“This is nice, Everly. Only nice.” And I get it. I get what he’s saying. “But with you, I will take what I can get.” His mouth closes over mine and he kisses me. It takes longer for me to come, and him even longer. When he fucked me hard and raw, it was fast. The climax was intense and would shake my body so much that it was hard to move after.
I won’t tell him, though, he can’t know that.
He lies beside me, pulling out and not saying a word.
“Tell me you love me, Gunner,” I ask in desperation.
“I love you, Everly Reid,” he replies then gets up, and doesn’t look back at me as he walks to the shower.
It felt forced.
We are two people who should probably never work, but we have to.
I wasn’t the woman who was made for him.
He wasn’t the man who was made for me.
How can I make this work?
I quickly get up, wipe myself clean, and slide on my dress and new panties. I hear him in the shower, and I grab my phone and leave.
I thought about the idea of running away from him, how easy it would be to do so. Instead, I go straight to work where I feel safe. It’s my place, which I will not give up no matter how much he says I have to. This is the place born from my ideas that eventually came to life through my own dedication to it. I put a lot of hard work, tears and hours into this place, and I will not let a single soul take it away from me.
“Well, holy shit.” I hear a voice behind me. “You’re back.”
I turn to May who walks in.
“How did you know?”
“Someone posted on the café page that the boss is back. Let the fun begin,” she says. “The better question is, why wasn’t I your first stop?” She reaches for my arm, and as she does the sleeve on my dress rides up showing the bruises on my arm. “What the fuck?” I pull my arm back. “You two into some kinky shit?” she asks.
I don’t know what to say, so I say nothing at all.
“Ev?” she questions my name making me look up at her. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Okay, so are those bruises from other things?”
“No, just as you said.”
“Oh, okay then.”
She doesn’t understand and I don’t blame her. Neither do I.
“Can you tell me why, just after your honeymoon, you never called and you come back…” she pauses, “… unhappy?”
“Confused is all,” I answer her truthfully.
“Okay. Confused as in you don’t know if you should be here today? Or confused as in holy shit I married the wrong man?” My eyes go wide as I look up to her. “Fuck! It’s the last one, isn’t it?”
“I just…” Words seem to fail me.
“Ev…” She wraps her arms around me, holds me tight and hugs me like someone who cares for me does. I don’t know how to tell her, though, what a monster he secretly is. And the scariest part is that I like what that monster did to me, even if my mind tells me I hated it.
“It’s nothing,” I say with a fake smile.
“It’s not. I can see it’s something. It’s not like you not to tell me.”
Turning away from her, I go back to doing what I came in to do. Gunner hasn’t come to find me, and for that I’m thankful. He won’t give me all night, though, and the sun is setting.
“Okay, how about just a few drinks. Let your staff close up, you aren’t even meant to be back yet anyway.”
“Drinks?” I mumble.
“Yes, drinks. If not, we can go out to eat.”
“No. I want to drink.” I need to drink after the week I’ve had. I need to get shitfaced and hope that my reality changes somewhere between one drink and the next.
“Great, let’s go then.”
She drives. Her place is pretty central, and her closet is next-level insane. It helps that I fit into all her clothes, and we have the same shoe size. So she dresses me, and I even let her do my makeup.
We drink while she makes me pretty, and she flinches when she sees my bruises, but doesn’t ask any questions, for which I am grateful. I have hickeys on my inner thigh and some on my stomach. Most are on my breast area, plus the bite marks. Thankfully she doesn’t see those. I’m not sure if she will stay quiet if she does.
“I don’t think I’ve drunk this much since high school,” I say reaching for the third bottle of wine. I’m well over tipsy, and my vision is blurry now, and we haven’t even left her place yet.
May laughs and taps me on the back. “You’re getting fucked up. I like it.”