Poor performance.
She forgets I’ve suffered through her blowjobs before.
Thanks to her Hollywood smile and the tiny girth of her mouth, she nearly scarred my poor cock with her over polished veneers.
“No. I’m going to see my sister.”
The tension thickens, but she won’t fight me on my decision, sadly.
“Fine,” she rolls her eyes and gets to her feet, sashaying across my office and disappearing into the bathroom.
This office was built by the best of the best, but there’s one flaw.
Getting to my feet, I walk over to the office door and open it.
It opens against the bathroom door, the handles touching just below where the bathroom handle needs to drop to open.
I know it jams, and you can’t get out from inside.
Enjoy your lunch break, Maggie.
Grinning to myself, I grab my jacket and leave. Like I said, small pleasures.
Two
Chapter
ERIK
No one is here when I arrive at the small building my sister acquired for her charity work.
The silence is deafening, and my hands ball into fists when it cloaks around me, threatening to catapult me into the past.
“Please let me out, it’s too dark. Mama, please.”
Taking out my cell phone I hit the playlist, and my pulse calms at the soft, low sound of Imagine Dragons.
The two tables usually housing my sister’s helpers are vacant, and the lights are off.
I know she’s in here though because her car is parked outside.
“Eb, you in here?” I call out, venturing further inside. Silence apart from the soft music emitting from my phone.
There’s no way she’s not here, she lives and breathes this place.
My sister is the definition of kind hearted.
Everything she does is for others.
When she asked me to invest in her project here I didn’t think it would amount to anything, but turns out there are a lot of fucked up people out there, fucking up other people.
‘Anonymous’ is an outreach center where people can call or email, join chats and forums to air their troubles.
They can be anonymous, or if they are seeking help, leave their contact details for Ebony’s team to follow up with them and offer them resources.
It’s pathetic how needy people can be, needing guidance and acceptance from others because they’re failing at life.
“The door is open,” I try calling.
That’s when I hear a loud sob from the back room where Ebony’s office is located.
I’d know her cry anywhere, her sorrow is what pulled me from my own all those years ago.
Pushing through the door to enter her small space, she turns her back to me and tries to act like she didn’t hear me come in.
“Erik, oh, erm… I thought we were having dinner, not lunch.”
“Look at me, Ebony,” I demand.
She stills, her frame rattling like it’s made of vibrating properties.
“I’m going to leave him this time, I promise.”
“Look at me.”
Turning to face me, she dips her head and looks at the floor, urging me to go to her.
Grasping her under the chin, I raise her face to look up at mine.
Blue and purple shadows paint her cheek, rising into a lump under her eye the perfect size of a fist.
“I made him mad, it was my fault. I know how he gets when he’s been drinking.”
She defends him yet again, and I shake my head, pulling her into me for a hug.
I spent my whole childhood craving Ebony’s tears, her screams, her terror.
It’s what rescued me from my own, and in a fucked up way is the reason I need a woman’s fear now.
She manifested this need inside me. I know a therapist would have a field day with that.
They would make some stupid observation and insinuate that I want to fuck my sister.
I don’t. It’s not as easy as that.
The worm is buried much deeper.
Mommy issues. Daddy issues.
Locked in the dark for fucking days issues.
Getting beaten by whatever new boyfriend our mother brought home with her that week fucking issues.
Pick one, pick ten.
“Erik, are you listening to me?” Eb penetrates the fog I’ve slipped into.
“You don’t need to protect me. I can deal with him.”
Sure you can, that’s why you have a black eye.
Her cries kept me company in the dark, and I became obsessed with her terror to dilute my own, but we’re not in the darkness anymore.
It’s ok, Eb’s, your brother has got you. You will be safe.
“You work at a resource center, yet can’t save yourself,” I scoff, making her tense in my hold and then sniffle.
“Go clean yourself up, then I’ll take you for some lunch,” I tell her, guiding her towards her bathroom.
Nodding her head, she shuffles inside and closes the door.
Mess is everywhere in this office.
Growing up with nothing has made my sister a collector of useless crap.
Dusting off her chair, I plant my ass at her desk and shift some of her paperwork that’s spread all over the fucking place, so I can rest my feet.