Page 18 of Bourbon and Lies

“Let’s go, Julep,” I say again, trying to ignore the way just looking at her has my cock stirring.

“You’re bleeding.” She nods at my hands. I don’t glance down at my numb hands. Instead, I just keep my eyes on her, trying to figure out why she would even care. What the hell is she really doing here? This isn’t an Airbnb. Why the fuck would Ace move her in?

“Your right hand. Wait, I might have band-aids,” she says as she moves back inside.

I turn and walk away. I don’t need a damn band-aid. I can't do this. I’m going to end up trying to fuck her. “Julep,” I shout out over my shoulder. “Let's go!”

I stalk back to my yard, around the back of the house, and through the screen door. Julep is nowhere in sight and still probably on that porch. Rifling around the kitchen, I look for a towel to wrap my hand. I throw on the faucet and watch the cold water turn from pink to clear. My hand starts to throb, but I’m so flustered that it barely registers.

“Shit.” Leaning my hands on the counter in front of me, I hang my head. I need to calm the hell down. I try a deep inhale, holding for three, and a full exhale. But it doesn’t do much. “Fuck my life, I want her.”

The way her lips look puffy and pouty. Like she’s not getting her way after just finishing sucking on a cherry popsicle. The way I want to see how she’d take me. If she whines or moans when she feels good. If she’ll submit if I ask. The way it would feel to tuck my cock between her tits and then paint them when I’m ready. Make her lick me clean.

Fuck it.I can hate myself later.

I unbuckle my belt, flip open the button of my jeans, and let them drop. Once I kick off my boots, I step out of my pants. Then I’m spitting on my hand and gripping my cock. She’s not dainty or fragile. I bet she’d grip me nice and tight. I can’t hold back the groan, thinking about her on her knees in front of me, licking those lips and gagging on it as I hit the back of her throat. I close my eyes and imagine the way she’d look right up at me with those pretty eyes, her perfect goddamn tits out, and then how she’d slowly spread those legs for me.

“Fuck. That’s it.” My bare ass hits the counter, but I don’t give a shit about where I am or that I’m not wearing a damn thing. I keep the pace slow and hard, the same way that I’d play with her. Rocking my fist back and forth, I edge myself, because I could have come on the third flick of my wrist. This is the second time that all I have had to do is exchange a few words with her and I’m hard. Ready to fantasize about how wet she’d be if I told her all the filthy things I could do to her.

Tightening my grip, I swipe my thumb along the tip and, shit, that feels good. This is what I get for being celibate for too fucking long.

I think about the way she’d smile when I’d tell her I wanted to bury myself in that delicious-looking cunt.Fuck, I miss eating pussy.I think about how she’d feel warm against my tongue and taste sweet like honey as I’d rub her arousal around my lips. How I’d sink inside of her and fuck her so deep that she’d lose herbreath. I imagine the way a woman like her would feel if I came inside of her. If she’d milk me dry and then beg for it again.

I fuck myself faster. My body wound so tight that the tops of my legs feel numb, sweat slicks my body, and I’m ready to dive over and succumb to this. With my head tilted back and resting against the cabinet, I picture her looking at me like she’d never want anyone else. I

imagine her lying like an offering in the center of my bed as I watch my cum drip out of her and then how I’d push it back in with three fingers, just to see her come all over again.

“That’s it, honey. Look at me.”

Goosebumps run up my arms as scuffing sounds on the other side of the screen door, and at the idea of her seeing me like this, I come so fucking hard that my body shudders against the counter just as I splash my chest with my own cum. I gasp from holding my breath as I come down from the full-bodied orgasm that lingers, tingling across my limbs.

Holy shit.

It takes me a few minutes to realize I’m ass naked in my kitchen, before I wipe off my mess while moving toward the back door, checking for Julep. But instead of my pup resting on the stairs, there’s a box of band-aids on the railing.

Chapter 10

Laney

I liein bed and watch as the golden orange light starts on the left side of my room and bleeds up the wall as the minutes tick by. I haven’t left my little house in days. Sleep had finally taken me. But every time I woke up, my mind reeled. Jumping from one intense thought to the next. The one I preferred was the one that came from my neighbor.

“That’s it, honey. Look at me.”I brought him band-aids, and just before I knocked on that screen door, my ears perked at his deep, guttural moan. I’m a stranger invading his life. And according to most, Grant Foxx is not going to be my friendly neighbor. But I knew he was getting off and the nickname he so casually assigned to me was what came barreling out. I slapped my hand over my mouth and stepped back down the stairs slowly. I wanted to be the kind of woman to walk in there and lick up the mess he made. But I’m not her. Not yet.

I peer my head up and over the fluffy pillows surrounding me to look at the time. 10:47 a.m. A little more than five days sinceI’ve been in Fiasco. After my short stint as a Peeping Tom, I slept for a solid eighteen hours before I stepped outside again. I had a glass of water on the front steps of my porch and gave Julep about an hour’s worth of belly rubs before I decided I wanted to go back to sleep. I earned a few lazy days, and sleep was what my body craved. Well, maybe not the only thing…“That’s it, honey.”

I’d do better with a routine, and time’s the only currency I have a wealth of, so today I’ll venture out and explore what Fiasco has to offer. Maybe find a grocery store so I can use the cute kitchenette in my new home and bake something. My eyes water when I think about the dinners I had as a kid. They were always simple and repetitive, but my dad had a sweet tooth and we got pretty darn great at baking.

I’ll need to take Ace up on that job offer. The small amount of money I have from Bea won’t last too long. I doubt Fiasco would be interested in bartering.Barter.Chills down my spine and make my stomach sour.

“You’re taking something that’s mine, pretty thief? You planning to barter?”

How could something as small as a single word drive me right back to the night that got me here? I want to erase it. What that monster said and the way he said it. How the calmness of his voice made my skin crawl even over the chaos. I hate that these thoughts and memories are sitting on the sidelines, waiting to remind me.

I just reacted. Swallowed the fear and moved as fast as I could. I squeeze my eyes closed, feeling disgusted by my choices. I keep thinking about the scream that came shortly after I yelled at Phillip to leave. A blood-curdling shriek that sounded as if someone was being tortured. And someone had been.

I don’t know if I’ll ever forget the way she collapsed into my arms and how I dragged her through the exit. The relief I felt as the firemen rushed toward us. The chills that worked theirway around my body, burrowing deeper into my bones, the same ones I’m still experiencing. I’m banking on the idea that time will help erase some of it. Maybe not all of it, but enough that I’ll stop jumping at loud noises and unexpected deep voices.

“Hello?!”

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