Anguished (Crimson Elite Book 2)

by T. L Smith

  “Maybe I can even come see where you live?”

  I’m taken aback by her words. My mother’s a creature of habit, she doesn’t like to change scenery, she stays in one place and has never left.

  “I would love that.”

  “You should come, please come,” Tracey begs me.

  We’ve just finished work, and I have to wash my clothes which are still sitting in my bag. That designer dress is going to be ruined. It’s so perfect.

  “I have so much work to do.”

  “It’s just a small party, nothing too extravagant. We have some big news,” she says excitedly.

  “I can only stay for an hour or so, is that okay?”

  “Of course, I would like you there. I like you and hope you consider me a friend.”

  “I do.”

  “Great! Here’s my address. Be there in one hour, okay?”

  “Sure, I’ll go home and change first.”

  She skips off as I walk to my car. Maybe my day won’t be such so terrible after all. Being hungover and working all day, is not what I had planned. Why does it take longer the older I get to get over the effects of alcohol. I felt seedy all day.

  Her house is beautiful, it reminds me of a small country cottage in the suburbs. The house is white with a large porch. Well, large compared to the size of the house. There are many cars parked out the front—I thought she said this was going to be a small thing. I count at least fifteen cars. The bottle of wine in my hand won’t make a difference there are that many people.

  “Didn’t think I’d be seeing you again.” My hand pauses before it knocks on the door. To the left of me, Tracey’s brother is sitting in a white rocking chair with his cell in hand.

  “Is Tracey home?” He smiles and I know he’s trouble, not just from what Tracey says about him either. It’s all in that smile he holds. It’s mischievous.

  “She is, but I’m not sure you want to go in just yet, maybe you should wait?”

  Knocking on the door despite his words I smile at him. He sits back, his leg lifting to sit on his other knee as he watches me with that smile still etched on his face.

  “You’re here. Thanks so much for coming.” Tracey pulls me in, and the last bit I see of Tracey’s brother, Falcon, is his devilish smile.

  “I brought wine.” Tracey takes it from me and pulls me through the house. Stopping at a few people to introduce me before she gets to a woman who’s smiling so brightly.

  “This is Jordan, my wife. We are going to be parents.” I’m sure my eyes bulge, but I manage to a smile anyway.

  “Congrats guys, that’s amazing.” Tracey kisses Jordan on the cheek and they look back up at me.

  “Falcon only just told me. I’m sorry about what happened, Storm.” I give her a puzzled look. “About you and Echo. Falcon tells me everything, and I mentioned you were coming, so—” I wave her off.

  “It’s fine.”

  “The thing is—”

  “Storm.” My heart rate picks up, I know that voice, I know it very well. I know it from the way it leaves his mouth in breathily whispers when he’s inside of me, to how he calls me when he wants me.

  “I tried to tell you, but—”

  I cut her off. “It’s fine.” I turn to Echo. Who makes me pause with what I was about to say just by looking at him. He’s someone you think looks better in your head until you’re in front of him. Then you realize you could never really do the picture in your head justice because in real life he’s certainly a ten. “Nice to see you again, Echo.”

  His eyebrows scrunch at my words. “Is it, Storm?”

  “Look, we’re just going to go…” I see them leave but don’t turn to face them.

  “Of course, it is, Echo. How are you?” I say in my best acting voice, when inside I’m screaming.

  “I would be even better if I could touch you. Have you thought about that, Storm, about the way I touch you.” I’m trying really hard to not pant at his words. The way his lips move when he says it, or the way his eyes track me up and down like he knows perfectly every inch of my body. Which he does.

  “We ended it, or did you forget? When your lips touched someone else. That was part of our deal, remember? To only be with each other while we needed each other. You broke that, but I’m happy to be friends. Would you like that?”

  He doesn’t falter when he speaks, “I see you’re bringing out your boss attitude. But the thing is, Red, I’m already a boss. So, it doesn’t work on me the way it would intimidate others.” I didn’t realize I was coming across that way until he says it. He clasps my hand with his and pulls me from the main room until we are out the back. No one is here but us, and the sun is starting to set. “Do you want to hear what happened, or just keep making assumptions?” he asks me.

  “I really don’t need to know. I saw all I needed to… from the way you got up when she asked and walked off without a backward glance… honestly, that was all I needed to know. That’s why I went after you because I knew what was happening, I just wanted to see it with my own two eyes.” I go to turn to walk away from him, but he traps me again with his hand on my wrist.

  “Tell me, did I look at her the way I look at you?” He lets go of my wrist and his hands come to my face as his baby blue eyes stare at me. It happens in slow motion as he leans forward bringing his lips to mine—I’m helpless to stop him from doing it. I want his lips as much as I want to hate him, and that’s a lot. Hating him isn’t something I think I’ll be good at. Despite the situation being warranted. So, I do nothing, not a damn thing when his lips slam on mine.

  The lure of him is pure fucking magic. It’s how you want your forever to taste, but he isn’t that, though. So, I give in, my hands reach up and cling to his shirt, clutching it with both hands and gripping on for dear life as I kiss him back. Our mouths open, and somehow I pull him closer, like the air that licks at a fire, making it burn even brighter. He makes me burn hotter with each and every touch. That’s why I know it’s impossible to keep on seeing him, feelings are there and I want them to go away, not increase with each touch. What started out as a fling isn’t going to end in one. It would have ended in me being broken, more so than my first, and that scares me most of all. What this man could do to me is not something I want, when I can tell it isn’t the same for him.

  So, I take his kiss, I fucking take it one last time, k

  nowing that it’s our last time.

  Our goodbye.

  It has to be, for my heart at least.

  20

  Echo

  Storm tastes like everything I want. Her breath is heavy as I try to steal every last breath from her. Her hands are tight as they squeeze my sides unable to move or let go when I know she is fighting to do so. Taking hold of her hips harder, she moans when I push myself onto her so she can feel exactly what she does to me. Why? What we have must go on, and not end due to some stupid thing I didn’t have control over or for that matter even do. But maybe she’s right. I didn’t think when I got up and followed Selena to the room, I didn’t even question it. She was all I’d known for so long and no other women were ever in the picture. I don’t cheat, it’s not who I am. So, for Storm to even think I would do that to her fucks with me in so many ways more so than one.

  “Storm,” Tracey calls her name.

  She pulls away from me breaking our kiss—her lips are pink, and she’s pink around her mouth also. She tries to wipe it off, but all she does is smudge her lipstick even more. Her brown eyes find mine and hurt is there. Plus, confusion like she can’t believe what she just did.

  “I need to go.” She doesn’t give me a chance to stop her before she runs up the stairs straight to Tracey, who looks down to me and shakes her head before they go inside.

  “That was hot,” Falcon says stepping around from the side.

  I shake my head at him. “What the fuck are you doing?”

  He puts his hands up in the air. “I was simply hiding from my sister when I happened to step around the
back to see you trying to molest that poor girl.” His hand goes to his heart as he shakes his head.

  “Shouldn’t you be playing the father role?”

  His face scrunches while his fist ball up tight. “Fuck you,” he sneers.

  “Go and be daddy.”

  He jumps at me landing his fist into my stomach making me double over. While I’m bent, I run at him, and we both land on the ground his back slamming hard when we go down. He pushes at me and manages to hit me in my jaw knocking me off of him, but not succeeding in making me bleed.

  “What the fuck,” a girl’s voice comes over, then hands are on me pulling me back. Falcon tries to run at me then stops when Jordan steps in the middle.

  Falcon is the father, something not many people know. He didn’t fuck Jordan, though he offered to do that. He gave his sister his sperm, so she and her girlfriend can have a baby, and they are hoping to fall pregnant soon. He loves Tracey, I envy what they have because I’ve never had that with my brother and we are twins. Yet, he has that with Tracey, and there’s a few years difference between them.

  “Explain to me what’s going on?” Soft hands touch me and I know it’s her. She wipes at my face, and I capture her hand with mine, then start walking away.

  “Keep your mouth shut, Echo,” Falcon yells after me. I flip him off and open my passenger door letting her in. She hesitates.

  “Just a quick drive.” Storm nods and reluctantly gets in. She sits there with her hands in her lap as I pull away. Not driving far, I stop at an empty park and turn to face her. Storm doesn’t look up, her eyes stay focused on whatever is in front of her. “Are you planning on ignoring me?”

  She turns to me. “What did you fight about just then?”

  I shake my head. “We should talk about what happened.”

  Storm shakes her head now. “No. Tell me what happened with you and Falcon.”

  “I teased him, pushed him too far.”

  “You seem to push most people too far,” she comments quietly.

  “Have I pushed you too far?”

  Storm’sH eyes are dark when she looks at me. “I shouldn’t be here with you. This isn’t us staying away from each other.”

  My hand moves on its own, I don’t have a say in what it does. It grips her face and pulls her to me. While the other undoes her seatbelt freeing her, so she can be near me.

  “What are you doing.” Storm doesn’t ask a question it’s more of a statement.

  “Just go with it.”

  And she does. Storm doesn’t speak again as I pull her over, so she’s now on my lap in the car. Pulling her down so her pussy hits me, I can feel her riding my cock is fucking magical. She bites my mouth as she kisses me and moans into it. Her nails dig into my shoulders, but she doesn’t stop, not even when I reach between us pulling up her skirt higher and tearing her panties so nothing’s there. “Storm.” Her head lifts and she reaches between us for my zipper, her hands wrap around my cock freeing it as she looks up. If I didn’t know any better I’d say hate sits in the back of her eyes packed with lust, pure fucking lust. Storm sits up bringing her breasts which are still covered by her shirt to my face, and I bite through it knowing exactly where her nipple is. She moans as she drops, positioning herself on my cock.

  Our eyes lock and I know I could taste and fuck her for the rest of my life. Would I ever get sick of her? I don’t think so. I got sick of Selena on many occasions where I needed to get away. Not once have I felt that way with Storm.

  She lowers herself so slow, watching me.

  “Never again,” she says, but I want to argue with her. Tell her no, but she stops as if she’s waiting for me to say it. When I don’t say a word, she pushed down all the way until I’m fully seated inside her. She pauses, takes a deep breath then leans forward and wraps her arms around my shoulders making our bodies flush as she starts rocking back and forth.

  This is the place between heaven and hell. That sweet ecstasy everyone craves, but can only dream of. That’s what it’s like knowing I have her right now, but soon I won’t. Soon she won’t even be mine.

  “I didn’t kiss Selena.”

  She doesn’t stop, not even from the words that leave my mouth. She keeps going up and down, her hands choking my neck with her vice grip.

  “I didn’t kiss her, Storm. I didn’t kiss her.”

  She lessons her grip, then leans back and kisses me all the while never stopping her movements. I grip her ass, holding it tight, lifting her up and down as she continues to rock back and forth. I can feel her tighten around me and know she’s about to come. Just as I go to tell her again, she kisses me before I can utter the words. Her lips land on mine stealing whatever words that were about to leave and she replaces it with her tongue. She bites my lip then rocks faster, holding my lip between her teeth, and only releases it when she’s almost there. She clenches and clenches, I rock her faster, our lips now touching but not moving. The minute she comes her head lands in the crook of my neck. Her breathing heavy and my cock still inside her. She goes to move after she catches her breath, but I grab hold of her ass pinning her to me not letting her leave.

  “I didn’t—”

  She slaps me.

  “I don’t care. Stop telling me. I. Don’t. Care.” She pulls herself off of me, and gets back in her seat while trying to pull her skirt down. Her hands are crossed over her chest as she stares straight ahead not looking my way.

  “Storm…”

  “Take me back, I have to go.”

  “We need to talk.”

  She turns to me, a stray tear in her eye. “No, we don’t. Take me fucking back to my car, or I will get out of this car and start walking.” Her teeth grinding on one another, her eyes unblinking. I do as she says and start driving. When we pull up at the house, she jumps from the car quickly. I go to follow her, but Falcon grabs hold of my arm.

  “Sor—”

  I punch him and chase after her. She stops, looks back, and shakes her head before she gets in the car and drives off.

  “Fucking hell.”

  “What the actual fuck. You just hit me, you asshole.” Falcon stands next to me, rubbing his jaw. “This one I didn’t even deserve.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you deserved it, somehow,” his sister comments laughing. Then she crosses her hands over her chest as she looks to me. “So, you’re the reason she missed work?” I shrug, I have no idea. “I think you need to give her space. She isn’t like Selena, she doesn’t like to be the center of attention.”

  I scratch my jaw. She’s right. I’m used to having to make it right straight away. Maybe she needs time.

  “One week,” I say.

  Tracey laughs. “Let’s aim for two at least.”

  “Fuck.”

  “You can do it,” Falcon says laying his hand on my shoulder, then sucker punches me in the gut. “You deserved that, asshole,” he says as he walks away.

  Time?

  Fuck.

  21

  Storm

  Storm

  A wedding, I’m helping plan a wedding. It’s so exciting. It helps me forget about everything else that’s going wrong in my life right now. Echo’s kept his distance, and I have only felt like calling him over twenty times, so that’s a plus. It could be worse. Maybe.

  “I don’t know. Don’t you think it’s too soon?” Mel asks from behind the curtain. My leg bounces with excitement as I wait for her. She came up to spend the weekend with me and to try on dresses which I insisted on.

  “No way. He would have married you years ago if he had his way.” She smiles as she steps out. “Oh my God, Mel. It’s beautiful. You are beautiful.” My hands cover my mouth because the dress fits her perfectly. The lace runs up her back with soft white buttons and there’s like a train of lace all the way down which stands out behind her.

  “Is it too soon to say this is it, if it’s the only one I’ve tried on?”

  My head starts shaking. “No. If this is it. It’s it.”

  She n
ods as she stares in the mirror. “Are you going to bring a date?” I shrug. “You could bring him, you know. I know you tried the no strings attached thing but that didn’t work. You obviously care for him, even if you want to say you don’t.”

  “It just got more complicated than I wanted.”

  “You can’t expect to sleep with someone for weeks and weeks and not form some kind of bond, Storm.” Her hands brush down the dress. “I’m getting it, and you’re bringing a date.” She walks off before I can even say anything. She’s getting married in a month. They both don’t want anything big, only those who have been there through their relationship, and family. It’s about time they finally got married. I’m amazed it didn’t happen earlier, to be honest. Looking down at my cell, I notice I have a missed call from work, then a message to follow it.

  “Mel, you be okay getting back to mine? I have to head into work to sort a few things out?”

  “Yes. Grab a bottle of wine on your way back. I’ll need one to sort out this seating chart,” she yells back.

  “Really? Vicki, why is she wearing pink?” The model stops doing up her dress and pauses at my words.

  “You said pink.” Walking to the wardrobe, I tear the peach colored dress I had picked out and hand to the model who nods and rushes off to get changed.

  “If you can’t follow orders—”

  Her hands shoot up in the air. “I think the pink looks better.” She shrugs.

  “It doesn’t. It’s softer colors we want, Vicki. Soft. Not bright. So next time you go your own way on one of my orders, maybe you can also hand in your keys.” The office assistant runs up to me handing me a note before she disappears.

  “In my office,” I murmur reading the note while walking away. I have no meetings scheduled today, so I’m unsure of why someone would be in there waiting for me. Opening my office door my heart beats, hard. His blond hair is right there sitting on one of my chairs. He shouldn’t be here. Why is he here? And then he turns around, and my heart falls to the floor. I’m not even sure how I feel about this.