Just Fall (The Fall Series) (2 page)

Mary
finally approached the elephant in the room. “We’re so sorry about your dad.”

I
tried to swallow the lump that instantly formed in my throat. “Yes, thank you.
And thank you for the thoughtful letter and flowers, too.”

“We
meant what we said, Lo.” Mary’s voice was soft and full of motherly concern.
“Tom and I will always be here for you.”

They
must have heard that Evelyn inherited a share of The Grand, and I knew they
felt responsible. They brought her here the summer after my mom died, and at
the time she was married to one of Tom’s partners in the investment firm—I
think he was husband number three, but that didn’t stop her from going after my
dad. Tom and Mary had no way of knowing what a mess this would turn out to be.
I knew they would never do anything to hurt me, and I didn’t blame them for it.

I
lied, “Everything’s fine really.”

Just
then I felt Parker’s eyes on me.
Just what I need- for him to see a sign of
weakness! “
Well, I’m going to go change my clothes. I’ll be back to join
you in a bit.” I needed to get out of there quick. I started walking toward the
staircase without giving Mary a chance to throw up another road block, but halfway
up I heard her voice calling over my shoulder.

“Hurry
back, Lo. We’ll be right here waiting for you.”

ROOM WITH A VIEW

At
twenty-five-years-old I was living a life most men only dreamed about. My
career as a professional poker player took me to exotic places and afforded me
exotic food and exotic women. I’ve tried everything once, some things hundreds
of times, but never a woman-no matter how hot she was or how good between the
sheets, or in the hot tub, or on the balcony…you get the idea. One night stands
were my cardinal rule.

I
know. I know. You’re thinking I’m some kind of despicable pig who uses women
then carelessly tosses them out like yesterday’s newspaper, but believe me, the
type of women I choose already know the score. Whether they like it fast and
rough or slow and sensual, when it’s over it’s over. No future plans, no late
night phone calls, no drama, no bullshit. Judge me if you will, but this
lifestyle was working pretty well for me. Little did I know that one phone call
was about to change everything…

Neon
light spilled through the windows illuminating the pair of perfectly shaped
breasts bouncing inches from my face. The sounds and smells of raw sex
permeated the air in the master bedroom of my penthouse suite as I watched Lexi’s
face contort in pleasure welcoming each thrust of my rock hard cock. Lost in
the sensation as she rode me hard, gripping me expertly in her slippery warmth,
I barely noticed Ashley’s nipple brushing against my cheek as the mattress
jerked violently beneath us. I turned and caught the hard little peak between
my teeth making her moan and squirm, and a smile stretched across my lips.

I
was nursing a badly bruised ego, after an unexpected loss at my last
tournament, and my appetite for sex was at an unprecedented high, even for me. The
three of us had been going at it for hours, and it seemed even these two insatiable
beauties couldn’t wear me out. I became painfully aware that things would need
to get a lot more interesting for me to find my release tonight.

Lexi’s
high pitched screams were quickly followed by her hot cunt contracting wildly
around me. I grabbed her hips and thrust faster as she screamed, begging me to
fuck her harder before her body finally went rigid, and she collapsed against
my chest. She barely recovered before Ashley was trying to claim her position,
but I had something else in mind. I freed myself gently from the weight of
their bodies, noticing the disappointed pout on Ashley’s face, and ordered her
to kneel down in front of me and straddle Lexi’s face in a sixty-nine position-the
ultimate visual stimulation. I watched over Ashley’s shoulder, fervently
stroking my cock as they pleasured each other. When the licking and moaning
reached a fever pitch, I slammed relentlessly into the hot waiting pussy in
front of me, not slowing down until it milked the last drops of cum from my trembling
body.

Exhausted,
I dropped onto the nearest pillow and collapsed, but oddly enough, sleep didn’t
come as easily as I’d hoped. Instead my mind was racing, trying to understand
why lately the sex wasn’t quite as fulfilling as it was in the past. I mean the
women were hot as hell, and the pleasure was mind-blowing, but it seemed like
something was missing, like each time I needed a little more to feel as good as
I did the time before. Even after I was completely spent, I still wasn’t
satisfied. It didn’t make sense, and if I let myself get too hung up on it,
something like this could really fuck with my head.

I
told myself it was
just temporary.
Probably the result of letting that
rookie whip my ass at the table last week, and I was already working hard to
make sure that didn’t happen again. Thanks to modern technology, I spent the
last two days studying the footage from the final tables. I learned his tells,
and realized my own fatal mistakes. The next tournament would be in Vegas, my turf,
and I would be ready for him.

My
eyes blinked open slowly, trying to adjust to the sunlight pouring through the
windows overlooking the Vegas strip, and I could hear the faint sound of my
phone ringing from somewhere in the room. Any other time it would take a lot
more than a phone call to pry me from the arms of two lovely naked bodies like
these, but I had a strange feeling this could be important, so I climbed
carefully out of bed to find out.

“Parker!
You sound tired. I hope I didn’t wake you, dear. What time zone are you in?”

I’d
never felt dirtier than I did standing there, listening to the sound of Aunt
Mary’s sweet voice as my eyes watched the scene taking place in the middle of
my bed. I took one last peek at Lexi’s attempt to wake Ashley using only her
tongue before I shut the door behind me and reluctantly walked into the other
room. How could something be so wrong and so right at the same time?

“Hi,
Aunt Mary! What a surprise!”
If she only knew.
“You’re fine. I’m in
Vegas for two weeks, so I’ve been up for a while now.”
Nearly all night as a
matter-of-fact.

“Oh,
good, well I’m glad you’re stateside. Uncle Tom and I want you to come north
with us for the weekend to visit The Grandview Inn. Our chauffeur had to leave
for a family emergency, and your uncle doesn’t like to drive that far alone
anymore. I know this probably sounds silly. Surely, we could hire another
driver temporarily, but you know, I couldn’t help but think of all the good
memories we made at The Grand over the years. Oh, Parker, it would mean so much
to us if you could come.”

Fuck!
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!

Remember
when I said my instincts told me to answer the phone? Until now I’d considered
them finely tuned, sharpened even, from my experience at the poker table, but
in this case they’d failed me miserably. I mean The Grandview Inn? Really? That
was the last place on earth I wanted to go. Remember my cardinal rule? Yeah,
well that’s where it all began.

 
How
can I get out of this? Think, think…

“Listen,
Aunt Mary, as much as I’d like to…” That was as far as I got. The woman had a
way with words, and I had a hard time saying no to her. By the end of the
conversation it was settled. I was going to Michigan.

As
I stood there naked, the phone still in my hand, I heard noises coming from my
bedroom.
I should be in the middle of that right now.
Before that phone
call I would’ve been, before my mind went back to The Grand and all the
memories of her started flooding my brain.

She
was the first girl I ever loved. Hell, she was the only girl I ever loved. I
could still picture her bright hazel eyes with ribbons of orange scattered
through them. I’ve never seen eyes like hers before. They would glare at me
with sexy determination over something I said or did, and sometimes I would do
things on purpose just to see her look at me that way. She could always see
right through me. She was beautiful, smart, funny and incredibly complicated.
Wonder
what she’s like now?

I
was eighteen the last time I saw her. If she only knew how she ruled my world
back then, how many nights I spent lying awake thinking about her, or how many
times I challenged her just to see her fiery spirit come to life. Not to
mention how many hours I spent with dirty magazines trying to relieve my pent
up and painfully unfulfilled desire for her.

But
like I said, I was only eighteen. I didn’t know how to deal with what she did
to me. So instead I provoked her, teased her and tormented her until she pretty
much hated my guts. It was my defense mechanism, my survival instinct I guess
you could say. Not the best strategy I’ll admit, but the only one I could think
of at the time.

Sometimes
it was worth it. I mean, seeing her so frustrated, so confident. Fuck! It was a
turn-on. She would get this look on her face, and I didn’t know whether she
wanted to punch me or rip my clothes off and fulfill all my secret fantasies,
and I was willing to take either. Anything to put me out of my misery. I’ve
never met another woman like her. She stood up to me, challenged me right back,
and sometimes she won. Other times I let her win.

Like
the time I bet I could swim to shore faster than her. We dove off the boat at
the same time, and when I surfaced her bikini top was floating on the water.
She was so determined to beat me she didn’t even notice she’d lost it.

That’s
when I got the brilliant idea to let her get ahead. I’ll never forget the sight
of her standing on the beach with her hands on her hips waiting for me. Her
chest was heaving with every breath. Strands of her long blonde hair stuck to
her face and dripped down her tan body. Her nipples were fully extended from
the cold water and adrenaline. She had me so worked up I had to stay in the
water for an hour waiting for my hard-on to go down.

Seven
years later the thought of her had the same effect on me, but only now it was
mixed with regret. Everything changed that summer her mom got sick, and I
decided I would never see her again. Maybe I was a coward, or I was just too
young and immature to realize what she meant to me, but knowing that her mom was
dying, knowing there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to save her from the pain,
was more than I could take. So instead of facing her, I didn’t go to Michigan.
In fact, I never went back, and I convinced myself she was better off without
me.

The
regret still gets to me from time to time, but until now I’d managed to block
it out, justify it even, and my lifestyle made it easy, but facing her meant
facing my biggest fear, the one thing that could take a man down in one fatal
blow. The “L” word. You see, my childhood left no doubt that there was no such
thing as happily ever after. Well, maybe in some rare instances like Uncle Tom
and Aunt Mary, but they were one in a million. I realized at a very young age
that there was a difference between love and sex, and I when I got older I
decided I could easily have one without the other. This imaginary yet very real
line I drew was my safety zone, and I stayed well within the boundaries. I
occupied myself with things that were fast and furious like gambling, travel,
women, and cars. I had no complaints, especially when it came to women. They
were in endless supply, and my bed was never empty unless I was focused on a
tournament.

And
the sex. My intense need for sex concerned me at times. Could I ever be
monogamous? Would I be satisfied? My sexual appetite was unconventional at best
and not just in frequency. I craved the variety that seemed to accompany my
lifestyle, so I decided a long time ago that I was better off alone, and nothing’s
going to change that, not even Lauren St. John. I’m overanalyzing I know, but much
like poker, there were too many unknown variables in this equation, and I had
to be careful.

One
thing’s for sure, every woman I’ve been with only confirmed what I already knew
from the moment I met her. She was the real deal. The total package. She didn’t
care about my looks, my last name or even my money. She wouldn’t take my shit
or anyone else’s. It was hard to believe that in just two short days I would
see her again. It scared the hell out of me.

Maybe
she was happily married to Mr. Safe and Responsible. Hell, maybe she even had a
couple kids by now. But what if she wasn’t? Would it even matter?

The
best I could hope for was that she’d forgive and forget. And maybe, just maybe,
she’d want to go a few rounds in bed to make up for old times. Fuck! Just
thinking about giving Lo a little tour of my world had my cock raging. Would
she give me a run for my money or just run away disgusted? I was about to find
out, and either way I knew I was in for one hell of a ride. But for now she was
2000 miles away, and I had two hot women right in the other room who were more
than happy to share…