Apartment 2B Read online

  She nods, but I know she isn’t. As if in a zone, she heads toward her room, and I get another lovely view of her perfect ass as she yanks off her dress before rounding the corner. My cock comes to life and tries to escape its sweatpant prison. I hear her shower come on, which reminds me that I need a shower of my own—a very cold one. As I leave her apartment, I push the lock button on her front door and pull it behind me. After checking to make sure it’s locked, I then head back over to my place.

  Sidney definitely has issues going on. She is a mystery I intend on unraveling and soon. But first, I need to give my cock some much-needed attention in the shower. And I’ll be damned if I don’t think about her curvaceous bottom as I whack off.

  After the run and shower, I realize that I am starving. There’s nothing in the apartment, of course. Deciding I need to check on Sidney, I hurry and dress in some jeans and a white T-shirt. I feel nervous for some reason when I get to her door, but I knock anyway.

  She answers the door but looks shocked to see me standing there.

  “Hi. I was just checking on you. How are you feeling?”

  I see her sweep her eyes across my chest, and I hold back a grin. Apparently she finds me attractive as well. Her blushing cheeks confirm that.

  “Um, fine. I was just about to settle down and watch a movie.”

  My eyes roam her body and notice that she’s wearing another dress. This woman changes clothes a lot and showers frequently from what I can tell.

  “Want to go out and grab some dinner?” I ask.

  She drops her jaw and immediately shakes her head. “Oh, no. I will just stay here. I-I don’t get out much,” she stammers.

  “Did you eat dinner?”

  “Well, not yet. But—”

  “But nothing. You should come eat with me. Look, I have absolutely nothing in the apartment. I’d like it if you came and had dinner with me.”

  She frowns, but I can tell that her mind is contemplating my words.

  “You can eat here. I’ll make us something.”

  I’m still pretty exhausted from my travels and run, so I concede. Well, partially.

  “Fine. I’ll eat with you, but tomorrow you’re coming with me to the store.”

  A smile lifts the corners of her mouth and she becomes impossibly more beautiful. My cock agrees. Down boy.

  “Okay. Come on in. What do you like? Do you like wine?” She is nervous about having me over, and it’s fucking cute as hell.

  “I’m a man. I’ll eat anything. And a drink sounds great.”

  She flushes again at the mention of the word ‘man’ but tries to hide it as she scurries into the kitchen. I shut and lock the door behind me. That asshole still has me on edge. I follow her into the kitchen to see her bent over, pulling a pot from the cabinet. My eyes greedily follow every curve of her ass. Her dress is short, and I want to lift it up to really appreciate her ass-ets.

  When my eyes finally leave that sweet swell, I graze them down her bare legs and notice scars for the first time. She finds the pot she was looking for and stands back up. My eyes are glued to her legs though. Fury is building up inside me. Those scars are not from an injury. They are from something dark and sinister.

  “What happened to your legs?” I question.

  She spins around and gasps when she realizes I’ve been checking her out. “Oh, that. It’s a long story.”

  I cross my arms as I wait for it. Her eyes fall to my arms and tears fill them.

  “Liam.” Just one word. I know she isn’t calling me that, but she says it more like a memory.

  I unfold my arms and walk over to her. She backs away from me until her bottom hits the edge of the counter. Grabbing the pot from her hands, I set it on the stove next to her. Then I place both of my hands on either side of her on the counter.

  Dipping my head down, I inhale her womanly scent. She smells like soap and lavender. It’s such a clean, intoxicating smell.

  “I’m Lane,” I remind her.

  She nods as she studies my face, which is just inches from hers. Those pouty lips are just asking to be sucked on, but since she is so different, I don’t dare. Instead, I bring my lips close to her ear.

  “I’m captivated by you, Sidney. What is it about you?” I seriously want to know the answer.

  “Please don’t touch me,” she begs quietly.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I can’t handle it. Please.”

  This girl doesn’t make sense, and I want nothing more than to touch her. Everywhere. I find some self-control and pull away to look at her.

  “Talk to me. I need to know you, Sidney. Clearly you knew my brother, although that’s still unclear. I want to know you.”

  Tears fill her eyes again at the mention of Liam, and I feel like a dick.

  “I’m sorry. Let’s eat and save serious conversation for after, okay?”

  She nods, looking quite relieved as I pull completely away from her. Turning her back to me, she sets off to make what would appear to be spaghetti. I’m hungry for more than just food, so I force myself to stay on the opposite side of the kitchen. I don’t want to scare her away.

  Effortlessly, she flies around the kitchen, preparing the meal. The scents are delicious, and I didn’t realize how starved I’ve been for a home-cooked meal. Since she mentioned wine earlier, I go ahead and locate two glasses, pouring them for us.

  After she fills two plates with spaghetti and salad, we make our way to the kitchen table. Within minutes, we are seated across from each other. We don’t speak as we eat, but I manage to groan loudly at the delicious food. Her eyes fly to mine, and I see that, for the first time since I met her, they are heat-filled. It takes everything in me not to climb over the table and attack her lips.

  “Sidney, this is so fucking good,” I praise.

  Her cheeks turn red, but she seems proud of my comment. This girl clearly doesn’t get compliments often. That is about to change.

  After we’ve finished our meal, I can tell that the wine is warming her because she starts to smile a lot more. I finally break the silence as we start to clean the kitchen together.

  “What do you do, Sidney? For a living?”

  “I look after an old woman downstairs throughout the week, cleaning and cooking for her.”

  She starts scrubbing the pot in the sink under the water. When I go to wet a rag to wipe down the table, I am shocked to find that the water is cold.

  “You’re supposed to wash dishes in hot water, you know,” I tease at her.

  She suddenly goes tense and grabs either side of the sink. Shit, I’ve said something wrong.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask, coming up behind her.

  Her body suddenly comes back to life as she breathes heavily at my proximity. “I can’t do hot water, okay?”

  Sweeping the hair away from her neck, I whisper, “Okay.”

  She sighs and visibly relaxes. I release her hair and we finish the kitchen without any more episodes. After we’ve filled our glasses, I follow her into the living room. She sits on one end of the couch, so I sit right beside her. Her eyes widen in horror, but I ignore it as I stretch my legs out over the coffee table and get comfortable.

  “Liam always gave me my space,” she sniffs out at me. I can tell that she’s irritated with me, but I don’t care.

  “I’m not Liam. I’m Lane.”

  “Lane, you don’t understand. I have issues. You can’t just come in here and mess things up.”

  My dick perks up at the mention of my name. That damn thing has a mind of its own.

  I’m not trying to mess things up, Sidney. I’m trying to fix things. My brother was a selfish man.”

  She jerks her head over at me and glares. “Take it back, Lane.”

  Her lip is trembling now, and I do what I’ve wanted to do since the moment I first saw her. Reaching up to her with my hand, I gently use my thumb to stop the movement. I hold my breath as I realize that I’ve done exactly what she’s asked me not to. Time
freezes for a second while she looks at me wide-eyed. Pulling it away quickly, I grin down at her.

  “You’re lucky I just used my thumb. That lip just begs to be sucked between my teeth,” I say softly, looking back down at it. It no longer trembles and now her mouth slightly parts open. When her tongue darts out to lick it, it’s almost my undoing.

  She shakes her head and sighs heavily, the heated moment fleeting. “Tell me about Liam. I’m confused.”

  Clearly I am too because she acts like she saw him the other day, which is absolutely not the truth.

  “Did Liam ever tell you about our parents?” I ask.

  She nods and pinches her eyebrows together. “He just told me they died. That’s pretty much all he told me. I knew he had a brother, but other than that, he was secretive.”

  I hold back a groan because I hate telling this story, but something tells me that Sidney needs to hear it.

  “About a year ago, Liam was visiting my parents. They had been discussing the fact that they were ready for him to get his life back on track. He’d spun wildly out of control while I was in the service. They were worried about him and were prepared to get him the help he needed. On this particular night, they were arguing in the car on the way back from dinner. Dad was driving and Liam lost his temper, yelling at our father. Mom was in the back seat trying to calm him down. I guess Dad got distracted and ran a red light.

  “A truck hit the side with Mom and Dad on it, killing them instantly. Liam walked away without a scratch. He was devastated. We both were. When I got leave to attend the funeral, he was in a fog. I tried to talk to him, assure him it wasn’t his fault, but he wouldn’t hear it. I had to leave him to get back to my post, but I felt sick about it. He wasn’t right in his mind, and I fucking worried like crazy. Any time I got an opportunity, I would try and call him. He would never answer.

  “One day, I got the call that he had committed suicide. Loaded up on a bunch of pills and took the chickenshit way out. He left me all alone, and it fucking sucked. When I came back for his funeral, I left the apartment as is until my tour ended. I’ve paid the rent for the entire lease so that I could come back and tie up the loose ends.”

  I’m working really hard to keep the tears from coming. I cried enough for Mom, Dad, and Liam. Now, I’m just angry. Sidney can’t keep them in though, and she sobs beside me.

  “But I don’t understand. I just saw him last week. When did he do this?” she demands. I can tell that she’s close to a breaking point.

  “He killed himself six months ago.”

  “Impossible,” she whispers. And even though she tells me that I’m lying, I know that wheels turning in her head as she works to figure something out.

  “Sidney, it’s not impossible. It’s the truth. I have a death certificate that proves it.”

  Her eyes close as she tries to shake something from her mind. I feel a shift in the air to an unknown place as she shakily slips a hand down the front of her dress and begins scratching her breast. The way she does it, so methodically and obsessively, worries the hell out of me.

  “Sidney, stop it.”

  But she doesn’t stop it. The scratching becomes more fierce, and now her other hand has slipped to her inner thigh, digging at the flesh there. I’m mesmerized by her movements but finally snap myself out of it.

  “Sidney, STOP IT!” I roar at her, trying to pull her from her trance. She ignores me, so I am forced to grab both of her wrists and bring them to my chest. Her eyes fly open and panic crosses her features as she fights to pull away.

  “Don’t! No!” she yells, finally breaking her silence and screams.

  I release a hand but still have a firm grip on the other. Immediately, her hand goes back to its scratching. Snatching it back up, I pull her toward me. She’s squirming like a madwoman, but I refuse to let her hurt herself anymore.

  “Sidney, shhh, I have you. Stop. Please,” I plead calmly with her.

  When her body relaxes a moment, I pull her the rest of the way to me and wrap my arms around her back to hold her against me. Lying down on the couch, I bring her down with me. She’s still in my death grip. I can feel her shuddering violently, and she begins sobbing loudly.

  I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with her, but I’m not letting her go. She still feels tense as she attempts to break free of me. Using one arm to hold her close, I take the other and gently thread it through her hair, stroking it. The gesture completely relaxes her and she melts into me. My heart is pounding so hard in my chest.

  Finally, her crying subsides, but her breathing is jagged. She no longer fights to get away, so I finally relax my own body. After what seems like hours, she tilts her head up to me. Her eyes are filled with awe as she looks at me.

  “How is this possible, Lane?” she asks.

  I’m unsure what she is asking. All I can focus on right now is the lip that is now inches from my face.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” I whisper.

  She blinks at me in shock as my breath tickles her face. “Your breath is warm.” Again, she makes absolutely no sense.

  Before she can say anything else, I bring my face closer to hers and suck her lip into my mouth. Her eyes close and a moan escapes. My dick roars to life between us. I continue my suckling of her lip. When she pulls away, I groan at the loss. She tastes like garlic and wine. It is a delicious mixture.

  “How is this possible? I’m so confused right now,” she confides.

  That makes two of us. The woman speaks in riddles.

  “Sidney, I don’t know a thing about you, but you talk to me like I should know. All I know is that I’m very much enjoying you on top of me. But you could probably already tell,” I tease and slightly thrust my hardness into her belly.

  She’s still wide-eyed like she can’t believe I’m holding her like this.

  “I’ve had a rough life,” she tells me. For some reason, the tone in her voice tells me that I’m not going to like what I’m about to hear.

  “Go on,” I urge as I begin softly stroking her back.

  She rests her head back down on my chest as she melts to my caresses. “My momma abused me terribly. The scars come from the switches she would beat me bloody with. That was manageable though. What wasn’t was the…” she trails off. I feel her entire body tense up, so I wrap my arms around her, afraid that she’ll try to run away.

  “What wasn’t manageable?”

  “The bleach baths.”

  My ears are ringing because I don’t understand what she’s telling me, but I am quickly getting pissed. Not at her. At her motherfucking bitch of a mother. A mother who has done terrible things to a child to make her behave the way Sidney does.

  “What the fuck are bleach baths?” I ask, my voice rising. She shivers, so I attempt to relax and stroke her back again.

  “She was always so worried about toxins and thought it was her duty to scrub them away. When she would get on her rampage, I’d be forced into a scalding-hot bath while she scrubbed me away with bleach. It was horrifying. I was trapped with that woman doing terrible things to me until a month ago when she died. And even though I’m free, I’m still a prisoner to my past. I can’t stand for people to touch me. You witnessed firsthand when I fainted. Liam respected that. He never touched me except the night he left. That night he gave me a whisper of a kiss.”

  She stops talking, and we both think about what she’s just said. I still don’t understand how she knows Liam if she just moved here a month ago. It doesn’t make sense. And as much as I don’t get it, I can tell with my whole heart that she isn’t lying. There are just some things you can’t make up.

  “Then how am I holding you right now? You haven’t fainted,” I observe.

  Her breath comes out in a rush. “I don’t know. I’m slightly freaking out right now. This has never happened before. I’m scared to death, but at the same time, I am enjoying it because I’ve never been this close to someone before. Not since all of those years of the abuse. Liam wa
s the closest thing, but we never crossed that barrier. Now you’re holding me and I don’t want to move. I’m afraid the spell will break and I’ll be back to the old me. The me I hate.”

  Her words are so sad and they break my heart. I turn us over on the couch so that we can face each other. My arms are still possessively wrapped around her. Something about her makes me want to keep her safe and close at all costs. From this position, I can see her face now. Suddenly, I want to touch every inch of her.

  Sliding my arm that isn’t pinned under her up her body, I watch with interest as she shivers. My hand finds her cheek and I tentatively stroke it with my thumb. Her icy-blue eyes close and her lips part. Dipping my head down to hers, I softly kiss her lips. When her tongue shyly slips out to meet mine, we both gasp at the jolt of electricity that courses through us when they touch.

  The kiss is sweet and innocent at first, but it quickly grows in intensity. It’s apparent that she’s drinking up her newfound abilities and testing the boundaries. It’s hot as hell to experience this with her. I push my tongue into her mouth and she moans but quickly thrusts hers against mine. Her hand shakily finds my hair and threads her fingers through it. Such a simple gesture, but it feels amazing.

  When she moans again, I want her on top of me once more, so I roll over onto my back, pulling her on top of me. She surprises me when she straddles my hips to get a better position to kiss me. My cock strains to be freed from my denim, especially when she grinds herself into me.

  “Oh my fucking God, Sidney. You are so fucking hot,” I groan as she rides me through my jeans. I haven’t been laid in months, and I can feel myself getting close to coming.

  “How does this feel so good?” she asks, completely awestruck. I don’t have an answer, but I am in complete agreement.

  She kisses me again, and my hands trail their way down her back until they are at her ass. Testing my theory, I slide up her dress, pleased to discover that she has no panties on. My hands slide over her bare ass and she moans loudly. I give both cheeks a little squeeze as I push her down against my cock.

  “I want to be inside of you so fucking bad. I bet your pussy is dripping wet for me. Can I feel it, baby?” I croon.