LYDIAAs a couple we were doing great so far. Connor had at least tried to be supportive and if we were going to be serious about this, the first step to take was meeting his family.Even though he viewed me meeting his family as some sort of way courting me, I still appreciated the sentiment. He wanted us to be together for real. Forever and no matter how patient I wanted us to be the truth still lurked and the truth was we loved each other and deserved to be happy.I smiled nervousness eating at my palms as Connor’s aunt walked with me to the kitchen.“I’m glad you settled things. It’s my first time seeing him happy since he lost his mother”I didn’t want to poke my nose into the whole Sussanne issue. Connor was still sour about it and if anything, he hadn’t exactly told his family about the whole Mafioso thing or his other side hustling drug trafficking gig.Victoria Powers must have noted this because she placed her ladle on the kitchen counter eyeing me with curiosity. Fifty or m
CORNELIUSIf this wasn’t hell I didn’t know what was.“Connor pass the bread”, Nicole mocked and I bit my lip with frustration passing the damn bread.I tried to stare at her from across the table but Lydia wouldn’t budge. She had seen me kissing Nicole’s friend and stormed away in silence.Technically I wouldn’t exactly call it kissing, Masha or Tasha or whatever name she went by had basically lunged in my arms faster than I could say stop and as if the universe was against me, Lydia happened to pop up from nowhere.Cain clicked his glass with a damn spoon and I didn’t give two shits about what he wanted to talk about. He stood up, telling everyone thank you for attending and all that gaba gaba but I was too gilded by anxiety to actually listen.I whipped my phone from my pants, pulling up her contact.Can we talk?Her phone buzzed but she didn’t as much as give it a glance.She kissed me.Talk to me.Look at me, for fuck’s sake.She didn’t and I forced myself to pretend that whatever
LYDIAWe arrived in Austin as fast as we could and while I sat with my mother waiting for Connor to bring the coffee, I couldn’t help but feel like somehow this was my fault.It was an accident my mother said but, in my heart, something told me it wasn’t.Sure the old pickup Harrison Hayden had seen better days but I had watched him drive the same truck all my life. It was the same truck he drove me to high school with, the same truck he drove to the market with and never in those countless times had he had an accident or the brakes giving up.But now when Connor and I had enemies lurking all around us, it just happened that my father’s truck had brakes that weren’t working.Impossible.“He’s going to be okay. I know he will”My mother said holding to my hands with a vise grip.She was trying to convince herself by assuring me that Harrison was a fighter and I didn’t know what to say…If my father died, God the thought of his death felt like me getting impaled by a blunt dagger.He wa
CORNELIUSThe old geezer was a handful.I could barely feel my skin as the sun bit my skin like a thousand termites tearing my skin bit by bit.Putting the hoe down, I gulped the rest of the water my eyes on the patio.“You are doing great”, she mouthed and I heaved in response. Her smile was the only thing helping me get through this, otherwise I would have given up weeks ago when her father suggested he needed some work done on his farm.Of course, he had fired all the farm boys and hired me. And necessarily not hired me but manipulated me into working on his farm for weeks now.Harrison Hayden was testing me, trying to make the fine thread of calmness I had maintained snap, trying to make me leave his daughter by overworking me but I would rather continue cleaning up horse shit than admit defeat.Lydia and I were together and pretty soon I would pop the question and then no man be it her father would take her away from me.I was finishing up on the digging. The digging I had done f
LYDIA“She’s so cute”, I cooed like a fan girl in one of Dean Lewis’ concerts.Chubby cheeks, long lashes, Carlos’ midnight black hair, God she looked like an angel and I wanted nothing more than to jump inside my screen and steal the little thing from a distraught Henley’s arms.“Only because you’ve not been with her for a day”“I want one”, I fussed about putting my salad aside.“Motherhood isn’t an easy feat, Dia. I haven’t slept for days”She did look sleep deprived. Like a week sleep deprived.While Carla looked like she had been straight out from a sauna, her mother, Henley looked like she had been sleeping on the streets for weeks with her ginger hair up her head in a mess, eyebags under her eyes and her shirt…well let’s just say motherhood had taken a rather hard toll on her.“Ooh I’m sure I’ll manage it. I mean you did, right? And Veronica is on her way to becoming a mother too so..”“Right, how are things between you and Connor?”Ooh between sex, watching rom coms, him talki
CORNELIUSHappiness, I never really knew it until today because boy oh boy when the doctor said Lydia was pregnant my heart had been roaring so loudly in my throat.I was going to be a father.To a girl and I really hoped it was a girl. Or a boy, a choice Lydia preferred.A few months later and we were still indecisive whether we wanted to know the gender of the baby or not. Girl or boy, my mind had been solely dependent that I was going to be a father and God damn it, I was going to be the best father there was going to be.While Benjamin Flores, my dad had been a dick to me in my entire childhood, he had still been a father figure to me and I was hell bent on being a better father to my kids. And Lydia? Well, I had no doubt she was going to be a good mother even though her temper tantrums over the past few months had overtaken the sweetness inside of her.“You did good”, Cain said pulling me out of my reverie.I gulped the martini at a go, eyeing him with a quirked brow,“What’s tha
JOAQUINI loved her, no not past tense but present tense, I love her.She was the only woman who made me feel like this way like my shitty life could somehow change, and I was ready, to change.To become a batter man. To leave my terrible life behind and start a fresh. A good life without violence, without blood shed without my father but then life was never easy was it?I killed Rocco, I mean sure the motherfucker deserved it and it gave me pleasure to kill him but doing that had brought all of this shit in front of me.I gazed at the rusty place they held me in.It had been days since I ate anything, not that I would stomach any food with the sight in front of me.The blood and gore, a body sprawled up from the ceiling like it was nothing.Like it was a bloody sack of potatoes and not a living thing. They had done it in front of me, made sure I got to witness each and every layer of skin they pulled from the body.My screams had been nothing to them and how could they?We were train
CORNELIUS“Do you know who did this? Why—she never had any enemies, she never caused trouble. I don’t understand”“Has, she doesn’t have any enemies. Present tense because she’s going to pull through”, I said with a growl and my aunt Vicky shut her mouth with understanding.I scrubbed a hand over my face noticing the red color of Lydia’s blood adorning my hands like paint. My heart wept, my hands shook, I couldn’t breathe because it felt like I was on the losing end.Because I was on the losing end of the battle. I was about to lose the two people that mattered to me in a single day and I felt it. I felt it the minute the medics strapped Lydia’s lifeless body to the stretcher. I felt it the moment I glanced at the pool of blood left behind by her body.I felt it because she couldn’t move and inch as I tried to call her name over and over again. As I tried to plead for her to hold on. For my sake. For our baby’s sake.God, this was all my fault and if she died, I was going to die with
ZADE"Wait, wait, wait. The woman you've been seeing has amnesia, a kid, a boyfriend and now she has miraculously gotten her memories back? Forgive me for laughing but you were never cut out for love. Wait and dad disowned you? Seems like you have yourself caught up in a jam bro", Sawyer's voice came from the other end of the line as I carried my duffle bag into my truck looking at the mansion one more time.I sure as hell wasn't going to miss this place in the least bit.I hit the road and with Sawyer at the end of the line maybe the way to the airport wouldn't be that bad.I needed someone asshole talking to me about my mistakes so that they could dim out everything I felt at the moment.The fire station was going to be constructed under the supervision of Falcon, a man I had no doubts was more than capable especially after I had ensured everything was in order before I left.While I was going back to San Francisco a couple million dollars poorer well I had done what needed to be do
CLAIREZade was back and he was standing in my living room gazing at me as well as the other pairs of eyes that did.A ginger haired woman with two kids stood by the corner with her husband who still couldn't drop that look of I think I've seen a ghost.There was another blonde woman with the same same look...then another woman...then Zade, my parents and then him and everything didn't make sense.I opened my mouth to say something but the words wouldn't force themselves out as I looked at the man who stared at me the way Zade did.Like I was his entire world.Like I meant a lot more than I knew. And I especially couldn't breathe when I realized he looked exactly like Axel.Axel's father.But why was he staring at me like this was his first time doing so? Like he couldn't believe I was standing in front of him and Axel either.I didn't want to cry.Axel was in his room if he had heard any noise he would start making a ruckus and God knew I wasn't in the right mind to calm him down be
CORNELIUSFreedom.I never yearned for it. I never even wanted in the first place and here I was a two week free man.My family had really done it pulled all their connections enough to make sure I would only spend two years and some months in prison and not more.And when I had left prison with quite a nickname, my operations didn't stop.My life was rotting away anyway the least I could have done was taking a job that befit me as who I truly was.And I must admit taking down gangs while in prison was no easy feat. It had started as some sort of thing between me and Javi.I had saved him. Against my butter judgement I had saved him from the Gatos earning a week in solitary. A cold place that I rightfully earned and from then on I was fighting criminal gangs in prison killing a few just so I could end up in solitary alone like the monster I was.One year past and suddenly I was some hero to the inmates only they didn't know I did what I did because I wanted to punish myself because I
ZADEWhen I saw her the only thing i had thought about was how much fun I would have taking off that dress of her body and kissing every inch of her skin till I had enough of her.And when I had gifted the kid a saber plastic sword and he had hugged me I had wanted him to be part of my life too.I wanted both of them to be in my life and yet funny how life was a bitch waiting for the right moment to strike.The Smith sisters and other women getting too clingy for me to bear, I had gone upstairs.I loved attention. Attention from women but the only attention I needed at the moment was from the woman who's heart had swelled the minute her son cut the cake and took a fist of the cake before anyone could get a slice.On my way to Claire's room, I had almost stumbled to Vienna Smith which prompted me to hide in the next room.The next room didn't get any better when I heard the footsteps coming my way with so much urgency I had to hide.An unfortunately for me the only hide-able place arou
CLAIRE "Your skin is glowing", Riley commented, I hid behind the comment by trying to seem busy with the ingredients laid in front of me."Must be the new serum you got from the market the other day", Vienna Smith added taking another balloon in her hand.I preferred to remain silent for lack of a better lie to come up with. I couldn't just tell them that he you guys know what? I've been sleeping with Zade Cutler since last week and I've been fucking enjoy it.We've fucked in my own shop at the old observatory that's near completion, in his car and ooh did I mention he has a cabin just for us?If the that didn't shock them, then definitely telling them that I had been reckless enough with Zade not to use protection definitely would.Plus I wanted Zade and I to be a secret. If anyone got news of our relationship then people would talk and even if I wasn't majorly dependent on what people said for me to exist, I still didn't want the town to pressure me into something I didn't want.I
ZADEShe regretted it. If the empty space next to me didn't say so then I didn't know what did.Part of me still mad that she had gone without as much as leaving a note, the other part of me was still reliving what happened last night over and over again like it was all a dream I had woken up from.I fucked women ofcourse I had fucked them but what Claire and I had was way beyond fucking.Her moans, me grunting, her pussy against my dick and the feel of it. Damn it was like a vise grip holding me tight rendering me weak until using protection flew out my mind the minute I kissed her.Some part of me know she might have regretted it, the part that had decided to call it to a halt when I realized we might have gone too far but leave it to my dick, the one thing that had led me where I was at that moment to make a rash decision.But I didn't regret it. I would never regret it because it might have been the best might of my life and I was not joking when I said that.Come to think of it,
CLAIRESober or not, I enjoyed this.I could feel him everywhere, I could feel each and every thrust hut my hilt till the only coherent thing that came out of my mouth was his name.We could have gotten caught but I was too high on my orgasm and a little too drunk to care.His hand in my hair pulling at it till my scalp stung, I bucked my hips against his dick feeling it fill me to the absolute brim and his lips?He was kissing me, he sucking me, he was doing something with his fingers that had me on chokehold that had me squirming and dancing in delirium.When he finally came inside of me and I felt ropes and ropes of his seed inside me, I only took one large gulp of breathe before my whole body folded into his.And for a few minutes all I could do was feel his breath on my shoulder, feel his cock warm my insides and at the same time listen to the sound of his heart beat as it did with mine.I made an attempt to stand up not really sure what had happened but very sure I wanted more a
ZADE CUTLER"Okay, if the mayor loses and that's a good if, we'll go to Falcon's after this, you'll pick a guy any guy and go with him at his place with no protests"I had spotted them the minute they stepped foot on this God forsaken contest. On my way to atleast pass them a greeting or two, the brunette carrying Axel had uttered those words and I had slowly retreated to the back of the crown bumping into the one woman I didn't want to talk to in the first place.Courtney Neal. An ex who had suffocated me since Sunday.I was a piece of scum for dumping her the way I did but that was decades ago. While I'm not going to lie that she had matured into one gorgeous woman I was about as uninterested in her as I was with a soap dish.And all night she'd done one thing and one thing only.She had hovered over me like a pesky mosquito and while I tried my best to keep my pretences, laugh at her jokes once in a while, compliment her on her looks, my eyes still found someway into the crowd and
CLAIRE"Should we perhaps add sesame seeds?""Good God, Frida the pie is already baked", my father grunted taking his coat from the rack."Pie! Pie!" Axel clapped, I laughed.Running five minutes late, my mother was jittery. Last minute jitters my father called it.And my dearest father had stood watch over the pie like a sentinel. He was trying to ensure an incident like last time didn't happen.An incident where mom got nervous added a whole lot of cinnamon to the pie last minute that had made my dad hundred percent sure they would have won had she not done that.Not trying to raise their hopes up but this year's pie was a sure win. You could taste the pumpkin right in there, the texture of the pie itself was crusty and smooth but not like the monstrosity of last year.I would be cheering on if I didn't know for a fact that the Cutlers had this in the bag.Genevieve to this day was still the best pie maker, something I was suspicious about but decided to let it roll down my back.If