The Man I Thought I Trusted

by E. L. Todd

  I started to thrust into her harder, grinding my body right against her clit so she could fall apart in ecstasy.

  When she came, her nails nearly sliced into my skin, and she moaned uncontrollably into my face. Her mind went elsewhere as her body took over, riding the high that made all the neurons in her brain fry.

  I thrust harder and harder, catching on to her coattails and descending with her, groaning in mutual pleasure, her body accepting what I gave her.

  It was so fucking good.

  Damn.

  When we finished, we were still two single bodies wrapped together, still two people who didn’t want to break apart.

  If sleep weren’t essential to function, I would skip it and just keep doing this—all night long.

  I moved off her and lay on the bed beside her, feeling the sweat start to evaporate from my body the second we broke apart. The heat from our mutual desire faded as soon as we were finished, and the room felt cold.

  She didn’t get up to go the bathroom. She closed her eyes and took advantage of all the good chemicals that had released in her brain so she could drift off to sleep.

  I lay beside her and stared at her, the most beautiful woman in the world in my bed. I was so used to sleeping with her at this point that it was hard to sleep without her. There were some nights a week when we were apart—and it never felt right.

  The only time the world felt right was when she was with me.

  8

  Dax

  We warmed up on the court and passed the ball around to make our shots. We were already sweaty with our hearts pumping before the game even began.

  I noticed Carson and Charlie walk through the double doors and join us, both with towels over their shoulders and water bottles in their hands. They were talking to each other, engaged in conversation.

  Carson was in a pair of little black shorts and a blue tank top, the color beautiful on her. She had the nicest legs, perkiest ass, and when her hair was pulled back from her face, it showed just how beautiful she was—without makeup.

  They took a seat on one of the benches and continued their conversation.

  I broke away from the guys and joined them. “Hey, sweetheart.”

  Carson rose to her feet, a breathtaking smile entering her lips, and she greeted me with a kiss that was not rated PG-13. Her hand went to my bare stomach, and she gripped my strong abs. “Hey, babe.”

  I gave her ass a tight squeeze before I pulled away. “I like it when you call me that.”

  “Yeah?” she asked. “I like it when you grab my ass like that.”

  “I already knew that.” I winked before I greeted Charlie with a handshake. “Hey, man.”

  He returned the gesture and gave me a nod. “Ready to lose again?”

  “I don’t plan on losing today.”

  “Well, Carson is pretty fired up, so you don’t have much of a chance.” Charlie took a drink from his water bottle.

  I turned back to Carson. “I know how to keep her distracted…”

  “Give me your best shot.” She started to saunter onto the court.

  I smacked her ass as she walked away before I turned back to Charlie. “Where’s Matt?”

  Charlie turned to look at the entryway just as Matt and Denise walked inside. “They got into an argument and fell behind.”

  “An argument about what?”

  “NSYNC or Backstreet Boys.”

  I chuckled. “Aren’t they old?”

  “Well, then it segued into a discussion about One Direction… I don’t think Matt will be able to focus now.” He turned to look at Denise as she came closer, wearing a long-sleeved dress and boots. He gave a really deep sigh before he turned back to me. “I don’t think I will either.” He stripped off his shirt and joined us on the court. Matt took a little longer.

  Charlie shouted back at him. “Get your ass out here!”

  Matt walked onto the court and turned around to shout back at Denise once more. “You know Harry carried the whole band! Don’t even lie.” He put up his hand to silence her before he joined us in the middle of the court. “She has terrible taste.”

  Carson stood with her hands on her hips, stretching her core. “You’re so red in the face I would assume you were talking about politics.”

  “Politics?” Matt asked incredulously. “No one cares about politics. People care about the best boy band in history. That’s what matters.”

  “Are we gonna play?” Charlie asked. “Or have a debate about the hottest member of the band?”

  “Hey.” Matt pointed at him. “I’m trying to establish some girl talk so I can see what she says about you. So, shut your mouth.” He dropped his hand. “And you know that’s JT. Come on.”

  “If Charlie wanted to know, I could just ask her,” Carson said.

  “That’s not girl talk,” Matt countered. “Talking to your sister is not real girl talk. Talking to a handsome and sophisticated gay man is.”

  I liked my friends and never took them for granted, but Carson and her gang were always interesting. “Let’s get this game started so I can grope my girlfriend.” I looked at Carson and waggled my eyebrows.

  She rolled her eyes like what I’d said was stupid, but I knew she loved it.

  “Alright.” Matt stood in the middle with the ball. “Let’s get the jump shot going and get this party started.”

  At the end of the game, we walked to the bleachers and wiped down with our towels. Water was squirted into our mouths, and we caught our breath. It had been a competitive match, and I’d managed to distract Carson enough to make them lose.

  It was a weak victory, but it was still a victory.

  “You totally cheated.” She stabbed her finger into my side to tickle me. “How am I supposed to get the ball when I have two enormous hands gripping my ass cheeks like that?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. You went to Harvard, so I’m sure you can figure it out.” Nothing got under her skin more than mentioning her alma mater, and when the irritated expression came over her face, I knew I’d accomplished exactly what I wanted.

  She gave me a playful smack on the arm before she grabbed her water bottle.

  “You guys are cute.” Denise sat on the bleachers by herself, not looking at Charlie even though he was shirtless beside her, wiping down his sweaty body with a towel.

  “You think this man sabotaging the game is cute?” Carson asked. “I think he’s a punk.”

  I was so absorbed in Carson that I didn’t notice the basketball aimed right for me. It came from my side and hit me before it fell to the floor and bounced away.

  “Sorry!” A group of women high up on the bleachers waved at me. Their leader was a brunette in her workout clothes, a sports bra and leggings.

  “It’s no problem. Just an accident.” I went after the ball and picked it up, and when I rose to my full height, the brunette was right in front of me, giving me a flirtatious attitude. “Here you go.” I handed the ball back.

  She took it and tucked it under her arm. “Can we play with you guys sometime? We aren’t as good as you, but maybe you can give us a few pointers?”

  Now I wondered if they’d thrown the ball at me on purpose just to get my attention. Was it not obvious I was with Carson? Instead of blowing the woman off right away, I thought the guys might like the opportunity to talk to the girls, so I said, “Maybe we—”

  “Bitch, he’s taken.” Carson came to my side and stared down the girl trying to make a pass at me. “And don’t act like you didn’t know, because you did. Throw the ball at my man again, and I will shove that ball up your ass.”

  All her confidence disappeared, and she quickly turned away like a dog with its tail tucked between its legs.

  Carson grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me back to the gang. “Let’s go eat. I’m starving.” As if nothing had happened, she dragged me away and groped my ass for the girls to see.

  “You were a little harsh with that girl,” Denise said across from her sister as she pic
ked at her salad. The rest of us had pizza, wings, beer, but she chose to stick to something clean.

  Carson was the same size, but she seemed to eat whatever she wanted. Right now, she had two slices of pizza on her plate along with a stack of extra hot wings. “Was not.”

  “I’m sure Dax gets hit on all the time,” Denise said. “Are you gonna hunt them all down and call them bitches too?”

  Carson continued to converse with her sister like I wasn’t sitting right beside her. “Yes, of course, I know he gets hit on all the time. Look at the guy.” She pointed at me with her thumb and gave me a once-over. “But she knew he was with me, and she thought she was hotter in her little workout outfit, so she went for it. She’s a bitch, and she knows she’s a bitch. I tell it how it is.”

  “If she knew and did it anyway, then yeah, that is pretty bitchy.” Denise grabbed her root beer and took a drink.

  “I don’t feel bad.” Carson picked up a wing and took a huge bite out of it. Then she chewed it for a long time in order to get it down her throat. “Come after my man, and I’ll come after you.”

  I wiped my mouth with a napkin before I spoke. “I thought it was pretty hot…honestly.”

  “See?” Carson pointed at me. “He thought she was a bitch, too.”

  “Whoa, I did not say that.” I wasn’t walking around calling women bitches. My balls would be sliced off. “Just thought it was hot that you got jealous and did something about it.”

  Carson gave me a wink. “Good answer, babe.”

  “What if she tried to fight you?” Matt asked, his mouth full of food.

  “I would beat her ass,” Carson said. “She’s one of those girls that spends a ton of money on her workout clothes but doesn’t actually work out. It wouldn’t even be a fair fight.”

  Charlie wiped his mouth with a napkin before he took a drink of his beer. “My money’s on Carson. Always.”

  Carson blew him a kiss and whispered, “Love you.”

  He waved away her kiss like he was disgusted and didn’t say it back.

  I chuckled at their interaction, liking the way Charlie loved her like a sister, putting her down most of the time without wearing his heart on his sleeve. I wasn’t the least bit worried that there was more to the relationship than met the eye.

  “So…” Charlie wiped his fingers with a napkin, getting the hot sauce off his skin. “You’re going to a fancy party on Saturday. Maybe you should take an etiquette course.”

  “Oh, shut up.” She was hunched over her food as she bit into a greasy slice of pizza, the cheese stretching between her lips and the food, making a mess all over her hands and face. She finished the bite and said, “I’m fine.”

  Charlie gave her a blank stare as if he couldn’t disagree more. “You should look in the mirror, kid. You look like a bear that found the honey stash.”

  “Well, I don’t eat like this at nice places. And how are you supposed to eat pizza and hot wings without putting your elbows on the table and getting shit all over your face?” Carson asked defensively. “I’ll be fine.”

  I hated the stuffy universe that contained my existence. Carson’s realism was a breath of fresh air. Even if she did act like this on Saturday, I wouldn’t care. “I don’t care how she eats.”

  Carson turned to me and blew me a kiss before whispering, “Love you, babe.”

  I smiled. “Love you too.”

  She went back to eating.

  Everyone stilled when they heard us exchange such heartfelt words, even if we were just making a joke.

  “Besides,” I said. “If she eats dirty, she does other things dirty too.”

  Denise cringed. “Ew.”

  Charlie immediately shifted his position in the chair like he was uncomfortable. “Okay now…”

  Matt loved it. “Hell yeah.” Then he proceeded to stare at me as if he was picturing me being the one to do the dirty things.

  Carson wiped her face with her napkin before she leaned in to kiss me. “Aren’t we just perfect together?”

  I smiled as I slowly leaned in and gave her a kiss, my heart filling with so much love for this woman. It felt right; it felt true. We were like two magnets that came together and never broke apart. “Yeah.” I rubbed my nose against hers before I pulled away. “We are.”

  She straightened in her chair and dunked her hot wing in a pool of ranch.

  I continued to stare at her, no longer interested in my food.

  “Do you have something to wear?” Denise asked.

  “I have a couple black dresses that will do just fine,” Carson said. “And I have Mom’s earrings. Everyone else might be wearing designer gowns and stuff, but whatever.” She turned back to me. “Is that okay?”

  I would offer to buy her something nice, but it would turn into a fight I didn’t want to have. So I just accepted whatever she had on hand. “As long as it’s short and slutty, yes.”

  “It’s backless.” Carson smiled at me as she waited for my reaction.

  My eyes stayed on her. “Even better.”

  9

  Carson

  I looked in the mirror on the wall to make sure my earrings were correctly inserted into my lobes, and then I turned around to look at Charlie as he sat on the couch. “So, what do you think?” I struck a few poses, acting like Madonna from “Vogue.”

  His eyes barely glanced at me before they were back on the TV. “You look fine.”

  “Fine?” I asked incredulously. “That’s all you’re giving me? Like, fine, as in just alright? Or more like, damn, that bitch looks fiiiiiine.”

  He considered it with a shrug. “The first one.”

  I rolled my eyes and left the living room, my heels starting to tap on the hardwood floor after I stepped off the rug.

  “Nervous?” Charlie asked from the couch, his back to me.

  I threw my head back and laughed loudly, like a villain that had the perfect plan to steal the vault of diamonds. “Oh, you’re so funny.”

  Charlie got off the couch and turned to look at me. “I’m sure this is going to be fancy as fuck, a bunch of pretentious rich people talking about yachts. It might be intimidating.”

  “Intimidating?” I rolled my eyes. “A few trust-fund babies don’t intimidate me. If the mob makes me laugh, what will these guys do?” I opened my clutch and made sure all my valuables were there, including my phone since I had no pockets or anything in which to put my stuff.

  Charlie joined me at the dining table and looked at me as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You look nice.”

  “Thank you. I want to look classy and like I belong there, but I also want Dax to pull me into a dark alleyway and fuck me like a whore. Just trying to set the perfect tone for that.”

  He chuckled. “So, you want to look like a classy whore?”

  I rubbed my lips together as I considered it. “Yeah, pretty much. So, what are your plans for the night?”

  He shook his head.

  “Nothing?”

  “I might order a pizza.”

  “Interesting…”

  “Interesting, how? I recognize that tone.”

  “I just thought you would have gone for Denise by now. I’m going to be out of the apartment until tomorrow but probably Monday. Might be a good time to invite her over…”

  Instead of jumping at the opportunity, he looked forlorn. “Doesn’t feel like the right time.”

  “Because of Kat?”

  He nodded. “I was hoping she would understand and give her blessing, and that would be it.”

  I released a burst of laughter. “Wow…that didn’t happen at all.”

  “Yeah. I know.”

  “Well, I think we both put everything on the line so you could have what you wanted, so the whole thing would be pointless if you didn’t, you know? The damage is done. Whatever happens…happens.”

  He shrugged. “Yeah. I guess.”

  Dax was supposed to pick me up any minute, so I continued to wait for his knock at the door. I’d c
urled my hair even though I usually left it straight, and I’d even put on fake lashes for this event. I never wore my makeup this heavy or donned my finest jewelry to impress anyone. I looked totally different from how I did any other day.

  “Dax told me you guys did that I love you thing.” There was a slight tone of accusation to his voice.

  “Yeah, we did.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t tell me.”

  My only response was a shrug. I looked down at my black clutch in my hand as I remembered that evening.

  “I’m happy for you.”

  “I know you are, Charlie.” I lifted my gaze and looked at him again. “I’ve never been this happy in my life. I want to say I regret the way I acted before, regret the way he lied to me, but I can’t. Because all those experiences brought us together and gave us this foundation.”

  “I wouldn’t regret it either. You guys are perfect together. Two pieces of a puzzle.”

  “I think so too.”

  “Do you think you’ll move in with him?”

  “I don’t know about that…it’s not like we talked about it. Why do you ask?”

  “Well, you always run to me to tell me everything. The fact that you kept this to yourself makes me realize he’s becoming your home base. I’m being replaced. It’s not a bad thing…but it’s happening.”

  Now, I went to Dax with my problems. Now, I kept our quiet moments private because it belonged to us and not my friends. Our lustful relationship turned into something deep and meaningful. “You can never be replaced, Charlie. And yes, I know what you mean. If we moved in together, that would mean leaving this place and going to a penthouse—and that would be weird.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, I can’t picture you in that environment at all. Tell him to get an apartment with you.”

  “He would never do that. How can you go from the top to the bottom?”