by G. Bailey
Copyright ©2017 by G. Bailey.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
The author acknowledges the trademark owners of various products, brands and/or stores referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Strip For Me
Part Three
G. Bailey
Contents
List of G. Bailey’s books-
Strip For Me
Blurb
Quotation
Ellie
Ellie
Dominic
Ellie
Todd
Ellie
Ellie
Ellie
Ellie
Ellie
Ellie
Ellie
Author’s Note
My Winter Wolf
About My Winter Wolf
Strip For Me Serial
List of G. Bailey’s books-
The King Brothers Series
Izzy’s Beginning (Book one)
Sebastian’s Chance (Book two)
Elliot’s Secret (Book three)
Harley’s Fall (Coming soon)
Luke’s Revenge (Coming soon)
Her Guardians
Winter’s Guardian (Book One)
Winter’s Kiss (Book Two)
Winter’s Promise (Book Three)
Winter’s War (Coming soon)
Her Fate Series
(Her Guardians Series spinoff)
Adelaide’s Fate (Coming soon)
Adelaide’s Trust (Coming soon)
Adelaide’s Storm (Coming soon)
Saved by Pirates Series
Escape the Sea (Book One)
Love the Sea (Coming Soon)
Save the Sea (Coming soon)
Strip For Me Serial
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four (Coming November)
Part Five (Coming December)
Strip For Me
Part Three
Part Three…
Everything has changed in one month and nothing seems to be getting better for Ellie.
When Ellie's heart is shattered by a huge betrayal, she wishes that was the only complication in her life.
Ellie is falling for the four sinfully attractive men she lives with and can't choose between them but that’s not the only problem. Her ex-husband is causing chaos and she doesn't know who to turn to.
Ellie’s life is a whole load of complicated as secrets, lies and truths are told.
**This is a Reverse harem serial**
18+
This is part three of a five Part serial
For Ari, my awesome little part-vampire friend.
“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend,”
- William Blake
Ellie
“What happened?” Andre asks as he walks into the kitchen. I’m holding a bag of frozen peas over Dominic’s swollen hand and he’s trying to tell me that his hand is fine, which is a load of bull. He just punched my ex-husband.
“Ellie needs to explain who the jackass was at the door,” Dominic says, but doesn’t pull his hand away as I hold the peas in place. I don’t want to explain that I married that jackass and stayed with him for years because I was a stupid fool. Holy ducks, I know I am now, but I didn’t see it then. My eyes catch his as I look up and he gently smiles.
“You can tell us anything. We only want to protect you,” Dominic tells me, his brown eyes watching me closely. I feel Andre come to my side and place his hand on my back.
“That was my ex-husband,” I find myself saying.
“Tell me about him, I don’t like the way he spoke to you or how he looked at you,” Dominic says, his tone is gentle but I can’t miss the venom in his words. I’m not the only one who picked up on his tone.
“What did he say?” Andre says next to me, his words are deep and frightening, even to me. Dominic shakes his head as an answer. I’m glad he doesn’t repeat my ex’s words.
“So not only are you a god-damn pregnant bitch but you’re living with four guys?” The words he said kept floating around my mind and I don’t want to hear them out loud, so I force myself to continue with my story.
“When we err…” I say with a blush to Andre, and he gives me a quizzical look.
“Well that night we met, I was celebrating my divorce.” I say and he nods, with a far-off look.
“What’s going on?” Todd says coming into the kitchen and moving to my other side.
“I punched Ellie’s ex-husband because he has a nasty mouth,” Dominic says gruffly.
“What did the fucker say?” Todd growls out.
“Nothing that should be said to a woman,” Dominic answers dryly.
“I’m going to find him and teach him some manners,” Todd says, surprisingly calm. The calmness is scarier because his face clouds over in anger when I turn to meet his gaze and he storms out of the room.
“I’ll stop him.” Andre sighs and kisses my cheek. My eyes are locked on Dominic’s as Andre gently presses his lips to my cheek. What should have been a weird moment, just isn’t, and I wonder why as Andre walks away.
“Should I go after Todd, too?” I ask, hoping my husky tone isn’t coming out in my voice and Dom notices.
“No, but I do want to know more about this Drew,” Dominic tells me and I nod. His hand takes over mine on the bag of peas and I move away as he stands up.
“Keep it on for a bit, it will stop the swelling,” I tell him when he tries to take it off and he smirks a little.
“Yes madam,” he says, making me laugh. I follow Dominic into the lounge, where he sits on the sofa and I sit next to him. Our arms pressed closely together.
“If I tell you about Drew, will you tell me why you have been ignoring me?” I ask him and tilt a little on his side so he’s facing me. Dominic’s eyes search all over my face, and I’m not sure what he’s looking for but he closes his eyes.
“I like you,” he tells me, and I don’t breathe as puts the peas down and picks up my hand. Dominic presses a kiss to the back of my hand and then links our fingers.
“Dom, you saw me kissing your friend and I’m having Andre’s baby,” I say and he just smirks at me.
“Still doesn’t change the fact I like you, but I answered your question and you need answer mine, Ellie,” he says gently but there’s a little humour in his words. I really don’t get why he isn’t more, I don’t know, jealous.
“Alright,” I say, a deal is a deal and even if I don’t want to speak about this, I have to. I turn to face him, crossing my legs on the sofa and keeping our joined hands on my knee. Somehow just holding his un-injured hand makes me feel strong enough to tell him about my past.
“I married Drew at eighteen, when I was young and I didn’t know what I wanted. My family thought he was perfect and we’d only known each other two months before we got married. Drew is a lawyer and even back then he was a smart man. We were married for eight years and I wish I had left sooner.” I say, Dominic squeezes my hand so I continue.
“At first things were great, young love and all that. We went through university together and lived together all that time. I studied business and he was doing law
. His dad had a great lawyering business and we had jobs already when we graduated. It wasn’t until then, that the problems started.” I say and look down at our hands, my other hand going to my stomach.
“He just became distant at first, working late and ignoring me all the time. When I did get upset, he would get angry with me and storm off for days. I just guessed he was struggling with his work, so I let it go.” I say, not feeling proud of how much of a coward I was. I should have guessed he was cheating on me when he went missing for days and his parents covered for him.
“For years, I stayed and made excuses to myself about his cold behaviour. Sometimes I blamed myself, sometimes I’d just pretend everything was fine. I smiled when I needed to and just lived like a shadow of myself.” I tell him. A shadow is an understatement, I didn’t leave the house unless I needed to and most of the time that was for work. I had just given up on life and let him keep me controlled. That was the thing with Drew, he liked everything in his life to be perfect and if things went wrong, he would lose it.
“What changed?” he asks me, snapping me out of memories I don’t want to remember.
“When I found him having an affair, it was the shock I needed.” I tell him truthfully. I will always be thankful that Drew had left his lunch at home and I went to give it to him, on a day that I didn’t work. I glance up and Dominic nods.
“I walked in on my ex-wife fucking one of the other strippers from the club.” Dom says shocking me. I didn’t realise he was married but it’s not that surprising. The guys are all extremely attractive and I’m sure they’ve had their fair share of women. Holy ducks, they are strippers.
“I thought I loved her enough to ignore all the reasons we were wrong for each other. It was a disaster from the start and I should have broken up with her way before that point.” He tells me.
“So, you get it,” I say gently and he nods.
“Love is complicated and can rarely be explained.” He tells me and sums it up perfectly.
“Drew turned nasty when I told him to move out, he threw things at me and I called the police as I locked myself in the bathroom. The police suggested a restraining order, which I have and the divorce was simple as he agreed to the terms easily. Too easily,” I say.
“I got the house in the divorce and not long after the divorce went through, it was burned down when I was out,” I say and he takes his glasses off, putting them on the sofa behind him. I haven’t seen Dom without glasses and I think he looks just as attractive with them off as he does when they are on.
“Let me guess, Drew had something to with it?” he asks tensely.
“Yes, but he is a very successful lawyer. There wouldn’t have been any charges because he is that good. There’s no way he would have set our house on fire, if he wasn’t 100% sure he could get away with it.” I say and hold back the anger I feel towards Drew. If it wasn’t bad enough that he cheated on me, he had to take the house, too. The only thing he knew I had worked hard for and he was then basically leaving me out on the streets.
“He won’t hurt you, you know that Ellie?” he asks me and I look down at our joined hands on my knee. His hand feels warm and soothing as he rubs circles on my knee with his thumb.
“I was never scared of Drew until I told him I was leaving, and now,” I eventually say but don’t know how to end the sentence.
“Now what?” he asks carefully.
“It’s not just me I have to think of. Drew always wanted children and he looked so mad,” I say, not knowing why but I start crying. Dom pulls me onto his lap and holds me close, letting me cry it out. I don’t notice straight away but Dom’s hands slide down my head slowly until he’s cupping my cheeks. I lift my head as his thumbs wipe away my tears, my eyes connecting with his.
“Ellie, you’re free here, and safe. The little baby you’re carrying is safe and you need to realise that,” he tells me, his words are strong and yet soothing. I don’t think about it as I press my lips to his, feeling my heart tighten when he doesn’t move at first. Dom’s hands tighten on my face slightly before he kisses me back and holy ducks, this man can kiss. Dom’s mouth devours my own as his hands slide down my body, to my waist and down to my hips as he pulls me closer. A little moan escapes me as he pulls me against his rock-hard body, and I can feel how turned on he is.
“Ellie,” he pulls away and holds me away from him a little as my hand finds my mouth. My lips feel swollen in the best way.
“I shouldn’t have done that, I’m so sorry,” I say and climb off his lap before running out of the room.
“Ellie, wait,” Dom shouts after me but I go up to my room and slam the door shut.
How have I managed to kiss so many guys in such a short amount of time?
Ellie
What the hell is wrong with me? I keep asking myself again and again as I pace my bedroom. I’ve kissed three of the guys that live in this house and my feelings for the fourth one are far more that what a roommate should feel. I can’t stay here. The only thing that’s going to make this better, I guess, is space.
I call Liz’s phone a few times and she doesn’t answer. I send her a quick text to let her know I’m coming over. I need my best friend and some time to think about things. My feelings are all over the place.
I pause when I hear Dom knock on the bedroom door, followed by his voice.
“Ellie, just talk to me,”
“I just want to be alone, Dominic,” I say and there’s silence for a while as my heart pounds in my chest. I don’t think I have ever called him Dominic.
“Okay, Ellie,” he replies smoothly and I hear his footsteps on the stairs. I quickly pack a small bag of my things, while I call a taxi and leave the bedroom. I don’t know if it’s luck but no one is around as I leave the house, shutting the door quietly behind me. It’s only a ten-minute wait until the taxi pulls up at the end of the road, like I asked them to. I quickly give the driver Liz’s address and sit back as he drives me away from the house. Away from the house full of men that I’m falling for.
I lean my head back just as my phone beeps with a message.
Andre- Where are you?
I don’t reply and there’s another message.
Kaiden- Don’t run, just talk to us please. K.
I have to turn my phone off when I can’t stop staring at Kaiden’s message. Am I running?
Well I guess I am in a way, but it’s not because I have a choice. It’s too difficult to stay away from them all and I don’t want to hurt them by secretly kissing them. I still don’t know why Andre kissed me after I told him about my kiss with Kaiden and my feelings for the others. I wonder if he was just worried he was going to lose me?
Why is everything so complicated?
“Here you go, miss,” the taxi driver says as he pulls up outside the block of apartments Liz lives in. I pay the man a silly amount of money and mentally groan when I realise I’ve likely just given up a job I need. There’s no way I could work with them all when I’m apparently likely to just kiss one of them randomly. At least I didn’t kiss Todd but my heart hurts when I think of walking away from him. My heart hurts when I think of walking away from any of them and it’s only been a few weeks.
I pick up my bag and slide out of the car. I still have my keys, so I let myself in the door and walk up the two floors to Liz’s apartment. I unlock the door, knowing she will be at work and put my bag on the floor near the door. I hear voices and cringe a little, maybe she has company?
“Fuck Liz, you’re good at that,” I hear a very familiar voice say, and I can’t stop myself as I walk through the living room towards the open bedroom door.
“Drew?” I ask when I open the door and sure enough, there he is lying in my best friend’s bed. I hold my hand over my mouth as I feel sick, I can’t believe what I’m seeing.
My best friend is under the covers, lying on her side and her hands on his body under the sheets as she looks up at him. Even though she is covered up, I can still see the lack of clothing
. I watch her hands on my ex-husband’s body, the man she said she hated and watched as he broke my heart. How could she do this?
“Ellie, this isn’t what it looks like,” Liz says in a high-pitched voice and moves away from Drew. I can’t look at her as I watch his lips pull up in a slow smirk. A sob catches in my throat just as he says,
“Revenge is sweet, isn’t it?”
“Revenge? I never did anything to you!” I shout as Liz scrambles out of her bed and starts pulling clothes on. I can’t even stop the tears that fall down my eyes as I try to process the fact that my best friend is sleeping with my ex-husband. A man she knows cheated on me and she has been friends with me for years. How long has this been going on? I wonder as I look at them both.
“You’re pregnant,” Drew says calmly as he sits up on the bed. I knew he wouldn’t take me being pregnant, well. He always wanted children but I didn’t want to with him. This is his pathetic attempt to get some revenge on me. I only wish my best friend wasn’t stupid enough to fall for whatever he has told her. My eyes catch hers as she leans down to pull her trousers on, the guilt in them is clear but I can never forgive her for this.
“You two are welcome to each other,” I say calmly, my voice hollow and I turn to walk out of the room.
“Wait, Ellie,” I hear Liz shout as I pick up my bag by the door and wipe the tears out of my eyes before I face her.