All In: Playing the Fool (Gambling With Love) (8 page)

"Ew," Jess said.

I couldn't help my mind from replaying that night. Lacy looked so damn amazing when she was frantically fucking me, and it had been incredible to go bareback for the first time ever. Shit, I was hard just thinking about it.

Oh God. I had to stop thinking about her. I wouldn't risk my friends' jobs for her. Wasn't it a bitch that I wanted to see her even more now, after I'd been told I couldn't? 

"Aw. I'm sorry, Will. It sucks you met such an incredible girl and now you can't see her," Jess said, reading my mood.

"Yeah, it really fucking does."

Lacy

I was so pissed at my father I didn't know what to do. I had to find a job and get the hell out of his house so he'd stop trying to control my life.

A few days later, after I'd been crashing at Kylie's to get away from my dad, I parked in front of the huge Safe Haven estate and headed to the front door. Jess, who was quickly becoming one of my favorite people on the planet, told me about the new place for runaways and suggested I do my community service with them. When I'd called earlier, I was surprised to find out Will's sister Julie was managing the place. She happily told me to come by any afternoon to get started. So, here I was on a Friday night, giving back instead of going out with friends. I needed to get the community service over with ASAP so I could find a job.

I'd had to show ID at the gatehouse, and when I walked in there was a locked down foyer with a window where I waited to check in.

A man who looked to be a security officer let me through the door into the facility, and led me to Julie's office. The security here was impressive, but I guess it had to be to keep the kids safe.

"Hey, Lacy! Thanks for coming by to help out," Julie enthusiastically greeted me.

"Well, it's something I should be doing anyway, but now it's mandatory."

She tried to hide her smile and failed. "You shouldn't feel bad. Dylan and I are just damn lucky we've never been caught in public. But I thought you said you were done with my brother?"

"I may have...misjudged him. Although it doesn’t really matter now. I guess you've heard my father's decree that he shall breathe hellfire upon the Earth if I have anything else to do with Will. God, he's nuts, and I can't wait to get out of his house." It had apparently worked, because sadly I hadn't heard a peep out of Will since that night.

Jules laughed and headed out of her office door to show me the rest of the facility. "Well, come on with me and I'll put you to work. Your choices are laundry, kitchen duty, or cleaning the gym."

"I'll take door number one please."

"Good choice," she said with a smile.

I glanced around at all the various teenagers hanging out in the large lobby area we passed. They all looked happy as they sat in groups laughing and talking, or playing on laptops. Hard to believe that if it wasn’t for this place they might be sleeping in the streets, hungry and alone.

I followed Jules down to the basement where there were rows of washers and dryers, all currently in use. "Wow, you guys have
a lot
of dirty clothes."

"Yeah, we've got all the regular clothes, the sheets and bath towels, pool towels and swimsuits, gym towels…and the list goes on. But don't worry, you'll have some help in a little while, and you'll get through it all in no time. The bins are labeled and the kids' names are in each piece of their clothing. There's a cart to carry it all up on the service elevator when you're finished."

"Great, thanks Julie."

"Thank you for helping out," she said with a smile. Then she was gone.

It looked like I had about five more minutes before the first load finished, and since there were no chairs, I hopped up on top of one of the washing machines to sit and wait while I played on my phone.

"Ah, fuck," a familiar voice, causing me to look up in surprise.
Will
. "Why didn't she tell me you were here?" he asked.

I shrugged, unsure how to respond, since I was just as shocked to see him. The smart, sexy man looked good in his faded jeans and army green tee, pushing the dark brown hair out of his face in frustration.

"Sorry," I told him. His shoulders slumped and he blew out a breath.

"Why does your dad have to be such an asshole?" he asked.

I looked away and nodded in embarrassment. "He's taken asshole to a-whole-nother level this time. I'm sleeping on my friend Kylie's couch and avoiding him at work, just so I don't have to look at him."

"That sucks," he said, shaking his head. "Well, I'll go and just come back tomorrow afternoon. You mind alternating nights so we can both get these hours done?"

"No, that's fine. But ... you don't have to go," I told him hesitantly, while gripping the edge of the washer. My dad's warning had worked, Will didn't want anything to do with me.

He laughed and ran a hand over the back of his neck. "Yeah, I do. It's one thing to risk my job, but I'm not risking Joe and Jess's to get through with community service."

"Joe and Jess's?" I asked, my forehead furrowing in confusion. Then a horrible feeling of understanding dawned on me. "You don't mean …"

"Sorry, I thought you knew," he said softly.  

"How could he?" I said as my eyes watered. God, two nice people's careers were on the line because I decided to have sex in public. Three counting Will's. No, not because we had sex in public, but because my dad was being an overbearing ass.

"It's not your fault, Lacy," he said to try and make me feel better, but it was my actions that had caused my father to react so drastically.                                                        

Will's arms were suddenly sliding around my waist, surprising me, but welcome all the same. I immediately threw mine around his neck, resting my head against his shoulder, smelling his comforting clean woodsy scent. Since he was standing between my legs I wrapped them around his back and crossed them at the ankle, using them to yank him even closer to me. Will laughed into my hair.

"Who knows you're here?" he asked quietly, his warm breath against my ear making me shiver.

"Just Jess. She told me her and her brother volunteer here, and suggested I call. I didn't even tell Kylie where I was going. What about you?"

"Just my sister of course, and Dylan. Maybe Joe."                 

"Stay," I said, figuring that's why he asked.

I felt Will's chest expand with his deep breath, then my hair moved when he expelled the air in his lungs. His nose rubbed my ear and his lips brushed my neck, sending delicious tingles and goose bumps through my body. His warm soft hands eased up under the back of my shirt and his fingertips teased around the waistband of my jeans, making me smile.

What was it about this man that made me melt whenever he touched me? It could be that his touch was just so much sweeter compared to Zack's detached and selfish groping. Will's touch was almost reverent.

I raised my head and cupped his scruffy jaw to pull his lips to mine. It was a slow, light kiss that gradually deepened, with our tongues barely meeting before becoming needy and urgent. When Will's hands moved up my shirt to skim along my breasts a loud buzzer sounded, making us both jump and pull apart.

"Fuck!" he exclaimed, and we both laughed when we realized the laundry in one of the dryer's was done.

"Time's up," I told him as I hopped down off the washer to start separating and folding the load. With Will's help it was done in no time, so we each climbed on separate washers to wait for the next batch. Our kiss was forgotten, or at least the moment had passed.          

"I'm really sorry about everything, Will. Joe told me what your company said. I can't believe Joe and Jess didn't tell me my dad had threatened their jobs too."

He looked away and nodded. "I was pretty damn pissed the other day, but I've had time to simmer down."

"How long have you worked there?"

"A little over three years. I've done all the IT work for that firm for the past two years. No one else in our office knows a damn thing about their network."

"And you have a sideline business involving elevator cameras?" I asked. I couldn't contain my smile.

He grinned too. "Yeah, that's pretty new. Dylan was trying to just hire me to digitally store the feed and all as a favor, but now he's pissed because he can't hook up with my sister in the garage or elevator without risking a chance of me eventually seeing it."

"So the two of you were friends before he married your sister?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, for thirteen years. About a year ago he suddenly started going MIA at the same time as my sister. They were both going to school at Madison, and I didn't even realize what was going on until I walked in on them in her dorm room one night," he said with a shiver. "I called him out for being a player that was just going to end up breaking her heart, and he's proven me wrong."

"And his family is the Daughtrys that owns Daughtry Brewing?"

"Yep."

"And they built this place?"

"Uh-huh. It was a birthday present for Jules," he said, shaking his head. "Millions spent like it was nothing. Oh, and he gave her a diamond engagement ring the same day."

"You jealous he's so filthy rich?" I asked.

He shrugged. "It'd be nice not to have to worry about money again, but I don't want his."

I'd never worried about money. I grew up in a big house, went to expensive private schools, and a private university. My parents gave me everything I wanted and more. Mostly it felt like my dad tried to buy my love and forgiveness for leaving me and my mom.

"The saying is true - money doesn't buy happiness," I told him.  

"Not having to worry about paying bills would make me happy."

"Life might be less stressful without bills, but money can't pay for the important things."

"You speaking from experience?" he asked.

"Yeah. My dad's always made tons of money. But in order to make that money he was never home with me and my mom. I don't recall a single special event or holiday where he didn't at some point have to make a business call or have some other interruption from work."

"He acted like work was more important than you and your mom?"

"It wasn't an act. Work was more important. My mom always did her best dealing with it, but when she caught him cheating on her with one of his clients she finally left him."

"Oh wow. How old were you?"

"Ten. I was young enough to still think my dad walked on water, even if he wasn't ever around. I couldn't understand why my mom left him. I blamed her for splitting up our family because I was too young to realize he'd been unfaithful."

"I'm sorry," Will said.

"Yeah, so despite having enough money to buy anything we wanted, we couldn't buy my dad's love or attention. And I'd trade all of the material things to have a normal happy family. Not one where my mom hardly ever gets out of bed because she's so depressed and heartbroken, and my dad fucks lots of women half his age rather than settle down with the one that loves him."

"Damn. And you're right. My family is pretty great and I wouldn't trade them for any amount of money."

"Your and Julie's parents still together?"

"Yeah. They were high school sweethearts and got married as soon as they graduated. Then while they were in graduate school they got pregnant with me and dropped out to support their sudden family."

"My parents met when my dad was in law school. My mom was patient while he spent all his time studying, and then when he spent all his time starting his career. I’d almost bet he was cheating on her wherever he could get it the whole time."

"That's…I'm sorry."

"Yeah, and he thinks I should forgive Zack for screwing other women while we were together because he's a superstar. Like his status entitles him to be an asshole, and for me to put up with it."

"Is that why you two broke up?" Will asked.

I nodded. "The tabloids may exaggerate things, but he really was screwing a different woman every day. And I feel like I deserve better than that."

"You do."

"Says the man who only wanted a one-night stand," I replied, having to look away.

"I didn’t only want a one-night stand, I just wasn't delusional enough to think that you'd want to see me again, especially after I hadn't been completely honest with you."

"I did, you know. Want to see you again. And not because I thought you were rich. Actually, I was relieved when I found out you weren't. I don't think I could deal with the gold digger competition again."

"Well, it doesn't matter now," he said when another load of laundry buzzed. We both jumped down to start folding the warm laundry. "It's
forbidden
."

"Right. I don't want to be responsible for anyone getting fired."

"That'd be completely fucking selfish of us," he said, taking a step closer to me and looking at my lips.

"Completely. But…" I said as I hopped up on the closest dryer, spreading my legs for Will to stand between them. "…we're both here right now, so we couldn't do any more damage, could we?"

"No, we couldn't." His hands went to my jeans, undoing them and pulling them down my legs along with my panties. I lifted my hips to help him along. I was nearly panting in anticipation as he took his time getting my shoes and socks off. Next came my shirt and bra, leaving me sitting completely naked on a giant industrial dryer.

I watched Will remove all his clothes, including his cute black framed glasses, before climbing up on the dryer with me, straddling my lap. His mouth found mine while his cock pressed hard against me, trying to slip between my closed thighs. Sitting on his knees, Will's hand spread my legs just wide enough for his fingers to tease me. Feeling how ready I was he lined up his cock and entered me.