Page 16 of Shep
He hung up and I dropped the cell beside me, then flung my arm over my eyes to block out the daylight.
I had the lazy, slack feeling from a really good orgasm. I also had the pissed off feeling that I wasn’t getting any more.
Once we’d fixed our clothes–minus the panties–we didn’t have too much to say to each other. My brain had felt like a fuse had been blown and the only thing I wanted to do was take her upstairs and find some empty bedroom in this place and fuck her properly. And all night long.
Instead, Rocky’d caught up with us to collect payment. His arm was wrapped around one of the women who was only in a pair of hot pink panties. He’d held out his hand, like I had three grand in cash in my pocket. Instead, I pulled out my cell and sent him the money through an app. My business was solid, I lived in a small house on the family ranch. I wasn’t loaded, but I could cover it.
He’d pulled out a wad of bills and stripped a fewoff and handed them to Francesca. It was a stark reminder that while what we’d done had been mindblowing and pretty much life altering, to her it was just sex. For cash.
Before I had a chance to pull her aside and tell her what it meant to me–like a high school girl clinging to a disinterested jock after a quick fuck–Francesca’s friends had pulled her out the front door.
They’d all gotten fucked and gotten paid. Night over.
I’d been stuck there in the fancy-ass kitchen until Jackson and Cyrus finished up. No way in hell was I wandering around and finding their bare asses while they fucked.
I couldn’t even complain about what a fucked up night that had been, how what I’d done with Francesca was a shit ton more than sex for money, but I would have been a hypocrite. That’s exactly what it had been.
Sex. Money.
Other than getting in touch with Rocky, which I sure as hell wasn’t gonna do, I didn’t know how to get in touch with Francesca. Hell, maybe take her on a date. Do shit right.
That wasn’t happening, so what I was now was a guy who paid for sex and had the dirty panties toprove it. I’d used a condom. I always did. It’d been a while, but I never went without. Never. I got a taste of Francesca and knew she’d be mine, but I was realistic. She’d volunteered to fuck for money and I’d asked her consent all along the way, but there was no question she didn’t sign up for a baby. Not with a stranger at a sex party.
Still, even though we’d been watched, it had felt like it had been only the two of us. I’d seen her and only her. Felt her. Breathed her in.
Since then, I thought of what it would feel like with nothing between us. If I’d fucked that virgin pussy raw. That had made me so fucking hot.
I had a girl out there thinking she was nothing more than a quickie and didn’t know what she meant to me. On top of all that, it’d happened at the Trout ranch, one of the only places in town my entire family hated.
What kind of Wilder was I?
10
FRANKIE
After Jasmineand Marie dropped me off, I spent my last night in the trailer. I should have felt sentimental, but I felt nothing for this decrepit home. No, it wasn’t a home. Dad bailed before I could even remember him. Mom died from a drug overdose when I was twelve. Marcus had cared enough about me to become my guardian so I didn’t go into the foster care system, but that was it. He’d been twenty at the time and had been far from parental. I’d shopped for my own groceries with money he used to leave for me on the chipped counter, then the money I made from waitressing when I turned fifteen. I pretty much raised myself.
Being kicked out of the trailer only meant I’d failed and I thought of that while I used all the hot water to scrub away all the hair product and makeup. I didn’t have too much time to think about the stupidity of what I’d done because Jerky Jack had pounded on the door the next morning to kick me out.
While I had the six hundred dollars I’d made from the night before’s sex-on-the-table, I wasn’t giving my landlord a dime. It wasn’t close to all I owed him after Marcus shafted us both and even if I handed it over, I’d still be kicked out.
I probably could’ve asked Marie or Jasmine if I could crash with them, but their trailers were crammed full of family already.
I, in a weak moment, gave him the middle finger as I left and knew I was never going to be able to come back. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had someone in the place by lunch. Empty trailer, empty pockets.
I’d never been so thankful to work at a hotel because after my shift I showered and slept in a room that hadn’t been cleaned. I left at dawn before any of the housekeepers arrived and made it to Wilder Auto Repairs by seven, eating a yogurt and banana I grabbed from the breakfast buffet in the lobby.
I gave myself a little pep talk in the rearview mirror after I parked at the side of the building. Out on the street, I saw the sign for Wilder Auto Repair and tried to calm the butterflies that felt like they’d turned into piranhas in my stomach. “You might not have a place to live, but you’ve got a job. Six hundred dollars in your pocket. Things are turning around.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but I needed all the positive affirmations I could get. I just had to hang on until payday.
I entered the shop right at seven. The scent of coffee hit me along with the sharpness of motor oil and new tires. Somehow, those familiar smells made me think things were only getting better when the door between the mechanic bays and the waiting room opened and a guy in gray coveralls walked in.
My mouth fell open and I couldn’t believe it.
It was him, Shep, from Saturday night. The guy I’d had sex with. Proof was his name printed on his chest. And the ache that lingered in my pussy from him being deep inside me.
His eyes widened as he froze at the sight of me.
