17
Raine
No need towonder what the odds are of running intoherof all people. I know the odds. This town is too small to avoid her. This whole area with all the surrounding towns is too small to avoid her. I guess I was stupid for thinking maybe she had moved away and on with her life. After all, that was Haven's plan—one she should have kept. What the fuck is she still doing here?
The one thing she complained about the most was this small town. Haven was bored and suffocated. In fact, for some reason, she yearned formylife, as she told me countless times. I tried to show her what it meant to live in my shoes, and in return, she wanted to help me. Well, thanks for your help, Haven. Look at me now.
From the second I met her, I knew I should have kept my distance. I had no interest in dating, not under the circumstances I was living in, but Haven, she wanted it all. Unlike most chicks in this stuck-up town, she had fire in her eyes. It illuminated her essence—it spoke to me, made me believe she was different. I liked that about her, along with the fact that she didn't give up when I kept turning her down.
A girl who knows what she wants. That's not something you can find on any street corner, at least when those wants go beyond sex and a good time. Haven made me weak when I could hardly stand. Then the lie. That one beautiful lie she must have thought was so fucking innocent.Well, guess what, sweetheart. You ruined my life.
Walking the mile through the center of Sutter, I find Crow's bar looking just the way it did when I used to spend my nights here, before he wrote me off for sleeping with his chick. I wonder what he's up to now.
The motel Crow’s bar is connected to still only has the "m" and "l" glowing in red, just like I left it. Home sweet home, I guess.
Crossing the town border between Cascade and Sutter is like crossing the border of a country. The vast difference is apparent even at the town line where the freshly paved road abruptly stops at the ridged edge where the dirt road to Sutter begins. This is where I belong—a place with no parks, no coffee shops, no people with their noses pointed to the sky.
I take an empty seat at the bar next to a brunette covered in tats and piercings. Her eyes are lined with thick, black liner, her lips are blood red—perfect, and she's pounding shots alone.Seven years. "What are you drinking?" I ask her.
She looks over at me, her hazy gray eyes drawing a straight line from my nose down to my lap. "My life away," she says, her lips pulling into a sinful smirk.
"I'll have what she's having," I yell over to the bartender, who isn't Crow. It's Kacee, the girl Crow ended our friendship over. Wow, she’s still around,
"I know you," the girl says, bringing the next shot glass up to her lips. "You're that guy." Her head tilts back and she wraps her lips around the full rim of the glass.Holy fuck. Seven years.
"What guy?" I play along, knowing damn well that the gossip doesn’t stop at the town line.
"You fucked some kid," the girl says as she wipes the back of her hand under her lips, cleaning up the drip of liquid the glass left behind. A burning pain in my gut grows like someone just lit a match inside of me. What can I say? By law, she's correct. I turn away from the chick and rest my elbows on the bar, watching Kacee fill up several glasses with a clear liquid. "But hey, we all do stupid shit when we're young."
"Oh yeah?" I ask, glancing at her out of the corner of my eye as she lifts the hem of her shirt up a few inches. There's some dude's name written across her stomach. She points to the tattoo, saying, "This asshole put my head through a wall when he saw his name on my body." Next, she sweeps her bangs off to one side, revealing a thick scar. "So now I have two marks to remind me of him."
"I hope you cut off his balls in his sleep," I tell her, grabbing the first shot glass.
"Nah, I just killed him." I don't know if she's kidding or not, but she isn’t smiling. "I'm Crystal." She reaches her hand out to me, showcasing her long, pointy, electric blue nails.
"Raine," I say, placing my hand around hers.
"You should finish those shots, Raine." Her eyebrow arches and my cock hardens. I do as she says, taking each shot, one right after another, feeling the burn numb everything inside of me, except the growing ache in my groin. "I have a room next door," she says, suggestively, maintaining eye contact.
Music to my ears.One step up from a park bench, I suppose. She leans over the bar, waving at the bartender. "I got this," I blurt out. This will eat up the last of my cash.Good thinking. I’m obviously not thinking with my brain right now, but then again it has been seven years. I cringe inside as I’m reminded that Haven was the last girl I was with.
"You two are all set," Kacee yells over to us from behind the bar. She doesn’t seem to have noticed who I am, even though she surely must remember me, and I haven’t changedthatmuch, but she just comped our drinks, so maybe she does recognize me.
"She's an old roommate," Crystal informs me as she takes her coat from the hook under the bar. "Ready?" So she and Kacee used to be roommates. I stand up from the stool as she loops her arm through mine, pulling me quickly out the door. "You're a quiet guy, huh?"
I don't have much to say. "Guess so."
"You just get out today?" How much does this chick know about me? Fuck.
"Technically, yesterday since it's after midnight." Crystal starts jabbering about the night she spent in prison a couple years ago, and I can't focus long enough to acknowledge her story. For some stupid reason, my thoughts are caught up in Haven's words—her poor attempt at an apology. I shouldn’t be thinking anything about her. I should most definitely hate her.Because…seven years.
"Here we are," Crystal says, shoving her key into the lock as all her metal bracelets clap against the door. "So if you just got out yesterday, I guess it's safe to assume you haven't fucked anything in a while, at least not a woman..." As she’s speaking, she begins to undress. Her words, combined with her movements, mesmerize me, pulling my mind farther from Haven and closer to the almost completely naked, hot body standing in front of me. “I’ve never fucked a guy who just got out of prison. It’s kind of a turn on, like doing a virgin.” She continues to undress, and I’m standing here like a dumbass, just watching her.
Now in a black lace thong and nothing else, Crystal falls backwards onto the bed, one knee bent up and the other leg dangling from the side. Her arms are outstretched above her head and it's almost too easy.But I haven't fucked anything in seven years.Plus, I don't have a conscience anymore.
I kick my shoes to the side and pull my belt off, letting my pants fall to the ground. Walking toward the bed, I lift my shirt over my head and toss it onto the torn upholstered chair. "Hurry," she moans. "I'm wet, and I'm so ready for you."
No more second guesses. My boxers are off and I'm on top of her. "You have a rubber?" I ask. That could have crossed my mind at some point in the last ten minutes.
