Forbidden (The Soul Mates Book 4) by Victoria Johns (30)

“Are you worried about this?”

“Not really.”

Carly and I were in my truck. I’d suggested that she make the trip home before her finals began next week. The frequency of calls from her mom had increased and I could see it was adding to her stress. This time she hadn’t simply forgotten to call them—it was that she was either hunched over a text book, eating or sleeping. Oh… and fucking me. It didn’t take me long to figure out that was the best way to destress her and force her into some down time. And I did class it as downtime for her, because I did most of the work.

“Something’s on your mind.” I reached over for her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. We were on our way to see our families but that meant spending time apart and not sleeping next to each other. I was worried about her enough as it was, without kicking her out of the car with something weighing on her mind.

“It’s the first time we’ve slept apart in months,” she told me quietly. “I’m not looking forward to that.”

“Me neither, baby, but it’s two nights. After that, we go back, get you through your finals and then work on the rest.”

I’d not heard from Jake since the night of his untimely visit. I was still kicking my own ass for not remembering he had a key to my place for emergencies and then forgetting about it when I told Carly to move in. You would think that handing over a physical key to her would have reminded me that there were another two in existence and that one was with my brother, but no. It seemed in all the excitement of her moving in with me, I forgot that.

Since then, I’d had the impression that Carly was expecting me to call it quits. Even though I’d told her it would all work out in the end, it seemed she was holding back from letting the words really sink in.

I’d tried not to let it play on my mind, but it was impossible and I was doing my best to hide it. This must have been how he felt when I’d put our brotherhood unit on a break last time.

I was a little worried myself about taking her home. I had a nightmare the other night about her realizing what she was risking. A home visit could bring that nightmare to reality and I prayed that this little break wasn’t about to seriously backfire.

“I’ve been invited to Purps for a pre-final blowout with the my old schoolies. I could go to that and… you could pop over and see your brother.”

So that’s what was wrong. “Don’t worry about me and Jake. It’ll all come good, I promise.” I sounded confident, but the fate of my relationship with my brother was down to one thing only—Lacey. The three of us had been inseparable at school, but the connection they had was something deeper and I knew he would never let me sabotage that. If Lacey and Tommy really couldn’t get on board with how I felt about their daughter, then I would have to make them see that this was nothing to do with Jake.

“Have a good night and let your hair down before the exams… but not too much.”

“Don’t like the thought of me out there, eh?” She laughed.

She was right. I didn’t. “It’s a meat market but your tasty ass has been well and truly branded.”

“It has,” Carly agreed.

* * *

I dropped her off and had to wave goodbye.

Wave. Goodbye.

Not kiss her passionately before sending her out to drink and dance in front of single motherfuckers. Wave goodbye.

By ten in the evening, I was more than ready to kill my mom and dad. I hadn’t seen them in a while, and the questions being thrown my way were at machine gun firing speed. It was like being water boarded. I didn’t even flinch when she mentioned my brother, and when I failed to answer some key questions I could tell my dad was becoming suspicious. It was when my mom left the room that my suspicions were confirmed. “What’s going on, son?”

“Nothing.”

“Your brother was always impulsive enough to lie straight off the bat. You always thought more carefully before going down that rabbit hole. You’re doing that now. Trust me the truth is just easier.”

Christ, was he wrong. “Just got some decisions to make, you know, career choices that kind of thing.”

“Nothing to do with why you’re not speaking with your brother then?”

I schooled my facial response carefully. “Says who?”

“Rebecca. Jake is wearing the same kind of look. I didn’t get it when she first described it, but I do now.”

“He had his life moment. I’m just working through my own. Without the worldly wisdom of the married man and father Jake has become.”

I stood up to leave. If I stayed here much longer, I’d crack under the pressure of his patient techniques. “I’m heading out to see Jonas. Back later.”

Jonas would be just as bad. What I really needed, was to see Carly. But Purps was just too exposed. Still, I knew I wouldn’t settle without her.

If she didn’t answer quickly I would have to go to Jonas’s house, or face my patient, interrogating dad.

Oh, I definitely was.

And I was already operating with a semi. The warm walls was an old alley that bordered the town bakery. The oven would be on all night, and back in the day, Jake and I used to take women there for a quick fuck. Not only did it smell much better than your average alley, it was, as it said on the tin, warm. The bricks were just the perfect temperature for your bare ass.

I drove my truck there, wondering whether taking Carly to this old haunt was too cliché, but I could make it a game for us. After all, we were sneaking around. I left it parked at one end of the alley. If it all went horribly wrong then I wanted to get her out of there quickly.

I got there before her and went to check out the alley. If it was already in use, we weren’t staying there. No one was seeing Carly in the throes of passion but me. Finding it empty gave me the chance to wait a little in the darkness so I could make sure she was okay. Purps was just around the corner, and I could watch her to make sure she got here safely.

I saw her come onto the main street in the smallest of dresses. Fuck, she was beautiful. She wasn’t like other girls at all. Most of them would have been all tits and ass hanging out, but Carly was covered in some girlie wrap thing that maintained her dignity.

She was wearing enormous shoes that gave her a good three inches of height. In all the time we’d been together, she’d never dressed like this for me. As we weren’t dating in public that wasn’t really necessary, but as soon as we were, I wanted to show her off to the world. With her wrap pulled tight around her and a small purse clutched in her grasp, I couldn’t take my eyes of how confident and excited she seemed. The noise of her pin sharp heels on the pavement echoed in my head. And groin.

Not wanting her to turn down a dark alley by herself, I stepped out from the shadows and watched as she quickened her step and ran at me. I caught her by the thighs and pulled her legs around me, trying to say hello, but failing due to the insistent kisses she was showering me with.

Carly was a little drunk.

“Baby, how much have you had?”

She giggled. “A couple.”

Running my hand up under her dress and feeling her thonged ass was amazing. In my head, I could view the scene. The small black dress, fuck me heels and milky skin. By the time I was walking into the alley, her wrap was dragging behind her in the breeze, as was all that fucking hair I adored.

“This was a bad idea,” I moaned.

“No it’s not. Fuck me, Wild Jack. Against the wall and make me come.”

Even though she’d had more than a couple, there was no way I was turning that down.

“You sure?”

“Oh yeah, baby. I’m wet just thinking about it.” Her low voice gave away the intensity of her own need.

Even in the darkness of the alley, I could see the longing in her eyes and I was completely powerless to resist.

Getting into the mindset she was after wasn’t hard for me, especially with her. She brought out the best in me. She also found my inner sexual animal a turn on and I was more than happy to oblige.

“What do you want me to do to you?”

Pulling me close to her so she was whispering against my lips as she licked them, I felt my dick harden at the thought of her demanding something from me. “I want you on your knees. I want you to fuck me with your tongue.”

I was salivating at the very idea of burying my head between her thighs. Dropping to a crouch, I picked up a silky smooth leg and slung it over my shoulder. Roughly pulling the skimpy material aside, I felt her quiver when I gently blew on her lips. “I am going to fucking devour you.”

As a groan, fuck, more like a plea for me to get on with it fell from her lips, I got to work. I licked between her lips like I was a dying man and this was everything I needed to stay alive. Carly was so into it that I could feel her fingernails scoring my scalp. After a minute or two, the one leg she was balancing on was quivering and I knew that as soon as I’d finished her off, I’d have to move my hands to her hips quickly, just to keep her upright.

“Jack, Oh, fuck yeah. Just… there… Jack.” I could hear her plead. I was so goddamn hard it was starting to hurt. If this was how playful she was when she’d had a couple of drinks, then we’d be exploring some drunk fucking for real again. I adored seeing her lose her inhibitions. She did this with me anyway; it was one of the best things about us. But this was another side to her again and I was keen to discover more.

“I’m coming!” she wailed, and before she toppled over, I pinned her to the wall with one free hand while I sucked up everything her body was throwing at me.

Carly was still screaming through her orgasm when my senses remembered that we were down a dark alley and had probably ridden our luck more than we should have done.

“You taste amazing,” she said, practically sucking her own juices from my face.

“That’s all you, baby. Come on, we need to get you back home.”

Carly stopped and pulled my hand. “I hate that we haven’t had sex today.” Her honesty was one of her most endearing features. “Jack, I’m not ready to leave you. What if I don’t want to come back here without you after my finals?”

It seemed that alcohol also acted like a truth serum. “Don’t worry about that now. Just get through your finals and we’ll sort the rest out, okay?”

“Promise?” The fear and uncertainty in her voice were things I’d been experiencing myself lately and it was reassuring to know I wasn’t suffering alone.

“I will do whatever is necessary for us to be together.”

Even with a distinct level of intoxication, I could see that my words had settled her. “Where are you parked?”

“Just around the corner.”

The worry that we be might be seen leaving the alley together became real, but we weren’t far away from my car and it was pretty late. There was only Purps open, so the streets were pretty quiet.

“What in the ever loving fuck?” Carly snapped beside me and stood rooted to the spot, glaring across the street.

When I followed to where she was looking, I could see one of her dad’s cabs rocking and bouncing with all the windows steamed up. “So one of the cabbies got lucky. Come on.”

“Jack, that’s my dad’s cab and Mom is working the night shift at Grove House.”

I could see from the way she was reacting that the tell tale signs of someone having sex in her dad’s cab were not going down well. “In that case, your dad is going to have to clean some of that nasty off his leather.”

Carly dropped my hand instantly. “He never lends his cab out. I can’t believe he’s cheating on her. On our fucking family.”

Before I could make her see sense, she stormed across the road with her fists clenched. “Baby, not a good idea.”

I got to her a fraction too late and just missed grabbing her hand as she yanked on the car’s door handle.

“You cannot be fucking serious. You cheating asshole,” she screamed into the aperture.

There was a commotion of embarrassment as Tommy pulled himself from between the legs of the woman.

“What the fuck?” he bellowed.

Carly went to leap inside the vehicle. Her mood had gone from just angry to completely set on violence. Having it confirmed that it was her dad in there did nothing to stop what was happening.

This time, I managed to get my arms around her waist and pull her back. She was like a spooked cat but I knew the minute I set her free she’d bolt again. “Calm it down, baby,” I hushed against her ear.

This moment couldn’t have been any worse.

It was Lacey, Tommy was having sex with in the cab.

And there I stood with their precious daughter, holding her close and whispering in her ear, looking at her very angry dad and his wife, my best friend, half naked and clearly confused at what the fuck was going on.