Worth the Chance (9 page)

“Yeah? What do you want from my mother,
friend
.”

The guy still sitting slaps his hand on his knee. “Holy shit. You’re Vince Stone, the fighter, aren’t you?” He seems pleased with himself for the discovery.

I completely ignore his question. He still hasn’t answered mine and I feel my adrenaline start pumping up, readying me for a fight. “I’ve asked nicely twice, now I’m starting to lose my patience. Who the fuck are you and what do you want from my mother?”

“We’re looking for a friend of your mother’s…who has something that belongs to us.”

I look to my right and then to my left with dramatic emphasis. “I don’t see anyone else here…so get the fuck out.”

The guy still sitting chuckles and stands. I watch as he lifts his hand to his waist and pats what’s tucked into the band, silently letting me know that my fists are no match for his fire power. He motions to the other guy with his head toward the door and the two make their way to the exit. The one carrying stops before he walks out and turns back to me. “Listen, I’ve seen you fight. Got a lot of respect for you, man. Love to see a local kid make it big time. It’s a shame it’s gonna go down like this. But your mother there,” his chin points back in her direction, “she’s got two weeks to come up with our cash or our stash,” he pauses, “or find that dirtbag Jason she vouched for. Otherwise we’re coming back. And all the muscle in the world you got ain’t gonna help her.”

Chapter 16

Liv

“I was just about to check if you were still breathing in there. How much longer do you really think I can hold out for details?” Ally doesn’t even wait until both my feet are through my bedroom door before starting in on me.

“Coffee,” I grunt in response. There will be absolutely no talking before I get at least a loading dose of caffeine in my body. Ally isn’t deterred by my grumpy response. Instead she plants herself up on the kitchen counter, directly across from the coffee pot where I lethargically prepare the antidote to my slumber.

“I waited up till two and you still weren’t home, so I’m guessing your date with the sexy beast went well?”

“Sexy beast? I thought he was just the beast?”

“That was in high school, when he broke your achy breaky heart. I forgive him now. I mean who wouldn’t? That man is a sexy beast.”

“You forgive him? You haven’t spoken to him since high school. Exactly what has he done to earn your forgiveness?”

“He took off his shirt for that picture in the paper this morning.” Ally wiggles her eyebrows suggestively and motions to the newspaper lying on the kitchen table. It’s open to an advertisement for Vinny’s, actually, Vince “The Invincible” Stone’s, upcoming fight. Except for the date and time, there’s little writing, yet I can’t seem to stop staring at the picture.

“You can take it back to your room and use it for inspiration later,” Ally teases, a wide grin on her face. “I want details first.” My best friend folds her arms over her chest. Clearly she isn’t going to go away quietly.

Walking past her with the paper still clenched in my hand, I grab my coffee and make my way into the living room. Ally follows closely behind.

“I don’t know, Ally.” I let out an exasperated sigh. It’s not for effect while telling my story, I truly feel conflicted. “When I’m around him, it’s so easy to feel like I can fall for him again. Like we could pick up right where we left off, almost as if he didn’t walk away one day and forget I ever existed. It scares me how easy it was for him to leave.”

“Maybe it wasn’t as easy as you’ve thought all these years, Liv. Did you ask him?”

“I did. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t help myself…I needed to know how it was so easy for him, when it was so, so hard for me.”

“And what did he say?”

“He told me what I wanted to hear.”

“Which is what? Different from the truth?”

“I don’t know, Ally. I’m afraid to believe it’s the truth. That I can trust him. That maybe we could pick up where we left off. Or better yet, start over. As adults.”

“Guess you have to decide. Is he worth the chance? The chance that maybe if you let him in, he’ll stay this time?”

***

I’m in a fog as I run through all of my weekend errands. My mind keeps finding its way back to Vinny at every turn. At the gym for my spin class, I think about the smooth lines of his muscular, carved abdomen stretching as he led the class through a series of kicks yesterday. At the dry cleaner, a nice looking man in an expensive suit smiles at me and attempts to strike up a conversation. But my mind only thinks about how much better Vinny would look in the three thousand dollar Armani the handsome man is sporting. All roads just seem to lead my mind back to one place.

I stop by the bookstore after my last errand. There’s nothing better to clear my mind than spending a few hours perusing the aisles and sipping a caramel latte from the in-store coffee bar. I pick up a few novels I’ve been meaning to check out. Flipping a few pages into the first chapter of one, I begin to read, attempting to decide which book I’ll be spending the evening with.

His thick, throbbing erection slips past my opening, landing on my aching clit. A low moan escapes me in a deep throaty breath and it fuels my lover’s desire.
With a growl, he rears back and thrusts into me, filling me deeply in one heavenly plunge.
Oh my, and I’m only on page six. I’m thinking I may have found my newest purchase, my date for tonight, when my phone rings, bringing me back from a place I was just beginning to enjoy.

“Hey.” Just hearing Vinny’s deep voice makes me smile

“Hi.”

“Are you home?” he asks.

“No, I’m at the bookstore.”

“Looking for something for work?”

“Actually no. I was just trying to decide on a good book to snuggle up with tonight.”

“What kind of book?”

“Ummm…romance.”

“Snuggle up with me instead tonight.”

I laugh because he’s teasing, but something in his tone tells me it’s also a real invitation. “But I was so looking forward to reading my smut tonight.”

“Smut? Bring it, you can read it to me. We can act out the scenes.”

Suddenly, my throat goes dry. Visions of Vinny acting out the short scene I was just reading makes my head spin and my hormones get the best of me.

“Liv.”

It takes me a minute to snap out of my daze and respond. “Yeah, I’m here.”

“Buy the book that’s in your hand right now.”

“How do you know there’s a book in my hand right now?”

Vinny chuckles. “What’s it called?”

“Ummm.” Shit, couldn’t I pick up something with a less telling title.
His Thick Heat.
“
I don’t have a book in my hand,” I lie.

“Buy the book, Liv.”

“You’re insane, you know that?”

“So I’ve been told. Buy the book, Liv. I’ll pick you up at seven.”

“But…”

“No buts. Seven, Liv…with the book.”

And then he’s gone.

Chapter 17

Vinny – 7 years earlier

The last few weeks we’ve spent more time fooling around than working on English. Only in this subject, I’m the tutor and Liv’s the student. The hottest little student I’ve ever seen. And a damn fast learner too. It’s been hell taking it slow. All I want to do is be inside her, and she wants it too, I can see it in the way her eyes glaze over when I slide my fingers into her. She’s so tight and hot, and her body responds perfectly to my every touch. And she makes this little sound that drives me crazy. I doubt she even realizes she’s doing it. A sound that’s a cross between a moan and a purr, and I’m afraid I might explode if I ever hear it with my dick inside her.

It’s almost nine and the park is empty, just the two of us rolling around on the blanket under our tree. Ever since that night when I made her kiss me, things just keep going further, moving faster each night. More just isn’t enough. Tonight it’s hot and heavy, both of us grinding against each other desperately through our clothes. Dry humping Liv feels better than the real thing has with any of the slutty girls I’ve been with. I reach down between us, finding her magic spot through her shorts and rub small circles, the way I know makes her feel good. She’s not a talker, but her body tells me everything I need to know.

As she’s about to come, I cover her mouth with mine. She tries to pull her tongue away as it takes her over, but I force her to keep kissing me. The sound of her moan being stifled by me makes me fucking insane. It’s the hottest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. If she were anyone else, I’d have taken her four different ways and been done with her by now. Only she’s not just anyone. She’s sweet little Liv, and every once in a while I let myself pretend I’m the good guy she thinks I am.

As she comes down from her orgasm, she reaches for me and somehow her hand is down my pants and squeezing me at the base before I can stop her. The feel of her soft little hand wrapping around my thick throbbing cock makes my control slip. Then I feel the heat of her mouth at my ear and I fucking lose it when I hear her say, “Please Vinny, I want you.”

Screw it. I’m done being good. Less than two minutes later, both our clothes are off and I’m just about to get what I’ve been waiting so patiently for. My cock lined up perfectly at her opening, she looks up at me and our eyes meet. Her big hazel eyes are wide and filled with emotion, but that’s not what I see that scares the living shit out of me. I see trust. She’s giving me all of hers and I don’t fucking deserve it. Not for a minute. God knows what it will do to her when I screw things up. And it won’t take long either. Nothing good ever lasts.

So I close my eyes, I fucking want her so badly that my body aches, but I can’t look into those big eyes when I rob her of what she’s about to give me freely. Only closing them doesn’t help…I still see her, even though my eyes are pressed shut. A picture so vivid stares at me that it takes a second to be sure I’m not actually looking at her anymore. So I try to stop thinking, squeezing my eyes shut so hard that I’m sure my face looks like I’m in pain. But it doesn’t work to erase the god damn picture of her sweet, innocent, trusting face in my head. Not at fucking all. A few more seconds pass, my body beginning to shake as I keep myself steady, so ready to enter her, but unable to move.

“Fuuuuuckk!” I jump up as I growl, my roar so loud it echoes in the quiet, hands frantically wrenching at my hair, mind racing, trying to figure out what the fuck I am doing. Shit. Shit. Shit. I can’t fucking do it to her.

“What’s wrong?” Liv’s voice is hesitant. I must be a scary sight, yet she reaches for me without fear.

Jerking my arm away from her reach, I can tell that I’ve scared her, but I can’t let her touch me. Need to get the fuck away from her before I change my mind. “Get dressed.” My voice is cold and distant.

“What?” She’s confused.

“Get dressed, Liv. I’m taking you home.”

Neither of us says a word the whole drive back to her house. I pretend I don’t see her tears as she tries to hide wiping them away.

***

For the next two weeks, I avoid looking in Liv’s direction when I catch sight of her in the cafeteria. Today as I walk in, I see Missy to the left and Liv to the right, so I decide to find a new table to sit at. I take a seat next to Evan Marco and some of his football team buddies. He’s full of himself, but not a bad guy. A bit too Biffy for my taste. Daddy’s got deep pockets, makes him think he’s got value. Nothing life won’t eventually smack him in the face with and teach him a lesson. They’re in a heated debate about the point system to some game it sounds like they’ve been playing together for a while.

“The only way Evan or Kyle have a shot at winning this thing is to bag a virgin at prom. Ryan’s got five points on both of you from his two on one with the two blondes from the bonfire the other night.” Caleb Andrews has a little notebook with pages upon pages of markings and notes he’s studying as he speaks to his friends.

“Speaking of which, did anyone verify the Ryan twofer?” Evan throws out to his friends.

“Yeah, man. I fucking saw it with my own eyes. He had one giving him head and was making out with the other with his hand up her skirt. Wanted to burn my eyes out when I got a good look at his little pin dick,” Caleb laughs as he speaks.

“You guys keeping tabs on getting laid?” I smile, why wasn’t I in on this action. This sounds like one organized sport I would have actually joined at this crap school.

“Don’t even think about it Stonetti. We wouldn’t let you in giving a hundred point handicap, pretty boy. Chicks love the whole trouble thing you got going on.” Caleb is only half joking when he speaks.

“So who’s winning?”

“Well as of now, Ryan. But he’s got no more chances to earn. Banging a virgin at prom is a premium, but he’s taking Laurelyn, so that’s definitely out,” he laughs.

“So Evan and Kyle are taking virgins and can pull off an upset?”

“Yep. This is gonna go down to the last night of the damn contest.”

“What’s the winner get?” I’m thinking a long term game like this has gotta have big stakes.

Evan smiles. “A dollar.”

“A dollar? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“We’re in it for the game bro, not the cash.”

“Whatever you say man, but both would be nicer in my book.” The bell rings and we all stand. I find Liv and watch as she walks out the door before I even attempt to move in her direction. “Who’s your prom date, Evan?”

“Olivia Michaels.”

Chapter 18

Liv

I’ve taken the book in and out of my bag at least ten times by the time the buzzer rings right at seven. It’s currently hidden in the bottom of my bag, but if he takes more than thirty seconds to get up to my floor, I’m pretty sure it won’t be in there by the time he knocks.

I hear Ally open the door, but I stay in my room a few more minutes to compose myself. Eventually, I hold my breath and force myself out of hiding and make my way into the living room.

Ally is standing in the kitchen pouring a glass of wine while Vinny sits on a stool at the breakfast nook. He turns and stands as I walk into the room, leaving Ally talking to the back of his head.