Fate Interrupted 3 (12 page)

Chapter
Twenty

Brooke slammed
the front door shut and turned off the porch light, the sun now high in the
blue Wisconsin sky. She turned to Ben in the foyer and planted her hands on her
curvy hips, looking up into his tired eyes. “Did you have sex with those gutter
sluts?”

“What?” he
laughed, setting a cooler full of empties underneath a sofa
table.
“You know that’s not my style, babe.”

She stared at him
for a moment longer, weighing his words with great care. “Did Dean?”

“Not his style
either and you know that, too.”

“Then why’d he
have a giant cum stain all over his crotch?”

Ben’s eyebrows
dipped. “It was whipped cream, and it was an accident. Will and I told you on
the way to his hotel, we hit a mermaid and the stripper fell into him.”

“Mermaid my
ass!” she scoffed, standing on her tip-toes. She sniffed at his neck for a bit
and then settled back onto her heels. “Is that cheap perfume I smell?”

“No, it’s not cheap
perfume.”

Brooke stepped
back and studied him through scrutinizing eyes. “Take off your pants.”

Ben furrowed his
brow. “What?”

Brooke crossed
her arms over her chest. “I want to see your dick before you have a chance to
wash the lipstick off in the bathroom.”

He laughed and
turned for the fridge.

“I’m serious,
Ben! This is what happens when you break the circle of trust. You have to prove
yourself all over again.”

He stopped in
front of the gas range and turned to face her. “I didn’t break the circle of
trust.”

She stepped in
front of him and unzipped his jeans. “We’ll just find out about that.”

Chapter
Twenty-One

Evy slammed the
front door to Dean’s condo, vibrating the pictures on the walls and shattering
the silence between them with an earsplitting crack. Then the quiet was back
and whole again, coiling around their legs and arms, pulling in different
directions until the pain was unbearable.

“You’re
seriously this pissed?”

Evy dropped the
keys on the kitchen counter with a loud clatter and leaned over the sink,
staring down the drain. “I’m just tired, and on top of everything else, Tasha
is running the shop alone on a Sunday morning.”

Dean strolled
closer, the smell of the outdoors heavy on his skin. He saw his hand reach out,
could feel her warm stomach against his palm before even touching her, but
pulled back instead. “I hope you believe me.”

She turned to
face him, black rings encircling her eyes, stealing the green sparkle Dean had
come to love. “Who gets a blowjob from some meth head stripper on a boat?”

Dean backpedalled
into the living room and dropped his cell onto the coffee table. “I’ve never
seen him do something like that before. Jon is in a weird place right now.”

She responded
with an incredulous grunt. “I guess so.”

They stared at
each other, sharing an agonizing moment that stretched way too long.

“And don’t even
try telling me this was the first time your
friends
have ordered out, because I’m not buying it. Carrie told me Shaun knows the
owner of Silk.”

“What do you
want me to say, Evy?”

Defensively, she
folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the counter. Dean wanted to
wrap her in a bear hug and make it all go away. But they were past that now.

“Have you had
sex with a hooker before?” she asked.

His jaw put a
dent in the tiled floor. “You can’t be serious.”

An indifferent
shrug pulled on her purple
hoodie
. She went into the
bedroom and he followed. “I’m just trying to figure out who the real Dean
Jacobs is before I marry him in less than two weeks.”

He reached out
and took her arm. Evy pulled away, bumping into the unmade bed.

“I have never
slept with a hooker. Jesus Christ!”

“What about a
stripper?”

He hedged, but
only for a split second.
“Of course not.”

Although it wasn’t
funny, she laughed and pushed past him. “I bet you were the kind of guy who
booty-called people in the middle of the afternoon.”

His brow
crumpled. “Where is this coming from?”

“Maybe I’m just
getting to know the real you. The one people have warned me about.”

“Like who?” Dean
waited for an answer that didn’t come. “Look, I had nothing to do with what
happened out on that boat. I’m sorry it went down like it did but none of it
gives you a free pass to start digging into the past. I admit I wasn’t perfect,
but that was then.”

Evy unzipped her
hoodie
and threw it to the bed, refusing to make eye
contact with him.

Dean came up
behind her, drawn to her scent, needing to touch her, barely finding his breath.
“This is now,” he said softly, pulling her into a hard, raw kiss.

Evy resisted at
first, just like she had on that downtown street so long ago. But his touch was
too much to bear and she melted into him just like before. She threw her arms
around his neck and pulled him close until they were one. For a moment,
everything else faded away. Their troubles were no match for the spark between
them and when they pulled apart, they fell into each other’s eyes. Her sparkle
was back.

Dean cupped her
cheek and spoke with a confidence most will never find. “Now, I just want to be
with you for the rest of my life.
Only you.”

The sparkle
began to soften.
“And how long until you get bored?”

Dean’s face
soured. “
Bored
?”

“Yeah,
Dean,
bored.
Bored with me and the
responsibilities that come with a house and family.”
Her eyes thinned
into slits. “You say you want kids but I have a hard time imagining you
changing diapers.”

“Why does
everyone keep saying that?”

“Maybe
because you don’t exactly come off as the
family
man
type.”

Hurt flashed in
his eyes. Blood pounded thickly in his temples. His words came out in a hoarse whisper.
“That’s not true and you know it.”

“Do I?”

Dean could hear
the heavy breaths of air storming his lungs in the flabbergasted silence
between them. He searched her face for a sign that she was joking and came up
empty-handed. “I would never do anything to jeopardize our relationship. I love
you!”

“But can you
really leave the old you in the past?
Forever?”

He set his jaw,
anger building inside. “You act like I murdered someone.”

She rubbed her
arms like she was cold and spoke gravely. “Your past will always haunt me.”

He studied her
for a few seconds before laughing out loud.
“Because of Megan
or Richie?”

“Because
of you, Dean!
We can’t go anywhere without running into one of your little ex-bimbos.”

“That’s bullshit
and you know it!”

“Oh
really?
How about that redhead we ran into at the Brewer’s game? Or that short girl at
the grocery store?” Her eyebrows rose into her forehead. “Shall I go on?”

He hung his
head, biting his tongue. With the wedding right around the corner, Dean knew
the pressure was building and any little thing could ignite an explosive
argument between them. He had seen it before with his own mom shortly before
the car accident that stole his parents’ lives like a thief in the night. He
could remember his mom scrambling to make her father’s second wedding – this
time to a woman half his age – grumbling under her breath as she got dressed to
the nines. They had been running late and Dean’s father couldn’t find the car
keys. Even though they had a spare set, he refused to leave until finding them.
After ten more minutes of searching, Dean’s mom had finally blown her top. It
was all it had taken to launch his parents into a full scale war.

A
set of lost keys.

Last night, made
that pale in comparison and Dean knew it was time to diffuse this bomb before
anyone could get hurt further. He took a calming breath and released it. “You
know what? I am way too tired to deal with this right now and so are you. Let
me get a nap and then we’ll…”

“Fine,” she said
curtly, grabbing her
hoodie
and stomping off. She
stopped in the living room and whirled on her heels. “Oh, and guess who we ran
into last night?”

He massaged his
temples with both hands. “I have no idea.”

“You’re little
friend,
Megan
.” Evy draped the
hoodie
over her arm.

His heart
stuttered in his chest, beating out of rhythm. “No.”

“She’s quite the
catch, Dean. I can only imagine how high your standards soared back then.”

Anger bubbled
inside his veins. “Sorry I’m not as perfect as you, Evy, but guess what…sometimes
shit don’t work out.” His chest heaved beneath his dirty shirt. A far off
ringing in his ears threatened to set fire to the headache blooming behind his eyes.
“Get over it…or get out.”

Hurt flickered
across her face and time came to a halt. The walls throbbed with the tension
between them, sucking the air from the room. “You got it,” Evy said, turning
for the patio door.

“Busy feeding
the homeless today, Mother Theresa?”

“Fuck you,
Dean.” She slid the patio door back and stormed outside without closing it.

He rushed over
and popped his head out, squinting in the bright sunshine. “Maybe adopting an
orphan or saving a whale?”

She flipped him
off without looking back, power walking her sneakers across the manicured
courtyard to her car.

Dean slid the glass
door shut on its track and drew the blinds in a noisy clatter. “Fuck!” he
yelled, kicking the coffee table and knocking his cell phone to the floor. He
snatched it up and threw it against the wall, shattering it into pieces and
taking a chunk of chocolate colored drywall with it. His heart sank. The
central air kicked on and hummed loudly in his head, feeding the dull thud behind
his eyes.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

Brooke stroked Ben’s
cock until it showed off every square inch of its tattoo. She looked up at him with
a gleam in her eye. “Looks like you were a good boy after all.”

“Told you,” he
panted, snapping his head around to the hallway leading to the front door. “Did
you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Her
hand went faster, sliding down his shaft and rising up over the bulbous tip of
his helmet. She knew what he liked and happily obliged.

“Nothing,” Ben replied,
pulling her shirt up over her breasts and pinching her nipples. Her hand went
faster and he closed his eyes, breath hot and heavy. In a flash, he yanked her
sweats down to join the jeans already crumpled around his ankles. She kicked
out of the sweats and he shoved her back onto the couch with a shriek bursting
from her lips. He waddled closer and used his muscular arms to pin her legs
back, rubbing his hard cock against her wet lips until she moaned his name in
his ear.

“Put it in me,”
she whispered, raking her nails down his back. “Hurry, I have to get to work.”

Ben reached down
and slid it in, squeezing his eyes shut as her warmth wrapped around him like coming
home. Brooke shuddered with the intrusion. He didn’t waste time with
pleasantries and went in deep and held it there for a moment. She arched her
back and groaned, feeling his cock twitch inside of her. Ben brushed hair from
her face, watching her reaction. They kissed as he began pumping his hips,
gyrating slowly at first.

“Oh, Ben,” she
whispered, stretching the last letter of his name.

His thrusts quickly
turned greedy. He tried kicking his jeans off to get a better angle but it was
no use. They
were locked in
tight around his ankles.
Nevertheless, he didn’t let it impede his progress and pounded into his wife
until skin slapped on skin, watching her squirm beneath him with a guilty pleasure
in his eyes.

“I love you so
much,” she panted, breasts bouncing with each punishing plunge.

He stared down
into her green eyes, his cock swelling even more. “I love you, too, baby.”

“Don’t stop!”

He hedged for a
moment, knowing it would be the end of him if he fulfilled her request, and
then laid into her like there was no tomorrow. Brooke pressed her head back
into the couch and cried out to the ceiling fan above. Ben spread her legs
wider, triceps bulging. Skin slapped against skin. The floor shook. His face
tightened. He grunted her name and Brooke wrapped her legs around his hulking
back and squeezed. Ben kept pumping, filling her with his seed, couch legs scraping.
Brooke curled her toes and tensed every muscle in her body as a surge of ecstasy
rippled through her, and at that very moment, they melted into something else,
something impossible to put into words.
A single entity that
would always stand the test of time.

Together.

Ben slowed his
roll and chased his breath, but didn’t stop. They stared into one another’s
eyes, a silent understanding passing between them as she clenched her wet
muscles around him. He caressed her cheek, feeling her heart beat against his.

“That was
amazing,” she finally said, using her legs to pull him closer when he tried to
pull out.

His chest heaved.
His wrists ached. “You’re amazing.”

A wry grin tugged
at the corner of Brooke’s smeared lips. “How did you ever live without me
before?”

“I suffered
through.”

“I guess you
did.”

A clatter in the
foyer drew Ben’s eyes. “What was that?”

“What was what?”
she asked, running her hands over his full ass.

Ben pushed
himself off the couch and pulled his jeans up with a quick hop. “Sounded like
cans.”