Crash (19 page)

I spun around and saw Ben standing at the top of the staircase. “Why are you doing this to me? Have you completely lost your fucking mind?”

Something flickered in his blue eyes, maybe there was a tiny bit of regret buried somewhere inside there. Every part of me was radiating heat. I don’t think I’d ever been so angry in my life. I didn’t understand how someone could be so petty, to actually set up my boyfriend to be arrested because he was jealous.

“You never used to talk to me like that, Nat. What happened to you?”

“Are you disappointed that I’ve finally learned to stand up to your bullshit?”

He disgusted me. I wished Will had hit him harder. I pulled myself to the top of the staircase and my knee shot upwards, hitting him straight in the groin.

All six feet of him crumpled to the ground and I laughed with savage pleasure as he cradled his balls.

“That’s for posting naked pictures of me on my LinkedIn. I’m going to sue you and you’ll be disbarred. You’ll never practice law again.”

I wasn’t sure he could hear me. He was still rolling on the ground, holding his balls. I walked down the steps, leaving him there to scream in pain while I opened my phone and called Jessica. Something inside me said that this wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

Chapter 10

It was past midnight and I was walking alone on the streets of Oakland. I placed my feet in front of me mechanically, my brain frozen. It was almost as though I just witnessed someone being shot. The numbness that gripped my brain wouldn’t let me think about anything but placing one foot in front of the other. It was hard to believe what had just happened.

Ben had completely lost his mind. There was no other explanation for why he would do something so petty, but this wasn’t just the action of a jealous ex. No, he had leapt far beyond jealousy and had crossed into the rather scary territory of creepiness. Ben wasn’t a bastard when we were together, but somehow he became one when we were apart. Will was carted off to jail because of me, and now I’d dragged Luke into this mess.

Un-fucking believable.

My pocket buzzed and I slipped my hand inside for the phone.

“Hey.”

Jessica’s voice was a nervous bubble of energy. “Natalie? Where are you? We’re stopped near Ben’s apartment.”

“Just keep driving. I walked about a mile.”

“Natalie! You shouldn’t be walking alone in Oakland!” She said something to Luke. “We’ll be there soon.”

“Okay,” I said numbly. It was hard to believe that anything worse could happen to me.

Luke’s car rolled up next to me and he honked to get my attention. Jessica popped her blonde head out of the rolled down window and beckoned. I got into the car and stared ahead as they both turned their heads to look at me.

It was like swimming through water. Every sight and sound was distorted into confusing messages that I couldn’t understand. I asked Luke to repeat what he said three times before I understood.

“Did Ben hurt you?”

“No, but he hit Will.” A horrible image of Ben’s fist slamming against Will’s head replayed over and over in my mind. “It’s all my fault. Will was just defending himself.” I looked into Luke’s blue eyes. “I’m sorry for all this.”

“Natalie, you’ve nothing to be sorry about. You did nothing wrong.”

“Yeah, but…” my voice cracked and I bent my head to the ground.

“What happened?”

I told them everything that happened in Ben’s apartment in a robotic voice; the severity of his actions hadn’t hit me yet. From the backseat, I watched Luke’s face tighten as I finished the story.

“Someone needs to contact Will’s father…and his publicist, if he hasn’t already. This is really bad.”

My throat squeezed. “But he didn’t do anything wrong!”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s between the word of a criminal defense lawyer and a man, who has had trouble in the past with the law.”

Shit.
He was right
.

“Once this gets out, it’ll be a circus. Uncle Dominic will be livid.”

“Shouldn’t you call him?” Jessica asked.

He shook his head. “I’m in a lawsuit with the man. Can’t.”

She held out her hand. “Give me the phone. I’ll call him.”

“I’m sure Will already has.”

The rest of the car ride passed as silently as it could with me trying to stifle my crying.  Would he hate me for getting him into this mess?

When Luke parked the car, he turned around in his seat. “Just stay here. I’ll get him.”

I nodded, my eyes still full of tears. Jessica and I waited in silence, both of us yawning in exhaustion.
What time is it? Three or four in the morning
?

At last, two tall figures walked out of jail and my pulse raced as I made out Will’s outline. Was he angry? Was he relieved? Not being able to take it anymore, I got out of the car and walked towards him, trying to see his face in the darkness.

Luke kept glancing at his cousin, as if wondering the same thing. Was he going to blow up? Luke walked away from his side when he saw me standing there, waiting for Will.

He looked fine, really. The side of his face was red, but his eyes were bright with the manic energy that always drew me towards him. Will looked more alive than ever. Blinded by tears, I stopped in front of him and stared at his tan shoes. I heard Luke’s low voice talking to Jessica in the car.

“Will, I’m so sorry,” I mumbled. “I’ve gotten you into so much trouble.”

The scrape of his shoe against the concrete brought him closer to me and then he pulled me into his chest. I wrapped my arms around him immediately, dissolving into tears. Will stroked my head and the gentleness in his hands made me cry harder. I didn’t deserve it.

“I don’t know why you’re crying,” he said with a bit of humor in his voice. “I’m the one who was arrested.”

I felt the bump of his lips on the top of my head.

“Natalie, it’s not your fault.” He stroked my neck with his thumbs. “I hated leaving you there at his apartment.”

My face burned against his chest. “I kneed him in the balls after you left.”

The vibrations of his laughter shook through my body. I felt a little lighter.

“You crazy girl. You shouldn’t have done that, he could have hurt you.”

“He wouldn’t.” My mouth went dry. How would I even know? Ben had done things I never thought he was capable of.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Will was smiling as if it would be all right, but I wasn’t sure if anything would be all right ever again.

* * *

Billionaire Will Pardini arrested for battery, B&E in Oakland - Pardini sons out of control?

Another article included a picture of Will waving cheekily to camera as he was escorted in handcuffs to jail.

I closed the lid of Will’s laptop, fear gnawing at my insides. He slept in the bedroom, but I didn’t think I’d ever be able to sleep.

When we reached his apartment in the city, William made a few phone calls to his father, to his lawyer, and had promptly collapsed into bed.

I checked my LinkedIn profile as soon as I got home, but all of the nude photos mysteriously disappeared. Slimy bastard. I was able to login and I changed my password immediately. What was Ben playing at? It was becoming more and more apparent that the photos were just used to draw us to his apartment, so that he could get Will arrested. Plus, they had the bonus effect of humiliating me.

The insecure voice in my head, the one that sounded like my mother, uttered a small thought:
Did I do something wrong? Did I deserve this?

I kept remembering Ben’s blue eyes, devoid of all the warmth I’d grown accustomed to seeing. Ben was never the type to rejoice in other people’s pain, but yesterday he looked at me and smiled through his bloody lips, gloating as Will was dragged off to jail. How could he become a completely different person?

Fuck. The news teams will be flocking to Ben’s door.

I paced Will’s spacious, San Francisco apartment. It was nowhere near the level of Luke’s mansion, but it had wonderful views of the Bay. I returned to Will’s bedroom and impatiently watched him sleep. He needs to get up, dammit.

My head pounded with a massive headache. I’d been up the whole night and the orange sky was beginning to recede into blue. Will was on his stomach, dead to the world. I peeled back the comforter and his back muscles twitched.

The phone rang and still Will didn’t move. It blared through the entire apartment, blasting in my ears. He moaned slightly and his head jerked, but the call went to voicemail.

“William, this is your father. Your lawyer has contacted me and he says that Ben Osland has filed a lawsuit against you. Several media outlets have already contacted him. We need to begin damage control immediately. This Ben character is on a warpath. I have no idea what the hell you did to piss him off so badly, but I just wanted to thank you for once again making my life difficult. Call me back.”

Don't get angry with him, It's my fault
. I wanted to pick up the phone and call him back to explain everything.

“You’re welcome, Dad.”

Will’s muffled voice filtered out of the comforter. I sat on the bed and he rolled over, his bleary eyes watching me. The side of his face was a livid purple and I felt another stab of guilt.

“You look worried.”

“I am,” I said in earnest. “You should be too.”

“Relax, it’ll be fine.”

“I’m not so sure. Those cops who arrested you are probably in his pocket. He’s friendly with a lot of them because they work together all the time.”

“Great,” he moaned. “You sure know how to pick ‘em.”

I grasped his warm shoulders and leaned in. “I’m so, so sorry.” My breath caught in my throat.

“Why do you keep saying that?” he said in a low voice.

A fluttering feeling kept distracting me when he touched my arms.  “Because you mean a lot to me and I hate that I brought all of this chaos into your life.”

His fingers encircled my arms and pulled me into the warm bed. His face was pinched with fatigue, but I looked at his lips and felt my body heat all over. Every time he touched my skin, a jolt of electricity shot through me. The excitement and the strange, pounding feeling in my chest were new.

“You didn’t bring chaos into my life. Natalie, you’ve no idea how empty I was before I met you.”

“Me too, Will.”

The palm of his hand increased pressure on my upper back and I fell on my arms as Will placed a soft kiss on my lips. I kissed him back hungrily, more urgently, and then his half-naked body turned and fell on top of mine. I caressed his broad back, his shoulder, over the dark bruise beginning to show on his face. He hissed in pain and I pulled away.

“I’m really glad you kneed that prick in the balls. I wish I could have seen it.”

He lowered himself and kissed me again, his tongue teasing my mouth, as if he was turned on by the image of me kicking my ex-fiancé.

I felt myself opening up; my skin was extremely sensitive—every touch made me want to moan. What was it about him that made him so irresistible?

“Will,” I whispered in his ear.

A small moan left his mouth as he felt my lips moving on his ears. “I like that.”

With one swipe of his arms, my t-shirt flew from my head. He grinned as he reached behind my back and easily unclasped my bra. I let out a thin gasp as his hands grasped my breasts and squeezed. His thumb and forefinger found my peaked nipples and squeezed them.

“Ah!”

His fingers already knew all the places where I was sensitive. I bit down on his neck as they shoved through the narrow space between my panties and dipped to stroke my rapidly moistening clit. He chuckled between kissing my breasts as I seized his back and dug my nails in. Ecstasy flooded my senses as his finger probed the heat between my legs until they finally slid inside the tight, wet passage. Two fingers curled like a question mark inside me, striking the hot bed of nerves that longed for something longer—thicker. His tongue played on my chest, exciting me, torturing me.

I seized his head, brought him to my face, and he grinned at my eagerness. I needed more. With his other hand, he pulled my jeans down to my knees and resumed fingering me. My wetness covered his hand and I heard it slipping around him as he pumped his fingers inside me. I cried out when his hands dug inside to the hilt and he curled up to stroke that sensitive spot.

“I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this,” he groaned. “You are so wet.”

His muscular body glided over me and I grabbed his waist to unbutton his jeans. I paused for a moment to ride my palm over the rigid bulge and his face twitched as I squeezed it.

“Maybe I should tease you.”

“Don’t you dare,” he growled.

I unzipped his pants slowly and reached inside for his long, hard length. I pulled him out of his briefs and watched as a drop trembled over the head. I lifted myself and kissed him, my tongue reaching out to catch the drop. My hands smoothed over his muscular ass and I pulled him closer to my face. My mouth open, I heard his strangled moan as his cock passed my lips. His thickness widened my mouth, my tongue riding on the ridge. Excitement jumped up my thighs as I felt him take control.

He pumped slowly, taking his time as I kept my lips firmly clasped around him. I guided his hips, urging him on—faster. Through his mouth, he uttered a stream of curses and guttural moans. I was fascinated by how dirty it was—and how much I liked it. Will’s face, streaked with sweat, crumpled as if he was in pain. He pulled out of my mouth and hovered in front of my lips, before he let out a sigh, like dipping into a warm bath.

Then he pulled out completely and his torso moved down urgently. He ripped off my jeans and flung them across the room and suddenly my legs were wrapped around his waist and he dove forward.

I let out a sharp gasp as he sank inside me, pounding hard enough to rob me of all breath. His hot face met mine with a steaming kiss as I moaned into his lips. The headboard slammed rhythmically into the wall.

Nothing could possibly feel better than his hips driving his rock-hard cock into me. I clutched his head against my breast as his whole body surged forward, every muscle focused on delivering me as much pleasure as possible. My pulse maintained its rapid pace and I clenched myself tight around him, my face screwing up as Will’s heavy breaths surrounded me. The pleasure ramped up like the tight coils of a spring, and then suddenly he hammered forward and I convulsed around his cock at the same time that he uttered a low moan and jumped inside me.