One Last Chance (Complete Series Box Set)

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One Last Chance (Complete Series Box Set) Page 17

by Lauren Wood


  I screamed out his name and I was ashamed at how loud I was. It just felt so damn good and I didn’t think that it was possible to feel that good and not say anything.

  The man above me grinned and started to pick up the pace. My recent orgasm made me nice and wet and let him slide in and out with ease. The sound of our bodies slapping together filled the air with the moans that came from the both of us. I’d never heard nothing sexier in all my life. It was music to my ears and turned me on further, as strange as that was.

  One orgasm turned into another and I was swept away from all the pleasure that he gave me. It was more than I could handle and soon I was begging him to finish up before I lost myself completely. I clenched him hard to let him know that I was being serious. I couldn’t go on anymore.

  It was enough because he started to move frantically until he pushed in deep one last time and I knew that it was over. I could tell by the way he was shaking and then the hot blast of fluid that filled in all the cracks that were left between us. It was hard for me to stop myself from coming again and I gave up trying as another wave of bliss ripped through me. I was drug away by the tide.

  I was barely breathing right before he was cuddling up against me, his fingers playing with my pussy as he started to wind me up again. This at least, I did remember. We’d had a long night last time and this time didn’t look to be any different. Once hadn’t been enough before and it wasn’t long before Cal was pulling me on top of him and positioning me to slide down on him. It felt too good for me to resist.

  Cal

  It was the day of the wedding and Jesse looked like he was going to yak into his shoes. He was nervous and pacing. I tried to make him feel better, tell him it was all going to be okay, but Jesse didn’t believe me.

  “I don’t know Cal. I think that I’m making a mistake. I made a mistake and I can’t take it back.”

  I was confused because Jesse and Anna were perfect for each other. As much as she didn’t like me and the fact that I was friends with her man, at the end of the day I could see how happy Jesse was. That’s why I didn’t mind the crap she gave me because my best friend was so happy. In the end that was all that mattered. Maybe he just needed a reminder because he had cold feet.

  “You two are perfect for each other Jesse, you’ve said it yourself a million times.”

  “Yeah, but what if I’m wrong?”

  “You’re not. She’s great.”

  “She is great. Anna is so fucking great, and I would be lucky to have her.”

  I didn’t get where he was going with this and I tried to keep up. He was upset, that much was clear, but the why was a mystery to me. How was he going to mess it all up? I felt like there was something that I didn’t know about and I asked him again what was going on.

  “You didn’t ask me what I was doing last night.”

  “You didn’t ask me either. Should I?”

  “Maybe you should and then you’d understand my dilemma.”

  I don’t know why, but I was getting a bad feeling about all of this. He was talking in circles and that usually meant that he didn’t want to just come right out and say it.

  “So, where were you last night Jesse?”

  “I was with Katarina.”

  I knew the name well and asked him if he was an idiot.

  “What in the hell would you be doing with that skank?”

  Katarina was a mess and he’d turned Jesse into a mush head for a while. The man hadn’t been able to think or eat or sleep. It was pathetic, and I refused to let him go down like that again. I didn’t want to see that, not to mention what he would be messing up with Anna.

  Or what he’d already messed up.

  “Please tell me that you didn’t do anything stupid?”

  “Define stupid.”

  “Did you do what I think you did?”

  “If you mean did I have sex with her and cheat on my fiancée a day before the wedding, yes.”

  My mind was blown, and I backed up a little bit. We were at the church and I felt like I needed to give him a little space. He may very well burst into flames right in front of me.

  “Why would you do that?”

  He shrugged and told me that he was an idiot. “I’m not even going to say it was because I was drinking. I was, but I knew what I was doing. I just sort of freaked out and now I don’t know if I can go through with this.”

  “Do you not love her?”

  “Of course, I do, but I can’t lie to her. How could I keep this in forever? I can’t marry Anna with this secret. It wouldn’t be right.”

  I could understand what he meant, but at the same time I didn’t think that he was really thinking about it clearly. He couldn’t tell her because then he would lose Anna for good and that was no joke. She wasn’t going to forgive him for it and the wedding would be called out. She would be embarrassed. They wouldn’t last through that.

  “So, what are you thinking about doing? You’re not thinking about telling her, are you?” I didn’t even want to consider the shit storm that it would cause. He’d never come back from it.

  “I don’t know. I feel like I should.”

  “Well you need to take that feeling and shove it down deep because you shouldn’t. It just that simple Jesse. You are going to mess everything up and you’re going to regret it.”

  “I already do.”

  “What’s done is done. Don’t throw away the best thing that you’ve ever had for a mistake. Trust me when I tell you that I’ve been there, and it isn’t something that you want to do.”

  “Katarina is the type of girl that if she found out I was getting married, she will tell Anna. I don’t want her to find out that way.”

  I still couldn’t believe that he had went back to Katarina. She was a mess and I just wanted to shake Jesse.

  “Marry her Jesse. It’s what should happen. You two should be together and just don’t mess up again. Think of it as a second chance. We should all get one.”

  “Are you talking about me or you?”

  I didn’t know, but I knew that his situation was shedding light on my own. “We’re not talking about me, we’re talking about you. You’re about to walk down the aisle and marry the girl of your dreams. That’s what you’re doing today Jesse. Just focus on that.”

  Jesse grinned and mentioned how perfect Anna was.

  “She really is too good for you, so don’t give her a reason to realize that. Wait until you’re married, and she’s trapped.”

  That made him laugh and I was feeling relieved that he was thinking about going through with it. I wouldn’t have been a good friend if I would have let him think that anything but that was the right thing to do. Maybe after some time, when everything was settled he could come clean with her, but it didn’t seem like a good idea right now. It seemed like the best thing that he could do for himself was to just shut up and let it lie. That’s the best advice that I could give him.

  “You really think that I should not say anything?”

  “Yes, I really think you should marry her and worry about the rest of it later. Didn’t being with Katarina make you realize how badly you’d fucked up?”

  Again, I was speaking from my own experience, but he seemed to have the same one as well.

  “Yes, so fucking badly. As soon as I stuck my dick in, it felt wrong. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. I was worried that I was going to miss out on something, but then I realized that if I messed it up with Anna, then I would be messing everything up. Losing her would be missing out.”

  “Then go marry her and don’t screw it up.”

  He agreed, and I helped him finish up. I could tell that he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. He was racked with guilt and I hoped that he could hold it together and shut up for a little while. Anna was going to have to forgive him, but not today when they are supposed to get married.

  I fretted about it as we went to the front to wait for the bride to come out. The music was starting to play, and I
had a lot on my mind as well. I could see Mariss next to the bride’s side and she smiled at me. I melted from it, but I didn’t respond because Marsha was in attendance as well. I’d made promises that I wasn’t able to keep, and I was trying not to make it too known what was going on. I didn’t want Mariss to become a target.

  The ceremony started, and I thought everything was going well. Anna looked so beautiful and Jesse looked like he was having the time of his life. I was jealous of how deliriously happy he looked. The way he looked at Anna was the way that I looked at Mariss. I don’t know what it was, but it was the feeling and look of finally being alive. I could certainly relate.

  Mariss

  The wedding was going perfectly, and I had tears in my eyes. I’d told myself that I wasn’t going to cry, but it was hard not to. It was hard to forget that I was no closer to being married than I was ten years ago, and I wanted what they had. Jesse looked at Anna as if she was the only woman in the world and Anna was just eating it all up.

  The small church was packed with people and some had gone to standing room in the back. I don’t know where they all came from, I didn’t recognize a lot of them, but I didn’t expect to. I lived far away now, and our circle of friends was no longer the same.

  A few faces stood out and one dark-haired woman in the back that snuck in when the ceremony was in full swing was giving Anna a look that I didn’t like to see. She looked at her as if she hated her and I was soon to find out, like everyone else in the church that she did. She was here to ruin Anna’s day at least, maybe her life. It wasn’t going to be good for Anna and I wanted to stop it, but I was unable to. It had to watch it play out as everyone looked on. It was hard to do. I had the bad feeling, but I had no idea what was going to happen.

  The part about speaking up if there was a reason that shouldn’t wed came up and it was then that the woman made her presence known.

  “He shouldn’t be marrying her. He loves me. He told me so last night. Jesse was at my place, all night long.”

  There was a collective gasp in the air and everyone was looking at everyone else because no one really knew where they were supposed to be looking. It was all a mystery.

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I looked to Anna and she was devastated. I was frozen for a minute and I didn’t know what to do. I looked to Jesse, sure that this was all just a hoax or some ex that wanted revenge. But when I looked at his face, I could see guilt there and recognition. He almost seemed to be relieved that it was out in the open.

  Not knowing what to do, I looked to Cal for a moment and it occurred to me then that he’d known about it. He looked just as culpable as his friend was and I wasn’t sure how to feel about the change in events. It was clear that this wedding wasn’t going to go on.

  The dark-haired woman started to walk towards the front and I moved towards her. “You’ve done enough. Get out of here.”

  I wanted to hit the woman, I really did, but I didn’t want to make even more of a scene. Waiting until the woman was completely gone, I looked back at Anna and my heart was breaking for her. She looked defeated and it was her wedding day. That was not the feeling that someone was going for on this most special day.

  Everyone at the wedding was shocked and no one really moved. They were waiting to see if it was poor taste joke. I asked Anna what she wanted to do, and I could tell that she was about as clueless as I was in the situation.

  She looked to the man she was moments from marrying and she asked just one question. It was the one question that everyone in the room wanted to hear about and everyone sort of leaned in so that they could hear what going on was. It was juicy, whether it was painful for those involved or not, everyone else was watching it go down like it was a soap opera.

  “Is what the woman said true? Were you with her last night Jesse?”

  I could see that he’d looked to Cal and Cal made a slight nod. He was telling him not to say anything and for some reason, I got a sinking feeling that he’d known what his friend was doing the whole time. Made sense considering what he was willing to do with me while he was engaged.

  Now I felt like Anna, wondering how I could have been so wrong. I’d thought that Cal had changed, that he was a good man now, but it was just the outside that had changed. The inside was just the same and if he thought it was okay for his friend to do such a thing, what was to say that he wouldn’t feel like it was okay for him to do the same thing as well?

  I stopped myself because it made me realize he already had. Here I was talking about what he might do and be like and it dawned on me for real that it was what he was doing with her. It was that simple and though we’d had a history, it wasn’t that strong. He’d pursued me, even though he was engaged as well. I wasn’t stupid enough to think that I was somehow special, and I was going to get away with it scot free. I had a feeling that I was going to pay for it.

  My mind snapped back out of my own misery to witness the misery that was going on with my friend. I felt so bad for her and I held my breath like everyone did while they were waiting for Jesse to answer. I really wanted him to have the best answer. I wanted him to say that it was all a lie and a big misunderstanding, but I had a feeling that it was going to be something else entirely.

  “I’m sorry Anna. This was never supposed to happen. I wanted to tell you, to come clean but I didn’t want you to leave me.”

  “Who is she?”

  “Someone from my past. She means nothing to me. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was being stupid Anna. Please forgive me.”

  I felt bad for the guy because the way that Jesse felt about Anna was not something that could be faked. He loved her, it was that simple, but I knew Anna and I knew that she was not the forgiving type. I had to guess that this was over before it even got started. I wanted the two of them together, it made sense, but Anna wasn’t going for it.

  She erupted from where she stood, and the short woman hit him in the face. Everyone there heard the sound echo off the walls and I have to say that I felt it from where I was standing by her, even though I was quite some ways away. It hurt Jesse. I know it did.

  “I’ll never forgive you for this Jesse. You ruined what was supposed to be the best day of my life. I’m glad I know now instead of finding out after we got married.”

  I was proud of her for not losing her shit too bad. Anna’s head was high when she turned around and walked back down the aisle the way she’d came. Every little detail had been lovingly planned, down to the soft veil that she wore on her head. Anna grabbed the lace and threw it on the ground on her way out.

  Throwing a dirty look at Cal and his friend, I followed her out, knowing that she was going to need me. I knew that her mind was a wreck and it wouldn’t take much to prove that.

  “I’m so sorry Anna.”

  “Did you know?”

  “Hell no. I wouldt have told you.”

  Anna smiled and told me I was a good friend. My mind was on what all of this meant.

  Cal

  That imploded much like I knew it would. It wasn’t hard to see that this wasn’t going to be fixed today. Jesse started to go after her and I told him to hang back. She needed to figure out her feelings and her temper was unmatched. The last thing he needed to do was jump into all of that. He wouldn’t’ make it out alive.

  “Just let her calm down.”

  We were back in the room from before that he had gotten dressed in. He was shaking, and I was trying to talk him down from the proverbial ledge that was going to see him doing some stupid shit that got him in trouble.

  “She’s not going to calm down. Did you see the look on her face? I should have told her.”

  “If you would have, it would have been the same outcome. You know, that right?”

  I wasn’t sure if it would have been so public for them both, but it was bound to come out. It seemed like Jesse had forgotten how Katarina was. She wanted to have Jesse all to herself and there was no way that she was going to just let him get married.
It wasn’t going to happen. Out of all the people he could have picked, why did he go with his ex?

  “Yeah, I guess, but that was a shit show out there and she’s never going to forgive me for that. She was just embarrassed in front of all her family. You know how Anna is. She’s never going to let that go.”

  I did know that Anna was very worried about what other people thought. That’s why she’d been dressing Jesse for a while. I thought it was kind of funny at first, but then he started to dress like a prep from school that we used to beat up. Now all of it was for nothing and I had to reflect on how one decision could change the course of everything so quickly. I felt bad for him, but I really didn’t know what I was supposed to say. He was right, it was over, but as his friend I didn’t want to tell him that it was so.

  “It’s not as bad as you are making it in your head, I promise.”

  “Do you really think that she will forgive me?”

  I didn’t, not really, but that really depended on how much she loved him. I’ve seen people get together that shouldn’t be together and sometimes even when everything seems like it’s over, it can start again. I was thinking of Mariss and where we were. I wanted to have the same hope for Jesse. I wanted him to be happy again.

  “Let’s get out of here and get a drink Jesse. There’s really nothing else that we can do here, not really.”

  Jesse nodded, but I could see that he looked like he had been hit by a truck. He didn’t look right and the more that I noticed it, the more I knew I was going to have to keep a tight rein on him today. I didn’t want him doing something stupid and I know that he had stupid things on his mind. There was no telling what he was thinking.

  He followed me out and we went out the back so that we wouldn’t have to walk through the church. It did us no good because most of the wedding party was outside, gossiping about what they’d just saw. They spotted Jesse and I had to tell them to back off. I don’t know what they planned to do, but they were acting like an angry mob. Everyone loved Anna and Jesse was going to hear about this for a very long time to come.

 

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