The girl screamed, and Dad’s eyes widened. He pulled out of her and hastily zipped himself back up, cursing under his breath. “Get dressed,” he muttered a few seconds later, leaning down and throwing the girl’s clothes at her.
As she hurriedly slipped into her underwear, I realized I knew her. Knew of her, anyway. When I was a sophomore at RFA, she was a senior. Brittany or Britney. Something like that. Pretty with a perfect hourglass figure.
She lifted her hair to zip up the back of her dress a second later, and I caught sight of a trashy-looking snake tattoo on the back of her neck. Small but obvious in contrast with her pale skin and blonde hair.
“Again: what the fuck?” I said, folding my arms.
Brittany silently slinked past me, carrying her shoes in one hand.
Dad held up a palm and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I… I thought the door was locked.”
“You really think that’s the issue here?” I said incredulously. “That the door was unlocked?”
“Please, let’s go out in the hall to discuss this.”
Gladly. The room stank of sex.
I stepped out into the hallway and watched Brittany flee downstairs. Then I turned on Dad, lips flattening into a scowl. “What the hell are you even doing here?”
“I got back early,” he explained. “The deal went south, so we—”
I cut him off. “Mom’s only been away for what… four months? And you’re already cheating on her with a fucking twenty-year-old?” I said, eyes tightening. “You know I used to go to school with her, right?”
“I’m not proud of it, Hunter, but I’m a man. I have needs. Needs your mother is no longer fulfilling. Four months is a long time.”
I scoffed. “It’s 2019, Dad. That excuse doesn’t fly anymore. Women have needs too, but we don’t see Mom fucking everything that moves, do we?”
His nostrils flared. “Your mother is drugged up to her fucking eyeballs half the time,” he said, curling his right hand into a fist. “If she wasn’t, then maybe she’d be in the fucking mood for once, and I wouldn’t have to resort to this shit!”
He punctuated his tirade by slamming his fist into the wall.
“Jesus,” I muttered, taking a step back.
He looked at the giant dent in the fleur-de-lis patterned wallpaper, and his shoulders slumped. “Shit,” he muttered. “I’m sorry, son. I… I overreacted.”
“No shit.”
“It’s just…” He paused and wiped the sweat from his face. “It’s just so frustrating. I don’t even know when she’s coming back.”
“Well, rehab takes time. If you really cared, you’d go and visit her instead of sinking balls-deep into some random skank with shitty tattoos,” I said, gritting my teeth.
“I know. I’m sorry. Please don’t tell her.”
I scoffed again. “I won’t. I’ll let you tell her instead. She deserves that much.”
With that, I turned on my heel and stalked toward the gym. My body was flooding with angry adrenaline, and all I wanted to do was punch stuff.
I headed right for the boxing bag and took my rage out on it. Harder, faster, more. After a while I forgot about my father and his infidelity, and an image of Laney in last night’s shimmering gown drifted into my mind instead. Talia was wrong about that dress—she looked fucking perfect.
My jaw ticked, and the temperature of the room seemed to increase by five degrees. It felt like Laney was right here with me, the heat from her skin seeping into mine as she held herself against me. Occupying my body the same way she occupied my mind.
I groaned as I found myself growing hard with need. Need for the one person on this planet I should never, ever want.
My hatred was starting to blend with my attraction to her, unbidden of course, and instead of picturing her on her knees bleeding and begging for mercy like I used to, I pictured her on her knees begging to suck my cock.
Jesus.What was it about this girl?
She’d been the subject of my obsession for a long time, but only because I wanted retribution. So why was I so physically drawn to her now? How could I possibly want to fuck her as much as I wanted to destroy her?