Paradise City: Harrison Series Book 1

by L. L. Ash

  When it said sent and went back to the main screen I had a momentary heart attack, praying that it went to the right person. I went back to my conversation with Tyler and it was there. With a sigh of relief I put the phone down and put some clothes on and laid in bed until I heard back from Tyler. I didn’t have to wait long.

  The phone rang only once before I answered.

  “Holy hell, my balls just about exploded,” was the first thing he said.

  I burst into laughs and giggled in embarrassment while I suffocated myself in my pillow.

  “Thank you thank you SO much. I love it.”

  “I feel a little weird about it,” I admitted.

  “Don’t. You are beautiful. And it’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before so don’t feel weird.”

  “Oh, that helps,” I said sarcastically, but truly it did help a little.

  “Oh Baby, it’s gorgeous. It’ll get me through the long nights when I don’t have the real thing in my arms.”

  “Well I’m glad you like it.”

  “That’s the understatement of the year,” he laughed. “But yes, I love it so much.”

  There was a pause before he asked, “Will you tell me now?”

  I had hoped he’d forgotten.

  “I guess if I have to...”

  “You don’t HAVE to,” he started but I interrupted him and just dove in.

  “I was almost 18,” I confided. “He was my last boyfriend, and he kept telling me I was too old to be a virgin, that he loved me and he wanted to help me get past that ‘hurdle’.”

  “What a bastard,” Tyler said vehemently.

  “Yeah well, I didn’t figure that out til later. I eventually gave in and it was fine at first. But he just kind of shoved in and it was so painful. I begged him to stop because it hurt and he assured me that it’d go away and that I’d like it if I just relaxed. But you can’t really relax when you feel like you’re being split in half...”

  The phone line was silent as I went on.

  “Anyway. It didn’t last that long. He finished and got out of there and I wasn’t too bad off. I hurt for a couple days after that, but we broke up before ever trying again.”

  There was more silence and I finally asked, “Are you still there?”

  “The fucking bastard raped you,” Tyler growled out.

  “No, I mean, I was fine with it til it started hurting and it’s normal to hurt. He said I’d have to just go through it til it got better...”

  “What’s his name Sam? Give me his name.”

  My stomach roiled and I couldn’t speak. I wasn’t about to give him a name and let Ty get himself in trouble.

  “Didn’t anyone ever talk to you about that? About what it’s like the first time?” he asked, his voice filled with emotion.

  “Well I talked to a few girls about it...”

  “Sam, he used your naïvete and raped you. You told him to stop and he wouldn’t. That’s the fucking definition!”

  “I didn’t… I know that’s the definition but...”

  “He needs his balls ripped off and fed to him through his damn ass hole!”

  “Please Tyler,” I cried, tears burning down my cheeks.

  “Just hold on,” Tyler sighed then hung up.

  When the line went dead my tears came at full force and I felt stupid for even bringing it up in the first place. I threw my phone onto my computer chair and dug my head into my pillow before bawling.

  “Sam,” I heard. It was a man’s voice but it wasn’t Dad. It was a voice I cherished though.

  The mattress sank where he settled his weight down and I felt a strong hand touch my back, then move hair away from my face.

  “Sam, baby, look at me, please?”

  I had stopped crying by now. The tears dried up and my whole soul felt numb.

  “I’m sorry I reacted the way I did. I was angry. Hell I’m still angry, but I’m not angry at you. I’m sorry I blew up.”

  “I’m sorry I told you,” I said, moving my head to the side enough to talk without the pillow muffling me.

  “Did you press charges against him?”

  I shot up on the bed.

  “No I didn’t. My dad asked me if I wanted to, but there was nothing to charge against him. I made a stupid decision and I got the results of it. Stop totally blaming him.”

  “You were too innocent to know...”

  “I might have been a virgin but I wasn’t innocent Ty,” I told him, holding his gaze.

  “He still needs to have his balls ripped off.”

  “At least we can agree on that,” I told him and leaned back against the wall, pulling my knees to my chest.

  Tyler kicked off his Vans and moved closer until he was in an identical position next to me.

  “What do you want me to do?” he asked after a long moment of silence.

  “I just want you to know that I take sleeping with someone seriously. I’m not a whore like you implied earlier.”

  His mouth dropped open in shock.

  “I NEVER implied that!”

  “That’s how I took it, anyway.”

  “I said I was sorry...”

  “I know. I just want to…. Move on from this.”

  He nodded slowly and fiddled with a ring on his index finger.

  After another couple minutes of silence I told him, “If it makes you feel any better, my best friend about tore him apart.”

  Tyler grinned.

  “A chick beat the hell out of him?”

  “No, my best friend is Connor. He’s a guy.”

  “Your best friend is a guy?”

  “We’ve been friends since we’ve been in diapers.”

  “So it’s totally platonic then?”

  “Oh yeah,” I nodded, thinking about how I missed him.

  “How did he find out?” he asked.

  “Oh, evidently the other guy went to school the next day and was bragging about taking a virgin and how he ‘tore into that ass’ and Connor, knowing he was my boyfriend, put two and two together.”

  “I’d have smashed his face in.”

  “That’s what Connor did.”

  “Too bad I didn’t get the opportunity.”

  I shrugged.

  “I think I might like this friend of yours. Is he gay?”

  My eyebrows almost went into my hairline.

  “Uh, no. Definitely, definitely not.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Let me put it this way,” I said and got up.

  After pulling a picture down off the wall I brought it to him.

  “THAT’S him?” He asked, looking closely at the picture.

  “Yeah,” I said with a giggle. “Running back on the football team, skateboarder and musician.”

  “Hell, I think I might be gay now. Look at that!”

  I laughed and laughed while Tyler stared at the picture.

  “How are you platonic with that?” he asked me.

  “Because I still remember when he couldn’t wipe his butt.”

  “Touché.”

  “Well, we weren’t 100% platonic. We were each other’s first kiss.”

  “Oh hell, I have no chance now. First kiss status never dies.”

  I laughed and he looked at me.

  “If you were each other’s first kiss, why didn’t you have a relationship?”

  “Well, there’s a story behind that,” I explained and nudged Tyler’s arm before he got the hint and enveloped me in it. “We were only 10 at the time, and we were so anxious about our first kiss, so we just looked at each other and decided we’d end the suffering and find out what it was all about.”

  “So?”

  “It was actually really sweet,” I told him. “He put his hands gently on my cheeks like this….”

  I demonstrated, putting my hands on his face.

  “Then he slowly leaned forward and….”

  I pressed my lips to his in a chaste kiss and left them there for a moment before ending it
and looking at him.

  “What a great first kiss,” he said with a sigh.

  “What was your first kiss like?” I asked him.

  “7 minutes in heaven with an older girl,” he said with a shrug.

  “How old were you?” I asked suspiciously.

  “15,” he admitted. “I’d barely gotten past puberty and couldn’t really keep it in my pants, if you know what I mean.”

  I just laughed.

  “So what, you made out with her?”

  “Made out, groped. Got my first boob grab, too. It was a great 7 minutes,”

  “How old was she?” I couldn’t stop laughing.

  “16. She was a junior and I was a freshman.”

  “What junior kisses a freshman?”

  “The kind that thinks the freshman is hot?”

  “Oh, and you were hot at 15?”

  Somehow I didn’t doubt he was.

  He shrugged.

  “About the same as now. Though not as tall or ripped.”

  “Ok, I’ll believe that,” I said snuggling further into his embrace. “When did you lose your virginity?”

  He sighed and thought for a minute.

  “Oh, at about…. 16.”

  “You were young.”

  “Not as young as some of my friends.”

  “With an older girl?” I asked, already knowing what he was going to say.

  “You bet. Same girl from the 7 minutes in heaven. She was a senior at that point and I was a sophomore. We were at a party and got kinda drunk. Fooling around at first base just kind of turned into a full home run.”

  “Sounds like yours sucked too,” I commented.

  “Are you kidding? It was one of the best days of my life up to that point. I mean, I knew nothing would come out of it so I just enjoyed it while I had it. She taught me a lot in that session. And the few after that….”

  “How many times did you do her?” I asked with surprise.

  “A few,” he said cryptically.

  “A few,” I mocked him with a roll of my eyes.

  “6 or 7,” he shrugged again.

  “And I imagine you had many more chances after her, too.”

  “Had chances but rarely took them. The girls were too interested in my dad’s money instead of me. That was one of the reasons I liked Jessica. She thought I was hot, liked that I was inexperienced so the could ‘train’ me. Her words. It wasn’t about me or her. It was all about the sex.”

  “Did she train you?”

  “Well she taught me everything I knew, so you can answer that question for yourself.”

  “If I ever see her I’ll thank her for teaching you to eat a girl out.”

  He laughed again.

  “She was rigorous about that. And I’m grateful for it now. I thought it was weird at first, but if a girl was going to give it to me, I wasn’t going to question or complain. Now I absolutely love it.”

  I nodded, wondering if I wanted to hear anything else about the girls from his past.

  “And then I found you,” he said and slid the back of his fingers against my arm. “And I had the best freaking sex of my life. Jessica could take lessons from YOU.”

  I scoffed, but felt a little flutter of pride.

  “You haven’t even experienced all my skills yet,” I told him and his eyes sparked in interest.

  “Oh haven’t I?”

  “You’ve never had one of my BJs.”

  “One of your BJs? Are they famous?” he asked in amusement.

  “To some,” I said in my own cryptic way to get him back a little.

  “Not sure I like the thought of that,” he said with a frown on his face.

  I giggled and took one of his hands, pressing his finger to my lips and taking the entire thing until it bumped against the back of my throat.

  Tyler choked out a curse and pulled the finger most of the way out again before I sucked it back in.

  “Sam,” Dad knocked on the door and there was an audible ‘pop’ when Tyler yanked his finger back just in time for dad to walk in.

  “Just talked to Hannah and we’re a go for Thanksgiving,” he said, glancing at Tyler.

  No doubt we both had a look of naughty children getting caught at mischief.

  “I forgot to ask,” I told Dad, then turned to Tyler. “We were invited back to Kingman for Thanksgiving with Connor’s parents. Do you want to come with us?”

  “Oh, um…. I’m not sure. I mean, I’d love to go but I can’t leave Dad by himself for Thanksgiving….”

  “Invite him as well,” Dad butted in, “We could use another adult there. Besides it’s probably best we get to know each other to keep a better eye on you two.”

  Tyler grinned but refrained from speaking.

  “I know what you’ve been doing,” Dad said suddenly, crossing his arms over his chest in an intimidating fashion. “And I hope you are being careful.”

  Dad zeroed in on Tyler before saying, “And I’ll be watching you. You better treat my little girl better than the rarest pearl. She’s a beautiful girl with a beautiful soul that’s been taken advantage of more than enough in her young life.”

  “That I’d agree with,” Tyler nodded before glancing at me.

  Dad nodded then left the room without another word, leaving the door wide open.

  “Geez, I’m sorry about that…. Dad gets a little protective….”

  “I’m glad he is,” Tyler said, fingering my hair. “He’s right. And you only deserve the best. And I intend to give that to you.”

  I just smiled at him, not knowing what else to say.

  Chapter 6

  The weeks to Thanksgiving were quick but the weekends were spent entirely with Tyler. He was usually busy at the hotel, but he found time every night to talk on the phone or text me until we fell asleep. I found myself growing increasingly weary of my empty days and Dad kept encouraging me to get a job.

  The idea of having somewhere to go other than quarterstaff games sounded enticing, and the thought of money in my pocket was tempting, but I couldn’t bring myself to apply at the places that’d hire me. I didn’t want to work fast food or at grocery stores. Everything else required a college degree.

  I’d told Tyler about my predicament and he’d encouraged me to work too, though he agreed that fast food or grocery bagging wouldn’t be a good fit for me.

  The day before thanksgiving Tyler informed me that his dad was going to be out of town for the holiday so he’d come with us to Kingman.

  When the day finally arrived I was excited to have the entire day with him.

  He arrived at my house wearing charcoal grey tweed slim-fitting slacks, black dress shoes, black pencil tie on a white shirt with sleeves rolled up past his elbows. That beautiful black leather jacket was hanging in one hand, the other shoved in his pocket.

  “Wow, I can’t believe you can clean up that well,” I said in way of greeting with a heavy, lust-filled sigh.

  “Want to know a secret?” He asked as I backed up and let him in.

  “And what’s that?”

  “I don’t dress myself. Dad hires people to shop and put outfits together for us. We’re just the models for sizing and fittings.”

  “Are you kidding me?” I asked, my jaw dropping.

  “Nope,” he said, dipping his head to kiss me. “Want to know another secret?” he asked, his voice lowering.

  “What?” I asked in a whisper.

  He looked around the obviously empty room for effect then lifted a pant leg slowly. White polka dots on his turquoise socks were like a neon sign on his feet.

  “I rebel with my socks,” he said in a conspiratorial whisper.

  With that I just laughed.

  Tyler grinned, dropped the pant leg and put his free arm around me to kiss me again.

  “You look fantastic,” he told me, punctuating the statement with another kiss.

  “Oh, thanks,” I said, brushing my yellow and peach floral dress further down my legs.

  “You
look wholesome,” he said, looking me over again.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, unsure if I should be offended or not.

  I was wearing a knee length dress with flowy cap sleeves, scoop neckline that only showed the slightest hint of cleavage. It was white with soft yellow and peach florals and I finished it off with white high heeled sandals.

  “I mean, you look like the hot girl next door. I like it. Quite the opposite from the little sex kitten you usually dress up as.”

  I glanced around, hoping Dad wasn’t listening. I put a finger to my lips with wide eyes, hoping he’d stop talking.

  “Is Tyler here?” Dad called as he came down the hall. “Oh, I guess that answers my question,” he said as he spotted Tyler near the door.

  “We’re ready to go,” I told Dad as he grabbed the keys.

  Tyler and I went out the door, and Dad followed with a big bag of rolls in one hand and a covered dish in the other.

  I’d made the only dessert I knew how to cook. Mom’s apple cobbler.

  “I’ll meet you in the car,” Tyler said as he jogged to his car.

  When he returned he had 3 bottles of wine wrapped in his arms.

  “Plan on getting drunk?” I asked with a giggle.

  He grinned at me then explained, “I wasn’t sure what everyone’s tastes were, so I have a nice red, white and Rosé. Should cover everyone.”

  “You’re so thoughtful Ty,” I smiled bigger at him and pressed my lips to his cheek.

  We climbed into the back seat, settling the wine in the foot space on the left side of the car while I cuddled up to Tyler in the middle seat.

  “Oh, am I chauffeuring you then?” Dad asked as he got into the driver’s seat.

  “Don’t you want me to sit next to my sweet, lovable boyfriend,” I asked Dad in a joking voice.

  “I’d rather you sit next to your sweet lovable father, but I understand you choose him today.”

  “I love you Dad.”

  “Love you too Sweetie,” he said then turned on the radio after he buckled his seatbelt. “Well, since you’ll be cuddling it up the whole way, I’m listening to whatever I damn well please!”