Page 6 of Caught Up

Only after it was dressed did I allow myself to pull up Lauren’s latest video as a reward. With a tap, it started playing, her familiar bedroom flashing to life before my eyes. Golden light streamed into the room, bathing herfour-posterbed in dappled shafts of amber. She kneeled in the middle of the comforter, wearing a matching set ofcream-coloredshorts and a tank top.

Her fingers toyed with the hem of the shirt as she gave the camera a sultry smile. I hit pause just as she started to pull it over her head and went back to the beginning again. Tugging my phone close, I zoomed in on her face, focusing on her eyes, studying her expression. Several days had passed since my brothers and I sank her father’s car in the river—plenty of time for Tommy to get reported missing—but I saw no grief in Lauren’s eyes. No worry.

Had she not heard? Or did she know and not care? Not that I would blame her if she didn’t, butnotknowing if the news had broken about Tommy was starting to get on my nerves, and I decided it was time to bite the bullet.

I pulled up my dad’s contact, my thumb hovering over the call button. He and I hadn’t exactly been seeing eye to eye lately, and a large part of why I was holed up in the city was to avoid him. It felt like every interaction turned into an argument, and living under his thumb during the whole Bradley Bluhm debacle had pushed us to a breaking point. I needed this time away from him, but my need for information about Lauren was even stronger, so, with a deep breath, I called him.

He answered on the first ring. “Where the fuck have you been?”

I almost hung up. The man made nothing easy. Every fucking conversation had to be contentious from the start. “Busy.”

“Fucking busy?” Dad barked. “It’s beendays, Junior.”

“And I got all the shit done that you asked me to,” I fired back. “It’s not like I’m out here fucking around. It’s not like I took a blade to the ribs tonight because I was sitting in my apartment twiddling my thumbs.”

He sucked in a breath. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I bit out, refusing to let the concern in his tone soften me. He wasn’t worried about my safety, not really; knowing Dad, he was more concerned with how my death would impacthislife. “Can I ask you something, or do you want to nag me some more?”

Dad shut his mouth so fast, I heard his teeth click over the line. I didn’t have to see him to know he was clenching his jaw hard enough to crack a molar. A small, ugly thrill of triumph zipped through me, knowing I’d gotten to him.

We always brought out the worst in each other.

“Ask,” he growled.

“Has the news broken about Tommy yet?”

Dad was quiet for so long that I didn’t think he’d answer me. “Why do you want to know?”

Fuck, I should have asked someone else. I thought enough time had passed and I’d done a good enough job covering my tracks that Dad would have forgotten all about Lauren by now, but I could tell from the suspicion in his tone that I was wrong.

“I just do,” I said.

“This isn’t about his whore daughter, is it?”

Rage boiled up from the pit of my stomach. Men like my father were why patricide was a thing.

I took a deep breath and pushed my anger back down, forcing an unaffected calm into my tone that had taken me years to perfect. “No. Has Tommy been reported missing yet or not?”

“Yesterday. When are you coming home? Your mom’s been worried.”

Ah, the guilt trip. Of course he would turn to that when badgering hadn’t worked.

“A few days. I’ve got some shit to look into in the city.”

He hung up on me.

I set my phone down, hands shaking. One day, this goddamn temper of mine was going to bubble up and explode all over everyone around me. Years of unresolved resentment sat heavy between me and my father, most of it so ugly I repressed the shit out of it. My fallout with Lauren occupied the top spot on the list. I’d never forget what he said to me the night Tommy kicked my ass:Better it happen now, like this, than for Lauren to getreallyhurt.

Taken at face value, it might sound like he’d been looking out for her, but his ominous tone had turned it into a threat, like if I didn’t stay away from Lauren,he’dbe the one to hurt her next.

Yeah, Tommy was out of the picture, but my old man was still a problem. One I would have to deal with, and soon. A fight had been brewing between us for years, and not just yourrun-of-the-millyelling match, but the big one. The one where I told him I didn’t want to do this anymore, that I didn’t want to end up like him, which was where I was going if I continued down my current path.

Needing a distraction from my troubled thoughts, I swiped my thumb across my phone and brought up Lauren’s video, still paused, still zoomed in on her face. Fuck, she was beautiful. I hit play and let the video keep rolling, and up went Lauren’s shirt, over her head before getting tossed out of frame. My cock swelled at the sight of her dusky nipples, already pebbled from the air rushing over them. Her waist was flat and narrow, flaring at the hips. She’d filled out some in the last decade, and the curves looked good on her.

I watched while she stroked her hands up her stomach and cupped her tits.Perfect tits.Her head fell back as she played with her nipples. She didn’t look like she was acting. She looked like she was enjoying herself, and that’s why it was so goddamn addicting to watch her, why I’d watched nearly every video on her Me4U page over the years. The woman came to life on screen. She was completely unselfconscious, gave herself entirely over to pleasure. But my favorite thing was when her personality peeked through whenever she laughed or made that low, frustrated moan that hinted she was close, but needed something more to push herself over the edge.

I’d learnedallher sounds, studied the way she made herself climax. It might have seemed obsessive, but it wasn’t; it was strategic. One day, I would use everything I’d learned against her, make her come faster than anyone else had, convince her that my hands and my tongue and my dick were made to get her off. I wanted her to crave me,need me.

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