“He deserves that.”“And you deserved not to be abandoned back then by both your parents and your brother. They’re assholes.”He pauses chopping. “No calling Nick an asshole.”“But he was. He knew you’d be all alone and still left anyway because he was selfish. Like my mother. People like them don’t care about who they leave behind and then pick up their lives as if we never happened, and that’s wrong, okay? It’s messed up and hurts on empty days because I keep thinking, was I not good enough? Was I just a stone in her life that she so easily kicked away and moved on with her life? Was I unnecessary?”“Hey.” He grabs me by the shoulders and the warmth of his big, strong hands seeps under my skin. It’s a safety net, one I can hold on to with all my might and not worry that it’ll break and let me go.“You’re not fucking unnecessary, Gwyneth. Do you hear me?”“You’re not unnecessary either, okay? Fuck your parents for only realizing your worth after losing your brother. I want to punch t
NathanielGwyneth said she doesn’t like hiking.Then she wakes up early this morning, puts on her clothes, and says, “Take me hiking, husband.”So I did exactly that, then fucked her against a tree to teach her how to behave and not be a flirt. Although, in her case, that only makes her act out more.Over the weekend, hiking has grown on her so much that she doesn’t even need me to carry her on my back anymore. I’ve done it anyway because her tiny body wraps all around me and she plays with my hair and face and neck and anywhere her hands can reach.She’s a touchy person. One who needs physical contact to feel connected. But she doesn’t go around touching everyone, just her inner circle that she deems safe.At the moment, I’m in the middle of that circle and it’s a fucking wild ride.Any time spent in her presence is. Even when she’s sleeping, she stretches her body out all over me and hides her face in my neck. Or she lays her head on my lap and flings her legs in the air.Like right
She stirs, moaning softly in my neck, before she pulls back and stares at me, then at the notebook that’s still open on the letterM.All sleep whooshes away from her face as she startles and snatches it from my fingers. She staggers to the other side of the sofa, pulling it close to her chest.“It means nothing.” She smiles, but it’s with effort and barely-there. This woman can’t fake a smile to save her life and it’s weirdly endearing.“Do you want to find her?”“No!” she says too fast, too defensively.“Hey, this is me, not King. You don’t have to lie or hide to protect his feelings.”She winces. “Was I that obvious?”“Kind of.”“It’s not that I want to find her because I want a relationship with her like Dad thinks. I just want to ask her why, you know? I want to know why I meant so little that she threw me away and didn’t care whether I lived or died.”“I understand.”“You do?”“I’m sure King understands, too, even though he doesn’t want to admit it or admit that he can’t erase he
“What…what are you doing?”“Stay like that.”“Why?”“Don’t ask any questions, got it?”“O-okay.” The breathlessness in her tone makes my dick strain against my shorts.So I stand up, push them down, and remove my T-shirt as she watches me with those huge eyes that have turned into a myriad of bright colors, all mingling and mixing the more she watches me.I shouldn’t feel fucking proud that she looks at me like that, like I’m the only one who exists in her world, but I do.And it feels fucking euphoric.“Now, I want you to open your legs in the air, baby girl, like what you do when you sleep upside down.”Her face turns a deep shade of red, but she does, lifting her legs and opening them, giving me the perfect view of her glistening pussy.I position myself on my knees at her opening and glide my dick up and down her soaked folds.Her legs tremble in the air and she moans, then groans. “Nate…”“What?”“Aren’t you going to fuck me?”I push two inches of my dick inside her pussy, then p
“I can take anything you offer, Nate.” She smiles and I can’t help mirroring it. Lately, I noticed how easy it is to smile around her.“Come on, let me take care of you.”“I love that. When you take care of me, I mean.”I carry her in my arms and take her to the shower, where I fuck her slower in the cunt while I clean her. Then I wash her hair with her vanilla shampoo. She kisses me on the neck for having remembered to pack it.We spend more than an hour in there, fucking and cleaning and messing everything up again, especially after she gets on her knees to clean me and ends up sucking my balls dry.Once we’re done, I wrap her in a towel and carry her back to the bedroom to dry her hair.“It’ll dry on its own,” she grumbles, staring at me through the mirror.“That’s not healthy. Stop being lazy.” I run my fingers through her strands and inhale her scent. The scent that should be boring but is now growing on me more than anything. Then I turn off the hairdryer and brush the strands b
GwynethDad woke up.Dad. Woke. Up.I still can’t believe it and keep mentally shaking myself during the entire ride to the hospital.I think I’m dreaming.That’s what I did when he first had the accident, I slept upside down and dreamt about Dad tilting his head and telling me that sleeping in that position isn’t healthy.Then I woke up and he wasn’t there, but there were tears in my eyes.So that’s what I think during the entire ride. I think that this is a dream—I’ll eventually wake up and Dad will still be in a coma.My nails clink together and I dig them into my skin. Pain means it’s not a dream and that the call Nate got was real.That my father is back.We don’t talk the whole way. I just listen to my NF and Twenty One Pilots playlist and count the minutes until we get to the hospital.Anytime he opens his mouth, I raise the volume until he gets the memo and stops trying to speak. I don’t want to talk to him, I don’t want him to spout more words that will cut me open. Because y
“Of course.”I storm to Dad’s room even though my limbs barely carry me. Nate doesn’t follow me and I think it’s because he wants to talk to the doctor.There’s a nurse moving Dad’s arm so he doesn’t get bedsores. Ever since his bruises and broken bones healed, he just looks asleep.When it got to be too much and I missed him so badly, I used to sit beside him and joke that he doesn’t fit the Sleeping Beauty role. It was either that or crying whenever I came here.“I’ll do it,” I tell the nurse, and she lets me, even though she stays to watch. I learned how to move my father, to wash his hair without much water, to clean his body, and make him as comfortable as possible.“Dad…it’s me, Gwen,” I announce my presence before I lift his arm and stretch it out. He lets out a sound, a grunt or a moan, I don’t know which.I stare at the nurse, bug-eyed, and she nods. “It’s because you’re stretching his arm.”“Am I hurting him?”“No. I believe he’s probably reacting to your voice. Keep talking
He shouldn’t know things about me and bring me those things because they’re what keeps me at peace.“The nurse said he opened his eyes and talked to you?” he asks.I just take a slurp of my milkshake. Yes, the asshole bought it, but it’s not its fault and it should be consumed.“Gwyneth.” There’s a warning in his tone because he’s a god, and gods don’t like being ignored.They don’t like being defied.Well, too bad for him because I’m in the mood for anarchy.“Look at me.”I don’t.“Gwyneth, I said look at me.”When I refuse again, he steps in front of me and grabs my chin with two fingers. They’re strong and powerful and so warm, it feels as if I’m being set on fire.His size eats up the horizon as he stares down at me with disapproval. As if he has the right to disapprove right now.I jerk my head away from him. “Don’t touch me.”A muscle tics in his jaw and his brown eyes rage in color, darkening. “What did you just say?”“I said, don’t touch me, Nate.”“You’re my fucking wife. I w
“Yeah, I’m fucking sure. He attacked Layla.”Maureen was quiet, like she’d been waiting for me to confirm that. “Is she going to testify to that, if she has to?”“Of course she is.”My response was knee jerk, but beneath it, the pit was widening, deepening, darkening. I couldn’t see the bottom or feel the sides anymore. I was hollowing out.WouldLayla testify for me?HadI been mistaken? Why wasn’t she returning my calls? Where the hell was she?I went by her place at least once a day, but she was never there. At least, she never answered her door. I even slow crawled past Jack’s house, but there was no sign of her car. Then, on Friday night, six days after my world went to hell, it went away. Blake dropped the charges. He released a statement about it being a misunderstanding. He apologized to the unnamed woman who had been involved. He was going to work on himself and figure out how this could have happened.Astounded, I called Layla again. I was so sure that now this one thing had fal
AIDENThe next week passed in a hellish blur. It was a series of worst-case scenarios, all linked together on one endless chain of torment.First, Jack bailing me out of jail, his jaw set and his eyes burning. I knew without having to ask that he knew. He didn’t say a damn thing about it though. He just nodded tersely at me as I walked toward him, holding the envelope they’d sealed my phone and wallet into. Then he turned on his heel, pushed through the precinct’s front door, and was gone by the time I got out to the sidewalk.I took a cab back to the hotel and wasn’t surprised to find that Layla had completely erased herself from the hotel room. There wasn’t a spare earring back to prove she’d ever been there. I looked around and felt the pit in my stomach deepen.The next link on the chain was the story that broke by that afternoon. It was centered around Blake, which made sense because he was the one with the most name recognition. What blew my fucking mind though was how sympathet
LAYLAThe conversation with my father was strange and distorted in my memory.“He’swhere?”“He didwhat?”“Where is this Blake Morten mother fucker now?”My dad was usually mild-mannered, but his Irish side came out swinging when his family was threatened.“He’s… I don’t know. I think they took his statement and let him go.”“They let the asshole who assaulted you go and they arrestedAiden?”I don’t remember how I answered the questions. At one point, my mom took over, and I heard the sounds of my dad furiously packing his overnight bag. Her voice was soft and soothing, but I couldn’t remember a thing she’d said after we got off the phone. Except that they were both coming.I went back to the hotel room in a state of shock. I couldn’t believe that just a few hours ago, Aiden had sat on that bed and watched me get dressed. I was so sure when we left this room that when we came back, he would help me get undressed. Now I twisted my arm behind my back and pulled the zipper down myself. I’
AIDENThis asshole Stanton had managed to convince me to take my eyes off Layla. I knew I should have stayed right where I was until she was off that dance floor and away from Blake Morten, but like an idiot, I thought,we’re in a crowded room. What can he do?I stepped into the private back room reserved for the VIPs to meet Holly Bernstein–and when I came out two minutes later, Layla was gone.“Relax,” Stanton said as I began searching the room for her. “I’m sure she’s in the bathroom.”If I could have found Blake, I might have relaxed. If I’d spotted him ingratiating himself with some up-and-coming producers or talking to the Netflix executive, I could have believed Layla had just gone to the bathroom. But I circled the ballroom twice, bisecting it multiple times, and neither of them were anywhere to be seen.Stanton had disappeared during my search, but I didn’t bother trying to find him. If he knew where Blake and Layla had gone, he wasn’t going to tell me.Instinct propelled me o
We danced out the rest of the song in a strange, mute communication. I was wondering what the hell was going on in his head as he continued to smile down at me, gray eyes revealing nothing of his intentions. If I were even the slightest bit less sure of myself, I’d think I’d made it all up. He was a consummate flirt. He probably didn’t even realize he was doing it.But Iwassure. There was just a shadow of amusement that told me he was playing a game. Maybe he always had been. Maybe this was who he really was, and the vain, cocksure character from before was just that… a character.As the music ended, Blake stepped back immediately. I breathed my first full breath. I had been sure he’d let his hands linger and press me into another dance. Maybe he hadn’t been so indifferent to my news about having a serious boyfriend after all. I turned automatically to look for Aiden, but to my surprise, I didn’t see him.“It looks like they started without us,” Blake said.I looked back at him, bewil
LAYLAIf I hadn’t felt Blake’s eyes on me like leeches, I would have been impressed by the event. The ballroom was beautifully appointed with gilt and crystal chandeliers, plush velvet settees, and a dance floor that gleamed under the biggest chandelier of all, the one suspended just in front of the stage by swooping, glittering ligatures. A string quartet was playing a mix of classical and pop.I wanted to just dance with Aiden and forget why we were here, but that wasn’t an option. It seemed that just standing beside him, taking on the brunt of the shop talk together, wasn’t even an option. Somehow, he always ended up embedded in conversation with someone else. And increasingly, I ended up in conversation with Blake.And only Blake.“Let’s dance,” he urged.I laughed awkwardly, stalling for time. The first time he asked, I’d made the excuse that no one else was dancing. That had changed though. Seven or eight couples were moving across the floor in time to Sia’s “Chandelier.” “I don
AIDENIwatched Layla get ready, even though she kept making faces at me in the mirror and telling me to go watch TV or something. I couldn’t help it. She was always beautiful, but as she did her hair and makeup and slid into the dress that fit her like a second skin, she transformed into something ethereally sexy.“Ethereally sexy,” she repeated with a laugh when I told her so. “I don’t think those two words were meant to go together.”“Lots of things aren’tsupposedto go together.” I wrapped my arms around her. “But sometimes they work anyway, right?”Her smile softened. “Right.”I wanted to tell her then that I’d heard everything she said earlier–about coming back at Christmas, about telling her family. I hadn’t said anything because the prospect of telling Jack twisted my guts out of shape, but we were on the same page. More and more, being unable to tell the world that I was in love with Layla Davis felt worse than what I imagined Jack’s reaction would be.“I love you,” I murmured
LAYLAI woke up in the night, the nausea working its way up from my toes to my throat. Not wanting to wake Aiden, I transferred my weight from the mattress to the floor in painfully slow increments, then tiptoed to the bathroom. The cool marble tiles felt delicious as I sank down onto them, like they were pulling whatever this was out of my body through my pores. And then the nausea regrouped and surged its way up from my abdomen to my throat.Half an hour later, when it had finally subsided, I splashed water on my face and made my way back to bed. I could tell by Aiden’s deep, even breathing that he hadn’t been disturbed by my exit from our bed. I was glad, but I was also disappointed. My heart was beating triple time, and I wanted to slide up against him and feel his strong arm curl around me.Are you sure he’s as serious as you are?I squeezed my eyes shut tightly and willed Liv to get out of my head. In just a few hours, it would be morning, and I had the perfect day planned for u
AIDENThe hotel room was probably nice. I’m not sure. I barely glanced at it as the porter who had carried our bags up tried to give us the ten-cent tour.“The coffee machine is over here,” he said, and seemed to be about to demonstrate how it worked.“Got it.” I pressed a twenty-dollar bill in his hand. Not so much a tip as a firm suggestion to leave. He took me up on it.“What if I wanted to know how the coffee machine worked?” Layla teased, tilting her head and putting a finger to her mouth.“If you want coffee, I’ll figure it out.” I walked toward her.Her smile widened behind her finger. “I don’t want coffee.”Normally, I liked to take my time with Layla, but over four hours in the car, so close but unable to really touch her, made me impatient. I walked her backward until she came up against the dressing table, then lowered my mouth to hers. As always, our connection ignited like wildfire, a fusion of emotions and desire that had been building for weeks. Our lips met, and time s