Dusk Until Dawn

by ANDIE J. CHRISTOPHER

  So she broke the kiss. “We have to celebrate later. Or your sister’s going to kill me.”

  * * * *

  Javi had ordered a car and worn his best tux for the bachelor auction. It’s not that he wanted to look hot for any of the older ladies who usually bid on bachelors, but he wanted to make sure that Maya still wanted to buy him after she’d had a few drinks.

  When she walked out of his bedroom in a drop-dead red dress, they almost didn’t make it out the door. It was simple, nearly unadorned, but the plunging neckline and the slit most of the way up her thigh enticed.

  And the way she wore it, defiantly confident, made him proud to have her on his arm. Everyone at the bachelor auction, including his father, would see that she belonged there with him.

  He was a lucky man, despite the lingering annoyance of his ex-wife. He still hadn’t been able to get Karrie to agree to meet him. Something about the situation prickled in his brain and prevented him from being able to let go.

  But they would have fun tonight. He’d make sure of it.

  When they got in the car, he handed her his bank card. She scooted to the opposite side of the back seat and buckled herself in. “What’s this? Payment for services rendered?”

  He moved next to her. “The opposite. I want you to buy me, but I want you to do it with my money.”

  “So, you’re going to be my gigolo, but no money is really going to change hands?” She looked at him from under her eyelids. “But what if I don’t want to buy you? What if I see something else that I like?”

  “That you like as much as me?” He slipped his hand in the slit of her dress and trailed his fingers up her inner thigh. She gasped when he found the border of her panties. He leaned in and scented her neck. He wanted to bottle whatever she smelled like and wear it every day. He put his mouth over her pulse point in her throat, and realized the icy regard that she was trying to act out was a complete lie. She was turned on by the idea of bidding on him and having her way with him. Little did she know that she always had her way with him.

  She spread her thighs enough that he could run his fingers over the panel in her panties. She sighed softly, conscious of the driver, who wore earbuds. Javi shielded her with his body anyway, even though he wasn’t going to get her off.

  His attraction to Maya hadn’t decreased because he’d finally been with her. It grew and grew. She constantly surprised him, like now, when she grabbed his wrist and pressed his knuckles against her pussy.

  He let her grind against him until her neck got flushed, a telltale sign that she was about to come. Then he pulled his hand away and moved to the other side of the car.

  “What?” She narrowed her eyes and drew her finger across her throat. He laughed. “If you kill me, I can’t make you come.”

  “It might be more satisfying than that was.”

  He smirked at her and she looked out the window. “Not until I’m bought and paid for.”

  “Whatever. Now that I have your credit card, I might bid on a male model I saw in the program. He would for sure be able to finish the job.”

  Chapter 18

  Maya was fine until Javi had to leave her to join the other bachelors. Once she was alone, she realized how completely out of place she was at an event like this. Without Javi’s warm palm on her lower back, his introducing her to people, she felt invisible again. She might as well have been waiting tables.

  Carla was here somewhere; so was Geoff. But he was running errands for her, and Carla was too busy dealing with last minute details to entertain her. She didn’t know anyone else. This wasn’t her world, so she faded into the background and watched.

  She kept her mind occupied taking in details of dresses that she would file away and recreate in paint. She watched several couples snipe at each other and groups of single women studying the auction program eagerly.

  Maya paged through hers, noting that several guys would pique her interest if she wasn’t totally in love with one in particular.

  She wasn’t expecting to see Karrie, so she didn’t say anything when the woman was suddenly in front of her.

  Karrie was her opposite, so petite that Maya looked down at her. She’d purchased new breasts since Maya had last seen her, and her skin had the kind of sheen that only Botox and fillers could buy. She was a mix between a wholesome, Midwestern beauty and a Hollywood bombshell. Always done up, she wore a navy blue and aquamarine sequined cocktail dress that shimmered under the lights.

  The only thing that kept her from being beautiful was the hateful look in her eyes. Maya probably deserved the hate. She’d coveted Javi and hadn’t been friendly to his erstwhile girlfriend. They’d never gotten along, and Javi had outright defied Karrie by continuing to hang out with Maya after she’d asked him not to. Nothing had happened, but she didn’t see how Karrie could have trusted that it wouldn’t.

  Maya felt a stab of shame in her gut that she would have fooled around with Javi before he got engaged. And, if she was honest with herself, maybe after.

  “Nothing to say after you stole my husband?”

  There it was. So charming, this one. “I didn’t steal anything.”

  “Not for lack of trying.”

  Even though Maya was full head taller than her, Karrie managed to look down her nose at her. “You’ve added to your collection of tattoos. Classy.”

  “You cheated on your husband.” Maya shrugged and somehow tamped down the urge the slug the other woman. “Also very classy.”

  Karrie looked stricken, as if Maya’s words had hit her physically. Maya felt bad for a hot second before she remembered that Karrie was in town to stir shit.

  “Well, that’s all in the past, now. Both of us have made mistakes and it’s time to move forward.”

  Maya was confused and prickles of unease went up and down her spine.

  The lights flickered and the auction started. Karrie must have had more to say because she sidled closer to Maya. Javi’s lot number was near the middle, so hopefully, his ex-wife would shove off and rejoin her friends or coven or whatever.

  “You’ve finally found another shill?”

  Karrie giggled, and it sounded like a squeaky chair. “No. I’m getting back together with my husband. We’re going to therapy next week. Now that he’s helped his family turn around the business, he’ll be less stressed and he can come back to me.”

  Maya kept her voice low, even though she was panicking on the inside. “You’re delusional.”

  Still, questions lingered. Had her time with Javi been a diversion until he could get back with Karrie? No, that didn’t seem right. Their relationship was too real. He wouldn’t have introduced her to his family if it wasn’t meant for the long term. His sister wouldn’t have asked Maya to be in the wedding if they weren’t a long-term thing. There had to be an explanation for why they were going to therapy. As soon as she’d bought Javi, she would ask him. And he’d have to answer.

  Karrie didn’t move away like she’d hoped. Maya thought she should ignore the other woman until she pulled out her cell phone and set it on the high-top table next to her. “Look.”

  Maya resisted. No good could come out of looking at whatever out-of-context nonsense was on the phone. But maybe there would be enough ammunition to shut Karrie up? Or maybe she would find something that Javi was hiding from her? Maybe she was being snowed?

  The text messages showed that it was Javi’s number. The first message went out after she’d served the papers.

  Javi: We need to talk.

  Karrie: I don’t see what we need to talk about. You screwed me over in the divorce, and I’m not going to let you get away with it. Definitely not now that you’re with that cunt from the ghetto.

  Javi: I’m not with anybody. Just talk to me. I’ll make an appointment with Dr. Weaver if you want. Neutral ground.

  “Not with anybody,” “not with anybody,” “not with anybody.” The words rang through her head in Javi’s voice over an
d over. She couldn’t look at Karrie now.

  She’d been living at his house, and he hadn’t been with her. He hadn’t even responded to Karrie’s calling her the c-word. She didn’t know what to make of it, but the smell of body odor, alcohol, and perfume made her want to vomit. The champagne that she’d been drinking repeated on her, but she kept it down when Javi got up to the stage.

  Carla’s introduction sounded like static and she didn’t move when the bidding started. She couldn’t. But she saw Karrie’s raise her arm out of the corner of the eye. It was as if she was stuck in quicksand, she couldn’t do anything. Her mouth felt like it was filled with peanut butter. Everything slowed down.

  Maya squinted at the spotlight and noticed when Karrie pushed, the bidding went up over $10,000. She wanted to scream, “Not worth it,” and run out, but she was too shocked to do even that.

  She didn’t even move when Karrie won the auction and went on stage to claim her prize. Her husband. The “ex” part of the equation didn’t even matter.

  The thing that finally got her to leave was the way he smiled down at her and kissed her cheek.

  She wouldn’t cry. Couldn’t give Karrie and Javi the chance to see her cry. He was going back to his wife. They always went back to the wife. She’d always known it, deep down, that she was a diversion for Javi. Maya was the other woman, like her mother. She felt numb, almost like she was dying.

  She made it outside the yacht club—the fucking yacht club. Something broke loose in her chest and she thought she heard an animal crying. But it was her keening like a chained-up dog.

  The door opened behind her, and Javi burst through it. “What was that about, Maya?”

  She reared back when he wrapped his arms around her. “Let me go.”

  “Not until you tell me what the fuck happened in there.”

  She didn’t want to hear him explain away those text messages, or the way he’d looked at Karrie when she got up on the stage. She just wanted to go. Right now.

  She dug her fingernails into Javi’s forearm and he released her. “I’m leaving.” He reached for her arm, and she turned on him. Her tear-streaked face must have stopped him in his tracks. “I don’t want to hear it.”

  “I don’t even know what you don’t want to hear.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “This, this is why I didn’t think we would work. You fly off the handle for no reason, and don’t even give me a chance to explain. You’re acting crazy.”

  “I’m not crazy!” Even she could admit that she sounded crazy. And she burned with embarrassment—she’d just realized that she wasn’t any different from her mother. The tears, the yelling. And Javi stood their looking frustrated with her. She couldn’t explain to him how seeing him touch Karrie gutted her. He clearly didn’t understand. “This is a mistake.”

  “You’re not doing this.” He shook his head. “This is not how this ends.”

  He sounded like he was trying to convince himself. “Yes. It has to.” She had to leave so they wouldn’t destroy each other.

  She spotted the car and driver that Javi had hired. It might be the last thing she ever took from him, but it was a way out. Salvation.

  And Javi let her walk away. Again.

  The driver spotted her staggering towards the car on her stupid heels. He wordlessly opened the door. She must have been able to get out Felix’s address before she curled up on the back seat and really let loose with the tears because, when the car came to a stop, her brother opened the door.

  Once he saw her face, he didn’t ask any questions, but picked her up and carried her into the house. She had him. She might not have the love of her life, but she had something.

  Chapter 19

  Javi’s ex-wife was not a stupid woman. She’d disappeared right after she won him at the auction. Right after Javi watched Maya walk out on him. When he bent over and asked Karrie what the hell she’d said to Maya, Karrie shrugged and smiled.

  Now he was in the lobby of Dr. Weaver’s office waiting for her to tell him why the love of his life wasn’t taking his calls, why her brother slammed the door in his face after cursing him out in Spanish for a good five minutes.

  He’d thought about climbing the fence to Felix’s house and breaking in a window, but he didn’t think that Maya’s brother was kidding about removing his balls with a putty knife.

  He’d never hated Karrie before now. He’d kind of understood why she cheated. All of his anger after the divorce had really been directed at himself. Once he was free, he hadn’t sought out Maya because he’d known he’d never be good enough for her.

  And he still wasn’t. When they’d started up, he’d promised not to hurt her, and he hadn’t been able to help it. He should have known that Karrie would pull some kind of bullshit. As soon as he’d seen her at the auction with Graciela and company, he’d known in his gut that something bad would happen.

  He wished he could go back in time and tell his sister that he’d make a big donation, but he was off the market permanently. His eyes burned with lack of sleep. It had only been four days, but every time he shut his eyes, he thought of Maya and saw the numbed-out look on her face under the spotlight.

  His heart twisted in anguish, something that would concern him more if he hadn’t survived the same stabbing sensation in his chest every time he thought of her over the past few days. And, just like his need for her, it didn’t lessen with time. It grew more intense. If he couldn’t get Maya back—if he couldn’t figure out what he had to do to repair the damage he’d done—he hoped it would at least do him the favor of killing him.

  He paced until Karrie walked into the marriage counselor’s reception area. As usual, she was dressed conservatively. She had a cat-that-got-the-cream grin on her face and actually came close to him, as if she expected him to hug her.

  Disgust soured his stomach; the toast he managed to choke down that morning turned when she touched him. He didn’t want to have this conversation, didn’t want to tell a woman who’d once promised to love him forever that she had to move on. But he would do it because cutting off Karrie was the only way she would get the message.

  When he looked at his ex-wife, he felt nothing but remorse. And it was his fault for marrying her in the first place. Before Maya had walked back into his life, he hadn’t gotten the total picture. He’d thought that he and Karrie had both been unhappy, but that she’d ended it by cheating. The truth was that he ended it, too. Maybe if he could make Karrie see that, they could both move on and be happy?

  “You look tired, Javi.” Her voice was filled with concern and a little bit of hope. Maya would have told him he looked like shit and asked him what a rich pendejo like him really had to worry about.

  Javi gritted his teeth. He wanted to wait to say what he had to say in front of Dr. Weaver. He’d asked her to meet him at the therapist’s office so that they could have a tough conversation with ground rules. Before Karrie’s affair, they’d tried going to marriage counseling, but Javi hadn’t been cooperative. He hadn’t thought that they had any problems when Karrie had been saying all along that she didn’t feel loved. His bad. Another one.

  “Let’s wait to talk until we’re with Dr. Weaver,” Javi said.

  Karrie grabbed his arm and he fought not to recoil at her touch. Her hands on him, even if it was out of concern felt wrong. He wanted Maya’s touch comforting him. Her concern for him. He needed her telling him to get over himself. When he felt tears prick the back of his eyes, he turned away. He was a goddamned mess crying over a hand on his arm.

  Before he got a hold of himself, Dr. Weaver appeared at the doorway. “Please, come in. It’s good to see you.” Weaver was in his mid-forties, avuncular, with kind eyes. Everything you’d want a therapist to be. Karrie had always been a fan because he’d usually been on her side. He’d usually been right.

  Javi was careful not to touch Karrie again as they went into the office. He wanted to give her closure and not hope. Once they sat down on oppo
site ends of the couch, Weaver crossed one foot over his knee and tapped his pen on the arm of his chair.

  “I didn’t think I’d see either of you again. You got divorced, is that right?”

  “Yes.” Javi looked over at Karrie, who looked to be in pain. Compassion flooded him and he didn’t know where to go next.

  Luckily, Weaver stepped in for him. “Karrie, you look well. Javi told me that you still had some concerns about the final terms of your divorce.” He laughed at himself. “Is that what brings you in today?”

  Karrie took a deep breath before answering Weaver. She looked directly at Javi when she said, “I don’t want to be divorced anymore. I want to get back together with Javi. I miss him.”

  “Why?” Javi couldn’t think of anything else to say. Their marriage hadn’t been great at the best of times. It had been convenient at its height and excruciating at its end. At least for him.

  “I’m lonely.”

  “Get a puppy.” He hated how harsh his words were, but he was so shocked that this was her end game. The compassion he’d been feeling a few moments before disappeared. “You seriously thought that coming after me for more money was going to make me want you back?”

  “I’d heard you were with her.” Karrie’s voice dripped with venom, and she ran her fingers through her fair hair, a nervous tick she’d always had. “And I couldn’t stand it. You always wanted her.”

  That was true. And he was done hiding from the truth when it came to how he felt about Maya. “I was with her.”

  Weaver held up both hands. “Let’s back up a minute. Karrie, you’re saying that you want to try reconciling with Javi. You still feel that way, even though you know Javi is with someone that he was interested in during your relationship?”

  “He’s been obsessed with this girl during maybe our whole relationship. I thought I was imagining it; he always told me that they were just friends.” She shot Javi an accusing look. “You were fucking her, weren’t you? The whole time. That’s why you proposed, wasn’t it? Because she wanted you for herself, and you knew your family would never accept her.”