Sweet Little Memories ~ Abbi Glines Read online

  Sweet Little Memories

  Published by Abbi Glines

  Copyright © 2017 by Abbi Glines

  [email protected]

  Interior Design & Formatting by:

  Christine Borgford, Type A Formatting

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Abbi Glines. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Contents

  Sweet Little Memories

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Books by Abbi Glines

  THE SOFT CLICK OF MY bedroom door closing woke me. The dark curtains and black out shades that covered my windows made it impossible to tell if it was morning or not.

  Yawning, I rubbed my face hard. I couldn’t have been asleep long. It felt as if I’d just gone to bed.

  “We’re home,” Hilda whispered.

  That was enough to wake me up. Grabbing the covers, I quickly sat up and squinted to see in the darkness just as I felt her sit down on the edge of my bed. She was close enough that I could smell her perfume.

  “What are you doing in here?” I was panicked my father would find her in my room. He’d forgive her easily enough. It was me he’d blame and I’d pay for this.

  Her hand touched my thigh and I jerked away.

  “I’ve missed you.” She sounded pouty. I could hardly see her in the darkness of the room, but I knew her expressions. I could imagine the pouty face she was making as she spoke to me. Two months ago, I would have gotten hard and excited from her presence or touching me. I knew what to expect from her. Now, her presence was different.

  “You can’t be in here.” I spoke firmly, disregarding her responding sigh. Didn’t she know she wasn’t welcome? When she was working as our housecleaner, I was thrilled to have her sneak in my room and suck my dick. I liked her even better the day she stripped naked and straddled me then fucked me. And we had fucked a lot. At least until my dad had decided she was going to be wife number three.

  “I’ve been in Spain for three weeks. Haven’t you missed me?”

  “Are you kidding me?” My voice conveyed the incredulousness of the situation. She was my stepmother now. Had she really thought we’d continue as we had? As soon as my father had put an engagement ring on her finger, we stopped touching each other. She had become the adoring fiancée and spent her time planning the wedding. No more blow jobs in my closet or fucking in the pool house.

  Her hand found my leg again. “He’s old and he’s mean. I miss you. I miss your body and the way you make me feel.” She leaned closer to me, forcing me to back away. I didn’t have much room to avoid her touching me.

  “You married him. Deal with it,” I replied as coldly as I could. I understood better than anyone how mean he was. Mean was too kind a word to describe my father if you asked me. I had warned her of his anger issues. She hadn’t listened.

  “Winston.” She sighed and leaned into me. I felt her breath on my cheek. “Don’t hate me. I can’t do this without you. We need each other.” Her hand found my dick and it didn’t stiffen immediately the way it once had at just the sight of her. The image of my dad walking in on us was enough to keep my dick limp. She had no idea how bad his anger could get.

  “I need you to leave,” I demanded. She didn’t move away. She didn’t seem to hear me at all. Her mouth found my neck and she started placing soft kisses below my ear. Frustrated, I grabbed her arms and forced her away from me. “Don’t you get it? He will fucking kill me. You won’t be his wife long. He has his divorce attorney on speed dial, and that prenup you signed is ironclad. This can’t happen. You don’t want the outcome any more than I do.”

  She sniffled and sounded like she was crying. I sighed in frustration as I left the bed and stomped across my room. I knew well enough where things were to maneuver in the dark. She didn’t. At least I hoped she didn’t.

  “He works all the time. He’s gone now. He dropped me off and left without an explanation. I’m all alone. I need someone to hold me.”

  She had flirted with him, dressed in barely any clothing when he was around and successfully reeled him in. She got what she wanted. It was time she learned what it meant to be his wife. His constant absence was part of it.

  “He will rarely be home. You’ll be given unlimited funds to spend. Slowly, you will grow apart, and in time, he’ll replace you. You’ll get a nice home, enough money to live comfortably and you can even join the ex-wives club. I hear the others have started one.” That last bit was a lie. My mother and former stepmother hated each other.

  “I don’t care if he’s here. He’s not the one I want. My body craves you. I miss your touch. I miss having you inside me. I need you to make me come.” I heard my sheets moving as she spoke. I wasn’t sure what she was doing and my annoyance level was breaking records. The reason for the sheets shuffling was soon unveiled. “I’m naked. Come back to bed. Fuck my mouth.”

  The thought of seeing Hilda naked in my bed sucking my dick had me hardening against my better judgment. I wouldn’t do anything about it though. I wasn’t an idiot, but I would end up getting myself off with that image once I got her out of here. Girls my age didn’t suck cocks like she did. Her cock sucking ability was pretty damn perfect.

  “No.” That didn’t sound nearly as threatening as I’d wanted to.

  “I’m so wet. I’ve thought of you all day. Knowing I’d see you tonight. Come back here and fuck me, Winston. Make me moan.”

  Dammit, she had me swollen verging on painful now. I was glad I couldn’t see her. That would make this worse. I knew she was my stepmother, but she still had a killer body. As good as any I’d seen watching porn. She also did dirty shit like the women did in porn. Girls my age weren’t that adventurous either.

  “Leave. Please get out. We are done. You’re his wife, my new stepmom, and what happened before is finished.”

  She was silent for a moment. I listened, afraid she would stand from the bed and walk over to press her naked body against me. If she got on her knees and went for my dick with her mouth, I wasn’t sure I had the strength to stop that. No man did.

  “You’re going to miss me. You’ll want my body again. And when you do, I will be waiting. It’s an adjustment. I’m here, and I understand it’s different because I’m your stepmother now. But nothing else changed. I still want you.”

  “Then why did you marry him?” I shot back. The day she’d told me I had been devastated. Not because I loved her, but because I knew what we’d done t
ogether was over.

  “You’re too young. He had the ability to give me a new life. One with things I’d never had. Expensive things. Travel. It was all I had ever wanted in life—or thought it was. After the wedding, it sank in that he would never be you. He would never make me feel like you do.”

  Hilda was thirty. I was sixteen. Did she seriously think I believed this? How did I make her feel? Every time we were together, she was the one teaching me things.

  “You married him. That’s all that matters now.”

  We both remained silent for a while. I wondered if she’d fallen asleep naked in my bed. And if she had, I wondered how I was going to get her out of my room.

  My father could never know about the time we’d spent together. Or tonight. I wasn’t scared of anything in this world. I’d always been fearless. I took things as they came. I dealt with whatever life threw me. Except when it came to my father. I had been scared of him for as long as I could remember.

  One day, I’d stand up to him. One day, he wouldn’t control me. At least the beatings he doled out slowed down once I had grown a head taller than him. But he still beat me when he had the chance or felt lucky.

  My affair with Hilda would likely get me killed. The man didn’t love me. I was his only son, and his heir. That was it. Nothing more.

  “Okay, I’ll go. But we aren’t done. I’m not giving up on you. On us.”

  I didn’t reply. I waited until the door close behind her to breathe again. I’d arrange to leave for boarding school sooner rather than later. Staying in this house was impossible.

  Beulah

  THE PHOTOS COULD HAVE BEEN Stone when he was a child. Without Jasper pointing it out, I would have seen the resemblance. Even with my heart screaming no, my head had acknowledged the truth. I knew only what Geraldine had told me about Stone’s father. What I did know wasn’t good. The lack of emotion Stone showed at the mention of his father was also confirmation that the man was evil.

  But Stone had a son. A son that he allowed his father to raise.

  “How old is he?” I asked as I heard Stone’s footsteps echoed up the stairs. He’d be here any moment. I’d see him. His face. And when I looked at him, I’d see the boy.

  “Six or seven. I’m not sure. I never see him,” Jasper replied.

  I scrutinized the last photo. It was the most recent from the pile Jasper had handed me. And I knew Stone was here now because I could feel him. He was focused on me. The current that was present whenever he was near me still prickled my skin.

  “What does she have, Jasper?” His voice was hard. Cold. Threatening.

  “Photos of Wills,” Jasper replied. The challenge was there.

  I looked up at Stone questioningly, but he was turned to Jasper. Stone’s expression and body seemed to be pulsing with anger. The fury blazed brightly making it hard to inhale. Fear began to build slowly inside my chest, but I didn’t move. I wasn’t sure what I would do if the standoff between Jasper and Stone turned physical. How would I stop them?

  “Why?” The one word was simple, but the animosity behind it made me tremble.

  Jasper shifted nervously. He knew Stone better than anyone. Stone’s reaction was one that Jasper had to have expected. And still, he’d walked into this building and brought the photos to me.

  “She needs to know. You made sure she knew about all the lies surrounding my family and hers. It was time she knew the lies that engulf you.”

  Stone took a step toward him. His hands were balled tightly at his sides as the muscles in his forearms flexed in response. Veins stood out against his tan skin.

  I was unable to breathe much less speak or move. It was as if I were watching this in a dream. A dream that left me without control of my body. I was a bystander watching it all unfold.

  “This is it?” Stone’s voice held no emotion but the rage was there. Just underneath. “This is how you choose to end it?”

  Jasper didn’t respond. There was silence. My eyes stayed on Stone. If he did lunge for Jasper, I wouldn’t be able to stop him. I watched him with my entire body on edge in case the thin hold on his anger snapped.

  Stone took another step toward him. “You didn’t get what you wanted. And this was your answer.”

  “It needed to end before she got hurt again.” Jasper sounded defensive.

  Stone’s eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched and shifted as he inhaled sharply through his nose.

  Jasper was handling this beyond poorly. Not that there could be a good outcome from his actions. But I should speak up. Maybe I could ask him about the boy. I needed to direct the attention to me, but I was frozen.

  “I’m talking about the years of friendship. You were my family, Jasper. And this . . . this . . .” He pointed at the photos in my hand. “This is it? This is how you wanted to destroy us?”

  Jasper wasn’t quick with a response. It didn’t matter because I couldn’t take my eyes off Stone. All I could see was the pain rising through his anger as Stone glared menacingly at Jasper.

  “Were you going to tell her? No, you weren’t. You were going to hurt her the same way my mother did. She didn’t deserve that. This was me protecting her.”

  “No, Jasper. This was you getting revenge like the spoiled child you still are,” Stone snarled with disgust. “Leave. Leave before I throw your sorry motherfucking ass out the nearest window.”

  I didn’t expect Jasper to leave. My body was wound as tightly as it could get preparing for the first strike. But Jasper stepped back. He turned away from Stone, but stopped in the hallway in front of the stairs.

  “She knows now. That’s what matters.” He’d lost his smug indignation.

  “Leave!” Stone’s voice shook the windows.

  I finally managed to tear my eyes off Stone to watch Jasper retreating. I still held the photos in my hand. As he stepped down to the top step, he glanced back at me. “You have my number.”

  Stone turned and lunged at Jasper as I reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him.

  “Don’t.” I managed to say something finally. “This isn’t about him.”

  This wasn’t about Jasper. Stone felt betrayed. Although I should feel the same, my chest ached for him. Stone hadn’t been the one to tell me the Van Allan secrets. He’d been the one to correct the lies. Jasper’s actions were different. He’d chosen to hurt Stone. He’d sought to cause pain. Stone had no real family and he’d just lost trust in the only family he cared about.

  When Stone turned to me he looked defeated. The fury was gone, replaced by sorrow. He looked hollow. I wanted to hold him. Reassure him. But the photos in my hand hadn’t disappeared. The truth behind what I held still dangled out there between us.

  “Is he yours?” I asked. Waiting wasn’t possible. As much as I hurt for Stone at this moment, I needed him to explain. To assure me he wasn’t a heartless man who allowed his son to be raised by a man who had abused him when he was a child.

  “His mother was our maid. I was fifteen when my father hired her. She was young—always dressed in short skirts and tight tops. She seduced me and taught me all about sex. What happened between us wasn’t love. It was simply lust. She successfully lured and married my father at the same time we were having sex. I made her stop coming to me when they were married. One month after their wedding, the morning sickness started.”

  He stopped speaking. He was lost in thought, his focus intense. A crease had taken up residence on his forehead—a direct result of the angry scowl on his face.

  I didn’t say anything. Not able to move from where I stood, I simply waited.

  “My father beat me from the time I was five years old until I towered over him at sixteen. I don’t mean with a belt. When I was small, he threw me on the ground by my hair and kicked me. Held me up against the wall with his hand on my throat while I turned blue. Called me names no father should ever call a son. Broke my bones a few times, but I survived. As I grew, he threw fists at me. It didn’t get less violent. I had grown, so he used more for
ce. I was harder to hurt.” He stopped and inhaled deeply before lifting his head. His expression was void of any emotion. It was an empty hole and that broke me.

  “When my stepmother told me she was pregnant, I thought my life was over. In my father’s world, everything belongs to him. He always gets what he wants. If anyone tries to take something from him, his brutality has no bounds. When he found out his son had slept with his new wife before he had, my status as the son he had to abuse disappeared. In an instant, I’d become a threat. Some fucked up form of competition.”

  My stomach was in knots. I felt ill. I knew his father had hurt him, but I never knew the extent of the abuse. How was Stone a functioning, successful adult after that childhood? Or was he? I didn’t know him that well. He’d hidden his son from me. He could be hiding more. Did he have more darkness inside that he covered up? I hated myself for thinking he was deceitful. But the fear was there. How could it not be?

  “You still work for him. He’s raising your son.” I paused after saying that aloud. Facing it and accepting it were two different things.

  Stone dipped his chin as if he needed a moment to regroup. When raised his head up he looked like a man who was silently pleading and preparing for battle at the same time. “Do you think Wills is my son?”

  It was a question I had thought I knew the answer to until he asked me. I held the proof in my hand. Wasn’t Wills’ paternity already established? He hadn’t denied anything. He had explained his relationship with his stepmother. I wasn’t sure why he was asking me this now. I thought he’d explain why, try to help me understand.

  I held the photos up. “Yes.”

  I wanted Stone to say something, but he didn’t. With that one word, his entire face shuttered closed. That bored unavailable look I hated so much had returned.

  He straightened and walked past me down the hallway. He didn’t stop or say a word. All I heard was his bedroom door as it closed behind him.

  Beulah

  I WAITED, UNSURE IF I was capable of staying.

  After ten minutes had passed and he hadn’t left his room, I decided I couldn’t stay with Stone. I knew he was hurting—Jasper had cut him deeply. But he’d left me alone when we needed to talk.