THE END OF CINDERELLA
Lacey
My legs could move, since I’d worn a dress with the slit from toe to waist in the front.
When I was sure I’d lost Jordan, I stopped. My heart was racing, and my boobs actually hurt from running across the great lawn and along the reservoir.
Heaving, I tried to catch my breath, still walking along the jogging path with my arms in the air over my head.
“Lacey!” he called, startling me. I spun, disappointed when I saw him so close. There was no way I could keep running. I was pretty sure my feet were bleeding, and my body was aching from the exercise with no warm-up and not wearing the right apparel.
Somehow seeing him pained me more.
I turned and limped away as fast as I could, but his slapping shoes on the cement shouted his impending arrival.
I braced for the grab or the embrace, but he did neither. He caught up and walked alongside me, not forcing me to look at him. “Wait.”
“Why?” I started to laugh, because I couldn’t cry anymore. “This is the most fucked-up thing I’ve ever heard of.” I covered my face and moaned. “You paid me to bait you, and then I ruined any chance we had at a relationship with the guilt I made myself sick from.” I pulled my hands away, glaring at him. “Is this not the moment you just throw in the towel and say fuck it?”
“No!” He grabbed my arms, spinning me to face him. “No. This is the moment we admit we’re immature and pathetic and possibly bad at communicating with others. This is the moment we admit we like each other. And we will never do anything so twisted to the other person again. Like Monty and Marcia are right now.” He pointed back at the Met.
“They’ve been dating for years.”
“And a couple of years from now, when we’re still dating, we can look back on this and laugh. It’s a series of unfortunate mistakes and miscommunications. You didn’t do anything to hurt me intentionally, and I didn’t either.”
“I did!” I shouted. “I tested you, judged you, broke you up with your pretend girlfriend, and then ghosted you while your life was falling apart! All on purpose.”
“Well, I forgive you,” he shouted as a guy walked past us, giving Jordan a look like he wanted to tell him to run away from me. “Because I never would have hit on that girl in the bar. I’d already met you. You were wrong about me, because I was putting on an act. Had I just manned up like you said and ended that bullshit on my own, none of this would have happened. None of it.” He braved stepping closer, staring down at me. “And maybe you would never have gone through with creating the Test Dummy in the first place because you would have told me about your money issues and I could have helped. I would have. I still want to.” He brushed my hair from my face.
“You’re insane.” I didn’t have a single other thing to offer. It was too soon and too fast, and he was too intense.
“I’m crazy about you.” He took my hand in his and kissed the back of it, lingering. “I want to date and be together and win you over. Please forgive me.”
The feel of his hand around mine and his lips pressed against my flesh gave way to other feelings.
“Call Heinrich and your car. We’re finally going to do something right,” I said before I really thought about it too much.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m not sure! My feet are bleeding, and I’m wearing a five-thousand-dollar dress in Central fucking Park. Strangers are probably recording this. I feel like I’m having a heart attack.” I rubbed my chest bones.
“Okay, that’s a yes.” He raised his eyebrows and pulled out his phone, then sent a text. He enclosed his hand around mine and pulled me, making me wince as it felt like I was walking on glass.
“Ow!” I pulled back, lifting my foot and cringing at the mess of it.
“Here.” He scooped me into his arms, holding me to his chest. “Wouldn’t be the first time I carried you like this to the car.” He laughed.
“Oh my God. We are a mess.” I wrapped my arms around his neck, holding him tight.
When we got to the street, the limo pulled up moments later.
“How does he do that?”
“He maps me constantly,” he said as he bent and got the door for me before placing me inside.
“Ouch!” I gasped from the pain in my feet as I sat, my hands wanting to grab at him when he sat across from me. “Same limo?” I asked.
“The very same.” He offered that smile. “Stay in your seat. I don’t intend to let you make the same mistake as last time.”
I contemplated getting up, but I was curious about us finally being in a bed. Maybe after a shower and some bandages were put on my feet. And a stiff drink and a nap.
He didn’t speak, and the air filled up with that tension, the one I used to think was awkwardness. Now I saw. His bruised and bloody hands gripped his legs, squeezing his knees as he trembled, fighting the urge to touch me.
The ride around the park was long and quiet and tense.
We’d talked too much. To death. The truths had flooded out from every nook and cranny, blowing open both our hearts.
And now in silent reverie we would have to put the pieces back where they belonged, though once a heart was shattered, it didn’t look the same. You never got those pieces back where they should have gone. That’s where the changes came from. The new imperfections and cracks. They formed us, creating the person we would become together when the broken pieces healed.
As the limo stopped, my stomach ached with anxiety and excitement fluttering about in me. Jordan got out first, then lifted me up and carried me to the back door. He flashed a card and opened the door, taking me to the elevator.
He placed me on the floor once we were there, making me wince. I stood beside him, slipping my hand into his and staring at the metal doors, wondering what secrets they held for us. What expressions they hid with their brushed metal. If they’d been shiny, what would we have seen?
When the elevator dinged, we weren’t in a hallway but a massive hotel room. It was furnished differently than the others. More like a house. It was the penthouse.
He lifted me and carried me across the floor to a bedroom at the back. He placed me down in the bathroom, his fingers still trembling with need and control.
He stood behind me, staring at me in the mirror. We were a sight. My hair was ruffled and pulled from the clip. My makeup had run down my cheeks. His knuckles and white shirt were bloody.
“Why are we both a hot mess every time I’m in this hotel with you?” He sighed as he unzipped me and brushed the dress down my shoulders, pooling it at my feet, leaving me completely naked except for a silver thong.
He inhaled sharply.
“Maybe we’re both a hot mess, and this hotel just amplifies that.” I brushed his comment off as I turned, flashing my ass in the mirror, and grabbed his bow tie, undoing it and the buttons to his shirt. I didn’t want to talk about how messy we were. I dragged his jacket down with his shirt, leaving him in his undershirt. I pulled off his belt next and dropped it to the floor, making the sound of the metal hitting the marble floor echo in the silence.
I undid his pants, staring into his eyes as I let them slip down to the floor. I dragged his shirt up, pulling it off him, and then ran my fingers over his slightly hairy chest. It was a light smattering on his chest in the middle and then more on his treasure trail. At twenty-two, it was a sign of what he would have later in life. A lot. But it also made me wonder about his beard. His whiskers seemed solid, like they might be thick and spaced well enough to grow a good one.
His chest was broad and strong, not gnarled with muscle, but it could get there. He had the body type that had the potential to be incredibly thick. My hands looked tiny on his body. I ran them over his arms, squeezing the muscles. He stepped back, looking at me. Inspecting me the same way I was him. I pulled my thong off. He did his boxers. Unleashing that big, beautiful beast. I licked my lips, staring at it.
He reached forward, running a finger up my torso, stopping in a weird spot. I glanced down, smiling. “Appendix.” He was touching my tiny scar.
As if the words were the moment he was needing, he sprang. He swept me into his arms, kissing me and crushing my body into his. We kissed as we walked to the shower. I cried out in his mouth as cold water rained down on us. It got warm fast, and not just from us. He lifted me into the air, holding me as he sat me on the bench. He pulled back, lifted my feet, and gently washed them. Brown dirt and old blood ran down into the drain.
“Do they look bad?”
“No. A couple of small cuts.” He helped me stand and grabbed a washcloth. He soaped it up, and starting with my hands, he washed me.
It was sensual and yet something else, intimate in a trust-building sort of way.
When he got to my breasts he delicately brushed the cloth over them, flicking my stimulated nipples with light touches. I gasped, biting my lip and wishing more would happen as his hands moved to my stomach. I wanted to beg and plead with him to touch me everywhere, but the way he was moving, I didn’t imagine it would do me any good. He was taking this the slow way. I’d rushed things once already.
When he got between my legs, again he was delicate with his touches. He lightly cleaned, massaging and swirling the warm water between my legs. I leaned back against the tile wall, closing my eyes as he lightly fingered the right spot. Just when he hit it, though, he would stop again.
I groaned, begging with my stare and my breath, but he ignored it. He washed my legs and feet, kneeling on the floor of the shower. His face was so close to the place I really wanted it. As I was about to beg, he did the thing I wanted. He lifted my leg to the bench, spreading me open for his inspection.
He leaned in, the water running down us both as he nuzzled his face in there, rubbing his nose against my clit. He kissed the inside of my thigh, and I realized he knew what he was doing. He was tormenting me.
I sucked my breath, whimpering as he went back, licking once, flicking my clit.
I clung to his head and pushed it into the right place, forcing him to touch me.
But he was stronger. He stood, lifting me again, dripping wet, and carried me from the running shower. He didn’t get a towel or dry us off. He carried me to the bed and tossed me down, staring at me like the uncaged thing he would tame.
I spread myself, reaching for him.
He grabbed a condom, put it on, and stood staring at me. I’d never seen anything so hot in my life. A man with huge hands fondling himself, in a way that felt like I shouldn’t see it. Water dripped off his beautiful body as he stared at me and made me blush. Everything else should have, but it was his stare that undid me.
He crawled onto the bed, sliding between my legs. He kissed me gently as he pushed in slowly, like I’d made him do the first time.
It took a couple of thrusts before I could relax into his movements, creating my own.
I was lost in it all, the deep kisses and the full thrusts, him invading my body in both places as his hands kneaded me, lifting and gripping.
He felt like the ocean over me, riding me and rippling over my body, writhing inside of me. I closed my eyes, arching my back and letting him fuck me sensually.
I relinquished control as his body controlled mine, moving me and pleasing me with every stroke and thrust and pump and grip.
He nibbled at my neck and sucked my nipples, inhaling them and flicking, but maintaining that rhythm inside of me. He groaned into my neck, growling almost as he gripped my ass, lifting me to meet him.
Pulling out, he sat back on his heels and placed my legs in his arms as he pulled me closer, dragging me down the bed to him. He pushed himself back in, staying upright and cupping my ass, with my legs running up his chest and my feet hooking over his shoulders. He pushed in hard, making me grunt as he filled me up.
Dragging me into the thrust, he pushed again, hitting the right spot, making another sound slip from my lips. He did it again, and again, hard and fast until I didn’t stop making the sound, and my body convulsed on his. His hips pounded my ass as his cock pummeled me.
My eyes rolled into the back of my head as I orgasmed, riding the waves he was making for us.
Ecstasy overwhelmed me. I gripped the wet blankets behind me, moaning with every move he made until I finished, and even then, I whimpered as he continued to pump into me violently. When he came, his veins bulged and his angry face came back. He grunted and thrust until he looked like he might burst. He jerked and shuddered until he finally flopped on top of me, kissing my cheek.
His heaving chest and mine matched.
I watched him for a minute before I closed my eyes and contemplated what a lot of convoluted destruction we had left in our wake.
And now that the sex was done and the feet were clean, we needed to answer a lot of little details. Fill in gaps. I dreaded this part.
I hated how I’d treated him.
He spoke low, next to my ear. “So the day you got attacked by that guy outside that bar—”
“How do you know—”
“I was there.” He said it in a whisper. My whole body started to shiver.
“There?” I asked softly, feeling him on top of me, tensing. “That was you?” I gasped, lifting my head and staring at him. “You were following me?”
“Yeah.” He nodded, climbing off of me and lying on the bed properly. “You were working?”
“I was.” I climbed up next to him and pulled the dry part of the blanket up. “The girl who messaged me was a random, so I didn’t know what I was dealing with. I got the guy to hit on me, and he didn’t take no for an answer.” My entire body was tingling with the revelation. “You beat him up.”
“Yeah, I did. I’ve never been so scared in all my life. I didn’t understand what you were doing. Those clothes and the makeup. And that part of town. It was all so weird.”
“He had a pregnant girlfriend. She had a suspicion.” And I had no defense.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get there faster.” His eyes burned.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t more honest with you, about everything.”
“I get it. You’re strong and independent, and you take care of yourself. And you run away from anything that could possibly interfere with your control. But you need to start understanding the word teammate. You don’t have to do everything on your own.”
“I know. I’m sorry I ran.”
“Don’t run away this time, Cinderella.”
“I won’t.” I lifted my gaze to look into his dark-green eyes. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be than here.”
It was the truth.
And for the first time since we’d met, it was also possible for me to stay without guilt eating away at me or work needing me.
Everything was going to be okay.
His dimpled smile told me that.
My days as Cinderella were over.
It was finally time for me to be a princess to a prince.