I had Adriana. Adriana, who for whatever reason hated me. Adriana, who took her stepmom job seriously. Her conniving, manipulative ways stayed wrapped in a pretty box for all the world to see what a great job she was doing with me.
Once I realized I was pulling into my own drive at the beach and not Adriana’s, I shifted my jaw. I always tensed up, clenched my jaw, and gritted my teeth when I thought about that time of my life.
The clean lemony smell told me the cleaning lady had been there. After handing my tip money to Carl for being a good driver and not talking to me, I set out toward the section of huts, dialing Sam’s number over and over. Why the hell wasn’t he answering?
“Oh my god! I thought you were dead. Why aren’t you answering me,” I yelled, seeing Sam open the door in basketball shorts and tee. He wasn’t alone. Oh my god! Sam had a girl there. Wait. Did I care? I was forced to take a step back when Sam slid out the crack of the door, closing it behind him.
“Hey, you’re back,” Sam nonchalantly said.
“Yeah… You would know that if you answered your phone.”
“I lost it.”
“You lost it?” I repeated the lie. He was avoiding me and he was a liar.
“Yeah, three four days ago. I think I left it on the seat of a roller coaster. Let’s walk,” Sam said, pulling my elbow. “You look nice.” He smiled over at me, leading me away from his house, his house where SHE was inside.
“You know I really don’t care if you have a chick in there,” I assured Sam with a bit of an attitude and a thumb toward his hut.
He laughed at me. “How was your trip?”
“You would know if you answered your phone.”
“I swear, I lost my phone. I just got the new one in the mail from my warranty claim like twenty minutes ago.”
“Did you fuck her?”
“Fuck who?”
“Whoever you’re walking me away from.”
“Really, Kendra? Did you fuck Garrison while you were gone?”
“That’s not fair.”
Sam stopped me, spinning me to face him. I hadn’t even realized I was stomping. Why was I so mad about being with someone else? I didn’t care whom he was with. “Am I missing something here?”
Groaning, I kept walking. I couldn’t answer that. He was right. I had no right to be mad at him for anything. “Are you available tonight, or are you too busy with some summer beach bunny?”
“Beach bunny?” Sam smirked. He was laughing at me. Humph, I’m glad my feelings are so funny to him. Dammit. What the hell was wrong with me?
“Are you available or not?”
“Yes. Do you want to go eat barbeque or something later?”
“Sure,” I nonchalantly answered.
“Great, I’ve got to get back. I’ll pick you up at your place at seven, on foot,” he added. “What?” Sam asked, seeing the expression and my eyes drifting to his lips. “You want to kiss me, don’t you?”
“You’re an ass. I’ll see you later,” I said, stomping away. Flipping my hair, I shot him a dirty look when I heard the laugh. Ass. I left the baby shower early for this. I couldn’t wait to get back here to be with Sam and he was too busy entertaining some slut.
Two hours. What the hell was I going to do for two hours? I needed to keep my mind off the sensations between my legs. Wanting to save the orgasm I desperately needed for Sam, I tried to read on my deck. A girl’s own sex shouldn’t have caused so much conviction. Just swaying my leg back and forth set upon a chain of reactions that I was having a very difficult time not reacting to.
I noticed I had new neighbors again for the third time since I had been there. There was only one guy. No family. Hmmm. I pondered, staring to the neighboring deck in thought.
Rubbing my inner thigh, I saw the black satin peek from the leg of my shorts. My fingers slid to the silk all on their own and my pussy reacted with a noticeable wetness and a crazy throb. I guess I could just have a tiny orgasm, I thought, running my fingers through the elastic. Oh, boy…There was no stopping now. I loved the way my slippery wet slit felt when my fingers slid through them. My aching nub was euphoric, welcoming my fingers with a throbbing swell.
“You couldn’t wait for me?” Sam said from the top step.
Jesus. He could have been anyone. I have to stop doing this in public. My hand quickly moved and I stood, giving him a dirty look. What an ass.
“I wasn’t doing that, and what are you doing here? It’s only five thirty.”
“I got away early…” He shrugged. “…and you’re a liar. I’ve been watching you for ten minutes. Come inside.”
You come inside, I wanted to say. I stepped in front of Sam, making sure he saw the unsatisfied expression. He didn’t care. I tried to turn and ask him what the hell he wanted when I was suddenly spun to the door with his lips on mine. I don’t even remember my shorts being removed, his erection being released, or his lips on my nipples.
This was one of my aspirations. I wanted a man to throw me against a door just like this and lift me to his waist. Locking my ankles behind him, I rocked up and down on his glorious shaft while his fingers twisted my nipples and his lips sucked and kissed on my neck. The first orgasm was maybe the fourth stroke, the second one was possibly five minutes. Sam and I both looked down at our convergence. He held my hips with his hands and took care of the rocking until he slid out and deposited his load between us. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. Pressing my body to his, his substance coated our stomachs, gluing us together even more.
“You made a mess.” He smiled. “I missed you.”
Breathing a deep breath of something that I was sure would hurt, I lowered my legs. “You can’t miss me. We don’t have that kind of relationship. What did you mean you got away early? Got away from what?” I asked, rubbing his substance around my stomach with my fingers. I couldn’t help it. I loved the feel of his come on me, in me, and anywhere he wanted to leave it.
“You broke the contract. You’re not allowed to touch yourself, remember?” Sam pointed out.
“Contract? The one we haven’t followed at all, not since day one? That one? Maybe you should spank me.”
“Maybe I will. Let’s go shower,” Sam suggested, taking me in his arms with a kiss again. “Forget the contract. I don’t need it if you don’t. As long as I’m getting my money and you’re happy, we’re good.”
I knew Sam didn’t mean it the way I took it, but it hurt a little. He was worried about his money. I was nothing more than fifteen thousand dollars to him, not that I expected anything else. I don’t know what I expected or what I thought. I mean, I just told him he wasn’t allowed to miss me, now I was upset that he just wanted money. What the hell was going on with my mind?
Sam and I showered together and the light-hearted mood returned after I made him bring me to another orgasm with his tongue. It didn’t take long, the sight of me splitting myself with my hips thrust toward his face in the mirror was over-the-top erotic. The sight and feel corresponding together did a number on my overactive clit. I came for the third time with Sam’s hands on my ass and his tongue in my split. I needed an everyday Sam for the rest of my life.
I hinted around a few more times over the next couple days about who Sam had at his place, but then dropped it once I realized he was just going to keep derailing my nosey request. Sam took me to my first amusement park ever that week. My dad, Adriana, Katie, and Paris went to Disney World for a week once. I didn’t go. That was the week I stayed with my mother. Even at that age, I knew it was planned that way. Adriana knew I wouldn’t give up the chance to spend the week with my mom for her and Mickey Mouse. She didn’t want me there. It was for my dad’s new family, not me, and she made sure she told me so.
Right after that was when I decided I was going to kill them. All of them. I thought about it while riding in the very back of the SUV the day Adriana picked me up from my mom’s. She wanted to come to New York to shop. Lucky me had to ride back home with t
hem without my dad.
I climbed in the very back. Katie always got shotgun, and Paris didn’t want to sit by a sewer rat. I watched out the window while my mother explained our week. I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but I had a feeling she was ratting me out, not on purpose. She was trying to help, let Adriana know that I was feeling left out.
I was riding in the very back by myself. Adriana and my sisters were discussing all the fun they had on their family vacation while she drove downtown to all the stores. She could have left me at my mom’s until she was done shopping, but that would have made too much sense. I sat in the hot car while she and her cunt-face daughters shopped. She wouldn’t even talk to me.
I remember holding my mouth up to the small one-inch crack she left me while they ate at some fancy restaurant. I may have died had I not had that small opening to breathe fresh air. Not only did they have food and I did not, Adriana went through an ice cream shop drive-through and ordered them all milkshakes once they had spent the entire day shopping in New York. I don’t think I ever wanted anything more in my whole life. One sip of the strawberry milkshake was all I could think about.
That’s when I started to concoct my plan. I just watched it on an episode of Crime Scene Investigation. The guy almost got away with murder and a very hefty life insurance policy. The explosion that killed his wife and three kids were thought to have been an accident. The guy would have gotten away with it had a girlfriend not come forward with the incriminating evidence. She knew about it, but when the boyfriend split with half a million dollars, she came forward. The house literally exploded, and had the guy not been greedy and stupid, he would have gotten away with it. I wouldn’t be stupid about it. I could get away with it.
“Are you going, or not?” Sam asked, pushing me from behind. “You okay?” he asked when I turned to look at him. I shook it off and moved two whole steps. This was ridiculous.
“Isn’t there a VIP entrance where we can go to the front of the line?” I asked.
“No. People like us don’t have VIP access. We’ll wait like everyone else.”
“I’m tired of waiting. We’ve been in this line for thirty minutes,” I whined. I didn’t even want to ride a rollercoaster. Sam didn’t give me a choice. After he goosed me in the ribs, called me a baby, and kissed me in public, like really kissed me, I stopped complaining and waited another hour. Me. Kendra Ashby, waited in line for an hour and a half for an amusement park ride. Who would have thought?
Freddy’s Claw was the craziest thing I have ever done in my life. The roller coaster sent a surge of excited adrenaline pumping through my veins like I had never felt—ever. I don’t even know how to explain it. I was terrified yet exhilarated, maybe even a little bit of a coaster junky. Sam was the one that told me no more, he was famished and was going to pass out if we didn’t eat soon. I talked him into one more ride because the line wasn’t too bad, and then we ate the best pulled-pork sandwiches in the entire world.
I shouldn’t be this happy. I shouldn’t have been staring after him like I was, touching him, holding his hand, leaning into him so he would wrap his arm around my waist, and I shouldn’t have been more excited about the soft purple mouse he won for me than I was for my Porsche. I loved the dumb stuffed animal more than any other possession I owned. What did that say for me? Of all things, it just had to be a mouse.
Sam and I said goodbye on Friday morning, July third. He had family coming and I had Garrison, Angelica, her two snobby teens, Porsha Briggs, her husband, their ten-year-old twins, and some guy I didn’t even know, a newbie in Garrison’s company, coming. At least Penelope Wright backed out. Her pregnancy was getting the best of her, and she needed to stay home and be pampered. Thank god. His parents weren’t able to come, either. They were doing some church thing.
“I would rather spend the weekend with your peeps,” I told Sam, dropping my robe.
He smiled and placed his hands over his head while I crawled up his damp body with my own, still wet from the shower. I didn’t stop, I kept going until my pussy was just above his mouth. What better way to say goodbye?
Sam bid my farewell in style. He was a-fucking-mazing down there. Hmm. Aahh. “SAM!?” I froze above him, just when things were getting good.
“What?” he asked when I jumped off him.
“Garrison just walked in. I heard the alarm beep.”
“Shit, Kendra. My shit is downstairs. I thought you said he wasn’t coming until the afternoon.”
“That’s what he said,” I replied, grabbing what things he had upstairs. His flip-flops were the only things downstairs. Maybe Garrison wouldn’t see them. “Go to the balcony until I tell you it’s clear.”
“Kendra?” we heard, the voice coming closer.
“I’m going to kill you,” Sam assured me, ducking out the door just in time.
“Whose shoes are downstairs?”
He noticed. “Yours. I bought them for you for tomorrow.”
“They’re flip-flops. I don’t wear things between my toes. Why are you naked? Put something on,” Garrison said, turning his eyes away from my naked body. I forgot I was naked with all the excitement.
“I just got out of the shower,” I said, grabbing my robe from the floor. Jesus Christ. My heart was beating out of my chest. “I thought you weren’t coming until later,” I questioned. I hated the way Garrison covered his eyes with his fingers until he knew I was covered. Sam made sure I knew where his eyes were when I was naked in front of him.
“I just needed to step away from this case, relax a little. Is everything all set for our guests? The guests’ rooms ready? Penelope and Steve have decided to come after all, she’s feeling better.”
“Great,” I said, unable to hide the sarcasm. “Yes the rooms are ready. I had the maid fix up your office for the boys, and the den is ready for the girls.”
“I need my office.”
“You just said you needed a break from work, and I’m sure they’ll only be in there at night to sleep. It’s only two days, Garrison.”
“Fine, I’m going to shower and then we’ll get some breakfast. Is the maid coming to clean this room? And what is that smell? Get someone here to clean this room.”
You mean the sex smell? I wanted to ask, trying to hide the grin. “Yeah, she’s coming today. Go shower. I’m hungry.”
I grabbed Sam and pulled him through the room as soon as I heard the shower. “Hurry!”
“You gave him my shoes?”
“Shhh, I’ll buy you another pair. I’ll buy you five pairs, just get the hell—Olivia!” I said, freezing on the stairs about halfway down. My eyes darted to Sam with his jeans unbuttoned and his shirt halfway over his head. Damn he looked good. What? No. Wait a minute. Jesus, what the hell was happening?
“Oh, uh, hi,” Olivia stumbled, trying to make a real word.
“What are you doing here?”
“Garrison wanted me to come help you over the weekend.”
“I see. Oh, this is. Um. This is…” I couldn’t seem to make a word, either. How the hell was I supposed to introduce Sam? This is Sam. I’m paying him to fuck me; we have a contract. No. That wouldn’t work.
“Hi, I was just leaving,” Sam said, giving me a look. He didn’t want his name thrown out there.
“Sam, the shoes?” I questioned, slipping the name anyway. Shit.
“Yeah, right,” he said, getting the hell out of there faster than I’d ever seen him move.
I dropped to the couch and let out a breath of I didn’t know what. My posture stiffened and my eyes went wide to Olivia. Shit. Olivia.
“Don’t worry. My eyes didn’t see anything you don’t deserve and my lips are sealed.” Olivia smiled. “I’m going to make coffee, want some?” She was smirking. Olivia was smirking at me like she was amused. Oh brother. Slumping back to the sofa, I covered my eyes and let out that breath of whatever again. Holy shit. What just happened here?
Garrison and I left shortly after. Breakfast was the only time he
would eat at The Strip. His stupid theory was we had a better chance of not getting germs that time of day, fewer people were out. Not few enough. I watched Sam walking toward our table with a group of adults and a few younger kids. He stared right at me and I held his gaze while Garrison talked about our friends coming later on. The smile was automatic as soon as Sam winked at me.
“I’m going to get some orange juice. Do you want something?”
“You just drank orange juice,” Garrison pointed out the fact.
Yeah, I know. I just chugged it so I could walk to the counter with Sam.
“I know. I want another one. Do you want anything?”
“No,” Garrison replied, taking the call about the work he needed the break from.
Sam’s eyes told me not to say anything I shouldn’t say when they shifted to the kids next to him. “You want the slosh?” he asked the two little girls.
“No. Pancakes,” the girl around eight or so replied, texting on her phone. It made me think about my own cell phone as a child, not that young though. It was Christmas and I was ten. All three of us girls got cell phones, except mine said not activated as soon as I opened it. Adriana smiled, smoothed my hair, and asked me if I liked it. Of course, I said yes. I was trained well on what to say and what not to say around my dad.
“I got it. Why don’t you take your phone texting back to the table with your aunt.” Sam nodded toward the mom, high-fiving the brother that was trying to do the break dance moves a couple weeks before. The girls walked back to the woman, the oldest one with her thumbs going crazy on her screen.
“Nice shoes,” I teased.
“Yeah, I just bought them down the street there. I paid twelve bucks for these two-dollar things. They’ll probably break before I make it back to the hut. I’m still going to kill you.”