About Time (Broken Vows #4)

Chapter 32

Chapter Thirty-Two

Charlie Past- Age 42

I stand on the other side of her door shocked that she actually shut it in my face. My doll has grown a spine since the last time I saw her, and instead of being annoyed, I find it fucking hot. I’m going to enjoy bending her back to my will. I don’t question that it will happen, only how hard she’s going to fight me.

Imagining the battle to come makes me hard. Life has been really fucking dull without her in it, and I need my favorite toy back in my life. She’s the only one I’ve ever explored this kink with, and without her sex is just a means to a release. One I don’t engage in very often.

My phone rings on my short walk back to my truck. I look at the screen and see Griffin’s name on the screen. “Where the fuck are you?”

“Hello to you too, asshole,” I reply.

“I came in this morning, and only Julio is here. What is going on? It’s been years since you just flaked off and didn’t show up.”

I know he is wanting to lean on me a bit more while he and Wren are settling things between them. Since Liam found out about them, especially about the baby, shit has hit the fan. Ordinarily, I’d be there for him, but I overheard a conversation Wren had with Hattie now that she’s back to working in the office.

There was a lot of squealing, and when Wren congratulated her on her engagement, my heart froze. I know it makes me a dick, but until this moment, I guess I always just assumed that one day we’d work our shit out. Insisting Hattie deserved better was okay in theory, but in practice, I realize I’m a fucking idiot. I’m also not selfless enough to allow her to find it. I might be the worst thing to ever happen to her, and I’m pretty sure she’d agree with me right now, but she’s fucking mine.

It’s taken me twelve long years to wake the hell up, but now that I see clearly, I’m not wasting any more time. I don’t know who Clark is. If she is truly in love with him, I’ll have to make my peace with it, but I have to see for myself. If there’s even the slightest chance that she’s still as in love with me as I am with her, I’m not going to stop until I have her back in my arms. Even if I have to drag her back by her hair.

So that is why I’m sitting in my truck, parked across the street, watching her front door like a fucking stalker.

“Look, Griff, I’ve got some things I need to take care of. You should understand, as you just did it yourself.”

He exhales. I know him well enough to know that he still wants to fight me on this, but I’m not giving him any opening to chime in on what I’m doing.

“Well, what is it?” he finally asks.

“Nah, I’m not into oversharing like you. If I can fix my shit, I’ll let you know. Maybe. For now, you are just going to have to trust me as my oldest friend.”

“I’m not going to have to decontaminate your house again, am I?” he asks. I know he’s joking, but the dark place I fell into twelve years ago scared him. It scared me too, honestly. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to following in the footsteps of my father.

If I had, I’d probably have the plot next to his in the cemetery. My tombstone would read, “Here lies Charles Storm, Jr. He drank himself to death just like Charles Storm, Sr.”

By then it’s debatable that Griffin would even mourn my loss. No one mourned the loss of my father. I only buried him in the cemetery because his buddies at the bar raised the money. The only people in life who missed the bastard are spread out around the cemetery along with him by now. All of them died from one alcohol-related disease or another.

Although, if I followed his footsteps the alcohol would just be a symptom of my broken heart. The sad thing is that for all I suffered, I did to myself. I could have kept her with me. Hearing bits and pieces of Wren and Hattie’s discussion, I realize how much she’s suffered too. I’d hoped she’d let me in and we could talk, but I’m not surprised at having the door shut in my face.

It’s getting late in the day, so I decide to throw in the towel for the day and go to the hotel I’d booked for Griffin only a month ago. I won’t win any favors with Hattie trying to make her let me in again today.

The hotel is just a few blocks down from her condo, and right on the beach. I take the time to go clear my head by walking on the beach. I can see why she ran away to Clearwater. There’s something about the ocean that puts problems into perspective. Nothing seems overwhelmingly big while starting out into the vastness of the Gulf.

I make it a few buildings down from Hattie’s condo. The first thing I see are strands of her hair blowing in the wind. Her hands are behind her gripping onto the rail of her back deck, off the second level of her home. By the tense set of her shoulders I can tell whatever she’s wrestling with is troubling her.

When I get closer I can see a man leaning against the house. His posture mirrors hers, but not in the way that says the people are in sync. I don’t know when they got engaged, but the signs aren’t looking good for it to continue.

That is not good for him, but it’s fantastic for me. He turns his back to her, and Hattie drops her head. Her shoulders start to shake as she starts to sob. My opinion turns on a dime. I realize I’ve been selfish this whole time. Even when I pushed her away for her sake, I realize now it was to protect myself from getting too close to someone. To prevent letting someone from getting close enough to hurt me.

I don’t know why I thought that I would suffer less if I was the one that chose to end it. At the end Hattie was still gone, only I had no one else to blame but myself. Knowing that it was my choice didn’t make it hurt less. It just made me feel like the world’s biggest fool. I had love, and I actively pushed it away.

The selfish part of me, which let’s face it is probably about three-quarters of who I am, is glad that they appear to be breaking up. The rest of me is concerned because Hattie seems to be breaking. Maybe I’m a fool for letting myself believe that we’re about to embark on some storybook romance. If she’s in this much pain ending a relationship with this guy, how could she really love me the way I’ve let myself believe.

I hear a door slam, and less than a minute later he comes out of the door on the lower level. I give it a couple of minutes before I go to the front door and knock.

“Clark,” I hear her say before she opens the door. “I—” She sighs in frustration when she sees that it’s me. “Now’s not a good time Charlie.”

“Talk to me, Doll. I do know how to listen.” I steel myself to listen to her mourn another man.

Hattie shrugs her shoulders and takes a half step to the side. I slide in past her. I go sit on the couch and gesture to the seat across from me.

“What do you want me to say?” she asks as she flops into the chair.

“Whatever you want, Doll.” I point at her left hand. “You can start with your missing jewelry and work from there.”

She slides her hand under her leg and fidgets. “I thought I could do it, marry Clark. He loves me so much, and he’s my best friend. I really thought that we could make it work. But it wasn’t enough for me, and it wasn’t fair to him.”

“You should come home,” I say. Immediately I know I’ve made a mistake. Her face pinches and she glares at me.

“Where is home? My sister’s house is gone. I’m not moving in with my niece and watch her play house with Griffin. Is it with you?” she scoffs, like she said the most ridiculous thing ever.

“Why can’t it be with me? You’re my wife.” Saying that is my second mistake.

“Don’t say that. I’m your wife through nothing more than some kind of clerical error. A real marriage isn’t spent apart. And it certainly doesn’t have the husband sleeping with all the single women in town.”

I take a breath in slowly through my nose. “I know that it wasn’t our intention to stay married. I’m not going to excuse my behavior, exaggerated as it is, because if I’d known there was a remote chance we could make it work, or that we were still married, I’d never have touched another woman. As it is, believe me or not, I was drunk off my ass every single time.”

She twists her lips. “I can’t go back with you,” she finally says.

“Wren is going to have a baby. Elisa is gone, and she’s going to need you. I need to atone for not speaking up when I realized that Liam was stepping out on her. Please, if you won’t come back for me, then do it for her. Do it because that’s what Elisa and Martin would want.”

Her eyes narrow. “Damn you, that was a low blow. You’re right though. She would want that. I’ll do it for Elisa and Wren. I need a few weeks. I’ve got to put in notice at my job, look for another one, and find a place to live. This doesn’t change anything for us. We don’t work together.”

“You could—” Her eyes snap to mine and the look she gives me stops me mid-sentence. I was going to suggest she come live with me, but she already shot that down.I know she wants to mean it. She doesn’t want to want me, but she does. I’m going to use it against her. I have to, because living without her isn’t living.

“You’re right. I can go look at places for you, maybe take some pictures.” Anything I can do to speed her along. I know that the first step is to get her back home. Once she’s on familiar turf I can start to win her over. Or wear her down. Whatever gets me back in her life.

Hattie huffs. “I know that look,” she says, pointing her finger and circling it around my face. “You think that if you just get me to come back, everything will magically fall back into place and that we’ll be us again.”

“What’s so wrong with that?” Again, thinking before I speak would do me a world of good. I’m going to have to work on that.

“Really? Well, let me see. I don’t want to go back to being your dirty little secret. I’m not sure what the point of being married is if we’re the only ones who know about it, and it would be really great if the husband didn’t fuck other women,” she seethes.

Yeah, I’m really going to have to think before I speak. “I’m going to prove to you that we can be different this time. And why do you keep talking about me being with other women? You just broke off an engagement.”

“But I didn’t have sex with him. I haven’t—” She slaps her hand over her mouth to stop talking.

“Haven’t what?” I say in a low, almost growling tone.

She keeps her hand over her mouth and shakes her head.

“You haven’t been with anyone else?” I ask.

Once again she shakes her head.

I bite my lip. If I’m going to say dumb shit, I may as well go for gold. “Are you saying you’re still mine? No one has touched my toy?”

Her eyes widen. I’m sure she’s going to jump up and slap me, or scream at me. Instead, I notice her pupils widen, and the pulse in her throat beat a little faster. Slowly, she shakes her head again.

“My poor Doll is probably so frustrated.” I hold my hand out. “You should stop fighting me and just do what you’re told. You always have a much better time when you do.”

She blinks and unfortunately snaps out of the sex haze she was starting to fall into. She takes a deep breath and rolls her shoulders back. “If we do this?—”

“Oh, we’re going to do this,” I interrupt her.

“If we do this, it’s just sex. No one can know about us. I don’t want to be the pathetic girl with a crush. I want things you can’t give me, so I don’t want to play pretend behind closed doors that we’re anything more than sex,” she insists.

“We’ll see,” I mutter. I won’t be able to promise her any of that, because she’s laid out the map on how to win her over. It’s time Hattie and I go public. I’m going to crawl on my knees in front of the entire town if that’s what it takes to show her that this time I’m all in.

For the first time in six years, my dick is also all in. I don’t need beer goggles to be with Hattie. I know that a more romantic man would wine and dine her. I should lay out rose petals and make love to her under a canopy of stars.

Instead, I wrap my hand around her throat and force her to look up at me. “You’re offering me your body, and not your heart, is it?”

She tries to nod in my grip.

“We’ll see,” I repeat. I’m not going to lie to her. She’ll realize soon enough I never actually agreed to her terms. I will, however, take the benefits.

“I think I’m going to need a show of good faith. When you say that we’re just sex, does that mean that you’re willing to accept the terms that we started out with? When we’re alone together you’re my toy and I can play with you however I want?”

Another nod.

I stroke her throat with my thumb. “I’ve been dreaming of fucking this pretty throat for years.”

I let go of her neck and take a step back. “Undress, now,” I command.

There are two Hatties, at least there are now. She’s more assertive than she was at twenty. I like that about her, but I also like that when it’s time to play she submits without even a little hesitation.

Her shirt comes over her head, and her breasts hang bare before me. My fingers curl into fists as I realize that she was standing right in front of another man without her bra on.

“You aren’t wearing a bra,” I comment.

She shakes her head again.

“Speak up, Doll,” I order.

“No Sir,” she says softly.

“You’ll be punished for that.” Hattie shivers in anticipation. I’m not the only one in this relationship—and we do have a relationship no matter what her stubborn ass argues—that has a kink or two.

“Yes, Sir,” she finally responds.

I pull my shirt over my head and smirk as I watch her eyes feast on my muscles. Since I wasn’t really getting as much pussy as the town liked to gossip about, I had a lot of time and frustration on my hands. I turned a space in my basement into a home gym and found a healthier path for that energy. Anything to keep from drowning my sorrows in a bottle.

Slowly, I slip the button on my jeans through the opening. I slide the zipper down one grip at a time.

“On your knees,” I command as I pull my cock free of my suddenly too-tight boxer briefs.

Hattie lowers herself to the floor with a fluid grace.

I’m not gentle. We’ve been apart too long, and it’s just not who we are. She opens her mouth for me and has to stretch around my engorged cock.

Hattie isn’t passive though. I know I call her my toy, but she isn’t just some living doll letting me face fuck her. She shows that she’s as hungry for me as I am her by sucking my dick as if she’s starved. She keeps going until the swollen head hits the back of her throat and she swallows around me as my cock works its way into her throat.

I try to hold back, but heat spreads from my balls through the rest of my body. I hold her head in place as I spill down her throat. Once I’m spent, I pull my dick free with a wet plop and some of my cum spills over her lips. I push it back inside with my thumb, and she sucks it clean.

I feel the blood starting to rush back into my cock, but I’m not as young as I was, so I’ll need a few minutes before I’m ready to go again. Besides, she has a punishment coming.

Kicking my jeans off the rest of the way, I tuck myself back into my boxers and take a seat on the couch. Then I pat my leg. “Get over here and lay across my legs.”

Her legs tremble as she takes a few steps to me. She’s too slow in getting into position. It has been a long time since she’s found herself here. “If you keep disobeying my orders, you’re going to have a hard time sitting. Now drape that sexy body across my legs and take your punishment like a big girl.”

I wait a couple of seconds, and she doesn’t move, so I grab her hand and yank her down over my knees. “What is your word?” I ask her to remind her that her consent is important, and everything ends immediately when she says.

“Red,” she murmurs.

I rub my hand across the lace of her panties. “Do you want to use it now?”

“No,” she says softly.

I guide the material over the globes of her firm ass, and down her thighs where they manage to trap her knees together. The skin of her ass is soft over the hard muscles. I stroke it softly, lulling her into a state of anticipation.

“Do you know why you’re being punished?” I ask her. Honestly, any reason will do. The real reason is because I know she gets off on it the same as I do.

“Because I wasn’t wearing a bra,” she says in a soft voice. I can hear that she’s already floating off into that headspace where every sensation is euphoric.

“Mmm, and for thinking you could marry another man when you are fucking mine and always will be. I know I’ve been a dumbass, but I’ve only ever been yours. I think five swats will suffice. One for each tit, one for leaving, and one for saying yes when he asked you to marry him.”

“That’s only four,” she points out.

“The last one is for disobeying me when I give you an order.”

Before she can start to argue with me again, I give a sound smack to her right butt cheek, followed by her left. I repeat making sure to hit a different spot on her ass. Because my hands are so large and her ass isn’t, the entire surface is rosy afterward. For the last swat, I drop her head down and spread her legs apart.

I smack across her thighs and her pussy. “That’s for even thinking of letting another man touch this. I. Don’t. Share.”

Yes, I’m a fucking hypocrite. I’ll acknowledge that there’s always been an imbalance between us. There will probably always be, too. I hold the power in our dynamic because she gives it to me. Which in a way gives her ultimate control.

Spanking her revives my dick the rest of the way. “Hands and knees on the ground, now,” I order her.

With one hand on her shoulder and the other on her hip, I don’t hesitate to thrust deep inside of her. If I were more sane, or a more gentle man I’d give her some time to adjust to the intrusion. I know I’m not a small or even average sized man, and six years of celibacy has her unaccustomed to accepting the stretch of a cock in her tight pussy. But I don’t give her any time. Hattie doesn’t like sweet and gentle.

I’m grunting as I reacquaint my dick with the glory of Hattie’s tight, wet cunt. Words spill out of my mouth, and I can tell by the way her pussy flutters around my shaft that my dirty talk is turning her on.

“You’re still the perfect fucktoy, letting me use you however I want. You like being my whore, Doll?”

She doesn’t answer me, so I take my hand from her hip for a second and smack her ass.

“Yes,” she pants.

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, Sir,” she corrects herself.

“Good slut. Now brace yourself it’s been too long, and I need to fuck you harder than I ever have.”

There’s no time between my warning and my first violent thrust. I’m fucking her like I hate her. Of course I love her, but there’s a part of me that hates how desperately I need her. I brace one hand against the couch, and the other hand on her hip I use to pull her back as I plunge forward.

Her thighs bounce off mine, and my balls slap against her pussy. The sounds of our skin smacking against each other fills the room. She’s so wet I feel her juices dripping down my sac. I’m getting too close, but she hasn’t come yet.

“Reach down and stroke your clit for me. I won’t stop until you come on my cock.”

This time she follows my orders and reaches between her legs to rub herself.

“Faster. Don’t you dare back off because it’s becoming too much. I want you to come so hard it fucking hurts.”

Her hand starts to work frantically between her legs as I jack her up and down my cock. One time tonight will not be enough, unless you actually can die from an orgasm. Death is the only thing that is going to stop me from fucking her all night long.

Hattie screams as her pussy clenches tight on my cock. Her entire body spasms with her orgasm. I am close enough to come, but I promised to make it hurt. Somehow I manage to pick up the pace a bit more. She’s grunting each time I bottom out. Only when she starts to go limp do I allow myself to come, filling her cunt with my seed.

With any luck she’s not on birth control and we can finally get back on track to where we are supposed to be.