“I’m gonna come,” she said, looking at me as her eyes began rolling back in her head. “I’m . . . coming,” she wailed, and the silky walls encasing my dick squeezed and spasmed, pulling me right into the release with her. I jerked my h*ps and met her thrust as I spilled inside her. Marking what was mine.
Willow
Three days after my sister had decided to run off and leave her daughter, Larissa moved into Amanda Hardy’s old bedroom. With the help of Amanda, Margaret, and me, Larissa made the room her own. She even seemed clingy with Margaret, like she knew that this was the woman who was going to take care of her. Who was going to love her. She trusted her already. My sister had denied her so much.
Margaret Hardy would fix that, though. She would love with that big heart of hers, and everything would be okay. Marcus had even calmed down and accepted that his parents were back together.
Amanda had reacted very differently from her brother. She had squealed and jumped up and down. She had been upset about Tawny leaving Larissa like she had, but she was beyond thrilled that her dad was moving back in to be with her mother. Marcus didn’t understand it at all. Since I hadn’t really had a life like the one Amanda had grown up in, I didn’t understand it completely. But I told Marcus my guess was that after growing up with two parents you love, it’s never something you give up on. She was a little girl who had lived a fairy tale, and then it was jerked away from her. She had just been handed that life back. A week before her wedding, too.
I couldn’t imagine there was a bride-to-be as happy as Amanda Hardy was right now.
“Still hard to believe they’re back together,” Marcus said, walking up behind me and slipping his hands around to rest on my stomach. “But I’ll admit, deep down it feels good. Even if it scares me because I’m not ready to trust Dad, seeing my parents together makes things seem right again. I just wish Larissa had that.”
I thought about my sister, who had never been happy about being a mother. Even when Jefferson Hardy had decided to give her the family life, she had only stayed happy for a short time. She didn’t like playing house. And she didn’t like being stuck with an “old man.” I know because she told me that just a few weeks ago when I went to visit Larissa.
I wasn’t sure anything could make Tawny happy. And Larissa deserved a life with love from her parents. Tawny and I hadn’t gotten that kind of home life. Maybe that was why she was so screwed up. But I wanted Larissa to have a chance for more. I didn’t want her to end up like her mother. I wanted her to love life and not live always searching for something.
“Larissa really likes your mom. She’s her little shadow. I think she knows Tawny is gone. Margaret said the last time she asked about her mother was the first night she spent here. When Jefferson was here to tuck her in, she seemed content. She hasn’t asked again.”
Marcus sighed and rested his chin on the top of my head. “Mom loves her. I haven’t seen her this happy since Amanda and I were living at home. She’s baking cookies and making cakes with Larissa just like she used to do with us. I think it’s going to be good for both of them. If Tawny comes back, then she’s going to have to fight Dad for Larissa. He already said he’s not agreeing to joint custody. He’s filed abandonment charges against Tawny and gotten full custody of Larissa. He said he’ll allow Tawny every other weekend, but that is it. He doesn’t trust her not to come back into Larissa’s life and turn it upside down and leave again.”
“Good. Because that’s what she’ll do. I think deep down, in her own weird way, she loves Larissa. But having a child isn’t something Tawny ever wanted.”
I turned around in his arms and kissed the man who gave me my fairy tale. I had never expected a Marcus Hardy in my life. I’d had a friend in Cage York and I had thought that was all I would need. Cage had been my protector. But I had found out that I needed all-consuming, wild, magical love. And that’s what I got with Marcus.
My fairy tale wasn’t over. It was just beginning.
Amanda and Preston from Just for Now
Amanda
When I was sixteen years old, I was positive that I would never love anyone as much as I loved Preston Drake. Sure, he was my brother’s best friend and only saw me as a kid, but I loved him. Every daydream I had was of Preston. Even though he was a major player and he flirted with all females, I loved him. Not once did I think I could love a man as much as I loved Preston Drake.
And I was right. Even at sixteen I was so very right.
In three days I was supposed to be marrying the man I had loved for the past seven years.
Tears burned my eyes as I ran my fingers over the white satin of the dress I’d had made specially for me. For our special day. The day I had dreamed of long before Preston Drake loved me.
“Amanda?” Willow asked as the door to my bedroom opened. “Are you okay?”
I started to nod, then said, “No.”
Her hand rested on my shoulder. “What you saw . . . I think that text message was something that he needs to have a chance to explain. Once Marcus finds him, if he lives through that, then you should talk to him, sweetie. Don’t call it all off just yet. Give him a chance, if he isn’t in the hospital, to explain himself.”
I didn’t want Marcus to hurt him. Even after seeing that text on Preston’s phone. He’d left his cell in the car when I had dropped him off this afternoon after we’d had his final fitting for his tux.
Greg: Same place. Ready to be f**ked just as hard as you did it last time. My pu**y is all wet.
I had sat in my car, staring at the text message from Greg, who I knew he worked with. And was, the last time I checked, a guy. Twice I had almost dialed the number, but I hadn’t been able to. Checking his other contacts, I found another Greg but it was a different number. The only explanation was that he was using Greg’s name to save some . . . some . . . slut’s phone number. I felt ill again.
“I just can’t believe this. I thought . . . I mean, he acts like he loves me. He is always with me. He never once gave me any hint . . .” I trailed off, staring at my wedding dress.
“He adores you. That’s why this text makes no sense. So just take a deep breath. Let’s have a glass of wine. You can come back to my place if you don’t want to stay here.”
I had stayed in the apartment I lived in with Preston, waiting on him to come home. He had to work tonight. Marcus had gone after him immediately. Willow had called Dewayne and Rock and warned them to go after Marcus. She was afraid he’d kill Preston.
“I just don’t see how there can be an explanation for this,” I said, sitting down on the chaise beside me.
“If you called the number, maybe that would answer your question. Maybe Greg was . . . joking . . .” She trailed off.
That wasn’t believable. But neither was the fact that Preston was cheating on me. He loved me.
“I’m calling the number. There has to be an explanation. We need to figure it out before your brother kills your groom,” Willow said, taking the phone off the bed, where I had dropped it and left it.
She pressed the number and held it to her ear. I watched her, holding my breath. When her eyes went wide, my stomach dropped and my chest felt like it had exploded.
“Who is this?” she asked, going from surprised to angry. “Jill who? . . . Willow Hardy. Now answer my question.” Willow was scowling. “How do you know Preston Drake?” Willow closed her eyes and swore. “She hung up.”
I couldn’t talk. Or breathe. Or talk. I bent over and grabbed my knees, wanting to wake up from this nightmare. That had to be it—this had to be a nightmare. An awful one.
“Her name is Jill Vick. She was at the club. I heard Jackdown playing in the background.”
Jill Vick. It wasn’t Greg. It was Jill Vick.
I didn’t know a Jill Vick. I didn’t know anyone with the last name of Vick.
Oh God, I wanted to scream but I couldn’t breathe enough to scream.
“I was trying to stay positive about this, but now I hope Marcus beats his ass,” Willow said, throwing the phone back on the bed.
“We’re getting married,” I said, looking up at Willow. “Saturday. We were going to promise forever to each other. I don’t understand.”
A sob burst out of me, and I curled up on the chaise lounge and let the pain in my chest free. I had to do something before I completely broke in two.
“I’m sorry, sweetie. I’m so sorry.” Willow sat beside me, trying to soothe me, but it didn’t help. Nothing would ever help. I couldn’t get through this. I would be broken for life.
Preston
After the crew Dewayne had working on the condo going up on the east beach left, I went through and made sure things were unplugged and expensive shit was locked up. It was Dewayne’s night off from doing this.
When he brought me on a couple of months ago, I had agreed to take over some of his responsibilities so he could get home to his family. Soon I would be taking off for a week for my honeymoon, so I owed him extra time this week. He didn’t demand it, but I felt like it was the right thing to do. He’d hired me as soon as he could give me a job that paid what my bouncer job had paid.
I hated working nights, and he knew it. This had fixed my problem. I had a fiancée at home I wanted to be snuggled up to na**d in my bed. And f**king. Lots and lots of f**king. Grinning, I picked up the trash that had been left behind, then headed down to the Dumpster. These guys were pigs. They left empty Coke bottles and chip bags all over the place. What was the big deal with cleaning that shit up?
Headlights lit up the empty parking lot, followed by a second set of headlights and then a third. What the hell? Was there a parking lot party about to go down that I had to put a stop to? I just wanted to get home to Manda.
Stupid teenagers.
Closing the lid of the Dumpster, I turned and started walking toward the headlights when a car door slammed and I heard Marcus yell my name. Confused, I stopped in my tracks.
“You motherfucker, I’m going to KILL YOU,” Marcus roared, and I realized something was seriously wrong. Marcus was my best friend and would be my brother-in-law in a couple of days. Was this a joke?
“Preston, back the hell up! Marcus, stop and ask him first before you commit a murder.” Rock’s voice came out of the darkness.
“He’s right, Marcus. Let him talk first. If he’s f**king around, we’ll all beat him to hell,” Dewayne called out.
I heard a scuffle and Marcus yelling as Rock demanded he calm down.
Moving out of the headlights that were blinding me, I walked toward them. Once I had the lights out of my eyes, I could see my three best friends in what looked like a argument. Marcus was swinging his arms and yelling about killing me, and Rock and Dewayne were holding him back.
“Can I ask why the hell you want to kill me?” I asked, trying to figure out what had brought this level of anger out in normally levelheaded Marcus.
“Are you f**king around on Amanda?” Dewayne asked with a snarl.
What the f**k? “No! Fuck NO! Why would you even think that? Is that why he’s lost his mind? He thinks I f**ked around on Manda? My Manda, who I adore more than my own life? Are you shitting me?”
“I told you he didn’t do it. There’s an explanation, Marcus. Calm down, dammit, and let him talk,” Rock said, jerking Marcus’s arms back as Marcus glared at me. Some of his rage had cooled as he studied me.
“Let me go. I’ll let him talk first. But he better have f**king proof! Do you understand me? FUCKING PROOF!”
Dewayne eased up on him. But Rock didn’t let go.
“Promise you’ll let him talk. Amanda is gonna want him alive if he didn’t do anything wrong,” Rock said.
“I swear. Let go,” Marcus snapped, jerking free of Rock’s loosened hold on him.
Then he started toward me, and Rock was back on him.
“I just want to ask him!” Marcus roared.
“Then do it with several feet between you,” Rock replied calmly.
“Fine,” he yelled, jerking free again, his eyes so full of pain and fury that it wasn’t even Marcus. I’d never seen him like this. Not even the time he had found out I was seeing Amanda.
“You left your phone in Amanda’s car today. You got a text from Greg,” Marcus said in disgust. “But Greg doesn’t have a pu**y that you can get wet. So Amanda was confused about that and found out that the Greg you used to work with is in your phone but with another number.”
“Wait . . . what?” He was talking about wet pussies and Greg from work. None of this made sense.
“Do you have a woman’s number that you’re disguising as Greg’s in your phone because you’re f**king her behind Amanda’s back?” Dewayne asked.
“HELL NO!” I yelled, furious that they would even think this.
“I knew he wasn’t cheating on her,” Dewayne said, throwing up his hands like he was always right. This time he was. Very f**king right.