I knock twice on Bennett’s door. He answers right away. He is wearing a business suit and is holding a tablet in one hand, as if he was checking something. When he sees me, he smiles. The smile is easy-going and I feel myself relax a little.
“Come in,” he says, moving aside to let me walk in.
“Bit more organized than the last time I was here,” I remark as I walk into the living room.
The room is decorated now and everything is set up properly. It has Kevin’s touch here and there – an expensive painting or a rare book on display. Even so, I am happy to see there are wooden figures on display as well. I can tell that Bennett has crafted them himself. For some reason, seeing that Bennett is still keeping up with his old hobbies is comforting.
I turn around to look at him. I realize that my pulse has quickened. The last time I saw Bennett, he told me that he loved me. The thought of that makes me feel a little light-headed.
“Why did you call me over?” I ask him.
Bennett gently grabs one of my hands and looks at me as if he is waiting to see if I pull away. I don’t and he pulls me close toward him. My head rests against his chest and I can feel how quickly his heart is beating.
“Wanted to talk to you. Missed you too.”
“I did as well,” I tell him, looking up at him, “Bennett…”
Suddenly, I don’t feel as brave. I want to tell him what I said aloud after he left last time… that I love him too. But I am afraid, as if I am taking a giant leap off a cliff. I still don’t know how things are going to go with everything happening.
My memory flashes back to the tarot card of the lovers.
“What is it?” he asks me, curiously.
I swallow hard and think back again of the tarot reading. I tell myself I am being silly to listen to a bunch of cards. But Emily’s advice comes to me as well. Think of it as friendly advice.
“I love you too,” I finally say.
Bennett’s eyes stare into mine, as if he is making sure I am telling the truth. Then he smiles at me – that bright, charming smile that I have grown to adore. I can feel the warmth start in my stomach and spread out across my body at the sight of him smiling.
Before I can stop to ask him why he wanted me over here, his lips are on mine. I am weak, so weak for Bennett’s touch that I cave in. Our lips are hungry and passionate as if we had been lost in the desert for days and happened to come across water. My fingers grip his hair as our mouths mash together. Everything except for Bennett is wiped from my mind.
Together we stumble, blindly, toward his room. We are clinging to each other and at one point he bumps his head on the wall.
“Are you okay?” I ask, letting out a laugh as he rubs the back of his head.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he says, grinning at me. Then he kisses me again.
His lips find mine once more as our clothes quickly fall into a heap on the floor.
He is on top of me now. His skin is pressed against mine. The touch of his skin, after what feels like decades of not having it, makes me feel delirious with passion. I grip him tightly to me as if he might float away at any moment. His cock is hard against my thigh as he glides his lips down my neck.
I am so wet that I don’t want to wait anymore. I know he has to get back to the office as well. Sensing that time is short, I grip his cock, guiding him toward me. Bennett kisses me hard as he enters me. I am so wet that he slides in. The sensation of him inside of me makes me gasp. I close my eyes tightly as he groans softly in my ear.
We move together. Every movement is frenzied. He grips me tightly and then suddenly rolls me over on all fours. He fucks me from behind now, thrusting hard into me. I bury my face in the pillow, moaning loudly. He fucks me hard with his hands gripping my ass as he thrusts.
I can feel my own orgasm mounting. Being fucked from behind, hard and fast like this, is enough to send me over the edge. I grip the pillow and moan as my climax rolls through me. I shudder, rocking my ass against him when he suddenly moans and thrusts hard. We climax together until he slides out of me and lies down next to me.
We are both covered in sweat and are out of breath. Even though we had to hurry, it feels as if we had fucked for hours. Bennett grips my hand tightly as we lay there in silence for a few minutes, collecting ourselves.
Finally, I roll over and curl up next to him. I run my fingers down his chest and look up at him. Bennett grabs my hand and kisses my fingertips gently.
“I told my dad about us,” he finally says.
Bennett’s tone is boasting and proud, as if he is a little kid showing me a good grade on a report card. I sit up, alarmed.
But he doesn’t notice and goes on to say, “When I saw those marks on your arm, I had to tell him. He can’t just go around and rule over everything like you said. So I thought that would end it. I’m with you, April. We love each other. Dad will just have to deal with it.”
The afterglow of sex has been replaced with a sudden icy cold fear. It is working its way into my stomach, slowly, like a worm wiggling around.
Bennett still hasn’t noticed and continues speaking. “And guess what? He said it was fine. He said he understood that I can’t pick who I am in love with.”
I think of Angel, someone who Kevin apparently loved desperately and had lost in a cruel twist of fate. Did he think of her when he said that to his son?
“So, we were worrying for nothing. He knows I’m with you now.”
“What else did you tell him?” I ask, hoping that was the extent of it and already trying to figure out what Kevin is going to do to Bennett for going against him.
“I told him that he can’t touch you again. You know, that realistically, the twisted shit he did to you the night of your accident could get him in a lot of trouble and he’s lucky he has all that money. I told him that he could have killed you, for fuck’s sake!” Bennett sounds angry now, reliving the memory of speaking to his father. “I just… I went off on him, April. I’ve never spoken like that to my dad before.”
“What did he do?”
“He just stared at me. Like, he was actually listening to me. Everything I was saying seemed to sink in. Can you believe that? I finished telling him off about what he had done to you and Spencer and when I finished, he came over and hugged me. Hugged me! And he said he was going to make amends.”
I suddenly feel sick to my stomach. It feels as if my heart is slowing down, this final bout of information is too much for it and it is just going to stop working. I slide out of bed and run over to his bathroom, leaning over the toilet. I throw up violently. Bennett, alarmed, comes after me and moves my hair out of the way.
“April, are you okay?”
I flush the toilet and sit on the floor, holding my stomach in case it decides to go for round two. Bennett is crouched in front of me, concerned.
“Bennett, your father… I wish you hadn’t told him.”
“Told him what?”
“About the night of my accident. Or Spencer. Any of it.”
“Why? April, he said he’s going to make amends. I mean, granted, it’ll probably be money that he gives you and Spencer, but at least it’s something. Dad really saw the error of his ways.”
I shake my head, still feeling queasy. “I don’t think that’s what he means by making amends, Bennett.”
“April, you don’t still think Dad is like some evil guy, do you?”
I grip him and pull him close to me. “Bennett, your father literally paid off a hospital to hide my accident. This is super villain shit; don’t you get it? He uses his own daughter against Spencer. Everything has to fit the mold he wants. You dating me doesn’t fit the mold. Maybe he would have let it slide. But you knowing all this shit means that I know all this shit. Spencer knows it too. People know things about him that he doesn’t want known.”
Bennett looks down at the bruises on my arm and then curses loudly, standing up. He is still cursing as he goes back to the bedroom. I scramble to my feet, hoping my stomach doesn’t act up again and trail after him.
He is getting dressed now and looks over at me. “I fucked it up, didn’t I? I thought if I just spoke to him, I could get through to him. He’s still my dad, you know?”
I grip his hands. “Bennett, I know. Of course you’re going to want to reach out.”
“But now I’ve mucked it up, haven’t I?”
“We’ll figure it out. Maybe I’m overreacting,” I tell him, trying to calm him down even though I don’t believe my own words.
Bennett looks at the clock. “I have to head back to the office. What are you going to do?”
“Spencer and I are supposed to meet tonight. I’ll try to see if I can meet her earlier before Kevin gets to her.” I hesitate before asking, “Listen, do you know of your mom’s sister?”
“Angel? Yeah. She died when my mom was younger.” Bennett pauses before adding, “Sometimes, they fight about her.”
“Still?”
“Yes. I haven’t told anyone this but,” he lowers his voice as if even now he is telling me a secret, “they fight about her sometimes. About how Dad was in love with her and had to settle for my mother because Angel died.”
“I had no idea. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” he says, scanning my eyes as if looking for something. “How did you know about Angel?”
“Emily’s father knows. He told us the last time we went over there.”
Bennett hands me my clothes and I dress quickly. He shakes his head and mumbles something to himself.
“What?” I ask him.
“My whole family is fucked up,” is all he says to me.
***
I text Spencer on the burner phone as soon as I am back in my car. I wait a few minutes for her to reply. In the meantime, I watch Bennett head over to his own car. I want to tell him that everything is going to be fine. I want to tell him that I understand what he thought he was doing. Bennett wanted to reach out to his father and try to shift the power balance. I love him for defending me.
Unknowingly, Bennett let Kevin know that Spencer has told me about Aria and that I know what happened the night of the accident. I have a feeling that Kevin’s idea of making amends is vastly different to what normal people would think.
I actually feel that I am in danger. The feeling is a swooping sensation; the sort someone would feel when they are riding a rollercoaster. Part of me thinks about going to the police but I dismiss the thought almost right away. I have absolutely no evidence. I would sound like a lunatic. All Kevin would have to do is throw his money around and make everything stop.
My phone buzzes with a text message. It is Spencer. She tells me to come over. I shove the burner phone back in my purse and peel out of the apartment complex. I am hoping that Kevin is still thinking things over. I try to tell myself not to panic. What could he do?
It feels like hours until I get to the house. The front door is unlocked. I step inside. The house is as quiet as a tomb.
“Spencer?” I call out.
Spencer’s head appears from around the corner. “Hey. Sorry. Come in. I was making cinnamon rolls. Mom is out at a lunch. We need to talk about her too.”
I have no time for cinnamon rolls and my guess is mom still hasn’t let up on her drinking. I hurry over to Spencer and grip her arm tightly. She stares at me.
“What? Hey, listen, I got one of those burner phones too. That way we can talk in private. What’s wrong? Why did you want to move up seeing me?”
“Spence,” I say softly. “Bennett accidently let everything slip to Kevin.”
The reaction is instant. She jumps away from me as if she has been shot. Her arms fall to her sides limply.
“What?” Spencer finally says, the cinnamon rolls quickly forgotten on the counter.
I recount what Bennett has told me. By the end of my story, she is pacing the kitchen. Her eye is twitching. I worry she is going to faint. Her pacing makes me nervous as well.
“I was supposed to have a meeting with Kevin an hour ago,” Spencer finally tells me. “He cancelled. So I came back here. I was in such a good mood too.” She gestures to the cinnamon rolls as evidence.
“We’ll figure it out,” I say but my words seem useless.
“What do you think he’s going to do?” Spencer asks. “We should get to Aria. We should go there now.”
“What are we going to do once we get there?”
“I can’t… I can’t stay here, April! Not when Aria could be in trouble. We have to… we’ll talk to Harmony. Explain it. We’ll figure it out.” She is frenzied now and I want to calm her down when suddenly the front door opens.
We both fall silent. Our eyes meet and we know who it is going to be before he speaks.
“Great.” Kevin’s voice slinks up my spine and into my brain. “You’re both here.”