The Art of Marrying Your Enemy (The Richmond Brothers #2)

37. Daisy

37

DAISY

“ O kay,” Reese said, blowing out a breath when I opened the door to the house for her. “You can’t call someone, tell them you’ve been locked up in a basement, taking a cock up your ass for hours, then hang up and not answer when they call you back.”

“My mom called, and I had to use what was left of my brain cells to lie to her. Then Dorian was hungry, and now Aaron won’t answer my calls.” I pouted.

Reese glared at me.

“You sound almost happy to have been locked in a basement and taken advantage of.”

“He took full advantage!” I collapsed happily on the couch in the sitting room. “I always envisioned my first time as flowers and satin sheets, but chained up on your knees with your legs spread in your rich husband’s secret basement is so much better.”

I hugged myself. “He said he’s never done that with any other girl except me. That makes me special!” I couldn’t stop a grin from blossoming on my face. “Aaron said he’s wanted me since he first saw me!” I kicked my legs. “He liked me, Reese. He’s always liked me. He said he’s obsessed with me.” I rolled over, trying to do my best giddy nineties-teen-girl-movie impression, and all I ended up doing was falling off the couch and startling Dorian.

“Where is the good alcohol?” Reese asked.

“You’re not as excited for this former virgin as I thought you’d be.” I hauled myself off the floor.

“Losing your virginity is one thing,” Reese remarked as she made us gin and tonics at the bar. “But you’re talking like you’re in love with this doucehbag.”

“He’s a man with hidden depths. He’s full of passion. For me! Ahhh!” I screamed. “He loves me!”

“Girl…” Reese handed me my drink. “This is not the first time Aaron Richmond has done something basic and caused you to insist that he secretly thinks you’re his soulmate.”

“No, see, we had sex,” I said patiently. “That means we’re going to be together for ever and ever. All eternity.”

“Virgins, man.” Reese shook her head and knocked back her drink. “They bleed and they get attached.”

“Oh my god.” I clutched my robe. “Did I bleed? Did I gross him out?”

“Considering you described the aftermath as quote, ‘buckets of cum,’ if there was, I don’t think anyone noticed.”

My postsex high dissipated in a burn-off of anxiety as I second-guessed everything that had just happened—the weird noises I made, the cellulite, the odd-shaped mole on my thigh, the fact that, if we were being honest, I was no longer twenty-one.

“Maybe I wasn’t sufficiently virgin enough for him.” I chewed on my lip.

“You said you screamed the first time you saw his cock.”

“I know, but like, I feel like I’m transitioning into my middle-aged-woman body. Aaron was probably expecting you know, like, a virgin , virgin—nubile, perky boobs, soft skin.”

“If you’d have been more diligent about your sunscreen like your mom said...” Reese trailed off.

“I bet he felt robbed. The first time he lets himself lose and indulges his basest fantasies, and it’s with me.” I slumped over.

“I thought you said he was obsessed with you.”

“Who knows! A man who’s obsessed with a girl would text her back after chaining her up in his basement, right? He’s got buyer’s remorse.” I poured myself another drink as I willed my silent phone to ring.

I sent him another text message, in which I admittedly sounded a little unhinged, begging him to call me, that we NEED TO TALK.

“You didn’t.” Reese grabbed my phone.

“What?” I cried.

“‘We need to talk’? You might as well have put a ‘Trespassers will be shot’ sign on your vagina.” Reese tossed the phone back to me.

“You don’t know!” I wailed. “You haven’t had that many boyfriends.”

“Fine. We’ll call your grandmother. She juggles multiple men.”

“You’re not calling my—no!” I tangled my fingers in my hair as Reese dialed Granny Madge.

“Look at these cocks!” The top half of Granny Madge’s face appeared on the screen. She and Betty were in a club.

Gran whooped as she held the camera farther back to reveal half of a very ripped man with a cock painted bright yellow.

“Come on down! Axel says he’ll pop your cherry for four thousand dollars, so you need to go to the ATM. He does not take credit cards.”

“She already lost it!” Reese said.

“You lost your money? I thought we had another week before the contract was void. Betty, what gives?”

“No!” Reese yelled into the phone as one of Betty’s eyes, big behind her glasses, peered into the camera.

“God, it’s like a pair of geriatric webcam creepers.” I pulled a pillow over my head.

“Daisy already popped her cherry. She consummated the marriage!” Reese yelled.

“No! You can’t make a compote with cherries. Use raspberries. Cherries are too bland. Don’t feed that to the poor man. Daisy, soak the cherries in bourbon,” Gran insisted, “and make him a real drink. I’m sending you my old-fashioned recipe.”

“Oh my god. Never mind,” Reese said.

“I’m not coming to the club, Gran,” I said loudly.

“What about Axel? I already promised him,” Granny Madge complained.

“I’m sorry, Axel.”

“You need to Venmo me the cancellation fee,” he insisted.

“Now, hold on. I’ve got cash. I’m not poor yet.”

The phone went dead.

“Right, then,” Reese said, grabbing my phone. “You’re going to send Aaron a nudie picture with an apology for being a clingy virgin.”

“I am?” I squeaked.

Reese pulled down the robe and sighed.

“He really did drag you down to his basement.”

I looked down. I was covered in bruises, bite marks, and scrapes.

“This is a heavier Photoshop project than I originally planned for.” Reese made a face. “Maybe you should just wear a sexy outfit and wait for him to come home. Dim the lights, like, all the way down, then ask him if he wants to play claiming the virgin again.”

Something nagged in the back of my sex-hormone- and anxiety-saturated brain.

Reese settled next to me on the couch.

“Too bad Aaron freaked out about the TV. We could marathon Fifty Shades of Grey .” She poked at the lime wedge in her drink with her tongue. “What was your safe word anyway?”

“We, uh… we didn’t use one…” I trailed off. “At the end of it, he handed me my phone and told me to call the police.”

“Weird.”

I turned to my friend, horrified.

“You don’t think he actually thought he was, you know, forcing me to do all that, do you?”

Concern etched on my friend’s face.

“You and me both know his history. If he thinks he’s capable of going off the deep end, do you want to keep encouraging him? You guys consummated the marriage and saved your family’s fortune. Maybe you should quit him.”

The only problem was that there was no way I would be able to keep my hands off him after he’d made me feel like that .

My obsession with Aaron had been kicked up to burn-down-your-house-and-run-off-into-the-sunset territory.

I needed him to be mine forever and ever.