Did he use me? My stomach starts to hurt. I want to get dressed, run away from this, take some space to figure this out, but he has his weight on me, holding me down.
He looks appalled that I would even suggest such a thing. “Do you honestly think I could do something like that?”
I’ve known Lonnie all my life, and it doesn’t seem like him to use me. But everything has happened so quickly, and unexpectedly, that I can’t help but wonder whether he set me up. And added to that, I’ve fantasized for years about being with him, and now it’s finally happened. I guess my insecurities are getting the best of me, because with this new wrinkle, I start to think I was crazy to believe he’d ever want me without another motive.
Then there’s another part of me, the me that’s still floating in the orgasmic blissed out bubble we just created, who would be on cloud nine to even pretend to be married to Lonnie, my teen obsession, my now obsession. Even if it were temporary and all an act, well I’m giddy just thinking about it. But that kernel of excitement, that hope bubbling in my tummy, that’s dangerous. Because it’s those feelings that can lead me to heartache.
“Lonnie, I don’t know. Everything about this idea seems wrong,” I finally say. Even though, in my heart, it feels right. “And what if my family finds out? Fake marriage or not, my dad would lose his mind.”
He sighs. “I know he would.”
I sigh too because I know what I’m about to say and I don’t know if it’s the right decision or not. But I just got my dream job, and if I don’t do this, that will disappear. I’ll have to leave the city, go back to the boondocks and crappy apartments with roommates, back to my barista uniform. I don’t want to take that step backwards. I don’t want to lose it all when I’ve only just gotten started. And being Lonnie’s wife—even if it’s not real—would be an adolescent dream come true.
“I’ll do it,” I tell him.
He smiles and starts to speak, but I hold up my hand to stop him. “On one condition.”
His eyebrows lift. “Negotiations? I like that. You’re thinking like a real lawyer.”
“So what’s this condition of yours?” he asks.
“My family can’t find out about this, not under any circumstance.”
He kisses me. “You’re amazing and yes, I agree to your terms. I will do everything in my power to make sure none of your family finds out. I won’t let our pretend marriage interfere with our real lives. We’ll keep it strictly to the workplace.”
I start to feel better about the plan even though I know lying to his new partner is wrong. I start to wonder how he plans to keep this from my family. This city is big, but it’s not that big when it comes to lawyers and their gossip. Both of my parents are lawyers and if they even catch a whiff of a rumor of Lonnie getting married, they’re going investigate.
5
Savanna
My parents call after I get home from my long day at work. My mom wants to come visit me, and I have no choice but to break down and tell her I took a job in the city with Lonnie. She was going to find out at some point anyway. I might as well rip that band aid off. She’s not happy to say the least, and my dad is absolutely pissed. I can hear him in the background ranting and raving as my mom gives me a lecture. “That son of a bitch” this, and “That son of a bitch” that. They’re just as down on Lonnie as the last time I mentioned him. Time hasn’t healed whatever happened between them. I want to ask them why they’re so angry, and what happened between them to end so many years of a loyal friendship, but I’ve tried that before, and they refuse to discuss it with me. So I let it go and don’t even bother asking.
“How did this even happen?” my mom asks, exasperated.
I explain to them how Lonnie showed up in the coffee shop and offered me the job after I told him I graduated from law school with honors. Though they’re not happy about my decision, they can’t deny that it’s a great opportunity. All that money they spent on me to go to school was being wasted on preparing expensive cups of cheap coffee. I explain to them that I need this opportunity. I can’t live on minimum wage forever.
By the end of the conversation, they’ve mellowed out a bit, but they’re still uncomfortable with the idea. I’m afraid my dad may call Lonnie at some point, somehow ruining this opportunity for me, but for now they seem managed. I just have to be really careful with this whole marriage arrangement because if they can barely stand the idea of me working with Lonnie, they’ll be apoplectic if they ever found out I married him. Even if it is just a temporary marriage for convenience
I don’t know why, but when I think of this marriage being fake and temporary, it makes me sad. My emotions are all over the place. I’d love to blame it on PMS, but it’s nowhere near that time of the month.
I decide to lay down for a bit before I make dinner, try to distract myself from this marriage thing for a while. I pick up my phone and start scrolling through my emails, catching up on the latest celebrity gossip and news. My eyes start to feel heavy, and I let myself ease into sleep. Whoever furnished this place did an excellent job. Not only is it stylish, but it’s comfortable too. I’ve never owned such a cozy bed before. A few minutes of shut eye and then I’ll get up and make dinner.
Burying myself under my comforter, I fall asleep right away. I dream about my wedding, but in my dream it’s not pretend. It’s a grand affair with all of my family and friends there. Their smiling and approving faces surround me. The sun is low in the sky, light streaming through tall, lush trees. The dream is so real that I can feel the dappled sun on my skin, I can smell the forest air, fresh pine, and feel its damp coolness on my skin. I can hear the birds chirping from their perches high up and hidden from view. Clusters of butterflies flit around flower arrangements set up on tall tables surrounding the ceremony area. There’s a small clearing with chairs draped in white silk. Lights are strung up in rows overhead, looking like thousands of fireflies. The cascading flower arrangements fill the clearing with a fragrance that could only be described as happiness and light. I’m wearing a white sleeveless dress with intricate beading on the heart-shaped bodice and a flowing train. My something borrowed is my mother’s platinum Tiffany anklet that I’ve coveted since I was a child. My something blue is my grandmother’s firefly broach that I’ve turned into a hair clip, and my something new is my beautiful ring that’s being carried down the aisle on a pillow by the ring bearer.
My father is by my side, walking me down the aisle, our elbows linked. Lonnie waits for us with a smile so full of love and devotion I can’t help but start to cry. It’s a dream, but it’s so real that I ache when I wake up and realize none of it is true. There’s no wedding, no relationship. It’s all fake. But the tear trailing down my cheek isn’t. The emotions I feel are very real.
I wipe it away and look at the back of my wet hand, confused. I can’t believe I was just crying over a dream. But it was so real. So is this ache.
There’s a knock at the door and I hurry to wipe my face so there’s no trace of tears left on my cheeks. I wonder if my parents decided to come straight to my apartment instead of waiting for the weekend. My mom sounded anxious on the phone. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they drove over as soon as we hung up.
I open the door, but it’s not my parents. Lonnie stands at the threshold holding two cups of coffee. He’s wearing a different suit than he was wearing earlier in the day. Instead of his navy tie, he’s wearing a red one. The shock of color is bright and beautiful on him.
His steady, approving gaze starts at my bare feet, following all the way up my smooth, tanned legs, and up the t-shirt I changed into when I got home from work earlier. His gaze lingers on my breasts a short moment before meeting my eyes. His smile curves at one corner.
“I wanted to drive you to work this morning. That’s an interesting choice for work attire. Bold. I like it.”
“Work?” I say, confused.
I walk over to the windows where the curtains are closed. I feel Lonnie’s eyes followin
g me. I throw open the curtains and see the early morning sun rising in the distance. My heart slams against my ribs so sudden and jarring that it makes me hiccup. I swing away from the window to look at the clock.
7AM.
Shit!
“I laid down to take a rest after work last night. How could I have slept straight through the night?”
It actually makes perfect sense I slept through the night. Yesterday was my first day of work as a lawyer. The day I finally fucked the man I’ve been lusting after for years. Then he proposed marriage to me, albeit fake. And to top it off, I had a pretty explosive and difficult conversation with my parents. It’s amazing I woke up when I heard Lonnie knocking at my door.
I look at Lonnie, desperate. He must think I’m so irresponsible. It’s only my second day and already I’m screwing it all up. He doesn’t look disappointed, though. If anything he looks amused.
“I’m so sorry,” I tell him, rushing to my room to get dressed. He follows me, watching with a smirk as I fumble to find something to wear in my cluttered drawers. I still need to take the time to organize all my things. With the work load I have, I don’t know how I’ll ever get any unpacking done. “It’ll only take me a moment.”
“I had a feeling you were burning yourself out, spending all those hours working last night.”
“No, I swear I can handle the workload …”
He takes my arms gently in his hands and turns me toward him. I’m out of breath. The frantic beat of my heart makes me light-headed and slightly nauseous. I always get that way when I’m nervous.
The coffee is no longer in his hands. I look over and see them on the bedside table. He takes the wrinkled blouse clutched in my fist and tosses it on the bed, grabs my hand and pulls me close to him. He smells like cologne. Something expensive. I look up at him and there’s that same look of desire on his face when he was in my office yesterday. He leans in, brushing the loose hair from my face. His lips press against mine. I open my mouth, inviting him in. Our tongues mingle as his arm curls around my waist and he pulls me close enough to feel his arousal. It’s pressed against me, leaving no room for the imagination, and no doubt that he wants me as much as I want him. I gasp into his open mouth.
He reaches down to touch my smooth legs, and moves his hands up until he’s cupping my ass. He starts to reach for the hem of my panties, and I anticipate him ripping them off of me. I excitedly wait for it. Then suddenly he lets go and steps away, leaving me confused with my mouth still open.
“We don’t have time,” he says with a little smirk on his face.
“Right, of course,” I say. My heart sinks a bit. Though I know we’re late for work because of me, and I know that we need to get to the office, his sudden step away from me feels like a rejection. I’m a little sad, and a lot sexually frustrated.
I start to get dressed and he comes up to me to help, which stops the sting of his rejection a bit. His body language tells me he wants me, and so does the hard-on pressing against his pants, but he’s holding back. The look on his face mirrors my own. He wants to rip my clothes off, not put them on, I can tell.
We take the elevator down to the garage together. He drives the sexiest sports car I’ve ever seen. An Alfa Romeo, black with a mirror shine to it that radiates even in the dim glow of the basement lights.
He opens the door for me, and I slide into the buttery leather seats. The dashboard looks like a flight panel and the screen is the biggest I’ve seen in any car, it’s more like a TV. When he turns on the car, everything lights up in a red glow. The engine roars to life, echoing off the garage walls. He looks sexy driving it, too. Confident. He’s the human version of this car. Sexy, sleek, and full of power. I get wet just looking at him.
Damn this sexual frustration.
He pulls the car out of the garage and into the bright morning. I open my mouth to apologize again for making us late. I want him to know how sorry I am, and that I’m not some flaky girl who doesn’t care about her job. I want him to know how much I appreciate him putting everything on the line for me. I know it can’t be easy for him to hire his ex-best friend’s daughter, knowing it could make things even worse for their relationship.
But before I can say anything, his hand slides over the center console between us and ends up on my leg. When his hand slides up my leg and under my skirt, I wonder if that’s why he suggested I wear it rather than the slacks I had started to grab out of the drawer.
There was no time to look for panties, so I didn’t bother wearing them. He gets to my thighs and my legs instinctively open for him. His fingers slide skillfully up and down the lips of my pussy, tentatively exploring every fold of that sensitive place. He glances at me several times while still managing to keep the car carefully on the road.
The muscles in my stomach twitch when he touches my clit. His fingers caress me with a slow, steady motion that increases my pleasure. I feel the warm wetness leaking from me, dripping onto his hand. If he’s worried about it getting on his leather seats, he doesn’t indicate it.
“Fuck, you’re already so wet,” he says as he drives his fingers deep into me.
I lean the seat back and open myself up for him. I don’t know how he manages to maneuver the vehicle and drive me crazy at the same time with such expertise. It’s a good thing the windows are tinted because we would definitely get pulled over. The urge to push harder against his fingers is maddening, but I don’t do that because the amount of pressure he’s using is perfect. If I push too hard, I might come, and right now, I just want to enjoy this feeling as long as I can.
“God, you’re good at this,” I say, biting my lip and fighting against my pending orgasm.
I look over at him just as he licks his lips, and I can tell he wants a taste of me.
I dip my fingers into my pussy, intertwining mine with his while they’re inside me. When my fingers are nice and coated, I pull them out and reach over to put them in his mouth. He groans and sucks them clean. His hand moves faster, finger fucking me hard and fast.
“You taste so good, I can’t wait to eat that pussy,” he growls.
I reach over and rub the hard mound in his pants. Not too much. I don’t want him to come and make a mess of himself before we get to the office. We can’t have the boss showing up to work in trousers crusted with cum. I just want to tease him a little. Telling by the smile on his face, it’s working.
I’m so wet that he manages to slip in three fingers with ease. My hips sway with his movements. I watch his hand as it expertly brings me closer and closer to my climax.
My head rolls back. “That feels so good,” I purr.
The faster he strokes my clit the wetter I get until it flows freely from me. I’m loose and pliable and so ready for him to drive his cock into me right now. I know that can’t happen, but my body is practically demanding it. That intense feeling starts to climb, and I know I’m close. This is the point to of no return.
“Oh, fuck,” I cry out. For the first time, the car starts to drift off the road just a little. He’s quick to get it under control. His smile sways.
That feeling climbs and climbs, and my body starts to violently quiver as my orgasm racks my body. Like the end of a wild rollercoaster ride, I start to come down from the high, and glide to a satisfying stop at the end. My breathing slows, my heart becomes a steady beat again and I feel my unmoving smile freeze in place.
I could melt into these seats and fall asleep right now with how content I feel. I’m looking out the window, basking in the afterglow of my orgasm when I noticed we’re not heading in the direction of the office. We’re going in completely opposite direction. I haven’t been in the city that long, but I know the way to the office from my place, and this isn’t it.
“Where are we going?” I ask. He makes a left turn and pulls up in front of a large jewelry store.
“We need to pick you out a ring,” he says.
“What?”
He gets out of the car and comes around my side
to open the door. I get out, smoothing my shirt and skirt, feeling disheveled and not nearly put together enough to be in a place like this. Not to mention the wet stain on the bottom of my skirt that will surely turn white and crusty when it dries.
“I can’t go in there, I don’t even have makeup on,” I tell him. They’ll take one look at me and think I’m here to shoplift. That or they’ll think it’s a Pretty Woman situation. Oh God, I can’t do this.
Lonnie laughs. “You look amazing. You’re a natural beauty. You don’t need makeup.” He takes my hand in his. “Come on, I made an appointment. They’re waiting for us.”
He had this all planned out?
We go in and the woman behind the counter steps out to greet us. She’s all class and poise and I look like … well, someone who just got fingered in a car.
Lonnie tells her we have an appointment, then gives her his name and she perks up even more than she had when we first walked in.
“I have several selections picked out for you to choose from. I think you’ll be very pleased,” she says.
The woman brings out a tray of rings tucked into a velvet box. There are several different, elegant styles, and all so very beautiful. And expensive. Platinum and diamonds no smaller than three carrots at least. These are the kinds of rings where I will feel the weight of it on my finger.
“Do you like any of these?” Lonnie asks.
“Are you kidding? I love them all.”
My head is spinning as I look at each one. There’s one in particular that catches my eye, though. It’s not the biggest, or the most elaborate. But it’s absolutely perfect. It’s three diamonds set in a simple platinum band.
I don’t say anything, but Lonnie sees the ring I’ve chosen and picks it up. He must have been able to tell by the look on my face when I saw it.
“This is the one, right?” he asks.
I can only nod. The ring is so stunning it takes my breath away and the words right out of my mouth.
Married to my Dad’s Best Friend Page 4