CHAPTER TEN
ASHLEY
"Now, remember two dudes live here." Charlie led me blindfolded into his living room. "I did the best I could to clean up, but I can't promise it's a nice as your place."
He removed the blindfold and revealed a... very normal looking living room. I laughed. "This is what you were so worried about?"
He scratched the back of his head. "This is actually the first time I've ever had anyone over."
"You guys don't have parties or anything?" I wandered through the small living room and kitchen, checking things out. No bodies tucked anywhere, so that was promising. "Isn't that sort of against your reputation?"
"Reputation isn't everything." I heard him mutter. "We have a rule about not letting girls over unless they are related. To us, not each other."
I stopped in the middle of scanning his meager bookshelf—that he even had one was impressive—and stared at him. "I'm the first girl you've let over?"
His sheepish grin warmed me. "We had a house meeting and decided you were worth it."
"Charlie." I struggled to find the words to acknowledge how important this was, gesturing idly around in a ridiculous effort to find them. "That's... wow. That's big."
He swept me up in his arms and kissed me softly. "I care about you a lot, Ashley. I'm used to being Charlie the Badass, Man of Steel kind of thing. I never in a million years expected to find someone like you. I don't want to lose that."
I kissed him, soft and sweet, that led into a little gentle probing. I could feel his stress release as I ran my fingers through his hair. This was the Charlie Vermont I wish everyone could see. Not the hothead who possibly bashed up a guy’s headlights. I'd intended to ask him about it today, but it was going to have to wait.
His hands wandered up my back, but I beat him to the punch and dropped his jeans around his knees. He growled in surprise against my ear and it deepened into a groan once my hands slipped into his boxers to grasp him.
"I wanted to talk to you seriously." He said, pressing his fingertips into my back. "I want to be sweet to you."
"You are sweet to me." I rolled the elastic waistband down and watched his cock spring up like a child's toy. I popped my breasts out of my bra and dropped to my knees to run them over his length. "So now I'm going to be sweet to you."
"But we're supposed to talk." He slowly leaned backwards until he was against the wall, bracing himself with his hips jutted out. For all his talk before about not caring about receiving oral, he melted like a fat candle anytime I opened my mouth.
"So talk." I caressed his cock between my breasts and sucked on his head, just how he liked it. I alternated the sucks with tongue flicks and gentle nibbles, and watched in delight as his head tipped back in pleasure. "What do you want to tell me?"
"I used to be very... different." He let out a low groan and swore several times, his hands now buried in my hair. That boy was determined, I'd give him that. "I thought I was going to marry my high school sweetheart."
I swallowed his length and let my gag reflex trigger. His entire body shuddered when I dragged my teeth across him and replaced my mouth with my hands. "Lots of people think that. What happened?"
"Cheated." Charlie panted, now thrusting his cock against me, eyes glued to my mouth. "With my best friend while I was overseas."
I stopped my hands and gazed up at him with sincerity. "I'm so sorry, Charlie. That must have been hard." I took him back in my mouth and gave his balls a squeeze.
"It sounds stupid, but it changed me. I saw... bad shit." He grasped my head and fucked my mouth, slamming into the back of my throat. My eyes watered, but I kept working his base with my hands. This was the most personal he'd ever been with me. If he was only able to do it during a blowjob, so be it. "The only way to stop the bad shit was to be an unfeeling asshole."
This made me stop and pull off him. He cried out, knees weak, and reached for me. I took a step back, hiked up my skirt, and slowly pulled off my panties, letting him take a nice look at all I had to offer.
"Charlie, bad shit happens even if you are an unfeeling asshole." I pulled my shirt over my head and threw my bra backwards. Turning around, I pulled off my skirt with my ass popped back, letting him see my glistening cunt from behind. He was on me in a heartbeat, cock buried deep inside. I grasped the edge of the kitchen counter and let him take a few good thrusts before pushing him off and straddling the counter. I beckoned him to me and he stumbled like a starved man. I guided his cock into my warmth and shuddered at the feel of him from this angle. "You deserve more than living a cold life."
"I want more than that." He whispered, our foreheads pressed together. We watched our bodies come together and separate, come together and separate. I sucked on his thumb and guided it to my clit. "I want you."
A heady orgasm was steadily building, feeding off the emotions he shared with me. "You've got me." I whispered back.
He took my nipple in his mouth and I was done, flying over the edge of euphoria. I clawed at his back and cried out louder than ever now that we no longer had to hide. Charlie joined me only seconds later, his grunts and groans always my weakness. Before I'd fully come down, the frantic way he clung to me built me right back up and toppled me again just seconds later.
We finished, panting and sweaty, and our kisses felt bigger, more important. We'd crossed a threshold there we both felt.
"Fuck me on the kitchen counter at least twice a week, okay?" I said to ease back into the conversation. His eyes crinkled when he smiled and I knew, right then, that I loved him. I loved him wholly and completely and terrifyingly and it was amazing and perfect and awful all at once. And I wanted, more than anything, to tell him in exactly that moment, when everything was still so raw and perfect.
A car door slammed outside, souring the mood and sending us scurrying into clothes. Charlie muttered the entire time about how Rudolph was supposed to be with Whitney for the day, and what the hell were they doing there?
Except it wasn't Rudolph. I knew exactly who they were, though, and every euphoric bubble in my body burst all at once.
"Just couldn't keep your greedy hands to yourself, could you?" Brad called out from the driveway, looking smarmy. Chelsea stood by him, defiant and angry. "I've got proof now."
"The fuck do you want, Bradley?" Charlie sounded bored, but one look at him told me he was anything but. "I thought we'd already settled things."
"We didn't settle shit. Now we've got two scores to settle after the other night."
I kept my face neatly blank, but snuck a glance at Charlie's rigid jaw. The other night?
"I've got video, you piece of trash. Video of you kissing my girl. In public. Fucking class act, right? Bragging to the bar about your girlfriend, but then you haul mine outside, when she was drunk as shit, and took advantage of her?" Brad tutted at him with a smirk, but looked deadly. "You can't escape this bullshit now. Everyone can see you for the trash you really are."
"You can't prove anything." Charlie spat. Every muscle in his body was tense, ready to spring. The look on his face was utterly terrifying. "Fuck off."
Brad held up his phone to show a looping video of Charlie and Chelsea kissing. I recognized the shirt she was wearing immediately—it was from a charity event earlier in the week. All the air knocked out of my body.
"She was drunk, kissed me, and then I sent her off to a cab. That video doesn't prove anything, you moron." Charlie sneered. He'd drawn himself up to a terrifying stature and was staring down Brad like a bull about to strike. "Get the fuck out."
"I just thought your girlfriend would want to know." Brad winked at me, threw his arm around Chelsea, and turned to leave.
Charlie let out a yell and charged after them. Chelsea screamed and ran towards the car, but he collided head first with Brad and they toppled to the ground. They were ruthless and vicious, but all I could see was the image of Charlie kissing her over and over and over again. He just told me he'd been cheated on and it ruined him... when he'd done the exact same thing only a few days ago.
I felt completely numb. Charlie was terrifying in the yard and the infidelity bit hard and the lying about it even worse, but all I was... was numb. Every wall I’d purposefully taken down to let him in came soaring back up, sky high.
I went inside, got my purse, and left without saying goodbye. When I looked in my rearview mirror, he was still tangled with Brad, completely oblivious to the fact I was gone.