Last Resort

by Amber Malloy

  A whole year had passed since Cayden’s grandfather took her away from Goosebay Lake. Determined not to go crazy over the summer without her, he went to basic training early. During that time, they called and wrote every chance they got, but couldn’t coordinator their schedules. Once he got his deployment assignment, he managed to finagle a couple of days off for her birthday.

  “Come on”—he helped her up on to the boat—“we don’t want to get caught stealing this thing.” His parents were out of town at a hotel convention. They had no idea he made it back home that weekend. If they found out, they would be sure to kill him a couple of times over.

  “This is nice. I can’t believe Trent sprung for it,” she said while she trailed her hand along the shiny rail. Notoriously cheap, his father never shelled out the bucks for anything good.

  Starting the engine, he pulled out of the dock.

  Cayden took a late plane from her college in New York and they didn’t have that much time before the sun went down. Guiding them a good twenty minutes from the resort, he dropped anchor.

  “Wine or—”

  She grabbed him by his t-shirt and pulled him to her lips. The sweet smell of peach and vanilla filled his nose while he devoured her soft mouth.

  As he slipped her strap off her shoulder, revealing the perfect, natural Playboy magazine tits, he sucked in a breath.

  “Levi—”

  Unable to wait for her to finish, he bent his head to flick her nipple with his tongue. He gave her a little peck before he sucked her beautiful brown tit into his mouth.

  “I wanted to tell you…” She moaned.

  Thinking about nothing but this moment for over a year, he pulled her down on the deck of the boat and fumbled with his jeans.

  Cayden got him through homesickness, training camp, and a host of other things. Once he inched her underwear off and awkwardly positioned himself on top of her, he wished he had listened.

  ****

  The sun slipped away and left them with a strange purple hue—a war between the remains of the day lost to the fresh emergence of night. The girl of his dreams sat on the other side of the deck far away from him.

  “Do you trust me?”

  She swiped a fresh tear off her cheek and gave him a small smile. While her long hair covered her left breast, the strap to her dress fell off her shoulders. If he didn’t intend on spending the rest of his life with her, he would have been able to swallow the nervous lump that stuck in his throat.

  “Come here.” He held out his hand. After a moment of hesitation, she made her way to his side of the deck. He positioned her comfortably between his legs, with her back to his chest, and moved her thick mane of hair away from her neck.

  “It’s not always that bad.”

  She gave him a soft chuckle, and he kissed her soft skin.

  “Trust me, it’s a compliment to you how bad I sucked just now.” In less than five minutes, he’d made a mess of everything he worked so hard for. “In no way do I want you to think this is how it goes.” He made a circle around her exposed breast with his finger, forcing her nipple to harden. “I was just so excited to see you, but it wasn’t great because—”

  “You were my first,” she murmured.

  “I know, which probably made my performance anxiety ten times worse.” Slipping his hand lower, he nipped the lobe of her ear and went underneath her dress. When he touched her clit, she sucked in a breath. “So let me make it up.”

  “How?”

  “First, I want to tell you how beautiful you look.”

  “Wow.” She huffed out of breath. “That was the first real compliment you’ve ever given me.” Parting her legs a little wider, she granted him access to her pussy.

  “That wasn’t a compliment, I’m just stating facts,” he whispered, before he stroked her clit between his two fingers. She pushed back against him.

  “Everyone tells you how great you are.” Levi increased the speed of his fingers. “So smart…”

  She moaned. He tapped her nub then made small circles.

  “Do you really need one more lackey kissing your rich, pretty ass?”

  He sucked her neck and increased his speed. Cayden thrusted back against him. Blood rushed to his cock as the pulsing of her pussy squeezed his finger.

  Turned on by the force of her orgasm, Levi knew he had to control himself. Cayden bucked against his touch. Grabbing her breast with his free hand, he continued to suck on her neck. Little moans turned to squeals of surprise. She let out one long shuddering breath before she relaxed against his body.

  Rock-hard, he fought against the urge to slip into her again. “Better?” he asked. She lifted her head and kissed his chin. Levi took it as a good sign for the rest of their weekend together.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Present Day

  The day had progressively gotten worse. Feeling bad about Cayden, he called it quits and headed home. According to all the news sources, a storm would blanket the Midwest. He figured they could grab a bite to eat before it hit.

  “Hello, dear.” As he walked into his house, his mom and a melody of smells greeted him.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked. She seemed to be a permeant fixture in his kitchen. She stirred some gooey concoction in a bowl. He kissed her on the top of her tiny fairy head.

  “Potluck. Our favorite recipes for Thanksgiving from the quilting club. We’re having it down at the V.A. Do me a favor and pick me up when it’s over. Margret’s a little heavy-handed with the moonshine.”

  “Oh yeah, don’t you usually have that here?” Levi dug out his phone from his front jacket pocket and read the text alert.

  “Your father refuses to drive home anymore of those drunk, harpy shrews … his words.” She dipped her spatula into the bowl and licked the slop off of it. “Hmmm, want some?” She pointed it at him.

  “Never.” He leaned away from the gunk and read his text. An Amber Alert for a missing fifteen-year-old girl from Yorktown crossed his screen. The girl’s picture strongly resembled Shana Waters. He immediately dialed Cayden’s cell before he ran out of the house.

  “Don’t forget to pick me up at eight,” his mom sang after him.

  While her phone went to voicemail, he trucked out the back door. No longer a teenager, the distance between the two houses at a full sprint seemed much harder to tackle than he remembered.

  “Hey!” He threw open her door as he tried her number again. The sound of her cell echoed throughout the cabin. To beat back the edging panic, he took a deep breath and counted to twenty. Levi searched around for the source of the ringing.

  He finally found it on the desk. As soon as he disconnected his cell, a series of texts scrolled across her screen from her CEO.

  Levi picked up her phone.

  Apparently, Cayden’s CEO Gil didn’t understand why she sold the resort at such a low price without consulting him with first knowledge.

  ****

  Determined to find what she wanted, Cayden lost track of time. The temperature dropped, but not too low for snow. She marked the spot where they found Shana with flags and began to dig toward the position her head had fallen. Hours had passed and she made no real progress. As Belle growled at something in the distance, a flurry of dry white stuff twirled around her head.

  She stood up and tried to see into the woods where the pit bull stood. Past the faint snow and dim lighting, she couldn’t make out anything. The dog lowered her ears and growled again.

  Sufficiently spooked, Cayden didn’t doubt Belle’s instincts. “Come on, girl.” Patting her thigh for the dog, she whistled and started down the trail. “Belle!” she hollered at the dog. Once she got a good baseball-field-sized distance away from the spot they discovered Shana’s body, Belle began to bark her head off.

  Whatever she scented in the woods, the dog wanted to sink her teeth into it. She held out hope that she could beat Levi home, but Belle’s antics slowed her down. “Dammit, come on!” From the top of the trail
, she could see the lights in her living room.

  Belle went nuts over the smell of her master. While she ran to her front door, Belle’s barks changed to yippy excitement. Not half as happy to see the blue beast’s master, she took her sweet time getting to the cabin.

  “Go ahead.” She let the crazy dog in first. Levi sat on the edge of her couch with her phone in his hand. Mentally, she cursed herself.

  “Went on the trail, huh?”

  Belle continued to bark. Cayden couldn’t blame her. Thick tension choked the room.

  “Yep. And look, I’m not dead.”

  “Sure, but maybe the girl who was just kidnapped from Yorkville is?” he said.

  “Shit!”

  “I tried to call, but you left your phone.” The pulsing vein in the middle of his forehead showed his anger, but his calm tone meant something else. “Long story short, while you were playing on the trail, you got a text from your boyfriend. I got to say he is seriously pissed that you didn’t consult him about selling off the resort. You know, my resort.”

  Levi tossed her phone. “Gil’s not my boyfriend.” She picked the cell off of the couch where it landed. “You taught me not to fuck the help a long time ago.” Ticked he went through her phone, Cayden unlocked the cell and flipped through her texts. It appeared Gil had quit.

  The day slid downhill at an amazingly fast rate. While a slight pulse of pain started behind her eye, Belle’s incessant barking got worse.

  “That’s cute. So how many guys have you fucked?” The muscle in his jaw tightened.

  “Sorry, baby, you forfeited the right to ask when you got engaged.” Cayden took off her coat and flung it on the couch on her way past. The weight of it and everything else had become extremely heavy in that moment.

  “Oh, sweetie, I bet you’ve been dying to use that one.” He followed her into the kitchen, while Belle barked her way between them. “At least Sarah was available.”

  “Or just easy.” As her tight web of control fell apart, everything she shoved down for years fought its way out of her. Cayden opened the refrigerator and grabbed one of his beers. Faster than uncorking a bottle of wine, she popped it open and chugged.

  “Trust me, nothing in my life has been easy with you around. Belle, shut it!” he screamed at the dog before he opened the back door and ushered her out.

  “Oh, you think the increased level of difficulty in your life has something to do with me?” Cayden hissed. Without the endless barking, the gaps of silence filled itself with strained toxicity from years of resentment. Unable to stop the rage that he deserved, she held up her hand and ticked off each of his transgressions. “First, you scraped college for the Marines … which made no sense, because your parents had the money to pay.”

  “How would you know?” he growled, while his face turned a vicious red.

  “Because I invested it! Yeah,” she spat at his stunned expression, “the spoiled brat strikes again. How the hell do you think they were able to retire so young?” She put up her middle finger, dropping the first one. “You exchanged your background in law enforcement to run the resort…”

  “Don’t stop now,” he demanded. “Let’s get to the part where I trade in Cayden for Sarah. That’s where you were going, right?” Every muscle in his body appeared to tighten. She shrugged before she took another hit from the beer bottle.

  “Picking the poor girl over the rich one wasn’t that easy, was it?”

  “Money isn’t the only thing that makes someone poor,” he snapped.

  “Don’t I know it.” Cayden pointed in his direction while she took another healthy swig from the beer bottle and hurried to swallow. “I’ve wasted so much time on you.” He flinched at the low blow she dealt. “Besides, I’m just giving you what you asked for.”

  “Three years later, Cayden?”

  “Had a couple of things to take care of before I came back to deal with Shana’s death … and your crap.”

  The bright blue sheen of his eyes dulled considerably while he stared at her. After some time, he nodded his head. “Well, I don’t want to hold you back any longer. You should get cracking on packing.” He drew up to his full height and put his face in front of hers. “We wouldn’t want the new owner to see how miserable I make you.”

  Levi turned his back on her and walked out the door.

  Finishing off her beer, the bitter taste coated her tongue. She finally let go of the tears that threatened to fall in his presence. A long time ago, she taught herself to never be vulnerable in front of Levi.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Soft flakes fell to the ground. Levi silently counted from one hundred to ease the mounting anger that wanted to kick its way out of him. Usually when he spiraled close to the edge, classical music helped, but he doubted it could do shit for the haze of red in his head.

  Before the snow turned into the hard stuff, he needed to head in to town. That way he would already be waiting for his mom before the streets got bad. He crossed through his yard and jumped into his truck.

  As he took deep breaths to space out his breathing, he looked for his keys in his pockets but came up with nothing. Levi tried to fight back the tight vise-grip of pain that twisted in his chest. Of course, the minute his mind slipped back to Cayden, he lost it.

  Beating the wheel of his truck with his fist, he let out a primal scream. It helped a lot better than counting to ten. Ready for another go at it, he opened his mouth when someone knocked on his driver side. Levi lowered the window.

  “Where you going?” his dad asked.

  “To pick up Mom.”

  “Think you might need these?” He dangled his keys in front of him. Levi made a grab for them but his dad snatched them back. “Move over.”

  “Come on, Dad…”

  “You heard me.”

  In no mood for spending twenty minutes alone in the truck with him, Levi tried to get out. “Get Mom yourself.”

  “Scooch your big ass over to the suicide seat, now!” Not mentally able to tangle with Dad, he moved over to the passenger side, while the old man got in. Dad started the truck with not so much as a word and drove away from the resort.

  The roads into town weren’t bad, yet. Before midnight, the salt trucks and snow plows would clear some of the snow off.

  “At some point, you two are going to have to stop fighting so dirty.”

  “Doesn’t matter, we’re done.”

  Dad gave him a wry chuckle. “Yeah, I’ve seen what that looks like before.”

  ****

  November 28, 2011—Thanksgiving

  They sat at the table in uncomfortable silence. He just announced to his parents that he asked Sarah to marry him, and no one offered a single congratulations.

  It had been three months since he tried to see Cayden. He went to the city and found out about her CEO, Gil. From that point forward, he didn’t bother contacting her again.

  “Could you pass the stuffing?” his mother requested without looking at him. Her face scrunched down in a frown, but she didn’t voice her opinion.

  A racket at the front door pulled their attention. Cayden walked in, struggling with her luggage. “Sorry I’m late. My plane got de … layed,” she finished. “Hi.” More beautiful than ever, her long black hair lay pin-straight down her back. It complemented her designer red dress. His heart stuttered at the sight of her. She went around the table and kissed his parents and stopped in front of them.

  “This is Sarah,” Levi said.

  Cayden offered her hand.

  “I’m his fiancée,” the blonde squeaked excitedly, making sure to show off her small ring before she took Cayden’s hand.

  “Congratulations!” She gave a faint smile, while her right eyebrow twitched. “Your ring is lovely. Well, I don’t want to disturb you guys…” She tried to scoot out of the room.

  “Sit,” Mom demanded in her no-nonsense tone. “You must be starved.”

  Tiny and fast, Mom jumped up before Cayden could disappear. Guiding her ove
r to the seat across from them, she quickly piled her plate with mounds of food. Half of which Cayden wouldn’t even touch.

  “I’m sure anything the plane served wasn’t very good.” Mom placed the plate in front of her and whispered something in her ear.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Cayden answered.

  As his mom patted her arm, resentment rose inside of him. They treated her with warmth but gave him and Sarah nothing better than icy coolness.

  Twenty minutes into the worst Thanksgiving he’d ever had, everyone aimlessly pushed the food around their plate except for Sarah. She seemed oblivious to the whole scene. Guilty of the latter, he hadn’t been that hungry since he came back from the war.

  “Are you two still on for New York?” Dad asked once the silence got too much for even Trent’s socially stunted taste.

  “Yep, Lydia and I have tickets to SNL.”

  “You got them?” His mother clapped in joy.

  “I heard those are impossible to score,” Dad chimed in.

  “That’s right, you can count on Cayden to do the impossible,” Levi muttered with bitterness. He got up to pour himself a drink from the butler table loaded with alcohol.

  “New York sounds fun,” Sarah said, hopeful.

  Sweet from the moment he met her, he didn’t want Sarah to think she would be included in Cayden’s little circle. He knocked back a glass of Johnny Walker and went to pour himself another, but his dad got up and grabbed the bottle.

  “A little too expensive for you to hog it all,” he grumbled, and poured himself a glass.

  “So, I heard you’re in charge of a bunch of cool stuff?” Sarah said.

  He cringed at how silly she sounded.

  “Yeah,” Cayden replied. “It’s a lot.”

  “And you and Levi grew up like brother and sister?”

  The genuine sound of Cayden’s laughter caused an emotional somersault in his stomach. “Practically siblings,” she said while her right eyebrow went crazy.

  “Maybe I’ll take you wedding dress shopping in New York,” he interrupted. Childish, maybe, but something in him wanted to impose maximum damage as a car horn honked outside.