15. Keris
K eris~
“Oh, God...that’s so freakin’ hot,” Dylan gushed, and I could only stare at her blankly.
“She’s not wrong,” Huntley agreed, and I wanted to strangle them both.
After Brantley had left me feeling sick to my stomach with shame and regret, I hadn’t known what to do.
While advocate groups everywhere would claim that he had most definitely taken advantage of me, it hadn’t felt that way.
In all honesty, it still didn’t feel that way.
Pride aside, it had been the hottest sex that I’d ever had, and my body flooded with warm desire whenever I replayed it in my head.
Even though Brantley had left me sore, I had still ended up playing with myself last night to the memories, cumming hard, feeling like crap again.
When he hadn’t come back home at all on Saturday or last night, I figured that he’d seen the light, then had decided to go with his original plan of not living together.
Nevertheless, actually concerned that he’d go through with his outrageous threat, I’d gone back to his parents’ house to retrieve my rings.
When I had called Lorna Kingston to see if I could stop by her house, she’d been under the impression that I’d wanted to talk about that stupid video circulating all over the internet, and I had let her believe it.
The heavy stones were back on my finger now, and my pride was still giving me shit over it.
There was also that goddamn video of Brantley’s fight with Ares Cormac making shit more complicated than it already was.
While Ares had made it clear that nothing had happened between us, and while he hadn’t divulged the nature of our conversation, Brantley still hadn’t been satisfied.
He’d looked like an unhinged husband, and I knew that people were going to assume that I was being unfaithful, though that wasn’t the case at all.
People liked salacious gossip, so they were bound to add more to the story than there was.
So, not knowing what to do, I had called Huntley and Dylan over for some advice.
Normally, I’d call my sister because we were close like that, but I didn’t want her feeling bad or guilty, thinking that this might all be her fault.
Sure, I’d made the decision because of her, but she didn’t need to know that.
Lindsey had enough things to worry about besides a decision that I had made all on my own.
Nevertheless, I knew my sister, and if she knew the full truth, she would carry the blame on her shoulders, no matter what I said.
So, while she knew the truth of our family’s finances and why I’d gotten married, she didn’t know that I’d only done it for her, not our parents.
Lindsey was under the impression that I had stepped up to save the entire family, and she was also under the impression that everything was amicable.
“Can you two focus, please?” I practically hissed.
“Oh, I am focused,” Dylan chuckled. “I’m focused on how your new husband kicked some serious ass to defend you, and then also fucked you like a stallion determined to mark his mare.”
“Every woman has a fantasy of being ravished, so don’t sit there and lie about being any different, Keris,” Huntley added.
We were all at Dylan’s, her husband down for his afternoon nap.
While there were a lot of active seventy-year-olds, according to Dylan, Sean liked to nap.
Granted, if their bedroom escapades were anything to go by, the man needed his naps.
Dylan had a very voracious sexual appetite, and Sean did his best to satisfy it, even if he did have to use toys to help keep getting her off.
“Yeah, being ravished by a guy I actually like,” I corrected. “This was different.”
Dylan scoffed. “You admitted to cumming, Keris,” she reminded me brutally. “I’d say that you like the guy just fine.”
Ignoring her point, I asked, “Do neither of you see how he only did it to prove a point? That’s not being ravished, that’s being...being-”
“Put in your place?” Huntley supplied. “Could it be your pride that’s got you all in a snit, Keris?”
“Yes, my pride is partly the reason,” I admitted. “Still, it’s more than that. I mean, the guy threatened to drill my wedding rings back onto my finger. What kind of psychopath does that?”
“One with enough big dick energy that you’re wearing your rings right now,” Dylan replied, and the girl really had no idea what mercy was.
“Oh, God,” I rushed out. “Can we forget about his dick for a minute?”
“It’s kind of hard to do that when you described the feeling as being rammed deep by a cucumber,” Dylan huffed. “I mean, I’ve had my fair share of big dicks, but never cucumber big.”
“God, what I wouldn’t do to get rammed deep by a dick the size of a cucumber,” Huntley sighed, and I wanted to slam my head against the wall. They were so missing the point.
“It’s not fun,” I drawled out. “I’m still a bit sore.”
Huntley waved away that concern. “That’s because he hadn’t prepped you. I bet a couple of oral orgasms before being impaled by his dick would have worked better.”
I could only stare at her blankly.
“Just make sure that you prep yourself before any anal sex if he’s that big,” Dylan advised. “You could tear otherwise.”
After a few seconds of incredulousness, I said, “I have no plans on having anal sex with Brantley Kingston, Dylan.”
“Yeah, well...you didn’t have plans on having sex with him on Friday night, either.” She shrugged. “Look where that got you.”
Before I could leave- because neither of them was being any help -Huntley asked, “Is Faron still mad at you?”
After that video had resurfaced and everyone started playing sleuth, Brantley Kingston’s wife’s name had been made public almost immediately.
I still had no idea how Ares had found out, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the top players in the city all kept tabs on each other.
After all, knowledge was the real power behind the money.
At any rate, Faron had called me, angry and hurt that I hadn’t told him about marrying Brantley.
He’d been angry at not being invited to the wedding, and also hurt that I hadn’t told him that I’d been dating Brantley Kingston.
It’d been so hard not to spill my guts, but the less people that knew, the better.
Though Faron and I were close, he still wasn’t part of my inner circle the way that Huntley and Dylan were.
Besides, I could see Faron losing his shit if he knew the truth.
In a quest to see me happy, he’d probably cause some drama, trying to force a divorce, and I didn’t need that kind of added stress.
Eventually, I had managed to calm him down with lies upon lies of how it’d been a whirlwind romance, and how it had happened all so fast that Huntley and Dylan also hadn’t even been invited to the intimate affair, which had been true.
I had mixed enough lies with the truth that Faron had so graciously informed me that he’d eventually forgive me, maybe just not this weekend.
“He promised to get over it by Monday,” I answered. “If I were in his shoes, I’d feel upset about not knowing also.”
“Back to Kingston,” Dylan said. “What are you going to do about your marriage to him? Do you still want to move out?”
“I honestly don’t know,” I sighed. “The problem is that I don’t know the man.
I have no idea if he’d really tie me to his bed or drill my wedding rings into my finger.
After Friday night, I’m not exactly scared of him, but I’m still in the same position that I was in when I agreed to marry him.
If I...fight him too much on this, who knows what he’ll do. ”
“Well, we know that he’ll never divorce you,” Huntley stated. “Those mines are worth too much.”
“True,” I conceded. “But he can still make my life a living hell in other ways. Even if my parents are back to being rich, who knows how long that’ll last. They had managed to wipe out generations of wealth, so what they’re worth now is going to be a drastic change in their lifestyles.
I can’t let Lindsey suffer for that.” While the Kingstons had gotten my parents out of debt, that’d been it.
My parents hadn’t received anything extra.
“I say you try to make your marriage work,” Dylan suggested. “Brantley said that his plans were to be faithful to you, so that’s something, right?”
“You know, I hadn’t been big on getting married, but I had hoped that I’d be marrying for love when I did,” I remarked. “There’s no getting around the fact that Brantley didn’t want me.”
Dylan cocked her head. “Yeah, and there’s no getting around the fact that you hadn’t wanted him, either,” she pointed out. “So, if you can change your mind, why can’t he?”
“Who said that I’ve changed my mind?”
She leaned forward in her chair. “The fact that you didn’t get up and call the cops after he supposedly took advantage of you,” she stated seriously.
“You’re not a weak woman, Keris. You’re not one of those damsels-in-distress types.
If you felt- for even a second -that Brantley Kingston truly did rape or sexually assault you, then you would have had him in handcuffs before morning.
” I hated how she was right. “So, in my opinion, as one of your closest friends, those rings are back on your finger because you feel something for him. You just hate that you do.”
The problem with honest friends? Sometimes, the truth fucking sucked.