Page 16

Chapter

Sixteen

PIPER

Weeks pass while I’m stuck in the mind-numbing rift of depression. It’s been a while since I’ve been that low for that long, but I think the fog is lifting. I’m not going back on the meds. Nor back to therapy. If I have to discuss what happened to me one more time with a new person, I’d rather stay blitzed by the lack of serotonin. And lose my sex drive or vomit so much I can’t eat for weeks? Nah. I’ll pass.

I know I’ve made progress when I’ve showered and enjoyed it. Not just did it because I finally couldn’t stand my own stink. At least this time, I made it to work every day. Despite Shanna’s incessant criticisms of my performance, I knew it was a feat of strength to get dressed and show up on time. Hell, I even talked to people. Essa doesn’t seem to notice anything off.

And now that I’m feeling better, it’s time to celebrate.

After the library, I head to the liquor store to restock my wine cache. While surfing the aisles for exactly what I need, a group of stacked guys with Greek letters on their hoodies push a cart filled with bottles of beer. One punches another in the fully tattooed arm and his eyes dance over my figure while the first licks his bottom lip. I didn’t think frat boys had tattoos like they just got out of prison, but these guys seem more like bikers than university students.

Speaking of prison… My best friend and her boyfriend broke up. Maybe this is exactly what Essa needs to try out the market. Instead of shirking from their gazes, I bat my lashes and take my time to bend over for the bottle I want on the bottom shelf.

As they pass, they all quiet, except for the one with dark hair and eyes. “Hey. You looking to party?”

I let my pink-stained lips slide into a grin and nod. “Yeah. Sure, what kind of party?”

The other frat boy tosses his arm around the front guy’s shoulder and throws out, “A classy one.” His palm waves to their cart. “We got bottled beer. And kegs coming, too, of course. It’s on Saturday, and we’d love to fill the house with beautiful women.”

“Can I bring my friend?”

One of the guys in the back steps forward. “Is she as hot as you?”

I cross my arms and stick out a hip as I stare each of them down until I can practically hear the blood rushing to their cocks. “Hotter.”

“Yes. Most definitely. Bring whoever you want,” the first guy says. “Even the wine bottle.”

The four of them have red flags practically painted on their faces. They look like eager, dumb wolves ready to tear me apart. I shrug and give them an, “Okay, sure. Where is it?”

“Delta house on Fraternity Row near campus. Can’t miss it.”

Letting them check out my backside, I cast a casual, “See you there,” over my shoulder and saunter to the front of the store. Hurriedly, I text Essa that we’re heading out this weekend. Though she needs something new to wear.

New year, new me. One that fucks frat guys at classy bottled beer parties and forgets about the daddy dick stalking me everywhere I go.

I don’t even know what to do with Adon anymore. His presence is like a constant reminder that I’m broken and not good enough for a man like him, one with a whole life and no big issues blaring to send him into a mental health crisis. Someone who looks out for my well-being better than I can. He’s got good kids, for fuck’s sake. I’m pretty sure that Avery is more mature than me. What would I bring to the table other than a tragedy?

Every gift he’s sent, every moment he sat in the parking lot checking on me, only made me feel worse. Unworthy. And ungrateful.

It’s awful to admit that I have to be a bitch in order to save him from me. While at the same time, if he leaves, my heart will break. Dare I admit how deep my feelings for him are going? No. I can’t or I’ll shatter.

I was hoping that he’d just get bored and go away. But one day when he didn’t show, I had a full-blown panic attack and slept in my bathtub. The fear that he’d actually left me was too overwhelming to think about.

He’s like my Daddy Don guardian angel, always watching out for me wherever I go. I need him, and I hate to admit that, but there he is. He should leave if he knows what’s good for him. Instead of encouraging that, as I leave the store, my eyes find his truck near the back of the parking lot as he waits for me.

Adon probably thinks I don’t know he’s there, but somehow, he always is. It’s comforting, albeit creepy and obsessive, but I’ll take it for now. As I place the bottle of wine in my passenger seat and glance back to the loud calls and laughs of the guys behind me, I wonder what he’ll do if he catches me at a college party.

Maybe it’s time to draw him out of the shadows.

Saturday night, I don my lime green sequined jumpsuit and spike up my hair a bit. Essa finally listened to me and wears a cherry-printed dress I helped pick out for her. She even let me do her makeup after my own for the night.

Once we arrive and manage to squeak inside, she resists me pulling her arm through the crowd of Deltas as we snake toward the kitchen where the booze is, but I give her an excited grin to encourage her forward.

The bass resounds through my chest, making talking almost impossible, but as soon as we get to the line, a familiar curvy ass stands right in front of where I want to go. Tarin’s dark brown hair waves as she swivels her hips in time to the music, her tiny red skirt barely containing the bottoms of her plump cheeks.

“What’s a girl like you doing at a party like this?” I ask, sliding my arms around her waist and pressing my lips against her ear.

She jumps and turns her head until her ruby red lips almost graze mine. “Piper! What are you doing here?”

“I was invited. Seems like fun. Want to have some fun?”

The heaving breaths of alcohol she wafts at me with a giggle let me know she’s ready for a good time. Her eyelids look heavy, and the whites of her eyes are a crispy pink. Oh, yeah. She started a long time ago.

She bends forward, pressing her generous rump into my waist and fills a second red Solo cup with spiked punch, then refills her own. After handing me the sweating plastic cup, she taps mine with hers and says, “Bottoms up!”

We eye each other as we tip our cups and empty them, but I’m only pretending. It’s like I’m supposed to flirt with her, so that’s what I’m doing. Maybe another drink will make me feel it. Feel something , anything other than numb.

I can’t take another day of not being real.

So, I smile and flutter my lashes, and slip my hand into hers, then grab another drink. Essa seems preoccupied with a cute guy, so I lead Tarin into the dining room where the music is louder. It’s what Piper would do. By the time we get there, the buzz from overly sugary punch is already taking effect.

With the closeness of the bodies surrounding us and loud music, my vision blurs in time with beats playing through speakers nearby. We try to make room to dance, but it’s so packed, we can barely move. “Hang on! I got an idea!” I mouth over her ear so she can hear me better.

Shoving the last game of flip cup out of the way, I jump onto the dining room table and kick beers off as I do while the crowd around us cheers me on. I hold out my hand for Tarin, who shakes her head, but gives me a broad smile, then takes it. Once I’ve pulled her up so we’re both on top of the table, I lift my cup in victory as the music rises to a crescendo. The frat boys around us holler louder, and we dance for them seductively, all eyes on the two of us.

Tarin downs her cup and I mine, then we’re handed two more. And maybe another after that, I’m not entirely sure. All I know is I’m feeling good and free. Piper is here, and she loves to party, enjoys the attention and all the lights sparkling off my sequins.

“Piper!” Essa snags the bottom of my pants, and I lean down to kiss her cheek.

“Hey, girl!”

“Have you been drinking? How are we getting home?”

Fuck. I forgot. The boy behind her is standing close and this innocent woman needs to expand her horizons to more than Eli, despite the porn star cocks the Griffin brothers seem to have. “Oops! Sorry, Essa! I think I’ll be here longer than I thought. Are you not having fun?”

I spin on a heel and grab Tarin by the waist to pull her close. Calling out to the crowd, I yell, “Who wants to see us kiss?”

The boys hoot louder as I grip her ass with one hand and hold my cup high in the other. Leaning forward, I catch a glimpse of a formidable figure just entering the front door and freeze.

My heart stops for a full beat.

Everyone must think we’re kissing already because of how close we are and how riotously they cheer, but I’m stuck in one position as Tarin pulls back and gives me a weird grin. “What’s wrong?”

Penetrating deep chocolate eyes glare at me as Adon makes his way through the shorter partygoers surrounding us.

Panic grips my chest until I can’t breathe. “M-my daddy’s here.”

Tarin’s eyes widen as she glances around the room, and students part like the sea as the grumpy, oversized man skirts through everyone, then promptly grabs my thighs and tosses me over his shoulder. I hold in a smirk. My little plan worked.

“Hey, man…” one brave kid tries to protest, but Adon literally growls at him and keeps moving through the crowd of university students.

I give them a wave and smile behind Adon’s back. “Bye! Thanks for the party! See y’all!” A scream is forced from my belly when Adon smacks my ass hard.

“No, you won’t.”

His demanding tone makes me giddy.

When he thrusts me into his truck and slams the door behind me, I’m raring for a good fight. He jumps in and turns to me with a look that demands an answer.

I cross my arms, quirking an eyebrow. “What? I can’t party now? We’re not together, remember? Why are you here? What are you doing?—”

He grips my cheeks and shoves his mouth over mine in a searing kiss of passion. There’s no chance I can win the battle of his tongue against mine. He’s so forceful, formidable, especially when he drags me across the space and plops me on his lap. Heat flares across my body as he settles me on the firm thickness poking through his pants.

My fingers delve toward his jeans and undo his belt as his hips jerk up to meet my spread thighs. Hurriedly, I work to undo the zipper and groan down his throat. The short hairs of his mustache tickle my nose in a way I hadn’t realized how much I missed until just now. His manly scent causes a flood between my legs.

One of his palms crawls up my bare back and grips my neck and our lips are broken with a pop. “What I should have said to you is that, yes, we fucking are, Rosy. We are together. You understand?”

Rolling my bottom lip under my teeth, I nod rapidly, his declaration making my stomach twist in a knot. Does he mean it?

His fingers grip my hair tighter, and I wail, my head falling back as he grits out, “Say it. Say the words out loud.”

“We’re together?”

He spanks the side of my thigh, but it’s not hard, just a warning. “No more of this shit. No playing around or being with other people. You got that?” As if he’s been thinking seriously about this for a long time, his eyes harden as he continues. “I won’t stand for it, Piper. I don’t deserve it. You’re my little girl now, and I’m your daddy. Say it. Say that you’re mine.”

“I’m yours, daddy.”

His chest rumbles with a song of satisfaction as he captures my lips again with his. “Fuck yes you are.”

It hits me. All at once. Do I really belong with him? Adon’s never really let me go, but will he when he finds out just how broken I am?

I writhe against his full length as I pull it out and his hands rub against my sequined outfit. “What the fuck is this thing? I’m ripping it.”

“Wait, no! It’s vintage.”

His head hits the back of his seat as he tries to calm himself down, but I take the opportunity to slip between his open knees under the steering wheel. “What are you doing?” Even though he asks the question, his thumb strokes my cheek like he knows exactly what I’m doing.

I give him a wink and lick the tip of his reddened crown.

“Baby…” He breathes heavily, as if he’s going to protest, but then grips the base of his dick with his forefinger and thumb. “Put your mouth around me.”

With a smirk, I do, and he responds with a high-pitched whimper. I guess he hasn’t had this done in a while.

Through gritted teeth, he gazes at me as I try to give him sultry eyes. “Fuck! I’m not going to last long.”

That confirms it. Something about him waiting for me, not being with anyone else, stokes the embers of desire I have for him to a raging fire. My tongue swivels the divot beneath the tip of his thick cock, and I plunge down as far as I can to take him, but his dick is so wide, I can barely fit a few inches in without straining.

“Relax your jaw, there, Rosy. Let me help.” I drop my mouth wide open, and he grips my cheeks before fucking my face. The trail of black hair on his lower abs scratches the tip of my nose with every scoop of his hips into me, but I hold still for him to use.

“Look at me.”

My eyes crawl up his broad body to greet his hungry eyes.

“How does it feel to suck your daddy’s big dick, little girl?”

I moan something around his granite length, and he shoves in deep and holds himself there as I choke around him.

“What was that? Hum it. It makes my balls want to explode.”

With as much as he can fit in my little mouth, he throbs against my tongue while I mutter all the nasty things I want to say to him. His head kicks back again as his chest is pulled forward. “Fuck, Rosy! Here it comes. You gonna swallow me down?”

Nodding, tears weep from my eyes as he releases with a strangled roar, filling my mouth, the taste of him an aphrodisiac on its own. “Let me see. Open wide and stick out your tongue.”

I do just as he says until he seems high and satisfied at the sight of his thick cum painting the inside of me. “Good. Now close and swallow it all.”

While I obey, he strokes my face with his thumb and gazes at me with a look of reverence and follows it with a husky, “Good girl.”

My ass wiggles at the compliment.

“Sit in your seat and put on your seatbelt.”

I manage to slide out from under him and climb over the center console, but the alcohol has really taken effect, so it’s more like falling over onto the cushiony interior. “Where are we going?”

“First to your place to feed Freckles and get you a bag. Then you’re coming home with me.” He starts the truck, and I think I would feel more uneasy about his proposal if I weren’t so dizzy, but I nod as he pulls out from the street. “Tomorrow, when you’re sober, I’m fucking you until you come three times. Once on my fingers, once on my face, and once on my cock.”

My eyebrows raise as I settle back with a small smile coating my lips. But he’s not finished. His hand slides across the space to grab mine, and he squeezes it until I drift into a swirly slumber of contentment.

“Then, I’m taking you on our first date.”