Chapter Five
Trace
Thump!
Thump!
Thump, thump, thump!
“She’s driving me fucking crazy,” I rasped to myself as my padded gloves and bare feet kept making satisfying connections with the heavy punching bag suspended in front of me.
I’d been perfecting my MMA skills for years, but you’d never know it. My technique sucked right now, and I wasn’t really practicing. I’d grabbed my gloves and pulled on a pair of grappling shorts. I hadn’t bothered wrapping my hands. All I really wanted was to blow off steam, a hell of a lot of sexual energy that I couldn’t seem to lose elsewhere. For me, that meant I needed to punch something.
Thump, thump, thump!
I’d been beating up the bag with everything I had for over fifteen minutes.
But my dick was still hard.
Thump!
My breath sawed in and out of my lungs, and sweat was trickling from my face and landing on my drenched chest, but I still wasn’t spent. One glimpse of Eva in her fuck-me dress had done me in.
I’d barely made it out of her room without lifting the hem of her dress over her ass and taking her against the wall. Usually, that’s exactly what I’d do. But the way I felt when I looked at her defied my usual reason.
I wanted her, but I also felt like I needed her. Experiencing emotions like that was foreign to me, and I didn’t like it.
I fucked.
I sent nice gifts.
And I was done.
Britney was the only woman I’d ever had a monogamous relationship with, and look how shitty that had turned out. I’d never done exclusivity again, before or after my experience with the girlfriend-from-hell.
Strangely, I’d never been possessive of Britney or any other woman. I didn’t think it was in my DNA. The only reason I’d gone exclusive with Britney was because she had wanted it, and I had been pretty ambivalent at the time. There hadn’t been anyone else I wanted to fuck, and I was okay with her being the only one. Too bad she hadn’t felt the same way, even though she’d been the one to insist on being my one and only.
Now, not only did I want to nail Eva until she couldn’t walk, but I was also covetous of her, possessive for the first time in my life.
“Jesus! I’m pathetic,” I growled, throwing random punches and kicks at the bag in front of me, breathing hard when I finally stopped.
Shucking the gloves as I headed toward the shower of my home gym, I knew Eva was probably ready and waiting upstairs for me to take her to the store.
I was feeling only slightly better as I got dressed after stroking myself to orgasm in the shower to fantasies of making Eva come in a variety of ways.
What in the fuck was happening to me? There was any number of women I could call, but that wasn’t what I wanted, and it wasn’t going to satisfy me any more than my own hand just did.
I climbed the stairs in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, almost certain I was completely losing my mind.
Watching Eva shop in a pair of skin-tight jeans and a sweater, obviously part of her new wardrobe judging by the designer label on the back pocket of the denim, was almost a sensual experience.
She clung to the food reverently, as though it were precious. When she stroked the damn turkey like it was some kind of grand prize, I wanted to come right there in the fucking grocery isle.
“Is that the one?” I asked impatiently, anxious to get her away from the turkeys.
She sighed, and I wanted to absorb the satisfied sound with my mouth over hers.
“It should work good. There’s just the two of us. We’ll be eating leftovers for days, even with this one.” She hefted up what looked like an enormous bird to me, not that I knew anything about finding the right Thanksgiving turkey.
She looked happy, and so damn beautiful doing such a mundane task that I wanted to bottle her enthusiasm so I could get drunk on it later.
Moving forward, I tried to take the heavy item, but she refused.
I motioned for her to hurry up and add it to the cart. “Drop it in.” And get me the fuck out of here now.
She didn’t dump it in the cart. Eva placed it in the bottom carefully, moving other items around to make room. Then, she gave the plump bird another small pat. “I think that’s it. We should be done. Your cupboards are well-stocked. You just didn’t have a few of the things we needed for a Thanksgiving dinner.”
I didn’t cook. My employees knew that. Most of my dinners were ordered in or easy to heat. Until Eva, I’d never even wondered who shopped for me, or how exactly what I wanted seemed to magically appear in my cupboards.
I was close enough to smell her delicate, intoxicating scent, and when she looked up at me and smiled, I decided that I wanted to keep this woman happy no matter what I needed to do.
Mine.
I felt the word all the way to my gut. Eva didn’t know it yet, but she belonged to me. At least for a little while.
“Eva?” A female voice squealed from down the aisle.
I watched as Eva turned around, her expression breaking into an even broader smile.
“Isa!” She ran to meet the woman halfway, the two females colliding in an awkward tangle of arms as they hugged happily.
“Where have you been? I was so worried when I couldn’t get in touch with you.”
The woman’s voice lowered after that comment, and I casually strode closer to listen to their conversation.
Isa—whoever the person might be to Eva—was absolutely stunning. She was a little taller than Eva, but around the same age.
Eva turned to introduce her friend to me. “Isa, this is Trace Walker, my…” She seemed to be searching for words.
“Her fiancé,” I finished, smiling at the pretty dark-haired female next to Eva. There was no way I wanted any of Eva’s friends knowing the truth. Hell, not even my own brother was going to know.
“Trace, this is my friend, Isa Jones. We lost track of each other for a while. She ran off after she got married.”
Isa playfully punched Eva’s arm. “I didn’t run off. You moved and I didn’t know.” She stuck out her hand. “It’s very nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you from the media.”
The female had a strong, confident handshake, and she met my eyes directly. I liked that. It wasn’t any big surprise that she knew of me. It seemed that I was everybody’s favorite target for the gossip columns and magazines. I hated knowing that the Walker name was infamous, and that people I didn’t know actually knew my name and selected information I chose to release. That part of being wealthy had never failed to bother me. I preferred that my private life stayed private, but that wasn’t going to happen. It was something I’d accepted over the years as being a down side to having a lot of money. I didn’t have much choice. I was born with the proverbial silver spoon in my mouth, and because I worked my ass off, my fortune only got larger.
“My pleasure.” I put a charming smile on my face.
Stepping back, Isa asked, “How long have you been together?”
Seeing her discreet glance at Eva’s ring finger, I knew that was a situation I had to rectify soon. She needed a ring.
“We’ve been…connected for years,” Eva said carefully. “But we just made the big commitment. We haven’t even had time to get a ring.”
Eva was good, so good that even I almost believed her. She could tell the absolute truth, but make it vague without anyone suspecting there was more than what she was saying.
We’ve been…connected for years? Technically, she’s my stepsister, so I guess that’s true.
Guilt pounded at me for the dire circumstances Eva had suffered. Yeah, maybe I hadn’t known I had a stepsister, but I’d never thought to ask. As far as I knew, my brothers didn’t have a clue that Eva had existed either. My father had grown children, and Eva’s mother hadn’t been that much younger than my dad. It made sense that she had borne a child…now.
I reached out and clasped Eva’s hand, only to find her fingers were like an iceberg.
“You cold?” I asked.
She squeezed my hand. “No. I’m fine.”
It felt natural to keep her next to me. I didn’t find out much more about Eva, but through the conversation, I did discover that Isa was married to a man I knew and admired, a wealthy technology genius.
Isa hugged Eva again. “Please don’t lose touch. I’ve missed you, and I’ve wondered how your educational plans worked out.”
I wondered what Eva had been planning, but I didn’t ask. Somehow, I had a sense that she was uncomfortable talking to Isa about it. She’d lowered her head, and she was no longer looking her friend in the eye. Her body language was screaming that she was distressed.
“Do you have a cell phone?” I asked Isa, changing the focus of the conversation.
It was easy to presume, by the look in Eva’s eyes, that she’d missed Isa, too, but just didn’t want to talk about whatever her plans had been right now.
Isa rummaged in her purse and pulled out her phone.
“I’ll put in Eva’s new cell.” I already knew the number by heart, which was both pathetic and normal for me. I was naturally good with numbers, and had perfect recall if the numbers were important enough for me to remember. The fact that my brain had subconsciously recorded the number of the cell phone I’d purchased for Eva was pretty sad. There were very few phone numbers I considered important, and all of those numbers were already in my phone, including hers. I’d put it in as soon as I’d purchased the phone and set it up. Strange that for some reason, I’d thought the number was important enough to take up space in my already overcrowded mind.
I handed the cell phone back to Isa after entering Eva’s number.
The women hugged again, with a promise from both of them to call and catch up.
“She was important to you. Still is,” I guessed as we walked toward the checkout.
“Yes.” Eva’s tone was guarded.
“A friend? She looks older than you.”
“She was a teaching assistant at my high school. I’m guessing she’s probably a teacher now. She was finishing up her teaching degree when we met.” She paused before asking, “Since when do I have a cell phone?”
I ignored her question. I’d bought her plenty that she hadn’t seen yet. “How did she end up married to Jones?” A teaching assistant and a tech mogul was an interesting combination.
Eva shrugged. “She was already dating him when I met her, so I’m not sure how they met. But she looks happy.”
“So what were your plans?” That was actually what I was most curious about, and I raised a brow at her after unloading the groceries onto the belt. She was silent.
“Sometimes plans don’t work out,” she answered abruptly.
Something was wrong, I could sense it, recognizing the thread of sadness in her voice mingling with her defensiveness.
“You’ll tell me when we get home.” I’d wring it out of her somehow. I’d banish all of the shadows of her past because they irritated me. Eva was the type of woman who was inherently made to be happy, yet she’d somehow been robbed of the opportunity.
She got screwed by a selfish mother who hadn’t given a shit about her.
The more I thought about it, the more it pissed me off. My dad had had expectations for all of his sons. He’d been a savvy businessman, and he’d been formidable, but he wasn’t the type not to accept a new daughter had Eva’s mother chosen to bring her into the family.
Eva was quiet as we exited the store, and that annoyed me even more. I had to know why she had been forgotten when her mother had taken off for Texas to marry my dad. Hell, she obviously hadn’t even stayed for Eva’s high school graduation. What kind of parent was that?
Seeing her apartment and how Eva had been living made my gut ache. Granted, I knew next to nothing about Karen Morales, but I was going to make it a point to find out.
My control was something I valued, and I was slowly losing it completely when it came to Eva. I needed to find out what was wrong so I could fix it. When I buried my cock inside her, I greedily wanted her complete attention.
I didn’t want gratitude.
I didn’t want her to feel like she owed me.
All I wanted was her pleasure, and those climatic moments would belong to me and only me.
If that made me a selfish bastard, I didn’t care, but I would make her mine.
I had no doubt that I’d win.
I always do.