Addiction (13 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CASE

I look up from my desk as Rachel comes bursting through my office door. A beaten down Taylor strolls in behind her. No doubt, the night has taken its toll on her. It’s now thirty minutes past closing time, and I’m sure she’s exhausted.

“What can I do for you ladies?” I ask.

“Well, for starters, you can fire her,” Rachel demands, and I raise an eyebrow in question.

“No,” Taylor squeals as she steps forward. “Please?” she begs, and I like the way that single word sounds on her desperate lips. “Give me another chance.”

Rachel snorts then opens her mouth to speak, but I raise my hand to quiet her.

“What happened?” I ask, looking over at Taylor. Her bottom lip trembles, and she looks like she’s gonna cry.

“Well, I … uh, spilled a few drinks,” she says softly as she looks down at her hands in front of her.

“A few?” Rachel sneers. “You dropped more than a few. One was right on the customer. I’ve never had to buy more drinks than I can count.” She places her hands on her hips and huffs, causing her tits to bounce.

“Go home, Rachel,” I say dismissing her.

“But …”

“Go home,” I demand. Rachel looks over at Taylor, who just drops her head to stare at the floor in shame. Thankfully, Rachel turns on her heels and leaves my office, slamming the door behind her.

“Why are you here, Taylor?”

She very slowly looks up at me. “Because I needed a job and you offered me one.”

I stand and walk to the front of my desk, crossing my arms over my chest as I lean back on it. I look her up and down and notice her uniform fits her perfectly. The black corset pushes her large tits up to where her chin almost rests on them as she stares down at the floor. Her white shorts show off her long, lean legs. They glisten somewhat from the alcohol spills. I imagine standing behind her as I very slowly unzip her corset and push her up against the glass behind me that overlooks the club. “In order to keep you, you have to offer me something,” I say,

Her head snaps up to look at me. Her baby blue eyes are wide as quarters. I watch her swallow nervously and nod her head once. “Yes, sir.”

Another single word that does something to me. I’ve always hated that word,
sir
, but with her, it fits. I have a dirty image of her on her knees with her begging
please, sir, fuck my mouth
. I clear my throat. Why do my thoughts of her always go to sex?

“The club, you need to offer the club something,” I say correcting my previous statement. No matter how much I want her to offer herself to me, now is not the time. “You’re beautiful,” I say, and she blushes looking away. “Your body is perfect.” I should know; I’ve seen all of it. “But that’s as far as it goes.”

She looks at me and frowns. “What are you talking about?”

“Men wanna come out to get away from their nagging wives. They wanna think they can still pick up any woman they want. You need to give them a reason to go home and fuck their wives. The single men who come out are looking for someone they can take home. And it doesn’t matter how hot you look, men want to see a woman who has confidence. And that’s what I wanna see from you.”

She nods once. “Yes, sir.” I growl but cover it with a cough.
Fuck, she needs to quit saying that.

“I’ll give you one more night.”

She looks at me for a few long seconds as if she wants to argue. We both know exactly what she’s not saying.
She doesn’t need this job.
She could get a job anywhere. Hell, I practically had to beg her to take it. But, at last, she finally says, “Thank you for not firing me.” Her eyes drop down to the floor once again as if she was embarrassed to have to thank me for giving her another chance.

I wouldn’t fire her even if she begged me. I need her here where I can see her. I’m already keeping many things from her; what’s one more?

Since she’s not quitting, I walk back around my desk and sit down. I stare at my computer but can still see her standing in front of me. I tilt my head from side to side, trying to relieve the tension in my neck. I wish I could use her to release the tension. “You’re dismissed.” I need her to leave before I say or do something that I will regret later. Thankfully, she turns and sprints out of my office.

I let out a sigh of relief that I am no longer alone with her when I pull my phone out of my back pocket. I frown when I notice I had a text from Blane earlier this evening. Opening it up, I bite my inner cheek when I read it.

Blane:
I know what you did. I went and spoke to Mr. Binsen today. He wouldn’t come straight out with it, but he didn’t have to. I figured it out.

Fuck!

TAYLOR

I walk into the house and toss my purse on the couch then I plop down beside it. Why do I care that Case almost fired me tonight? Why does it bother me that Rachel obviously hates me? Does she hate everyone? She just seems like the chick who doesn’t care for anyone but herself. Well, maybe Case. Do they have a thing? Did they once have a past? I sigh.

How in the hell am I supposed to give the club a confident woman? I’ve never really been anyone who was insecure. Maybe it’s the fact I don’t know what in the hell I’m doing. Or that I don’t fit in there.

“How was work?” I look up to see Savannah coming down the hallway, wrapping a sash to her robe around her waist. Her green eyes are heavy, but a small smile plays on her face. No doubt, she’s been waiting up for me to see how my first night went. I’m thankful she allowed me to borrow her car.

“I almost got fired,” I inform her.

“What?” She sits down beside me. “What happened?”

I fill her in on how I spilled all those drinks and how I couldn’t get anything right. “It will just take some time,” she says softly. “It’s new to you. You’ve never been one to go to clubs anyway.” She shrugs.

“He said I wasn’t confident enough.”

She tilts her head to the side as if she’s thinking that over. “I can see that,” she finally says.

My mouth drops open, and I shove her jokingly. She just falls back on the couch and laughs. “You have to have an image in a place like that.”

“And what kind of image is that?” I ask dryly. “As if I’m baked on coke?”

She laughs. “Being baked means your high on weed,” she informs me, and I just wave her off. She looks me up and down and then gets a big smile on her face. “When do you work next?”

“Tomorrow night. Well, it’s past midnight, so technically tonight.” Maybe I won’t go. I could call in sick.

She stands from the couch and starts to walk back down the hallway. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll be ready to leave,” she hollers over her shoulder.

“Where are we going?” I ask before looking down at my phone. “It’s past three in the morning.”

“Walmart is open twenty-four-seven.”

I lie back on the couch and let out a puff of air. So much for taking a shower to wash all the alcohol off and then passing out. “At least let me change,” I say before I get up and head to my room.

***

I sit on the side of the bathtub in my bathroom. I have a Red Bull in one hand and a cherry sucker in the other. “How much longer?” I ask awfully cheerful for it being five in the morning.

Savannah looks down at her cell phone. “Five minutes,” she says happily then tips her Monster back and chugs what she has left.

“I don’t understand why this couldn’t have waited until after I slept,” I mumble with my sucker in the side of my cheek.

She rolls her eyes. “You don’t have to be at work until ten tonight. As soon as we are finished, you can pass out and sleep all day.”

“I don’t even know why I let you talk me into this. I’m gonna get fired tonight anyway.” I’m not gonna know anything different tonight than I did last night. Rachel really wasn’t much of a teacher. I just know Case is gonna fire me after my shift. I’m preparing myself for the worst.

“No, you’re not.” She looks down at her phone again. “He said you needed confidence. This will give you confidence.” She looks at the shower cap that covers my hair. I blame it on the lack of sleep and the horrible night that I had. But I let her drag me to Walmart and talk me into buying a box of blue hair color. As soon as we got home, she dragged me to the bathroom, sat my ass on the toilet, and dyed sections of my hair blue. And honestly, I’m not really that worried what it will look like. I’ve highlighted my hair before, and I’ve darkened it, but I have never, ever dyed it any other color. I’m kinda excited.

Savannah told me that the blue would show up under the lights of the club and that the men would see me coming. She said my brown hair made me invisible. I had no choice but to believe her since every person there last night ran into me as if I wasn’t there.

“It’s time,” she says excitedly as she jumps up from the toilet. This is what she does—hair. This is what she is good at, and she loves it.

I set my Red Bull down on the tub beside me and place my sucker on the countertop before I kneel beside the tub. She turns on the water and removes the shower cap before rinsing my hair. I close my eyes and enjoy the warm water. I could almost fall asleep like this with the soothing warm water running down the side of my face and neck, along with her massaging my scalp. This was a good idea after all.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CASE

I shove the glass door open to my shower as I hear my phone ring. I take a deep breath as I see Blane light up my screen. “Let me explain,” I say to Blane in answer.

“I understand why we are lying to her, but why in the hell are you lying to me?” he demands.

I reach over and grab the towel I had set out. “I’m not lying to you.” I knot it around my hips. “I just chose not to inform you of the truth. Big difference,” I say as I bare my teeth in my bathroom mirror to check them.

He snorts. “You should have told me that you threatened Mr. Binsen and made him fire her.”

I sigh. “I haven’t even had the chance to talk to you about it,” I say truthfully. I reach over, grab the washcloth that sits on my countertop, and run it through my hair a few times.

“Well, you have the chance now. So explain,” he orders.

I do owe him that much. I can’t tell Taylor the truth, but I can let him in on one of my secrets. “I went and saw her up at the coffee shop the day after you told me your house had been broken into. I figured since I was going to be around, she and I needed to be on good terms. Especially since she thought I was the one who did it. I offered her a job, and she turned me down. She said I was just some drug dealer. I mentioned someone using drugs who worked at her coffee shop. She thought I was referring to another woman who worked there when really it was her boss. Then the next day, she called me when her car broke down. I saw an opportunity and took it. As soon as I hung up with her, I called her boss. I threatened to expose him and told him to fire her. He likes to have a hit every now and then.” I shrug to myself. “I needed to get her into Seven Deadly Sins, and that was my in,” I say simply.

He sighs heavily. “Do you always bend people's will to get what you want?”

“Pretty much,” I say matter-of-factly.

He’s quiet for a long time before he finally speaks again. “I wish you would have told me. I don’t like her working in your club. I just see it ending badly for her.” He’s worried about the wrong thing here. The club can’t hurt her. I’m the one who can hurt her. I’m the one filling her with lies and making up this fake life for her in order to keep her close to me. What will happen when she finds out the truth? ‘Cause the truth will come out and I’m gonna have to face her when it does.

“I told you that you have nothing to worry about,” I say trying to sound carefree. But in all honestly, we both have a lot to worry about.

He chuckles. “So you say. But so far, you haven’t proven that to me. All I do is worry about her.”

She’s so lucky to have someone like Blane. Someone who is always there for her. But sometimes even that isn’t enough. “And the less you know, the better,” I add. “Do you really wanna have to admit to her that you knew about everything I did when the shit hits the fan?”

“Uh …” He lets out a long breath. “No, I do not. I’d rather her hate you and not me.”

“Then let me do what I need to do and you just continue doing what I tell you to do,” I offer.

He hangs up, and I sigh heavily as I look at myself in the mirror. I am already afraid of how this is gonna blow up. How beautiful she will look when the tears roll down her face. It already makes my chest hurt. You’re investing too much time in her, Case!

But I can’t help it. Have you ever met someone who makes you think the impossible is possible? That’s what she does to me. And the crazy thing is I can’t even explain it. Since I was seventeen, I have been alone. I’m now thirty. That’s thirteen years by myself. Sure, I have Brecken, Miller, and of course, there’s Rachel, but at the end of the day, I’m still alone. Ever since I first saw Taylor, I have wanted her in a way I haven’t wanted another woman before. I wanna know what it’s like for her hands to touch my skin. The way her lips would feel on mine. The way her blue eyes would look up at me as I buried myself so deep in her that everything else just falls away. All the memories. All the heartache. I want to feel something other than fucking nothing.

I close my eyes and sigh heavily as I feel my cock hardening just thinking of her. Maybe Blane is right. Maybe I should just let her go. I have connections all over this town; I can get her a job anywhere she wants and out of this club. Maybe even another club here in town. Just as I thought before—the club isn’t what she needs to be afraid of, I am!

Opening my eyes, I turn around and lean back against the countertop, unable to stare at myself in the mirror. I look down at my hands, and I take a deep breath. The scars show the past that I try to hide. Scars that remind me just how evil I can be.

I have sinned, but I don’t regret that for which I cannot be forgiven.

I am a man who has no shame in a life full of humiliation.

I may hold a woman, but I don’t love them. I fuck them!

I am a man who, when it comes down to it, will lie, cheat, and steal in order to get my way.

I’m shameless.

I’m unforgivable.

I’m a man who takes what he wants. And I want Taylor! I want to know what purity tastes like. I am the devil craving the taste of heaven. Just as an addict craves its next hit, she is becoming my addiction, even though I know she’ll be the one thing to destroy me. Have you ever asked an addict why they need their next hit? That next drink? They will tell you it’s because they want to feel it in their veins. They seek that substance they have become dependent on in order to escape reality. It’s a burning need down deep inside that you cannot control. That’s how I feel about her. I can’t control my thoughts of her.

I take women to my bed and fuck them like there’s no tomorrow. I take Rachel to bed and use her like a fucking cheap whore. I have never made love to a woman because love is not what I want. Is that what Taylor would expect? Does she want me to lay her down and hold her in my arms as she deserves? God, I hope not. What would be the fun in that? Sex is about power. He who can conquer is entitled to the power. And Taylor would be my best trophy. One I could show off to the world.
Look what I got. I was able to get the saint to lie down with the devil.

Fuck, that sounded so sick, but it makes me smile. It would be so fucking sweet.

But if you fuck her, she would be the one with the power because I would be letting my dick control my actions
. And I can do better than that, can’t I?