One More Time
R.B. Hilliard
One More Time
MMG #3
Copyright © 2015 R.B. Hilliard
Kindle Edition
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication or any part of the MMG Series may be reproduced without the written permission of R.B. Hilliard.
This book is a work of fiction. Some of the places used in this book are actual places in Charlotte, North Carolina. The names etc. are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and owners of various products and locations referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This book is intended for readers 18 years or older due to the sexual content.
This book is for my Harlots.
Ladies and Roy, thank you for your endless support and belief in me.
You make me laugh every single day. There are no words for how grateful I am to have you all in my life.
Love you bunches….
A million thanks to my family, my husband and my kids. I love you beyond words.
R.C. Brose and Traci Roe – Thank you for your edits and for helping to make this book the best it can be.
Elizabeth Clark – Cheers to another awesome cover!
Libros Evolution and Tania Marinaro – My teasers are beyond awesome. Thank you for taking a chance on me. I am forever grateful.
Roy Gleason – Thank you for the name, Big Roy. (hee-hee)
Narelle Fisher – Ibby would not be the same without your last name. Xoxo.
Leslie Wilder – Thank you for Sally’s last name as well as your support.
Claire Compos and Nicola Adams – Thank you for assisting me with dialect! I can’t wait to work with you again in book four.
Sherry and Zoe – Thanks for letting me use your names and for agreeing to “fix hair” in this book.
My Beta Babes: Sarah, KC, Elizabeth, Clair H, Laura, Traci, Lyndsey, Nicola, Emma, Petra and Jess, Thank you for taking the time out of your busy lives to read and critique for me. I appreciate and love each and every one of you.
Hilliard’s Harlots – Love you all!
Petra, Roy, Lyndsey and Traci – My bitches – Without our daily conversations, I would go crazy. Thank you for the laughter and friendship.
Gina Sorelle, Jordan Marie and Jess Peterson – Your help and support mean the world to me. I heart you ladies BIG!
My author friends – You inspire me every single day. Love you… and your words.
Excerpt from L. Wilder’s Consumed
Isabella
‡
July 2013
“I
’m late. He
knows
I gig on Friday nights. Why do I let him get to me this way?” I paused, mid-mascara stroke to glance over at my dog, Brutus. As usual, he was parked on my bed with all four legs in the air and snoring like a buzz saw. “What do
you
think, Boo? Should I let him get to me this way?” One eye opened and zeroed in on me. When he realized I wasn’t in any danger, he closed it and resumed his nap.
Two weeks ago was my one year anniversary with my boyfriend, Jimmy. There I was, standing outside his office door with a champagne dinner and tickets for the opera, while he was on the other side having sex with one of his associates.
“I don’t even like the opera!” I confessed out loud, interrupting Brutus’s snore-a-thon. Memories of that horrible night rolled through my head.
“Happy Anniversary, honey,” I announced, as I waltzed through Jimmy’s office door. Carly, Jimmy’s much younger associate, the one he griped and moaned about… the one with giant breasts he and his partners had whispered about when they thought I wasn’t listening…was bent over his desk, while Jimmy…my boyfriend Jimmy…slammed into her from behind.
“Love that ass, baby girl,” he growled, as he ferociously pumped in and out of her body.
Carly’s boobs bounced like massive water balloons in her low cut dress, threatening to spill out with each of Jimmy’s hard thrusts. If you asked me, she looked most uncomfortable. As if sensing they were no longer alone, Carly’s head lifted from the desk. Her eyes darted around the room and finally landed on me. They widened in shock and a look of horror appeared on her face.
Like a fish out of water, my mouth opened and closed but all that came out was a surprised “EEK!” Dropping the bags on the floor, I slapped my hands over my mouth to hold in a scream.
The bags hitting the floor jerked Jimmy from his Daddy fantasy back to the rude reality of being busted while screwing another woman. His eyes feverishly lifted from Carly’s pert little ass and gaped in surprise when he saw me standing across the room. With an awkward twist of his hips, he quickly disengaged from Carly and rushed around the desk. His erect penis bobbed in the breeze as he moved in my direction. Five steps in, he tripped over his pants and belly flopped onto the floor. All the while, Carly screamed like the lead actress in a murder movie. Feet frozen to the floor, I stood there in shock with my hands over my mouth and tears rolling down my face. I expected a lot of things from Jimmy, but this was not one of them.
I met James Marsden through my older sister, Blakeney. Just like my mother, Blakeney is a trouble maker. A year ago, she found herself on the wrong side of the law which, sad to say, was nothing new for her. Once again, being the dutifully responsible sibling, I came to her rescue. That’s when I first met James Marsden, a high powered attorney for the largest firm in Charleston, South Carolina. I can’t say it was love at first sight. To me, he was just a relatively nice looking man with short dark hair and big brown eyes. However, he was a buttoned up suit. I was more of a free spirit. He wore ties and cufflinks. I wore gypsy skirts and worn jeans. He liked stuffy old man dress shoes. I liked funky jewelry and sexy heels. He looked straight laced and … virginal. With my tattoos, I looked wild and…not at all his type. James, or Jimmy as he liked to be called, didn’t see it that way. From the first second he laid eyes on me, I was “it,” or at least that’s what he said. He vigorously pursued me and, after six months of flowers, candies and notes, I finally agreed to go out with him. A year to the day later, I caught him cheating on me. Lesson learned; men suck. Tonight, of all nights, he had to call and badger me. Now, I was going to be late.
“Please stop calling me, Jimmy.”
“I have to fly to New York on business, so I won’t be able to make it to the bar tonight, Bella.”
“Please don’t force me to file a restraining order against you, Jimmy. I don’t want to but if you keep pushing me, I will.”
“Bella, Bella, Bella, you can try to strong arm me but you won’t succeed,” he quipped. “You forget I know all of the judges in town.”
“Why are you doing this? I didn’t cheat. You did.”
“I told you more than once I was frustrated because you refused to give me more of a commitment. I was fed up and used poor judgment. It was only one time.”
“You were having sex with another woman, Jimmy. I’d say that’s a little more than poor judgment, and as for only one time? I find that hard to believe. Carly seemed to thoroughly enjoy being your ‘baby girl.’ Maybe you should offer her the role on a more permanent basis,” I suggested.
“Not funny,” he growled. “I need you to get over this, Bella. I’m even willing to give you a little more time. As for now, don’t do something stupid just to get back at me. It won’t work. It will only make me angry. I’ll be back Monday and will talk to you then.”
“Don’t bother. I won’t answer,” I told him, and I hung up.
My issues with Jimmy started after we had been together for about six months. He had been bugging me to move in with him. One morning I woke up and had no clue who I was or what I wanted anymore. That’s when I made the decision not to live with him. He was immensely unhappy with this decision, to say the least, but I felt as if he was consuming all of the good in me and leaving me with… less. My long skirts and funky shoes had been replaced by designer clothing and pretty ballet flats. I had become his ‘Stepford girlfriend.’ The sex had gone from nice to…not so nice. I was far from an expert in that department, but I knew what I felt inside. I felt empty.
Little by little, I lost pieces of myself to Jimmy. A few months before I caught him with Carly, I made the decision to find myself again. I had been struggling with my music and doubting everything. I knew the only way I was going to figure
me
out was to start distancing myself from
him
. However, the more distance I placed between us, the tighter Jimmy held on. All the while, I was being lashed by his sharp tongue and smothered under his critical eye. He didn’t love me. He loved who he wanted me to be.
Relationships and commitment scare me. I’m not completely sure I know what love is or how it’s supposed to feel. My mom, or Gloria, as I like to call her, accidentally got pregnant with my sister when she was seventeen. Her parents kicked her out of the house when they found out. A few months before my sister was born, she hooked up with my dad. When she later became pregnant with me, they got married. They divorced when I was a year old. My father split town and left my mother with a one year old and a four year old to raise by herself. Within a year of their divorce, Mom remarried, thus repeating the cycle. We celebrated her fifth marriage last year to some rich guy named Sven, who likes to travel.
I’m sure Gloria loved them all in her own way, but I have no idea what that was. My sister, a chip off the old maternal block, also has a tendency to jump from man to man. Like Gloria, she uses them up and then spits them out. All the while, I follow along behind her cleaning up the mess. Last month she moved to New Orleans with her latest beau. When I called and told her about what Jimmy had done, her words of advice were, “You need to fuck him more, Izzy. Then he won’t want someone else.”
Nice.
“Hold down the fort, Boo,” I said, checking myself in the mirror. Tonight I looked conservative in my dark red jeans, light gray, short sleeved form fitting top and black peep toe sandals. At least I didn’t have to worry about wearing heels anymore. Jimmy had a major Napoleon complex about his height. It wasn’t that he was short. I was tall and, with heels on, my normal five eight grew to five eleven which was an inch taller than Jimmy. This embarrassed him and he never failed to tell me about it. Tonight I had on two inch heels.
Take that, Jimmy.
I wound a red, gray and black patterned scarf through my hair, threw on some earrings, a necklace and a few rings. With my purse and guitar in hand, I ran out the door. Fifteen minutes later I pulled into the very crowded parking lot behind my uncle’s bar, The Shot Glass.