Here With Me (Paloma's Edge) (5 page)

Chapter 7

Hunter

MARISKA’S FACE FLUSHED BRIGHT pink and my dick strained against my pants. I swung my body on the chair to face her table as an excuse to throw my empty cup in her trashcan, and to adjust the crotch area of my pants. When I was done, I whirled in the chair and Mariska gaze instantly connected with mine.

“My friend and I met back when I was seventeen—through the detox part of my treatment.” She bobbed her head to let me know that she was listening. “We’ve talked whenever we could since we graduated from that program. He stopped by Lasting Impressions on Monday and admitted that he’d taken some scripts. I’d thought that if we went to meetings while he was here, he would’ve been fine to go back home, since he’d been clean longer than me.” Her intent gaze brushed over my face as I went on, “But last night he told me that he called one of his old connections to buy some pills. He handed me the bottle when I’d gotten home. He was going to take some with a little bottle of Vodka he bought at the bodega.”

“Did he go to treatment without a fight?”

“Yeah. It’s hard for him on all fronts. There are people—many actually—who he feels he’s letting down by going into treatment for a month.”

Mariska took a sharp intake of breath. “This sounds like it was spiraling out of control. If those people can’t support him, then they’re not meant to be in his life.” The fervor in her voice caught me off guard. She almost seemed to actually care that addiction was no walk in the park. It wasn’t enough to want to be clean; it was a second by second decision for an addict feed his or her urges or not. Any addict who told me that she or he hadn’t had any thoughts about running for the euphoria, or the long lasting calm of numbness was a damn liar. Having a shitload of work to do for school, having to be on my A game at Lasting Impressions, and taking Riley in, have all been a tremendous help in quelling my cravings.

After looking at each other for some time, she asked, “Is it hard for you?”

A bitter laugh escaped me and I shook my head in answer.

“I don’t know what it’s like.” She swallowed and dropped her gaze to floor. “To struggle with the compulsion to use, but I think what you’ve done—coming here to be a brother to Chase again, and making a living doing what you love…is pretty commendable.”

“Since when?” I asked her, because I knew that she thought I was worthless.

“Since now,” she whispered and her beautiful dark eyes widened when I found myself hovering over her bed.

“Mariska, how much have you wanted to hate me?” Unsteadily, she got to her feet. The air grew thick around us. “Hmm…” I probed at her non-answer and traced my finger down her smooth arm. She whimpered and looked me over, her eyes flooding with want.

“So much.”

“I want to hate you too. I want to be the biggest fucking asshole you’ve ever met.” 

I watched as her pulse thrummed against her neck. I cupped the back of her head, crushing her chest against mine. Tilting her chin to the precise angle I wanted, I pressed my lips to hers and she thrust her tongue into my mouth. I felt her hands roughen my hair as she ravaged my mouth. I ran my hands from the back of her neck down to her back, and cupped her ass; the fullest part of her body. She filled my hands completely and her breathing quickened as my arousal pressed against her stomach. Her legs gave out completely and she fell onto her bed. Her long legs slightly parted, as if daring me to wrap them around my waist and fuck her. She wasn’t wearing one of her longer dresses either. She was in a cute pink and yellow thigh length dress. All I had to do was pull her dress up.

As I levered over her, my face a whisper from her ear, she moaned out my name against my lips. Pulling the string of her dress down to her arms, I slipped my hand into the top of her dress and ran circles around her taut dusky pink nipples. She didn’t need to wear a bra and her dress provided no added support for her breasts. To know that every time I’d seen her she went without a bra had my dick pulsing, threatening to explode in my pants before anything really happened. When she dove her hands into my hair with more force than before, I withdrew my hand.

“Hunter…please…”

“Please, what? Say it,” I told her harshly.

She grabbed my hand and dragged it to her breasts. Her pert tits were something I hadn’t thought I had a chance of ever witnessing.

“You can speak up for yourself any other day, Mariska. Tell me now.”

With a defiant turn of her chin, she licked her fingers, which were thoroughly wet with her saliva and rubbed her breasts. She proceeded to roll her nipples between her index finger and middle fingers. I pushed her hands away and a smug expression surfaced over her features. I smashed my mouth down to hers again and then dragged my lips underneath her chin, making a trail along her throat until I had one of her breasts in my mouth. As her body bowed, I squeezed her other tip and she tried to stifle her groans when I suckled each mound. She tasted sweet and damp. When my tongue probed around her other nipple, I pushed her dress up and ventured past her wet panty, slowly sliding one finger into the most incredible tightness I’d penetrated.

I gazed at Mariska, unable to help myself. “Touch your breasts again,” I grunted and she rubbed her breasts. Mariska was so fucking uninhabited that it made me harden more. Her damp, tanned skin glistened and my entire body ached to feel her flesh on mine. She was wet and needy. The little brown hairs on her pussy curled with her slickness. I liked that she wasn’t bare from the waist down. I’d never liked feeling a naked or stubby pussy. I pulled my finger back out and drove back in, not giving her the delicate introduction this time. Her core clenched around my finger, the muscles in her stomach and legs tightening.

“How much do you like me now?” I asked her. Panting, she rubbed her breasts faster.

“Not enough that I won’t combust on my own, Hunter,” she replied with a smirk and clutched her reddened breasts in her hands as if she was protecting herself from me.

“You’ll come on my face.”

I massaged the pad of my fingers on her clit in slow circles. I felt the tension building in her core when I plunged back inside. Swollen and very sensitive, I fluttered my tongue on her flesh like she was dying for me to do since she’d been exposed to me, or perhaps, before I was wedged between her legs. Her gaze latched onto me, almost as if she was unable to look away. She was fighting the calm before the storm as I feverishly flicked my tongue on her pussy until she rippled around my finger. Then I covered her cleft with my mouth. Closing her legs on either side of my face, her orgasm was violent as my face shook against her folds. Muffled screams clashed with the loud silence that had dominated the room.

As her legs fell wide open, she moved the pillow from her face, peering at me while she bit down on the bottom of her trembling lips. I washed my hands at the sink and she looked up at the ceiling; bliss filled her face.

“That’s how it is,” Mariska commented, her voice coming out drowsy.

I pivoted around to watch her. Sheets were wrapped around her waist as she finger combed her hair. She looked like I fucked her. Not like I’d given her some tongue and finger action.

“You’ve never had it like that?” I teased her and wiped my hand on the hand towel that was hung above the sink.

I bet those preppy boys she liked to date didn’t know the first thing about how to serve a woman. They just wanted to get it in and then call it a night. But, then again, Mariska didn’t act like the type of woman who would tolerate a guy who’d only gotten himself off. The prospect of sinking into her sent a thrill down my spine, the sensation traveling to my groin.

She diverted her gaze and slid from her bed, padding toward her closet where her tie dye bathrobe hung. “Not quite.” Her response came out shaky as she picked imaginary lint from the fabric.

When her stopped and headed to her bed again, I blocked her from moving. My suspicion that she was hedging made me feel like my stomach was lodged in my throat.

Chapter 8

Mariska

HUNTER LOOMED OVER ME
. My dress almost pooled at my feet. The bed sheets that had covered me were on the floor. As he picked the sheets up and threw them back on my bed, I tugged the strings of my dress on my shoulder. There weren’t any stains and it hadn’t wrinkled. I wanted to look composed. One minute he’d been talking about his friend and I’d observed how much he saw himself in his friend. Then, all of my senses had short-circuited. I didn’t hate him and I didn’t believe that I ever had.

“Have you ever had any kind of sex?”

I tried to resist how much heat flared between the apex of my thighs from how close he was to me. I was drowning in the depths of need and nervousness, but his instant hold over my shoulders was unyielding.

I hesitated for a minute and then I responded, “No, Hunter. I haven’t had any kind of sex with anyone.”

Steering from my arms, Hunter’s expression was loathing. He retrieved his book bag from the floor and carried it over his shoulder. “You should’ve said something.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Oh, is knowing whether or not I am a virgin a prerequisite for what you did? Because, if I am not mistaken, you enjoyed yourself.” I wanted to take back every kind word I’d said to him. He thought less of me, because I hadn’t had “real” sex yet.

“I can’t really say because I didn’t get to fuck you,” he said in the most menacing tone, “and your vag tasted like every other one I’ve lapped at.”

I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling so reckless and naive. “Then there won’t be any need to come back for more. I guess when I need my next fix, I’ll go to Scott, or some of the other guys who live here.”

“I would’ve given you a trial run, but I don’t have any protection on me—and you probably don’t either.” A mocking smile crept across his lips and transformed into a smug sneer on a face that I’d thought rivaled most guys at UM. “What? You’re going to stay a virgin princess forever? Finally see that you’re not some rare gem?”

The sound of Scott’s voice calling my name from the other side of the door sent a prickle down the back of my neck. I remembered that tomorrow night he and I had a date. Hunter opened the door. My parents were behind Scott, the amiable expressions slipped from their faces and, in its place, were very severe ones. It was like the time the school had called home, because I’d skipped my fourth and fifth period classes. At the time, Beth had been set to leave Franklin Parks the next day in order to begin her scholarship program orientation. Jake and I had wanted to have one more day with her like we’d had most days in high school.

“Hey Mariska,” Scott said, ignoring Hunter’s undeniable presence. “I let your parents in.” 

“Thanks Scott,” I said and I found myself fidgeting nervously.

“Mariska,” Mom addressed me as she entered the door, her eyes scanning the room as she twirled around.

“And what is he doing in your room?” Dad questioned me and I heard the door close.

“I’m Hunter,” he said. “Mariska offered me a can of soda, and now I am going home.”

Dad offered his hand to Hunter. “I am Jack Landry, Mariska’s father.”

Hunter nodded. “I’ll come back another time to see Beth—”

“At a more reasonable hour,” Mom cut in as Hunter breezed out of the room.

“Scott told us that you and him are going on another date tomorrow,” Dad said.

I drew in a fortifying breath. “Yes, Dad.” I swung my gaze to Mom, who looked like she was going to skin me alive. “How come you guys didn’t call? Whose watching Pete?”

“Mrs. Muldoon is watching him,” Dad responded. “Your Mom wanted to bring you some snacks”—Dad held up shopping bags—“so you wouldn’t spend all your money on those vending machines.”

A nervous noise escaped my mouth. “Scott, I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

Nodding infinitesimally, Scott gave my hand a quick squeeze and Dad held the door open for him as he left. 

“Why were you alone with Hunter?” Mom gestured me to sit on my bed and I complied. “Do you know how that looks?”

I wished I could’ve told her that tonight I’d made a big mistake. He’d proven that he could get through my defenses. I wanted her to tell me that I wasn’t a bad person, because I’d wanted Hunter to do everything he’d done to me. “Mom, Hunter had a crisis today and he doesn’t have many people who he talks to.”

“I don’t like the sound of that one bit, Mariska,” Dad told me. “You should be asleep. Not having men in your room at night. You’re working full-time at that restaurant and you’re a full-time student. You can’t discard how we brought you up, ‘cause you’re not in Franklin Parks.”

“I was talking to Beth’s friend. Scott has female friends in his room all the time. We’re not dating exclusively,” I tried to keep my tone even. I wanted to get into bed, bawl up under clean covers, and sleep for days.

“Are you talking back to me?” Dad’s voice rose and I glanced at my feet.

“I didn’t mean to,” I whispered.

“Jake, I told you that living with Beth would make her get out of control,” she remarked as if I wasn’t in the room. “Beth is warming up the sheets with that boyfriend of hers just like Cindy. It’s—”

“Mom,” I interjected, “I’ve asked you not to talk about Beth like that. She’s responsible and has every right to be with her boyfriend. So please leave her out of this.”

Mom fixed her gaze on Dad. “This is why she left home, Jack. To do whatever she wants.” Feeling defeated, I collapsed on my bed and stared at the ceiling. “Scott must think that guys come and go from your room,” Mom went on. “If that’s how you wanna carry on, come back home next semester before you really lose yourself.”

“You’re not giving me the chance to become whoever it is I wanna be.”

“Oh, Jack. She’s going through that dramatic rebellion. She doesn’t know that the real world will chew her up and spit her out for the rest of the vultures.”

***

BETH HELPED ME TAKE
out the hot rollers from my hair Friday night. We’d met up after work and treated ourselves to massages, manicures, and pedicures. Every muscle in my body was wound tight. My parents didn’t understand that I didn’t want to be the obedient daughter, because I’d been told that I had to be all of my life.

“What did they say to you?”

I shrugged my shoulders. Inside I was fuming about how they’d patronized me. “They scolded me, because Hunter and I were by ourselves last night. Scott had to knock on our door with my parents in toe.”

I wanted to grab my keys, drive to Hunter’s house and give him a piece of my mind. “You had Hunter in here?” She peered at me through the mirror with a raised brow.

“Some friend of his picked up again and he had to take that friend to rehab. He was shaken up by it and I told him we could talk about it here.”

“That’s why he called me last night.” A concerned look flitted over her face and she shook her head. “He told me in the voicemail that it wasn’t an emergency.”

“I listened to him. I think he fears that his friend might leave treatment early or something.”

“Why didn’t you call me? Chase and I would’ve gotten hold of Hunter.”

“Because I felt for him. If you, or Jake, or Bri, were in Hunter’s shoes, I’d want someone to listen immediately.”

“Does this mean that you’re trying to get to know Hunter?”

“I’ve always tried to get to know him, seeing how he’s a fixture in your life now.” I rolled my eyes. “I was very weary of him and I still am.”

“And I am sure your parents don’t want you talking to him, because of his history.”

I threw her an amused look. “You think I told them he’s a violent addict? After getting the third degree from them, I realized that I can’t tell them about other people. I hadn’t mentioned Hunter before because he’s not someone worth mentioning.” My words didn’t seem to rouse a reaction from Beth, and I looked over my shoulder at the two dresses we decided would be suitable for my date with Scott. “Which one should I wear tonight?”

***

SCOTT PLACED HIS HAND on the small of my back as we entered an Italian Restaurant in downtown Miami. The Maitre’d seated us by a table with a great view of the evening sky. The ride over here was quick. He’d talked about an upcoming away game that the football team had next weekend, before Fall Break, and my life began to feel normal again. Mom had called me about five times on the drive to this restaurant and I knew that she had a ton of advice. Mainly that Scott shouldn’t come up to my dorm room and that I shouldn’t kiss him on the first date.

“You look beautiful tonight,” Scott told me and closed his menu.

I gave him a smile. “You look very handsome yourself. You’re always dressed so sharp that I wanted to look nice beside you.”

“Although I appreciate the thought, you look more than nice—every time I’ve seen you. You don’t have to put any effort into it,” he said. “So, I’ve gotta say that I didn’t expect Hunter to be inside your room last night. I don’t think your parents had either.”

“That won’t happen again. And no, they didn’t like it. But they like you. What did you guys talk about on your way to my room?”

“They asked me about my major, and my future plans.” My parents had acted exactly the way I’d dreaded that they would. It wasn’t like Scott and I were serious or going to ever be. While he was great tonight, his bachelor days weren’t remotely over. I knew about the girl he’d had in his room Saturday night. “My parent’s have asked every guy my sister has dated the same question and she’s not even in college yet,” he said with a laugh. “I guess your parents are like mine are—traditional. I bet your parents would be a few tables from us, chaperoning, if they didn’t think you’d
call off the date altogether.”

I lowered my voice. “Unfortunately, that sounds like something they’d do.”

After we finished our meals, Scott ordered another glass of red wine.

“You can have a glass,” he told me. “They’re not going to ask for your ID. I come here all the time and they haven’t IDed any of my dates.”

I eyed him with my brows lowered to look put off. “Great to know that I am one in a long line of girls for you,” I quipped.

Scott swigged some of his wine and gave a sharp shake of his head. A line creased his forehead and he drew in a shaky breath. “Nah, I meant that you can have anything on the menu.”

I hadn’t seen Scott nervous before, and I wished that his conscientious nature made my stomach flip like talking to Hunter last night had. Fighting a smile at the idea that I could make a great guy like Scott question himself, I pulled my lips inward. “I don’t mind that you’ve been here with many girls.”

A look of interest lit up his handsome face. “Why’s that? That isn’t the kind of information that leads to a second time,” he tried to say with mirth.

“Because, out of all the girls you’ve been with, surely you know that not all of them have the same things to offer you. And you were patient when I was twenty minutes late, because I couldn’t decide which heels to wear with this dress.”

Scott crookedly smiled at me. “I’ll take that. But I’ll admit that I don’t want Hunter to be one of the dudes you date after me. I heard what he did to my boy and he can’t handle being in the same room as people who drink. Did you see how he was crawling out of his skin during Beth’s birthday?”

My throat tightened as I recalled how unsettled Hunter had looked at her party. At first, I’d assumed that he hadn’t wanted to be next to me, but, as various emotions flashed in his eyes for that one rare instant, it was clear that he wanted to have a beer, but he’d fought against that craving. I gave Scott a nod and drank some of my soda.

“What’s he going to do? Get with a chick who is in”—He made air quotes—“recovery like him or who doesn’t drink or even smoke some weed? No girl will stick with him.”

“My co-worker wants to get with him. Someone may think he’s worth the sacrifice. Or think that it’s not a sacrifice at all.”

Scott nodded coolly and took a long drink of his wine. “But I think, eventually, any chick would resent him.” He titled his chin up. “It’s just that, from where I was standing last night, I thought for a minute that he was feeling you.”

I let out a laugh and I felt my face grow warm at the memory of Hunter stroking his finger along my inner wall as his tongue swirled between the lips of my sex. I tried to shake it off. “I think your mind was playing tricks on you.”

“Yeah,” he said in a sleepy grin. “Or it could be the wine talking.”

After he drove us back to campus, he led me inside our residence hall. His face split into a wide grin and he took my hands. When my gaze shifted from our hands and toward his face, he pressed his lips to mine confidently. There was no awkward silence or any opportunity for me to ponder if we’d part ways without a kiss.

“Do I get to see you again?” He was pretty confident after that kiss.

I wound my hands on his shoulders and pretended to think it over. “Forlini’s was delicious. Thank you.” I leaned in to give him a quick hug, but he hung onto me for several minutes.

“I’ll take you to another place I like after Fall Break.”