Bed of Lies (Bed of Thornes Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  “To Veronica's heart... wherever it's hiding.” I down the shot before he can take in what I just toasted to and harshly set the glass on the counter.

  “Another?” He asks.

  I nod my head as the burn of the alcohol creeps its way down my throat. “Keep them coming.”

  “You're call.” He pours another tall shot and hands it to me. “So what did Veronica have to say about you coming?”

  “She doesn't know.” I swallow the whiskey and lean on the counter as it hits my stomach.

  “You definitely need this more than me.” He pours a third shot and leaves his empty this round.

  “The curiosity is killing me. What will she do when she sees me? What is it that she has to talk to me about? I'm not sure I'll make it through the next couple of days sane.” I kick back the shot.

  “Time will tell my man. Until then, do what you have to do to prepare and keep your nerves at bay. I think it'll go smoother than you imagine.”

  “I hope you're right. Hey, how much of that whiskey's left?” I grin.

  We end up polishing off the bottle and drink ourselves to a deep sleep. I wake up feeling brand new. Considering the amount of alcohol we took in, I figured I'd have a killer hangover, but surprisingly I'm feeling the best I have in days. I jump up and shower before making a quick breakfast and leaving a note for Mason, who's still knocked out. I head out to town in search of something I can bring with me to gift to Veronica when I arrive in Paris. It's got to be something that says I've missed you and I'm happy to see you again after all of this time. I don't want to show up empty-handed.

  My mind wanders as I drive past shops that are lined along the streets downtown. I'm not sure what would be appropriate for what I'm looking to say with this gift. I continue to pass the stores as I try to come up with what it is I'm in search of. After circling the shopping centers and streets multiple times it finally hits me. It's perfect. I make a U-turn and head back down to the road to my workplace. I walk in and Rob, my boss, looks confused.

  “I thought you weren't coming in?” He asks.

  “I'm not. I'm leaving tomorrow evening. I need a favor.” I walk behind the counter and grab one of the sketch books from the glass showcase.

  “A favor? I think you've used those up. What is it now?” His expression is less than enthused.

  “I know. I get it. But this is important and I'll do whatever it takes to make it up to you when I return.” I put the book on the counter. “I need you to engrave the cover of this by tomorrow.”

  “Look kid, I've got orders piling up and I'm short-handed if you remember.”

  I give him a look of desperation and his face softens.

  “You owe me.” He says and grabs a piece of paper for me to write what I want engraved.

  “You're not the only one.” I let out a sigh of relief. “This means a lot. I really appreciate it.”

  I take the paper from him and write out what I'm wanting and hand it to him.

  “I've got to run to the airport to pick up my ticket and take care of a few other things today. I'll be back in the morning.” I tell him as I pick up my keys to leave.

  “I hold you to it kid. You owe me!” He hollers and shakes his finger at me as I head out of the door.

  “Now boarding flight A7.” The voice over the intercom announces.

  I grab my bags and get in line behind an older man wearing an excessive amount of cologne. Damn that shit's strong. I silently hope I'm not seated next to this guy, there's no way I could withstand the potent scent of pine for the next ten hours. The line moves forward a couple steps and I stay back from the cologne saturated man. I quickly turn around when the lady behind bumps into me. She looks up from her glasses and frowns.

  “I'm sorry young man. I thought the line was moving forward.” She points to the gap I left.

  “No worries. Here, why don't you go ahead of me.” I offer with a grin.

  “Why thank you. Not too many young folks are so kind these days.” She gathers her luggage and maneuvers herself to the front of me.

  Now if she knew my reason behind my kindness, well she wouldn't be so quick to thank me. I chuckle under my breath and am relieved to have some distance between myself and pine-man. After several minutes of waiting, the line slowly moves enough that I get up to the stewardess taking the tickets and hand her mine. Boarding the full plane, I look around for my seat and notice I'm seated just behind pine-man. I hold my breath and shove my bag in the over-head compartment. Great start to my trip. I sigh and slump in the seat. For Veronica, it's worth the headache I'll have from taking in the smell for the entire flight. I close my eyes about thirty minutes after take-off and drift to sleep.

  Her hands run across my chest and over my shoulders. The touch of her silky skin quickly arouses me. She leans in and I can see her glowing face, her complexion is angelic. I grab a fistful of her long brown hair and twist my fingers through the loose spiral curls. Her caramel highlights flow like a golden stream as they weave between my fingers. I pull her in, until our lips are close enough to feel the energy of one another, and begin to slowly kiss her neck before I reach her wanting mouth. I bring her bottom lip between my own set and suck as she moans with a return of tongue. Our kiss leads to her straddling over me and lowering her bare body on mine. She sinks lower and my erection eases it's way in as deeply as her pussy allows. I can feel her clench with pleasure as I fill her and my cock pulses from the sensation.

  Her hard nipples rub against my chest as her breasts move up and down with her motion. I pull on the fist of hair I still have clenched in my grasp. She lets out a moan and my body jerks upward in her as she grinds on me. Her head back and her neck exposed, I lick and suck at her tantalized skin until I make my way to her nipples that I flick with my tongue. I pull harder on her hair. I'm so deep in her that I can feel our bodies melt in unison movements. My free hand that's on the small of her back moves to her ass and I grab a handful before giving it a hard smack. The sound cracks in the empty air around us and she lets out a sensual cry. I grab it and smack it harder this time as her riding becomes more intense. I let go of her hair and use both of my hands to hold her hips as we pump to the point of climax. She raises her head and looks me straight in the eye as her mouth drops wide open and she lets out a loud sound of orgasmic pleasure. My cock stiffens to a rock and my balls tighten from watching her cum on me. Without hesitation, I match the twitches of her body as I explode with my own release deep inside her.

  A rough jerk of the plane wakes me and I instantly smell the overwhelming pine scent. What a way to ruin a man's wet dream. My bulging dick resigns back to its limp state within seconds. The pilot makes an announcement not to worry about the small turbulence and I look beside me to see a blonde woman grasping the seat for dear life. She thinks that's bad? Try being woken from a hot dream to the scent of old man drenched in what reminds me of pine-sol. Total boner kill. I get up to take a bathroom break and a steward walks up to me.

  “Sir, the pilot has advised that everyone stay seated and buckled at this time.”

  I shake my head. “Look I know it's for safety reasons, but I'll be fine if I fall. What I'm worried about is this excruciating case of blue balls that I've got happening downstairs right now.”

  The guy looks at me in shock and I nod to assure him that I'm not kidding. I catch him eyeing me up and down. From the paused gaze at my crotch and the raised eyebrow, I quickly realize his sexual preference and my already fucked up arousal becomes even more painful.

  “Dude, I was having a dream about my lady. She's hot. She has tits... and a pussy.”

  He raises his hands as if to imply he has no idea what I mean by that statement. Yeah, I'm sure he doesn't get it. At all. I roll my eyes and push my way by him. I open the bathroom door and thankfully it's actually clean. I don't think I could have dealt with another odor, my penis would probably just tuck itself inside and hide. I decide that since it's much more pleasant in this small box than what I've experie
nced on the rest of the plane, I'll just stay in here as long as I can before someone insists on my exit. I splash my face with water and pat it dry, trying to clear my mind. I check the time on my phone to see how much longer I have to make it through this flight. Six hours. This is miserable. There's no way I can take another six hours. Though the first four have flown by quicker than I thought it would. I've got to do something to kill time. The anxiety of waiting to get off this plane and finding her makes my gut do a flip.

  I can't wait to see her face. To hold her in my arms and smell her would be really nice too, especially considering I could use a pleasing scent right now. I don't even know how she's going to react, but I can only hope that she'll give me the time of day. I'm not going through this ridiculous trip for nothing... at least that's how I see it. The thought of her brings my dick back out from its cave and it hardens without my consent. I'm going to have to do something about this or I may collapse from blue ball syndrome. I make sure the door is locked and take out my phone that has a picture of her in the gallery. I prop it on the sink and turn on the water to get a cup of it for some lubrication. I turn the water back off and slide down my jeans. My rock hard cock stands at attention and I dip my hand in the warm water before grabbing a hold of its thickness.

  The dream replays in my mind as I stare at the picture on my phone. I rub the head of my cock with my wet hand and imagine her pussy sliding down on it. Nothing like the real thing, but close as I can get at the moment and I can't hold this for the remainder of this long damn flight. My hand tightens and I stroke the shaft just below the bulging head of my penis. The dream continues to flow through my mind as my climax begins to near and my adrenaline heightens with the ache to release. There's suddenly a knock at the door and I hear the voice of the steward that was checking me out before I came in here. Are you fucking serious right now? I ignore his knock and the words he muttered from the other side of the thin door. I block everything out and close my eyes since the phone went to sleep mode and I don't want to take the time to turn it back on.

  I lean my head on the wall with my back arched away from it and my cock stretched out in front of me, aiming towards the sink. I stroke faster as I picture her in my head and envision her ass with my red hand marks on it from a stinging smack I just let her have as she grinds harder. Her hips move back and forth and my cock swells from the daydream playing in my mind. My body clenches and my hand squeezes as hot cum shoots through the air, barely making it to the sink. I let out a moan of relief, not caring if anyone can hear through the door. Damn I needed that. I stand there with my dick throbbing and my breath trying to catch up with my pulse. Shit I can't wait to fuck her again... it's been too long. I stand up straight when I take my head away from the wall and look in the mirror.

  “Look what you've done to me.” I say to myself in place of wanting to say it to her.

  The plane rumbles slightly but apparently enough to make my phone toss itself in the open toilet next to the sink it was sitting on.

  “Fuck!” I yell out.

  “Sir?” I hear from the other side of the door. “Is everything all right?”

  “Can you just give me a moment?!” I yell out in response.

  This is perfect. Just what I needed to add to my stress right now. I hesitate before grabbing a giant wad of paper towels from the wall dispenser and fold them to protect my hand as I fish my phone out from the toilet. I'm sure it's ruined from the blue cleaner in the bowl that it was just submerged in. Fucking awesome. I shake the excess liquid into the sink and grab more towels to dry it the best I can. I shove the phone in my pocket before washing my hands three times and opening the door. The last thing I wanted to see after the epic fail of getting off in the airplane bathroom is the steward that seems to have a thing for me. My luck brings forth just that. I walk out and here he stands, gazing me up and down with his beady brown eyes. Give me a break dude.

  “Sir I'm going to have to ask you to stay seated the remainder of the flight as the pilot has requested that all passengers buckle up due to turbulence.” He says with a sway of his hand and tilt of his head.

  “Yeah sure, whatever gets you off me.” I give him a glare and head to my seat.

  That mess wasn't worth all of the trouble that came with it. This is what she does to me, she gets in my head and causes disasters, I swear. All I can do now is ignore the rest of this dreadful experience and hope that it's at least worth seeing her when I finally land. I put on the provided headphones to drown out everything surrounding me and close my eyes. This flight can't be over soon enough. With all of this pent up frustration, I hope Veronica knows what she's in for. I have plenty to release and that delightful bathroom joke of a release doesn't count towards getting out what I have stored up in me.

  I've never been so relieved to exit a plane. I unload my bag and dash down the steps to head to find the nearest car rental. Luckily I see one almost instantly and get in the short line to get set up. My anxiety kicks in the hardest it has so far this trip. I'm getting closer to seeing the one person I can't get enough of and I don't even know what my first words should be or how to greet her. For all I know, she could slap the shit out of me and tell me to leave her alone. I'm hoping that won't be the case of course and looking forward to a hug with a sexy smile attached instead. The line for a car rental may be short, but it feels as though I'm standing here frozen in an eternity. The clock stands still for what seems like hours but is merely minutes and suddenly I'm up next. I walk up to the counter and am greeted by a college kid with a heavy Parisian accent.

  “What I can do for you today sir?” He asks with a swift smile.

  “I need whatever you have that's not a clown car.” I smirk.

  Apparently he doesn't get my hint of humor. “Are you insinuating that Paris is for clowns?”

  “What? No.” I forgot that American humor is anything but funny to the intense nature of the French. “I was only kidding. Please, if you have something available that is more of a sport or luxury rather than a bug.”

  With a sigh, and I'm positive an eye roll on his part, he types away at the keyboard of the desktop computer in front of him and looks up with a sarcastic grin.

  “It's your lucky day... we just rented our last miniature car to the clown that was before you... so we're all out at this time. Guess that leaves the mime cars, which are of only the finest quality for our most valuable customers such as yourself.” He doesn't shy away from laying on thick the smart-ass in his voice.

  “I'll take one mime car to go then.” I decide not to hold back on the lash of sarcasm.

  After waiting through the unbearable process of setting up the rental, I finally get the keys and walk to the parking garage to find my temporary ride. I come upon it in the second row of cars and stand in awe of the gray station wagon the gentleman at the front desk assigned to me. How nice of him to give me such a sweet form of transportation to pull up to meet with the love of my life. “Jackass.” I say under my breath and unlock the door that gives a loud creek when I swing it open. The sound echos through the parking garage and I cringe. I have to say, this trip has proven to be the epitome of a bad sign. I start to rethink my actions, if I should even be here. Fuck it. I climb in the gray lump of metal I was given and take out my phone. Shit! How am I supposed to use GPS with a phone that's been drowned in piss water? I refrain from tearing the hair out of my head and back out of the garage to go find a way to get directions.

  ~ ~ ~

  I make it to where the directions lead and see her gallery up ahead. It's bigger than I imagined. The white structure stands tall and the clouds, soft pink from the sunset, are lingering around the edges of the outside walls. The clean and modern cut of the building looks crisp against the pale orange sky in the background. There's a balcony on the far side of the second floor and I can see the deep red of the roses on the vines that are wrapped along the ledge. The bright green bushes and trees that surround the entire lot are enough to make you feel like you've g
ained brand new oxygen just from the sight of them. I slowly drive down the long path that leads to the open gate of the gallery that I figure is as close as I should get before I'm ready to get out of the car and make this happen.

  From a distance I can see her open the front door. I slouch in the seat of the car in hopes that she doesn't see me yet. There she is. The most beautiful sight I've laid my eyes on in months. This is the moment I've been waiting for. I need to get my shit together before approaching her. My nerves kick in high gear mode. I don't know what to say. I've thought about it all of this time, but my brain just shut down now that I'm here. I sit and watch her as she heads over to her car. Her walk is still just as intimidating as she can be. Her hips sway back and forth with each step as she approaches the spot where she's parked. I stare at her firm, round ass when she bends over in her car door to get something. The sight of her has me on hard instantly. I can't believe how long it's been since I've seen her in the flesh. I have to touch her, to feel her, so I know this isn't just another fantasy of mine. She piles her arms with a couple small boxes and goes back in the building of the gallery. I need to do this. I breathe out and go to open the car door. Wait... what the hell?

  A car quickly pulls up into the driveway and the last person I expected to see hops out as soon as it parks. Clayton?! Why the fuck is he here? I immediately retract my hand from the door handle and sit back to see what it is he's up to. My adrenaline races to the ultimate breaking point. I feel the urge to get out and beat this guy to a bloody pulp but I refrain. He walks up to the gallery door and proceeds to step inside. Several minutes pass as I fidget with the keys in my hand, which is now profusely sweating and shaking. I want to go in there and confront both of them... but if Veronica thought I was crazy before, she'd really think I'm a psycho if I walk up in there ready to burst with anger. I try to calm myself and think rationally before making any stupid moves. I can't believe this. Of all people and of all the jacked up things I went through to get here. I'm so stupid for thinking I had a chance. I turn on the car to back away, because at this point I'm ready to just leave and forget she exists, but when I look up I see him walking out and getting in his car. This is my chance. I can't leave without at least knowing the truth. I need to know. I deserve that much.