Role Play Page 16
But from the corner of my eye, I saw a guy pass by too close to us, straining his head to watch us kiss. All of the sharks who had been following Sierra were now circling us, watching me hold her and hungrily eyeing the way her skirt rode up on her thigh.
I grabbed her hand and gave a general glare at the watching men to back off. I didn’t think it would be such a problem at a classy event. But our PDA was getting out of hand.
Sierra didn’t ask where we were going. She looked just as dazed and turned on as I was.
I saw the old confessionals along the back and made a bee-line toward them. The first handle I tried was locked, but the second one was open.
I pulled her inside with me, and there was barely enough room for us to stand next to the bench seat. But my arms were around her and I was kissing her again, this time letting go completely.
She reached up to touch my face so tenderly that I turned to kiss her fingertips. Her hand was small in mine. It felt right, as if I could be her rock and she could be my light.
The faint cries of, “Ah, ah, ah…” filtered through the wooden screen behind her. She heard it at the same time, and we broke off our kiss to listen. The rhythmic rustle and the cries were unmistakable. A couple was fucking in the box next to us.
I leaned down, and could see the faint shadow of people through the wooden screen. The woman was getting louder, losing herself in the pleasure.
My hand slid down to Sierra’s thigh, drawing up her dress. “They have the right idea.”
The bumping from next door made her eyes widen. Her hands were pushing on my chest. “They’re having sex!” she whispered, finally realizing.
“Yes.” I leaned in and kissed her again, lingering over the sweet taste of her lips. My hand drew up her skirt again.
But she stopped me. “No.”
“But this is perfect,” I murmured, pressing into her. “Nobody can see us.”
She pushed harder at my chest. “People are right on the other side of this door! All dressed up. I’m not having sex with you in here.”
I realized she meant it. For a moment, I hesitated, and then leaned forward to kiss her. Hoping she wouldn’t cut me off completely.
“I need to get out,” she said quietly before I could touch her lips.
I unlatched the door so she could leave. She settled her dress, glancing around uneasily. A couple of the guys were still hanging around watching us.
I felt bad for letting my dick stampede ahead of my brain. But even now, part of me wanted to draw her back inside the confessional and kiss her into oblivion so I could do anything I wanted to her.
“Let’s go back to my place,” I said. “You’ll love the view at night.”
She looked tempted, which perversely irritated me. It was my usual line, and she was responding to it.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I think you have the wrong idea about me. I’m not the kind of girl who has casual sex with men. I know we fell into this because I was freaking out over my sister. But I want a man who’s part of my life.”
I was brought up short. The last thing I expected at this moment was the Ultimatum.
Here I was thinking she was different, but she was still angling for the same thing as all of the rest. Give me everything, was the constant demand I heard from women. They were willing to settle for far less, my pathetic relationships had proven that, but they still demanded everything and made me miserable knowing that I could never give them enough.
“Don’t look like that,” she told me. “I didn’t hear from you for weeks, and now you’re all over me. What am I to think?”
“You don’t want a relationship with me. You don’t even know me,” I snapped. “You want the fantasy—the billionaire hero who sweeps you off your feet, while you save him from his dark pain. Well, it doesn’t happen that way in real life, Sierra.”
She stared at me, hurt and growing angry. “You don’t know what I want. I don’t expect anyone to rescue me. I’ve always taken care of myself, and Lola too—”
“Victor!” a woman called out. Karla staggered up, smiling apologetically at Sierra. “’Scuse me, dear. Victor, can I have another twenty? I lost my cab fare, and you promised to get me home.”
Sierra backed off, letting Karla move in to hang off my arm. I could tell Karla was exaggerating her drunkenness, playing it up to take a poke at Sierra and get revenge on me. I should have known that selfish Karla wouldn’t leave me alone without squeezing more than twenty dollars out of me.
Sierra turned around and walked away without a word. I tried to peel Karla off me, but she was laughing now.
“Boy is she pissed at you!” Karla exclaimed. “Did you see her face? She was mad when you came out of that confessional. What did you do to her in there?”
I had a terrible sinking feeling.
“I misjudged her,” I whispered, more to myself than Karla.
Sierra had the right to be mad at me. She wasn’t a gold-digger. Lola might have been living off Dick, but that was Lola. Sierra didn’t do that.
In fact, I couldn’t imagine her doing that, now that I knew her better.
I should have confessed to her at Pleasure Salon, or even at the party. If Sierra was angry with me now, how would she react when she found out that I had been lying to her? She actually deserved a rich successful guy, not a liar like me.
It was all fucked up.
Chapter 20
Sierra
I grabbed my cover-up from the coat check girl, and ran out of the Sanctuary. I paused at the top of the steps leading down to the street. People were still coming in, and a small crowd of smokers hung out on the flagstones at the bottom.
I got my bearings and went down to 6th Street that fronted the church. The subway station was seven blocks away. I had worn a light coat on purpose so I wouldn’t have to pay for a cab ride home. But apparently Victor was used to giving cab money to his girls. He had done it for me once before. It must be nice to be able to buy any woman he wanted.
I felt awful, like I had a hole pierced through my middle. Like something important was missing. The hope was gone.
While it was flattering to be desired by a man like Victor, I couldn’t stand being just another number in his phone. I wasn’t like Karla, okay with getting cab money from a man after he decided there was another woman he preferred for the night.
When I realized that he intended to have sex with me in the confessional, within minutes of seeing me for the first time in two weeks, it suddenly felt wrong. He was attracted to me, but that wasn’t enough.
Like I thought, we don’t have a relationship. He was on a date with another woman tonight, and he ducked out on her to mess around with me.
I was done with Victor. I didn’t do casual sex, and he didn’t do relationships. There was nothing else to say.
It wasn’t exactly the great last impression I had intended to leave with him, but it would have to do. I didn’t see any way forward for us.
My eyes stung as I turned the corner and hurried down Avenue B. I felt safer on the brighter lit avenue. But if I stayed the course heading south, I would pass Victor’s place a few blocks south of Houston.
Right now, I wanted to avoid Victor. When he touched me, I lost control. It was too seductive to fall into the pleasure he gave me. To let everything else go and surrender to him.
I had to hold it together and get out of here. When I was safe at home, I could fall apart.
I turned onto 5th Street and headed toward Avenue A. I didn’t want to risk running into him. That was a scarier thought than the darkened street.
But it was creepy in the shadows, cast by the trees blocking the street lights. I was hurrying along when a hand grabbed my arm. “Sierra!”
“What—“ I exclaimed, thinking it was Victor.
Turning, I saw it was Dick. “Dick! What are you doing here?”
He pulled me deeper into the parking lot. I took a last look down the block, but Victor was nowhere in sight.
I was shocked. “You followed me to find Lola?”
“Don’t you play all high and mighty with me, Sierra! I know you moved, and you didn’t tell me.”
“I don’t owe you anything. You’re not dating Lola anymore.”
“She needs help. She’s losing it. She didn’t quit her job—she was fired. There’s clothes missing, boxes of them. Her boss wants to find out where she is, too.”
A familiar surge of protective fear starting to rise. Lola was in trouble again… she needed me…
But I forced myself to say, “There’s nothing I can do. Lola won’t talk to me.”
“I can’t find her, Sierra. She left that flophouse she was staying at in Bed-Sty. Since she doesn’t work in the mall anymore, she’s dropped out of sight. She’s not updating her profile to say where she’s going to be. I was hoping you knew.”
“Seriously, Dick? You are a terrible detective. There were two vans parked outside our place last weekend when we moved out.”
“I was working Saturday. If you’d told me what was happening, I could have been there!”
“It’s none of your business where Lola is living,” I said flatly.
Dick stepped closer to me, grabbing my arm again. “It is my business. Even though she’s going through a psychotic break, probably because of drugs, that doesn’t mean you give up on her.”
“Let go of me, Dick!”
I tried to wrest my arm from his grasp, but he had hold of me tight. “I know you have her address. Give me your phone.”
“No!”
He shook me. “Give it to me!”
I tried to hit him, but he was so much bigger than me. I cried out as the pressure on my arm sharpened.
He held me off and ripped my bag from my shoulder.
“Give that back!” I cried out.
He shook me hard, bringing me close to his face. “Shut up! Or I swear!”
He shoved me away hard, and I stumbled in my high heels. My ankle twisted under me and I went to the ground with a cry. Pain shot through my bare knees as I landed on the asphalt, scraping the skin on my hands, too.
Dick stood over me, rifling through my bag. He pulled out my phone and threw my bag to one side.
I tried to reach out for it, but when I moved my leg, my ankle screamed in pain. My hands clutched at my ankle, but it didn’t help. I didn’t know what to do.
He was frozen, staring down at my phone. “Last text eight days ago. You’ve barely texted her this month! Are you calling her?”
“She won’t talk to me! Don’t you get it?”
Dick grabbed me by the arm and hauled me up. My ankle gave out with a hard stab of pain, but he was holding me up.
“You’re hurting me, Dick,” I panted.
He got right into my face. Suddenly I was afraid of him, really afraid. He didn’t look like the man who had dated my sister for over a year. He smelled of alcohol and his eyes were reddened and watery. If he wasn’t holding me up, I would have sunk to the ground in fear.
“Tell me what her address is,” he demanded.
“I don’t know!”
“You do know! Don’t lie to me.” He gave me another hard shake.
“I don’t know! I thought she was living in Bed-Sty,” I cried.
Dick was in my face again, leering at me. Fear spiked through me as he raised his hand. “You’re just like your sister. A lying little cheat!”
I cringed back, knowing he was going to hit me.
Suddenly an arm caught Dick’s upraised hand, and jerked him back.
The three of us stumbled together. Dick wouldn’t let go of me, and I cried out in the pain as I put my foot down.
But Victor had control of Dick’s other arm, and was slowly wrestling him away from me. Dick was a big guy, but there was nothing he could do against Victor except huff and puff. “Get off me!” Dick demanded. “I’m a police officer.”
But Victor took him down, right down to the ground, until Dick’s face was pressed against the asphalt. “Cops aren’t supposed rough up women. That’s stuff the Post eats up!” Victor said through his teeth.
I shakily sat back down on the ground. My face was wet with tears. I didn’t realize I was crying until that moment.
“Call 911,” Victor told me.
Dick started thrashing harder under Victor. “I know this girl! I’m dating her sister. She’s withholding important information for my investigation. Let me go! You don’t know who you’re messing with, buddy!”
Victor ignored him, looking only at me. “I can hold onto him until the cops get here. Look at your knees! You’re bleeding.”
“I just want him to go away,” I managed to say. My lips felt numb, and I could hardly speak.
I needed Victor to help me, and there he was, helping me.
Thankfully I sagged against my outstretched arms. I was breathing fast like I had just sprinted for my life, and was dizzy with relief. Dick mugged me!
But Victor had saved me.
Chapter 21
Victor
I wanted to pound Dick slowly into the ground, but the security cameras watching over the parking lot would be merciless on me. Calling 911 was a distant second choice, but still much better than letting the jerk walk away.
“He hurt you,” I told Sierra. “I can’t let him get away with that.”
Even Dick heard the barely-contained rage in my words. Smashed into the asphalt, completely at my mercy with his arm twisted up painfully, Dick’s tone finally started to change. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Sierra. I’m going out of my mind with worry. You know that.”
“Get him away from me,” Sierra pleaded.
“Are you sure?” I said through clenched teeth.
“Yes…”
I hauled Dick off the ground, not caring how rough I was on his shoulders. Dick yelped in pain.
I walked him back to the sidewalk and thrust him away from me hard. Dick nearly fell to the cement, but he managed to keep his feet. His hand went to his shoulder, and he winced, bending over.
“Try it,” I ordered through my teeth. “Just try it.”
I hoped Dick was stupid enough to take a crack at me. I would enjoy beating the shit out of him in “self-defense.”
Dick didn’t look like he was ready to try anything. He hobbled off, still holding his shoulder like he couldn’t move it.
“Don’t you go near Sierra again,” I called after him.
I waited to make sure Dick was walking away before I went back for Sierra.
She was struggling to get up. She favored her right leg, limping forward to get her balance.
I stopped her by picking her up in my arms. “Do you have your purse?”
“Yes. Not my phone. He threw it away.”
I turned and walked around still carrying her, until we found her phone which thankfully wasn’t broken. Tears were shining on her cheeks.
I held her close, her face nestled against my shoulder and her arm clutching me around my back. I carried her back to Avenue B and started down the block before she faintly said, “I can try to walk.”
“That’s the worst thing you can do on an injury. If I see an empty cab, I’ll grab it. But that’s not likely this time of night.”
I carried her six blocks down to my apartment, keeping a sharp eye out for Dick. Sierra held onto me tightly, her eyes closed. Her breathing was ragged. I wished I could do something more for her, and I didn’t even notice the ache in my own arms as I neared my place. I would have carried her to Brooklyn if I had to.
In the elevator, she said into my chest, “You can let me down.”
“Not a chance.” I adjusted her in my arms. I didn’t want to let her go.
I carried her inside my place and sat down with her on my couch, holding her in my lap. I needed a moment to feel like it was finally safe. Dick wasn’t going to jump out from behind a car and attack her again.
“Thank y
ou,” she murmured into my chest. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
My heart twisted. What would have happened if I hadn’t kept searching for her after she ran out of the Sanctuary?
My blood boiled at the thought of that piece of shit hurting Sierra. I wished I could go back in time and punch him good. Dick was already facing enough trouble, a cop roughing up a civilian, and a pretty girl at that. I could have gotten away with punching him in the eye.
But Sierra had already seen enough of what I was capable of. Somehow her frantic eyes had reminded me of when I had threatened her, silently begging me to stop. I couldn’t do that to her again, even to satisfy my powerful urge to fuck Dick up.
Rocking slightly with my face pressed against her hair, I took in the fact that she was okay. I had reached her in time. Now it was over.
She shifted a little, looking up at me. Her eyes looked even bigger shining with tears.
Was it sick that I loved her like that? When she was so vulnerable and open to me? I knew I could reach into her heart and rip it out right now. She was completely in my power. I had saved her, so I owned her now.
She’s mine.
But I couldn’t say that to her. I didn’t have the right.
I stroked her cheek. “I’ll take care of you.”
I slid her off my lap onto the couch. She winced a bit when she moved her leg. “My ankle. It twisted when he pushed me down.”
Once again I regretted not pounding Dick into the ground. She drew back slightly at the intensity in my eyes.
I turned to her ankle, unstrapping her high heel to look at her pretty slender foot with toenails painted bright red. There was something very arousing about the red tips. Just touching her foot, feeling her soft skin, made my hands linger and soothe her even as my cock stirred.
I forced myself to focus on her ankle. Two blue streaks were deepening on the outside. I moved her foot gently. She hissed but didn’t cry out, so it wasn’t broken.
I had dealt with enough injuries from my job so I knew exactly what to do. I got her foot elevated with an ice gel pack draped over her ankle. With a hot wet towel, I washed the blood from the scrapes on her palms and then her knees.