Drawn To You (Paloma's Edge) (29 page)

“Are you getting any more tattoos?” Brianna asked as she nursed her
piña colada. Millie’s blush made Brianna and I giggle. “Milagros Ross! What kind of tattoo does Jared want you to get and where?”

“Yeah, where?” Joel wiggled his eyebrows and sank down next to Brianna
. We hadn’t seen him coming.

I folded my arms. “I thought you couldn’t make it tonight,” Millie said, a rosy hint still on her face.

“Me too. Change of plans.”

Rylan finished talking with Emilio at the cou
nter and danced with some girl when one of Tainted Virtue’s newly released songs came on. The professional studio recording changed their sound a lot. Made it too perfect. Nevertheless, they were still enjoyable. I’d danced with Joel, Rylan, Brianna, and Millie. We’d ordered two platters of chicken tenders and tostones. We were all sleepy from eating so much.

“Where you going after this?” Rylan asked.

“Why?”

“Why not ask?”

I walked through the door that Joel was holding for all of us. “Chase and I are very much together,” I clarified for him.

Rylan
whirled his head around as if he was looking for someone. “Where is he now?” he challenged me.

“That’s none of your business,” Joel interrupted with a scowl, glari
ng at his friend. “And I think you’re being real shady right now.”

Rylan sighed
heavily. “Come on, Joel. You’re giving me the third degree? Like you didn’t think about hooking up with Beth.” He jerked his gaze to me. “I haven’t seen you and Chase together.”

Joel’s face reddened. “
And that was for five seconds. If I wanted Beth, Chase would know. Pierce would. Everyone would.”

“Got it. Forget I asked,” Rylan told me.

“I’ll forget that you asked,” I replied.

Brianna and Millie
paused for a few seconds with confused expressions. After telling them that everything was fine, we went to our cars.

***

“Hey,” Cassidy said as I walked into the kitchen and she walked out.

“Hey.
” I didn’t know what to think about her greeting. She’d been ignoring me and I didn’t have a problem with that. But she was the least of my concerns when I saw Uncle Anton, Aunt Debbie, Cindy, and Nancy in the kitchen. I sat beside Cindy and greeted everyone.

“See you at work,” Uncle Anton told me
, and I spread my arms to meet his embrace. He kissed Aunt Deborah before he left. He hadn’t said anything to Cindy.

“How’s it going, Cind
y?” I sipped my orange juice as Nancy handed me some waffles and a bowl of fruit.

Cindy
grinned at me. The weary look she’d had two days ago had evaporated. “I heard that you start work at twelve today. We should go for a drive around here in your new car.”

I kept my tone even
. “Well, we could, but I have plans. You should’ve called me instead of assuming that I’d be available.”

Aunt Deborah
and Nancy moved around in the kitchen.

Cindy placed her fork down and
swallowed. “Do your plans have anything to do with Chase?”

Of course she’d found out about him
. “Yes, we’re meeting this morning.” I pursed my lips. “I’ve learned from you to make the men in my life a priority.”

***

Waves lapped loudly on the sand as I walked toward the middle of the beach. Chase was on the sand with his long, thick, muscular legs stretched out before him. He must have known someone else was near him because he immediately he locked eyes with me. He shifted his position, but I gestured to him to stay where he was.

When I reached him, I sank down and wrapped my legs around him from behind. I placed the side of my face on his strong, broad back, scratching him through his fine cotton t-shirt.

“Hey, babe.” He grasped my other hand and kissed the front of it.

“The roses were beautiful.” I missed being close with him.

He expelled a disgusted sigh. “I am sorry for how I came at you,” he said. “Have you spoken with your mom yet?”

I shook my head against his back and the vibration of his laughter made me giggle. “Did you finish your project?”

“I sent it off to them at four this morning. Doesn’t mean that I am done yet, though.” Quickly, he spun around so that his legs wrapped around my waist, my feet pressing against his taut butt. I laid my arms on top of his.

“Since Hunte
r and I were young, he was the studious one and I was the brawny one. Gerald Lovell arranged it that way. We were too young to see that he wanted us to compete with each other.” He wet his lips and searched my face. “Mom always told us that we were both great and could try to succeed at whatever we wanted to do in life. They had different parenting approaches, but at the end of the day, everything was about whether I was in a game or not, and whether Hunter was doing well in school. When I turned fourteen, I spent as much time away from home as I could. I became a major pothead, drank some, and when I was fifteen I tried a line of coke. I didn’t like it.”

“Okay,” I prompted, my heart
pounding in my chest.

“When my high school coach randomly tested me
with a home drug test, I freaked the fuck out. I’d been flushing since I started smoking pot and never got caught. Coach Johnson gave me a verbal warning, which he wasn’t supposed to do. He shoulda told the principal that he suspected I was drugging and randomly had me tested. My parents agreed to this when I became a part of the team. Coach warned me that if my THC levels didn’t go down in three weeks and if I tested for anything else, or he still thought I was drugging, I’d be off the team. No potential scholarship. And no recommendation to the scouts.

“After that confrontation, I hung out with my friends a few times, but they didn’t
wanna hear that I wasn’t smoking a blunt, or going to try blow again. They offered all of that to me, and I bounced. I couldn’t be their friend and on the football team. My team needed me. If we lost a game, I would’ve been responsible. I’d been letting down the whole team, despite our wins, because I was using. I put us in jeopardy,” He paused for several minutes. His jaw flexed. “I found out that Hunter was in one of my old friend’s houses and got high. He never even hung out with them, but I am sure they got him to hang out with them just to fuck with me. Everyone knew Hunter and I weren’t tight. I used to tell him that he needed to chill out and smoke a blunt.” He gave a sharp shake of his head and exhaled noisily. “I got him. Hunter said he wouldn’t do it again. And then, some months later, I noticed that he was amped up about everything. It was like he never slept, and because he didn’t, he was flying off the handle about everything. Mom and Dad thought he was just burnt out from maintaining an excellent transcript and extra curriculars, but when his grades plummeted, that’s when they recognized that I was right. He was using coke.”

The aching knot in my stomach tightened for Chase and Hunter.

“I told Mom and Dad everything, but they only focused on how I abused drugs and could’ve been expelled. Not that Hunter was an addict.”

I clasped his big hand in mine. “Did he cut you when he was high?”

“When he stopped going to classes, Mom and Dad kicked him out. Changed the locks, the phone number. They were punishing him. Not getting him the help he needed. The neighbors knew about Hunter. Colleagues at Dad’s law firm knew. And that’s what I think they cared about: how everyone perceived them because their kids were fuck-ups.”

I shook my head. “You were
n’t fuck-ups, Chase. You got mixed up and you’re lucky you got out. Hunter was really lost. For him to go from a straight-laced kid to an addict… They didn’t even ask him why? Consult with a professional?”

“Not that I know of. One day, Hunter
came home when Mom and I were there. He broke in and demanded money from her.” His voice became thick with emotion. “Babe, that wasn’t my brother. He was a complete stranger. He was high and just wanted money. I pulled him away from her and threw his ass through the front door.” Pain radiated in Chase’s eyes. “In the middle of the night, I woke up to a blade cutting into my face. I kept a stash of my own cash from the little jobs I did over the years in my room. Mom and Dad were linked to my bank account and they watched every penny I had and always asked what I spent my cash withdrawals on. And that was since we first opened our accounts. I told Hunter where to get my two thousand dollars; in a hidden slit in my closet wall.”

He gave me space to move and I sat on his lap, winding my arms around his neck. “And what happened after that?”

“Mom found out that Hunter came back. She hollered when she saw him leave through the front door. Dad called the police. The courts put him in a drug treatment program for sixty days. When he came out, he relapsed. Big time. One of my old friends called me because he thought Hunter might’ve overdosed. I went to the house they were at and Hunter was barely conscious. I was gonna take him to the ER but the police swarmed in.”

I shook my head. “They checked me. Someone slipped a packet of coke in my
back pocket, and I was arrested with everyone there.” He reached for his bottle of water and gulped most of it down, his expression darkening. “Dad got me out of it. I was tested and came up clean. And Coach Johnson confirmed that I was in study hall most of the evening. I was at the party for less than ten minutes when everything went down. Dad convinced them that someone put that shit in my pocket. At home, however, Dad accused me of partying with Hunter. The next morning, Mom packed some clothes for me and told me to leave. She gave me five thousand dollars and said that she was washing her hands of Hunter and I.”

“How old were you and Hunter by then?”

“Sixteen.”

“And your parents could just do that?”

Chase gave me a small smile and rubbed the palm of my hands. “Dad was smart. He knew that I didn’t want the juvenile court system to assume responsibility over me. Mom was afraid for her own life. You know? I think if I had a son who cut his brother, I’d try to prevent that from happening to me from either of them.”

“But you wouldn’t do that.”

“If I was strung out, who knows? In my right mind, I wouldn’t do that to anyone. Hunter was responsible for what he did, don’t get me wrong. I am not minimizing it. The coke, however, did make him violent.”

I studied his face
and I realized that I’d held in my breath. No words could give him comfort for how he and Hunter had been torn farther apart as brothers. Chase didn’t seem to want to strengthen his relationship with his parents, but he did with Hunter. He loved Hunter like I loved Cindy, but acknowledging it meant that something had to be done about it. He could possibly be rejected but I knew in my heart that Hunter wouldn’t reject Chase. Hunter was as desperate for Chase to be in his life again as I’d been for Cindy to come back to me.

“To outsiders, it looked like my parents were showing us tough love. I rented a room with
some college students and I couldn’t believe how fast the five thousand went. I worked at a local fast-food joint. Did a lot of carpentry. God must’ve been looking out for me, ’cause I always made enough for the rent. And when I got into UM, I paid for one flight, took one suitcase with me, and didn’t look back.”

I pushed him down on the sand
and I held his broad face in my hands. “I love you.” I squeezed the tip of his nose. “And don’t think you can ever stop me from saying it again.”

Bethany

“I know one other lady who drinks a morir soñado.” Nico arched one pale brow.

Brianna was serving tables. We’d started carpooling to work this week.
We saved money on gas. Plus I liked having the company to and from work. Chase was knee deep in his current project and we’d stayed in his guestroom. Since we hadn’t been able to keep our hands off of each other, he had to work in the living room.

“And she likes her ice blended in.
I like mine crushed or regular,” I said.

He
started making Cindy’s drink when her lilac perfume wafted in the air. As she looked at me, she beamed. It reminded me of the good times we’d had when she pushed me on the swing in our former backyard, and the time she’d made a sand castle with Jake, Mariska, and I in the park.

Nico
gave Cindy her morir soñado.

“I was beginning to think you’d keep ignoring me, Bethany.”

“And I’d begun to accept that I may never see you again, Mom.”

“It was a spur
-of-the-moment decision to go—”

“Bullshit
. You were gonna stay in our old house if you and Mr. Baxter hadn’t run off into the sunset together. I would’ve found work and paid all of the bills, like I did in high school. Like a dummie.” I opened my satchel and took out the note she’d written me and dropped it on the counter. “What is this? The sixtieth or seventieth time you’ve gone after”—I made air quotes—“‘the one’?”

“John couldn’t make it with me through thick and thin,” she said with an edge to her voice. “No, he wasn’t the one.”

I put my hand on my hip. “I bet he decided that keeping his job and his family mattered more than his affair—”

Cindy interrupted me and pointed her finger at me
. “Don’t go judging me or making assumptions.”

I drank some of my morir soñado and heaved in a breath. “I tried not to judge you. Really. I did. But you made the judgment that I wasn’t worth a simple explanation. Some respect. Would I have tried to change your mind? Hell yes.
If Uncle Anton and Aunt Deborah hadn’t taken me in, what would you have done if Mrs. Landry, Mrs. Cox, or Mrs. Muldoon didn’t take me in? I gave up a great summer job because I wanted to be with you.”

She twisted her lips and rolled her eyes. “Those are all what
-ifs. None of that happened. And perhaps I am mistaken, but things ended up real good on your end.”

I gave a dry laugh. “And what about your judgment that what you wa
nted was more important than Mr. Baxter’s family?”

“They haven’t slept together in a year,” she replied with a look of disbelief racing across her face. “They were just living in a home together. Not as husband and wife.”

I slapped my thigh. “Is that all that you think a marriage is about? Why’d he go back to his family, then? Huh?”

She sipped her drink slowly, feigning composure
, but I saw the fire in those dark blue eyes. Minutes had passed when she said, “I want you to move back to Franklin Parks with me. We can get an apartment if— ”

“I’d stay right here if I were you,” I interrupted. “
Start fresh. I am not living with you again. You need to work and pay Uncle Anton something for your stay. Play time is over.”

“Looking for a good man is work.”

“Being a decent person is never-ending work. You may wanna start there first.” Taking my drink, I slipped down from the stool and walked to an empty table Brianna was cleaning off.

***

Chase

Nancy opened the door and she smiled at me I stepped into the Pruitts’ house. As I headed toward the stairs, I saw a glimpse of Cassidy in the kitchen and she averted her gaze from me.

As I entered Beth’s guestroom, her nightgown lay on her freshly made bed. I called out her name, but she didn’t reply. I heard the shower running and my dick roused, anxious to slide inside her. I’d wanted her to the point of pain, but I’d cuddled with her and talked with her when I hadn’t been working
this past few days. While I believed that she loved me, I’d needed her to really think if she could accept who I’d been. And she seemed to have accepted that my selfishness had almost ruined Hunter’s life, that I’d do anything to reverse what had happened if I could. Oddly enough, Beth smiled at me more than she had before. There wasn’t this wall between us anymore.

I kicked off my sneakers
and flung off my shirt and shorts. The bathroom was steaming when I was inside. Seeing the shape of Beth’s breasts and the profile of her ass through the glass brought me back to the moment that I’d caught sight of her figure through the window of her old home.

“Are you just gonna stand there and torture me, or are you gonna come in?” I heard the teasing in her voice and I dashed into the shower.

Beth looked up at me from beneath her full eyelashes and she cupped my cock in her hand, fondling me.

I devoured her mouth as she clutched me. My dick hardened painfully under her touch. I hadn’t jerked off in days.

She sank down on her knees. Water dripped all over her body. The steam made the glass fog up more. Her lips sealed over my crown and I reached for the bars behind me. She mouthed me deeper. She loosened her grip and took a little more of me. The vibration of her moaning sent a ripple of sensations down my balls. As she fluttered her tongue on my underside, a shot of pre-cum came out and she pulled out, fisting me up and down as she suckled on each of my cheeks until my cock swelled more in her hold.

“Take me deeper…please.”

A slow smile spread over her face as she stroked me with her hand and drew about an inch and a half of my cock in by lifting her tongue to the roof of her snug mouth. She slid her tongue backward and the suction had me seeing fucking stars. When she withdrew from my cock and dropped her hand to her floor, I thought I was going to be in agony until I could finish myself off inside her.

Beth swiped her tongue beneath the head of my dick
, the rough and silky texture against the sensitive spot that I never knew I had. As she bobbed up and down, slow and fast, my cock and my mind were unsure when she’d stop. If she should ever stop.

“Fuck, babe!”

And with a devilish gleam in her eyes, Beth licked between my scrotum and swirled her tongue on each cheek, jacking my erection in her hand.

“You taste so good,” she murmured against my balls
, and I had had it. I pulled out of her hand and carried her against the tile wall.

“I’ve got this,” Beth
breathed and pressed my cock through her wet folds. I seated myself inside her. “Uh, fuck me,” she screamed. When she lifted her hips and descended on my dick when I plunged into her, without letting up, she cried out.

“Harder?”

“Yes!” she wailed, her body trembling in my hands like I’d known it would one day if I had her.

I pumped
into her again, quicker. My balls slick with her arousal as they slapped against her. I shouted as I came inside her. I caught my breath when I felt Beth’s orgasm roll through her. Her pussy seized me. Giving her a shallow plunge, she keened. Beth’s legs parted slightly, the heels of her feet pressed onto my ass in an effort to hold onto me.

A small smile tugged her lips as I lowered her to her feet, ready to bring her to bed and make love to her all over again
, or really fuck her if that’s what she wanted.

***

Bethany

“Cindy was so pissed today,” Brianna said with a shudder. “I steered clear of her.”

Brianna, Mariska and I la
y on Brianna’s bedroom floor. It’d been a month since Cindy’s arrival and she still couldn’t believe that I hadn’t moved back with her to Franklin Parks before I started school. I supposed that being with Chase had changed me. Something in me cracked when I’d spoken with him about her. I couldn’t be the hopelessly understanding and needy daughter and friend anymore. I’d been terrified that Cindy would want nothing to do with me when I’d told her that I wouldn’t be moving in with her to Franklin Parks and that she had to work. I’d learned from Cindy that putting myself first didn’t mean that I was selfish.

“According to Uncle Anton, she only had one job before now; when she was pregnant with me.”

“Is that when she started dating men to support her?” Mariska looked at me.

I swallowed. “I think she’s been dating nonstop since she was a teenager. I don’t think she
’s ever been single for a more than a day until now. Who knows? She may be messing with one of the staff or guests at the hotel.”

“You don’t wanna know,” Brianna said.

“Nope,” I said.

“But did she really think you’d go back to your hometown with her?”

Nodding, the corners of my mouth curved.

“She would’
ve been in for a rude awakening back home,” Mariska remarked.

“She
hasn’t missed one day of work. I am proud of her.”

“Does Cindy know that?” Brianna asked.

“I’ve told her. But she just sucked her teeth.”

We giggled. Brianna
answered the knock on the door and Joel burst inside, jumping on her bed. “All my girls under one roof.”

Shaking his head, Jake stalked inside and pulled Joel off of Brianna’s bed by the back of his shirt. “Man, you really do have a one
-track mind.” Joel lifted his shoulders. His copper hair stuck out in different directions. “Dinner’s ready.” He cocked his head to me. “If you’re not downstairs in five minutes, Chase is gonna come looking for you,” he told me.