Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
Ben stops by a drug store. He makes me go inside with him since he is convinced I’ll bolt if he doesn’t have eyes on me at all times. It’s a little annoying to be treated like a child, but I probably deserve it.
He is right too. I would bolt if left alone. I need to get far away from Ben before I do something stupid. Like fall in love with him or something that will lead to more pain for the both of us.
He grabs some lotions and a bottle of aspirin.
I toss in a bag of overpriced chocolates and a box of tampons trying to annoy him.
He doesn’t say a word or react in any way.
I throw in a box of condoms and a bottle of lube, hoping that will irritate him.
Still, he doesn’t react, so I grab a pack of adult diapers, going to drop that into the basket he carries.
“Want an enema too?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Do you need one?” I counter. “I’d be happy to stick something up your ass.”
“I’ll make you a deal. You can stick something up mine if I can stick something up yours.” He smirks.
Sighing, I put them back on the shelf. Next, I return the condoms and grab for the lube. He wraps his hand around my wrist.
“Leave it. In case you take me up on my offer.” He winks.
I roll my eyes but drop the lube back in the basket. I leave the other items too, because free tampons and chocolate are not things any girl would pass up.
When we slide back into the car, he rests his back against the seat for a second, taking slow breaths. Clearly, he is more pain than he feels like admitting.
“Want me to drive?”
“No. I just need a second, okay?”
“I don’t mind.”
“No one drives my car but me. Ever,” he says, opening his eyes. “Might be the only rule I have.” He sighs, wincing as the air leaves his lungs.
“Let me drive.”
“No. I’ll give into almost every other whim you have, but I draw the line at you driving my car. That isn’t happening.”
“I’ll let you finger my ass.” His eyes drift to me, the slightest hint of desire fills his gaze, under a layer of pain.
“I’ve only ever taken one of my fingers.
Never let a man play with me back there before.
” I smile at him. “You’d be the first to do it and all it would cost you is letting me drive your car. ”
“Jesus,” he groans. “No.” He shakes his head, but his hand reaches for the door handle. “No. Nope. Not happening. No.”
“One in my pussy, one in the ass. God, can you imagine how hard that would make me cum?”
“Prue.” His voice is full of warning, and just a spark of lust.
“Or would you put it in as your cock was buried in my pussy? I mean it might not fit. It would be a tight squeeze.”
His door opens and I smile, watching him slip out of the driver’s seat. He walks around the front of the car, pulling my door open. I slide out, smiling smugly at him.
“If you crash my car, my finger isn’t the only thing going in your ass.”
“Oh, that sounds tempting,” I say, walking to the driver seat. Slipping in, I go to adjust the mirrors. “But I think that will cost you more than you can afford.”
“When you think of a price, let me know,” he says, leaning his head against the back of the seat.
“Where should we go now?” I ask, starting the car.
“Where do you want to go?”
“Want to meet my parents?”
“Yes.” He flashes me a grin.
This is a stupid idea. I didn’t think he would agree to it. Driving to my family’s mansion in the Hollywood Hills, I take my time. Part of me keeps waiting for him to change his mind.
“Tell me more about dear ole Mom and Dad,” he says after a bit of silence.
“My father comes a well-off family. His great-grandfather started a finance business and slowly bought up a lot more. Since then, that’s all my family did.
Now the company is worth a few billion. My parents met in college.
Harvard. My mother’s family is well off too, and once they married my grandfather on her side signed over his wealth management company to my father so he could retire and see the world. ”
“Sounds like money is very important to your parents.”
“Money. Status, their kids doing what they say. Cameron gave up trying to keep them happy young. I decided to take on all the pressure so he could be free.”
“Do you have any happy family memories?”
“Happy? I don’t know. I think each memory is laced with unspoken burdens.
Each birthday was a chance for them to invite their friends over and try to impress them.
Each family vacation was to show off what we could afford.
We didn’t eat dinner as a family unless we had to for a party or function.
We don’t share stories about our days. We barely talk at all to be honest. Most conversations I have with them are just full of instructions.
How they want me to act, how I should behave. What they need me to do for them.”
“That’s really fucked up. I’m sorry,” he says softly.
“My family was close. My parents loved each other a lot. Shining example of a happy couple. They wanted more children, but my mom lost her parts due to an early bout of cancer. And so, they settled on just having me, and taking in Wes eventually. But we talked, we went on vacations, had dinner together. I have more happy memories with them than sad. I’m really sorry you missed out on that. ”
“But they don’t know what happened to you?”
“No,” he says. “Only you do. And I’d like to keep it that way.”
“I won’t say anything,” I whisper.
“I believe you. I think even you have a line when it comes to hurting me.” He laughs. “Probably would kill me before you would spill that secret.”
“You make me sound evil.”
“You are a little evil, but I like it.” He laughs. “Did they really disown Cameron?”
“Nothing official or whatever, but they cut him off. Well, he more or less told them to. They expected him to go to college and straighten up, but when he didn’t graduate, they came home ready to strangle him but he was gone.
Left a note and all his credit cards, saying he was done being their puppet. He has more guts than me.”
“He left you to the wolves, Prue. That’s not having guts, that’s chicken shit.”
“He would’ve taken me with him if I asked, but I stayed. It kept my parents from going insane. At least they had one child to parade around. And if I stayed, I could help Cameron survive. I give him money sometimes.”
“Jesus. Prue. You are far too selfless for your own good.”
“This is a bad idea.” I sigh. “They aren’t going to like seeing you with me.”
“Oh, come on. They are going to adore me.” He laughs. “What is there not to love? All the tattoos, the bruised face, the fact I made their daughter cum her fucking brains out. I’m a fucking catch. They would be so lucky to have me on the arm of their only daughter.”
I laugh. He has no idea what he is walking into, but something tells me he doesn’t care.
“You know how people think some girls have daddy issues?”
“Oh no. Prue, do you have daddy issues?” The amusement in his voice makes me roll my eyes.
“No.” I glance at him. “But my father has issues. He doesn’t take well to anyone who doesn’t worship the ground he walks on.
After disowning Cameron, he more or less pretends he doesn’t exist. They will invite him over, but it’s only a formality.
Cameron knows better than to come. As far as my father is concerned, he only has one kid.
I know the reason Cameron hasn’t gotten signed yet is because of him.
He can’t live in a world where his son is a famous rock star. It would look bad for business.”
“Woah. Wait a second,” Ben says. “There is bad parenting and then there is crushing your kids’ dreams out of spite. That is beyond fucked up.”
“He has issues. They both do. My mother, she has impossible standards. She loves Char—”
“Don’t say his name.”
“My ex, but that was all because of what his family could bring to the table. She’d hand me over on a silver platter, wrapped in a bow, if it meant my family could double their money.
She pretty much told me to give up my virginity to the boyfriend before him.
I was 13, and he was a senior, but from a very wealthy family.
She said if I didn’t fuck him, he’d leave me.
He left anyways, off to college on the East Coast. But she blamed me for not keeping him interested.
She tracked what I ate all throughout my youth.
If she found out I ate anything not on her list of approved items, I’d have to run five miles on a treadmill.
She hates me but can’t afford to lose me. ”
“Prue,” Ben says, and I steal a glance at him. “If we do this, you’ll have to fully embrace the change. I won’t be able to contain myself when I know how shitty these people are. There will be no going back.”
“They are my family.”
“Sorry, baby, but your family is horrible.”
“Besides Cameron.”
“I like Cameron, but he let you carry the burden of your parents’ pressure too fucking long. If you take me to meet them, I will be a wrecking ball that destroys it all.”
“And after? Will you still be my friend?”
“Yes,” he says. “I’m not going anywhere, Prue. Ever.”
I nod. “Okay. Let’s go see my parents.”
As I pull up to my family’s mansion. I don’t know what the outcome from this will be. I know he is right. If I take him inside there, it ends badly. They won’t be happy with me. When they say the wrong thing, Ben will make a scene. I’ll have to pick. Him or them.
The problem is, I have no idea which one to pick.
I either find a way to finally get Ben to leave me alone or I end up disowned just like Cameron.
And I don’t know what outcome will hurt more, or which one I want.
Ben follows me inside the house. I glance around.
Nothing has changed, but the space feels different.
Still makes me feel small and nervous. Ben puts his hand on the small of my back and some of the tension in my body leaves.
I glance back and he offers me a smile, like he knows this place crushes my soul.