“Mmm …” Not loud enough. I bring both of my hands to grip her waist, and sink my teeth into her shoulder. “Ah!” Better. I move my hands around to her front until I’m cupping her breasts, and then squeeze them tight, thrusting myself back and forth harder and deeper as the sweat drips over my brow, and my breaths become ragged. “Bran—!”
“Feel it!” I growl out, emptying my load inside before collapsing on top of her.
Once I’ve made her experience one of her most powerful orgasms to date, I go and lay back on the bed, and watch her chest rise and fall beside me.
A couple of minutes pass by, and I feel her watching me, “Are you okay?” She asks, resting the side of her face on her hand as she studies me.
“Oh, I’m good now,” I answer, and throw her the widest smile possible. I’m really fucking good. That wasn’t about self-gain right there. I wanted to make her come, hard, and I know I succeeded. I felt her tighten around me, I heard her screams, and this feeling right here is one of the best in the goddamn world. I see her turn away from me, and when I lean over, there’s a frown starting to appear over her lips. “What? What is it?”
“No, nothing,” she whispers, covering her face with her hands, turning her face into the pillow. Yeah, because doing that is gonna make me believe you. I pull her hands away and lean over some more.
“Alexis?” I ask, and she’s making me worried. She was smiling only a couple of minutes ago. I don’t get it.
She sighs and sits up, bringing her knees up to rest by her chest while wrapping her arms around them, “You’ve never been like that with me before.” She answers quietly and starts to shake her head.
“Yeah, well, I’ve gotta keep you happy, right?” I chuckle, but she doesn’t answer me, and instead, she stands and heads toward the door while wrapping her robe around herself. “Hey, where are you going?” I yank my shorts up and go right after her.
“Bathroom.” Oh, that was snappy. Before she has a chance to fully open the bedroom door, I grab her arm and spin her around, “Hey, what’s wrong?” She shrugs her shoulders, not once attempting to make any eye contact with me.
“I’m not so sure I like what you just did.” Shit. I feel like she’s just hit my hard around the goddamn face.
“You seemed pretty fucking happy when you were taking it all and screaming back there.”
She brings her eyes up until they’re staring directly into mine, and I notice her whole face is starting to twist, “I mean the reason why you did what you just did. That wasn’t you back there.”
I lift my head higher, but keep watching her from under hooded eyes for a second. Nope. I still don’t have a clue what she’s talking about, “I don’t follow. If I wasn’t me then who the fuck was I? The president?”
“What I mean is you don’t have to prove anything to me, or to yourself for that matter. I’m not going anywhere, Brandon. I’m not her.” What the fuck?
I grab her shoulders and step closer, not once taking my eyes away from hers. If she’s gonna be speaking in code then I need to at least try and read her so that I’ll be able to understand what she’s trying to say, “Wait, what do you mean? You’re not who?”
“I’m not Holly, and I’m not going anywhere. I wouldn’t hurt you in the way she did. I love you for who you are, and I don’t appreciate you using me in the way you just did so you can make yourself feel better about yourself!” Her voice reveals her new found anger, and I drop my hands away from her before taking a step back.
“That’s not what that was about. Why would you thin—?”
“You and I both know that that’s exactly what it was about!” she’s shaking her head, and I can see tears brimming in her eyes. “Now, I really need to use the bathroom.”
I watch her walk out of the room, and rest my forehead and hands against the closed door. That’s not what that was about at all. She’s wrong. Delusional, in fact. Am I worried that she’s gonna do the same thing to me as Holly did? Well, wouldn’t you be if you were in my position? Yeah, I thought so. Do I trust Alexis? Well, I trusted Holly and look where that got me.
I rake a hand through my hair, and then go to grab a pair of joggers and a vest from the top of the closet. When I reach inside, something falls from the shelf and down to the floor.
Huh. I wouldn’t normally do this, but because I see my name through the clear area, I’m kinda intrigued to know what’s on the inside. Walking over to sit on the bed, I pull the piece of paper out from the envelope just as the bedroom door reopens. I glance over and see Alexis standing in the doorway, “What are you doing?” she asks, and when her gaze lands on the envelope, her eyes widen and she walks over while holding her hand out to me. “Brandon, give that to me.”
Her eyes are darting between what’s in my hand and then back to me, “Why? What is it?”
“Will you please just give it to me,” she asks, and her voice is starting to shake. Well, if I wasn’t intrigued before then I most certainly am now. “Brandon, please?”
“No,” I answer, my brow furrowing as I hold it out of her reach. “You’ve made me curious.” I keep watching her as she tries to grab it from me. Well, I guess she is pretty short, after all.
She drops her hands, shakes her head, and turns around while lifting her hand up to her face, “What’s with you?”
“What’s with me? I’m not the one acting all suspicious here, Alexis,” I say, and take a seat back on the bed. When I see what’s written on the letter inside, my jaw clenches, and my fingers grip the paper so tight that it’s starting to crease up at the sides. “When did you get this?” She turns around at my question, but looks dejectedly to the floor.
“A few days ago.”
“A few days! Why the fuck didn’t you tell me about this?” I wave it out in front of her, and notice her shoulders beginning to tense as she audibly swallows.
“Because I knew you would react like this.” She answers quietly, shrugging her shoulders.
“What the fuck did you expect, Alexis? Huh? What? You thought that I was gonna be all smiles and shit when you told me?” Yeah, I’m yelling. You would be, too. The expression that’s washed over her face now shows that she had no intention of telling me about this whatsoever. “You weren’t gonna tell me at all, were you?”
She shakes her head, and slumps down to sit at the end of the bed, “No. I wasn’t.”
I let out an exasperated breath, and stand before pacing the floor right in front of her as she keeps her focus on the floor, “Why?” I ask, my voice clipped because there’s no way I control my anger over this. Not a chance.
“Why wasn’t I going to tell you?” She asks, but this isn’t something I wanna be discussing in this moment. Nope. I wanna know what the fuck gives him the right to make demands.
I stop pacing and kneel down, holding the piece of paper only a couple of inches from her face now, “Why the fuck did he send you this?” Damn, I wish I could get to him. Nothing would bring me greater joy than spending just a couple of minutes in a room alone with him, because I swear, only one of us would walk back out alive.
Alexis lifts her hand out, but I move it away before she takes it off of me. She seems to realize this and lets out a sigh, “The detective gave it to me in the hall when she was leaving.”
That was last week. She’s had this for a week and she didn’t think to mention it? No. No, she told me that she wanted to speak with her about her mom, “She did? But you said—
“I lied! Okay? I lied!” Oh, she lied. Well, it seems as though this might not be the first time she’s kept something from me. Awesome. You know what? I’m over this already. I scrunch the paper into a ball with the both of my hands and head through to the living area. “Brandon? Brandon what are you doing?”
I spin around, and she takes a step back before crashing right into me, “If he honestly believes for a single second that you’re gonna be going anywhere near him then he’s …” Huh. Well, if the look that’s just crossed over her face is anyth
ing to go by then I think it’s safe to assume that she was actually contemplating this. “Oh, please tell me you weren’t even gonna consider this?”
We both look over in the direction of Alyssa’s room when we hear the door opening up, and out she walks with Rye right behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist and a large grin over his face. Well, that was until he saw the two of us standing here, “What’s goin on?” Alyssa glances between us and goes to stand beside Alexis. “Alex, are you okay? What’s going on?”
Alexis starts shaking her head, and when I hear her mumble the word nothing, my blood starts to seriously boil over. That’s right, it’s always my fucking fault. Blame me. Everyone else always seems to. Before she has a chance to try and play this down, I hold the visitation letter out to show Alyssa, “This! This is what’s motherfucking going on!”
“Brandon, he refuses to talk unless I go to see him! That’s his rules, not mine! His!” She shouts right back at me, and takes a step closer, her shoulders slouching low in defeat.
“Then they’ll have to find some other way because there’s no way I’m gonna be letting you go anywhere near him!” No fucking way.
“But—”
“I said NO!” I hiss. Alyssa and Alexis both take a step back while Rye comes to stand beside me. “I forbid you to go, Alexis. I forbid it.” I drop my head, and walk toward the trash can while silence takes over the room.
“I’m with Brandon on this.” I hear Rye say when I turn back around. He nods at me, places his hands on Alyssa’s shoulders, and steers her back toward her room as I walk back through to ours. I think this discussion is over.
Chapter Twenty-Five
When I walk inside the dorm, I see Alyssa and Rye lounging around on the couch, but as soon as they see me, Rye sits up a little straighter and I notice Alyssa’s eyes widen some, “Oh, hey,” she says while keeping her eyes on Rye. “You’re back early.”
“Yeah, it was pretty quiet so Layla said I could knock off for the day,” I answer, and walk slowly toward them while glancing over to our bedroom. The door’s wide open, but I don’t see her inside. “Is Alexis not home?” I ask, furrowing my brow when I turn back to face the two of them.
“She headed to the library,” Alyssa answers, keeping her gaze fully focused on the widescreen now. “I don’t think she’ll be too much longer.”
I take my cell from my shirt pocket and go to call her, but when she doesn’t answer, I send her a quick message so she knows that I got off work early, and to see if she wants me to cook something for the both of us tonight.
It’s been a two weeks since I was discharged from the hospital, and we’re slowly getting ourselves back into a routine. Well, kinda. Alexis started back at college on Monday, and I worked my first shift back at the bar yesterday. Yeah, Layla’s a pretty cool boss all things considered.
She knows what’s been going on, mainly due to Rach keeping her updated about everything, and she’s happy for me to be back there. College? Well, I’m yet to go back myself. Actually, yesterday was the first time I’ve left the building in the two weeks I’ve been back here. Why? Well, I think you’ll understand me when I tell you that the other students have taken it upon themselves to draw their own conclusions over what happened. Am I being paranoid? Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.
If I’m gonna be honest, I wasn’t too happy when Alexis told me that she’d decided to go back to her classes, but she reminded me that it was her decision to make. Yeah, I know. Miss. Independent strikes again.
The cops have been here a couple more times since they took my first witness statement, but not a lot more has come to light. He’s still refusing to talk, but I think he knows just as much as we do that he’s gonna be spending a hell of a long time behind bars for what he did.
Once I’ve taken a shower, I make my way back through to our room and grab some pants and a shirt from out of the closet. Before I manage to throw on the shirt, though, I hear the main door close and head straight out, “Hey.” I say and rake a hand through my still dripping wet hair.
Alexis stills when she sees me walking toward her, and after a couple of moments, she smiles, “Hi.”
When I get closer, I notice her eyes are red, and her smile isn’t filled with its usual warmth, “What’s wrong?” I ask, and wrap one arm around her waist while brushing my other through her hair and across her cheek. “Have you been crying?” She shakes her head, and steps away from me while shrugging out of her jacket.
“No. I’m just a bit tired.” I feel my eyebrows beginning to furrow as I turn around, and watch as she walks straight through to the kitchen without as much as another word.
Alyssa instantly hops up from the couch, and walks after Alexis while I take a seat down opposite to Rye. Huh. “I wouldn’t worry man. It’s probably hormones or something. You know what women are like at the best of times, never mind when they’re up the duff!” I laugh when I see him starting to shake his head.
“Yeah. You’re probably right. I guess this is something that I’m just gonna have to get used to, huh?” I sit back in my seat and cross my arms up behind my head.
“Rather you than me, buddy. Rather you than me.” A smirk crosses over his face, and he focuses his attention back down on the sports magazine that’s resting on his lap. “I mean, take Alyssa, for example. That girl’s bad enough without injecting her with some baby juice. I don’t even wanna imagine what she’ll be like if she ever has kids.” He shudders, and his face starts to fill with horror. He doesn’t seem to be finding this conversation as amusing anymore.
Alexis has had moments in the past week when she’ll be absolutely fine one minute, and then go completely crazy the next. I don’t mean throwing objects, or screaming offensive things or anything. She’ll be calm and collected, and then all of a sudden she’ll either start crying or run to the bathroom so she can hurl.
The girls haven’t come back through to join us yet, and they’ve been gone for around twenty minutes already, “I’m gonna go and check on her. They’ve been in there a while now.” Resting my hands on the edge of the couch, I push myself up to stand and walk through to the kitchen.
“I shouldn’t have gone there … Alyssa, he looked horrible. He didn’t look or sound like the same guy and … he was so different ...” What the fuck have I just walked into here? Alyssa has her back to me, and her arms firmly wrapped around Alexis. “He said he loved her, and he … he fell in love … he wanted me.”
“What did you say?” I hear Alyssa ask her, and I know I should be stepping in here, but I’d really like to know what all of this is about. Who the fuck is declaring their love for my fucking girlfriend?
“What could I say? Neil that’s the sweetest thing someone’s ever said to me?” she lifts her head from off of Alyssa’s shoulder, and her eyes widen when she’s sees me standing in the doorway. Me? I can’t move let alone speak. “Brandon.” She sounds upset, and she’s starting to look worried. Yeah, well, she should. I still don’t move or say anything because I can’t. My blood is literally running cold, and I’ve already started to clench my jaw so tight that I think my teeth might shatter at any given moment.
Alyssa spins around, and closes her eyes while rubbing Alexis’s arm, “I’ll leave you guys to talk.”
“Why bother? It seems like you know a hell of a lot more than I do about anything that’s been going on already,” I grind out, and ball my fists by my sides, not once taking my eyes away from Alexis. “Why don’t you stay and watch the show?”
“Brandon, please don’t be mad with me,” Alexis steps forward, but immediately stops when she sees me shaking my head at her. “I had to go there.”
“You lied,” I spit out. “You both lied.”
“What’s going on?” Rye asks, stepping beside me.
After everything we talked about the other day, she still went to see him. I don’t take my eyes off of her, and she’s watching me pleadingly. It feels like someone’s just ripped off the blood supply to my heart, and th
e airway to my lungs.
“Guys can you give us a couple of minutes?” She glances between both Rye and Alyssa, but I think I’ve heard enough already. She promised she wouldn’t go. She swore she’d stay the hell away from him. Hasn’t that guy done enough already?
“Don’t bother,” I turn away and head straight toward our room, slamming the door behind me. I sit on the bed, lay back, and stare up at the ceiling. She told me that she understood why she wasn’t to go there. She promised me. She promised me on this.
She deceived me. Just like he did. And, just like Holly did. Every person in my life who actually meant something to me, the ones I cared for the most, have betrayed me. My mom and dad, Neil, Holly, and now Alexis.
I close my eyes when my head starts to spin out of control, and keep them closed when I hear the door opening up and footsteps drawing closer. The bed dips, and I feel a warmth over my hand, but I move mine away from hers. She can’t pretend that this didn’t just happen. Not this time.
“Brandon, I need you to understand why I went there.” She sounds sad, but I think it’s more of the case that she’s upset that I found out about this.
“No,” I say, and open my eyes. “You’re just like the rest of them.” I move off of the bed, rest my hands on my waist, and stare down at the floor.
“I needed to go and see him, Brandon,” she gets back off of the bed and comes to stand right in front of me. Stroking her fingers along my jaw, she turns my face until I’m looking directly at her. I don’t stop her, but I don’t encourage her either. “He wouldn’t talk.”
“Are you sure that’s the only reason why you went there?” Not her as well.
She narrows her eyes with confusion, but keeps them on mine. “What are you talking about?”
“Do you have feelings for him?” I grind out, and keep my hands down by my sides when she drops hers away from my face. “Well? Do you?”
“What?” she steps back and shakes her head some more, but honestly? She lied to me about this, so why in the hell should I believe her now? “How could you even ask me something like that?”
Misguided Truths: Part Two (Misjudged #4) Page 29