More Than Lies (32 page)

“I hope you’re happy.”

“I wouldn’t call any of this happiness, sir.” No point in pushing his buttons any more today. Maybe not even the rest of the year.

“You don’t have any idea what just happened do you?”

“I was here. I heard every word. Sir.” Can I please go, yet?

“Taralynn will be graduating with honors. Until two minutes ago she would have received a full scholarship to college. With a suspension on her record, she won’t be getting it now. That’s what you did. That’s what you took away from her. To save my soul, I have no idea why she did that for you, but I hope one day, you make her sacrifice worth it. Out of my office, Shawn.” Oh, shit.

“What did you say?” Katherine’s vile voice tares me away from the memory of four years ago. “You…you did what?”

Tara turns into Matt, mouthing something I can’t make out, then turns her head toward her mother. “Yes.” I want to laugh, but I hold it in. Tara’s tone has a bite to it.

“Why on earth would you do that?”

“I’d like to know the answer to that as well, young lady.” Her dad comes to mirror Katherine’s stance.

“Well, you see.” Tara’s voice is full of sarcasm. “Some people care about their friends so much that they’re willing to make sacrifices for them. Something I don’t think either of you know anything about.”

“You ungrateful little—”

“Katherine.” Jacob silences his wife. Probably the best thing he could have done. I won’t physically hurt a female, but I have no issues with lashing out at one verbally. “Taralynn, we’ll talk about this later, but know that whatever you think you are doing, it isn’t worth it. I just...I can’t believe you right now.”

Tell me how you really feel, Jacob. Not that I didn’t already know.

Self-worth to these two is on a whole other plain that I’ll never get to.

“Don’t you dare, Jacob.” There is venom in my mom’s voice. “Don’t speak about my son like that.”

“Oh come on Pam. Don’t sit there and tell me you can’t see it as clear as I can. Do you want history to repeat itself?” What the hell does that mean?

“Enough!” My father stands. “Jacob, a word.” My dad stalks toward Jacob. They both stare at each other before turning and walking out of the room.

Tara’s mother remains. The look in her eyes is unmistakable. Hatred. Her green eyes are trained on Tara as Tara is looking back at her too. Looking at them both, you’d never guess they were related. Tara’s skin is tanned like Jacobs. She doesn’t share any resemblance to her mother the way Trent did.

Tara pops up off of Matt’s lap and walks away. She doesn’t want Katherine to see her cry. I could tell she was on the verge. She makes her way to the stairs, ascending them until I can’t see her anymore. When I turn back around, it’s my own mother and Tara’s staring back at one another. If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I’d have never believed it. My mom hates Katherine.

My parents left after dad had a private talk with Jacob. I don’t know what they discussed and I don’t care. Tara’s parents are fucking assholes. She’s perfect and they don’t deserve her.

When I reach the top of the steps, I come to stop in front of Tara’s bedroom door. It’s wide open, but she’s not in there. That tells me I’ll find her in Trent’s old bedroom. I don’t knock before entering the room. It’s dark inside. The lights from the outside are long gone and night has taken over. It’s been one long day. One I want to see end, sooner rather than later.

She doesn’t stir, telling me she is likely asleep. Her body is lying diagonally across the bed. Tara is on her stomach with her hands underneath her face making the bottom hem of her black dress meet on top of her thighs just a few inches below her ass. Memories of my lips kissing the same area of flesh that I’m staring at now start to filter in. I remember being so turned on by biting her ass cheek while my fingers where inside her. She came the same moment my teeth bit down, coming all over my finger and running down my wrist.

The shit she does to me. I don’t want to feel them, but I do and not because I don’t want her. I’ve wanted her longer than I care to admit. But I’m realistic. I know it’ll never last.

“Tara.” I call out. I don’t plan on leaving her here. My mother was adamant that I bring her home. I had planned to before she barked the order to me as she walked out the door with my dad. “Tara, wake up.”

I place my knee onto the edge of bed and lean over. Giving her a gentle shake, she stirs. She then rolls onto her back before coming up onto her elbows. Tara looks around the dark room briefly and then her eyes land on me.

“How long was I out?”

“Not long; less than an hour. I’m here to collect you.” I grab onto her upper arm. Pulling her and I both, we stand. “We’re going to Mom and Dad’s. You can crawl back into bed when we get there.”

“Um.” She looks torn. If she thinks she’s staying here after the way her parents treated her, she can think again.

“You’re coming. Now get whatever your taking and let’s go.” Luckily she doesn’t argue. She grabs a purse and a large white bag. I take the bag from her shoulder and push her toward the door.

We’re sitting in truck, parked outside my parents’ within five minutes of leaving the Evans’ house. I turn off the engine. Tara hasn’t said a word since we left and neither have I. What do you say to someone that lost the only person in their family that gave a damn about them? Loved them. I can’t relate to that. I’m not bragging when I say this, it’s just a fact, I have an amazing family. One I’m grateful for every single day.

She opens the passenger door and slides out. I grab my keys and do the same, following her inside and up the stairs. When she gets to the end of the hall, we still haven’t spoken. She goes to her bedroom door and I do the same, opening it and walking inside. The first thing I do is remove my jacket and then my tie. I’ve been itching to do that all day. I hate suits.

After tossing both on my bed, I go for the buttons on my shirt. When I’m at the second button I turn to walk over to the dresser, but Tara is standing before me.

Damn, she’s beautiful. Even sad and tired she is stunning. She doesn’t even know it and I think that’s what captured my attention. Okay, that’s a lie. She captured my attention from day one if I’m honest.

I glance down at her lips. “Need something,” I ask. Those motherfucking lips. Tara’s lips are plump and naturally crimson. They are perfect to suck on, bite, and to kiss.

I need to get her out of my bedroom. The last thing she needs is me pushing myself on her after the day she’s had. I may know there isn’t a future in store for us, but that doesn’t mean I don’t crave seconds and thirds and a whole fucking feast.

“You.” The word is a whisper, but goes straight to my already aroused dick. I shut my eyes. If I can’t see her standing in front of me, in that black dress and bare feet, then I can imagine something else. Something I don’t desire as hard as I want her.

“You should get in bed, Tara. Get some sleep.” Her body steps into mine. Her palms slide over my hips. This isn’t helping matters any. I’m trying to do the right thing here. She isn’t in the right place for what she thinks she wants.

I don’t want to be her crutch. I don’t want to just be her mechanism to forget her pain any more than I want to be her regret.

Damn it…I’m not supposed to want more than I deserve.

Her hands slide up at a slow pace over my black button up. Her knee goes between my legs where she presses against my hardened cock.

I want her more than I want to wake up tomorrow.

That realization has my hands fisting into tight balls at my sides.

Her movements halt then I feel her back away from me. My eyes fly open. What I see reflecting back at me causes constriction inside my chest. Her dark blues eyes are crushed. Why?

“You.” Her voice cracks. “You don’t—” She doesn’t finish her sentence. Instead she turns and runs. I scrub my palm over face, through my hair, and back down. I don’t understand. What the fuck did I do?

The sound of the front door closing jolts my body into action. She can’t leave; she doesn’t have a vehicle here. It’s back home in Oxford.

By the time I make it outside, I witness her running behind Mason’s house. His bedroom is on the backside and he has a door leading outdoors. Shoving my hand into my front pocket, I grab for my cell phone. It takes me longer than what it should to unlock the motherfucker, but once I do, I call his number.

After so many rings it goes to voice mail. I’ll do this all night if I have to. I’m doing him a favor by calling instead of walking over. It’s already after nine at night. Mrs. Naree will shit a brick if she finds his friends coming and going this late at night.

I press end and repeat the process. After five rings he picks up.

“Want to explain?” I hear a door close. I’m guessing he stepped onto the deck outside his bedroom door.

“If I could. What did she say?”

“Nothing…yet. She walked in crying as you called. Didn’t take a genius to put two and two together.”

“Dude, I don’t fucking know. Can you let me talk to her?”

“Yeah…no. Look, whatever it is, I’ll find out and defuse. Talk to her tomorrow after she’s slept.” I won’t get any sleep until I know what happened back in my room. I need to speak to her. I know she’s had a rough day, but…fuck.

“Where is she going to sleep?” They don’t have a guest room because all three of the Morgan siblings have their own bedroom at their parents same as my brother and I do even though we’ve moved out. Maybe she can sleep with Kylie. They both could benefit from comforting each other.

“My bed. Layla is in bed with Ky, but I’m not shoving Taralynn in a room alone.” I can’t deal with this too, right now. “Get over it, man.”

“Dude.” I breathe. “Please, don’t, I mean, if she asks you to—”

“I’m your best friend. Don’t fucking insult me like that, dude. The way I see it, you’ve already claimed her. You just better back that shit up.” The line goes dead.

I haven’t claimed her. I can’t claim her.

“Mase, your penis is stabbing me in the butt.” I tell him with agitation as I attempt to squirm from his hold around my waist. When the hell did this happen? Ughhh.

“It’s a cock,” he states blankly.

“Not to me it’s not.” It almost comes out as a laugh, but seriously…ewww! Well, not ewww, I mean, Mason’s hot in a cute sort of way. But he’s my friend and not in the ‘I want to do you kind of friend way’. Certainly not the ‘friends with benefits’ type for me. And maybe there’s the fact that I’m not drunk.

“No?” I can feel his smile spread across the back of my head. “I don’t think that’s what you were thinking two years ago when you sucked the motherfucker off.”

Well, hell. Why couldn’t he have forgotten about that? “Nope, it was a penis then too.” And it was. Not that I didn’t enjoy blowing him because well I like giving blow jobs, but it was a one-time thing. We were both drunk, me more so than him, but drunk none-the-less.

“God, you sure know how to kill a hard-on.” He releases me then rolls off his bed. While he’s pulling a t-shirt over his head, I throw the covers off and do the same. When I get out of his bed, I search for my dress. When I got here last night, Mason didn’t ask questions. I know he spoke to Shawn on the phone, but otherwise, he tossed me a t-shirt and a pair of boxers. I don’t know what was said and I didn’t ask. I was out within minutes of washing my makeup off and crawling into his bed.

“Thanks for letting me crash here last night.” I felt bad showing up the way I did. His bedroom is on the backside of the house, but he has a door leading onto the deck. I know his parents have rules about friends not coming or going after a certain hour and I was past that time last night. I’m sure he’ll be hearing from his mom this morning about it.

I want to be gone when that happens. That lady scares me. She is tiny, just like Ky and Layla, but fierce.

“You doing okay? Because you know if you aren’t, you can talk to me about anything.” The playful Mason is gone. Concern is etched in his voice. I love him for it. I love him. Mason is a great guy and a wonderful friend.

“I’ll make it.” I turn my face, giving him a small smile. I don’t know how I’ll make it in life without Trent, but I guess I have too.