by Cee Smith
What if she happened to be outside when I pulled up? What if she recognized my car? What was the worst that could happen by my showing up? Could she file a report against me, claiming I was stalking her? She’d probably get away with it, just like all this other shit she would probably get away with. I didn’t let my thoughts deter me from my goal. I knew Lara was lying, and I was going to do everything I could to make sure she didn’t get away with it. I had worked in law long enough to know that bitches like her got away with way too much. Not this time.
“Your destination is on the right,” my phone blurted out just as I’d turned onto her street. The house was directly across from a trailer park. There was no landscaping in the front yard, only compacted dirt and dried leaves that had fallen from the palm tree next door. On the right side of the lot was something that may have acted like a fence at one point, but now was nothing more than crumbing concrete surrounding a small mound of dirt. Everything about the home screamed destitute—from the barren yard, to the rusted bars over the only window in the front of the house, to the peeling paint, and, finally, to the roof that looked to be missing a few tiles.
The driveway had so many cracks, it looked like a mosaic littered with oil stains. Parked just outside of the garage was a brand new BMW in a fire-engine red color that looked like something the devil himself would own. A white, rusted Grand Am was parked just outside the house, seemingly fitting in with all of the other broken down, decades-old vehicles that crowded the street and, in some cases, front yards.
I stopped my car just outside the neighbor’s house, adjacent to the Grand Am, but within perfect view to see the comings and goings of the house. As I put the car in park, I realized the error of my stakeout. I wasn’t prepared in the least to be sitting there for any real length of time. I didn’t have a bottle of water, which was just plain stupid when you’re talking about Vegas heat. Water is pretty much a necessity. Nor did I have anything to snack on. Warring with whether to leave and pick up something at that very moment or wait it out until I was a sweaty mess and my stomach began gnawing my insides, I decided on the latter and leaned my seat back into a comfortable position. One that granted me the ability to see out without anyone directly seeing me, which may have been pointless if Lara were to recognize my car.
With the first cropping of sweat lining my skin, I thought back to some PSA announcement about leaving babies and animals in the car in the sweltering heat. I’d only been in the car for five minutes with the car turned off before I was turning the starter over to get the air pumping back through my car. There was no way I would be able to make it another minute in the stifling heat. At 10 a.m., it was already 90 degrees outside, and in the car that felt like a staggering 110.
Fifteen minutes later, the front door opened. I caught a brief glimpse of someone exiting the home before I ducked my head behind the door frame of my car, hoping that whoever had just left wouldn’t notice the lone woman sitting in her car watching the home like a single white female. The sound of car doors clicking let me know that someone was leaving. Leaning backwards slightly, I glanced out the rear driver’s side window to see who it was.
Lara. In a white bondage mini dress and sandals that roped up her legs. Her short black bob—her distinguishing feature—was perfectly styled without a hair out of place. She hugged a man who I presumed to be her boyfriend. Paul Twinings, I recalled from my meeting with Kerri.
Her face was hidden in his embrace and I watched in odd fascination at their interaction. There was nothing awkward or uncomfortable in the way they held each other, nothing about them seemed to relay the fact that they were newly involved as I would assume seeing as how only two months ago she was dating Joel. It felt uncomfortable watching her this way, like I was looking in on a moment that ordinarily I would turn my head to avoid seeing. It was a private moment not meant for public consumption, but she threw all common decency out of the window when she had me fired from my job. As far as I was concerned, she didn’t deserve the same treatment as regular people. Besides, it seemed to me she spent a lot of her time trying to distinguish herself from the common person.
So I looked on while the man deep-throating Lara’s face clutched at her back as if she would vanish within his hold. Her arms hung loosely around him, and she kissed him back with less enthusiasm. From his scraggly beard and unkempt clothes, I could only assume that he was the owner of the house and this was somewhere Lara was staying in the meantime, until her meal ticket came through.
I hated to think about Lara and this man living the lap of luxury on Joel’s dime. Lara would probably find the most ostentatious house to live in, something that told anyone driving by that she had the most money on the block. The thought burned through my stomach, leaving behind a sour churning in my gut.
Lara slipped from his grip, and I ducked down just as she turned around to leave. The car door slammed shut, and I listened as she started the car and backed out of the driveway. I caught a glimpse of her taillights shimmering red as she stopped before turning back onto the main street. When I looked out of the window again, her boyfriend was just closing the door to the home.
Staring at the closed door, I thought back to what Kerri said. Paul was scheduled to give his deposition for the case, which made me wonder where he fit into all of this. Was Lara using him, too? Maybe she needed him to vouch for her, and the moment she would have any money she would slip from his life like a boat without an anchor. By the way he held her, I could see it was something that scared him—being without her. It gave me an idea, but I had some planning to do. So I left without another look in the direction of the home I was sure I would be seeing again very soon.
Chapter Five
Joel
It was Friday, and I couldn’t work. I sat in my office all morning fiddling with my pens and wishing I had some new news that could set my mind at ease.
My deposition was the day before, and Jerry assured me that everything went well. Well, as good as could be expected. I wasn’t so convinced. I felt my face flame a few times when Henderson, Lara’s lawyer, began insinuating that I was capable of doing that to her.
“You just lost your father a few days before the incident, did you not? Would you say you were distressed in any way? What was the status of your relationship when Farrows arrived at your house? Was that the first time you two had argued?”
Every question seemed to rip a bigger hole in my chest.
Just thinking about that day put me off-kilter. It was only two days after the news of my father’s death, and I was still in shock. It seemed like the worst time to break up with someone, but I had to. There was nothing else I could do. I couldn’t bring her to his funeral, and I didn’t want to lie. I was a lot of things, but a liar wasn’t one of them. In light of everything that my father said, I knew it was the right thing to do, and to drag it out seemed painful—for the both of us. We needed a nice, clean cut. Considering that I told her over the phone, Lara took it better than I expected. She made plans to pick up her things, and we would go our separate ways. Simple enough, right?
I thought about leaving the condo, so she could pick up her things alone, without feeling like I was watching her move from room to room in search of all her possessions, but I figured that was a cop-out. It was bad enough I dumped her over the phone. The least I could do was man-up and see her face to face. End things properly. Except, I didn’t realize that she would use that as an opportunity to frame me for whatever happened to her after she left my condo.
I guess that was her way of saying she was unhappy about the circumstances. It could have been worse. She could have had me arrested, which would have made me miss my own father’s funeral. No, she only wanted money and to ruin my reputation, my father’s company, and my future in the process.
Lara was getting deposed a few hours later, and I was pulling for a miracle. Anything that would exonerate me from her accusations. Anything to keep me from going to court and facing her while she continued spouting her
lies. It’d been months since I’d seen her, and after everything that had happened, I wasn’t looking forward to ever seeing her again. I just wanted her out of my life. I wanted to be free to move on. Which was the real problem.
As long as Lara still had her talons in me, I would never be able to start something real with Blaire. It’s not like we really talked about what was happening between us, and I wasn’t so sure that the moment all of this was over, Blaire would stay. Whether or not I won or lost the case, Blaire made it clear from the beginning that she wasn’t looking for anything. She said she didn’t have the time. It wasn’t like I was free to come and go as I pleased anymore. I had a company to run. All of those lectures from my father about responsibility and reputation, everything he spent the last several years preparing me for was finally beating down my door, and I was forced to answer. That, or everything he worked so hard for would have been all for nothing. My playboy ways already made me feel like I failed him in life. I couldn’t fail him in death, too.
“Melanie?” I called through the intercom.
“Yes, Mr. Trevaunt?”
“I’m going to head home. Forward all my calls to voicemail, and as soon as you’re done, you may head home.”
“Thank you, Mr. Trevaunt.”
I was powering down my computer and out of my chair before she could even finish thanking me. It wasn’t like I was getting much work done. It was hard enough trying to concentrate on work when Blaire was at my home waiting for me. Couple that with the fact that Lara would be deposed in a matter of hours—my thoughts were bouncing around like Mexican jumping beans.
***
“Blaire, you home?” I called as soon as I opened up the front doors. It was odd enough to be staying on a relatively permanent basis at that home, but to have someone to come home to was even more unnatural.
“I’m upstairs.” Her soft voice echoed down the stairs, like a siren song luring me through the quiet home.
I tossed my blazer to the floor and kicked off my shoes as I embarked on a mission to find her. Being the workaholic she was, Blaire seemed to gravitate to the office of her own home, so I stopped in my office first. “Marco,” I yelled out when I realized she wasn’t in there. She called back “Polo,” and I turned back down the hallway in the direction of where I heard her voice coming from. The doors at the end of the hall were open, yet with a quick glance in all three, I couldn’t make out where she was.
“Marco…”
I waited a few minutes before yelling again, “Marco.”
There was a faint laughter coming from the library, alerting me to where exactly I would find Blaire. Still just outside of the door, I slipped out of the rest of my clothes. Clad in only a pair of boxers, I ran in the room like a fire was lit under my ass. When I saw her, it was like the heavy weight that had been following me around all morning lost its power over me. It simply evaporated at the sight of Blaire.
I couldn’t hold back the smile that transformed my face. She sat in my wing-backed chair like she belonged there, like this home was meant to be hers. Perhaps she was the reason I never brought anyone else there—I was just waiting for the right girl.
I was waiting for my Blaire.
“I found you.”
Blaire uncurled her body from the chair, placing the book she held in her hands on the table to her right—page down so she wouldn’t lose her place. She was dressed casually in a pair of stretchy pants and an oversized shirt. It was a look I hadn’t seen on her since the time we spent sheltered in her house. I had my assistant buy her some things to make her comfortable until the moving truck could bring over some items from her home. It was supposed to arrive later that night.
“You did and it looks as though you actually found some underwear lying around. What a pleasant surprise.”
“I thought you’d like that,” I said with a grin.
“Well, at least now I know you can afford them.”
My feet drew me closer to her as if I were lassoed around the ankles and she held the other end of the rope. When she was within reach, I sunk down to where she sat and pawed at her greedily, eager to fill my hands with the only medicine that could make me feel better. With one hand clasped around her neck and the other settled around her waist, I pulled her body alongside mine. Her milky skin was awash in a pink blush that crept across her cheeks, sweeping down across her neck like wildfire. I watched her heavy-lidded eyes flutter and close as I pulled her closer. Her chin lifted up in expectation of my kiss. My brain took this as her signal that she was ready, willing, eager even to be devoured, and I didn’t hold back. I descended on her lips swiftly, sighing at the sweetness that burst across my tongue.
Hefting her up in my arms, her legs crossed behind my back as my tongue delved deeper into her mouth. She tasted of coffee and that hazelnut creamer mix she used. I sucked on her lips and licked at her tongue, savoring the flavor there. Blaire moaned as I kissed at her and my boxers tented around the erection that sprung up between us. Her heat was right there surrounding me, and I just wanted to plunge in. Yet my mouth had other plans as I continued fucking her mouth with my tongue, demonstrating exactly what I wanted my cock to do to her pussy.
As if she had just realized the time, her mouth pulled away from mine, my lips still pantomiming in an attempt to draw her back in.
“What are you doing home so early?”
I readjusted her weight, holding her ass with both hands as she sat snug against my waist.
“I didn’t have anything that needed to be done. Besides, wouldn’t you rather be doing this?”
“Actually, I’d rather get out of the house.”
Taken aback by her statement, I let her slide down my body until her feet were settled on the ground.
It wasn’t that I told her she couldn’t leave, but we both knew the reason why she was cooped up here. Lara had her running and hiding just like she did me. It all felt too familiar, and once again the weight was back, more oppressive than ever. Lara was a wound that just continued to bleed.
“Hey, I didn’t mean anything by it. Your home is nice. It’s just we haven’t been out…well, I haven’t really been out since last week.”
“Are you asking me out on a date?” I quirked my eyebrow at her. I didn’t want Blaire to witness my anguish. In the little time I’d known her, I could see she was someone who cared about the well being of those closest to her. She was someone who was eager to do the right thing, and I didn’t want to be her pet project. I wanted to take care of her, not the other way around. So I worked hard at doing what I could to take her mind off of me and my circumstances—apparently I failed in this one thing.
“It never even crossed my mind,” she said with a smirk. I’d never asked her out on a real date. The lunch we had when she was barely talking to me hardly classified as a date, and now all I wanted was to go out on a real date with her. I wanted to dress up, take her somewhere nice, lavish her. Except, Blaire wasn’t the type of girl to be bought. It would take more than a Michelin-star restaurant or a private showing of a Cirque show to win her over. She wasn’t interested in what my money could buy—something that was new to me. No, what Blaire wanted was information. She wanted to know me. Which was obvious when she asked, “When’s the last time you went to your gym? We could go there? You could show me around?”
She looked shy, like she expected me to say no. I couldn’t imagine why she would want to go to a gym and watch me sweat, but I couldn’t deny that I was kind of itching to get back in the gym. It had been weeks since I’d visited. Ever since I took over working at my father’s company, I hadn’t had time to really commit to going to the gym, especially now that I was trying to be there for Blaire.
“You want to go to the gym with me?”
“Sure, why not? Unless ‘gym’ is a euphemism for something else, and I’m going to crash some weird Dungeons & Dragons fan club.”
“You wish.”
I pulled her up against me again, desperate to get back to where
we were. Her hands separated my chest from hers as her lips brushed against mine. I kissed her softly and slowly, relishing the way her lips parted around mine. My tongue curled around hers, wrestling through the cavern of her mouth. Her body was tense despite how pliable her lips felt around mine. I let my fingers dance down her spine, sweeping through the valley of her shoulder blades, and I watched her body relax like a zipper of a too-tight dress coming undone.
She pulled back again, and a growl sprung up from my throat. The smile that crawled across her face rivaled that of the Cheshire Cat, taunting me with what I wanted most.
“Aren’t you the eager beaver?”
“And you’re teasing me,” I flashed her an exaggerated pout, hoping to sway her to spend the remainder of the day holed up in my bedroom—a place where there was nothing to think about aside from how our puzzle pieces fit together. The piece I wanted to start with first was rock hard and throbbing with a fresh torrent of blood rushing through my veins at the sight of her heaving chest and the flush of excitement that disappeared beneath her shirt.
“Come on.” She pulled at the top of my boxers and the elastic band stretched, allowing a rush of air to sweep down against my dick. I groaned, disappointed that I would have to wait, but she only smiled, releasing the band to slap against my stomach before bounding from the room. The last thing I was thinking of was being stuck in a room of sweaty men, all grunting and flexing and looking for ways to impress my woman.
***
“EJ? Long time no see, man. Taylor, look who’s finally decided to show up.” My friend, Carlos, stopped lifting kettle bells at the sight of me and left the lifting area to come greet us. Taylor, still in a squat, dropped the medicine ball that was in his hands and gave me a head nod.