by Ali Parker
"There're so many ways I want to explore your body." He lifted his fingers toward his face and licked them while using his other hand to free himself from his jeans.
I groaned loudly and closed my eyes, unable to help the carnality racing through my veins. The relief that came with knowing that the rest of the night would be found in his arms was more than I could have expected.
I opened my eyes in time to watch him pull his t-shirt over his head and move onto the bed. Every part of him left me humming with desire.
"How about you fuck me tonight?" He smiled and rolled us over.
I hovered above him on my knees and let my eyes drag across him before pulling my tattered t-shirt off. "I like the sound of that."
Moving back, I opened the condom and rolled it over his swollen flesh, wanting to take my time and tease him with every movement.
He lifted his hips and pressed into my hands. "Fuck, Chloe. You little tease."
After stroking him a few more times, I moved up farther on his waist and carefully turned around. I glanced over my shoulder as he shook his head and pressed his teeth into his lip.
"Grip my ass hard, okay?" I gave him a sweet smile and dug my nails into his legs before impaling myself. Our shared moan was delicious and set me on fire. I took my time, enjoying every breath, every thrust, every painful squeeze of his hands until electricity shot from the center of my stomach and stretched down my veins.
"Ian," I cried out loudly and let my head drop back as he worked me from below.
"That's so fucking hot, baby." He sat up and carefully turned us over, putting me on my hands and knees as he took over our sex. The position forced him in deeper, and I had trouble finding enough air to breathe.
"God, I love you." I let my head drop as he ran his hand up my back and gripped the back of my neck. His other hand wrapped around my breast, squeezing tightly as he fucked me hard and fast until the world exploded again.
"I love you too." He leaned down and licked the top of my back. "Just let me fuck you again like I don't, all right?"
"Please?" I murmured and pressed my face to the bed, letting everything go but him. I didn't need anything else. I had his protection, his body and now his heart.
I could survive anything, and most likely, I'd be forced to.
Chapter 15
Ian
We spent Saturday sleeping the day away. She was emotionally spent, and I was more than happy to lie in the bed with her, touching her every time she came to. We needed the intimacy we were able to provide to each other. It was healing and left me feeling like I could conquer the fucking world again.
After a quick dinner, we took a swim in the ocean and she fell asleep on my chest watching a chick-flick. I knew I was in love with her when she passed out and I finished the corny-ass movie, loving it more than I would ever admit to.
She slept pressed against me, her soft skin covered in a light sheen of sweat as she jerked from one nightmare to the next. I wanted so fucking bad to wake her up and tell her that everything was fine, that I was there, but it would do no good. She'd learned to tuck her demons away in the daylight, but it would seem that they ruled her night.
It was four in the morning before I finally passed out. The last thing I expected was for her to be gone when I woke the next morning.
*
"Chloe?" I sat up in bed and glanced around the room, trying to pull myself from the grogginess left over from sleeping so damn hard.
"I'm in here," she called from down the hall.
I let out a quick sigh of relief and got out of the bed, taking the sheet with me. The smell of something delicious left my stomach growling. I glanced back at the clock.
Ten.
"Fuck," I mumbled and let the sheet drop. "I'm supposed to meet my brother at eleven thirty at the pub. I want you to come with me"
"No. I’m only in danger when my father wants me to be. Everything is going his way right now. Give me some freedom.”
I gave her a look, not liking her response at all, but understanding it.
“Come help me eat these pancakes and then you can go." She sounded good, like, really good.
I pulled my t-shirt over my head and zipped my fly as I walked toward the kitchen. "You sure you're going to be okay by yourself?"
My heart leapt in my chest as I stopped at the breakfast bar and took her in. Her long blond hair was hanging down and playing along the top of her ass. The dark pink panties she wore were made with lace and left her pretty ass on display. Damn if I didn't want to drop to my knees and worship her a little before going.
She glanced over her shoulder and smiled. "Like what you see?"
"Um... yeah. You could say that." I moved around the counter and slid my hands down her exposed back and around to cup her breasts. I tugged at her nipples and leaned down to kiss the top of her shoulder. "You always cook in just your panties?"
"Only when there's a hot guy in my bed." She picked up the spatula from beside the stove and flipped the two pancakes in the skillet on the stove.
"And do you often have a hot guy in your bed?" I snorted and kissed her again before moving back and swatting at her ass.
"I did last night." She laughed. "Is that what you're asking?"
"No, and you know it." I walked to the fridge and got a beer out. "You want one?"
"It's ten o'clock in the morning."
"Yep." I popped the top and took a long drink. "And we don't have orange juice or milk. Beer is gonna have to do."
She shrugged and reached for my beer. "This is true."
"I like seeing you up and moving around." I moved to stand beside her and brushed her hair over her shoulder. "You almost look like your old self."
"The bossy brat you fell in love with?" She plated the food and handed me one of the plates. "I can resort back to being her if you want."
"No, but thank you." I touched her cheek and pulled her in for a quick kiss. "You sure you don't want to go with me to see Cole?"
"No, but thank you." She kissed me one more time and moved toward the breakfast table.
I almost suggested we eat at the dining room table, but she wasn't ready for that. One of her greatest nightmares had occurred just beside it. To see her moving freely around the beach house and not tensing up every time she walked through the dining room was a big step. It meant that she was maturing or healing... or maybe both.
"Is Jessica coming over today?" I walked over and took a seat next to her. My cock was rock hard and working like crazy to get her attention by pulsing every few seconds in my jeans. It was impossible to calm my fucking libido with her eating breakfast in her panties like the confident bitch I knew she could be.
"I'm not sure." She shrugged. "I have a few things I need to work through. I'm thinking I'll go surfing until you come back or the sun comes down."
"Sounds like a good idea." I picked up a piece of sausage off my plate and ate it in two bites. "Damn, that's delicious. Was it in the fridge?"
She laughed as I lifted my eyebrow at her. The last thing we needed was the torrential shits from eating something that was expired.
"I have my car here. Daniel came and got me when we went to Santa Barbara, remember?"
"Right. Did you go out this morning?" I was dead to the world after I finally crashed at four.
"Yeah. I got up at six and went to the store."
"No milk?" I gave her a look.
"You're lucky you got breakfast. I left my damn debit card in Maryland, I guess."
"You need some money?" As if I had any to give her.
"No. I have an emergency credit card in my car. If I get bored, I'll go find Jess today."
"All right. Just make sure you text me and let me know where you are, okay?"
"You still guarding my body?"
"Yes, and your heart and your innocence."
"Innocence?" She laughed, filling the room with more warmth than I thought possible.
I reached over and pulled her toward me for a long k
iss. "You know how beautiful you are, baby?"
"I'm starting to figure it out." She kissed me again and pulled back. "Hurry up and go see your brother."
"You trying to get rid of me?" It felt good to be nothing but normal. It was out of place and almost seemed a little contrived, but we both needed it so damn bad that I was good not analyzing it too much.
"Never." She folded her pancake in half and dipped it in the syrup on her plate before taking a big bite. "I just know you have a lot to discuss with Cole. I want us to move through this next phase as fast as possible."
"Next phase?" I knew where she was headed with her thinking, but I still wanted to hear her say it.
"Yeah. Where I don't want to be too involved with bringing my father down, I know someone has to do it." She licked her lips and studied me. "If you think Jeremy is willing to help with it, then push him to do what's right. If he fucks up, then we need to make sure that you and Cole are ready to testify about everything that’s happened."
"We need more than the word of two thugs, Chloe." I reached over and squeezed her thigh. "But thank you for trusting me. I'm not going to let you down."
"I know that." She took another bite of her pancake as her pretty blue eyes moved around my face. "Don't let Pauly down either, okay?"
"Never, baby. Never."
*
"So she's feeling a little bit better?" My brother pulled his ball cap off and slid onto a barstool beside me at Billy's.
"She's either feeling better or faking it like a fucking champ." I picked up my half-finished beer. Cole was late, and where I'd normally have given him hell over it, I was just glad to see him looking better than he had in a while.
He nodded and turned as one of the waitresses we didn't see too often walked up. "Hey handsome. What'll it be?"
"Bud Light and a trio of street tacos."
"Beef, Chicken or Pork?"
"One of each?" Cole glanced over at me. "You want something?"
"You eating all of those yourself, fat boy?"
"Fuck yeah. My appetite finally came back." He glanced over at the waitress. "Bring two orders for us or he'll eat all of mine before I can pop the top on my beer."
She laughed and walked off as I narrowed my eyes on him. It was weird how in the midst of such a fucked up situation the three of us could figure out how to live life until the next turn in the road. Chloe and I had spent two days together, living a dream and now my brother was bringing the weekend to a perfect close for me.
"You calling me a fatty?" I smirked.
"Yeah." He reached over and gripped my shoulder. "It's good to see you smiling."
"Life is short. I figured I'd better start living no matter what the fuck it threw at me." I tapped the table and glanced down. "Fill me in on your visit to Pauly's place so we can get it out of the way."
"Right." He leaned over and grabbed a backpack I hadn't seen him walk in with. "There wasn't much there and it was incredibly easy to pop the lock. I guess Mitch doesn't expect his old bodyguard to have anything incriminating at his place."
"Or he's an ignorant old man who can't balance all the balls he has thrown in the air." I shrugged and took another drink of my beer.
"That could quite possibly be the situation too." He handed me what looked like a picture album. "This was on his bedside table. I would assume it was pretty important to him by the shape the damn thing is in."
I opened it and let my eyes scan over the pictures of Chloe and Melinda Moore. I brushed my fingers over a picture of Melinda and Pauly laughing together.
"It seems like we're missing the main part of all of this." I glanced up at Cole. "He was in love with her, wasn't he?"
"If a picture is worth a thousand words like they say, then hell yeah he was. Look through the album and you'll see that every time they were together, she's laughing and he's looking at her like she is the only person in the room. I want that in my life."
"To adore someone you can't have, or be adored by someone you can't give yourself fully to?" I was being morbid, but the ache deep inside my chest left me with no question over Melinda and Pauly's relationship. That alone would cause a bastard like Mitch to take her life and leave Chloe motherless.
"Wow. That's a shitty way to put it." He snorted and flipped the pages to the back. "I found this under his bed in a box."
I picked up the blue envelope and turned it over. Chloe's name was on the front, but it was sealed shut. "What do you think it is?"
"No clue, but it was the only thing with Chloe's name on it in the whole damn apartment. I'd let her open it if I were you, but that's just my opinion."
"All right. Thanks, bro." I put the envelope back in the album and pushed it across the table. She'd be emotional over all of it, but maybe there was something in the note from Pauly that would comfort her.
"No problem. I still think we should get her birth certificate."
"She's already seen it. She said Mitch's name is on it." I ran my fingers through my hair and glanced up at the TV for a second before turning my attention back toward him. "And you were right."
"Come again?" The cocky smile that formed on his mouth was welcomed.
I popped him in the chest and chuckled. "You were right."
"About what, exactly?"
"Her not wanting to know." I shrugged. "She wants to think that Mitch is her father and leave it there."
"Wow. That's weird."
"Naw, not really." I shrugged and set my beer down as the waitress delivered the tacos. I waited until she was gone to continue explaining. "She probably can't stomach the idea of being alone in the world. You know we've always been alone, but it's a hard transition for most people to go from having their parents to not. She's young. She can't deal with that shit."
"Even if that means settling for a bastard like Mitch as her father?" Cole picked up a taco and ate half of it in one bite.
"I guess so." I took a taco from my plate and ate it in two bites. It felt so damn good to be normal. I wanted to cling to it, though I knew it was a ruse I'd convinced myself of. "What's going on with the divorce?"
He reached into his pocket and handed me three zip drives. "First, take these from me." He pulled out two more. "These are the copies you asked for."
"All five of these are the same?" I put the three in one pocket and the two new ones in the other pocket.
"Yeah, but they all have the same thing on them."
"You watched the video?"
"Yeah. It's pretty fucked up." He shook his head. "Watch it when you get a chance."
I nodded as a sick feeling permeated the calm I'd lulled myself into. "What's up with the divorce?"
"We're signing the papers this week." He picked up his napkin and wiped his mouth. "After that, I'm going to close this shit down here with you and probably look at taking a job on the East Coast."
"Whoa. When did you decide that?" I wasn't quite sure how I felt about my brother leaving me in Cali. I was born and raised there, and honestly couldn't imagine myself anywhere else, but being somewhere without Cole left me feeling empty quick.
"I want you and Chloe to take over the security business I started. You need stability and I need to get the fuck out of here and have a real adventure." He picked up another taco and ate it quickly.
"I thought you and I were going to be partners." I sounded like a ten-year-old kid, but I couldn't help myself.
"I'm not leaving you until this shit with Mitch is over, Ian. If that means we all have to run as fast as we fucking can from this place, then we run, but if things play out like I think they will, you're going to want to settle down. My company can easily become yours and provide a great living for you and Chloe."
I glanced down at my plate. "I'm not sure what to say."
"Then don't say anything." He reached over and patted my back. "Liam knows a guy in New York that runs a string of night clubs. He's looking to replace his head of security and the job honestly sounds thrilling. Him and his brother invest in clubs all
over the world, but these are growing faster than any of the others."
"What's the name of the club?" I glanced over at him, trying to make small talk while I calmed myself. Why did losing him feel like a knife to my chest? He deserved a new start and he was right... Chloe was my future.
"Kadia." He licked his fingers and reached for his napkin. "Liam is friends with Fredrick Carrington. You've seen him on MTV cribs, remember? He has the gold-plated pool?"
"Moving on up to the east side, hmm?" I couldn't help but tease him. I was grateful for the little jig he did beside me. He knew I was going to struggle with the idea of him leaving.
"And if things don't go like they should, then you'll come with me." He lifted his beer. "To new beginnings and closing old doors."
I hit his bottle and nodded. "To shoving the fucking skeletons back in the closet."
"Hold tight to that." He winked. "We'll get through it, all of it, like we always do."
"Together," I whispered before lifting my beer to my lips. I swallowed the last bit of my angst and decided to cling to the man I knew I could become, not the one I'd been pretending to be.
Time to figure this shit out by any means necessary.
Chapter 16
Chloe
I thought trepidation would take hold of me when Ian left to meet up with his brother, but it never arrived. Being at the beach house alone almost felt good, right. The idea of calling Jess somehow seemed to interrupt the peaceful feeling inside of me. Everything in my world was wrong, but knowing that Ian was more than willing to ride out the storm with me was soothing.
Running my fingers through my tangled hair, I walked back to the bedroom and pulled a pair of shorts over my hips and threw on a bra and t-shirt before going in search of my sandals. Surfing seemed like too much effort for the laziness that clung to me. Instead I decided to pay a visit to my mother's graveside, which I hadn't done since graduating high school and heading to UCLA.