The Lion's Den (Faraway Book 2) (9 page)

My dick was hard. It pressed against my suit pants and throbbed. I shifted, seeking some relief, and Dharma dropped her head back. She moaned and pressed Carrie’s face harder into her pussy before raising her head again and staring at me. Her lips parted, and she inhaled deeply, causing her breasts to rise.

“Come here,” she said, and my cock pounded. I couldn’t breathe. Carrie kept licking, and I craved her lips on my dick. I wanted her to stop the pounding. “Come here, Brad,” Dharma beckoned again, and my feet moved toward her without my permission.

Dharma leaned back so she could watch Carrie’s mouth on her pussy without her boobs in the way. “She’s going to make me come.” I nodded and took in another large breath. “She’s going to make us come at the same time.” Dharma stroked my dick through my pants, and I was lost to her. “That’s what we need, Brad. To come at the same time. Now, take off your pants.” I watched again as Carrie’s tongue flicked against Dharma’s clit. I’d never been with two women before. I unzipped my pants and lowered them. Dharma pulled Carrie’s head back by her hair, and Carrie licked her lips. I stroked my dick and waited for instructions.

Dharma moved to lay down on her coffee table and shoved Carrie’s face against her pussy again. Carrie rose up on knees and sucked some more.

“Get on your knees, Brad. Behind her.” I did as I was told. I reached around Carrie’s waist, touching her wet pussy with two fingers. This was wrong, and the depravity of it made my dick throb harder. I rubbed my fingers together savoring the feel of Carrie. “Fuck her, Brad. Fuck her until you come.” She pressed Carrie’s mouth against her. “Fuck her in the ass, because mine is the only pussy you should be fucking.” I stopped and watched as Carrie reached behind and placed her finger in her ass. She took it out, never missing a beat on Dharma’s clit. “Fuck her, Brad.”

I stuffed my dick in Carrie’s ass and completely forgot what I needed to talk to Dharma about.

Chief Vincent Pratt

I PLUGGED THE TOASTER OVEN
in next to the window and frowned. The outlet was so loose the plug practically fell out. The electrical was going to need to be updated along with everything else in the house. I was using the small bedroom at the top of the stairs as my makeshift kitchen. The one down stairs was gutted. I’d dragged a compact refrigerator, a microwave, a table with a folding chair, a milk crate, and this toaster oven up here for the time being. It was worse than my dorm room and my first apartment.

Meredith being at the shore was making me insane. I couldn’t come up with another excuse to go down there. I couldn’t just drive by. The week dragged. I should have convinced her to come home when I was there but I hadn’t. Almost two full weeks had passed since her injury, but it felt like two years. It was time for her to come home. It was time for her to remember what her home was like.

“Hello,” I heard Lynn yelling up the stairs. “Vince, are you up there?”

I left the toaster oven and went into the hallway. Lynn was facing the top of the stairs with horror covering her face. “Come on up,” I said, watching as she touched the wallpaper in the foyer and then rubbed her fingers together to clean them.

“So this is where you’re living?” she asked when she reached the landing. She walked past me and stuck her head into my kitchen before roaming the hall and peeking into my bedroom. It was the original master with large windows facing the front of the house. The ceiling was falling in the corner, and my twin bed was pushed against the far wall. Watching as she viewed it made it seem much worse than it had an hour ago. “Were things that bad at our house?” She laughed as she said it.

“Of course not.” Lynn had loved the old house we’d rented when we were first married, but when it was time to buy, she’d insisted on new. She was tired of all the noises the old house had made. “How are you?”

“I’m not sure. I keep waiting for you to come home from work, but then you don’t, and I remember I hate you.”

“Lynn—”

“Let me finish.” The anger filled her eyes. It sucked the warmth from the room and left us both standing in the cold. “But mostly, I’m confused. Like when I stop hating you for a few minutes, I can’t figure out what happened. Why you’re doing this.” She paused and looked at the floor.

“I’m sorry,” was all I could say. I knew it was nowhere near enough. It wasn’t too late to fix this, but it was the first time in years it didn’t feel broken to me.

“Sorry for what? Because when I try to figure out what happened, the thing I keep coming back to is there must be someone else.”

I stayed still. Uncomfortably so. Lynn deserved the truth, but the truth was if Meredith were still a part of my life, I’d still be a part of Lynn’s. Meredith would have left me if I left Lynn. The reality was too fucked up to share with her.

“There’s no one else.” I didn’t let the pain that statement caused show on my face. “I promise. I’m here in this glorious mansion alone every night.” Lynn’s face turned to stone. “What’s wrong?”

“If there’s no one else, then it’s me. You’re really just leaving me. I’m the only one to blame.” Meredith always said I would be blamed.

“No. It’s not your fault. It’s all me, Lynn. I wish I could go back in time and—”

“And what?” she screamed. “And not marry me? Not have our children?”

“God no. I wish I could—”

“What?” she snapped, cutting me off. I saw it then. The hate in her eyes was as clear as a winter sky. She hated me. With every cell in her body, my wife hated me.

“I don’t know.” I wouldn’t hurt her anymore. I wouldn’t tell her I should never have married her. I wouldn’t discount our children in any way. They were my life, now more than ever before.

“Sure you don’t.” She walked out the bedroom door and ran down the stairs, sending a rush of creaks throughout the house. The sound of the side door slamming caused the walls of the ancient structure to shake. I stood still, looking around the house that should probably have been torn down. Even if I were never with Meredith again, I couldn’t be with Lynn. Our separation was right. It just wasn’t painless.

I checked my watch. It was nine thirty at night.
What’s Brad Walsh doing while his family is away?
I grabbed my keys off the box near my bed and descended the stairs two at a time. I’d just drive by.

Meredith’s house was exactly four point eight miles from town in an impressive neighborhood. Meredith didn’t like it here. She struggled with being grateful for what she felt others would appreciate, but she’d never wanted.

Each lot was at least an acre and had mature trees surrounding the houses, making it private despite being in a neighborhood. Her house backed up to the woods, which surround the whole development.

I’d trekked through those woods to sneak into her kitchen. I’d wrapped a tarp around myself and rolled over the snow in her back yard so I wouldn’t leave footprints. I’d turned off the lights in her house so we couldn’t even be seen with a telescope. I’d done everything she’d asked in order to protect her. To protect us.

The neighborhood was a large circle with fifty houses in it. I drove the long way around, and when I approached Meredith’s house, Brad was stopped in the opposite direction with his signal on, waiting to turn in his driveway. I blocked it with my truck and lowered my window.

“How’s Meredith?” I didn’t say hello or ask how he was, because I wanted him to be gone.

“Chief Pratt, you’re out late.”

“Is she feeling any better? Has she remembered anything?”

Anything besides being with me at the pool. That came back when I saw her at the shore. Did she tell you that?

I hated him.

“It’s late. I’m just getting home from work.” Brad didn’t seem like he was just getting home from work. His hair was a mess, his shirt was buttoned only halfway up, and his eyes were glassy. As much as Meredith wasn’t the type to have an affair, Brad absolutely was. And he still hadn’t answered my questions.

I ignored his statements. I preferred to ignore him for the rest of my life, but I wasn’t going to. He was going to feel my presence every second he was near Meredith. She would never be hurt again. When she remembered . . . when I found out what he’d done to her, he would feel my presence until he begged me for mercy. “Just so we’re clear, I’m concerned about Meredith living here.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? My wife fell.”

I didn’t respond. I didn’t stop staring at the piece of shit who’d probably never deserved her.

Brad Walsh smiled, and I thought he was drunk. At least slightly. He straightened in his car seat. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to enter my property.”

I glared at him. When I couldn’t stand the sight of him a minute longer, I put my truck in drive and pulled away slowly, watching in the rearview mirror as Brad turned onto his driveway.

Brad Walsh

I SLEPT A TOTAL OF
twenty minutes last night. Who the fuck did Vincent Pratt think he was? And why was he so concerned with my wife? It didn’t make sense. She hadn’t worked for him long enough for him to care this much. Were the doctors or the police suspicious of the circumstances surrounding Meredith’s injury? Did they have reason to suspect I’d hurt her?

I read the e-mail outlining the travel arrangements for my upcoming trip to London, not digesting the words. I hadn’t even been officially questioned. Everyone at the hospital seemed to believe me. It could have happened exactly as I’d said.

They knew nothing.

A knock on my office door was followed by Amit walking in uninvited. “Hey! I know you’ve been out, and it’s total bullshit, but you need to complete the sexual harassment training online. If you don’t, New York is never going to stop hounding me.” I squeezed my temples, warding off the pain of stupid, online, corporate training videos that were a complete waste of my time. “I know, I know,” Amit said. He did know. “But worse than actually completing the training is being the executive sponsor for compliance, so complete it.”

“I’ve got a lot going on. I’m trying to get ready for London in two weeks.”

“Look, it’s pretty basic. Don’t fuck anybody below you. And since you’re as high up as they come around here, just don’t fuck anyone.”

“Right.” Images of Dharma’s breast blocking air from entering my mouth while she rode me entered my mind.

“Should take about twenty minutes, and then we’ll never have to talk about this again.”

“Until next year.”

“Until next year.” Amit nodded and left.

I needed to talk to Dharma. I’d fucked her twice while Meredith was still at the shore. Both times with Carrie, who was still in town. The idea of using another human being wasn’t appealing to me, or so I’d thought. The fact that a girl was happiest being used didn’t even make much sense, but every time Dharma ordered her to do something to me, my dick got hard. I couldn’t explain it. I also couldn’t stop doing exactly what Dharma told me to do.

Dharma walked by my office and bounced her eyebrows at me, and I knew I had to get the hell out of there or I’d be at her apartment after work instead of spending the last night at the shore with my wife and children. That was where I wanted to be. It was where I
needed
to be.