Page 137 of On A Manhunt: Complete Series

MALLORY

“Someone keeps texting you,” Theo commented when my cell chimed from the other room. Again.

I sat on the edge of his bed, reaching down and pulling on my leggings. I’d tangled them earlier, not caring what happened to them in my haste to get naked. We’d had sex two more times–two!–before Theo climbed out of bed and tugged on his boxers.

I knew that was my sign it was time to go. The fact that he said he’d drive me home couldn’t have been any clearer that I wasn’t welcome to linger. That this had been sex and nothing more. Really amazing, insane, unbelievable sex.

Like, why had I held off for so long kind of sex.

Except, I had a feeling it was sex with Theo that made it so hot.

And that I was probably ruined for all other men.

I’d gone from low to no expectations to now insanely high ones that were probably untoppable.

While we’d had sex three times total, the number of orgasms was way higher than that.

I didn’t know I was multi-orgasmic. Or that there were so many different ways to fuck.

Pressed up against the door had been rough.

Wild. Frantic. I’d wanted him in me so bad I hadn’t thought it through.

Hell, I hadn’t thought about much of anything.

He hadn’t been gentle, not that I’d wanted it, filling me completely and really, really fast with a shift of his hips. It didn’t hurt, like in a take-my-virginity sort of way. That had happened and I had a vibrator for practice. But Theo’s dick?

Huge.

And talented. And hit all kinds of spots inside I didn’t know I had. It was doing it with Theo that made it so good. I wanted it to be him. To feel him inside me. For him to take me.

Then again in bed after he’d stripped me bare and pretty much worshiped every inch of me. It’d been good because I was doing all those things with him.

Skill aside, I wasn’t sure if it would have been as good with Tom, the history teacher. He was attractive, but the chemistry, the only I’d ever felt for a man, was shared with Theo.

I didn’t expect to spend the night or anything; this had been completely spontaneous. Hell, if I’d known I’d have gone from yoga to Theo’s front door to his bed, I’d have worn a cuter sports bra. At a minimum.

Of course there hadn’t been sexy lingerie or seduction. It had been… instant need.

One minute we were staring at each other across the small table at Otis’s, the next Theo’s all growly and possessive and slamming me up against his front door.

The need had been soothed. For now. Except there was more than need.

There was want too. I wanted Theo and I was afraid it was for more than just sex.

My phone chimed again from the other room, prompting me that I’d been daydreaming. Although the dull ache between my thighs would be a long-term, real reminder.

“My mother,” I told him. I glanced at him over my shoulder, then stood, tugging my leggings up the rest of the way. I only had on my pants and sports bra at this point. The rest of my clothes were in a pile beside me on the unmade bed.

“That’s nice that you’re close,” he said, pulling on a pair of jeans, sliding up the zipper. Clothed, unclothed, half-clothed, Theo was gorgeous.

“We’re not.”

He stopped in the process of putting on a shirt he just pulled from a dresser. Waited.

“She wants money,” I explained. Cheryl’s behavior was no secret, especially from Bridge. And probably Mav now, too.

“For…”

“For whatever it is this time.” I had no idea what it could be now. Oh yeah, the car repair bill which I never paid.

“What was it last time?” he stuck his head through the hole of his shirt, pulling it down over his torso. A torso I’d licked not twenty minutes earlier.

His hair was a tousled mess. Because of my fingers.

“Rent. Electricity bill. Groceries, although this is probably another car repair.”

I stood and it was my turn to put my shirt on.

Before I pulled it on, I saw him eyeing my chest in my sports bra. Yeah, not remotely sexy.

“Is she okay? And your dad?”

“My dad is fine. I’m sure he’s in his recliner watching some game show right now with his beer and cigarettes. My mother is not okay,” I grumbled, tugging my shirt down. “I mean, relatively speaking. She doesn’t need a doctor or anything. She’s… well, Arlo calls her a moocher.”

“Arlo’s your brother?”

I nodded.

“Does she bother him for money?”

I snagged my sweatshirt and carried it into the other room. I found my shoes and socks by the front door.

“No. She’s his stepmom, so I’m the child to pester.”

“Do you want her to stop?”

I spun and looked at him, leaning against the bedroom doorway. He was earnest in his questions, but they reminded me of Arlo’s same ones.

“Yes. I want her to stop telling me I have to do it because it’s my fault her life is ruined.”

He frowned. “How did you ruin her life?”

“By being born,” I muttered, then dropped onto the edge of the sofa to put my shoes and socks on.

“Wait, wait. What?” He came over and squatted down before me when I didn’t answer, even forced my chin up with his fingers. “What do you mean?”

I sighed. “She reminds me all the time when she got pregnant with me, her chances of being a model were over.”

“You weren’t there when your parents had sex.”

I gave him a weird look, kinda like the one I made right before I threw up, because gross.

“It was her fault,” he added, but I didn’t like thinking about being a fault.

My cell chimed again, and I rolled my eyes.

“Doesn’t matter.”

“My father didn’t give a shit about me or my brothers,” he admitted. “He was an asshole.”

“You don’t take his calls?” I asked.

“He’s dead.” The way he said it, with a flatness of someone who wasn’t the least bit sad about it, revealed more about their father-son relationship than anything else.

All four James brothers were good men. Nice.

Kind. Gentlemen–at least Theo was until he…

wasn’t. I had to wonder what made the guy so hated.

“So no.” I stood, forcing him to stand as well, or fall on his ass. “I’m sorry to hear about your father.”

He shrugged, going to the front door and grabbing his keys from the little side table where he’d dropped them when we came in, all hot and heavy. “I’m not. Ask Mav. Our dad fucked younger women. Like just legal. That messed with Mav over Bridget.”

I imagined.

“With Dex, it turns out the guy would drop him off at hockey practice and go off and fuck some of the moms. Or snack bar workers.”

I wrinkled my nose, thinking of an older guy skeeving on the college girls who worked at the winter complex.

“Silas? Not sure of his issues yet with the guy, but I’m sure they’ll surface one of these days when we drink too much.”

“And you?”

He shrugged. “My father was a narcissist, but he pretty much ignored me. I had it easy.”

Thinking of Cheryl, I wondered if being ignored would be so much better. I’d know where I stood then. Nowhere in her life. “I can’t just cut her off,” I said, switching back to Cheryl.

“Why not? She’s an adult.” His own experiences skewed his perspective. He wouldn’t understand because the situation wasn’t anything like his had been.

“Because… because…” I said again, not wanting to say it aloud.

She was the one person who was supposed to offer unconditional love.

I barely remembered Bridge’s parents before they died, but they’d been awesome.

Then Lindy took over and pretty much raised me and Bridge together since my parents weren’t the greatest. I just…

always hoped I was worth more to Cheryl than just being a piggy bank.

He must have sensed I wasn’t sharing more because he took my hand and pulled me in for a kiss.

A kiss!

I held on to his jacket as he took his time. This wasn’t hurried and it felt more intimate than the sex we just had. As if he was trying to soothe me with his mouth.

It was working. I felt safe with him. Not only was he in tune with me sexually, but he seemed aware of my needs, that I could seek comfort from him.

After some indeterminate time, he led me to his car. Kissing–and talking about our parents–was over. So was our time together.

Ten minutes later, I was well-sexed and opened my apartment door and saw my roommate and her boyfriend… getting well-sexed on the couch.

They came up for air and Maggie covered up her bare chest with one of the throw pillows.

“Mal! Hey!” She smiled and looked only a little embarrassed.

“Hi,” I said, turning toward the kitchen and grabbing a drink from the fridge. I heard them moving around in the other room and a second later, she came into the kitchen.

“Guess what?” she asked, grinning.

“You had an orgasm?”

She laughed. “Well, we were getting there, but this!” She stuck out her hand and showed me a ring. “We’re engaged!”

Nate, Maggie’s boyfriend, came in, slung an arm around her shoulder. He was shirtless and grinning.

I couldn’t help but smile at their happiness.

A weird feeling came over me. Hot and sharp and oppressive, like jealousy and sadness.

These two, fooling around and making out, loving each other, getting engaged.

Then there was me, getting sex three times in a row and dropped off at home right after.

Anyone would have thought that instead of getting naked and lots of big dick from Theo, we’d innocently watched Dex play hockey on TV.

The sex had been intense, but Theo and I shared nothing like what was so blatant between these two.

Love. Affection. A connection that was more than just chemistry.

“Congratulations! I’m so happy for you,” I said. I was. Truly.

“Nate’s living here now. He gave up his place in Havre and–”

I blinked and my stomach dropped. “What? Here?”

Our apartment was small. Two small bedrooms. One even smaller bathroom.

“I got transferred here,” he explained, brushing his hair back from his face. He glanced at Maggie, then kissed the top of her head, as if he couldn’t stop himself.

“Oh, wow. Um. Great.”

“So, yeah, I think that you’ll have to move out because we want to be on our own.”

I knew that was coming next, but wow. Her words weren’t cruel but fueled from a need to be alone with her new fiancé.

The lease was in her name. I’d only taken over a sub-let and now renting a room to help her cover expenses until Mrs. Jonsdottir sold.

I didn’t have a legal standing here, although I didn’t really want to linger living with her if they were going to be all hot and heavy all the time. Which they would be.

Mav and Bridge were. Gag. And I didn’t have to live with them.

Nate nuzzled her neck and Maggie giggled. His hand slid down her back and gave her ass a squeeze.

“Right, I’ll just be in my room.”

I scooted past them and into my bedroom, closed the door. Through the thin wood and walls, I couldn’t miss how they got right back at it. I heard her bedroom door close, thank God, so there’d be two doors between their sexy times and me.

I pulled out my cell, read through Cheryl’s texts which I’d ignored until now.

You didn’t pay the repair bill.

Mallory, answer me.

Don’t be rude to your mother. Pay the bill before the manager of the service center calls you.

Why are you so mean to me?

If I paid for the car repair, it would shut her up. Get her off my back. At least for a little while. And she’d stop saying I was mean. I sighed. I couldn’t win because I couldn’t pay the bill whether I was mean or not.

I hadn’t had much time to think about a lawyer for my court date next week. I could get a public defender, but did they even believe I was innocent? Would he or she care about my fate one way or the other?

I didn’t know lawyers in Las Vegas… but I knew two who might.

Maggie’s headboard started to slam against the wall, breaking me from my thoughts.

Wham. Wham. Wham.

That and now she was crying out–and not in pain–probably a lot like I had earlier.

I dropped my head in my hands and groaned. I couldn’t stay here, couldn’t listen to them hump like rabbits.

I grabbed a bag, stuffed clothes for work into it along with my makeup kit and a few other things, then went to the only place I could think of.

It wasn’t Theo’s. He made it obvious that while I was the woman he wanted to sleep with, I wasn’t sleeping over.

It wasn’t Arlo’s because I was too old for his couch and since he kept late hours with the bar, he’d wake me up, then I’d wake him up in the morning when I got up for school in turn.

It sure as hell wasn’t my parents. Mav and Bridge also fucked like rabbits, so there was only one place left.

Lindy’s empty house. She’d moved to be with Dex in Denver, although she had no intention of selling the place. In fact, she and Dex had said they wanted to settle there after he retired in a few years.

For now, I was now a squatter.