Locked (9 page)

What the fuck? No, it’s something. Or…is it nothing?

* * *

Light streams through the front window and covers my face. It’s fucking painful. My mouth is dry as the desert. All I can think about is how bad I want water. My stomach burns and my throat feels like someone made me swallow sandpaper.

Bits and pieces of what happened last night come to me. Hannah’s betrayal. Drinking twenty-one shots. Vomiting on Summer. Reece on top of me.
Coming.

The only remorse I have is what happened with Reece. I shouldn’t have involved her in my shit. And that is exactly what my life is right now. Shit.

It’s a mystery to me why Reece hooked up with me. I’ve been nothing but a dick to her. She has to realize that. My thought is that she feels bad for me. It was a rough night.

Yeah, let’s go with that.

I glance at the chair where she is supposed to be sleeping. Instead, I see her dad. He’s just staring at me. I suppose this is the part where I get my ass handed to me for hooking up with his daughter.

“Feeling better?” Mark asks.

“I guess I should feel a hell of a lot worse,” I answer carefully.

“You can thank Reece for that. She made sure that you took the hangover cure I made for you.”

“I’ll be sure to do that.” I stand up hoping to make a quick exit. “Thanks for all of your help. I have to get going.” The last thing I need is for Mark to know I was feeling up on his daughter.

“It’s Thanksgiving Caydon. Your mom is on her way over with fresh clothes for you. We’re all going to have dinner together. Sit your ass down.”

“Great. You told my mom. I can’t wait to hear her fucking mouth.” I don’t mean to be disrespectful. I love my mom but she nags. It’s the whole reason why I moved out when I was nineteen years old. She still treats me like I’m nine years old.

“Watch it, Caydon. She worries about you. Lucky for you, Reece helped you last night or else who knows what may have happened. Twenty-one shots, Caydon? Really?”

I shouldn’t make waves. Like I said, I know Mark can break me into fifty pieces. “I’m twenty-one years old, Mark. What the hell did my mom expect I would do last night?”

Mark throws his hands up. “Dude, I get it. All I’m saying is give your mom a break when she gets here. Say you’re sorry. Tell her it won’t happen again. Let her enjoy the holiday.”

I nod my head in agreement.

I really don’t want to stay here for dinner. It’s going to be a shit show. My mom is going to be pissed for making a horrible impression on her new boyfriend. There’s going to be tension between Reece and me. And I’m fucking hung over.

“You want to take a shower? Your mom should be here in a few minutes. I left the toothbrush you used on the sink.”

“Yeah, alright. Sounds good.”

My body feels like a truck ran over it. I’m nauseous and hungry at the same time. My head feels like it was hit by a two by four. I want to crawl to the bathroom. So far, I’ve got nothing to be thankful for.

As I’m walking down the hallway, Reece exits the bathroom wearing only a towel. Only. A. Fucking. Towel. Her wet hair hangs down her back. There’s not even a hint of makeup on that natural beauty.

Our eyes meet. She looks like she wants to run but I can tell that she can’t move. Neither can I.

My eyes rake her over starting at the base of her feet and working all the way up. Holy shit. She’s a fucking masterpiece. All I can think about is how my fingers felt between her legs. Instantly, I go hard. And I’m pretty sure my mouth is hanging open. I have to say something.

“I need a shower.”
What? Motherf__________

She wraps the towel tighter around her body. This is not the same girl that was bucking against my dick last night. Then again, I’m not ‘happy-go-lucky’ Caydon either. “Everything you need should be in the bathroom. Let me know if you need something.”

I need you…in the shower…naked…with…me.

“Okay.”

This is going to be the coldest shower I have ever taken in my life.

* * *

My mom arrives shortly after I get out of the shower. Reese and her dad disappear into the kitchen to start cooking, leaving my mom and me alone in the living room. She’s definitely not happy with me. I should give a fuck. I just…don’t.

“Caydon, do you realize how embarrassing this is?”

I decide to take Mark’s advice. It’s easier to apologize instead of hearing her go on and on. “Sorry.”

“Sorry? You’re sorry?” My mom sounds worse than she did before.
Epic fail. Thanks Mark for the shitty advice.

“Mom, it was an accident. It’s a rite of passage. Everyone does it when they turn twenty-one. Why should I be any different?”

My mom has a pensive expression drawn upon her face. “Because. You’re the only thing I have in my life, Caydon. You won't understand until you have a child of your own. Promise me that you won’t do something that stupid again.” She touches my face. “Let’s just have a nice dinner.”

“Yeah, about that. I just want to go home and sleep, Mom. You and I can have dinner tomorrow.” I don’t need to be tempted by Reece the entire time I’m eating dinner. I could be eating stuffing and thinking about how much I want to stuff Reece with my dick.

“You’re staying Caydon.” Mark walks up to my mom and begins to rub her shoulders.

I let out a sarcastic laugh. “You’re not my dad.”

Mark matches my laugh. “You’re right. I’m not. It’s Thanksgiving and you should spend it with family. Your mom is your family. Doesn’t she mean anything to you?”

Fuck. I see the look in her eyes. She desperately wants this. Am I really going to be the asshole son who ruins this for her?

Dammit.

“Fine. I’ll stay.” I grab my jacket. “I’m going out to grab a smoke.” I almost run to the front door.

Fucking awesome.
Now, I have to act like the perfect son for the entire day. I have to pretend I didn’t try to fuck Mark’s daughter.

Oh, but I did.

Mark’s a guy just like me. He’ll pick up on the sexual tension. I’ll be fucking toast.

The door slams behind me. My mom huffs in disappointment. I don’t know why. She got her fucking wish. Here I am.

I breathe in the cold, crisp air. I’m starting to feel fucking human again. The air feels good. The past twenty-four hours were like walking into the fucking twilight zone.

There are holes in what I remember from last night. I remember getting sucked off by Summer and then trying to return the favor. Yeah, that didn’t work out. By fooling around with Summer, I tried to drown out the ache of Hannah’s rejection. Instead, every time I dove down between her legs, I heard the words I’ve always thought about myself. Pitiful. Loser. Failure. Unworthy. That’s what made me vomit all over her.

Then there is Reece.
What the fuck is that all about?
I had her all wrong, too. She comes from a broken family. Just like me. Even though I am an asshole to her, she still helped me.

What are you up to, Reece?

She could be playing me. But she doesn’t seem like the type of girl to waste her time.
Or is she?
I doubt a girl who looks like that and still has her cherry in tact would let me finger her. She strikes me as the type of girl who is waiting for “the one”. I’ve never been “the one” for any girl.

My pity party is trashed once Reece’s dad joins me on the porch. “If you come to give me another lecture, save it.” I flick my cigarette off the front step. “What you are going to say, I’ve probably already said to myself.”

“Can I bum a smoke?” he asks.

I hand him a stoke and light it as he sucks in the smoke. He blows the smoke out and smiles. “Damn, that feels good.” Then, he takes another drag. “I haven’t had one in about ten years.”

I know it’s a stupid question, but I ask anyway. “Why’d you quit?”

“A girl. Boxing. Trying to clean up my act. All of the above.”

I nod and enjoy the quiet. It doesn’t last too long.

“I was like you once.”

Here we go. I love this part. My mom’s boyfriends try to ‘relate’ to me. They try to get in my head so they can get in her pants. “I thought we’ve covered this earlier. You’re not my dad. We’re not going to bond just because you’re banging my mom.”

“How about we bond over the fact that I had to take care of you last night like you were a fucking toddler? You couldn’t walk, talk, or shower by yourself. Do you think Reece did all that by herself?”
Fuck. I forgot about that. “I thought I already said thanks.”

“What’s with the chip on your shoulder? Is it the cheating girlfriend? Is it where you live? Is it what you do for a living? Is it the absent father?”

It’s all of it.

“They can all eat shit.” I try to act tough.

“For the record, I don’t need to ‘bond’ with anyone to get a piece of ass. Watch your mouth when it comes to your mom. I’ve known her since we were in high school. We’re friends first before anything else.”

“So? What’s in this for you?”

“Not a damn thing, Caydon. I recognize anger when I see it. Hell, before I took up boxing, I beat the shit out of anything and everything in front of me. Boxing allows me to control the anger. Harness the anger. I see anger in you.”

All right. He’s got me. I’m angry.
So fucking what?
“You still haven’t answered my question. Why do you fucking care?”

“I was fifteen years old when I had Reece. Fifteen. I thought my life was over. Christ, I was a baby myself. But the anger was there before Reece was born.” He pauses. “Reece’s mom was from the lakeside of town. I was the downtown kid that got into fights all of the time. She chased after me day after day. I stayed away from her because she wasn’t my kind. Girls from the lakeside dated guys like me for one reason and one reason only. To piss their fathers off. Reece’s mom always had to take it a step further. One night, after a fight, I found her under the bleachers of my school’s football field with no underwear and a twelve pack of Natty Light.

Mark laughs at himself. “I could have walked away. But, instead, we got drunk off of our asses and I lost my virginity. It was one of the best nights of my life. Looking back on my relationship with Reece’s mom, I can see why I was drawn to her. She could have had anyone she wanted. But she wanted me. She chose me.”

Yeah, I know the feeling. “So, what happened? Obviously, she had Reece.”

“Right after Reece was born, her mom’s true colors came out. She wanted nothing to do with Reece. Reece’s grandparents could have well afforded to give Reece a nice life and help out. They refused. Reece’s mom set out to disgrace her parents. She succeeded. She had a baby out of wedlock, at fifteen, with a street punk. They were so embarrassed; they moved her mom to Florida. She left my kid and me. What the hell was I supposed to do? My mom took care of Reece because I didn’t know the first thing about having a kid.”

He was left behind too. Poor bastard. “So, you were a fifteen-year-old single dad? That sucks.”

“Yeah. She used me, and I didn’t know it at the time. I know it now. But for years, I struggled with pent-up rage. It didn’t help that she was in and out of my life for ten years. She visited twice a year...to see Reece.”

Mark shares the entire history of what happened to Reece. I feel like such a dick for giving her a hard time. The girl has been through more shit than deserved.

“So how do you deal with it?” I ask.

“What?”

“The rage.”

He rakes his fingers through his black, cropped hair. “I fight. However, I fight legit now. There’s no need to go looking for a fight anymore. Now, it’s scheduled. I train for it. I’m focused. Nothing feels better than letting your emotions out on a heavy bag.”

“Boxing,” I state. It’s not a question.

“You interested?”

“Maybe.”

“You let me know if and when you are ready.” He slaps me on the back. “Let’s go inside and watch some football. My brother should be here with his family shortly.”

As I follow Mark inside, I think to myself, he’s a good guy. I hope he’ll be good for my mom. She needs a guy that will take care of her.

My anxiety peaks when I see Reece. I watch her bend over placing snacks on the coffee table.
If she would just stay in that position…

Fuck. I can’t have thoughts like this. I have to spend the entire fucking day with her. If I keep looking at her like this, I’ll have a hard-on all damn day.

“Caydon? Can I get you something to eat?” she asks, acting like the perfect host.

Why? Why? Why? Why would you ask that question, you little vixen?

I’m hungry now. My stomach aches for food. “Yeah, I could eat.” Mark and my mom settle down on the couch to watch the football game. “I’ll come and help you in the kitchen.”

I follow Reece to the kitchen. She immediately begins to wait on me. I recall Mark’s story. Reece has been taking care of people her whole life. Making me something to eat is like second nature to her. I take the knife from her hand and take over spreading the mayo on the bread. “I’ll do it. Thanks.”

“Can I get you something to drink?” she asks.

“Reece, I’m a big boy. I got it. Sit down.”

She doesn’t. Damn her. Instead, she begins preparing something else for our dinner. I drop the knife down on the counter. From behind her, I wrap my arms around her waist and take her hands allowing her to drop the utensil that was in her hand.

“Relax,” I whisper in her ear.

I feel her shiver and touch the goose bumps on her arm. I fucking love how her body reacts to my touch. Already I become stiff and involuntarily I push myself against her backside. She sucks in her breath. “How are you feeling now?”

“If you are trying to make me relax, pushing your dick into me isn’t going to do the trick, Caydon.”

Feisty. Spicy. Challenge accepted.

“Tell me, Reece. What will do the trick? I’ve got the trick if you got the treat.” My lips are so close to her ear. They curl around my words.

Spinning around, she grips the countertop. My arms enclose around her, confining her to the space. Damn, she’s nervous as hell.

“Please, stop. Last night was an accident. You were drunk and upset over Hannah. I wanted to make you feel better. It wasn’t an invitation for you to fuck me and leave me. I’m not Summer.”