Touch Me - A Forbidden Romance

“Yeah. I know we really don’t know each other, but I’m here if you want to talk. Believe me, I know what can go through a kid’s head. I have a few nieces and nephews,” he said and grinned.

“What do you see in her?” Freya wasn’t ashamed or embarrassed to ask him that. She was honestly curious why someone would want to be married to a woman who only thought about herself.

He was silent for a moment, but then he exhaled and glanced at her for only a second. “She can be difficult, I admit, but she’s a good person at heart. I have to believe she is.”

Freya didn’t bother snorting at that. He clearly didn’t know Meghan the way she did, but he would. It was only a matter of time before he really saw Meghan for who and what she was: a woman only after a man with a fat bankroll and nothing holding him down. Elijah didn’t have any children, and she knew from what she’d overheard Meghan saying to her father years ago that she didn’t want any kids.

They rode the rest of the way in silence, and when he stopped in front of her school, she got out before he could say anything. She just felt like she was out of place in the only home she’d ever known. She hated feeling like she didn’t belong anywhere.

One day she’d be gone, and she’d say fuck it all. She’d start her own life where she didn’t have to rely on anyone, and that would be the end of it. If she stayed here longer than she had to, Freya didn’t think she’d survive, especially not with a stepmother like Meghan.

Being the shadow that darkened her life, Meghan was just a reminder that Freya’s father was no longer here and her life was no longer the same.1Three years laterWell, Freya had done it. She’d graduated, gotten that scholarship to a school away from this town and Meghan, and was currently getting so drunk she couldn’t see straight. But this was what Freya needed, to just become oblivious of anything and everything.

She’d come to the party with her friend Terra, but she couldn’t find her at the moment. The last time she’d seen her was when she was heading upstairs with one of the football players. So here Freya was, standing here watching people as she got drunk, but not caring about much of anything because she was nice and loopy.

The party was at some guy’s parents’ house. They were out of town, so the house was filled with seniors and juniors, but some freshmen and sophomores had weaseled their way in. She thought some college kids were even present.

The booze was flowing, the joints being passed around, and half the student body at the party were almost fucking, heading to one of the empty rooms to do just that, or didn’t care and were screwing right here out in the open. But then again, she supposed anyone who was drunk or high didn’t care if people watched.

There was a group of guys sitting on the couch right across from her, and she was pretty sure they were snorting coke.

She stared at the lines they made with a credit card and at the mirror they were using as their surface. One of the guys rolled up a dollar bill into a tight cylinder and then leaned forward and inhaled one of the lines through his nose. It was kind of fascinating to watch, but not something she’d ever want to try.

“You want some?” The deep voice beside her had her turning her head and staring at the guy who stood a few inches from her. She’d never seen him before, and he looked pretty old, maybe college-aged. He grinned, his eyes bloodshot, glossy, and the smell of beer coming from his breath.

“No, thanks,” she said and shook her head, looking back at the guys doing lines. “It’s just kind of interesting to watch, like I’m in the middle of Boogie Nights or something with all the drugs and sex around me.” She took a drink from her bottle of beer, finishing it off, and was about to go into the kitchen to throw the bottle away and get another one when the guy who had asked if she wanted coke stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

“Come on, just a line. I swear it’s like fucking heaven right up your nose. And dripping down the back of your throat.”

“Sounds tempting,” she said sarcastically, “but I’m not into having heaven snorted up my nose.” She moved away from him and went into the kitchen where a couple was currently making out and groping each other. The girl was sitting on the counter with her legs spread and the guy wedged between them.