30. Margo
Chapter 30
Margo
L enora knocks on my door. “Hey, honey. We’re going out. Will you be okay on your own?”
I sit up and look at her. I’ve been struggling through homework for the last hour. Math used to be my favorite subject, but I haven’t been able to concentrate this semester.
Too many other things pulling my attention, I guess.
“Where are you going?”
She grins. “Robert got a reservation to a nice restaurant. He surprised me, and since it’s a Friday…”
I mirror her smile. “That’s awesome! Date night?”
“Exactly. And as of tomorrow, we’re lifting your grounding.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You’ve been good, and we didn’t want to make this a drawn-out thing. Besides, it’s your senior year. You should have fun with your friends.”
No mention of my impending eighteenth birthday. Will I even be in the county to have friends—or, more accurately, one friend—in three months?
“Thank you,” I answer.
She ventures deeper into my room and sits beside me. “We need to talk tomorrow. Robert and I wanted to check in with you after your social worker’s visit, but things just got a little crazy…”
“It’s okay.” I fiddle with the blanket on my lap.
Between Lenora working late and my inability to do anything except for homework, I’ve had a few movie nights with Robert and some nights of crashing early. In reality, I’ve barely seen Lenora this week.
“We’ll do a brunch tomorrow. I found a new French toast recipe that I’ve been eager to try. Will you help me?”
I grin. “I love French toast.”
“It’s a date.”
Robert calls Lenora’s name from downstairs, and she pats my wrist.
“I’m being summoned,” she says. “Have a nice quiet evening.”
“See you tomorrow.”
She tentatively leans forward, wrapping her arms around me. “Is this okay?”
“Yeah.” I hug her back, resting my chin on her shoulder.
It feels… nice.
She releases me when I drop my arms, and then she’s gone. I listen for the front door to close, then shove my homework off my bed. I flop backward and close my eyes.
My mother flashes in front of my closed eyelids.
“ What did you do, Margo?” She looms giant in my memory, gripping my shoulders.
I don’t answer, and she shakes me back and forth.
“Mom,” I cry.
“Margo.”
I thrash, trying to break her bruising grip.
“Margo!”
“Stop,” I moan.
“Wake up!”
My eyes snap open, focusing on Caleb.
His eyebrows are creased.
I try to remember what I was dreaming about. It seems impossible that I fell asleep, but the clock tells me an hour has passed.
“You were crying for your mom,” he murmurs.
The scene zooms back to the forefront of my mind.
I throw my arms around his neck and burst into tears.
“I-I-I can’t remember what I did to make her hate me,” I hiccup. “Why did she leave me?”
I know the answer. She loved drugs more than her daughter. She was declared unfit to parent—that’s what Ms. McCaw told me. I don’t remember much of the hearing with the judge, except that Mom never showed.
Dad was already gone at that point.
There was no one left to take care of me… so into the foster system I went.
Caleb rubs my back. “It’s okay.”
It isn’t. It won’t be until I find the answers I need.
I don’t know which questions to ask, though. I don’t know where to begin to look for Amber Wolfe.
“Will you help me?”
After Dad was arrested, I didn’t see Caleb for seven years. He wouldn’t know where my mother is, and he sure as hell wouldn’t care .
“No.”
His answer stings, but I get it.
Time to change the subject. “What are you doing here?”
“I told you I’d see you tonight.”
His face is blurry through my unshed tears. The dots click into place, though. His cryptic words in class, the whispered conversation with Robert. My foster dad needing to check with Lenora…
“Did you get them the reservation?”
He brushes away some of the tears. “I might’ve been planning it for us, but you’re still grounded. So… yeah, I offered it up to get them out of the house.”
“You’re an ass,” I mutter. “And arrogant.”
“And ruthless,” he adds, kissing my cheek.
“And wicked.” I turn my head slightly, catching his lips on mine.
“What are you going to do about it?”
“I’ll beg you to make me forget about it.” I kiss him again, harder.
Losing my virginity to Caleb has been confusing to say the least. My attraction to him in general makes little sense. My body likes him—almost too much—and I don’t know what to make of it. I don’t know what to make of him . They say that you forge connections when you lose that piece of yourself.
I didn’t believe it. I still don’t, to a certain extent. Caleb and I have been connected by an invisible string forever. The sex just made it better. Or worse . Any chance of escaping him has gone out the window, because now I don’t want to run.
He said only he was allowed to be cruel to me.
The sick part is, I’m looking forward to it.
His fingers on the waistband of my shorts brings me back to the present. I raise my hips for him to tug the fabric down.
I unbutton his pants, freeing his erection. He pauses undressing me only long enough to toss a condom on my stomach. I tear it open and roll it on him carefully, half remembering past health class lessons. He groans into my neck.
My shirt is gone, and he stares down at me for a second before dropping more weight on me. I feel him at my entrance as he kisses my collarbone.
“This is going to hurt,” he warns me. He rocks his hips forward, pushing into me.
I didn’t realize how sore I was from Monday until right this instant.
I whimper, and he freezes.
“Relax.” His tongue flicks out against the shell of my ear.
I loosen my muscles, one at a time, and he slides in deeper. I lift my hips to meet his thrusts, marveling at the feel of him hitting a deep spot inside me. Down there is more sensitive than I could’ve imagined.
He nips my earlobe, following it with his tongue. Who knew ears could be so… hot?
I dig my nails into his back.
This feels different.
And then the front door opens. It’s easy to hear—the hinges squeal.
We both freeze. “Um, Caleb? Did you invite?—”
“Margo, we’re home!” Lenora calls. “Want to watch a movie?”
Her footsteps pound on the stairs.
“Caleb,” I whisper. “You need to move.”
He pulls out of me, grimacing, and hops up. “Where?”
“Um…”
“Margo?” Lenora calls. “You awake?”
“Closet!” I jump up, grabbing my shorts and yanking them back into place. I manage to get my shirt on, and I push him toward my walk-in at the same time, closing the door behind him just as Lenora cracks my door open.
“Oh, you’re awake!”
I spin toward her. “Sorry, Lenora! I called back but I don’t think I was loud enough.”
She smiles.
I lean against my closet door, crossing my arms. “You’re home early.”
“Well, the restaurant was lovely. Service was a little too fast.” She shrugs. “We’re naturally homebodies, Robert and I. Decided we could go out to see a movie… or come home and snuggle on the couch.”
I force a laugh. Sweat is trickling down my spine—and I don’t think it’s from the sex that she just interrupted. “That makes sense to me.”
She grins. “I’m going to change. Come down and join us if you’d like. Robert is making popcorn!”
She closes my door, and I sag against it. A second later, my body moves as Caleb forces it open.
“That was close.” He’s fully dressed again, and he holds up my bra. “Figured you might want this back.”
I double take. “That’s the one you took on Monday.”
He shrugs. “I’ve got a replacement.”
“You also kept my torn panties. You like to keep trophies of your conquests?”
He chuckles. “No. But I do like help remembering your scent when I’m jacking off at night. And no offense, Wolfe, but bras don’t really do the trick in that department.”
I gape at him, my face getting hot. “You’re not?—”
“Serious?” He smirks. “Deadly.”
Lenora taps on my door, and he ducks back into the closet. She doesn’t open it, though. Just asks, “Coming?”
“Be there in a minute!” My voice is an octave too high.
Caleb cracks the door, silently laughing at me. “I’ll just show myself out… via the window.” He winks.
He opens it and climbs out. And then he’s gone; the only trace of him is the scent of sex in the air.
Oh my God . I’ll just have to pray that Lenora didn’t notice.
I leave the window open to air it out and put on a sweatshirt, then go downstairs. I could use a distraction—and a movie sounds like the perfect one.