Tangled Web Series Box Set

by Jade C. Jamison

  “That feel nice, baby?”

  He could barely talk. “Yeah.”

  “Mmmm…I thought you might like that.”

  “Oh, I do. God, yeah, I do.”

  She put her lips up to his ear. “Tell me when you’re close.”

  He managed a nod but said nothing. Not yet. Part of him wondered why she wanted to know. What the fuck was she gonna do to make it a winner? She’d already succeeded in his book. He didn’t know the last time he’d felt like this. In his early twenties, maybe. It had definitely been a while, and she was pushing all his buttons. She was massaging his entire cock, up and down, up and down, and her grip was perfect—not too tight, not too loose. And she was kind of squeezing the crown every time she got to the top. Everything grew tight and he could feel the pressure building, building, until blackness started closing in on the edge of his vision and he closed his eyes. He could barely breathe.

  “Are you close, baby?”

  He clenched his teeth. “Yeah…yeah…real close.”

  And then she stopped moving her hand. She wriggled off the bed and walked in the other room.

  Sweet Jesus. What the fuck did she have planned now? God, he was going to have the most vicious fucking orgasm of his life. It was in those few moments that he knew she must have forgiven him and, maybe, she realized he’d tried to make her feel this spectacular yesterday.

  So where the hell was she? He heard her heels clicking across the tile in the entry area and then back over the carpeting as she got close to the bedroom.

  He raised his head a little to see her. She peeked her head in the bedroom and blew him a kiss. “Call me tomorrow, lover.”

  Then she turned around and he heard her heels clicking on the tile again, followed by the door to the hallway opening and closing.

  What the fuck?

  Chapter Seventeen

  WHEN ERIN CLOSED the door to the hotel room, she felt all kinds of guilty. But Jackie would be proud. She’d followed the plan through. All. The. Way.

  She leaned against the door and heard Riley yell, “Erin, what the fuck? Come on back, babe.” This place was pretty ritzy and she knew the walls were pretty thick, so he must have been yelling loudly. It wasn’t that loud, but to her, it felt like everyone on the floor would be able to hear it.

  So it was time to amscray. She made her way to the elevator. She just prayed Jackie was right and that he wouldn’t fucking hate her forever.

  Maybe it would be something she and Riley could laugh about years from now.

  She shook that crazy thought from her head and tried to push the guilt out. She already felt herself caving. She wasn’t going to be able to fully execute the plan. Jackie had told her to wait for hours before letting him off the hook, but she couldn’t do it. She just couldn’t. She’d already punished him enough just by leaving him high and dry with no relief. And, God…he’d been hard as a hammer. He was going to be hurting badly already. She wanted to teach him a lesson, not cripple him for life.

  She could just hear Jackie’s voice in her head: Oh, come on, Erin. It’s not that bad!

  No, but her guilt was.

  So, by the time she arrived in the lobby, she had made up her mind. She walked to the counter and wasn’t surprised when the clerk from earlier raised her eyebrows. The girl smiled but she was curious as to why Erin was there without her man candy.

  When Erin approached the counter, the girl asked, “How may I help you?”

  Erin took a deep breath. God, she felt like such a shit. She really should go back up there right now and apologize. But then she forced herself to remember how he hadn’t stopped when she’d asked, stupid fucking safeword or not. She took a deep breath, steeled again, and said, “Um…yeah. You know the guy I came here with?”

  The girl grinned. “Well, yeah. Riley Schultz.”

  “Uh…well, I left him in a…compromising position, but I really have to go.” She cleared her throat and placed the tiny handcuff key on the counter. “Could you please send someone up to unlock him?”

  The smile slid off the girl’s face and her face paled. “What do you mean exactly?”

  “He’s…uh...handcuffed to the bed.”

  The girl’s eyebrows shot into the air. “Is he…”

  “Naked? Yep. Mostly, anyway.”

  The girl visibly gulped. Maybe she was a little too young to handle this delicate situation. She took a deep breath. “Uh…I guess we can take it from here.”

  Erin tried to smile warmly and took out a twenty as a tip. She slid it on the counter to the spot where she’d set the handcuff key that the girl now had in her hands. “I appreciate that. Thanks.”

  She stood up straight and walked through the lobby and out the door. She was aware of a few sets of eyes, eyes she hadn’t noticed when she’d been hanging on Riley’s arm. Yeah, so the outfit drew a lot of attention. Her stunt could draw more if the desk clerk didn’t handle the situation with discretion. But it was done. She had to leave now before she totally wussed out. Jackie was going to be disappointed as it was.

  Her sleep was restless and she wondered how it had all ended. Riley hadn’t called screaming at her and he didn’t come banging on her door. Maybe that’s what was making her so damn nervous. Nothing happened.

  * * *

  It was eleven-thirty. Riley was pacing in his parents’ living room. Hell, yeah, he was pissed but he also knew exactly why Erin had done it. It was because she’d wanted revenge for what she’d thought was a breach of trust. And, as angry as it had made him, he had to admit it was a good plan, even though he’d been the butt of the joke. And even through the deep, delicious ache she’d put him through, he understood.

  Still…how cold. But he wasn’t giving up on her yet. There was one thing that would make it all okay.

  And not knowing what she was going to say made him stare at that goddamned cell phone in his hand. She had told him to call today, and—if he remembered correctly—she had called him around this time yesterday, so he was hoping it was her lunch break.

  He would call once. If she wasn’t available, he’d leave one message. Then the ball would be in her court.

  He could just text her, but he felt like this subject merited a phone call. So he took a deep breath and dialed. When she answered, he could barely hear her voice. “Hi, Riley.” His teeth had been holding the tip of his tongue steady. He let it go and said hi back. Then she said, “How mad at me are you?”

  “Really wanna know?”

  “I don’t know. Do I?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Can I come see you after school? Maybe make it up to you?”

  “What do you have in mind now?”

  “You’ll just have to trust me this time.”

  He couldn’t help but smile. “All right. Why don’t you come by my parents’ house when you get done?”

  She wrote down his address and told him she’d be there around four or four-thirty. So he needed to find something to do in the interim to occupy himself. Mom was hanging around during the day so smoking a little weed was out of the question. Guess keeping his mother company was the best and only thing he could do until Erin arrived later that day.

  But he wound up helping his mom clean out donation items from the attic and even used his parents’ truck to haul them to the secondhand store. Then he came home and showered and it wasn’t too long after that Erin arrived.

  She wasn’t dressed like a metal chick like she’d been the day before. No, today she looked like he’d expected before…conservative but pretty, like he thought a high school teacher would look from day to day. She was wearing a light spring dress, cream-colored with a pattern of tiny flowers, sleeveless and ending just above the knee. She was also wearing sandals, her toenails were painted in pink, and her hair was pulled back. She was gorgeous. It was her smile, though, that disarmed him.

  He opened the door and said, “Welcome to the Schultz residence.” He heard his mother walking toward the foyer, responding to the doo
rbell. She hadn’t known he was expecting someone. In anticipation, he said, “Erin Lancaster, this is my mother, Margie Schultz.”

  Erin’s eyes lit up in recognition. “Margie. I had no idea Riley was your son.”

  Riley felt his eyebrows knit. “You know each other?”

  “Yes, son. I’m on the school board, remember?” He nodded. “So, I knew Riley had wound up winning the bid for you for the cheerleading auction, but I had no idea you were actually seeing each other.”

  Riley felt his hackles stand up. Did his mom not approve and, more than that, did she think he really gave a shit what she thought? But Erin was charming and he’d had no idea she could have that effect on his mother. She smiled at his mom and shrugged, saying, “Well, we kind of hit it off. I don’t know if you’d call it seeing each other, but we have been hanging out some since then.” She looked up at Riley. “How would you describe it?”

  “Fair enough assessment, I guess.” Or maybe just a more polite way of saying they’d seen each other naked and had played around that way.

  His mother nodded. “Well, not to be rude, but I have other obligations I need to attend to. Nice seeing you, Erin.”

  Thank God. The last thing he wanted was for Erin and his mom to spend all night yapping. He’d known his mom was meeting his dad for some dinner thing, but he hadn’t known when she’d be leaving. He felt immense relief when his mom walked in the other room. He said to Erin, “How about a mini tour?”

  “Sure.”

  As they started moving farther inside, his mom walked past them toward the front door again. “Have fun, kids. Riley, your dad and I will probably be home around eight or so.”

  “Sounds good, mom.” That should give them plenty of time alone together. His mom stopped and he kissed her on the cheek.

  “Oh, one more thing,” she said, then headed back to the middle of the house.

  He took Erin’s hand and walked through the living room in his parents’ house. He pointed out things that were already obvious to her, hoping to bide his time until his mom was out of the house, but before they left the living room, Erin noticed the family pictures on the mantle. One of them was of two brown-haired, freckly-faced preteen boys, him and his brother Brian. That was the one she noticed. She paused and walked over to the picture. “Is that you?”

  “Yeah, on the right. My brother’s on the left.”

  “You were cute.”

  “You don’t have to sound so surprised.” She smirked at him and then turned to look at other pictures. Riley heard his mom in the kitchen on the phone. God, was she going to leave or what?

  They finally wound up at the back of the house where his bedroom was. Might as well, he thought, because they were going to end up there anyway if he had any say in the matter. Before they walked in, he said, “Now…bear in mind that this room looks like it did when I left the house.”

  “So what’s that mean?”

  “It looks like a teenage boy lives there. But it’s kinda cool to visit.”

  Erin got a twinkle in her eye. “Dirty socks on the floor?”

  “Very funny.”

  “See you later, kids,” Riley’s mother yelled from the front of the house. They heard the door close just as Riley opened his bedroom door. It was about time, because he was starting to think about Erin in a way that would make all coherent thought leave his brain.

  Chapter Eighteen

  ERIN STEPPED IN Riley’s bedroom. Well, it was nothing fancy, but she saw what he meant, that it was reminiscent of a teenage boy’s room. There weren’t any girls in bathing suits hanging on the walls, which is what she’d been expecting (but she suspected that they’d been there at some point). There were a lot of band posters and even a poster of guitar chords. There was a shelf with some collectibles, but nothing Erin could make out, and a baseball and glove on a different shelf. She couldn’t make her way over there anyway, because Riley wrapped his arms around her waist and pinned her to the door. She couldn’t read his face.

  “Seriously,” she asked, “how pissed at me are you?”

  “I think I’ll get over it.”

  She looked down at his Adam’s apple and then returned her eyes to his. “You know why I did that, right?”

  “I have my suspicions.”

  “Yeah, well, be glad I didn’t follow through with the whole plan.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “What was the whole plan?”

  Her mouth screwed up into another smile. “To leave you like that for hours.”

  He grinned. “As it was, your plan didn’t work.”

  She wrinkled her brow. “It did enough. I left you there, suffering, and then added the humiliation of having a complete stranger come up to turn you loose.”

  Riley’s smile ate up his face. “Guess you shouldn’t have sent a fan.” A quizzical look passed over her face. “Let’s just say she didn’t unlock the handcuffs right away. She felt pretty bad for me.”

  Erin gasped. “You’re kidding.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Guess you’ll never know for sure.” She felt almost horrified, but, she supposed, if he was cuffed, could he really help it? Still…he didn’t have to tell her. He lowered his voice. “So…are we done with handcuffs?”

  She grinned up at him. “Probably a good idea, don’t you think?”

  His face looked a little more serious. “Think we’ll do all right without them?”

  “We’ll just have to improvise.”

  As he leaned over, burying her in a passionate kiss, they heard his mom come back in the house. He broke away and said, under his breath, “What the hell?”

  “Riley?” His mother’s heels clicked on the wooden floor hallway outside his door.

  He rolled his eyes and urged Erin forward so he could open the door. “Yeah, mom?”

  She cleared her throat. “I just wanted to let you know there are leftovers in the refrigerator if you get hungry.” Riley nodded and Erin tried not to look guilty. His mother acted like she wanted to say something. It was obvious to Erin that his mother was not happy that they’d been behind a closed door and a bedroom door at that. But, Erin thought, if his mother had known all the things they’d already done, and if Erin was reading his mother’s vibes correctly, the woman wouldn’t be leaving right now. She’d be quoting Bible verses and urging them to repent. As it was, she hadn’t a clue. “And you could show Erin the pool table and other games in the basement. She might enjoy that.”

  Riley nodded and looked at Erin. “Oh, yeah, I forgot to show you that stuff.”

  She smiled. “I’m game.”

  Riley kissed his mom on the cheek. “Have a good time, mom.”

  Erin could tell his mother was reluctant when she said, “You, too.” And as the woman walked back down the hall, Erin remembered she was one of the more conservative board members. In all fairness, though, at least she wasn’t a book banner. She had that in her favor. Good thing too, because Erin, being an English major, was against censorship of any kind. Granted, that didn’t mean she planned to be irresponsible and have her high school students reading pornography, but she didn’t feel it was her job to tell other people what they couldn’t read. Besides that, history showed that if you told people not to do something, a good majority of them would run right out and do it…including reading a banned book.

  Riley slid his hand back around Erin’s waist and held her to his side, but his mother didn’t turn back around. They heard the front door close again. “That wasn’t awkward, was it?”

  Erin giggled. “How long before she comes back again?”

  “She better hurry before I get all your clothes off you.”

  She grinned and said, “I thought you were going to show me the pool table.”

  “I will…later.” He cleared his throat. “Unless, of course, you wanted to christen the damn thing.”

  But he must have read her mind. Yeah, she’d teased him and left him in the lurch yesterday, but she really had wanted nothing more than to be with him ag
ain. She didn’t care that he’d be gone in less than a week. She wanted him now and for as long as she could enjoy him, and she wanted to fuck him.

  They went back in his room and he closed the door. She said, “Think we’re safe?”

  He smiled, pulling her close. “Only one way to find out.”

  “You realize your mother could have me fired, right?”

  “For what?”

  “For whatever.” She looked down but then swept her eyes back up to meet with his. “So we better make it worth it.” She wrapped her hand around his neck, inviting him to kiss her on the lips and lifted her head up so he could.

  Riley took her invitation, and Erin realized that, for probably the first time since they’d gotten together, there wasn’t much finesse to it. She knew why too. If he felt half as desperate as she did, he wanted her and needed her and felt little patience for the trappings of foreplay, especially after yesterday. So she wasn’t going to waste any time. She grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up to his underarms where he took over, pulling it over his head and tossing it aside. And, oh…there were his dog tags. She wasn’t going to examine them right now, but just noticing them close up got her excited. Holy shit! She was fucking a real, honest-to-God rock star. And it wasn’t in a bathroom stall or her down on her knees polishing his gun. It was mutual, and as that thought sunk in, she realized she was fully ready and even close to orgasm. And the encounters they’d already experienced just primed her more.

  And, really, Riley wasn’t just a rock star. In the short time she’d gotten to know him, she’d grown to like him. She still wasn’t sure if his whole cocky demeanor was just an act, but she thought she’d started to see underneath it all. Her first indication had been when they were making out on her couch after the dinner / dance for auction winners, how hurt he’d seemed when she’d turned him down. He was a real guy underneath the bad boy exterior.

  Not that she didn’t like the bad boy shell around him. In fact, that had been what had caught her interest first. There was nothing more attractive than a super-confident guy who knew what he wanted and didn’t give a fuck what anyone else thought. She’d been drawn to his looks, but dropping five-hundred on her just because he could and to hell with everyone else…that had started her thinking differently about him.