Page 9 of Let Me
The number I didn’t recognize in my phone.
Caden takes a drink, what I assume is vodka in his cup, but I before I can say anything, I hear two women screaming Adam’s name.
I whip around, my mouth open in disbelief.
He’s on his back, one woman’s ass in the air as he eats her and she gyrates on top of him, her neck arched up as she says his name, and the other woman has his cock in her mouth, her back arched as some other dude comes up behind her for the offering.
Caden is still at my back. I feel the heat of his body behind me, but I don’t turn around. I don’t move. All I can do is watch. Watch my boyfriend run his tongue over another girl. Watch his mouth open wide and she arches her back more, giving me a full view of her, and him.
It’s so loud in this club, full of the sound of bodies slapping against one another, of moans and screams and sighs, but with Caden behind me, it still seems too quiet.
Then he whispers against my skin, “You like it, don’t you?”
I watch as Adam slips his fingers inside the girl and she arches her neck more, and her eyes glaze over until they don’t. Until she dips her head and she’s completely focused on Adam, and she smiles and moans, “More.”
“You like watching your boyfriend put his fingers in another girl, don’t you, Riley?” Caden’s words vibrate against my skin and my nipples harden beneath my dress again and he laughs, a low and throaty sound, like he notices. And he could. Because he’s much taller than I am and he’s right behind me, looking down.
My face warms as I realize that I’m aching for him.
Even as I watch Adam, even as he pulls this girl’s hips away and he’s staring inside of her as if she’s his salvation, even then, I ache for Caden.
“Do you want me to touch you?” he asks quietly, and there’s not even an inch between us but I’m dying for him to close it. Dying even as Adam palms this girl’s breasts, then slaps them, just a little. Even as he puts his mouth on one without so much as a glance at me.
Even then, I want to tell Caden to touch me. To press himself against me.
“Do you want me to finish what we started that night?”
I don’t trust myself to speak. So I say nothing.
“Riley,” he says, his voice commanding an answer.
I take a breath. And another. I try to stand up straighter in this alcove, a bigger crowd gathering around Adam and the girl. I try to regain my composure, to think past Caden’s presence at my back.
“You hate me,” I whisper. I don’t know why I say it. It’s true, of course. It’s why this is happening. Caden and Benji probably set this whole thing up or seized a hell of an opportunity. But I still don’t know why I say it now. I think, maybe, I want him to deny it. I want him to argue with me. He was always good at that.
But instead, he leans closer, his lips grazing my shoulder as he says, “I hate you so much, Riley, that when I look at you, every time, every single time, I’ve wanted to push you to your knees, pull open that pretty, filthy mouth of yours, and fill you with me.”
I tense, suck in my breath. I’m still looking straight ahead but I’m not seeing anything anymore. I can’t think. I can hardly breathe. I can hardly stand.
And then I can’t stand at all.
My legs give way, and I think I’m going to fall but Caden catches me around the waist. I’m trembling in his grip, and it isn’t kind. It’s tight and harsh and nearly possessive. Except possessive is when you want to own someone. Caden doesn’t want to own me. He wants to destroy me.
“Stand up, Riley. This is nothing less than what you wanted,” he says to me, his words harsh and low.
“I don’t want this,” I whisper, the words dry in my throat.
He grips me tighter. “You do,” he counters, lips against my ear. “You do. Just like you wanted to watch my brother go wild for you.” There’s something desperate in his words. “And me, too. Isn’t that right? But I won’t Riley. I don’t need you anymore. I don’t need anything from you.”
He shoves me forward, into the crowd around Adam, and when I turn around, he’s leaving, threading his way through the half-naked horde, eyes turning his way.
Then he’s gone.
I turn back to Adam, who hasn’t seen me at all. But I suddenly don’t care enough to do anything. To say anything. People are watching me watching him, but he’s burying himself in one of the girls now and I turn around and go, feeling something sick like relief as I walk out.
But it doesn’t last long.
I leave easily enough, but I decide to walk in the night, to get some air, because there’s no way in hell I’m going to sleep now. I’ve got too much to think about with Adam and Rolland, and I’m thinking of trying to move my flight up so I can go home and see Mom. I don’t trust her to be by herself for long. I don’t really trust her at all.
