He winks at me, and before I can puzzle overlong on his statement, he makes his way to the stage and halts for the band to stop playing, his wife at his side. He grabs a glass of bubbly and taps his ring against it in front of the microphone, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.
“Welcome, everyone, to the annual Hartford anniversary party. My wife and I are so happy to have you join us as we celebrate another year of marriage.” Polite claps and a few cheers sound out from the crowd. “Marriage takes a lot of work, and I couldn’t ask to have a better partner by my side. We’ve come so far and done so much over the years, but our greatest accomplishment will always be our daughter, Rachel. Sweetie, please come up here.”
Rachel gracefully makes her way to her parents, basking in the attention of everyone in the room.
“This event couldn’t have been done without you, and we want to thank you for all your efforts in making this the perfect night.” Her parents lean over to kiss her on each cheek, and the crowd oohs and aahs. “Before we let you all enjoy the night’s festivities, we do have another announcement to make. However, we’ll let Rachel do the honors.”
She moves in front of the microphone, a huge smile spread across her face, and her hands go to rest on her stomach, one over the other.
“Thank you, Daddy. Mother. Your love for one another is an inspiration, and I’m blessed to have witnessed what it takes to have a successful marriage and build a family. I’ve always dreamed of doing the same one day, and my dream is finally coming true. You may have heard the rumors, but I’m happy to confirm that Lawrence and I are expecting a baby.”
My jaw is clenching so hard I fear my teeth may break, but I stand and wave politely at the people cheering and clapping me on the back. At this point, most of our social circle has heard the news, and I should’ve expected that Rachel would want her moment in the spotlight. Now that she has, I expect her to move off the stage, but to my dismay and horror, she continues.
“Not only are we starting a family, but Lawrence made another of my dreams come true the other day. You’re all looking at the future Mrs. Lawrence Montgomery.” She moves her left hand, which was hidden under the right one on top of her stomach, so that it’s in the air near her face. A ring I never gave her sparkles on her ring finger, and she wiggles her hand, the light refracting off the obscenely large rock. “We’re engaged!”
The blood drains from my face, and time seems to slow as I stare up at her. My expression is placid, but my mind is exploding from disbelief. What the fuck is she doing? My simmering blood starts to heat my skin, and a million different ways to handle the train wreck happening right now flash through my mind. I can’t confront her, not in a crowd this large, without causing an uproar. I can’t burn bridges with her family, and I definitely can’t get on Rachel’s bad side while I’m still looking into her pregnancy.
Resigned, but raging below the quickly cracking veneer of cool indifference, I smile at the crowd and incline my head toward my fake future wife. Well played, I think, but this isn’t over yet. I grab a flute of champagne from a passing waiter, raise it up to her, and down it. I barely feel it, and I have to relax my grip so the glass doesn’t shatter under my fingertips.
Rachel thanks the crowd and leads everyone in a toast, and I watch on in abject contempt. My life just went from complicated to fucking unraveled in the span of a few heartbeats.
A prickling along my skin, as if I’m being watched, hits me, and I turn my head toward the sensation. I don’t see anyone at first, but the bodies in my line of vision part, and I see Perrie. It’s as if everyone else disappears as we lock eyes.
She’s a vision in a plum-colored dress that hugs the curves my hands and mouth and cock have become well-acquainted with. She looks like royalty in the deep color, but it’s her stance that makes her appear head and shoulders above everyone else. Her back is ramrod straight, her chin tilted high, and her eyes are a blazing inferno of brown fire. She looks like vengeance incarnate, and I know without asking that she wants to stake me in the heart. Her feelings of betrayal scream at me across the short distance, but I can’t do anything about it here.
I stare back at her and school my features into a bored look of nonchalance. I lift a wide shoulder in a casual shrug, smirk, and turn away. I’ll deal with her later. She knows better than to start shit here. I have more urgent matters at hand, first and foremost the devious snake who may or may not be carrying my child.
My feet carry me to Rachel, and I can see the hint of fear in her eyes. Good, she should be fucking scared.
“May we speak for a moment in private, dear?” I grit out, my polite tone belying the anger wanting to burst forth like a volcano.
“Right now, Lawrence? We should mingle with the guests. We can talk later.” She laughs, the sound shrill, and I smirk at the panic I know is there.
“Nonsense. The guests won’t begrudge me a moment with my fiancée,” I say, placing emphasis on the last word.
She gulps and politely excuses us from the people she’s talking to. I loop her arm through mine and hold it tightly as we exit the ballroom. We stalk right past Perrie, and her cinnamon smell drifts to my nostrils, but I don’t spare her a glance as we leave and look for an empty room. I take Rachel to her father’s study, shut us in, and immediately let go of her.
“What the fuck was that all about?” I fume.
Her nervous laughter titters out of her lying lips. “What was what, Lawrence?”
“Oh, don’t play with me, Rachel. My patience died when you told everyone we’re engaged. What the fuck were you thinking?”
She moves back a step, bristling at my words. “I was thinking about our future, Lawrence.”
“You, of all people, do not decide my future. What the hell happened to a trial run?” I’m barely holding on to my sanity, and the last thing I need is to lose control with this woman.
“We both know the trial run will turn into more. It’s for the best, Lawrence, you’ll see.”
“No, I fail to see how this is for the best. I did not propose. I did not give you that fucking ring. And I did not fucking agree to this. You’re going to go back out there and tell everyone it’s a goddamn lie.”
“I’ll do no such thing,” she spits, her composure cracking the smallest bit. “We’ll be the laughingstock of everyone. Just accept that this is happening, Lawrence. Our parents love the idea, and it’s best for the baby.”
“What’s best…” I pause and inhale a deep breath, searching for any remnants of civility. “Is to not lie to everyone. You cannot trap me, Rachel.”
“On the contrary, Sterling, I think it’s you who has trapped me.” She places her hands on her slightly rounded belly meaningfully, a victorious tilt to her mouth.
I grit my teeth and take a deep breath, unclenching my fists from my side.
“You’re testing my patience, Rachel, and that line is precarious as is. I’ll let you have your lie for now, but this discussion is not over. I agreed to a trial run for the baby’s sake, but this engagement is not something I’ll stand for. Unless I get down on one knee and give you a ring I’ve chosen just for you, we’re never getting married. If you truly want to make things work, you’ll do best to remember that.”
I move toward her, backing her into the door, my voice deepening into an angry growl.
“I’m not a man to be trifled with, and you should know by now that no one messes with the Montgomery family. Our family crest has a lion on it for a reason. Mess with us, and you’ll be met with claws and teeth until there’s nothing left. I’m only giving you a trial run because you carry my child, but if I find out the baby isn’t mine…” I pause and stare down at her, and her already pale skin blanches, confirming without words some of my deep-seated suspicions. I just need proof now. “Well, then nothing can help you or your family then. You’ll be nothing when I’m done with you, and I won’t stop until life as you know it has been turned upside down. Are we clear?”
She stares
up at me in fear, but she swiftly masks it with her usual disdainful look. “Of course the child is yours, Lawrence. Don’t be silly.” She laughs, but the sound is nervous and fake. “I’m sorry about the engagement,” she rushes on, “but I’m just excited to start a family with you.”
I glare down at her. “If that’s true, then you have nothing to worry about. My hands are tied until I can sort out how best to fix this shitstorm you’ve caused. Go live your lie while you can, and get out of my goddamn sight. I can’t look at you.”
She wastes no time disappearing, and the door snicks closed behind her. I move farther into the study, needing a moment to myself, and run my hands through my hair. Why the hell did things have to get worse?
The door opens behind me, and I stiffen. “I told you, I don’t want you anywhere in my sight. Leave.”
My words are hard, implacable, but another voice responds.
“It’s me,” Perrie whispers, and she shuts the door and locks it, shutting us in.
“Perrie,” I sigh. I turn around and scowl at her. “Now is not the time. Your timing, as always, is terrible.”
She still looks angry, and I can tell she’s spoiling for a fight, but curiosity also paints her features. If she pushes me, I can’t guarantee she won’t leave this room unscathed.
“I don’t care. What just happened out there? Are you really engaged? Why don’t you want to see Rachel?” she demands, flinging question after question at me. “Tell me!” she shouts, and I snap.
“I don’t answer to you!” I roar.
Her head rears back, but she stands her ground. “I deserve some kind of response.”
The poorly-contained rage I’ve been holding back erupts, and as always, it funnels into blinding lust as I stare down the only woman who provokes me and makes my blood sing the way she does.
I’m in front of her before I know what I’m doing, and I’m ushering her roughly to Rachel’s father’s desk. I set her on it, and my fingers move up to wrap around her delicate throat. I place the slightest pressure against the golden column, and her pulse flutters madly. I lean down until we’re nose to nose, my hand still on her throat, and nip at her lip roughly.
“You think you deserve a fucking response? Why, because we’re fucking?”
Her gasp is trapped in her throat, and while she is still able to easily speak, no words leave her lips.
“Cat got your tongue, Perrie? You want answers? Fine. I didn’t fucking propose to Rachel, but now the world thinks we’re tying the knot. Happy?” Her mouth drops open, and her eyes widen at my revelation. “She’s still my girlfriend, though. I’ve got so much on my goddamn plate, and I told you—I fucking told you—that all I have to offer until the dust settles on the chaos that is my life is my friendship and my cock. But no, you keep pushing for more. I have enough going on without you complicating things further.”
Hurt passes across her eyes, and an apology starts to form, but I push it back. She needs to realize I can’t deal with this right now. The fact that we’re even talking—at Rachel’s parents’ house, no less—could prove disastrous.
“I need to leave. I have too much anger, and I don’t want to take it out on you,” I admit.
This seems to rouse her to a response. With a slow pass of her tongue across her lips, she whispers, “Take it out on me.”
“Pardon?” I ask, not certain I heard right.
Her eyes glaze over with lust, and her pulse thrums even harder. “I know I keep pushing you, and I’m sorry, but take your anger out on me. Use me the way you need, Sterling. Take it out on me. I can handle it. Give me something, please. I need more than your cock and friendship right now. Even if it’s your anger, I need to feel you.”
Tears prick at her lids, and one lone drop travels down her cheek. Seeing that single tear makes the last of my control break as easily as gossamer, and I give her what she wants.
“You asked for it,” is all I say before I bunch up her dress with my free hand and rip her panties from her body.
I extract the condom I now carry with me wherever I go and roll it on in record time. I thrust into her and groan when I realize she’s soaking wet. “So ready for me, each and every time. Is this all for me, Perrie?”
“Yes,” she moans as I pound into her.
As I move, my hard length punishing her pussy roughly, I can’t help the words spilling from my lips. “You drive me fucking crazy. Even with everything going on, all I see,” I growl, “all I think about is you. Fucking you. Kissing you. Talking to you. I hate that you’re under my skin, and I hate that you’re not mine. Not truly.”
I tighten my hand around her throat as I speak, not wanting to hear her response to anything I’m saying. It’s as if the wall I built around myself has crumbled with my sanity. I’ll give it life, but only for tonight.
“You’re not mine, so don’t let me be yours, Perrie. I can’t stand it, not when things are like this,” I confess on a pained groan. She’s moaning, and she surprises me when she moves her throat farther into my grasp, as if she needs the pain or restraint from saying anything back.
I rub her clit, giving her no quarter as I pin her to the desk, and I know she’s close to coming. I squeeze my fingers tighter against her neck, cutting off her air a little more, and increase the pressure of my fingers on her clit. Right when I know she’s about to combust, I pinch her clit and release my hold on her throat. She comes beautifully all over my cock as she gasps for air, and she shakes harder against me than she ever has before.
My cock is still rock-hard, so I pull out of her and turn her around so she’s bent over the desk. Hiking her dress up over her hips, I expose her ass to me. Pressing the palm of one hand onto the back of her neck, I pin her to the smooth surface and swipe my other hand through her wetness.
“I’m fucking your ass tonight, Perrie,” I whisper, my voice pure gravel from the lust and turmoil I’m feeling.
She whimpers against the desk and wiggles her hips at me, silently begging me for what she wants. She’s responded well to my fingers in her ass, and it looks like she’s finally ready for more.
I smirk as I trail my hand through her wetness. “I always know just how to shut you up.” She doesn’t balk at my words or deny them, and I insert two fingers into her pussy as reward. “I’d prefer lube, but this dripping cunt will help me stick my cock right where you want it.”
My crude words cause her to clench around me, and I scoop the evidence of her desire out and rub it around and into her tight asshole. I repeat the process until she’s writhing beneath me, my fingers dipping in and out, before I rub some of the wetness all over my dick.
With heavy breaths and taut muscles, I press my length into her ass. I groan heavily at the resistance I’m met with, and I dig deep into my depleted well of self-control to keep from hammering into her. I want to hurt her, but I only want to hurt her in a way that’ll bring us both pleasure. With the last dregs of patience I can muster, I pull back and slowly feed my cock into her as I simultaneously finger her pussy, rubbing her arousal all over the points where we’re connected.
“Your ass feels so damn good around my cock, baby.” It takes considerable effort to get the words out and not slam into her, but I keep my movements slow and steady.
Perrie is whining beneath me, but I know she’s still turned on because her pussy is sopping wet. She’s trying to push back against me, where I’m still taking my time, but I don’t let her move yet.
Interminable minutes pass until I’m finally buried to the hilt inside her ass. She’s panting for breath beneath me, her lip trapped between her teeth.
“How’s that feel?” I ask gruffly.
“Full,” she whimpers. My cock flexes inside her, and she puffs out a surprised breath of air.
“Your ass loves this, doesn’t it?” My hands have moved to her hips, and I slap one plump cheek when she doesn’t answer me. “Tell me, baby, do you love my cock in this tight, virgin asshole?”
“Yes,” she moa
ns loudly.
I halt my movements completely, and her eyes flare open when she feels me still, my hardness throbbing inside of her. “You...you didn’t?”
“No.” I drag my dick in and out of her slowly. “I’m not anywhere close to done with you, Perrie. I want you to show me how much you love being a dirty girl. Work your ass up and down my cock and make me come.”
“What?”
“I won’t repeat myself...unless you can’t handle it?”
As I expected, my challenge breathes life into her, and she unsteadily props herself up on her elbows. She starts to thrust back onto me slowly, taking her time, and I groan at the sight of my thick, long length entering her tight hole again, and again, and again. My view is briefly interrupted when I feel her fingers, and I see that she’s rubbing her pussy with fervor as she rocks her hips back and forth. She’s close again, and I decide to finally take what’s mine.
“Hold tight to the desk, Esperanza. You’re gonna need it.”
As soon as her fingers grip the edges of the desk in front of her, I pull back and slam back into her, pushing out any air she had left in her lungs.
Her breath wheezes in and out of her roughly as I use her like she asked. My pace is demanding, and I don’t let up, even as I reach under her body to play with her pussy. The added sensation causes her muscles to clench and then relax around me as she finds her release, and I pick up my pace as her body shudders beneath mine. Her pussy milking me catapults me into my own release, and I chase my orgasm like I wish I could chase my demons and troubles away.
When she finally comes down and catches her breath, I pull out of her gently and drape her dress back down over her hips. I help her sit up and look into her eyes. She looks dazed, still drunk from pleasure, and I take advantage of her relaxed state.
“Thank you,” I whisper against her ear before giving her a light kiss on the cheek. “Enjoy the party.”
She doesn’t protest as I walk away and leave her alone in the study. We both know that even though my life became more complicated, we’re too stupid or too stubborn or too far gone to put a stop to whatever is happening between us. At least right now. I’m not sure if it gets easier for everyone in this position, or if it’s just the woman I happen to be having an affair with.
Don't Let Me Be Yours Page 16