Cold dread trickles down my spine, making me shiver. He caresses my back with his calloused fingertips. Every so often, his fingers curl around my ribs. I don’t like his hand on my bare flesh, but I’m more afraid if I tell him no. Magna has fucked up many club bitches for much less offenses.
“So what’s up?” I chirp, hiding my unease.
“My dick, for one.”
Oh, God.
I laugh, pretending he’s telling a funny joke. He doesn’t laugh back. Instead, he unhooks my bra.
“Oh, uh…”
His palm slides around to cup my small breast. “Uh, what, Beauty Queen?”
Our eyes meet and his are blazing with challenge. He wants me to argue with him. To fight him. The last girl who fought him got punched in the fucking face. I like my nose and teeth. Which is why I don’t say a word when he pinches my nipple. Or when he starts to unbutton my shorts.
“I’m on my period,” I whisper. A lie that’ll probably get my ass kicked.
“I like blood.”
His finger slides down into my panties, brushing against my clit, making me whimper.
“What the fuck, Hadley? I gas up my bike and come back to you getting fingerfucked by my dad?”
I scramble away from Magna like I’ve been burned. Rather than him beating the shit out of me, he roars with laughter. And even though Milk is pissed, he grabs my wrist and pulls me to him, a possessive wave pulsating from him.
“Your girl was jealous that you were with Juicy,” Magna says, sniffing his finger that was in my panties. “I was helping her manage that anger.”
Milk grabs my jaw, glaring at me. I can smell the tequila and…pussy on his breath. Tears prickle at my eyes—angry tears of course—and I fight the wobble of my bottom lip. Milk—Junior as I call him in the bedroom—was supposed to love me like I’ve loved him since we were kids. While our daddies talked business, we’d jump on my trampoline and play with my rabbits.
“I don’t need help managing my bitch,” Milk says to his dad. “I’m about to manage her real nice.”
Magna’s laughter booms. “Good boy. But if she ever becomes too much to handle, you know I can settle her down with a firm hand and my belt.”
I shudder in Milk’s grip. He releases my jaw to grab my hand. I’m all but dragged out of his dad’s room and past the other rooms in the shitty clubhouse. Hammer’s boisterous laugh should get on my nerves, but I’m too shaken up at the moment.
Milk is never mean.
Not like Magna.
Is he that pissed at me? Like it was my fault!
We make it back to his bedroom and he slings the door shut so loudly, a bunch of shit falls off a bookshelf, crashing to the floor. I open my mouth to argue my case and then it happens. He swings at me. The moment the back of his hand connects with my cheek, I’m knocked off my high heels and fall to the bed. I’m so stunned that he raised a hand at me, all I can do is hold my cheek as tears leak out.
“Fuck!” Milk yells. “Fuck, Hadley, fuck!”
I tremble at his raised voice, curling my legs toward me. Junior was all I had. I left everything and everyone for him. I gave it all up for him.
“Jesus, babe,” he mutters, his voice softening. “Fuck, I’m sorry.” He drops onto the bed behind me and curls a muscular arm around my middle. His nose nuzzles my hair as he whispers more apologies that make me cry. “I was just mad as hell my fucking father had his hands in your shorts.”
I stiffen, hating how alone I feel in his arms. With each passing day here, we grow further apart. He fucks around with Juicy and probably Prissy too, but it was supposed to be just us. It was never supposed to be all this other shit.
“Hey,” he rumbles, moving my hair away from my neck so he can kiss it. “You’re pissed at me. You have every right to be. I’m not like him. It was an accident. I—it just happened, baby. Fuck, you gotta understand that.”
But I don’t understand.
I don’t understand him at all.
His lips are revealing, though. He kisses me in a way that makes me melt at his touch. I feel his apologies. The boy from my youth kisses my neck tenderly—worshiping my flesh. His dick is hard pressed against my ass. I try not to worry over the fact it probably smells like Juicy.
“What do you need from me to make you happy?” he asks, rocking his hips against me, urging me to beg for a make-up fuck.
I’m stubborn, though.
“I need you to hold me and promise me that it’s only me, Junior. Always only me.”
He lets out a frustrated sigh but doesn’t fight me on it. “Yeah, Beauty Queen. Only you.”
His lie smells like Juicy’s pussy.
I wake up in the dark, naked and alone. My body is sore and abused in the good kind of way. I didn’t want to forgive Milk easily, but sometimes he says all the right things at exactly the right time. It was after the third orgasm I decided I forgave him. Love is stronger than a stupid club whore trying to hoe around on my man. We’ll get through this.
Loneliness is a gnawing beast, though.
While I sit here, I wonder where he’s at and who he’s with.
Letting out a heavy sigh, I grab his laptop off the end table, knocking away the condom foils, and pop it open. I ditched my phone when I ran away from home, but I still check in on my social media through a fake profile I used to have when my dad would ground me. It’s been four months since I left home. Dad used to write shit on my wall every day, begging me to come home and making threats. He hasn’t posted anything in weeks.
Silence is worse.
I find Junior’s Facebook and check up on it. It’s mostly pictures of his bike. We have an unspoken agreement that he doesn’t put me in any pictures so my dad doesn’t trace me here. Since Dad and Magna go way back, I don’t think he’s ever considered Magna would betray him by letting me stay. While scrolling, I find that Milk is tagged in one of Juicy’s pictures. Sitting in his lap. The picture is from tonight.
That bitch!
I go to her page and find more of them together. Away from the clubhouse at some shitty dive in town. All over each other tongue fucking. What a scandalous whore!
Instead of sobbing like I want, I decide I’ll bring the monster back out and make him jealous. Then, I’ll deal with that bitch once and for all.
The music from the clubhouse bar is loud. From the sounds of it, while I was sleeping, everyone was partying it up without me. I’m dressed to kill in a pair of tight jeans, high heels, and a fitted crop top. My dark hair is straightened into long, silky strands and my makeup is pageant-worthy. As soon as I walk into the bar, several heads turn my way, including Hammer’s. His grin is wolfish.
“My offer ssstill sssstands, Beauty Queen,” he slurs.
I mock him back. “You’re ssstill a frog, loser.”
His friend Bouncer cackles with laughter. They’re already drunk as hell. I don’t care about those idiots. I’m on a mission to confront Junior and claw Juicy’s fucking eyes out.
“Lookin’ hot, chica,” Molly says, bouncing up to me. She’s higher than a kite and grinning happily at me. Molly is one of the few girls I like around here.
“Thanks. You seen Milk?”