Up All Night Long: From Lust to Love (Romance Anthology)

by Ali Parker

  She stood at the edge of the main floor, the club-style music pouring from the speakers above her. Her eyes moved across the crowd, looking for her friends, but taking in the glorious freedom found on the faces of those who moved in the middle of the floor. Dancing was like sex - liquid and free, sensual and stimulating. She bit at the side of her lip, realizing how badly she missed both activities in her life. Tonight was going to be a time to exorcise the demons of youth and desire in tandem.

  "Hey, you wanna dance, beautiful?" a deep voice sounded beside her. His large hand was resting on the small of her back, his teeth biting along lip as his eyes dragged across her.

  She stiffened and looked to her left, the well-built male most likely in the military by his size and the seriousness of his appearance. He smiled and she couldn't help but smile back, his gaze kind and remaining on her face for the moment.

  "Actually I'm waiting on some friends, so grab me in a bit and I'll definitely show you how it's done." She waggled her eyebrows, knowing he'd find someone else and she wouldn’t be tempted to have a one-night stand before the big day. No need in dragging guilt down the center aisle of the church.

  "I'll hold you to it." He rubbed her back in a small circle and moved out to the floor by himself, the music shifting from fast and grind-line material to sensual and enticing.

  "I'd like you to hold me to something else... namely that wall." Kari spoke softly to herself, her eyes following the sharp curves of his shoulders, his large arms, and his butt in his jeans. Was she really getting married the next day? Surely not.

  "Oh my. Look at that hot piece of ass. I'm out, ladies. Don't leave without me." Lisa started for the floor before Sicily pulled her back.

  "Hell no. This night is about taking care of Kari and making sure she bleeds out her last chance desires. You go out there now looking the way you do and someone will have you in the backseat of a car by the next song."

  Kari laughed and took the beer her friend offered, the Corona cold and refreshing. Her eyes moved out to the floor, the handsome male who'd enticed her to dance snuggled up to a small Asian girl, his hips rolling against the small curve of her rear. His eyes stayed on Kari, a heat rising up her neck and covering her cheeks as he watched her and moved with fluidity.

  "Is that guy eye-fucking you or me?" Lisa asked, turning to stand in front of Kari.

  Kari nodded toward the black room. "He's definitely looking at you. Come on. Let's go to 'the hole' and see if the other girls I invited are in there."

  "Who are these girls again? The hole is the only room where you can get super freaky." Sicily moved up beside them, a bit of concern slipping across her gaze.

  "They're friends from high school, but the more adventurous ones." Kari smiled at the memory of some of the stupid things they'd all gotten into together, the atmosphere around her finally calming her senses.

  She opened the door and walked in, stopping just inside to let her eyes adjust to the faint light that played above the dance floor. People were everywhere, the smell of lust heavy in the air. Her friends didn't seem to be in the sea of faces, but something rather odd caught her attention.

  "Oh, my goodness. Look at that." She pointed as Lisa and Sicily moved up beside her. A thin girl sat on someone's lap, the male’s pants around his thighs and the girl’s skirt up over the curve of her butt. His hands held on tight to her, his movements jerky and uncoordinated. Several guys stood around him, egging them on and sporting visible excitement themselves.

  "Holy shit. You can screw in here?" Lisa asked, her eyes wide. Kari laughed at seeing her friend shocked at the scene before them. Lisa was used to dishing out shock, not receiving it.

  "Hey... I know that guy." Sicily pointed to the tall, good-looking guy to the seated male's left side. Kari squinted and felt her blood go cold.

  "I know that guy, too. That's Frank's brother. What the hell is he doing here?" Kari asked, moving a little to see if she could make out any of the other faces. Would Frank really bring his guys to the same club and let one of them have sex with some girl out in the open? They could go to jail if the club wanted to press public indecency charges. Then she'd be standing at the altar alone the next day.

  "What a jerk," she muttered and kept moving before Sicily slipped in front of her.

  "Oh hell. We need to go," Sicily yelled above the crowd, her skin pasty and eyes filled with some tainted emotion.

  "What? Why?" Kari asked.

  Lisa grabbed Sicily's arm. "We're going over there. Kari, go get the car."

  "What? Why?" Kari asked again, moving back a little as her friend walked aggressively to the other side, Lisa pulling the small woman off the male's lap and throwing her to the floor. Cold fear swept through her, her heart palpitating in her chest as her gaze touched the confused and angry face of her fiancé.

  He looked up and locked eyes with her from across the room, his erection on display for all to see. She covered her mouth as her lunch rose up in her throat, as Frank stood and moved toward her before Sicily and Lisa blocked him. Kari didn't wait to see the rest, but walked quickly toward the front of the club, trying to pull it together before reaching the valet.

  "Leaving so soon, beautiful?" he asked, taking her ticket and smiling.

  "Yeah. Not feeling so well all of a sudden." Kari crossed her arms over her chest, numbness stretching out across her nerve endings. She got in the car and waited for the other two, her friends coming out minutes later, both yelling back and forth before getting into the car and letting silence have its hold.

  "You okay, sweetie?" Lisa asked, leaning up and rubbing both sides of Kari's arms. She didn't know how to respond, wasn't sure what to say. Embarrassment and horror kept her lips shut tight. Driving away from her future seemed to be the only reasonable response.

  Chapter 2

  "That stupid asshole. I cannot believe he would be so dumb to go to a club and get it on with some skank when he’s getting married tomorrow!" Lisa ranted, her hair a mess from running her fingers through it over and over.

  "Was getting married," Kari murmured as she slid the small glass of water between her hands on the kitchen table before her.

  "Exactly. Was getting married. It's going to be okay, honey. Thank God you found out tonight instead of years from now. Creepy bastard." Sicily sat beside her, her voice soft and comforting.

  Kari didn't dare turn to look at her friend, the gaze of sorrow that most likely sat on Sicily's face would be her undoing. She didn't want anyone to feel sorry for her or to worry over her. She'd lived most of her life on her own and she would get through this too. The urge to tell them to just go home washed over her, but Kari pushed it back, knowing that they wouldn't budge from her side no matter what.

  "I'm going to kill him. Sorry piece of shit," Lisa went on and on, Kari mostly ignoring her and letting her get it out. Lisa had always been the one in the middle of a fight, the one cursing more than the boys could even try to and the one to put things back together for all of them. She was who she was, and right now, Kari was glad she was hers.

  "What happened when I left?" Kari asked, hating the weakness of her voice.

  "We confronted him and he said it wasn't what it looked like," Lisa growled and sat down dramatically, her eyes wild and her cheeks flushed. It was almost touching that she cared so much, and yet the girl got worked up about a lot.

  "Wasn't what it looked like? He was screwing her in front of the whole room! How could someone misconstrue that?" Kari sat up a little straighter, her voice finding volume. Her phone buzzed as it had a million times, Frank's handsome face popping up on the screen. Sicily reached over and took the phone, answering it and putting him in his place again.

  "Listen, asshole. The wedding is off. Go enjoy yourself for the night because tomorrow we're turning in this lovely dress you bought and paying for a few male dancers to fill up our nights and then we’re going to stretch far more than just our imaginations. Don't call here again. You made your bed on the dance floor in the mi
ddle of a thousand people... now go fucking lay in it."

  Kari stared in shock, never having heard her mostly docile friend speak with such angst. Lisa clapped and laughed, getting up and going over to hug Sicily with one arm and Kari with the other. "Oh that was brilliant. I would give anything to see his face."

  "I wouldn't." Kari sighed and moved out of her friend’s hold, walking toward the small breakfast bar by the kitchen.

  "Yeah, you would, ‘cause he had a lovely shiner." Sicily drew an imaginary circle around her own eye, a wicked smile rising on her lips.

  Kari turned to face them as Lisa took her unoccupied seat. "What? You hit him, or one of his guys did?"

  "I did. Punched him good, too." Lisa waggled her eyebrows and put up her fists, punching at the air and cursing a bit more.

  "You hit him?"

  "I punched him in the eye."

  "How? He's huge!" Kari crossed her arms over her chest, the night only seeming to get more and more foreign.

  "Everyone has soft skin around their eyes, Kari. If you're going to get someone good, then it's the privates, the nose, or the eye you swing for." Lisa shrugged as if it was a normal conversation for the three of them to be in the middle of.

  "I wish I could've seen that." Kari responded, shaking her head a little. "What am I going to do?"

  She knew tears were coming soon, her throat and chest burning from the desire to let it all out. She'd choked back her emotion at the club, not wanting anyone to know she was devastated by all that had gone down. She needed some alone time and it was coming around like a speeding train. Kari took a shaky breath, letting her arms drop to her side and giving her attention to her friends.

  "I need some time to myself if you guys don't mind. Just want to process this and see what it means for me, you know?"

  Sicily stood and walked toward her, a caring look on her exotic features. "Of course, sweetie. We'll go and be back in the morning to fix you some breakfast. Besides... now that you're not tied down to the big city, think about moving with me and Lisa to Maine in a few weeks. We wanted to ask you to come with us a million times, but because of Frank we knew that wasn't going to happen."

  "Just something to think about later," Lisa added, walking over and moving beside her, wrapping an arm around Kari's back and squeezing. Kari laid her head on Lisa's shoulder and nodded.

  "I'll think about it after I get past all of this. I still have to talk with Frank, so that should be lovely."

  "We can go with you," Sicily added, moving back and picking up their purses, handing Lisa hers.

  "No, I need to break things off with him on my own. Telling my parents and everyone is going to be so embarrassing." Kari blinked through the first wave of tears, her teeth pressed tightly into her lip to hold back the sob that followed.

  Lisa turned and pulled her into a hug. "It's not your fault. He's a dick and you deserve better, period. This is a blessing in disguise and we'll get through this together."

  "Okay," Kari muttered, her voice soft and strained. She moved back and wiped the few tears that had managed to spill over, a sad smile moving across her face. "I'll call you guys in the morning when I get up and then we can get together."

  "You sure you're okay here by yourself tonight? I don't like it." Lisa moved back, tugging her purse over her shoulder, her gaze piercing.

  "I'm sure. Just need a hot bath, a good cry, and some sleep."

  "My vibrator always helps, too." Lisa shrugged.

  Sicily whacked her with her purse. "Not everyone is a nympho. Let's go."

  "They should be." Lisa laughed and Kari chuckled as well, walking them to the door and saying a few more goodbyes between hugs. She closed the door and turned to press her back against it, her hands running up her face, fingertips pressing to her eyes.

  How had this happened?

  Her phone buzzed again and she left it ignored for the moment, sliding down against the door until her butt touched the cold tile. She let her legs extend out and concentrated on her breathing, the overwhelming sense of lost self-worth swimming precariously around in her thoughts.

  If she was good enough this wouldn't have happened. If she was worth the wait.

  Was it her fault?

  She knew how sexually active Frank wanted to be and yet she'd asked that they take a break, purify themselves for the wedding night so that it would be something truly special, a gift of sorts instead of business as usual.

  How long had he been sleeping around? How many people had he slept with?

  A sob left her lips and she let her guard down, her tears rushing to wipe away the pain of loss and devastation. She let herself cry for as long as it took to release the pent-up portion of what she'd been through, her phone buzzing over and over again.

  Suddenly anger birthed from the wound in the center of her chest, a small growl rising up from her as she pushed herself up and walked toward the table. She grabbed her phone and pressed the button to answer the call, her voice thick with pain and her words sharp like a knife.

  "What could you possibly want?"

  "Kari, please just listen to me, baby. Please."

  "I have nothing to say to you, Frank."

  "I know, baby, but just listen. You don't have to talk, just listen to me."

  She had nothing to say and the mere sound of his voice set her nerves back on edge, the vision of him slutting himself out in front of everyone who mattered to each of them washing over her again. She pressed her fingers to her lips to hold back another sound that resurrected from her suffering. She couldn't respond, but he didn't wait long to continue anyway.

  "I know what happened tonight was horrible. I know I did wrong, but baby, I'm sorry. Tomorrow you and I will be married and we will be one. Move past this with me and know that I'll never do anything to hurt you."

  "Again," she whispered.

  "Again?"

  "You'll never do anything to hurt me again."

  "Yes, baby... exactly. I didn't mean to hurt you tonight. I just... I just needed a release, Kari, and the guys got that girl. It's been so long since you've given it up, baby."

  "How many?"

  "How many what, Kari?"

  "How many girls have you been with over the last few months since I stopped giving it up?" She hoped the venom of her feelings flowed through her words.

  "Kari..."

  "How many, Frank? I want to know."

  "I don't think that's important right now. It's over and I'm sorry."

  Her voice rose as she pulled the phone from her ear and pressed it against her lips as she screamed, "HOW MANY WOMEN, FRANK?"

  "A couple."

  "What's a couple? Two? Three? Fifteen?"

  "I'm not having this conversation."

  "You're right, you sorry bastard - you're not. I'll ship your ring back to you before I leave town and you can call our parents and explain what you've done." She sniffled, her mind clearing a little. "If you lie to them about what happened, I'll be sure to sleep with the editor at my newspaper and get him to run a story on you that shows nothing but the truth."

  He didn't speak for a few minutes and she prayed like hell that he was shocked, hurt - devastated.

  "Yeah... well, do what you gotta do, I guess," he muttered nonchalantly.

  She chuckled, pain roaring back to life around her. "Fuck you."

  She hung up and threw the phone across the living room, her tears spilling over again as she got up and walked toward the bathroom. She grabbed a towel, her chest heaving as she gulped for air in the middle of the emotional assault. He had some nerve not only cheating on her the day before the wedding, but acting as if she was simply going to take his apology and let what he did slide.

  "It's not important? It's not important how many girls you slept with? Sick bastard." She stopped at the bathroom counter, pulling at her dress and ripping it over the top of her head. She tore at her bra, tears streaming down her face and smearing her mascara to represent the more macabre vision she felt like.


  Kari came loose of her panties and bra and turned on the water in the shower, her mind forcing her to contemplate every horrible moment from the night before. The handsome guy at the beginning of the evening being the only good part that played along her senses.

  Hot water hit her skin and her tears stopped for a few minutes, the comfort of warmth giving her a small escape. She stepped back and let the water wash over her hair, the smell of smoke clinging to her skin only after being in the bar for a few minutes. The vision of Frank and his female of choice washed over her again, the girl in her vision nothing like what she looked like herself.

  Was he simply desperate or did he really like thin girls with no meat on them? She lathered up the soap and rubbed it on her lower back. She had a thicker bottom than top, her breasts small and perky, her butt a bit too big for her liking. Obviously Frank didn't like it either. The skinny whore he'd been with couldn't have weighed a hundred pounds.

  "Maybe he thinks I'm fat?" she asked and quickly dismissed her thoughts. She was healthy and in great shape. The simple truth of the matter was that he was unfaithful - a jerk who didn't care where he found warmth and stimulation. Good for him. He could spend his nights in the arms of various chicks who didn't give a rat's ass about him, and she'd eventually heal from it all, and move on herself. There were plenty of men out there who would adore her.

  "Right?"

  She lathered her hair with shampoo, her heart painfully aching again at the very idea of being cheated on. There was no reason to fault herself, and yet she couldn't help it. If only she'd not have made the decision for them to have a sexual break, then things would've been fine. But would they really have?

  What if they got married and she got sick? Would he sleep with someone else because her body wouldn't allow for that type of intimacy? What about when she got pregnant? She'd gain weight and the last thing she'd want was Frank poking his stuff around in her sensitive areas. No, this was for the better, though it left her raw and feeling less confident in herself and how others might see her. To know now was better, her friends were right.