WEAK Part Three: A Thornhill Road Romance Read online

  Part Three

  Copyright 2015 Drew Sinclair

  Published by Drew Sinclair at Smashwords

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Start Reading WEAK Part Three

  Sample Chapter - Scandalous

  Other Books by Drew Sinclair

  About Drew

  Connect with Drew

  Acknowledgements

  To all the family, friends and mentors who have made this possible - I hope you all know how truly grateful I really am.

  Chapter Twenty

  One week later I was getting off a train in Shillington, Ohio.

  It was like going into a time warp. Nothing had changed. I scanned the platform for my father but there was no sign of him. It was late already and the station was bathed in shadow and nearly deserted. I hoped he wouldn't be long, I had been aching to see him and mom since the train pulled out of Penn Station.

  "Victoria."

  I breathed in sharply. I knew that voice but it wasn't my father.

  "Will?"

  I barely had time to turn my head when he already had his arms around me, squeezing me tightly to his broad chest. It could have been a friendly hug, at a push, except for how long it lasted. He released me just as I was getting ready to begin pushing him gently away.

  "Will, what are you doing here?"

  "Your father told me you were going to be in town for a while so I offered to come pick you up. I'm sorry if he didn’t tell you, I thought.--"

  "No, it's okay, really. I'm just happy to get a ride and see a friendly face."

  He nodded his head but I could see he didn’t like my use of the word 'friendly'. He still wanted more.

  Maybe he always would.

  "Come on, I'll take these."

  He shouldered my bags and led me out to the lot where his SUV was parked.

  "Nice wheels." I said. "I guess it's true that things are really beginning to work out for you now."

  "Oh, you know how it is, I've had a few good months with the bar but it's still early days. The first three years are the most important, after that you have a good sense of how a business will do, but in the meantime I'm having fun, doing what I love."

  He sounded truly happier than I had ever known him. I envied him. Maybe he had the right idea after all; keep things simple, stick with what you know, the places and the people that are familiar to you. All I had gotten in New York was deceit, betrayal and heartache.

  We got into his car and headed out of town. After a few minutes he broached the question that had clearly been on his mind.

  "Vicky, your father said that you could put up at my place if you wanted to, you know, with your mom not being well and all. It might be better to spend a night or two with me until you get used to small town life again. I've been trying to help out but with Ray not being as mobile as he used to and Betty not well, gosh the house isn’t exactly as you remember it from your last visit."

  It had been too long. I was always so short of money and always so close to selling one of my patents that I had skipped a lot of holidays and family occasions. It all seemed so useless now, all that wasted time in Manhattan when where I should have been all along was right here, with family and old friends.

  "It's okay Will. I really want to spend time with them. That's why I'm here. We can go straight there if you don’t mind."

  "Actually Vic, Ray told me he wanted you to stay with me, at least for a few days. He says he's not ready to have you over yet."

  That didn’t sound like Ray, but then again, with mom being ill and the suddenness of my trip home maybe he just wasn't prepared for me yet.

  "And they've got some friends staying over at the moment too, so really I think you should take me up on that offer."

  I stared hard at him while he focused on the road.

  "My father isn't ready to see me but he has friends staying over?"

  Will nodded his head. "That's right." He glanced over at me. "What is it Vic?"

  I continued staring at him. This didn't sound right.

  "Oh come on." He said, reading my thoughts. "You think I'm trying to seduce you, is that it? Come on Vic, give me some credit here. Call Ray and ask him for Pete's sake. I swear to you there'll be no funny business. I've got a much bigger place now and the guest room is all made up for you already."

  He looked at me with that boyish smile of his. The same stupid, adorable grin that had turned my head in high school. It looked like he would never change.

  "I don’t need any complications right now Will, do you understand?"

  "Of course I do Vic. Come on, give Ray a call. He'll tell you himself."

  "It's okay. Of course I trust you. I'm just a little disappointed. I was looking forward to staying with them tonight is all. I haven't seen them in so long and I'm sure they can use my help even if they have people staying."

  Will put his hand on mine without looking at me but then drew it away quickly.

  "Look, Vicky, I know it can’t be easy in New York; I wouldn't live there for all the money in the world and I admire you for doing it, but you're back home now. Whatever happened to you there you're with people you can trust now. This is Shillington and nothing has changed. Everyone here only wants the best for you and that includes me. Now come on, say you'll stay with me for a couple of days, I've been looking forward to it. The place gets lonely up there sometimes with just me and the dogs. Please?"

  "Okay. Just a couple of days."

  He reached his hand over to mine again and this time held it there.

  "You won't regret it."He said, smiling over at me.

  I smiled back at him.

  Could it be like old times again?

  No way. That was too far back to go… ancient history….

  ********************

  When Will's hand reached over to my cheek after dinner and I didn’t push it away I knew I was on a losing streak. We had talked non-stop about old times since we got back to his place; the people we knew from high school who had never left town, the ones who had moved away but then returned home and with every mouthful of beer and the plain old steak and salad Will had prepared for us, this felt more and more like home in a way that New York never could be.

  People like Clarissa and Jean and Vincent Medici made sure of that. I don't know if it was the city that had changed them or if they had always been as messed up as they were, but life in Shillington didn’t revolve around sex, money, rumor and gossip the way it did there. Life was simpler, people more honest.

  So why was I following Will to the bedroom when both of us had promised that nothing would happen between us?

  I watched his broad shoulders and his blonde hair as he led me through his home and into his bed. He was every inch the living, breathing epitome of everything good in Shillington. When we got to the bedroom he sat down on the bed and then drew me in towards him, pressing his face to my abdomen.

  Instantly I thought of Vincent. I took a sharp breath in. The reminder was intense. He had done exactly the same to me but God how different it felt when it was him.

  "I can’t lie Vicky, I've missed you so much." Will's voice was muffled as he
pressed kisses to my body. It was comfortable, familiar, just like it always was when we had been together. It was clear that for him at least, nothing had changed. If I wanted this, then it was here waiting for me. He was waiting for me, ready to forgive and forget. I could let go of all my stupid ideas about being an inventor and a big time entrepreneur and live a comfortable, happy life here with him, in this little house on the outskirts of town.

  I ran my fingers through his fine blond hair, but again Vincent was there. Vincent fucking Medici would not get out of my thoughts, not even in this intimate moment when I wanted nothing more than to forget about his existence.

  But his hair had been so thick and tangled between my fingers as his kisses had set me on fire, making me ache to have him, to be taken by him. What I had in front of me was comfortable, tame and uncomplicated; no fetishes, no money, no ulterior motives.

  I pushed Will back down onto the bed and went to my knees before him.

  "Vic?" He sounded surprised, confused.

  I put my hands onto his legs and pushed them apart.

  "Victoria…"

  "Shut up Will, don’t ruin this." He always talked too much when we were alone together. I remembered that now. I planned to keep his mouth shut this time, unless he was screaming out my name. I wanted to hear him groan the way Vincent….

  Shit. I had to get him out of my mind. That part of my life was over.

  I jerked Will's zipper down and then cupped him with one hand but he pulled back from me and pulled the zipper back up.

  "Victoria… Vic, I want this, believe me, but you don’t have to do it like that. I don’t understand. What's going on here? You never…."

  "I never what? I never went down on you before?"

  He nodded his head. It was true and he had never complained. In fact, our entire sex-life had been pretty dull come to think of it, I just hadn't realized it at the time.

  "You don’t need to do those things with me."

  "But Will, I want to. I've had a lot of time to think in the last few days, even in the last few hours, I think I made a huge mistake going to New York and…and leaving us behind."

  He stood up and tucked in his shirt again. He might have a little more money now but his dress sense hadn't changed. He was always in jeans and work boots, tees and checkered shirts - a world away from the thousand dollar suits of Medici and his ostentatious wealth.

  "You didn’t make any mistake Vicky, you were right to follow your dream but it didn’t work out and now you made the right decision - you're back home where you belong. You need to leave that world behind you."

  He put out his hand for me and when I took it he pulled me to my feet and then lifted me into his arms. He was as strong as ever.

  Laying me carefully on the bed he began to undo his shirt. I watched and smiled. It was all just like the good parts of the old days. He had a beautiful strong body that he liked to show off and that I loved to look at although now, three years on, it had a totally different effect on me.

  There was no thrill; only familiarity.

  What the hell was I doing?

  What the hell was happening to me?

  When he was naked down to his shorts he began to undress me too. He took his time, removing each item of clothing with extreme gentleness, placing soft, sweet, tender kisses here and there along my body.

  It felt so different to…

  Stop it Victoria.

  I remember the underwear I had put on after the shower I took before dinner. I hadn’t thought about it because by then it had become a habit, a routine, but what would will do when saw what I was wearing? Lingerie had never been a big deal in our love making - the polar opposite of the obsessive behavior of Vincent and his out of control desires. Would it drive him wild? Send him out of control the way Vincent lost it every time he saw me down there? What would Will even look like in that condition?

  I couldn’t wait to find out but when he got to my panties he removed them perfunctorily without so much as second look and dropped them to the floor.

  I felt my heartbeat slow down to calm again. All the anticipation and fear I had felt was gone. My body relaxed and I watched Will's muscular shoulders move slowly, carefully, treating me with the utmost respect and I prayed I would be able to feel something for him that night because like it or not, there was nothing there.

  I turned my head away from him and shut my eyes.

  I had to admit to myself that if I did truly want him, then it was in every other possible way except for that.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  It was a week after the elevator incident that all hell began to break loose.

  I had fucked in elevators before but only ever in private ones; never in a public building, between floors and never so wildly, so uncontrollably. Fucking her again had been the farthest thing from my mind until I saw her walk through those doors. She was wearing a loose, summer dress, just like the one I had offered her a small fortune to remove for me. The plan was to speak to her alone. That's all I had bribed the security guards for - privacy - but once we were alone… God damn it, all I could think about was what she had on underneath there. The dress was light and loose enough for me to imagine I could see the outline of something dark underneath. If she moved in just the right way then surely I might catch a glimpse of her stockings and what was holding them up.

  Only this woman could make me feel more alive and more powerful than anything else in this world, but also more weak and powerless than a helpless little schoolboy.

  It was driving me insane and I still couldn’t figure out what it was but every time I met her it felt like I was so damn close to figuring it out. For some reason fucking her seemed like it would be a good way to do that but it hadn't helped me yet.

  I guess I would just need to keep on trying.

  When I pulled her into the elevator my plan had been to tell her what really happened with Medici Investments and her patent, but then knowing it could be our last time together… I couldn’t throw that opportunity away.

  And I needed to know what she was wearing under there. God I needed to know it so badly.

  That's when what happened, happened.

  Now ever since then, every time I stepped inside an elevator I was getting an instant hard on. Every time I saw a woman with long dark hair and a summer dress I wanted it to be her.

  This situation was clearly a problem and it needed to be solved. I couldn’t contact her directly and obviously Jean and Clarissa would have nothing to do with me so that only left her patent. The similarities with the device that Dill had invested in were striking. I had to take a second look and when I did I was sure this story wasn't over yet. They were too close for this to be an accident; either Victoria had tried to copy someone else's design, which I didn't believe for one second, or someone had copied hers.

  I decided to take action.

  I cleared my schedule for the week and then flew my own aircraft out to Shillington, Ohio to find the person who had sold us their patent for a song. The terms he had negotiated were terrible. In fact by Dill's account there was no negotiation at all; he had practically given it away and then washed his hands of the entire creation as soon as he got his check. In my experience inventors don't work that way. I know that I sure as hell would never give away control of something I put so much of myself into as that.

  In a nutshell, I smelled a rat - a small town rat.

  I rented a car and drove to his house outside of town but there was nobody home except for the dogs. My plan was to confront him with copies of the design and see what he had to say. You can tell a lot more from someone's reaction when you catch them off guard, not so much when they get a request for clarification from your legal team.

  A little background research revealed that Mr. Hyde had purchased a bar in town with the money from his sale. Another huge anomaly. Why would somebody with the intelligence and foresight to create such a sophisticated device sell it in order to buy a sports bar?

  I
got in my vehicle and returned to town. The bar was on Main St. and easy to find. It looked pretty much the same as million other places like it dotted across the United States; nothing wrong with it in principal but entirely lacking any shred of originality. Again, this was not what the mind of someone who designed that wrist band would settle for.

  It was a little early in the day but the doors were unlocked so I stepped inside and looked around. One old timer was already propping up the bar. I nodded to him.

  "Where's the owner?" I said.

  "Out back."

  I took a seat at the bar and placed the manila folders I had with me down on the counter. I couldn’t wait to see his face - that stunned look people get when they've been caught with their pants down.

  It must have been exactly the look that was all over my face when Victoria walked through from the back and saw me sitting there like a damn fool.

  It took both of us a moment to process what we were seeing and react.

  "Get out of here." She said. "Get out of here right now."

  "Victoria, I don’t understand, what the hell are you doing here? In a… a place like this."

  "I work here Medici. I'm the manager. It might not be good enough for you but at least the people who eat and drink here don’t manipulate other people into weird sex games for cash."

  The old timer next to us put down his drink and lifted his head.

  "I didn’t mean that Victoria. There's nothing wrong with this place, I just don't understand what you are doing here?"

  "Who were you looking for? Some other woman to buy dirty panties from?"

  The old timer nearly choked on his mouthful of beer.

  "Victoria, this isn’t the time to discuss things like that."

  "Now's as good a time as any." The old man said. "I'm all ears young feller."

  "There isn’t anything to discuss. Just go. I'm not the person you fucked last week and I'm not the person you're going to fuck this week either."