Banging Reaper (20 page)

Chase nods and returns my smile.

His arms tighten around me in a hug. “Any regrets?” he asks.

Do I regret meeting him? Loving him? Moving in with him? Or not using a condom?

I rise up, meeting him halfway. I brush my lips tenderly across his lips and answer him honestly. “None at all.”

Wow, it’s been eight months since I first fought Ethan. Seven months and one week since I told Avery I was in love with her. Four months since she said it back to me, right before I beat the shit out of Ethan for a final time and retired. Three months and three days since my father gave me my mother’s engagement ring and wedding band.

And three long seconds since I asked the love of my life to marry me. How the fuck did I get to this point?

We didn't leave my house for a full three days after she finally came home with me for good. I'm not sure if she didn't have to go to school, that we would have left period. I had to have her, and her need for me was just as great. Her hands didn't leave a part of me for very long those three days. Mine were just as glued to her though. It was as if we wanted to make sure the other was real and wouldn't disappear.

Those first few days we made a pact, it would forever be us and no matter what we wouldn't let anyone or anything come between us again.

Taking her to meet Dad was a good thing, he was climbing the walls after we had locked ourselves away from the world. He's as charmed with Avery as I am. He slipped the ring into my hand as I was hugging him goodbye then whispered, “She would love to know Avery had them.”

So the three seconds Avery stands there in my father’s living room, staring down at me as I hold out the diamond ring, is the longest three seconds of my life. Even longer than when we were waiting for the pregnancy test to show its answer.

Shit, her belly is barely showing right now and it’s probably one of the sexiest things I have ever seen in my life. When she sits on the couch or in the car, she gently rests her hand on our unborn child. She even has this way of laying on her side in the bed, her arm wrapped around her belly like she is already trying to cradle the baby.

She likes to pull me up tight against her ass as she pulls my arm around her and snuggles so damn close. I don't know if I should try humping her or hugging her, so I end up doing both. Any man that isn't attracted to his pregnant wife’s belly is fucking crazy. I might just try to keep her always pregnant. It’s making her glow, and she's always smiling, always happy. I keep trying to think of a way to describe her happiness, but I just can't get the words right.

A lot of shit has happened. I retired. All good for me and Avery. I bought the gym I was training at, and started a school for anyone who wants to train and work hard. We have a lot of latchkey type kids, at risk kids and a ton of kids who want to try and make something of themselves legally. Avery is in charge of most of the kid’s emotional needs, she’s a natural at it. I keep pushing her to go past just doing education and to try for a child psychologist, if anyone can do it, it’s her.

Dad has been dating a doctor he met at some real estate function he went to, and he finally has a grandbaby on the way. He couldn't be any happier. He's even coming to the gym to work out with me.

Ethan's luck ran out. We told the police what we suspected, and with just a few questions from the detectives, the punks who attacked me were spilling their guts about the rich boy who hired them to fuck me up. He copped a plea immediately, and is now doing a ton of community service with five years of probation. The Nevada Athletic Commission handed him a lifetime ban from competing in MMA in the state. On top of everything, the fuck stick continued to harass Avery. I helped her file a restraining order against him. So fuck him the mouthy little fuck.

Avery has tears spilling down her cheeks as she nods her head yes. Pulling me up, she wraps herself around me and hugs me to her. “Yes! Yes! I love you, Chase. You make me so happy.”

Sweeping her up, I kiss her hard and with as much heat as I can until she pushes me away, giggling with a bright red blush on her cheeks.

She just made me the happiest man alive.

The End

Thank you for reading Banging Reaper! If you enjoyed it, please take a moment to leave a review.

Avery’s Playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/user/dirtynothings/playlist/7jN2uwjdAV2zJEbc1ELkV3

Lena Fayre – This World

Of Verona – Dark in my Imagination

Ellie Goulding – Something in the Way You Move

Hillary Duff – Sparks

Major Lazer – Powerful (feat Ellie Goulding & Tarrus Riley)

Zella Day – Sweet Ophelia

Selena Gomez – The Heart Want What It Wants

Ruelle – Deep End

Gabrielle Aplin – Alive

Svrcina – Lover.Fighter

Plumb – I Don’t Deserve You

Katy Perry – This Moment

Chase’s Playlist

https://open.spotify.com/user/dirtynothings/playlist/1eiwtZtFeEd15eGdWbQa4p

The Amity Affliction – Don’t Lean On Me

Motionless in White – Reincarnate

Protest the Hero – Clarity

Crown the Empire – Machines

The Gaslight Anthem – Stay Vicious

High Suspect – Lydia

Five Finger Death Punch – The Bleeding

Parkway Drive – Vice Grip

Parkway Drive - Crushed

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http://dirtynothings.com/

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It’s ten minutes ‘til five o’ clock and I am so done with work. I’ve got a hot date tonight with a smokin’ hot guy and I can’t wait to blow this joint.

I’m currently an office support assistant for my stepfather’s accounting firm. Office support assistant is just a fancy way of saying I do all the filing.

It’s mind-numbing work and it takes all day. I spend the first half of my day just sorting and the second half actually filing it all away.

Today I’ve worked extra fast knowing that at five o’clock I would be meeting my soul mate. The guy I’ve been talking to through texts and over the internet for the past six months. I’ve filed like no girl has filed before. I know I must have set a record or something. I finished early.

For the past twenty minutes, I’ve been hanging out in the office, fidgeting, spinning in my chair, and watching the seconds on the clock tick by. I’m hiding.

Maybe I shouldn’t have filed so fast.

There is no ditching out early. If my jerk of a stepbrother, Andrew, doesn’t catch me in the act, no doubt he’ll see it on my time card and rat me out to his father. The last thing I need is my stepfather, Jack, coming down on me.

Andrew doesn’t like me and he’s always had it out for me. We’re as opposite as two can be.

I’ve always been shy and awkward. I haven’t felt comfortable in my body since puberty. I probably sound bitter saying this but for him, unlike the rest of us lesser mortals, it all seems to come naturally. He always has his blonde hair styled in the perfect cut for his too handsome face. If he’s not wearing the current trend, he’s probably setting it. He has the looks and body of a male fashion model.

I hate him. I wish I was like him.

I know for a fact he only works out like twice a week yet somehow he manages to retain the ripped, muscled hard body of a Greek god.

I can work out every day and leave my blood, sweat, and tears on the treadmill just to keep the brownie from sticking to me. Alright, it was really two brownies, but anyway… Andrew works out and he’s got not only a six pack but an ass to die for.

And I’m pretty sure he wears a size smaller pants than me. Which used to depress me, until I met AJ.

Well, AJ and I haven’t met yet, technically, but we will once the damn clock hits five thirty.

Come on, I urge the clock.
Move.

It’s five minutes to five now and I swear time is slowing down. I just can’t wait to meet AJ. I can’t wait to get out of this place. I’m not only incredibly excited, but I’m incredibly nervous that something is going to keep tonight from happening. I have this feeling like it’s too good to be true, and the universe is just waiting for the perfect moment to bitch slap me.

Please, universe, please. Just this one night. I’ll do anything. I just need this one night, please.

I check my phone. Check to see if there are any messages from AJ. He could still cancel. It’s not too late.

Four minutes to five.

I spin in the chair some more. Anything to keep busy. Anything to keep from fidgeting.

I can’t walk out the door until five o’clock exactly. It’s too risky. If I run into Andrew, he’s bound to give me more work. He seems to always have something ready to dump on me.

I still don’t know what I ever did to Andrew to make him not like me. I want to get along with him, I always have, but he just doesn’t like me. The moment our parents first introduced us, he shook my hand as if I had cooties. I suspect he may believe he’s too good for me.

My heart is racing with excitement, but all the spinning is making me dizzy.

AJ and I are going to meet at his favorite restaurant tonight. A little Italian place I’ve never heard of but he thinks it’s amazing. I’m so anxious I can’t even stomach the idea of eating.

Will he still like me when we meet face to face? What if he thinks the pictures I sent him were misleading? I did choose the best angles.

Three minutes to five.

If I was working for anyone else, I would so ditch out early. Jack and Andrew, though, have been keeping close tabs on me. I have to prove myself to them. Prove that I’m worth the loan I need to pursue my dream.

They don’t believe in me. It’s been clear from the beginning. My stepfather wants to keep my mother happy, it’s the only reason he even struck a deal with me.

One year of work. One year of my life, being the office lackey, and he won’t be able to refuse me. I arrive on time every day and I never clock out early. I do everything that is asked of me. I stay late. I have to prove myself by taking all the shit they shovel at me and I try to do it with a smile on my face. I won’t give them any excuse to deny me. It’s only one year of my life.

Sometimes it even feels too easy. But today. Today I want to break the rules just this once. Just this once I want to clock out two minutes early. I want to run as fast as my feet will carry me to AJ.

The door to my office squeaks open.

No, universe, no! You so cannot do this to me.

“Hey,” Andrew says, his voice fairly cackling with the glee of what he’s about to do. He gets off on my misery. “I’ve got this last stack that needs to be filed, ASAP.”

Seriously? The way he and his father ride me, you’d think the world would stop spinning if all the hard copies aren’t filed immediately.

They do it to ride me, they have to. I don’t want to believe there are people so anal that a stack of papers can’t sit around for one evening.

I don’t turn to him. I don’t want to look at his face.

“I’m just about to leave…” I say, my eyes glued to the clock.

It’s five o’clock exactly.

“You can leave once you’re done with these.”

I still don’t want to look at him. I don’t want to see what he has for me. But I have to. I clench my teeth and spin slowly to see what he’s brought me.

He has his coat slung over his shoulder as if he’s about to leave. He’s already loosened his blue tie at his neck. Five o’clock shadow stains his face. The irony.

Must be nice, I think bitterly, dumping work on someone else and clocking out on time.

He has a stack of files balanced on his hand that will take me at least another twenty minutes to file. My date is at five thirty, I need at least fifteen minutes to get to the restaurant. I’ll be late if I stay.

He waves the stack at me, his eyes glittering with mirth because he knows my pride makes me hesitate, but I’ll eventually suck it up and take it.

“Set them on the desk, I’ll get to them first thing in the morning.”

Normally I would just grab the stack and deal with it. But not this time. I’ve got to make this date. My happily ever after is on the line.

Andrew takes two steps towards me and dumps the stack onto my lap. I’m so shocked by his audacity I can’t even speak. My jaw hits the floor.

He laughs, “Tonight, Hailey, before you leave.”

He turns and still I can’t speak. I should stick up for myself. I should tell him where he can shove these files, but I’ve trained myself well not to snap at him.

I’ll just have to do them. I’ll file as fast as I can. I’ll run a little late, but I’ll call AJ. Let him know I’m stuck at work and not standing him up. It’s not the first impression I want to make but given the circumstances I just have to hope he won’t hold it against me.

Just when I think Andrew is gone, he stops at the door and glances over his shoulder at me. “Besides,” he has to get one last barb in, “It’s not like you have a date or something.”

But I do have a date!

He laughs that villainous cackle of his and inwardly I’m cursing him. Fuck you, I yell in my head. And fuck your nice ass, I add as I watch him walk away.

I spin back to my desk and grab my phone. I shoot off a quick text to AJ.

Me
: Hey, sorry I’m stuck at work and running a little bit late.

I look down at my lap, at the mess I have to deal with and decide I better give him a call too.

The line rings and rings then I get a generic computerized voice instructing me on how to leave a message.

“Hey, AJ, it’s me, Hailey. I just sent you a text. I’m stuck at work and running a few minutes late, but I’m on my way. Call me back.”

Knowing I wouldn’t have time to run home and change for our date today, I chose to wear a simple black pocketless dress to work. Instead of lugging my purse with me to the file cabinets, I decide to slip my phone into my bra. That way if AJ calls I won’t miss it.

I file my ass off. What should take fifteen minutes takes me ten. The entire time I expect my phone to ring, vibrate, or buzz, but it remains coldly silent.

A sense of foreboding settles over me. It’s not like AJ to not text me back. Even if he can’t talk on the phone, usually he sends me a quick word or two to let me know he’ll hit me back.

As I rush out the door and hail a cab, I try not to think too hard about it and worry instead about getting to the restaurant as fast as I can.