Sleep Tight (Best Friend Series Book 3) Read online

  “Okay, but don’t go far.”

  “I’m not, I want to make sure Erin is okay and talking shit before I go.”

  “We’re not going to argue about it right now, but you know I’ll come looking for you.”

  She stepped away so she could have a bit of privacy as she broke the news to her parents.

  “Don’t, Donna. She’s not the whore you think. She told me how she ended up in the room with Ellis. Erin vomited on her and she had to go shower. The other friend told her that someone was in the other shower so she went in yours. She didn’t know Ellis was even in the bed until she got out and hurried from the room before she saw more than she needed.”

  “There were stains on my bed.”

  “He’s a drunk teenager. He probably nutted in his sleep.”

  “She’s still a virgin,” I said in a whisper.

  “So you and her are?” my Dad asked.

  “We’re going to get married and I’m going to love her for the rest of my life.”

  “She’s covered in blood.”

  “It’s Erin’s. Her and Rachael were stopping the bleeding.”

  “Well, I assumed she was a bad girl because she writes romance novels.”

  “She writes?”

  “Yes, they didn’t tell you?”

  “No.”

  “Apparently, she’s really good, too.” Donna’s eyes looked up and I turned to see Lynne coming close.

  “Everything okay?”

  She nodded. “They are worried and scared, but they are glad that I’m not hurt. You know, I didn’t get a chance to tell the cops, but I saw that woman in the store the day you were in there.”

  “What?”

  “Yes, I was ringing up a pain in the ass woman when I saw you across the lane paying for your things. You didn’t look my way, but I couldn’t stop looking. Every time the woman got in my way, I would get more irritated. That Diane was in the next lane and she snapped on me. She told me that you were hers. At first I thought she was joking, but she watched you pull away. I had no idea where you were going and no idea what you were doing in the neighborhood. I passed her off as someone who knew it was you, too. Or that you were just some hot guy in the store that she was drooling over. I had no reason to think anything else.”

  “She must have known that I would have gone back to your house that night and then followed me to my house. Damn, I wished I would have met you sooner or you knew I was related to Erin. This wouldn’t have happened at all.”

  “I’m sorry,” she apologized.

  “It’s not your fault, Lynne,” Donna said. “How would you know that he was related.”

  “I just feel so bad. Maybe if I reported her.”

  “For what? Being a bitch? I didn’t even see her, but when I was shopping I felt someone watching me. I thought it was just my paranoia.”

  “She’s in custody now.”

  An OR doctor and a nurse approached us. “How’s she?”

  “Ms. Masters will be fine. She lost a lot of blood, and if it hadn’t been stopped when it was she would have lost too much blood to live. We had to do a blood transfusion, but she will recover.”

  “Can we see her?” Donna asked.

  “She’s asleep at the moment, but you can see her in about an hour.”

  We all hugged each other and cried with joy. After hugging my family, I held onto Lynne tightly. I didn’t care who saw me lean in and kiss her. I wrapped her up in my arms, my hands in her hair then moving onto her waist.

  “Pearce,” she admonished softly.

  “Don’t Pearce me. I’ll kiss you all I want and I don’t care who’s around. I’ve waited forever to find someone like you.”

  “Excuse me,” Rachael interrupted. We all looked at her. “Did you find out anything on Erin yet?”

  “Yes, she’s going to be okay.”

  “That’s wonderful. My parents are on their way to pick me up. I hoped that we’d find out before I had to go.”

  “Thank you for staying with Erin,” I said.

  “She’s my friend. I’m just so happy that she’s going to be okay.”

  It took forever before we could go see Erin, at least it felt like it. When we finally got into her room, she was waking up. I never felt so much relief in my life. Donna rushed to hug her daughter as we looked on. I would never want to be in their position. It took me until this moment to understand the pain my father went through when I almost died.

  I walked up to him and pulled him in for a hug. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

  “Don’t be, son,” he replied, squeezing me harder. I knew this moment had hit him hard. This stranger had uprooted our lives twice. The first time she got a slap on the wrist and now she struck again. “She’s going to pay for this. I should have hired our own expert. She didn’t belong in an asylum, she belonged in a maximum security prison.”

  He was right and there wasn’t anything her lawyers were going to be able to do this time. Justice will be served. There was no way she could get away with this. I had to contact Roger and let him know because I would need to be in the public eye again. Now the public would learn why I had stepped away and went into hiding. There had been rumors and speculation that I had died and the publishing house was trying to cover it up by having a ghostwriter pretend to be me. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do, but I know one thing, I wasn’t going to let that nut take anything else from me.

  After stepping away from my father, I went to reach for Lynne, but she was busy crying and holding Erin’s hand. “Thank you, Lynne.”

  “You’ve got nothing to thank me for.”

  “He was happy this morning before all this. Keep him that way, please.”

  “I’ll try,” she replied. I felt like a complete eavesdropper, but they said it in front of all of us. Lynne stepped back and it was my turn to hug Erin. I gave her a kiss on her forehead and whispered an apology. “Don’t you start. I opened the door without looking at the monitor. I knew better and I forgot. She wouldn’t have shot me if I didn’t try to stop her from getting in. It’s not your fault.”

  “Still, she was my crazy. If I hadn’t been me, she wouldn’t have been able to get to you.”

  “Don’t do that, Pearce. Steal my best friend away and start looking toward the future. I’m going to be fine and that nut is going to pay. It wasn’t just me she waived a gun at. There were five of my friends there. She’s a threat that needs to be dealt with.”

  “I won’t let her get off easy.” My phone buzzed. “Excuse me, it’s Roger. I need to talk to him.”

  “Roger?” she asked.

  “Yes, my public relations manager.” I left the room to talk to him. He was shocked to say the least, but I told him to call me back when he had a plan of action. This was going to hit the fan and the news shortly. It probably already was, but since her friends didn’t know who I really was my celebrity might not come into it. He was on it and would call me back in an hour with my next move.

  After leaving the hospital, I didn't know what to do about the house. There were bloodstains all over my living room carpet. The cops offered up a service that could handle it for me and I agreed. They would meet us there. I avoided looking in the living room while I showed them where to go. I went to go check on Dexter, who was taking a nap on his bed.

  “Hey, buddy. You ready to go out?”

  He started barking and wagging his tail then happily jumped straight towards Lynne. Dexter knocked her into me, which I didn’t mind so much, but I had to calm him down because one day she’d be pregnant and knocking down was out of the question. “Sit boy.”

  “You okay, love?” I asked her after straightening us both up.

  “Yes, I fell into you, so I’d say that’s not so bad.” She looked back up at me with a smile.

  “Not now, Lynne,” I said, swallowing hard. Her body pressed against me reminded me of all that we still hadn’t done. Or how much I ached to bury my cock between her heat and fuck our baby into her.
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  We walked out into the backyard and Dexter started running around. He picked up his favorite ball and brought it to Lynne’s hand. “I think he wants to play,” I whispered in her ear, nibbling on the tiny little lobe. She shimmied, my mouth tickling her.

  “Stop it, Pearce.”

  “I know I should, but I’m so eager for tonight.”

  “Oh shit! I’m supposed to go to work in an hour.”

  “Call in and quit.”

  “Pearce, that’s not cool.”

  “I know it might not be cool right now, but it’s for the best. Today was traumatic and, besides, I don’t want you to work.”

  “Are you worried I won’t be safe?” she asked, the concern written in her bright eyes.

  “Yes I am, but it’s more than that. You don’t need to work.” I knew about her rankings, since I looked her up on Amazon while she called her parents. She didn’t need the second job, besides she had me. I had money and I had royalties. I made twelve million last year alone. We were more than okay without her working a minimum wage job.

  “Pearce, I was planning to quit when school started. I feel bad doing it sooner.”

  “It’s okay. I plan to make you feel better.”

  There was a knock on the glass patio door. We turned to see one of the cleaning crew there.

  I walked over to the door and asked, “Yes?”

  “We’re done. It’s all cleaned up. We need you to look it over and sign the papers before we can leave.”

  “Okay.”

  “Are you okay with doing this, Pearce?”

  “Yes, love. Erin’s going to live and maybe they got that pizza stain out I noticed last night,” I joked. I knew there wasn’t anything there, but I needed to take the edge off. I was nervous of going into my own living room. I shook it off and we followed the guy in the hazmat suit. The room and its light sandy carpets looked brand new. I signed their paperwork and hurried them out of my home.

  “Call your job and let them know you can’t come in,” I ordered. There was no playing. What I noticed is that she tolerated my commands better than my suggestions. I could work with that. Visions of writing breaks with my wife riding me into a coming mess. My dick was hard despite the gravity of the day. I didn’t want the mess to drag into our time together so I wouldn’t let it. Just like one of my stories, it was time to turn the page.

  “Do you want something to eat or drink?”

  “I am hungry. We didn’t eat at all today.” That was right. We were on a walk when shit hit the fan and the nut tried to kill my sister and all her friends.

  “I completely forgot about it, but now that you say it, I’m starving.”

  “There’s no pizza left over. Do you have anything we can make quickly?”

  “I should have some stuff. Let’s go look or we can go to the little stand down the road for a bite.”

  “Whatever is fastest.” We walked into the kitchen and visions of last night hit me. I watched her bend over to toss the garbage and I begged to close the distance. It became too much and I did. All throughout their party, her eyes had been set to look behind her. What I noticed is she refused to talk about boys, like she knew I was listening. It was thoughtful of her because I would cut the night short. That may have been a better idea, but then again the crazy might have struck that night.

  Thinking about her, I wondered why she didn’t. The night would have been easier.

  “Stop thinking about this morning,” she said, touching my face and making me focus on her. “We need to eat and think about how lucky we are.”

  “After we eat, can I make love to you?”

  “If that’s what you want,” she said, her face turning pink. My stepmother had it all wrong. Romance author or not, she was green as they come. Food. Think of food, I reminded myself.

  We managed to scrounge up some sandwich stuff. “Erin went to the store for me because I didn’t have anything to eat in the house yesterday.”

  “She’s going to be fine. You know, right?”

  “Yeah, but I feel responsible.”

  “The only one responsible is that broad. Did you two…you know?” I knew what she was asking and she wouldn’t if she knew the truth.

  “No, we didn’t. She was someone I met at book signing and that was it. Since then I haven’t felt remotely comfortable. It was the reason I moved way out here. She tried to kill me in my sleep. It was the reason I got so many books out the year after I got out of the hospital. I couldn’t sleep. It was all I could to stay asleep without the nightmares.”

  “That had to be terrible.” She pressed her head against my chest, her lips kissing my scar over my shirt.

  “I’ve got you now.” My phone rang. Damn it. I rubbed my hard cock on her belly, letting her now where my mind was at. It was Roger.

  “Hey, Roger, what’s the plan?”

  “Tomorrow, we go on WGN news and talk to the reporters. I made the call. The story has spread, but no one knows that you were the target of her obsession. Can you handle that?”

  “I have to. She’s the only one that stalked me with threatening intentions. I never got anything too crazy before or after. You know that since you handle my fan mail.”

  “Yeah. Nothing more than you’re amazing and they wanted to pick your brain.”

  “What time do I need to be there?” I asked, hoping it didn’t waste my entire day with Lynne. There was so much I wanted to do with her in private.

  “I’ll send you all the details in an email.” Typical Roger.

  “Sounds good. Thanks.”

  “How’s your sister?” I heard the concern for her in his voice. It was hitting him harder than I expected. The way his voice cracked it was like he’d known Erin.

  “She’s recovering. When we left they said that she could leave tomorrow if all the tests come back normal.”

  “Cool. Sorry I didn’t know about Diane before yesterday,” he said guilt all in his tone.

  “If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have gotten home in time to get to Erin.”

  “It was that close?” he asked, shocked by the timing.

  “Yep.”

  “Damn. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

  “You’re flying in?”

  “Yes. I want to be with you when you talk to them. My flight leaves in a while. I should be there by early morning. You could be kind and pick me up from O’Hare. Then we can go over all the details.”

  “Sounds good. Send me that info, too.” When I hung up with him I pulled Lynne into my arms.

  “We’re going to need to make it an early night.” I went on to explain the plans for the morning. After tomorrow I was done with the interview, I had to go have a talk with her parents and check in on Erin. Then I was going to come home and make love to Lynne.

  “I’m glad I packed extra clothes in my bag.”

  “That’s really good.” My mouth came down on hers starting something that was going to make us forget about our half-eaten sandwiches.

  Chapter 7

  I took her by the hand and spun her until her body hit the nook. Leaning down, I captured her lips again and ground my cock into her. “I can’t wait any longer.”

  “Please, Pearce. Now.”

  I picked her lithe frame up in my arms and carried her up the stairs to my room. I opened the door and kicked it closed behind me. Dexter needed to stay out right now. Setting her down on her feet, I lifted her t-shirt, tossing it behind me. She reached for mine, lifting it over my head and letting it fall to the floor. She bit her lips as her hand went eagerly to my zipper. She ran her hand over my thickness, tormenting me as much as she was pleasing me. God, I wanted her now. Lynne pushed my pants and boxers with her to the floor, her body dropping to her knees. Oh, shit. I felt the tip of her warm tongue graze my tip while her hand controlled my length. There was no way I wouldn’t nut before I got her to the bed.

  Swallowing hard, I warned her what would happen. She was playing with fire, but my woman didn’t care. She ten
tatively took my cock down. At first she paused when I pulsed in her mouth. The moment I let out a moan she got the confidence she needed and took me deeper. I was too close not to come. Clutching her hair, I fucked her little mouth rougher than I planned, but it felt so damn good. She gagged just a bit, so I backed off and that was when she purred. I was done. My load coated her tongue and dribbled off her lips. I could barely stand. That was better than I could have ever imagined and I didn’t give a fuck that I didn’t last that long. Her mouth was made perfect.

  “I told you it would fit,” I teased, helping her to her feet.

  “I’m completely surprised.” Despite the bravado she was showing, the coloring in her cheeks gave it all away. It didn’t matter. I wanted her naked and her pussy in my mouth. Those shorts had to go. I stripped her down, kissing her wet lips. I slipped my finger into her tight entrance, trying to stretch it a little. My cock wasn’t ready to go down any time soon, so I needed to get her ready for me. My face dipped into her honey and licked her until she was screaming for more. The taste was more than my cock could handle. I felt the stirrings of another orgasm building. I rose onto my knees and moved so that my cock, with his glistening tip, rested on her curls.

  My cock pulsed on her belly. The control I thought I would have after coming was absent. The idea that I was taking her virginity with mine set my balls tight. Beads of sweat raced down my back as I fought off the need to come. I lifted my eyes to hers and that was a big mistake. She was smiling at me in an anxious but hungry way. I leaned back and pressed the head of my cock at her entrance, slipping a little in at a time because that was all I could do. Her pussy was unbelievably small. I thought I would rip her in two, which seemed to ease the need to come. Her breath caught as I pushed through her innocence. “Relax, love. I’m almost all in.” I wasn’t, but I needed her to calm down. Her pussy was giving me, a “Hell-fucking-no-way, get out,” shove out of her.

  Dropping down to my elbows, I closed in for a kiss. The moment our lips connected, I pushed all the way in. It felt like my cock was choking in her depths, it felt incredible and it was too much for me. Her body clenched with the pain and invasion. She whimpered against my mouth and I kissed her hard, then softened the kiss and worked her back into the mood. Her hands ran down my shoulders and the claws came out, and that was when I felt the first spurts of my release coat her womb. I let out a growl. Selfishly, I rode my orgasm, rocking in and out of her, but to my surprise she was moving with me. Her legs wrapped around me with her heels on my ass.