Chapter 23 #4
Ding! Will tugs me inside the elevator, and anticipation swirls in my stomach as the doors whoosh shut behind us.
“You’re so pretty,” he mumbles, cupping my cheeks, his breath brushing my ears. “Little Cece Taylor, all grown up now.”
It’s an odd thing to say, but he’s had a few, so I ignore it and run my hands along his sides.
“Lower,” he groans, grabbing my wrist and moving my fingers to his groin.
He’s hard, and I cup him over the fabric of his pants, as he bucks into my hand. There’s only time for a couple of quick pumps before the elevator doors sweep open and we’re moving again, fingers linked as I follow him down the hotel hallway, my heels quiet on the carpet.
I thought we were headed to the roof, but it doesn’t seem that way. Still, isn’t this what I really wanted?
Will fishes in his suit jacket for his key card, and we’re barely in the hotel room before he’s on me, lips on my neck and hands on my boobs.
“You smell so good,” he mutters. “Touch me, babe.”
I do, though it’s hard to get my hand into position. He’s got me locked in his arms like a rum-scented straitjacket, and I get another flashback of Davis holding me like I’m porcelain. Fragile, obviously. But strong, too.
Why do I keep thinking of Davis? I’m trying to fulfill my sexual prophecy here, and my mind keeps fixating on the twenty-four-year-old bouncer who dry humped me against my office wall.
Focus.
I maneuver my hand to the front of Will’s pants and give a couple of half strokes, moving my wrist as much as I can in my position. He seems to enjoy it, if his rough groan is anything to go by.
“Fuck,” he breathes, the alcohol on his breath making my eyes water. “I’ve needed this.”
“From me?” The words are out before I can stop them. How desperate can you get, Cece?
“Yeah, baby, from you,” Will groans. “You’ve always been gagging for this. Now I get to give it to you.”
My heart stutters. My hand stills. “You knew I liked you.”
Will laughs. “Everyone knew you liked me.” He bucks his hips, trying to get me to continue, but I can’t. I’m frozen again, trying to process what he just said.
“And you just… didn’t do anything about it?”
“How could I? I was with Jenny, and you were… y’know. You. Besides, you were Tristan’s sister.” He palms my tits roughly. “You look good now, though. Knew you’d come running when you saw me again tonight.”
“What?” My voice wavers a little, and I hate it. Will looks down, and he must see the hurt scribbled across my face because a second later, my hand is off his crotch and clenched between his.
“Not in a bad way. It’s like I’m seventeen again. This whole time we’ve been talking, I’ve been waiting for your messages all day. Thinking bout you when I’m at work.”
“You think about me?”
“Fuck yeah. All the time.” He bends his head a little. “All day. All night too. Have you been thinking about me at night?”
Heat races up my neck. I’m not a prude, but this conversation, with him? It’s making me feel everything all at once. “Sometimes.”
And sometimes I think about someone else…
Shut up, Inner Cece!
“What do you think about?” he mutters.
“I think…” God, so much of what I think about him is fantasies from years ago, but I’ve been on dating apps long enough to know dudes are never jonesing for a walk down memory lane when they ask about your nocturnal musings.
“I think about the flowers you sent.”
“That’s right, I did send flowers. Yellow ones, yeah?”
“Um, yeah. You sent a couple of bunches?”
“Yeah, yeah. But they were yellow. And happy. Like you.” He lets go of my hand and slides his palms down my arms. “You’re always so happy. And so nice. And generous. It’s sexy.”
“It is?” It doesn’t sound sexy. It sounds… pathetic, almost.
“And babe,” Will’s looking down at me seriously now, “I need a little of that from you tonight. That happiness. You need to treat me good, tonight, okay? I’ve been under so much pressure at work. You wouldn’t believe the shit I’m going through.”
“Like what?” My hands are at his waistband, but I haven’t gone lower, just tucked my fingers into his belt loops. This is what I wanted. Sex, obviously, but also Will letting his guard down around me. Letting me into his life.
“Huh?” Will says with a frown. “What d’you mean, ‘Like, what?’”
“What’s been happening with you at work? Maybe I can help?”
Will laughs like I’ve invented stand-up comedy. “Just shit with my employees. You’re not gonna know anything about that.”
I step back, shocked. “But… I run a business too. You know I do. We’ve been messaging about it.”
“Sorry. I’m sorry. You do, you run a bar.” He rubs his lips together like he’s holding back a smile. “They’re just different businesses, you know?”
“Well, yeah, industry-wise. But I do have employees. And customers, and all that stuff.”
Will catches me by the waist. “You’re so fucking cute.” He drops a kiss on my lips.
It’s nice, a lovely kiss, but I pull away. “Will, tell me about work. If we’re really going to do this—”
I gesture in the inches of space separating our chests “—We should be able to talk about our jobs. I want to talk about our jobs.”
Will rolls his bloodshot eyes. “But my work is so fuckin’ boring.
I don’t want to be boring. I want to have fun with you.
” He reaches around me and squeezes my ass, dragging me up against him so I can feel the length of the fun he’s referring to.
He stumbles, tumbling both of us back against the wall.
I pull myself upright, rubbing my shoulder where I bashed it against the wood panelling.
Will snickers. “Fuck, my bad, Cee.”
Oh shit. How wasted is he? I knew he’d had a few drinks, but he must have pre-gamed as well. Whatever he’s downed before finding me at the bar is starting to kick in.
“Will? You wanna sit down?” I take his hand and steer him to the couch.
“No,” he whines. “I wanna fuck.”
“We can do that later.” I help him down onto the navy lounge suite. “I think you need to chill out for a bit.”
“Jenny used to say that, too. You’re just like her.”
What the everlasting fuck? “I’m nothing like Jenny.”
“Sure you are,” he says in the same whiny voice. “Won’t fuck me, always wants to talk about work and shit. I’m out there busting my ass all day, and then I come home, and she’s bitching about how I leave my coffee mug on the table. You’re all like that.”
“All?”
“Women.” He sticks out his lower lip. “I thought you were different. You’re so nice, and I thought you liked me.”
“I do like you!”
Wait… Do I? I said the words, but tonight is twisting everything around. The old edges of my understanding of Will aren’t meeting the new frame he’s built for me.
“I’ll get you some water.” I stand and move to the kitchenette, finding a glass and filling it.
“You, Jenny, Grace…” he draws our names out, accepting the water and spilling it over his wrist as he lifts it to his mouth.
This is pathetic.
Then the third name hits me. Grace. Ada said something about a Grace.
The knot in my chest tightens as realisation settles over me like a steel wool cape. It slides into my bloodstream, metallic and cold, overtaking every thought and fantasy. Ada was right about Will.
The sweet lens of nostalgia crumbles away, the way good crystal shatters, leaving only jagged shards behind.
Will Sharpe doesn’t like me. Will Sharpe has never liked me.
In fact, I’m suddenly certain that he dislikes all women.
He might be good at covering it up with his pretty boy smile and his sparkling eyes, but behind all the flowers and flirty messages is disrespect, coated in a sticky layer of entitlement.
Whatever Ada has dug up about Grace and Thompson Farms, Will, Thrasher, Xavier, God knows who else. They’re all up to their necks in it.
Now she’s all alone in Pukekohe somewhere, while I’m watching the man she warned me about, lolling on the couch shit-faced, whinging about how I won’t fuck him.
I need to get to her.
No. I need to help her.
“Will?”
“What?”
I perch myself on the couch next to him, placing my purse carefully on the floor by our feet and give him my sunniest customer service smile. “I do really like you. And I’m sorry if girls haven’t always made you feel as special as you are. That’s something I’ve always seen in you.”
His angelic face relaxes. “I know. It’s like, why can’t they just be nice to me the way you are? You’re so good to me.”
I nod earnestly. “Uh-huh. Well, I’d like to help you. You were right, I don’t know much about business, but I’m a really good listener…”
“You are.”
I giggle and see him stiffening under the dark fabric of his dress pants.
Gross. I swallow the bile rising in my throat. “Honestly, sometimes the best thing for stress is just to talk to someone. I’d be super interested to know more about your business, and maybe learn some stuff. If you’re willing to teach me?”
“But I thought we were…” He gestures to his dick, like I can’t see it pointing straight at me like a delusional divining rod.
“We are.” I widen my eyes to baby deer proportions. “I just, I… I’m really struggling with this whole business owner thing, and you’re so successful. Could you please just talk to me a little bit first?”
“But Cece…”
I lean forward, my tits pressing against my neckline, and grab his hand.
“Will, please?” I press a kiss against his thumb, lick it briefly, then slip it inside my mouth and run my tongue around it, then release him.
“And then I promise we can play after. But I think you’re the only one who can tell me what it is I need to know. ”
Will eyes our joint hands, where his thumb is still glistening with my saliva, and starts talking. I lean forward to unbuckle my heels, and while I’m down there, hit the voice record button on my phone.