The Beginning of Us (136 page)

He ran his fingers over my wrist restraints and removed one of them. “Fuck the rules!”

I smiled and waited for my other hand to be free. By the time my father made it back in the room, Stosh was sitting on the bed hugging me. My father looked pleased. He had no clue that I wasn’t Ivy. My mother would be the one to convince, but since she hadn’t seen me in a while, and my father had seen me strapped to the bed, I didn’t think she would question it. I had to put on a show for her and the time had come. She came in carrying a cup of coffee. She was wearing scrubs, and I gathered that she must be performing some kind of procedure here at the hospital. “Honey, I just got out of surgery. How are you feeling?”

“I didn’t get much sleep. My stomach hurts.”

My mother looked at Stoshua. “You did this to her, you know. You put her in this hospital bed.”

He put his head down and I wondered if it was because he secretly wanted to smile. “I know. How many times do I have to apologize for my actions?”

“Mom, stop! I can’t deal with any more fighting. I just want to go home and work things out with my husband.” Saying that was never going to get old.

“You’ve been through something traumatic. I’ve cleared my schedule in order to stay home and care for you.” My mother was adamant.

“I want to go to my house. Nothing is going to be solved until Stosh and I can work out our problems. We can’t do that if I’m at your house. I appreciate the gesture, but I’m going to be fine.”

I was praying she would buy it. The last thing I wanted to do was spend several days under the care of my doctor mother, while Stoshua babysat my restrained sister.

She looked at Stosh. “Are you going to stand by my daughter this time, or run out on her again?” The question seemed funny to me, since he was still banging one of her daughters. Me being that person.

“I promise. She’s not leaving my side.”

She threw her hands up in the air. “This is ridiculous. She needs constant supervision!”

“I’m not a baby!”

“You took a bottle of pain pills and drank them down with a glass of vodka. I hardly think your decision making can be factored into this.”

“She’s my wife. With all due respect, I’m taking her home.” Stosh had the last word. My mother shook her head and gave up.

They all three went out in the hallway to discuss my release, while I dressed into my sister’s clothes. By the time, Stosh came back into the room, my parent’s had gone home. He smiled when he saw me dressed and ready. “Your dad made a few calls. I already signed your release papers. You’re free to go.”

I didn’t waste any time. “Let’s get out of here. We still have a lot of work to do.”

He stopped me and reached for my hand. “This should have been on your finger for the last four years.” He slipped Ivy’s wedding set onto my ring finger. “It’s official, you’re my wife.”

I laughed. “That’s funny, I don’t even remember our wedding.”

“Let’s get out of here and talk about renewing those vows. My wife needs to remember important moments like her wedding.”

Leaving the hospital was like being freed from a life time sentence in jail. I almost ran out of those double doors. The nurse gave me dirty looks, like my father had bent the rules and I was just his little charity case daughter. I wanted to smack them all. If they only knew what I’d been through.

When we arrived back at his place, he leaned over and pulled me into a deep kiss. “Are you ready for the second part of this plan of yours?”

“I think I might just want to off her instead.”

He got this shocked look on his face. “Are you serious?”

I smacked him on the shoulder. “Killing her would be too easy. I want her to suffer.” I clapped my hands together and rubbed them like I was some evil witch.

“I’m kind of scared of you right now.”

I leaned over close enough to brush my lips against his. “You should be. The demon in me has been awakened and it won’t settle until she’s paid for what she’s done.”

“When your skin begins to turn green and you wear ruby slippers, I’m ducking out of this plan.”

We both began to laugh.

I needed to breath and relax before we went inside. It was going to be hard to torture my sister until she broke. I wasn’t going to change my mind, but I wasn’t exactly cut out for torture.

Chapter 16

May I have this dance?

Stosh was extremely lucky when it came to the property he rented. The main house was far away from the pool house and the owners only lived in the house for three months out of the year. Part of Stosh’s rental agreement called for him to care for the house while they were away.

Even though nobody could hear her, Stosh had still gagged her so she couldn’t scream. I don’t think she expected to see me walking in the door. She looked afraid and that was exactly how I wanted her to feel. This was about torturing her to the brink of insanity and then repeating the process over and over. Willow was no longer the nice sister. She’d been replaced by someone who was spiteful and wouldn’t stop until justice was served.

It was awesome seeing her tied to the bed and struggling to get free. She knew I wasn’t screwing around anymore. I walked over and ran my hands up Stosh’s chest, making sure she was watching. I grabbed the collar to his shirt and pulled him down to meet my lips.

I liked that our plan was working. 

“You like watching his lips on me? Just wait until later. You’re going to get the show of your life!” I took Stosh by the hand and we walked out into the living room. I knew she’d be in there, trapped and sobbing.

After I showered and got myself comfortable, we made sure the house was locked up and went out for a movie. It was important for people to see us getting around together, like nothing had ever happened. We didn’t have to pretend to be in love, I don’t know which one of us was showing it more. Stosh couldn’t keep his hands off of me. I couldn’t stop looking at him.

It all still felt like a dream. I guess when you fantasize about something for as long as I did, it makes the reality of it hard to believe.

After the movie, we headed out to a coffee shop and talked about our future.

Did I feel wicked?

Maybe a little.

I mean, I wasn’t an evil person. I still didn’t think I was going to go to hell for my actions. What I was doing wasn’t right, but all is fair in love and war, right?

We’d been at the coffee shop for nearly an hour, when I got up to go to the bathroom. Some tall, attractive guy grabbed me at the waist and pulled me into a kiss. I pulled away and slapped him. “What the hell?”

“I’ve been waiting all week to hear from you again.” He had an Italian accent.

“I don’t even know you.”

He grabbed my hand and I pulled it away quickly. “Cheri, surely you do. I could never forget our nights together.”

Had my sister been having some hot affair behind Stosh’s back? I wanted to know, but revealing to someone she knew that I wasn’t Ivy, could ruin everything. I had to be Ivy, no matter what happened. “I’m just playing. Things have gotten complicated at home. We’re trying to work things out.”

He raised his eyebrow. “You promised that we’d be together soon. You said it was going brilliantly. Tell me you haven’t changed your mind. We’ve planned this for so long, my love. You said once you ruined your sister and your husband, we could run away together.”

This was a devastating blow. I knew there was another piece of the puzzle. Stosh knew it too. This was what he hadn’t told me. “Things change. People change. I realized that I needed to try to be a better person. Please understand?”

He looked so sad and I honestly felt bad for him. Like one of her many puppets, she’d strung him along. Maybe she really did want to run away. Maybe after she destroyed both me and Stosh, she could finally move on and be happy. It didn’t matter anymore. This couldn’t ruin my plan.. We were in too deep to change our game.

“Please don’t say this. I’ve been so patient. Tell me we still have a chance.”

I opened my mouth to speak and heard a familiar voice behind me. “Leave her alone, Rafe. You heard her. She said it’s over.”

He moved in between us, like he was prepared to fight for my honor. It was pretty sexy, even though the situation wasn’t ideal for me to be turned on.

Rafe looked at me. “Is this true?”

I looked down, pretending to be upset about it. “Yes. I’m very sorry.”

“Me too.” He shook his head and walked away without another word. “That was awkward.”

“Sorry about that.”

I cocked my eyebrow. “Were you planning on telling me that Ivy was leaving you?”

“Was she?” He scratched his head and smiled. “I didn’t know that. I mean, I know she was seeing him. I was having them watched. She was so careful about where they met. I knew she was up to something, but I didn’t know what it was, I swear.”

“According to him, when she was done destroying us, they were going to run away together.”

“Wow! Well, her plan backfired.”

“I’ll say. I almost feel bad for him.”

He grabbed the back of my arms and pulled me close. “I don’t. For a long time I wanted her to find someone else.”

“Too bad she wanted to ruin our lives before she left. It would have saved us a lot of grief.”

He kissed my forehead. “If you weren’t such a perfect child, she wouldn’t have become the spawn of Satan.”

I smacked his chest. “Don’t even joke. You know it wasn’t like that. She’s loony for thinking that.

“Let’s get out of here.”

I didn’t really want to go home and be around my sister. “Can we go somewhere else?”

He grabbed my hand. “I know the perfect place.”

He drove us to the parking lot of our high school. “Did you bring me here to make out? That’s pretty cliché.”

“You love cliché.”

He was right about that. I did like a good romantic cliché. “I love you.”

He leaned over in the seat and smiled. “I like hearing you say it.”

“It’s nice to be able to. I’m getting worried we aren’t going to be able to pull this off. So much can go wrong.”

He moved the hair away from my face. “No matter what, we’re going to be together. Nothing can keep us apart, Willow. I don’t care what we have to go through. Nothing can be as painful as what we’d been through already. I just feel so bad for what you had to do without me. I’d never want you to have to make that decision without me.”

He was right about that. I never wanted to feel as alone as I had when my sister had taken me down. He was wrong about the other thing though. Our baby was growing inside of me. I wanted to tell him, more than anything else, but we had to get through all of this crap before that could happen. “I hope one day we can be a family, Stosh.”

The pain in his eyes ripped out my soul. I had to keep in mind that I was protecting our baby. In the long run, he would respect my decision. I hoped.

He opened his car door, but not before turning on satellite radio to the Love station. I giggled and watched him run around to my side of the car. He opened the door and held out his hand for me.

I placed my hand in his and let him pull me out of the car. “What are we doing?”

He held me close against his chest and reached our hands out like we were about to dance. “I’m giving you the prom you never had.”

We started swaying around his car to a variety of romantic songs that were playing. I wasn’t going to argue with his cheesy attempt. I actually loved it.

After a while, we held hands and walked out onto the football field. Well, we almost made it on the field. Stosh pressed me between the concession stand, and his body, for a hot kiss that left me weak in the knees. When he pulled away I was breathless and craving more. I grabbed his shirt and pulled him down to my lips for another one, this time I didn’t let our lips part. Our tongues vigorously danced, just as we had done in the parking lot. His hands explored my body, like no other man on the planet could. When he reached my breasts and guided his fingertips under my bra, I knew what was going to happen. The moment he touched my hardened nipples, I was his for the taking.

I pulled away from his lips just enough to speak. “Take me.”

He didn’t hesitate as he lifted my shirt above my head and crouched down to suck on one of my nipples. I leaned my body back against the building and closed my eyes. Someone could have been watching us, and I didn’t even care. In fact, it made me want to do it more.

Slowly, Stosh removed my shorts and my underwear. He kissed the smooth skin over my pussy and then, without a second to spare, he dove in with his tongue, reaching that most tender spot. His tongue was like a trained machine, offering a steady pace to my tiny bud. I ran my hands through his hair and looked down to watch him enjoying how he was pleasing me. Soft moans were both heard and felt as they vibrated off of my skin. I cried out something that wasn’t even a real word as he sent me to the moment of physical bliss.

Once my body relaxed, he remained down there, placing tiny tongue filled kissed all over my lips. My body trembled from desire. He reached up with his hands and spread me open, kissing the most inside part. I felt his tongue invading my canal as he moved it in and out. His thumb rubbed my, now throbbing, bud. I couldn’t even keep a hold on his hair. The palms of my hands pressed flat against the concrete wall I was leaning on. I cried out again, into the dark night, hearing my voice echo off the long field we were so close to.

Stosh finally stopped. “Mmm, I just can’t get enough of you. I love the way you taste, babe.”

I grabbed his hair and pulled him back up to my lips, kissing him hard and tasting myself on his lips and his tongue. I started unbuckling his pants and used my legs to rip them down. Once he was sprung free, I grabbed his ass and pulled him close to me, so I could feel his hard cock pressing against me. I pulled away and licked his lips. “Fuck me, Stosh. Fuck me right here, right now.”

He picked me up with one swoop and kept me leaning against the wall. I wrapped my legs around his waist and felt him positioning his stiff erection at my entrance. I rocked a little, letting him know I wanted it immediately. He let out a little chuckle and slammed it inside of me. I gasped, feeling pain and pleasure at the same time. Instead of getting to a good pace, he continued to slam it in and then take it completely back out. I begged for more. “Please…Don’t stop!”