Cupid's Arrow (Devils Rejects MC 4)

There’s a lump in my throat the size of a tennis ball and I can scarcely breathe. He sounds like the teacher on the old Charlie Brown cartoons. The room begins to spin, and I am on the verge of passing out. It’s worse than I thought. He was using me as a placeholder, but I shouldn’t worry, he’ll make sure my baby never wants for a thing. Hot fat tears roll down my cheeks as he says, “We had a good time. Maybe when Mandy gets settled in then can still see each other on the side. She won’t have to know. She can’t know about your baby either. It’d just make shit harder. It can be our secret.”

Nothing about this makes sense. He’s saying all these terrible things but there is this look in his eyes that says it’s all lies. Why is he doing this to me? To us? I thought he was happy about the baby. I thought he loved me. Maybe it was all a great big act. Maybe he was bored because his wife left him, and I filled the void. I’ve been zoned out for the past few minutes, lost in my head. I haven’t a clue what he just asked me. He moves from the couch and stands in front of me with his hand on his zipper. “Be a good girl and suck my cock before you go, sweet Mary.” Thick digits stroke the head of his dick. He takes a step forward and his dick is right in my face. I should bite it off, but I don’t. I don’t do anything. I’ve shut down. I’m numb to it all. His words…his touch as he rubs the tip over my lips. “Suck me, MaryAnn. I want you one last time before my wife comes home.”

You’re nothing but a worthless whore.

That’s all you’ll ever be.

No man will really ever want or love you.

Fucking pathetic cum slut.

Stephanie isn’t here but I hear her malicious words playing on a loop in my head.

Girls like me—we don’t get happy endings.

Anger finally rears its head and I grab Cupid by the dick and squeeze his flaccid cock hard. “I’m not your dirty little side bitch. I will never touch you again. Men like you disgust me.”

“I know,” he groans as I let go. He cups his dick with both hands in a protective

manner.

I shove him out of my way as I stomp to the bedroom and start gathering my things. My chest squeezes tight. My heart feels ready to explode. I’ve been shot with Cupid’s arrow and have never felt more alone. He doesn’t follow after me or tell me to please not go. Not that I expected he would. I do my best to grab what I can but right now I don’t care what I leave behind, I just need to get out of here. Away from him. Away from what I will never have. What I never should have hoped for.

I want to be vindictive. I want to make him hurt like he has hurt me. As I go out the door and toward my car for the last time, I scream at him, “I hope and pray that this baby isn’t yours. Zo Zo wasn’t the only other man I fucked.”

He grabs my arm and I can see so much hurt and anger swirling behind his eyes I almost take it as real and not what it is, his attempt to manipulate me. “Don’t drive angry, MaryAnn.” His fingers move to my face, searing my skin with his touch. Part of me wants to lean into him and beg him to take it all back.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do. I’m a person, Ryan. I have feelings. I feel. You cut me, and I’ll bleed. I’m not just your side piece to be used up and tossed away. I know what people think of me. I know how they see me. I just thought you didn’t see me that way. That was my mistake.”

“I don’t see you that way. Things are complicated. But you’ll see its better this way.”

I can’t help but laugh. The man is a narcissist who believes his own lies. He twists words to suit his own needs. I see that now.

“Goodbye, Cupid. Have a nice life.” I spit his road name at him and try to pull away, but he won’t let go.

“We both know that’s not my name when it’s just you and me.”

“There is no you and me. There never was and now there never will be.”

Hurt registers across his face. “You don’t really mean that.”

I shoot hm a look that could slice him open. “Let. Me. Go.”

He nods and drops his hands to his sides.

I get to my car and I drive to the clubhouse. I put my car in park and let the damn holding my tears break. They rush out like the Great Rapids, blinding my vision. I don’t know how long I just sit and cry with my head down on the steering wheel. I had nowhere else to go. How pathetic is that.

My car door opens, and I fall into Zo Zo’s embrace. “Hey, hey. What’s going on?”

I sniffle and dry my eyes on the shirt he wears under his cut. “It doesn’t matter.”

He pulls back and his gaze locks in on all my stuff in the backseat. “Appears to be more than nothing. You need a place to stay until you figure things out? I have a guest room at my place. It’s yours and no one will bother you. I’m hardly there.”

My bottom lip trembles and I could kiss him, but I don’t. I really don’t want to go in there, in the clubhouse and let anyone see me like this. I don’t want them to know Cupid made a damn fool of me. Stephanie would love to watch me fall apart…to see me crumbled up and broken.

Zo Zo pulls a key off the ring and drops it in my palm. “Do you know where my house is?”

I nod. At least I think I remember going to a cookout there once to drop off beer and food.