Page 27 of Protecting Tiffani

The shirt must have fallen from her mouth, “God, Levi. Baby, I’m close. You’re hitting so deep…” Her words cut off as she throws her head back, and another orgasm takes her over the edge. My balls start to draw up as tingles shoot down my spine. I tighten my grip on her hips as I pick up the speed of my thrust. Her body bounces with every thrust I make. “Oh fuck.” Her arms go out from under her, and her face is in the mattress as she screams my name. My dick swells, then I twitch and fill her up. I bite my bottom lip hard to keep from screaming through my release. All the strength leaves me, and I fall forward, slipping out of her. Even though I don’t want to move, I also don’t want to crush her, so I roll to the right, wrapping my arms around her and bringing her back to my chest.

Her chest is heaving as bad as mine. “I’m sorry I left you, Tiffani, but I was young and dumb. Can you give me another chance to love you the way I should have been doing all these years?” She kisses the inside of my arm that is laying under her head.

“Yes, my love.” A knock on my door sends us both scrambling for our clothes.

“Now that you are done with your morning exercise, breakfast is ready. Adam will be here soon.” My mom calls through the door laughing.

Chapter sixteen

Tiffani

IbeggedLevitolet me sneak out of the window to avoid what was destined to be an awkward breakfast with his mom and brother. Of course, he just laughed at me, telling me it was too late. Bless her; his mom never said anything about what she heard. She went about loading up our plates like nothing had happened. Adam, his wife, and their adorable son arrived five minutes after we sat down. As the door opens again, we all stare as Emilee and Parker come into the living room. Emilee has a worried look on her face which makes us all jump up at the same time. What if something is wrong with the baby?

“What’s wrong, Sissy?” both Adam and Levi ask.

“What’s going on?” Nana asks at the same time.

“I was worried sick about you. Do none of you guys know how to answer your damn phones? We have been calling all morning to make sure everyone’s okay?” Her eyes are frantic as she bounces between all three of them. Then they land on me. I’m half standing, half sitting, frozen by the thought of something happening to her as it did me. “Tiffani, what are you doing here?” Her tone is clipped and short.

Her question unfreezes me physically, but emotionally it chills my blood. It sounds like she doesn’t want me here, but that makes no sense because she told me to listen to him. Maybe I misunderstood her? I have been known to misread a situation before. Is that what’s happening right now? Everyone turns their attention to me, and I start to over analyze every stare, every look thrown my way. Oh fuck, I’ve overstayed my welcome. That thought makes the light, fluffy eggs in my stomach feel like a ton of bricks. How could I have been stupid? I always feared they blamed me for Levi leaving, and maybe they do. Smoothing Levi’s shirt down, I step away from the table.

“Um…” I need a way out of here and fast. Glancing at the microwave, the clock says it’s six twenty, I don’t have to be at work until seven, but I guess there’s no time like the present to leave. “I’m sorry, I just noticed what time it is. I need to get back to town, if you’ll excuse me.” The shoes Ms. Glades let me borrow are sitting by the front door, the same one that Parker is still standing in front of. Everyone is staring at me frozen until I shove my feet into them.

“Tiffani…”

“Cupcake…”

“Sunshine…”

Three people try talking to me at once, but I can’t hear them. It’s all a loud buzzing in my ears. My face is hot with embarrassment from everything. My hands shake as I struggle to get air into my lungs. I push past Parker, throwing the screen door open and, in my haste to get away from everyone, I run into someone coming up the steps. Stopping to apologize isn’t possible right now, even though I was raised with manners. What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I breathe? What is going on with me? The faster I push my legs, the weight in my stomach gets worse and worse. My foot trips over a big rock in the road, and my body flies forward. I try to stop my fall by throwing my hands out, but all I do is scrape my hands as they slide against the wet road. My chin hits the ground hard, causing my teeth to bite the inside of my cheek, flooding my mouth with blood. Levi’s shirt tears at my stomach, and the rocks dig into the soft flesh. His pants rip at the knees as well.

“Oh shit. Are you all right?” a scared voice off to my left asks. I hear feet kicking gravel as whoever just saw me faceplant rushes toward me. Small hands grab my shoulders and help me sit onto my knees, but I shift to my ass when that becomes painful. “Your hands, oh, you hit your chin… Ben!” I look up into the worried eyes of Levi’s aunt. Looking over her shoulder, I see I’m right in front of their house, which is half a mile from Levi’s. Her husband comes running when he hears her calling him.

“What’s wrong… Tiffani? What happened?”

“She fell, of course. Go get the first aid kit,” She yells at him.

“No, no need. I’m good, Levi’s aunt. Promise. I wasn’t paying attention. I’ll be on my way.” I try to push up onto my feet, but without the use of my hands, I can’t. Shit, I place my hands on the ground and grind my teeth to keep the curse word in as the dirt embeds itself into the cuts.

“The hell you are, young lady. You come into this house right now and let me clean those cuts up.” Her tone is stern, making me afraid to question or refuse her.

“I really need to get to town. I’m supposed to be at work by seven, and it’ll take longer than I have to walk there,” I whisper, looking down at the ground so she doesn’t see the tears threatening to overflow.

“I will drive you to town only after I clean those.” She points to my hands.

“Thank you. I can’t keep calling you Levi’s aunt in my head. What’s your name?” I feel ridiculous asking, but I feel rude not knowing it.

“It’s Teresa, you’re Tiffani. The girl who dated Levi in high school, right?”

“Yes, ma’am, that’s me. Thank you for helping me and giving me a ride,” I answer. I hate that I can’t confidently tell her no, I’m Tiffani, his current girlfriend, but my brain is so messed up by what I swear I saw on everyone’s face back there. He might say he wants me, but if his family doesn’t really want me around, he won’t either. Not someone like Levi, who puts his family first in everything he does. It takes Teresa five minutes to dig the gravel out of my palm, chin, knees and stomach before she is satisfied enough to take me into town. I don’t speak the whole way there. I try to make sense of everything, but it’s no use.

By the looks of the outside of the building, Susan’s Suds was lucky. There are branches scattered over the parking lot, but that takes me ten minutes to clean up. Thankfully we have electricity. With a few minutes to spare, I find the hidden key, unlock the doors, and head upstairs to change. Throwing Levi’s clothes in the hamper, I try to push him to the back of my mind. I need to focus on work; worrying about him won’t do me any good right now.

For a Wednesday, it’s pretty busy. A lot of people that come in are doing laundry for the individuals that lost their homes or don’t have electricity at the moment. If I could afford it, I would help them, but according to the bank, I’m almost in the red. Even though I can’t help financially, I do help by switching clothes over and folding bedding for them. No one looks at me like people usually do. Like I’m a reject, based on my parents’ rumors. They smile at me, thanking me for helping. By the time noon rolls around, everything is quiet but Brad shows up and locks himself in the office, claiming he’s here to do the monthly inventory.

“Tiffani, come here. I need to speak to you,” Brad’s calls from the office. With all the mud outside, the floors needs to be cleaned more today. I had decided now was a good time to do it again, so I wouldn’t have to be in there with him, but it looks like he has a different plan. I don’t walk completely into the office.

“What is it?” I ask. A knot forms in my stomach, my legs itch to move away from him, and my skin feels like someone is pulling on it, stretching it tight across my body.

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