few hours ago.
For that reason alone, I needed my own home and plenty of privacy.
“Let’s see if I can get the girls back under control. We can always revisit the house idea at a later date.”
When he huffed, I could actually picture his large, hairy nostrils and how they flared when he was annoyed.
“Do you have news for me?”
I thought of the recent conversation I’d had with Wynter, the last batch of emails I’d read, the pictures that had been texted and said, “Not at the moment. I’ll have some soon.”
“Don’t wait too long. You know I get impatient.”
“Yes.” I wanted to laugh, but that wouldn’t be appropriate. “I know.”
“Until next time, Mina.”
The call was disconnected before I could say another word.
I leaned my body into the short wall and looked over the banister. The girls didn’t understand how good they had it. Most of them had stayed in their parents’ houses until they were eighteen, and we didn’t find them until they went to college.
Not me.
Arman had been my boss for fourteen years. He had recruited me at the age of sixteen when my mother sold me to him. She’d thought it would be a way to make money for her and my siblings. I wondered if she’d honestly believed I would return or if she’d ever seen more cash besides the lump sum Arman had paid her.
I sure as hell never gave her a dime.
And I never got those answers from her, nor had I ever asked those questions.
I’d slaughtered that bitch on my twenty-first birthday.
I left the phone on the corn
er of the furthest chair, and I went back inside. I knew Arman wanted some information, and I would get that for him soon. But there was someone more important that I needed to tend to first—the man who was in my bed, whose tattooed hands I wanted all over my body.
Tyler
Four Years and Three Months Ago
“Yerekha,” Mina said when I answered her call, “I need you to come to my house.”
I held the cell with my chin and shoulder and stuck the clean laundry into my drawer. “When?”
“Now.”
With my hands free, I pulled the phone off my ear and checked the time. As long as I didn’t spend more than a few hours at her place, I’d be able to make it back and get ready without being late to work.
“I’ll head out right now.”
“Bring me a coffee,” she barked before she disconnected our call.
I slipped on a light jacket and a cross-body bag and locked my apartment door. Since there was a bakery on the next block, I walked over and placed an order. This wasn’t the first time Mina had asked me to bring her coffee, and because her tastes were so complicated, I kept her exact request noted in my phone.
While I waited for our drinks to be made, I clicked on the phone app that would send a car to pick me up. As soon as I paid, the driver was already outside. He helped me with the door, and I climbed into the back.
When Wynter and I had been looking at places to live, I had purposely suggested a section of town that was close to the university but on the opposite side of the city as Mina. Some of the girls lived in her area and liked it. Even back then, when The Achurdy had meant everything to me and I was unable to see any wrong, I’d still wanted my space.
I was so thankful for that.
As I watched the buildings pass by the back seat window, I checked the date on my phone. The number stung when I saw it. Exactly three months had passed since I met Jae at the bar. And, during every hour of those ninety days, besides the ones I’d been asleep, he had been on my mind. I’d made myself so many promises when I curled into a ball on my shower floor. I’d kept almost all of them. But had I scrubbed his memories from my body to the point where I never thought of him again?
Definitely not.
I never worried he would show up at my building, that he’d be waiting for me outside whenever I left. I was confident that the way I had left things between us showed him how serious my situation was and how nothing could ever happen between us. Not that he would even have any interest in seeing me again. I’d done nothing but avoid his questions and freak out, and I’d ended the evening with two panic attacks and tears.
If there was ever a sign to stay the hell away from someone, a giant neon arrow was pointed directly at me.
But, now, whenever I went out, I’d find myself looking for him. When I passed someone tall and muscular with light scruff on his face, I’d stare a second longer to see if he was Jae. When I saw a pair of tattooed hands, I’d check to see if they were his. When I heard his name mentioned on the street, I’d stop and glance all around to find those familiar black eyes.
It was never him. I just couldn’t escape the reminders.
And these thoughts, which went deeper than his appearance, made absolutely no sense. I knew nothing about him. I only had these brief memories to hold on to, yet I clung to them like the door handle in his car with two hands and a squeezing grip.
God, I missed that stranger.
I shook my head, realizing I had arrived at Mina’s, and I got out of the car and knocked on her door.
“Hey, Tyler,” Nix said when he opened it. “Come on in.”
I never asked, but I was pretty sure he lived with Mina. He was always here whenever I came over, often working on a piece of art or tattooing one of the girls. The deer skulls were mandatory, but the girls would hire him to do lots of other pieces. The ink he put on them was some of the best I had ever seen.
But tattoo artist wasn’t his only role with The Achurdy. Nix was also in charge of finding the marks. Rumor was, if he liked you, the men he’d assign to you were known to be higher spenders. And he seemed to like the girls he tattooed the most.
I only had a deer skull.
I didn’t plan on getting any more.
“She’s in her office,” he said. “Go on in. She’s expecting you.”
I walked through the living room and into the hallway, and then I knocked on her office door.
“Come in, Tyler,” she said.
I turned the knob and pushed the heavy wood, slipping inside to find her sitting behind her desk.
“Take a seat.”
I left the door open and sat across from her.
She was typing something into her phone and never looked up. When she finally did, she eyed the coffee and said, “Did you remember the sweetener this time?”
“Yes.”
I’d remembered it last time, too.
She could be so moody sometimes.
She took a sip, her cheeks bulging as she swished it around in her mouth. “We need to talk.”
“Okay.”
“Some information has been brought to my attention, and I’m not happy about it.”
My heart started to pound, my throat suddenly feeling extremely tight.
Was the information about me? And Jae? Had one of the girls seen me with him and told Mina about it instead of coming to me?
Three long, lonely months had passed. Why had it taken this long for her to find out?
The eggs I’d eaten for breakfast were threatening to come up.
“Sadie will no longer be working for The Achurdy.”
Wait. “What?”
She folded her arms over the desk and leaned forward, as though she were trying to get closer to me. “She’s been breaking some of our rules, and I have zero tolerance for that.”
“Which ones?”
She turned her head a little to the side and gazed at me. This wasn’t the kind of stare where she was zoning out on my face. This was the kind where she was seeing directly into my soul. “I called you in because I wanted to know if you’d noticed any strange behavior from her lately.”
I set my coffee down on her desk. I was too jittery to drink it. “What do you mean by strange?”
“Has she broken any rules that you know of?” I opened my mouth, but she cut me off, “This is a safe place, Tyler. Whatever you tell me stays between us, and it won’t go any further. I asked you to come over because I trust you, and I know you want what’s best for our company. The only way we can ensure that is by having open communication. If one family member is acting in a way she shouldn’t, it will cause an unhealthy environment for all of us. We can’t have that.”
My skin was tingling.
Even though she was talking about Sadie, this still felt like a warning. If that was what she intended, I heard her loud and very clear. I wouldn’t be seeing Jae again. And I wouldn’t be breaking any other rules.
“I haven’t seen a thing. I swear.”
Her eyes widened like I’d slapped her.
“Sadie and I aren’t super close. If something were going on with her, I wouldn’t have noticed, and she definitely wouldn’t have told me.”
I was telling her the truth.
Some of the girls I just didn’t connect with, and Sadie was one of them. Her personality was too strong for me.
“I’m disappointed in you.” She picked up her phone and tapped on the screen.
I slid to the end of my chair and crossed my hands on her desk. “Why?”
The way she ignored me was even more of a punishment than what she had said.
“Mina, why are you disappointed in me?”
Had I really done something wrong?
And, even if I had known something about Sadie, which I didn’t, why would I want to be a rat? I’d worked for The Achurdy long enough to know that they didn’t give promotions. So, there was no advantage to getting someone in trouble.
She looked over her phone and handed me a piece
of paper. “Take a look at this.”
I scanned the sheet. It was a breakdown of my sales for the previous two weeks. Those were then compared to last month’s figures and the ones from the year before. I was down by about twenty-five percent. But, based on what I’d heard, the other girls weren’t doing any better than me.
“It’s bullshit,” she snapped.
I slowly glanced at her.
“You’re not trying hard enough, and your sales show that. You were one of my best, Tyler. Now, you’re at the bottom. Get it together.” She looked back at her phone. “You can leave now.”
I left the paper on her desk. I didn’t need the reminder. The expression she had given me was plenty, and that glare wouldn’t be leaving me for a while.
On my way out, I passed Nix. He was sitting in front of an easel, painting a lion so similar to the one Mina wore on her finger.
“Hey,” I said, getting his attention, surprised by the thought that had popped into my head. “If I ever wanted to get another tattoo, would you do it for me?”
He wiped his hand over his beard. “Yeah, I’d do it. Do you have a design in mind?”
I didn’t know where the idea had come from, but I knew exactly what I wanted. Today hadn’t just shown me another side of Mina; it’d proven that there were consequences to breaking the rules. And it’d reinforced that whatever had happened between Jae and me could never happen again. Even though it had almost been nothing, those moments had felt like everything. But that was all they were now—moments and memories.
God, that hurt. Worse than I wanted to admit to myself.
I held out the hand that Nix hadn’t tattooed and pointed at my ring finger. “I want a teardrop right here.”
He checked out the space and the approximate size that I had circled over the spot. His skin was so full of designs, it made mine look boring.
“Do you want to do it now?”
I looked at his ink again—the letters across his knuckles, the shapes on his hands, and the ones traveling up his wrists.
I had to stop searching for similarities.
I had to stop thinking about Jae.
All that was left of him were teardrops.