Hooked (A New Adult Romance) (3 page)

Chapter 5

Jake

The most miserable week of my
life.
Ever.

 
But I’m on the upswing. Saturday night
and I’m about to fuck a hottie I just picked up at the bar.

Gotta
get back to my roots, you know?

After spending the past week
trying to figure out how to get my head screwed back on, I decided what I
really needed was a tight pussy to slam my dick into. I’m pretty drunk right
now, but after being such a good boy for so long I’m realizing I’ve got to
unwind once in a while.

It’s not healthy to work, work,
work
.

With Ruby and school and
fighting, and all the attention and focus and energy it takes to get through
the weeks, I decided tonight would be my night to let it all out. I’ve been
working hard for months now, and my brain and body are telling me I need a
break.

So that’s what I’m doing.

Taking a break.

One eyeful of Ruby has fucked with
my mind long enough, and I know part of my problem is lack of pussy.

So I picked Amber up at Vinny’s
club. A real looker she is, not as good as Ruby, but definitely sexy enough to
get my dick off. Has a decent personality, too, not a complete bimbo.

“Want another drink,” I ask as we
enter one of Vinny’s special rooms. Vinny’s club has private rooms for VIPs to
conduct “confidential activities,” and by “confidential activities” I mean sex,
business dealings and other matters of requiring secrecy and discretion. Each
room has a fully stocked bar, complete with condoms.

“No thanks,” Amber replies. She
bites her lower lip and looks me squarely in the eye. She’s not stupid. She knows
why I brought her up here.

She walks slowly across the room
towards me, lightly dragging her fingertips along the backrest of a black leather
sofa.

She gets up to my face and breathes,
“So are we
gonna
…?” She touches my chest and begins
to unbutton my shirt sensually.

I bring my hands up to her
slender shoulders and pull her in for a kiss. She kisses back, hard, and lifts
the hem of my shirt up and drives her fingers down the top of my pants.

I grab her little waist and ram
her pelvis into mine, grinding into her. My hands run up the back of her shirt
and unclip her bra. I pull her shirt and bra up over her head in one smooth
motion, then hoist her by the ass and guide her legs around my hips.

Her ass is nice. Not as nice
Ruby’s, but nice.

Her tits are o.k. Not as big as
Ruby’s C-cups, but they’re good.

I kiss and suckle her neck as she
moans and writhes.

But all I can think about is Ruby
Cain.

“Goddamnit!” I snarled, suddenly
stopping and letting the girl back down onto her feet.

“What? What’s the matter, Jake?”

“I just…I just…I don’t know. I
don’t know what my fucking problem is,” I muttered, looking down at my feet and
shaking my head.

“Is it
me
?
Am I doing something wrong?” she asked with hurt and rejection in her voice.

“No. No. I’m sorry.” I stood
there for a moment, not knowing what to do.

Finally I said, “I’m sorry,
Amber. I don’t know what I’m thinking. You’ve got to leave. I can’t do this. We
can’t do this.”

“But Jake—“

“Out! I’m serious. Get out. I’m
sorry to have brought you here. You deserve better. I deserve better.”

She put her clothes back on and
quietly left the room without looking back.

I sat down on the leather sofa
and took a deep breath.

“You’ve got to grow up, Jake,” I
said out loud to myself. “You can’t just fucking use girls like that in some
lame attempt to deal with your problems. When are you going to stop thinking
with your dick? Grow the fuck up.”

Ruby

Devastation doesn’t even begin to
describe how feel.

Why me?

Why now?

Why did this ever have to happen?
Is it my fault? Am I to blame
?!

Every bad memory that has ever
happened to me comes raging back, every dark reminiscence comes bursting
through the floodgates of my brain and drowns me in abject depression so that
every corner of my world is dripping with darkness, hatred and hopelessness.

Was I always fated to have this
happen to me?
Because of my mother’s disastrous history with
men?
Is this genetic? Why can some women have such great luck, and
others can’t?

Why can’t I just be loved like
everyone else? What is it with men? Why do they all have to be such lying
fucking dicks?

All I want is a man who is
genuine, honest and loves me—is that too much to ask?

I take another gigantic swig of
wine straight from the bottle and look out at the black, wretched rain outside.

It’s midnight.

I’m sitting near a kitchen window
in my dreary, dark apartment.

The only light that penetrates my
miserable abyss is from a couple of street lamps and the occasional flash of
lightening.

I don’t know what to do. Should I
really call off the wedding? There was
so
much
planning to get it off the ground. So many people are going to be
disappointed. So many are going to be let down.

I have half a mind to go through
with it—I mean, why not? Every other couple just lies and cheats and
sleeps around? Are their any solid relationships out there? What’s the point of
investing any more time in a man if he’s just going to fuck around anyway?

The really fucked up thing is, with
Dan, I really felt I had a winner. I figured that because he was nearly twice
my age he would have gotten all his sleeping around out of his penis. Seriously,
when do men stop thinking about their cocks? Is one vagina really that
different than another? So different that you’re willing to throw away a
relationship you’ve invested so much time in to nurture and develop?

I’m a ranting, pouting wreck of a
woman, I know. But how else is a girl who is a week away from her wedding
supposed to feel?

It’s too late, but I feel like
calling my mom. And Julie.

I take three more big mouthfuls of
wine and finish the bottle.

Ugh! That burned!

Time to get calling. I don’t care
how late it is.

Chapter 6

Jake

“So Jake, man, what’s up? What’s
this you wanting to talk? I hope it’s not about your feelings or anything girly
like that. Go talk to your momma if you
wanna
talk
about your feelings, that ain’t my department.”

“Shit no, Zach,” I laughed, nudging
my old training partner in the ribs as we entered a noisy bar and sat down. “You
know, we just haven’t gone out in a while, that’s all. I just wanted to catch
up a bit.”

Zach and I grew up together, used
to fight together, too. But when his girl had a baby he decided to quit
fighting. Now he owns a successful auto shop that specializes in building
custom muscle cars. He’s a real sharp cookie, sort of philosophical in his
approach to thinking; I like to pick his brain sometimes when I’m struggling
with things.

“What’re you drinking, Zach? I’m
buying.”

After giving the bartender our
order Zach turned to me and asked, “So who’s the girl?”

“Excuse me?” I turned to look at
him.

“’Oh, excuse me?’” Zach teased.
“What? You learn that in medical school? They teachin’ you how to say, ‘excuse
me,’ and ‘please’ and ‘thank you’? Since when does Jake Bishop start saying,
‘excuse me’? It’s like I don’t even know you anymore, man!”

We both laughed. Zach was right:
med school was changing me some.

“Seriously, though,” he
continued, “When you asked me to join you for a drink
and talk
I knew something was up. Now Jake Bishop
don’t
‘talk’; and he sure as hell don’t talk about his
feelings. Since you’re not crying your eyes out, I know your brother is alive
and well and hasn’t been shot to shit somewhere in the Middle East. So,
naturally, you’re hitting me up to talk about a girl. Am I right, or am I
right?”

I smiled, shook my head, and
rolled my eyes.

“Okay. So out with it. We don’t
got all night.”

I took a deep breath in and
sighed. “Well, okay, so a couple weeks ago I happened to catch a glimpse of a
girl I haven’t seen in a long time. Like, since high school.”

“
This girl have
a name?”

“Yeah. Ruby. Ruby Cain. Anyway, I
had a gigantic crush on this girl back then, and let her know it, but she
rejected me big time. You know, I’m not one for backing down, so I pressed
back. Anyway, to make a long story short she basically said she was too good
for me and that I wouldn’t go anywhere in life.”

“
Oooweee
!
Ouch! A feisty one! I like them kind! Go on.”

“Yeah, well, anyway, so like I
said, I happened to catch sight of her the other night. The bitch still looks
hot as ever. And since then I haven’t been able to get her out of my mind. I
can’t concentrate on shit! Not on school, not on fighting. Fuck, dude, I lost a
fight last weekend because I thought I saw her near ringside! I took one second
to look at her, just one, and my opponent knocked me out cold! Goddamn, I lost
nearly $25,000 because I thought I saw a girl! And what’s worse is—“

“Whoa
whoa
whoa
whoa
!” Zach
interrupted, holding up his hands. “You lost a fight
?!
Over a girl
?!
Uh, are you outta your fucking mind
?!
”

“Yeah, I think so.”

He sat up, took a deep breath,
and ran a big hand over his shaved head. He then sat there for a second,
looking like a lost child, before leaning back into the bar with a forearm.

“So have you talked to this girl?
What’s her story? Where does she live? Where does she work?”

“I told you: I just happened to
see her hailing a cab the other night. She was across the street from me. She
appeared to be in a hurry. I hadn’t seen her in probably eight years, only saw
her for that fleeting moment a couple of weeks ago, and haven’t seen her
since.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he
deadpanned.

“Nope.”

“Man, you
gotta
problem,” he said, shaking his head.

“Tell me about it. The image
that’s seared into my brain is fucking up school, fucking up fighting, fucking
up everything.”

“Are you absolutely, one-hundred
percent certain it was her?”

“Yup. Not a doubt in my mind.”

“Huh. So what’re you
gonna
do?” He shifted in his seat.

“I don’t know. I was hoping you
could shed some light on the situation.”

“I think you need to seek
professional help. You
gotta
problem. That
ain’t
normal, man. It’s like you’re in
love with this girl or something.”

We both took a drink and leaned
forward, our
gazes
absentmindedly trained on the
liquor-filled shelves behind the bar.
 

“And you haven’t seen her since?”

“No, I told you, haven’t seen her
since,” I replied, shaking my head.

Zach sat there in silence for a
solid thirty seconds.

Then suddenly he turned towards
me, grabbed me firmly by both shoulders, looked me directly in the eyes and
said, “Jake, we go a long way back. Now I know you. I know you real well. You
one of the toughest motherfuckers I ever met, in both mind and body. But you
got to pull yourself together, man! And now! Like, STAT, you know, like how you
doctors use STAT!

“Now, here’s what I want you to
do: You need a good woman. You’re too old to be single. I’ve had my eyes on a
couple of lovely ladies across the bar, and before you object, you listen to
me. I know people. And I can tell by the look of these fine ladies that they be
quality women. And they don’t have wedding rings. Now I want you to go over and
talk to them, and come hell or high water, I don’t care how you do it or how
much money it costs, I want you to start a relationship! And I ain’t taking
‘no’ for an answer!”

He lifted me up by the shoulders,
turned me around, and pointed at two young women conversing at a corner table.

And I’ll be goddamned if Zach
wasn’t pointing directly at Ruby! Of the 1.2 million people in this city, he
had singled her out!

“Oh my fucking god,” I whispered,
dumbfounded.

“Yeah! See? Quality women! Now go
talk to them!”