Cherry Popper Read online

  Cherry Popper

  River Laurent

  Contents

  Cherry Popper

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  Sweet Revenge

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Contact River

  Also by River Laurent

  Cherry Popper

  Blurb

  Jesse

  I was the poor kid from the wrong end of town, and she was the little rich girl who thought she was better than me.

  F**k her, I told my young heart. It wasn't like I’d go without. And I didn’t. My bedroom became a revolving door.

  Years later and she's back in my small town.

  Well, well, the little rich girl has become a luscious woman with curves I want to lick. Best part of all is she's in a jam and needs my help.

  Sure, baby. Sure, I think I might have just the tool you need…

  Mia

  He doesn’t know it, but I was crazy about him. I only turned him down because I didn’t want to be just another notch on his bedpost. Not that it bothered him, with his wicked smile and piercing blue eyes he went on to pop the cherries of so many girls he earned the title of Cherry Popper.

  After college, I moved to the city, but now I’m back for my friend’s wedding, and the first person I run into is him.

  Oh my, but he's a sight for sore eyes. The grown up, Jesse Cooper all hard muscles and oozing sex appeal, may even be able to fix my…uh…other problem too…

  *

  A sexy, curvy girl, standalone romance with HEA.

  Cherry Popper

  Copyright © 2018 by River Laurent

  The right of River Laurent to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the copyright, designs and patent act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious, any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  ISBN: 978-1-911608-24-0

  Created with Vellum

  Chapter 1

  Mia

  My head knew, and maybe my heart always knew, but my body stood there like a damn fool.

  Shocked to see the two of them like this. Going at it like wild animals! The world outside ground to a screeching halt. I stared at them in astonishment. Really, Mark? You picked Bella. Of all our friends, you choose her, the girl you insisted more than once had less sex appeal than a park bench on a Monday afternoon.

  Less than five minutes ago, I had walked in through the front door of our apartment, a big cake precariously balanced on the palm of my left hand, so I could reach for my keys. A big-ass smile was plastered all over my face because I was really pleased with myself.

  I had to travel all the way across town to a specialist bakery to find the perfect cake for the surprise birthday party I was throwing for Mark that evening, but I just knew he would adore the red velvet and butter cream treat I chose. True, as a rule he didn’t eat junk food. I should know, it’d been months since we ordered in pizza and just kicked back to enjoy ourselves, but surely, even he would allow himself to have a slice, or maybe even two of this delicious dream of a concoction.

  My plan was to drop the cake off before heading out to pick up the booze I’d ordered. My intention was to have it free-flowing all evening long. Usually, with alcohol in his system, Mark loosened up, and hopefully we could have some fun times later in the night. Not that I was saying we never had sex anymore without the help of lots of alcohol, or that he wasn’t fun. It was not really his fault he’d been so uptight. He had a very stressful job. If I had a job like his I would be murder to deal with too. His boss was a real psychopath.

  I had just got the door open when I heard the noise. It sounded like a grunt. What a pig or a wild boar would make.

  I froze on the spot. What the hell would a pig or wild boar be doing in my apartment? My head whirled around as my ears zeroed in on the location of the sound. It took me a good few seconds to figure out where it was coming from. I located the place where the sounds had come from just as my eyes fell onto a trail of clothes on the floor, one that led a messy path to the bedroom.

  An idiot could have figured out the scene, but at that moment, my pride simply refused to believe it. It couldn’t be. I mean, this scenario was just so cliché. Something you saw in movies, for God’s sake.

  I put the cake down carefully on the table as I’d put a lot of effort into getting it. Then I followed the clothes.

  A scarf: Hmm…

  A tie: Okay. But still not conclusive. Not really.

  A shirt I purchased for him a couple of Christmases ago: Well, it was summer and it was hot. Very hot. Even I was in a tank top.

  A pair of slutty leopard print thongs with white slime on the crotch string: Ugh…Oh God!

  The penny finally dropped, but to be honest I felt surprisingly calm in the face of what was happening. Maybe because none of it seemed real. I wasn’t meant to be back here, and some part of me felt as if I wasn’t. Like I was drifting in and watching someone else sneaking around our apartment. The sounds got louder even as the carpet muted my footsteps.

  I arrived at our bedroom door and stopped in my tracks.

  Chapter 2

  Mia

  He was behind Bella, fucking her roughly, hands grabbing her skinny hips. His back was to me, but in the dressing table mirror, I could see his face. It looked so red and contorted it was hard to tell whether it was pleasure or pain he was experiencing. Neither could see me and oblivious to my presence they carried on groaning, grunting, and emitting guttural cries of encouragement to each other. You know, stuff like, faster, harder, yeah baby, so good, etc.

  I knew I should shout, or draw attention to myself and let them know I had caught them in the act. Here was my fiancé, balls-deep in one of our friends, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the apartment that I paid half for. It should have made me incredulous, but in fact, it made perfect sense. Now that I really looked back on it, it seemed so obvious.

  Bella, who always said, I should ditch Mark, because he was such a dork. Mark who always said, Bella was so sexless, if she were a man she would have been a eunuch. Eunuch, my ass. She was wriggling her sweat-soaked body like a damn snake in an effort to get more of him inside her. Granted, there wasn’t that much to get inside, but even so. What a slut! I tilted my head slightly and looked at his dick. Thank God, for small mercies. He was wearing a condom.

  I stood there for what seemed like a lifetime, blankly watching them go at it and thinking of my next move. I thought about saying something. Well, okay, screaming something, but it seemed undignified. I would hav
e to yell louder than them. No, I wouldn’t do that. I should let them get on with it. I was better off without them.

  I turned and headed back out to the front door. I could still see them in the act, an image that was going to be burned onto my brain for the rest of my life, but that was okay. I could live with it. I’d seen worse on TV, on Animal Planet.

  As I was passing through the living room I glanced at the cake on the table, and felt the sudden urge to slam my hand down on it, to send the frosting and the perfectly-defined layers squishing messily out all over the table, but I restrained myself. No, I had put a lot of effort into getting it and I wasn’t wasting it. I picked up the cake and went back to the bedroom.

  They were still going at it.

  Unbelievable! Pigs!

  I walked right up to Mark. The bastard never broke the stride of his thrusts or noticed me. With all my strength, I smashed the dream cake over his head.

  His reaction was freaking priceless. He was so startled, he fell forward with a girlish scream. Right on top of Bella, the slut, trapping her underneath him. Her thin limbs flailed around like those of a giant insect.

  I looked down at my handiwork with satisfaction.

  The cake didn’t just break into a few pieces, there was cake and cream everywhere. On their naked bodies, the bed, the carpet. The mess was incredible. Both were still reeling with shock and had no idea what had hit them when I turned around smartly and walked out of the bedroom. I could hear him swearing and her shouting as I marched out of the apartment. I didn’t even bother to close the front door.

  A smile cracked out over my face. To my surprise, it turned into a mad little giggle. I guess, because:

  They looked absolutely ridiculous.

  There would be consequences, but for now, I was glad I broke up their sex session in such a spectacular fashion.

  Mark had just handed me my Get Out Of Jail Free card.

  Still giggling to myself, I made my way back to my car. I had almost reached my car when the bedroom window of our apartment was thrown open and Mark called out to me. At first, he sounded quite desperate as he begged me to come back up and talk to him. Then to my disbelief and fury, he had the nerve to shout down that it was not what I thought it was. It was all a big misunderstanding.

  Un-freaking-believable. I couldn’t help feeling a bit curious about how he planned to spin the fact that I had seen his dick inside her. But was I going back up there and let him lie to my face? No chance. No way. I didn’t want to see either of them ever again.

  Quite frankly, Bella was more than welcome to him. Let her put up with his prissy ways. Instead of feeling hurt, like I knew I should, I experienced only a sense of relief. It was weird, but I felt as though a weight I’d been carrying since the day he popped the question had been lifted at last. Gratitude to the universe for showing me the truth bloomed, like fragrant petals, inside my heart. Sunshine beamed down at me.

  I gazed up at bright blue sky and felt good.

  I didn’t have to feel bad about walking away from such a ‘great catch’ or defend my decision to anyone. There wasn’t a thing anyone could say. Not a damn thing. Anyway, there wasn’t a person alive who could have argued that I should stick by him. Not even my mother would be able to act as if this was my fault for being too fussy, or choosy.

  I had escaped him—that fucker, the man who came so close to being my husband. I realized now it would have been a fate worse than death. The only real quality I appreciated and valued in him was his loyalty and he had just flushed that down a toilet called Bella.

  A flash of burning fury sped through my body as I thought of all the trouble I had taken to set up his party.

  Bastard.

  Asshole.

  Piece of shit.

  I climbed into the driver’s seat. Yes, he was a jerk, yes, I wasted a year of my life, but hey, I was free now! I was finally FREE! For the first time in years, I felt completely and utterly liberated. I clamped my hands over the wheel, and turned my head to look in his direction. He was still hanging out of the window covered in his cake and begging me to come back. My anger disappeared and a bubble of laughter burst out of my mouth.

  He stopped begging and stared at me with open-mouthed astonishment.

  Yeah, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

  I pulled out of the parking lot as I left him, her, and our life together behind. This was it for me. I drove around for a little while, not quite sure where precisely I was going, but without meaning to, I found myself heading toward the outskirts of the city.

  Julie’s wedding. Back in Cold Creek.

  I was supposed to be leaving tomorrow after work with Mark, but slight change of plans. That’s where I was headed now on my own. Only a couple of hours away, back home, and far removed from this entire mess and everything that came with it.

  All I had in the back was my purse, one packed bag for the trip, and a dry-cleaning token, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was: I was free again to restart my life and this time, I wasn’t settling for second best.

  Never again!

  Chapter 3

  Mia

  I remembered the first time we met. Two years ago, when I’d been dragged along by my friend, Irene to some top-level fundraiser. Even though she’d warned me it would be boring, and I’d only gone out of solidarity, I’d been seriously regretting my decision. So, when some halfway cute finance bro started hitting on me, I decided I might as well just go along with it for fun.

  I expected it to be a very short romance. My reaction to finding him inside our friend is proof if I ever needed it… that I was never really into him. What happened was my mother basically slammed the accelerator on our relationship when she found out about his family and his job. I just went along with it because I had nothing better in my life. All my friends had boyfriends and husbands, so to be honest, it seemed more worthwhile cooking for two than one. Plus, I liked the idea of having someone to take me to parties and bring me home afterward. The sex was never all that. He seemed to be having way more fun with Bella. Which, I had to admit hurt far more than his deception.

  Hmmm….was it me? Was I no good at sex?

  When he proposed, I remember hesitating for a split second. The part of me which I did my best to clamp down on, reared its head. It howled at me to stop and think about what I was getting myself into. Then, I saw the ring glinting in its box, his face full of anticipation, the whole restaurant holding its breath as everyone waited for my reply.

  A million thoughts raced through my head.

  He really shouldn’t have asked me in such a public place. It limited my responses. An answer like ‘maybe in the future’ would have been fine in our living room, bit it was out of the question in front of that hopeful audience. Obviously, if I said no, I would be back at square one. No boyfriend. I could hear my mother saying, “I can’t believe you let a good man like that go. What on earth are you waiting for? A prince on a white horse?”

  To spare them all the embarrassment, I agreed.

  People came up to congratulate us and I started to think I had made the right decision. Not everybody can fall head over heels with someone. Some people, people like me, had to compromise and settle for less. Well, not less exactly. Mark was definitely a catch, but he was also the practical choice. Yes, I gave up on fantasy and made the right choice.

  Then, before I knew it, I found myself lost in planning for the big society wedding that my mother wanted. But at night, alone, when he was out of town, I would doubt the man I was getting married to. Then, I’d find myself searching for ways out, but have you ever tried to cut off a marriage when things were already in motion?

  I was scared shitless about the money, time, and effort everyone had wasted on my behalf. I just couldn’t be the bitch who let everyone down. I could already envision the sadness on my dad’s face along with the disappointment and censure on my mom’s. So I would get out of bed, gulp down a very large glass of wine, and tell myself I was one of the luck
y ones. I had a good man. A man who loved me. A man who wanted to marry me and take care of me. He’d even begun to build a house for us. I’d be an ungrateful fool if I ever gave him up.

  I would fall asleep telling myself over and over again, that I’d made the right decision.

  But now, that the good man had cheated on me…with one of my friends, well, ex-friends, I had a get out of jail card. And I intended to use it.

  I drove and drove, my brain racing, memories flooding my head, until I realized my stomach was growling. There was a diner up the road and I decided to pull over. I’d always loved the idea of stopping for waffles and maybe a milkshake at crappy roadside diners to break up the trip, but whenever I took Mark back to my hometown, he would always insist that we wait until we were at my parents’ place before we ate.

  Guess what? He wasn’t here to stop me.

  I could do whatever the hell I wanted!