The Love Of Money - Episode 305
31-08-25 (06:39)
I couldn’t entirely blame her. I’d fallen for Jess, after all.
I decided to make the decision for her and hoped that
she would accept it. “One minute, Liz,” I said. Someone
behind me gasped.
Liz closed the distance between her and her charge,
wrapped a thick arm around his midsection, hauled him
over her shoulder, and walked out the door. She
nodded to me, and I nodded back.
“No! Put me the fuck down!” Tyler screamed, his arms
flailing as he beat on Liz’s back as she exited the room.
“I’m going to fucking fire you! Natalie! Come with me!”
My brother and his bodyguard disappeared around the
corner, and I watched Emily, Erin, and John looking on
in disgust as they continued to watch from where' they
stood in the hall. It would have been funny had it not
been such a serious moment. I could hear Tyler
protesting, threatening, and calling out for Natalie until
his voice abruptly died off. They were outside of the
house.
Thankfully, Natalie hadn’t moved from her spot. She sat
on the bed, staring at her hands as tears dropped onto
the rug. I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to cut
Natalie off. I had loved her. I was pretty sure I still did.
I sat on the bed beside her and wrapped an arm
around her shoulders. Part of me wanted to tell her not
to be upset… to share some of the nasty things Tyler
had said to me. I wanted to tell her she could move
past it. She didn’t deserve to feel this way over
someone like him, but then, I remembered moments
when I’d missed Jessica after we ended things. Even
the shittiest of people could leave a warm spot on your
heart that made you miss them. Even the end of a
grossly dysfunctional relationship could be a sad thing.
Loss is loss… even if it’s good for us.
So, instead of recounting the horrible things he said
about her to score points, I just held her. She leaned
into me, buried her head in my chest, and cried. I
looked up to see that Erin, Emily, and all the rest had
left the room, leaving me and Natalie alone with her
broken heart. It was the first time I’d held her and didn’t
feel overwhelming joy. I hated it.
She shuddered against me as a sob escaped her chest,
and I pressed my lips into her hair, murmuring, “It’ll be
okay, Nat.”
Forty minutes later, I emerged from the bedroom, softly
shut the door behind me, and turned to see Erin
standing up from where' she’d been sitting on the floor
beside the door. “Have you been out here the whole
time?”
“Yeah,” she said, looking up at me with those dark
brown eyes of hers. “It didn’t feel right just leaving you
here alone, and Chloe had to coordinate her crew. Their
chopper is equipped with some forensic equipment, so
some of them are trying to see if they can pull any
fingerprints or look for any other clues.”
The gentle thrum of music indicated that either the
party was still going or no one had bothered to shut off
whatever was playing. “Is everyone else gone?”
“Tyler is. I think everyone else is still here, though.
Chloe recommended waiting for you to get everyone
out. She said you might have a change of heart or need
something from one of them, so we didn’t break it up.
Natashya and Emily have made a couple of friends.”
“That scans,” I muttered, looking down the hall toward
the music.
“Is she… okay?” Erin asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “She’s asleep. Probably best to leave her
for now.”
Erin nodded. I sensed a nervous energy about her, and
she looked like she was on the verge of asking me
another question.
“Are you… are you guys a thing?”
“No,” I said. “I think she wanted to kiss me, but I didn’t
take the bait. I just held her till she cried herself to
sleep.”
“That must have been hard,” Erin said.
I recalled Natalie’s liquid brown eyes staring up at me.
Her full lips compressed against each other as she
sniffled… mere inches from mine. “Really fucking hard.”
“Why didn’t you?” she asked.
“Because I’ve let my dick do the thinking too much,” I
sighed. “Whatever would have happened in there
would’ve been a mistake. Either we would have ended
up too hot and heavy and burned out, or she might
have thought I was taking advantage of her vulnerable
state. Or maybe we would have gotten into a
relationship without setting the right expectations, and I
would have just been another asshole who hurt her.”
“Expectations?” Erin asked as we headed down the hall.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m not interested in being with just one
woman, and I’m not sure how well Natalie would be
able to handle that. I don’t want to make a mistake
with her that I think I avoided with Danni. Even if she
could… Nat needs some time to put all this behind her.”
Erin gave me one of her heart-melting grins. “That’s a
hell of a grown-up decision to make.”
“I hated it,” I muttered as I stared at the floor. A huge
part of me wanted to turn around, go back in that
room, and wake Natalie up with a long bout of love-
making.
“So, no monogamy for you, huh?” Erin said.
“Yeah. You know that, though. It’s why I called things
off with Danni.”
“No. I know,” she said. Her hand slid over my groin as
we neared the mouth of the hall, and she gave my
half-erection a firm squeeze. “I’m just impressed you
gave up a chance to get with the great Natalie Bander.”
I stopped in my tracks and seized Erin by her small
wrist. She took a couple more steps before falter-ing,
looking back at me with a startled expression, just as I
yanked her back toward me so she crashed into my
chest. I spun us both around so she was backed against
the wall, and she started to say something as I shut her
up with a fierce kiss.
She melted immediately in my arms, and a few
moments later, I felt her tongue press against my
mouth, seeking entrance, and I gladly let it in. We spent
the next few moments making out wildly as I kept her
trapped between me and the wall. My hands wandered
over her slender frame, enjoying the feel of her firm tits
under my touch. God… I couldn’t get enough of this
young woman. I needed her to know that.
After breaking our kiss, I kept my face close to hers,
enjoying how she stared up at me with those big
brown eyes. She looked so helpless… vulnerable.
Weaving my fingers through her silver hair, I massaged
her scalp at the back of her head.
“Erin, you’re the reason.”
“What?” she asked. Some other emotion I couldn’t quite
read slipped through her gaze.
“It doesn’t matter if Natalie, Danni, or some other
amazing girl enters my life. You’re the most amazing
woman I’ve ever met, and I want you. I’ll always want
you,” and if whoever that person is can’t accept that,
then they’re not the right person for me.
She stared back at me, her dark chocolate eyes burning
with heat.
Our gazes were locked onto each other for a solid half
minute, and a question was burning in my chest that I
could barely keep from asking. I was afraid to ask
because it might change this perfect dynamic if she said
no. Talk of relationships had pushed Natalie into another
man’s arms. It led me to shut things down with Danni.
It had pushed Natashya into another woman’s arms.
Like hell I was going to risk doing anything to
jeopardize what I had with Erin… but I had to say
something, right?
“Erin…”
“Don’t,” she said, biting her lip as she searched my eyes.
“Just… let’s keep doing this, okay?”
I weighed her words carefully for a long moment and
then said, “I don’t want to lose you.”
“I’m not going anywhere', sir,” Erin said. “I’m yours.”
The fingers in her hair tightened, and I slowly tugged on
it. Erin’s eyes slid halfway shut as her head came up.
Her pink tongue darted across her top lip as a faint
whimper escaped her. I pressed my forehead to hers.
“Say it again,” I whispered, tightening my grip a fraction
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