Lies and Other.She was naked in the shower when Jarrod pushed the bathroom door open with anger. One look on his face, and she knew she was done for.“Are you fucking kidding me?” He yelled. Lolita struggled with turning off the water faucet and grabbing a towel. “Wh-what is it? What are you doing?”“What am I doing? What are you doing, Lolita, with my brother?”She froze. Her hair was wet and hanging around her shoulders, which was now draped with Jarrod’s white towel. His minty scent filled her nostrils, but that wasn’t the image imprinted in her brain. She thought of Hayden, tangled in the sheets with her just that afternoon. She rubbed her face as she desperately thought of how to handle that situation.“I don’t know what you mean.”“You don’t know what I mean?” Jarrod grabbed her neck and forcibly pulled her forward. “Tell me why Tessa is in the living room, telling me all about how you’re fucking my brother?”Her mouth hung open. “Wh.. what? That’s ridiculous.”“Is it? Come d
Each and MoreLolita wrapped her arms around herself, feeling naked in a room of clothed persons. She was the only one who had drenched face and hair that clung to skin. If only Hayden wouldn’t make it so obvious, then perhaps her heart wouldn’t be pummeling out of her chest.“Do you like that?” Jarrod said to his brother, his smile wide and sinister. “Do you like that she’s naked under that robe? Would you want to see more?”Hayden arched his brows at him. “If you’re offering, I won’t turn you down.”“What does that mean?”“Oh, you know what I mean, brother.”Jarrod gritted his teeth, trying to find control over the situation. Tessa still sat at the head of the table, like she was a dictator looking down at her subjects. She seemed very proud of herself, very proud indeed. “You want everything that I want,” Jarrod continued. “So it’s not surprise that you want her too.”“Isn’t it?” His brother teased.“It sure is. You keep taunting her ever since you set your eyes on her. You haven’
Down the Abyss Dinner was horrible. Lolita felt like a pawn in a game between two brothers. They sat side by side next to each other while she sat opposite them, watching quietly. Hayden held an ice pack to one side of his face while he ate with his left hand. She hated that his eyes rarely left hers. It made her itchy and needy. She was still reeling from the adrenaline from the recent events and she needed a release from it; anything but his eyes.“Your face doing okay?” Jarrod asked his brother after a prolonged silence. Hayden shrugged in response. “Nothing I haven’t been though before.”“That’s right. It’s not my fault for having hit you, but I feel guilty for not trusting Lolita.” He smiled adoringly at her. “She’s one of the decent bunch.”“Yeah, decent,” Hayden concurred, his eyes bright with mischief.Lolita couldn’t take it anymore. She pushed her chair back and stood up with her plate in hand. “I’m gonna go upstairs and finish this alone. You two can catch up in my absen
Into The Winds“I can’t marry Jarrod,” she whispered into the phone. “I can’t do this when I’m like this, Sammy.”Lolita closed her eyes in disappointment as Samantha hurled a series of insult at her. She pressed the phone on her ear and tried to reason with her. “The wedding is a week away!” Samantha yelled. “If you wanted to get out of it, don’t you think you should have done that in… I don’t know… a month ago? Besides, isn't your family coming in tomorrow?!”“I told them to hold on,” she hurried to say. “Just this morning, I told them I’d have to delay their flight.”“Did you give them a reason?”“Not exactly.”“Can you sincerely tell me what’s going on, babe? We agreed we were going to talk about this and you never came. You never picked my calls and Tessa—”“Tessa is exactly what happened to those plans we made. She met with Jarrod and spun lies about me and Hayden.”“Lies?” Samantha laughed at her sarcastically. “My god, you amaze me, Lolita. Lies?”“You know what I mean. She n
The Long RunHayden stepped forward, somehow blocking her view. It was the smallest step, but she noticed. Lolita’s eyes went everywhere, looking for an escape. She never wanted an earthquake to happen as much as she wanted it at that very moment. The door was open; which means Hayden had invariably forgotten to lock it and now Jarrod had caught them in a loving position. Worse than that, he probably heard all they said. “How long have you been standing there?” She managed to ask, her voice quaking.Jarrod sort of chuckled and scoffed at once. “Is that what you want to really ask me, my dearest?”It creeped her out, the way he was taking this so lightly. The Jarrod she knew would have flared up, maybe grab her throat and push her against the wall. He didn’t always act out, so she was actually scared of seeing him upset.“This isn’t her fault,” Hayden said, shifting his body again so he could cover Lolita’s frame. “I pushed her into this.”His brother rolled his eyes dramatically. “Of
Wedding Canceled?A hard slap on her ass jerked Lolita awake. Her heart flew out of her chest; for a moment she thought Jarrod was surely back to punish her for her sins. She jumped out of bed and pushed her hair out of her eyes, smoothed her nightdress and rubbed her neck. “You look so guilty,” Samantha said. “What did you do this time around?”She heaved a breath she didn’t know she was holding when she saw it was Samantha. “Oh, it’s just you.”“Yeah, it’s just me. Who were you expecting?”“He’s not back?”“Who’s not back?”“Did you see Jarrod when you came in?”“Lolita, the door was wide open when I came in. Have you seen your house? You have dust and leaves all over from outside. Were you robbed or something?” She looked around. “It doesn’t look like anything was taken, though.”Depressed, Lolita sat on the bed and hunched her shoulders. “He didn’t come back last night.”“Who, Jarrod?”“Yes. He saw me with his brother.” Her eyes shimmered with tears. “I was holding Hayden then. I
TakenHours turned into days and days became weeks, but Lolita did not have one moment of sleep. She felt tortured, abandoned, tormented. She was in her own little hell on earth. She thought about so many things in so many ways, like living through different timelines of earth.Perhaps if she had remembered Hayden from the very first time she set her eyes on him, she’d be able to set her foot down and make some boundaries. Better still, she could not have started the affair at all. In another universe, another life, she would truly love him. Now… now was the worst timing of all. Samantha barged in unexpectedly, causing Lolita to gasp and push back into the bed frame in fear. Exasperated, Samantha slapped her thighs with a pillow. “Would you stop doing that?” Her friend asked. “You jump at the slightest little thing, it’s sad to see.”“I thought it was—”“Stop thinking. Stop moping around like this and do something fashionable with your time. I wish now that you actually have a job.
H.E.RSamantha banged on the door, hard. She glanced down at the piece of paper in her hand. It was wonderful the amount of information people were willing to part with the minute they were offered money. Sure, it made things easy for her, but it also scared her a little bit.Hayden opened the door with a deep frown on his face. The frown settled into a scowl when he saw who it was. He stared at her, his brows hunched together.“What are you doing here?” He asked.“I’m here to see you, obviously,” Samantha replied. “I mean, how did you find me here?”“You’re a wildly attractive man with dark hair, blue eyes and an armful of tattoos. I’m sure anyone would recognize you from a mile away.” She raised the paper in the air. “Plus, I can be persuasive when I want to be.”“Hmm.” He craned his neck and looked behind her. “Is she here?”“She’s not here,” Samantha said. “Matter of fact, I’m looking for her.”Hayden folded his arms and leaned on the door frame, his frown deepening. “You came he