Aligned: Volume 3 (15 page)

“Mmm ...” I groan at the feel of my sensitive flesh. I squirm underneath him needing attention down there as well before I explode from just his touch on my bare breasts.
 

He pushes his hard cock between my legs as he continues flicking my nipple with his tongue, making it hard to focus on anything but the sensation. I can feel his hard cock as he rubs it against me, sending liquid pouring out of me. Soaking my panties and begging him to enter me.
 

But the material between us is preventing that from happening. I grab at his pants needing them off. Now. He gets the hint and stands to pull them off as I get my own pants off. Needing to feel good. Needing the release.
 

Ethan’s eyes travel down to my prosthetic leg. I can see his uncertainty form in his eyes. He has no idea what he needs to do with it, and I’m not ready to take it off in front of him.

“Come here,” I say, wiggling my finger at him to come to me.
 

He obliges letting thoughts of my prosthetic leg drift from his mind as he move back on top of me. I feel his hard cock settle between my legs as he kisses me hard.
 

I take his bottom lip into my mouth and bite down, encouraging his blood to fill my mouth.

“Ow,” he says pulling away from me.
 

“Sorry, I want more. I want you to be rough with me,” I say.
 

He shakes his head. “I don’t think that is a good idea. I remember how you like it. Trust me.” He wipes the trickle of blood from his lip and moves to my neck. Every kiss there sends chills all over my body.
 

I close my eyes and just let him take over. I trust him just like he asked. His hand moves to my clit. His fingers move in slow torturous circles.
 

I groan at the wondrous sensation. The sensation quickly overtakes me, as I go higher and higher to where I can’t take much more if he keeps this up.
 

His hard cock pushes at my entrance, testing to see if I’m ready for him.
 

“Fuck me,” I groan, needing him inside me when I come.
 

He pushes inside in one quick motion, stretching and filling me. He doesn’t move as he kisses me hard on the lips while waiting for me to adjust. It doesn’t take long to adjust to his cock, not after having Land...
 

He thrusts back and forth, as he rubs up against my clit. It distracts me easily from my thoughts.
 

“Oh, Alexa. You feel so good,” Ethan moans as he thrusts again, picking up a steady rhythm that is bringing us both to the brink of climax.
 

“Yes,” is all I can say being so close.
 

He thrusts again as his thumb finds my clit. I moan my release as I clench around him.
 

Ethan thrusts again and again, plunging into me and finally coming before collapsing on top of me. Both of us stay collapsed on the bed barely moving for several minutes. My mind is too fuzzy to compute what just happened.
 

“That was incredible,” Ethan says kissing me softly on the lips before heading to the bathroom to clean himself up.
 

I stay in bed. I stare at the white ceiling while I slowly process what just happened. I just had sex with Ethan, with my husband, but I feel
dirty
. I feel like a whore who just cheated on her spouse.
But I didn’t.
I just had sex with my spouse. That’s the way it is supposed to be.
 

It felt good. It felt incredibly good to finally have a release, but it was missing something. Missing roughness, fire. Missing the sweet mixture of pleasure and pain. Missing Landon.
 

Please stay with me.
 

Please give me back my love.

Please don’t give up now.

Arms and legs tangling with mine wake me from a deep sleep. The room spins as I open my eyes revealing a hotel room I don’t remember. I press my fingers to my forehead trying to stop the pounding that I know accompanies drinking too much alcohol.

I’ve woken up too many times this year just like this. With a pounding headache. A nauseous stomach. Sensitivity to light. All the regular symptoms swarm over my body, but one thing is different. A woman is draped over my naked body.
 

Shit! What the hell did I do last night? I remove the woman’s arms from my body, but I can’t see her face because her head is buried beneath the covers. I step out of bed and find my boxers lying on the floor. I slip them on and walk around the bed. Bracing myself for what I’ll find.
Please be Caroline. Please be Caroline. Don’t let it be a stripper.
 

I yank the covers off the woman. Caroline. Just Caroline. I sigh. I should be happy, but I think a tiny part of me was hoping it was Alex instead of Caroline naked in my bed. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happened. We had sex. We must have.
 

I walk out of the bedroom hoping to find a bottle of water somewhere in this hotel room. Once out of the bedroom, I find a small living space with a kitchenette. I walk to the fridge, open it, and find a couple of bottles of water. I open the first, chugging it quickly while I try to figure out what happened. I grab a second bottle and walk to the living room trying to figure out what time it is when I see Drew snoring on the couch.
 

“Hey, wake up,” I say poking him with my water bottle before sitting on the chair next to the couch he is lying on.
 

“What?” Drew asks opening his eyes slightly. When he sees he’s in a strange hotel room, he pops up. He immediately regrets the decision as he grabs his own head. He must be hungover too.
 

“You hungover?” I ask.
 

“Yeah ... you?”
 

“Yeah. Do you remember what happened last night? How did we end up in this hotel room?”
 

Drew shakes his head. “I met you guys at the second after party and then everything is fuzzy after that. I can’t believe we drank ... again.”
 

“It gets worse ...”
 

“What is worse than us drinking and waking up in a strange place?”
 

“Morning,” Caroline says as she walks into the living room and sits in the only vacant chair. She has a thin sheet wrapped around her body, but it doesn’t hide her hard nipples from pressing against the fabric.

“Good morning. Do you remember what happened last night? How we ended up in this hotel?” I ask, while keeping my eyes focused on hers instead of her chest.

“No,” she says, but I watch her eyes meet Drew’s. They exchange glances, and I watch as Drew’s eyes grow wide with realization.
 

“What happened?” I ask directing my question to Drew.
 

“Nothing, I don’t remember,” Drew says. He stands and grabs a t-shirt from a pile on the floor. He puts it on along with his dress pants over his boxers.
 

“I’ll order us some breakfast. It’s obvious we all got drunk after the party. We were too drunk to drive home and ended up sleeping it off here. Nothing else happened,” Drew says, staring intently at Caroline.
 

Drew walks to the hotel phone in the bedroom and begins ordering room service.
 

“What happened?” I try again with Caroline.

“I got you both drunk at the party. People were taking pictures of you and Drew without a drink. So you drank to stop any rumors from spreading. We came back here. We had sex. Drew slept on the couch. That was it.”
 

“Then what was that going on between you and Drew.”
 

“We just want to protect you. You keep getting drunk and we want to make sure nothing happened that you would regret. That’s all.”
 

Drew comes back into the living room. “Breakfast will be up shortly.” We both watch as he takes a seat back on the couch, none of us saying a word.
 

“We should talk about when we want to have the wedding. I’m meeting with a wedding planner this afternoon,” Caroline says as Drew shifts awkwardly on the couch.
 

“Whenever and whatever you want. I already told you that. Just check with Drew to make sure it fits in my schedule.”
 

Caroline’s eyes flicker to Drew’s before connecting back with me. “But you don’t care how soon? If I plan the wedding for next week, next month, or next year? You don’t care if we get married in LA or Jamaica or somewhere cold like Alaska?”

“No, I don’t care. Whatever you want.”
 

“Okay,” she says hesitantly. Completely out of character for her. Usually, she would be demanding complete control of the wedding plans and not asking for permission.
 

“I’m going to go shower,” I say as I get up from my chair leaving Caroline and Drew alone. I close the bedroom door and lean up against it, listening.

“We have to tell him,” Drew says in a hushed breath. “I can’t keep a secret like this from him.”
 

“No ...”

“But ... he deserves to know.”
 

“No, he doesn’t. It’s my decision to make. So drop it.”

The voices turn quieter, barely audible now. I have no idea what the hell they are talking about. I close my eyes trying to remember what happened last night. There was alcohol and dancing and paparazzi. But nothing registers after that. I have no memories of what happened after we left the last party. Nothing.
 

My thoughts go to Alex. This is how she feels every day. Not being able to remember her past no matter how desperately she tries. But instead of only forgetting one night, she can’t remember a lifetime of memories.
 

I walk to the bathroom and turn on the shower. I undress before stepping into the lukewarm water that hasn’t had a chance to warm up yet. I will probably never find out whatever happened. And I don’t care as long as it doesn’t hurt Alex. I already feel like I betrayed Alex by sleeping with Caroline. Although, Alex thinks I’ve been sleeping with Caroline the whole time. What I did last night didn’t hurt Alex, it just destroyed me. I don’t want to know Caroline’s secret. I just want to find a way to survive without destroying any more of myself.
 

We dance freely to a fast-paced song. Her dancing isn’t bad, but I wouldn’t call it good either. Free is what I would call it. She dances freely as if no one else is watching. I try to match her moves, but mostly, I just watch her as she draws me further under her spell.

We walk into Alexa’s towering condo building. The modern building gives off a cold, uncaring vibe that is so unlike our warm, charming apartment building in NY. I don’t understand why she would choose to live in a building like this.
 

I watch her eyes searching the lobby. They dart back toward the entrance and then focus on the small crowd of people waiting to take the elevators up. I have no idea what she is looking for. A friend maybe? A neighbor? Does she feel unsafe? I have no idea.
 

I try to sense what she is feeling, but I don’t sense anything. Nothing is coming from her. Not excitement, anxiety, joy, fear. Nothing. I don’t know what she is hiding, but it’s something. Something she has locked deep inside that I need to find. I will find out what it is she is hiding. I will find it.
 

We enter the elevator, and I watch as she hesitates over the buttons before selecting the eighth floor. She couldn’t have forgotten which floor she lived on. She hasn’t been gone from here for more than a couple of weeks.
 

The ride up is quick giving me no time to contemplate what is going through Alexa’s mind. When the doors open, Alexa leads the way to her condo a few doors down. She sucks in a breath as she unlocks the door and pushes it open. I follow her into her condo and find a tiny place full of cheap furniture. It doesn’t look elegant or inviting at all. It doesn’t look anything like our classically designed apartment in NY.
 

“What do you think?” Alexa asks as she puts her purse on the kitchen countertop.
 

“How did you manage to live here for six months? It’s so small.”
 

She frowns at me, but I can’t do anything but stare wide-eyed at the tiny place trying to wrap my mind around the fact that Alexa chose this place to live instead of a mansion that she could have afforded. She chose
this
tiny place. It doesn’t make sense to me.
 

“At least, it won’t take us long to unpack,” I say trying to bring a small smile to her face. Any brightness will do.
 

She nods, but her frown stays. “All of the furniture is rented. We just need to pack up my clothes and a few kitchen items.”
 

“Good.” I walk into her bedroom, hoping to see something grandeur in there that would help me understand why she chose this place. I find a small, simple bed instead. Next to the bed sits a small nightstand with a lock on the drawer. I sit down on the edge and watch her walk into the condo. She’s wearing her ugly sweatpants and t-shirt again while I’m dressed in a suit. Alexa argued that we were flying private and she wanted to be comfortable. I gave in and let her wear it. There are bigger battles to fight, like buying a house in LA, convincing her to work for Mother, and convincing her to have kids. So I didn’t fight, but I will.
 

“We will have lots of time for other things,” I say winking at her standing in the doorway. I don’t expect her to want to do much. She’s exhausted from the flight and lack of sleep. We also haven’t had sex since that one incredible night. I know she enjoyed herself, but something still holds her back from giving herself to me fully.

She laughs quietly before sitting on the bed next to me. I wrap my arms around her body and lean in to kiss her firmly on the lips. I slip my tongue in begging her for more. She quickly brushes me off, putting a stop to anything that might happen.