19. Cassidy
Cassidy
“I’m so happy to be back home.”
Trenton leans down and presses a kiss to the top of my head as we enter our apartment building. “Me too.”
When we step inside the lobby, Rupert greets us. “Great game, Mr. Ward. Sorry about your eye.”
“Thanks, Rupert. Please, call me Trent.”
Rupert nods and turns to me. “Hi, Miss Cassidy.”
“Hey, Ru. Thank you so much for taking care of the birds for me.”
“It was a pleasure. They’re adorable.”
“How are you?”
“I’m well, thanks.” He glances over his shoulder. “Uh, you have some visitors.”
“Visitors?” I look up at Trenton. “I’m not expecting anyone, are you?”
He shakes his head. “No.”
Rupert clears his throat. “They said...they said they’re your parents.”
My stomach drops to the floor and my throat goes dry. “M-my parents?”
He nods. “I didn’t want to send them up without your permission.”
I peek around Rupert’s tall frame, and bile climbs up my throat.
I’ve always thought my parents looked a lot like Matilda’s in the movie adaptation: My father, a stout, greasy-haired man who always smelled like cheap cologne and cigars; my mother a much skinnier version of me, with bleached hair, sunken-in cheeks and way too much makeup on.
Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have any super powers, or a teacher like Miss Honey to rescue me from the hell hole I grew up in.
“Those are your parents?” Trenton asks, looking at the same couple waiting by the front desk.
I grimace. “Ru, did they say what they wanted?”
He shakes his head. “No, I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay, thank you.”
“Do you want me to have security escort them out?”
“No, I’ll handle them.” I flick my eyes to the paparazzi gathering outside the building, hoping for a picture of Trenton. “I don’t want to make a scene.”
Trenton slips his hand in mine. “You don’t have to talk to them if you don’t want to. I can have them escorted out and there won’t be a scene.”
I chew my bottom lip. “Why don’t you go upstairs and I’ll call you when I’m done with them?”
“Not a chance, babe.” He squeezes my hand. “We’re doing this together.”
My heart swells and sinks at the same time, loving that he wants to stand by me but also not wanting him to bear witness to the mess that is my family.
“Say nothing. If you’re going to stay with me, you can’t utter a word to them.”
Trenton’s eyebrows press together. “Okay.”
“Promise me, Trent.”
“I promise.”
I lead us over to my parents and school my features, not wanting them to see me sweat.
“Cassie, it’s so good to see you, baby girl.” My mother wraps her bony arms around my stiff body. “How are you?”
“Follow me.” I guide my parents into the elevator, and press the number one instead of six when we step inside.
“Well, look at you.” My mother drags her gaze up Trenton’s body. “You’re a big boy, aren’t you?”
As soon as we start moving, I reach forward and pull the emergency button to stop us from ascending.
“What the hell?” my father shouts. “What are you doing?”
I cross my arms over my chest. “What do you want?”
He scoffs. “That’s how to speak to your parents after six years?”
“Eight, but who’s counting.”
His top lip curls. “Still got that bitch mouth of yours I see.”
Trenton’s body goes rigid beside me.
I place my hand on his arm to calm him as I let out a sigh. “Look, we all know why you’re here so why don’t I save you the trouble: You’re not getting a dime from me, so go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and leave me alone.”
“That’s so rude to assume we’re only here for money.” My mother reaches out to cup my face. “We miss our little girl.”
I jerk away from her touch. “Cut the shit, Mom.”
Her thin eyebrows dip down as her facade fades. “You’re with a big-time hockey player now. You have plenty of money to spare.”
And there it is.
I lean in, getting closer to her face. “I don’t need hockey player money. I have my own money, and you’ll never get a cent of it.”
My father cackles a hoarse laugh. “You know, I figured you’d say that. Which is why I’m prepared to go to those paparazzi waiting outside and tell them what a selfish little cunt you are.”
Trenton steps forward but I yank him back by his elbow. “Go for it, Dad. Have fun. I don’t care what you tell them.”
My mom purses her lips. “You can act as tough as you want, baby girl, but I’m your mother and I know you. You’d hate to have your reputation slandered all over town.”
“You think you know me? You’d have to actually talk to me to know me.
” Emotion clogs my throat, and it only makes me angrier.
“You can say whatever you want to say about me, but it doesn’t matter.
I stopped caring about what people think a long time ago, thanks to you.
Run your mouth all over town, but you won’t bully me into giving you anything. ”
“We just need a little something to get us through the holidays.” My mother gives Trenton her best doe-eyed impression. “We don’t have any money for food or warm clothes.”
I grunt. “That’s because you snorted it up your nose.”
My father snarls. “You think you’re so much better than us. But we’re your blood. We know where you came from. So you can sit up in your ivory tower for now, but soon, it’ll all come crashing down.”
“You’d love to see that, wouldn’t you? Some parents you are.” I smack the emergency button and return us to the lobby. “You’re going to walk out of this elevator when it stops, and you’re going to disappear. I never want to see you back here again.”
“You’re going to regret this.” My father grits his teeth. “This isn’t over.”
“Yes, it fucking is.” Trenton grips him by the back of his neck and tosses him out of the elevator as soon as the door slides open. “Security will see you out.”
My mother takes her time sauntering out of the elevator, giving me a sidelong glance. “See you again soon, baby girl.”
I slump against the wall once the door shuts and it’s just me and Trenton.
He pulls me against his body and wraps me in his arms.
Tears sting my eyes. “I’m so sorry you had to see that.”
He pulls back just enough to gaze down at me. “Baby, you have nothing to be sorry about. I’m sorry that you had to grow up with parents like that.”
“Thank you for keeping your promise. I don’t want you to be involved in this. They’ll go away eventually when they see they aren’t getting any money from me.”
The sudden publicity I’ve received dating a hockey star is like blood in the water to them. I’m surprised they haven’t found me sooner.
Trenton takes my hand as we head down the hall, and he doesn’t let go even after we’ve gone inside my apartment.
“Leave your bags. We’ll unpack tomorrow.” He tosses his duffle bag onto the floor. “Tonight, I just want to hold you.”
I groan. “Please don’t act all weird now that you’ve seen what a shitshow my parents are. I don’t want your pity. I’m fine.”
He brushes his thumb against my cheek. “It’s not pity you’re seeing when you look in my eyes.”
I arch a brow. “Oh, no? What is it then?”
“It’s the same thing I saw in your eyes last night when I took Petroski’s stick to the face.
” He leans down and presses his lips to my forehead.
“It’s the kind of loyalty you feel when someone hurts the person you love.
The kind where you’ll do anything in your power to protect them.
” He brings his lips to mine. “It’s loving someone so fiercely and hoping it’s enough to glue together all the broken pieces of their past.”
My bottom lip trembles. “I don’t care about the past. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is what we have right now. And right now, I have you.”
I slide my hands underneath his shirt, my fingers moving over the hard ridges on his stomach, relishing in the smooth warmth of his skin.
“You do have me. All of me.” His tongue sweeps across my lips. “And you’re mine. Your heart, your mind, your soul.” His hands skim down my back and rest over the swell of my ass as he grabs two handfuls. “Your body.”
I arch into his touch, opening my mouth and wrapping my tongue around his. “Then fuck me like you own me.”
Without hesitation, he picks me up and stalks into the bedroom.
At the foot of the bed, he tosses me onto the mattress. “Everything off. Now.”
We scramble to tear off our clothes, and then our mouths find each other again.
I take Trenton’s hand and bring it down between my legs, letting him feel how much I need him right now.
“Always so ready for me.” He coats his fingers in my wetness, rubbing me and making my hips buck. “Turn around and bend over.”
I do as he commands, getting onto all fours and resting my head on the mattress with my bottom in the air.
“This ass,”—a sharp smack pierces through the air as his palm connects with my bare skin—“is fucking perfection.”
He kneels down behind me and drags his tongue all the way from my clit to my ass, circling around the tight hole and then repeating it over and over again until I’m a writhing mess.
But right before I break apart on his tongue, he pulls back. I whimper while he gets a condom from the nightstand drawer.
I feel him once he rolls on the condom, his tip teasing my pussy, sliding in and out in short gentle pulses.
“Please, Trent,” I beg.
As soon as the words leave my lips, he slams into me.
He grips my hips and drags himself out of me before plunging back inside.
The sound of our skin slapping together in an unrelenting rhythm spurs me on.
Then his hand wraps around my throat, while the other reaches around to play with my clit, and I lose all sense.
He leans forward and grunts in my ear, whispering filthy things while he has his way with me.
And it hits me in this moment that I’d let Trenton do anything to me—any fantasy, have me any way he wants me—because I trust him.
I’ve given myself to him completely, and as scary as that is, it’s the truth. He rebuilt the trust that someone else destroyed, and now it belongs to him.
I only hope he doesn’t break it.