Exquisite Betrayal (9 page)

“
Aw, poor Ryland Thomas. Takes a
shower with a lovely girl and things get steamy, so they decide to
have sex, and when he finds out she’s a virgin, he fucking walks
out on her! How you write and ever sell any books I’ll never know.
What a douche-face! I can’t believe I’m related to you. Oh, to
think that evil virgin duped you. How awful of her, scheming wench
that she was. I’m sure she does that all the time. Plays men like
that.”

Now, don’t I just feel like a shit?

Tilly orders me to take Fallon home with me.
That really is the only solution to all of this when I stop and
think about it. I can offer her money, however that wouldn’t go
over well. She would look at it as payment; the ultimate insult. If
I take her home, I can make something up to smooth her ruffled
feathers. There’s no way I can abandon her here without a quid to
her name. Not only is it a ridiculous notion, it’s dangerous. So I
march back to my room to break the news to her and hope she’s not
going to throw something at me.

When Ryland returns, I’m sitting on the bed,
trying to figure out what to do while still praying he’s found my
purse.

“
No purse?”

“‘
Fraid not. But I have a suggestion
for you.”

“
What?”

“
Come home with me, and before you say
no, listen to what I have to say.”

My good southern manners take over, so I
nod. My guts are getting ripped up again and I’m only
half-listening, trying to think about what to do.

“
I can make some contacts to help you
find a job and you can send some resumes out while you’re at my
place.” It’s lame, but I try to smile.

“
I have a better idea. I stay here,
call the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles and get a
replacement driver’s license so I can fly home.”

“
Not bad, but I have to leave today. I
have work to do and deadlines to meet. You can call them tomorrow
from my place to have your replacement sent there. Then you can
call the airlines and tell them you’re sick or injured and can’t
fly.”

“
But
—
” He doesn’t let me finish.

“
I’m going to play the decision maker
here and I’ll be quite blunt, too. You’re up against a brick wall.
You’ve nowhere to go. You have no money for a hotel. Or even food.
I’m offering you an out. Take it, Fallon, ‘cause I can’t leave you
here.”

I drop my aching head in my hands and rub my
throbbing temples. “I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”

“
Not the way I see it.”

“
When do we leave?”

“
As soon as we can get packed up. I
think you may want to change as well. But you need to cancel your
credit card first.”

He’s right. The credit card needs to be
canceled, though it is maxed out, so no one can really charge
anything. Besides, I’m still wearing his jeans, sans panties, and
his T-shirt, braless no less. I nod.

“
May I use your phone?”

He hands it to me. “I’ll give you a bit of
privacy.”

I laugh a bit maniacally. He glances at me.
“A bit late for that, don’tcha think?” I retort.

He shrugs and walks into the next room
anyway.

After I talk with the bank and take care of
canceling my credit card, I have a new one sent to the address
Ryland has given me. Next, I call the airlines and tell them my
fiasco. Between my purse missing, and having to stitch up my foot,
the attendant is very understanding. He does confirm, though, that
I’ll still be charged a fee for changing my flight. That’s great…
just more good news for Fallon.

Then I drop to the floor from the bed, since
I wasn’t supposed to put any weight on my stupid foot, and crawl to
my lovely duct-taped bag. Grabbing some soft, stretchy yoga pants
and a tank top, plus some underthings, I sit there and get dressed.
When I tug off his jeans, I notice the crotch area is spattered
with blood.

At first I’m confused because I didn’t have
my period. Then it hits me and I’m beyond appalled. After our brief
interlude and my stellar loss of virginity, it never dawned on me
that I would bleed. What classic Fallon fuck-uppery! I shouldn’t be
surprised because everything I do ends up either backfiring or
humiliating me to death. I should be used to it by now, but this
one really digs in deep.

Ryland returns and I must have been sitting
on the floor like this for a while. I’m still holding his jeans in
my hands, staring at the bloody crotch, naked from the waist
down.

“
Ready?” He looks at the bed and then
sees me on the floor. “Sorry, I forgot you couldn’t walk.” He
brings me the crutches and then notices that I’m still half naked.
“Are you okay?”

“
Peachy.” I will
not
cry in front of him over this. But damn, my
voice is so freakin’ squeaky and high pitched that I sound like
Minnie Mouse.

“
What happened?” He pulls his jeans
out of my hands and notices the blood. He doesn’t say anything, but
tosses them aside and hands me my panties. I put them on, followed
by my yoga pants. “Up we go,” he says as he picks me up. I’m
grateful he doesn’t mention the stained pants.

I should’ve saved that thought. “Fallon,
don’t be embarrassed about starting your period.”

My breath rushes between my thinned lips.
“It’s not my period, Ryland. It was my fucking virginity.”

“
Oh.” He stops.

“
It’s not a big deal. We should
go.”

As soon as those words are out there’s a
knock on the door, saving me from continuing that humiliating
discussion. The bellman is there to transport our luggage down. My
lovely and fashionable duct taped bag is perched right alongside
his designer whatever. Can this get any worse?

I’m glad when we get to the car and Ryland
disappears to check out. I don’t even know where he lives, but at
this point, what difference does it make?

On our way to wherever, we stop at a
convenience store to stock up, as Ryland says.

“
Where do you live?” I ask once we are
back on the road.

“
Lake Tahoe.”

“
How far away is that?”

“
About seven and a half
hours.”

“
Seven and a half hours?”

“
Yeah, but this car is a smooth ride
and the route I take has great scenery. You’ll love it. Besides, if
we get tired, we can stop for the night somewhere.”

“
Okay. It’s not like I have anything
else to do.” I snort. Then it hits me. I’m supposed to be at work
on Tuesday. “Oh no!”

“
What is it?”

“
My work. Back home. I wait tables at
a small cafe. Zack is gonna fire me.”

“
Can you call him?”

“
They’re closed today. I’ll have to
call tomorrow. The shit show just keeps getting even better.” I rub
my eyes and temples for the thousandth time that day.

For the first time since he left me in the
shower that morning, I feel a warmth flow from him as he turns to
me and takes my hands. “Fallon, you’re right. This has turned to
shit for you, but I’m gonna help you straighten things out.
Sometimes, things turn to shit for a reason. Maybe you came here to
change the direction of your life. Who knows? But things will get
better, I promise.” He gives my hands a gentle squeeze before he
releases them. Then he lays on the gas and the car comes to life as
we speed down the highway. At that moment, it hits me. What
happened to the dickhead from this morning?

“
Thank you, Ryland, for helping me out
of this jam. I’m not sure what I’d have done here without
you.”

***

My head bobs against the window and wakes me
up. My mouth feels like the southbound end of a northbound
skunk.

“
Have a nice kip?”

“
Huh?”

He laughs. “Nap. Kip. Same thing.”

“
Oh. I did. Thanks.”

“
Thought so. You were snoring like a
champ.”

Great. This guy really knows how to stroke
my ego. “You really do know how to make a girl feel good about
herself, don’tcha? Do you practice this or something?”

“
Ouch.”

My breath oozes out in a slow sigh of
regret. “I’m sorry. I’m not usually this snarky. I… honestly, in
certain situations, I’m the one that usually let’s people walk all
over her, so I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”

“
Why do you do that?”

“
Do what?”

“
Let people walk all over
you?”

Jeez, here we go. Lecture time. “I just
do.”

“
No, there’s a reason for
it.”

“
I’m sure it has to do with my
mom.”

“
Maybe you need to…”

Cutting him off with a tone that’s
both terse and exasperated, I say, “I
know
what I need to do. I need to tell her to
stop trying to run my life, to treat me like an adult and to
respect my feelings. I need to tell her that after my dad died I
needed her more than ever, but she was never there and she left me,
a sixteen-year-old, to deal with it by myself. I need to ask her
why she tossed all of his precious belongings without thinking
about asking me. There are a million things I need to tell her, but
I won’t ever do it because it would be the biggest waste of my
time.

“
She won’t listen to me. She’s
selfish. No, she’s worse than that. She’s narcissistic. Do you
wanna know what the last birthday gift she gave me was? It was a
freakin’ card. When I turned sixteen. Six years ago. Last year, she
emailed me the day after and told me she was sorry she’d missed my
birthday, but she had appointments all day. So maybe that’s why I
let people walk all over me. Because she’s done it to me my whole
life!” Whoa… where did that diarrhea of the mouth come from? I
never discuss my mom with anyone. No one except my girls from the
blog know about her.

His voice is soft when he responds. “I’m
sorry, Fallon. I’m bloody sorry you have a mum like that.”

“
So am I, but I’m more sorry that my
dad’s not here. He would’ve been on the first plane to come out and
help me if I’d called him. I wouldn’t be a burden to you right now
if he were still alive.”

“
You’re not a burden.”

“
Now that’s a lie, Ryland. You called
me a liar earlier over the whole virginity thing. Well, I’m hitting
you back on this.”

He is silent for a moment with his lips
clamped together and then he asks, “Why didn’t you tell me? About
being a virgin? The truth, Fallon?”

I shrug. “Because I wanted you so bad that
my thoughts weren’t on being a virgin at that time. They were on us
and how… Does this really matter now?”

“
Yeah, it does.”

His passion surprises me. I take a good look
at him now, staring openly. His hands are fisted around the
steering wheel, knuckles almost popping through his skin.

“
Why?” I whisper.

“
Because it should’ve been a special
moment for you. One where I was gentle with you, where I took my
time and not up against a shower wall, thrusting into you like an
animal.”

“
This is about you and not me, isn’t
it?”

He takes his eyes off the road for a second
to look at me and then goes back to focus on driving. “No, it’s
about us and what happened. You don’t get it, do you?”

“
I’m not following,” I answer because
I am confused.

“
This was all a big game to you,
wasn’t it?”

Now that sort of stings because it had
started out that way, hadn’t it? My silence gives him his
answer.

“
You were playing me, weren’t
you?”

“
No! You’re wrong. Everything that
happened between us this morning in the shower was real,
Ryland.”

“
What about before?”

“
I barely remember the night
before.”

“
How about before that?”

Inwardly, I groan. I can’t tell him one of
my Vegas trip goals was to lose my virginity. He won’t go for that
at all. How can I get around that?

He glances at me and asks, “Why was it that
everywhere I went, you seemed to be there?”

Now, while it was odd, I have no clue.
“Coincidence? I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

“
Uh-uh. I asked you first.”

I gasp. “You think I was following you?”

“
Well?”

I seethe. “If you think I’m some kind of a
stalker chick, you’re dead wrong. I’ve never chased, followed or
even initiated a conversation with a man on that level. I’m
uncomfortable flirting, if you want the truth.” By now, my voice is
almost at an all-out yell. “I’m twenty-two-years-old, and until
this morning, I was a virgin for Pete’s sake.”

“
Then I’m confused.”

“
Over what? That you turned me on and
I wanted to have sex with you? What’s so confusing about
that?”

“
That you would want your first time
to be that way.”

“
Jesus, Ryland, you’re acting like a
girl.”

Now that got his attention. He first
sputters and then he gets pissed. “Oh, because I was concerned
about how we went about it? That I wanted it to be more romantic
for you?”

“
Right. So you pull out and leave me
alone, in the shower. Yeah, that was romantic all
right.”