TAKING THE FALL - the Complete Series (9 page)

As we both come down, I roll to the side, pulling her body against me and we spoon with my hard cock still inside her.

I grab her hand and use it to cup her pussy, around where we’re connected. “Hold your hand here, Cherry. My cum is everywhere and I don’t want any of it leaking out.”

“
Are you kidding me?” she asks lazily. She has almost fallen back to sleep as she does what I tell her.

I kiss the side of her neck. “Yes, I’m serious. I want as much of me in you before I leave.”

She mumbles incoherently as I continue to kiss her shoulder and trace her freckles with my finger.

“
I’ll be gone a while, but I’ll come back. You’re free now, Cherry. You’re safe.”

“
Yes, Carter,” she breathes dreamily and it makes me smile.

“
You can live your life and not be scared anymore, baby. I’ve got you.”

Her breath is soft as I continue to kiss her freckles.

“
I love you, Layla.”

LAYLA

The morning light is flooding in through the bedroom blinds. Rolling to my side, I notice I’m alone in bed, but Carter’s scent still lingers in the room. I must have finally passed out some time late into the night. Each time I would start to fall asleep, Carter would climb on top of me again. It was like he knew what I needed more than I did. He completely owned my body. By the time he was done with me, I felt like every part of me had been worshiped by him. There wasn’t an inch of me he left untouched. Glancing down, I can see the love marks he left all over my well-used body. He even whispered he loved me.

I look at the bedside clock and see it’s already ten o’clock. I stretch out and feel the pleasant ache in my muscles. Slipping to the edge of the bed, I reach for the sheet and wrap it around myself. I make my way through the house and check all the rooms, looking for any sign of Carter. When I get back to the bedroom I plop down on the bed and it causes me to wince. I didn’t notice the ache between my legs at first, but it’s a dull throb now. I’ll need to take some Tylenol.

I snatch my phone off the bedside table and go to call him, but then remember I don’t have his number. Maybe he had to run somewhere, or went to get us breakfast. That’s when I look over and see it. The picture I dropped in the prison four years ago. A picture of him. I had snapped it one day when I was playing around and had kept it close for years. It was always with me. I pick it up and it looks three times more worn than I remember. Carter wears that half-smile that only I could ever get from him. Flipping it over I see he’s written something on the back.

Everything I do is for you.

C.

What does that even mean? I can’t believe he’s left. Lying back on the bed, I pull the sheet to my nose and inhale his scent, trying to fill my lungs with him. I attempt to convince myself he’ll be back any minute now. He wouldn’t leave me after last night. The things he said to me, the way he treated me—like I was his and his alone. At first I was pissed he was here but I knew I was just lying to myself. I kept telling myself I was moving on from him over the years, but I wasn’t. He still entered my mind every day and my obsession with him never lessened with time. The pain did, but not the need or want for him. I’m not sure it ever will after last night.

When my phone goes off I grab it, clicking the accept button as fast as possible, praying it’s him.

“
Carter?” I say hurriedly, hearing the panic in my own voice.

“
Carter? Who’s this Carter you speak of, Lays?” Jeanette says. At the sound of my friend’s voice, tears spring to my eyes, and I feel the warmth of one slip down my face.

“
Lays, you totally slipped out last night and hooked up with someone didn’t you, you little ho bag? Give me the details. Every. Single One.”

Closing my eyes tighter, I try to stop more tears from falling. I know if I start, I may never stop. I’ll just lie in this bed crying forever, until my body can’t produce another tear.

“
Get your sweet ass back in here, Mama, I’m not done with that pussy yet,” I hear a man say in the background.

“
Hold up! Can’t you see I’m on the phone, you fucking caveman? My vagina needs a freaking break. Doesn’t your jaw hurt by now? And holy fuck, did you take something? How is your cock hard, again? Jesus H. Christ,” Jeanette says in an irritated voice that doesn’t really seem that irritated at all.

“
This is all your fault. Five minutes is all the time I’m giving you, Mama. Hop to,” the man I can only assume is Saint says.

“
Lays?”

“
I need you,” is the only thing I get out between choked sobs.

“
I’m there,” Jeanette replies, and the line goes dead. I know she’ll be flying through my door in minutes as she lives just a few streets away.

I give myself over to the tears, and let the sobs take my body. Soon, I feel Jeanette’s arms wrap around me, holding me in silent comfort. I don’t know how long we lie there together but I know she’ll stay with me for as long as I need.

“
I have so many secrets,” I finally whisper.

“
I know, Lays, I know,” she whispers back.

I roll over to look at her and she wipes the tears from my cheeks.

“
You do?” I question, unsure whether she really gets what I mean.

“
A sweet girl like you, not having any friends or family is a sign of something wrong. I always thought you were running. At first I thought it was an abusive boyfriend, but I was never really sure. You don’t let men get too close, so it was the best guess I had.”

“
You’re one to talk,” I hiccup back at her.

“
Never said I didn’t have my own secrets. Maybe that’s why we work so well together. We’re always in the present, neither of us pressing each other about our past because we don’t want to have to answer about our own.” I’d never thought of it like that before, but she’s right. We never talk about our time before we were friends. Now I wonder what her secrets are.

Seeing the question in my eyes, Jeanette responds, “Mine are for another day, when I’m ready.”

“
Mm-kay,” is all I say. I trust her to tell me when she’s ready. I wouldn’t want her pushing me about things I wasn’t ready to tell. But I’m ready to talk now. Carter told me last night I was free. I just didn’t know that meant free from him too.

“
My real name is Layla O’Leary, not Layla Matthews. You might know my father, Dean O'Leary.”

When Jeanette gasps, I know she gets it now. Dean O'Leary is a well-known name in the papers and to top it off, the FBI has been looking for him for the past few years. I’ve been keeping my own tabs on my father on the internet the best I can but he seems to have disappeared without a trace.

I was shocked and relieved that my name somehow never got thrown into the mix. I kept waiting for my picture to pop on the news, but it never did. My father kept me so well hidden over the years I’m not even sure many know I exist.

“
Holy shit,” is all she says.

“
Yeah, holy shit. Let me start at the beginning. Well, what I can remember anyways.” As I tell Jeanette all that went on before I left, she just sits and listens with a few questions here and there. I tell her about my love of—and obsession with—Carter, the night I can’t remember and how it took him away from me. I tell her about the last time I went to the prison, and I tell her about running away. Then I go into last night.

“
Wow, that’s all so crazy, Lays. And you think he’s gone?”

I just nod my head, not wanting to say it out loud. It’s all still so confusing to me. He said he loved me, that I’m his. He had my name on his chest but he kept saying he wasn’t good enough for me. Maybe that’s what won in the end.

“
And all you know is he did eight years for manslaughter?”

“
Yes, the man he killed was never identified. The report said he had no ID and no one could identify the body.”

“
You’re upset because he’s gone? You want to be with him?” Jeanette asks, and I can tell she’s hesitant to push me.

“
Yes. No. I don’t know.” Looking around, I find the picture of Carter and hand it to Jeanette.

“
Jesus, he doesn’t look like a man to fuck with,” she says while turning it over and reading the back.

“
I know he looks scary, but he was always so different with me. Well, he used to be. I think prison changed him. I hear they say that can happen.”

“
But you’re free, right, Lays? He may have left, but you got that. He told you you’re okay to live now, to not be scared. Not having to be scared is a wonderful thing.” She’s right, but I feel longing in her words. Why is Jeanette scared?

“
You’re right,” I say.

It’s time to really start living. I need to come to terms with the fact that a part of me will always love him. I need to stop trying to fight it. Embrace it and move on. In fact, I know just the way I want to do that.

“
Will you come with me? I have a few places I want to go today,” I ask.

“
Where to, Miss Lays?”

“
I want to go look into getting a piano.”

“
Fuck, I hear those things cost out the ass. This Carter dude leave some money before he split?” she jokes, trying to make me laugh.

“
I have some ‘oh shit’ money I’ve been holding on to and I think I’m ready to use it now.”

“
Sounds like a plan. We’ve got to stop and grab something to eat though, because the caveman fucked every calorie from my body,” Jeanette groans, jumping up from my bed.

“
Also…I want to get a tattoo,” I blurt out.

Jeanette swirls around and gives me a look like she doesn’t know who I am. “Now we’re talking,” she says, doing her classic eyebrow wiggle. “Get that ass up, Lays. We got shit to do, and you can’t wear that sheet in public.”

Crawling from my bed, I grab a pair of black leggings, a cream off-the-shoulder sweater and a pair of pink peep-toes before I head into the bathroom. I drop the sheet and take a look at the marks Carter left all over my body. My mind flashes to the day I woke up in the hospital with a different set of marks. I’d wondered if I’d been raped that night, and no one would tell me. I had wondered that maybe my mind had blanked that part out, but last night I felt Carter slip past that barrier. Maybe that’s part of why I’ve been holding myself back. Carter said I was waiting for him, but maybe I was scared that the first time I’d have sex, I’d find out a shocking truth. Luckily, that didn’t happen.

Pulling my hair up, I turn on the shower and jump in. When I wash between my legs, I can still feel him there. I love and hate the feeling. I jump back out and quickly brush my teeth, re-pile my hair on top of my head and get dressed. Giving myself one last look in the mirror, I determine that this is the best it’s getting today. My eyes are still swollen but I can’t bring myself to care right now. I slip from the bathroom and grab the picture off my bed. I walk over to the trash can and toss it in.

“
You sure you wanna throw that out?” Jeanette asks.

I nod my head and grab my purse and keys. I’m ready to start my new life. I won’t ever forget Carter or the gift of freedom he has given me but it’s time to move on with my life. It’s time to be free.