Stoned (The Stone Series)

Stoned

By Kitty Berry

This is a work of fiction. Please forgive any similarities to actual people or literary characters. The characters and their actions were developed by the author and any resemblance to actual people or other literary characters is coincidental.

Chapter 1

It was late August 2001 when Damian Stone met his best friend, Alex Smith on his first day of college. When Damian entered his dorm room he found Alex standing amongst the furniture and illegally painted walls. There were two beds each up against a navy blue wall, the other two walls were white, the school colors. The colors created a feel
ing of masculine security, of serenity and peace. Because it also created a sense of calm and friendliness Damian felt instantly at ease in the space. The beds each had grey comforters and red throw pillows. Damian’s response to the pillows elicited passion, stimulation, excitement, power and growth, all things he yearned to feel during his future days here.

The beds looked lush and inviting and Damian knew without a doubt that his mother who recently developed a thing for meddling in his life had found his roommate’s letter, made note of his address and sent him the funds necessary for this make over. He’d seen other rooms from the hallway, new arrivals keeping their doors open waiting to meet their roommates for the first time. All of those rooms had standard issued industrial puke walls with mix matched bedding on bunk beds.

The associations that the blue and white walls created with water and the sky were carried out through the room. On the side tables near each bed were matching white digital alarm clocks and softly illuminated lamps that looked to be filled with water. The ceiling was painted a lighter sky blue reminding Damian of the sky on a clear blue day. There was one desk in the corner with another lamp, a laptop, a phone and all the necessary office supplies.

The overall feeling of the room said, “Knowledge, power, trust and integrity” all things Damian knew he must display in himself and would except no less from anyone else in his life.

Damian was a rich kid from New York City who while growing up attended the best schools the city had to offer. Alex on the other hand grew up in the rough neighborhoods of D.C. These two young men are such striking contrasts of each other no one would believe this pairing would work let alone develop into a lifelong bond. They are not only contrasts of each other but also contrasts of themselves.

Take Damian for example, he’s a rich kid who looks like the poor bad boy where Alex is the poor kid who looks like a choir boy. Both hover around six feet tall and are thin and fit. Damian has long dark hair that makes an arch on his forehead then falls around his face almost to his shoulders. He’s displaying at least two days of stubble on his face and he’s wearing a faded heather grey t-shirt and jeans that are not only faded to an inch of their life but also ripped and exposing skin. Damian is a high school tri-athlete who wants to make it big in business. He doesn’t really care how he just knows that he wants to dominate New York City when he returns in four years and then rule the world, dominate all that he touches.

In contrast to Damian, Alex keeps his blond hair cropped close to his head; he’s clean shaven and wearing chinos and a crisp white shirt. Alex is here to study art and design and he aspires to be a famous interior designer; he has decided to take their dorm room on as his first endeavor in the field.

Damian arrived on campus today with his cousin, Tate and his wife Brooklynn. Tate is famous in the music industry but has always made time for his younger cousin. Tate has always been a father figure to Damian and now that Damian’s older, Tate is growing into a friend and confidant.

After a farewell that consisted of Tate ribbing Damian about all the ass he’s going to get, how lucky he is and how he wishes he was in his shoes. All the while Brooklynn laughed at her husband, knowing full well she has always been the only woman for him. Brookylnn kisses Damian a million times and tells him to behave. Then he’s finally alone with his new roommate, all including his driver leaving Damian with his bags and a farewell before turning to head out the door. Damian’s left staring at his new roommate wondering how he’s going to deal with someone who is into decorating, art and fashion. Damian wonders if Alex is gay, not that it matters but he was hoping for a roommate who could be a wingman when he goes out trolling for tight young ass.

Ultimately the two boys settle in over the next few hours and share their life stories with each other. Alex tells Damian about his days growing up on the rough streets of D.C. with a single mother who suffers from mental illness and drug addiction. He has two older sisters who he hasn’t seen in years, he’s not sure where they are. He is on a full scholarship at the prestigious ivy leagues of Connecticut. He tells Damian that everyone always assumes he’s gay because of his love for design but that he’s as straight as an arrow and looking forward to being Damian’s wingman when trolling for ass even though he admits to being more of a tit than ass man himself.

Damian wonders if maybe he should lie about his privileged youth but Alex calls him out on it before he has the chance. “So what’s your story, man? Rich kid from the city maybe with a house here in Connecticut too, right? Don’t fucking lie to me, I already met the chauffeur remember?” Alex says.

Damian admits to growing up on the Upper East Side as a rich brat whose parents didn’t have much time for him. He was raised by nannies and cooks, chauffeurs and personal assistants. Thank god for Tate or he wouldn’t have had a clue about so many important things like girls and sports. Damian’s mother is a strikingly beautiful blond who still has a figure of a twenty year old. She has never held a job a day in her life; she works full time doing lunch with her friends and frequenting spas or shopping on 5
th
Ave. Her latest obsession has become meddling in her son’s life. For some reason his leaving for college has made his mother want to become involved all of a sudden. She badgered Damian relentlessly for hours until he finally shared information with her about his roommate. But when he wouldn’t share his address she must have gotten it from one of his letters and contacted Alex, sending him cash for the dorm room remodel. As far as Damian feels, it’s a little too much way too late.

His father shares his bad boy looks sporting dark hair and piercing blue eyes that to this day he still uses to look every woman he meets up and down appreciatively.  Damian’s father and Tate’s mother are siblings but nothing alike. The men in his family are all control freak, dominant males, Tate’s mom is nothing of the sort but she did manage to marry the king of all control freaks, Tate’s father. Damian’s father is a business mogul who when he’s not working is off somewhere golfing or vacationing with one of his many very young mistresses his mother pretends not to know about. In honesty, his mother doesn’t care, she seems to currently have a personal trainer who Damian suspects does way more than show her how to stretch and use weights. Damian has never brought a girl home in fear of his father trying to bag her, if he hadn’t already. His father’s girlfriends are getting younger and younger, he wouldn’t be surprised to find out they had been with the same girl. In no time Damian figures he’ll be dating women who are older than the girls his father hooks up with. 

Damian has a younger sister Drea who he completely adores and didn’t want to leave this morning. Drea was a surprise to her parents ten years ago and quickly became the light in her brother’s eyes. She looks like her mother with long silky blond hair and huge blue eyes. She’s the most dramatic creature on the planet, always acting out scenes from her favorite movies or singing and dancing for anyone who will watch. Damian is sure she’ll be an actress when she grows up.

Damian’s father had to pull strings to assure his son’s admittance into the university that he himself graduated from over twenty five years ago. Damian is academically talented, well rounded and well liked but managed to act out enough during his high school days that a prestigious university such as this didn’t want to touch him with a ten foot pole. Damian is there to study business so he can be more successful than his father and take over the world; he’s resigned himself to behave and hit the books, keep the distractions to a minimum.

Damian and Alex spend their freshman year in that dorm room where they met and rearranged their schedules so they could have classes together. They fixed it so they’d have Intro to Business and American Literature together but it’s the one class that they decided to take as a joke that will remain with them forever. The first class they attended that fall semester was Women and their Sexuality with Professor Blake and it changed the course of Damian’s life in ways he wouldn’t know until much later.

Damian and Alex spend their four years of college living and partying together. After that first year they moved to an apartment in New Haven that Damian’s father financed and Alex once again decorated. Damian made sure that he always had enough money for whatever he and Alex both needed. Damian is a true and loyal friend and for Alex who treats him the same, he’d do anything.

************

In August of 2008 when Sydney Cooper stepped off the train in Grand Central Station and walked out the doors onto 42
nd
Street she was ready for a new start on life. When she walked into her dorm room she aimed to leave her past and all the secrets it held behind. She arrived before her roommate and was thankful that she wouldn’t have to explain why no parent was there to drop her off and cry as they left their child, she would tell her roommate that her parents already hugged and kissed her good-bye returning three times before finally leaving her to get on with her life.

Parker McGee came into the dorm room like the Tasmanian devil, only beautiful. She had huge sunglasses on her face hiding her big brown eyes and her chestnut hair was pulled off her face in a high ponytail. She was wearing designer clothes and high heels and with her was an older man carrying her many bags.

Sydney recognized Parker instantly. How could she not? She was on the cover of every teen magazine and Sydney had just seen her on a billboard in Times Square advertising the very same sunglasses that were on her head.

Parker takes one look around the tiny dorm room with dingy walls and bunk beds and sighs, “Oh no, this will not do. Travis, call daddy and arrange for an apartment for my new friend and I. Tell him I did as he wanted and gave this a chance but it is unacceptable. I expect to be in a new place within the week. That’s all, good-bye Travis.” And with that the man carrying the bags, puts them down and turns to leave already making a call on his cell phone.

“Hi, I’m Parker and you must be Sydney. Can I call you Syd?” she asks but doesn’t wait for an answer. “Don’t worry Syd, daddy will have us out of here and into a two bedroom two bath in no time. He’s my manager so he kind of has to do what I say if he wants to keep his job. Any day now all the money I make modeling will come directly to me and if he doesn’t play his cards right he won’t see a dime of it.”

“Um, that’s nice of you about the apartment but I can just stay here. I want to be on campus and near my classes” Sydney tells Parker but it falls on deaf ears.

“Don’t be crazy, you and I are going to be besties and as my new best friend you’ll need to live with me. We’ll have the best time, just you wait and see, living with me, is going to rock, trust me!”

Chapter 2

I can’t believe Alex is not here right now, he knows how stressed I am over my finals and now he’s making me bring him my portfolio for this benefit auction
that he’s not even here to accept. I figure I’ll go wait for him in his office so I grab the doorknob and attempt to enter but something goes very wrong and I end up on the floor on my knees. I realize then that someone was on the other side of the door and they must have opened it at the same time as me.

I am looking down at a very expensive pair of shoes. I start to raise my head and see straight leg solid black denim coated fabric legs with a button fly closure and belt loops sans the belt. My eyes continue their slow travel up to discover a light grey shirt with a matching light grey tie. When my eyes finally reach the man’s face I am staring at the most dangerous type of self-assured male, one who is rightfully confident and completely aware of his effect on women. An urban male who is accustomed to having women down on their knees in front of him the way I am right now only for much different reasons.

Not knowing the best way to handle the fact that I am disoriented and on my knees in front of the most alluring man I have ever encountered, a man who has an aura of pure power surrounding him I decide to go with nervous humor. “Um, I’m sorry I don’t usually go down on men like this when I open a door.”

“Well, I would hope not” says a deep voice with just the right amount of gruff to be sexy. It hits me like a soft blow to my gut. I am frozen, unable to rip my gaze from his chiseled features, his masculine stance, his dominating presence.

When I finally tear myself away from his piercing, clear blue eyes I grow nervous that he thinks I’m serious. I feel the need to explain myself while wishing I didn’t try humor in the first place. What was I thinking, I am not funny.

“I mean I’m not usually on my knees in here. I was…where’s Alex?”

“Alex?”

I quickly correct myself, afraid he could be Alex’s superior and I don’t want to get him into trouble. “Ah, I mean Professor Smith, where’s Professor Smith? He was supposed to meet me here at noon.”

My pulse is accelerating at an alarming speed and I must pull it together before I open my mouth to speak to this perfect creation of a man again. This man should come with a warning written in big bold red letters that reads, “DANGEROUS! DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT. BACK AWAY SLOWLY WHILE YOU STILL CAN!”

With a sly grin and then a quick flash of gleaming white teeth comes a soft but deep and rich voice, “Alex, huh? And he was supposed to meet you here where you are never on your knees because you don’t usually go down on men when you come through the door, right? Are you a student of his?” That incredible voice hums at me as the man moves closer towards me then lifts me to my feet making my knees shake and I get my first intoxicating whiff of the understated yet distinctive scent of sweet floral smells mixed with the perfect touch of masculinity….oh yeah, he’s all male.

“Who are you anyway; does Al…I mean Professor Smith know you’re in here?” I ask as I stumble backwards trying to distance myself from this exquisite specimen of pure male before me. At that same moment the door to Alex’s office bathroom opens and he appears. He glances from me to the Adonis in front of me who I just noticed is still holding me by my arms and says, “Sydney, I see you’ve met my best friend. Stone, Sydney Cooper, Sydney meet Damian Stone.”

“Ms. Copper and I have been having a more than interesting conversation about…” I cut him off as fast as I can finally regaining my ability to form a sentence, “So, here’s my portfolio for the benefit auction. I think you’ll find it’s complete and up to date. I still don’t see why you want me? I mean I can’t imagine I can bring in any kind of money for my services.”

“Oh, Ms. Copper I can assure you men would pay top dollar for your”, Mr. Perfection clears his throat then smirks before he finishes, “services. Now if you’ll excuse me I should be going. It was a pleasure to meet you. Until we meet again, Ms. Copper.” And the Adonis bows his head at me like I’m royalty as he disappears out the door with nothing more than a head nod to his best friend.

After he, what was his name again, it’s like I’ve had a stroke! I can’t formulate a cohesive thought. Stone? I think it was Stone. After Mr. Stone leaves I can finally take a deep enough breathe to fill my lungs. What is it about that man that made me feel like there was no oxygen left in the room for me to gulp in? Mm…I don’t know let me see. Is it his piercing blue eyes that are almost too striking to look into but also too mesmerizing that I couldn’t look away? Or maybe it’s the way his pants were hanging so seductively off his slender hips? The list can go on all day, his smell, the fact that he clearly has more money than one person should, his hair…men should not be allowed to have hair that good or eyelashes as long and curly as his. Women pay huge sums of money and subject themselves to huge amounts of pain to look half as good as the man that was just standing in front of me.

I notice Alex staring at me and I realize I need to pull it together and fast. I clear my throat to try to settle myself down but my heart is beating triple time and my palms are sweaty. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I have never had this response to a man in my life. In fact I’ve been doing my best to avoid them at all cost. I say my farewells to my professor soon to be boss and head out as fast as I can.

When I finally make it to the lobby and am about to go out the doors I notice it is raining sideways. Raining like it does in the city, assaulting people by pouring buckets of rain on us. I of course don’t have an umbrella with me. Not that it would do me any good in this kind of weather. It would just blow inside out and dump more water on my head. I sigh and decide there’s no choice but to get wet. I’ll have to walk back to my apartment and get changed when I get there.

“I’ll be out in a minute. Make it happen” that now familiar deep sexy voice briskly says into his cell phone as he hangs up on someone. And there he is standing right in front of me holding an umbrella big enough for two.

“Would you care for a ride, Ms. Copper? My car is right out front and I would be honored to take you where you need to go.”

I know better than to get into cars with strange men but then again I know all too well that it’s not always the strange men in your life that can be dangerous to you. I smile and allow him to lead me out of the building and into the backseat of a black Cadillac Escalade. He holds the umbrella over us in one hand and I feel his other hand gently settle at the small of my back. A tremor surges through me at what appears to be the manners of a true gentleman.

There’s a driver in the front seat who greets him when we enter the vehicle. “Mr. Stone. Where to sir?”

I turn to look at Mr. Perfection and am awestruck by his manly features, pure male. His build, strong cheekbones, his chin with a little dimple in it. But it’s his lips that hold my attention for longer than appropriate. His mouth is soft and sensuous looking, sexy as hell.

“Mac this is Ms. Cooper, we’ll be taking her to her apartment. Uh…where do you live Ms. Copper?” he asks me and at that very moment under his intense gaze I have no idea where I live even though Parker and I have lived in the same apartment since freshman year. I can’t sit still under his gaze; I shift in my seat and begin to squirm under his watchful eyes trying to come up with my address. I somehow make myself snap out of this trance he has me under and answer, “Meatpacking District, Hudson and Jane please.”

Mr. Stone introduces me to his driver, Mac. Mac is an ex-Marine who now has his own lucrative security company that he runs with his ex-partner and best friend, Jonesie. Mac looks to be in his thirties, over six feet tall with blue eyes; Marine close cut brown hair and cocoa skin. Mr. Stone tells me that Mac’s company provides the security for his cousin who’s in the music industry and that’s how Mac came to work for him. I don’t ask what he does that he needs security but just knowing that he needs it makes him even more intriguing.

When we arrive in front of my apartment Mr. Stone announces, “Trendy hood, do you like it here?”

I tell him it’s my friend’s apartment and that I’ve been staying with her through school but now that the lease is up she’s thinking about going to Paris so I’m kind of looking for a new place. 

“Parker, my roommate, she’s a model for the top agency here in the city and they want to send her to Paris. She wants to go but she’s holding back because of me and I don’t want her to do that so I have to find a place of my own in the next month. I keep putting it off with finals and everything, I’m just kind of busy” I babble.

“Well, if I hear of any place I’ll be sure to keep you in mind. Why don’t you give me your number and I can contact you if anything catches my eye. I have some real-estate contacts that I can call.”

I give him my cell number and thank him and Mac for the ride. Mr. Stone gets out of the car and walks around to my side opening the door and covering me with his umbrella, those gentlemanly manners doing something to my insides again. He walks me into my building and takes my hand in his. His hand is big and warm and it wraps around mine holding it tight. He raises my hand to his lips, turns it over and gently kisses the palm of my hand. It is a very intimate gesture and it makes the hair on my nape stand at attention.

“Thank you again Mr. Stone” I say and turn to head to my apartment when he catches my arm and turns me around.

“Please call me Damian. I hope to see you again Ms. Cooper.”

“Sydney” I say.

“Bye…Damian.”

************

Damian gets back in the car. “I found a connection; the best friend is a model at my agency, Parker. Look into her as well” he demands.

Mac begins his background check on Ms. Sydney Cooper when they arrive back at the Upper East Side cooperative building’s penthouse suite. He writes his report and delivers it to Damian before turning in for the evening.

Damian is sitting at his desk in his home office when he learns that Sydney Cooper is an only child who was born on December 12, 1991 in New Haven Connecticut. “Hmm, New Haven, something in common” he thinks. He double checks to be sure that she gave him her correct address and phone number, he’s glad to see that she did. He learns her social security number and her banking details. She has a large sum of money, a very large sum in an account that she has never touched. He is informed of her status as an interior design student with a GPA of 3.8. She is at the time unemployed with no political or religious affiliations. She is not married; he wickedly smiles at the last piece of information. He’ll ask Mac to find out more about that money and her relationship status or hopefully lack thereof tomorrow but for now he’s going to try to find out some information on the friend, this Parker that she lives with.

Damian goes to his guest suite where his sister is staying until she leaves for Paris in a few weeks and taps gently on her door. She opens it a crack, not allowing him full access. She’s hiding something from him like she did as a child when she stole his Halloween candy or borrowed and ruined his clothes.

“Hey, Drea. Can I ask you a favor? What do you know about this girl Parker from Hot Stones?”

“Uh, Day I’m kind of in the middle of something right now; can we talk about this tomorrow? And she’s my friend so don’t even think about nailing her, got it?” she pleads.

“No, it’s not that. It’s…well, she has this roommate.”

“Yeah, I know Sydney; she’s been besties with Parker since they became roommates their freshman year. I’ve hung out with her a few times. She’s hot, you can try to nail her but she’s never hooked up with a guy in all the times I’ve been with her so good luck there, buddy. We good now?”

“Is she into girls?”

“No, I don’t know what’s up with her. Parker doesn’t talk about it and she won’t let us give Sydney a hard time about it either. Again, are we done here? I have things to do.”

“Sure, everything okay?” he asks in the way only a concerned controlling older brother can.

“Yep, just getting ready for a shoot tomorrow. We can talk tomorrow night okay? I promise, we’ll catch up then. Love ya bro” and she closes and locks her door.

Drea lets her robe slowly slide off her body revealing her toned belly and youthful breasts as she climbs back into bed and slides up the male body sprawled out on her bed. She runs her hands over his bare muscular chest, nips at his nipple then covers his mouth with hers. “If my brother catches us Mac, he’s going to shot you with your own gun” she warns him.