Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (222 page)

“Of course I am.  Did you see Daylin?”

“Not other than during the ceremony.”

Lucy sighed.  “Someone needs to get through to that boy.  He won’t talk to anybody.  Shuts himself up in his house all day.  It’s a good thing his boss will let him work from home or he wouldn’t have a job anymore.”

“That’s too bad.”  At the same time, she had no idea what Lucy expected her to do.  If Cameron who was like his brother, wasn’t able to get through to him how was she supposed to?

“I had hoped that seeing you might be enough for him.  He’s got to know that he’s going to lose you if he doesn’t cut his shit out.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Well sweetie, if you get a chance talk to him.”  Jess nodded.  “Thank you.  You gonna stick around for a while?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll see you at the reception.  There’s plenty of food, open bar, some crappy band that Cameron found at the last minute since the good one cancelled.  If I don’t see you again before we head out, I appreciate you coming and hope everything works out between you and Daylin.”

“Thank you.”  She finished her cigarette and watched Lucy walk away.  It was good that someone was happy Jess thought.

She went into the reception hall.  It was crowded and noisy.  She added her gift to the stack on the table and found a seat at a table in the back.  She wasn’t hungry and as much as she felt like getting drunk right, she wasn’t going to do it. 

She was playing a game on her phone when a hand fell on her shoulder.  She looked up into a bloodshot pair of hazel eyes.  “I need to talk to you,” Daylin said.  “C’mon.”  He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. 

She was silent as she followed him down the hall away from the party.  He tried two doors before he found one that opened.  They entered a tiny room with a desk in the middle.  It looked like an office.  She briefly wondered why the door wasn’t looked.  Daylin looked around, seemed not to find what he wanted and sighed.

“What?” 

“Nothing.  Come here.”  He pressed her against the wall and started kissing her with a strange mixture of passion and what almost felt like desperation.

When he pulled back to take a breath she said “I thought you wanted to talk.”

“I need you.”  Before she knew it, he was unbuttoning his pants. 

“Daylin what the hell are you doing?  There are people everywhere.”

Not bothering to button his pants, he crossed to the door and locked it.  “Good enough?”

“No.  We haven’t talked in weeks.  You didn’t even tell me your mother died.  I wanted to be there for you, but you wouldn’t let me.  Now I see you and all you want to do is get down my pants?”

“I can’t think straight right now okay?  I need you Jess.  I need you to make it all go away.  Please.”

She bit her lip.  She didn’t think that sex would solve Daylin’s problems but if letting him screw her against the wall in a public building at his cousin’s wedding reception would get him to talk to her, maybe it was worth it. 

She stepped out of her shoes and started to take off her panty hose trying to remember if she’d taken her birth control pill that morning since she hadn’t been the best at doing it after she’d gotten her prescription.  Before she could think further, Daylin said “Don’t bother with that.”

His pants were already undone, his boxers hanging to his knees.  He pressed her back against the wall, fumbling with her panties.  She couldn’t believe she was doing this.  This was worse than screwing him in his backyard, almost worse even than screwing Luke. 

It didn’t seem to bother him though.  He groaned as he entered her.  Jess wasn’t comfortable.  Her major support was the grip of his hands on her hips.  He didn’t look at her as he moved within her.  She finally closed her eyes. 

Only minutes later, he was finished.  Still not looking at her, he pulled away and had his shirt tucked back into his pants before she’d started to pull her panty hose up.  She tore them and though it was cold outside and she knew her legs would freeze, she took them off and shoved them into her purse. 

Hand on the door he said “There’s a bathroom down the hall if you need to clean up.”  Then he opened the door and was gone.  Just like that. 

She was majorly pissed off at herself for letting him screw her and just walk away.  She was tempted to leave and never look back.  If he was going to treat her like a whore, then she didn’t need him she thought.  She sighed.  She at least had to give him a chance to talk to her.  Maybe if she spent at least tonight with him she could get him to say something.  It wasn’t good for him to lock everything up inside.  She knew that from her own experiences.

She slipped her shoes back on her feet and went down the hall in search of the bathroom.  Once she had finished in the bathroom, she went back to the meeting room where the reception was being held.  Lucy was in Cameron’s arms on the dance floor, but she didn’t see Daylin anywhere.  She decided to go outside for a cigarette.

Daylin was outside leaning against the side of the building, drink in one hand, cigarette in the other. 

“Since when do you smoke?” she said.

He shrugged.  “Since I started smoking.”

“Oh.  Are you okay Daylin?”

“Never been better.  You wanna get out of here?  I need something stronger.”

“You can’t leave now.  The reception’s barely started.”

He snorted.  “Do you think anyone will notice?  C’mon Jess.  Let’s go to the liquor store and then go back to my place and get smashed.”

“I don’t think that’s what you need right now Daylin.”

“Everybody thinks they know what I need.  They don’t know shit.  I know what I need.  I need to go home, get drunk and fuck you again.”

“Thanks Daylin.  It’s nice to know that I’m able to help you through this.”

“I don’t need help right now.  I need to get drunk and get laid.”

He ran his hand up under her skirt.  She slapped at his hand, shoving it away.  “Don’t do that.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t make sure you got off last time okay?  I’ll make sure you do at my house.  Come on.  Let’s go.” 

He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the parking lot.  His car was parked about halfway down from hers, a big scratch running down the side. 

“What happened to your car?”

He shrugged.  “I don’t remember.  Let’s go.  You follow me okay?”

“I don’t think you’re in any kind of a state to drive right now.”

He dug his keys out of his pocket.  “You drive then.  We’ll come back and pick your car up later.”  He handed her the keys, reaching out to smack her ass.  “Now Jess.  I get hard just looking at you.”

She wanted to slap him again.  Instead, she pushed the button to unlock the car.  While he got into the passenger side, she adjusted the seat.  When she was belted in, she started the car.  “Where are we going?”

“Two blocks up, on the left.”

She followed his directions and pulled up in front of a liquor store a few minutes later.  He handed her a stack of rumpled bills.  “Get me a fifth of Rum, a two liter of soda and a bag of ice.  Get whatever you want too.  I plan to keep you up all night.”

She said nothing.  He was disgusting her, acting like a pervert.  She wondered if this was how he’d acted with all the women that had come before her, after Amanda. 

Could a woman really find him attractive when he was acting like this she wondered?  She sighed as she opened the door, glancing back at the car.  He had the window rolled down and was smoking a cigarette. 

She bought his rum, cola and ice, at the last minute deciding to add a bottle of one of the few types of liquor that she could stand to drink.  Maybe if they both got drunk enough he’d talk to her instead of acting like a horny teenager she thought.  When she walked out of the store, he was on his cell phone, but hung it up quickly.  Why did she have the feeling that he’d been talking to another woman? 

She put it out of her head as she got behind the wheel of his car.  He put his hand on her leg, tracing circles that kept getting higher and higher as she drove to his house.  When his hand threatened to move between her legs, she slapped his hand away. 

“Stop Daylin.  I understand that you want to have sex.  Trying to molest me while I’m driving isn’t going to help either of us.”

“You’re testy.”

She rolled her eyes at him as she pulled into his driveway.  “I’m trying to be patient with you because you just lost your mother and don’t seem to be dealing with it well, but I’m not going to let you do whatever you want to me.” 

She handed him his keys so he could unlock the house. 

“I’m dealing with it perfectly fine.  It’s everybody else who can’t seem to deal with it.  She’s dead.  Get over it.”

She followed him into the house, not believing her ears.  How could he say such a thing about his own mother?  She knew he was hurting, but when he broke down and let himself feel it, he was going to be crushed if he didn’t start to face the reality of the situation-and soon.

She sat down on the couch as he disappeared into the kitchen.  His house was a mess.  A far cry from the neatness that he’d always strived for before.  There were fast food wrappers on the table and on the floor, an empty pizza box on the chair, and several empty beer bottles on the floor underneath the table.  The ashtray on the coffee table was overflowing, spilling over onto the porno magazine that it was sitting on top of. 

She lit a cigarette as he banged around in the kitchen.  She was hungry.  When he returned with two glasses, his rum and cola and her blue concoction that tasted like kool-aid, she said “Do you want to order a pizza?  I’m hungry.”

“Go ahead.  I don’t care.”

She managed to place the order and drink half of her drink before he tried to seduce her again.  She was pretty sure that she remembered taking her birth control pill and was glad because he couldn’t be bothered with protection.  He removed his pants this time, but only removed her panties and pulled up her dress. 

He was almost rough with her.  His fingers dug into her ass as he moved within her and he shoved his tongue into her mouth.  She wasn’t sure whether she was more disappointed with him for acting the way he was or herself because he was turning her on.  She had come and he was on the brink when there was a knock at the door.

“Fuck,” he said.  Then he turned towards the door and said loudly “Just a minute.”

She could hear a muttered curse from the other side of the door but couldn’t tell exactly what the pizza man said.  Daylin didn’t care.  He pulled her legs so that they were wrapped more tightly around him and looked into her eyes.  He made one last fierce thrust and said almost gently “I still love you Jess, but I’m no good for you.”

He pulled her to him and kissed her roughly.  Then he pulled away and had his pants on and was answering the door before she had time to pull her panties back on.  She gave him a dirty look and pulled her skirt down over her legs. 

The teenager who was delivering the pizza looked back and forth from Daylin standing shirtless at the door to her on the couch and smiled at Daylin.  Daylin smirked and shoved two bills into the kid’s hand.  “There goes your tip,” he said and shut the door in the kid’s face.

“You’re an asshole,” she said.

“Yeah.  So what?”

He went to the kitchen, refilled his drink and came back with paper plates.  She took a sip of her drink.  “Daylin.  We need to talk.”

“What do we need to talk about?”

She lit a cigarette, downing the rest of her drink.  He moved to get her another one, but she waved him off.  “You said that you love me but you’re not good enough for me.  Of course you’re good enough for me.”

“I am the last thing that you need right now Jess.  If I wasn’t a selfish mother fucker you wouldn’t be here.  I wanted one last night with you.”

“It doesn’t have to be just one last night Daylin.”  She reached out to touch his face but he pulled away.  “If you’ll talk to me, let me help you, we can have as much time together as you want.”

He lit a cigarette and drained half of his drink in one gulp.  “So you’ll marry me?”

She bit her lip.  When they’d been together at Thanksgiving, she had almost fooled herself into thinking that she would marry him eventually.  But now she knew she couldn’t make him that promise.  “I don’t know Daylin.  I think we need to take this one step at a time.”

“I knew it.  You still won’t tell me yes.”

“How can you say that you want to marry me when I’m not important enough for you to call me when your mother dies?”

“It wasn’t like that.”  He got up and went back to the kitchen, taking his now empty glass and hers with him. 

She took a slice of pizza out of the box and took a small bite.  Her appetite was going downhill fast.  “What was it like then?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“You’re right Daylin.  I wouldn’t understand.  I only found out my Dad was dead after not having been able to see him for twenty-one years.  I have no idea what it’s like to lose a parent.”

“It’s not the same.”

“No two situations are ever exactly the same Daylin.  It doesn’t matter.  The point is that you can’t say that you love someone but shut them out completely.”