Three's a Crowd

Dani shrugged. She hadn't told Gareth everything. Just about the dinner. She didn't mention how Jake had taken her on the stairs (and the ensuing hate-sex marathon). Didn't mention how she had found herself enjoying how he had aggressively fucked her after making her feel so weak and powerless. Didn't mention any of it because Dani didn't want Gareth to be as disgusted with her as she was with herself. It was terrifying to think that Jake had such a hold over her.

"You should leave him!" Gareth said, leaning forward to keep his voice down so that the others in the office wouldn't hear this conversation. "You can't stay with a guy like that!"

"I don't have anywhere to go!" Dani said. She didn't want to admit to Gareth that Jake terrified her: simply leaving him wouldn't be enough when he could just follow her, and Dani didn't want to know what he would do to her if she tried to leave.

"What about your friend, Zee? She's got a place, right?"

"Damaged by flooding," Dani said. It was true: Zehra's place was still being repaired. "Zee's at her boyfriend's place at the moment." Trying not to fuck her boyfriend's best friend, as well.

"You can stay with me," Gareth said. That would be a tough sell to the others, he knew, but he didn't want this woman he had come to care about staying with this obviously abusive boyfriend of hers.

"Gareth..." Dani said. Flattered and also a little terrified by his suggestion: Jake was already so suspicious about her 'working' relationship with Gareth. Moving in with him would spell trouble for them both. Gareth was a nice guy, who worked out, but he wasn't the physical powerhouse that Jake was. "You live with three people already. There's no space for me. That wouldn't be fair for your friends."

"I'm sure they'll understand..." Gareth muttered, not too sure himself. "What about family?"

Dani's look hardened. "Trust me when I say I'd rather stay with Jake than live with my parents in Kreenpye."

"Jesus... are they that bad?" When she nodded Gareth whistled in sympathy. "Mine are cool... but they live on the other side of the UK..." Otherwise he might have asked them to give Dani a room to stay in.

"Look... I appreciate what you're trying to do, but..." Dani wasn't sure what to say. She didn't know what she was going to do, and nothing Gareth was suggesting felt like the answer. "I just need some time... I'll think of a plan..."

Gareth raised an eyebrow.

"Gareth... please... don't do anything stupid: you don't know Jake."

"Apparently neither did you," he said. Then immediately regretted it: "Dani... I'm sorry..."

"No, that's fair," she said with a sigh. "Impressive how people can lie to you."

"I haven't."

She looked at him. Placed her hand on his. "I know. Thanks, Gareth. I'm glad you're here."

He gripped her hand tightly. "I don't want to be just 'here', he said.

Dani bit her lip. Dear God: she wanted to take him right now! She didn't care if he was bigger than Jake or not (unlikely - Jake was fucking monstrous! (In more ways than one)). Dani wanted to feel this man inside her.

Yet she still offered a sad smile. "I'm sorry Gareth," she said. What was she sorry for? "I should probably not..."

She was still holding his hand. Feeling his fingers entwined with hers. The warmth of his flesh.

"Don't go..." he said. Leaning so close to her.

God, he smelt nice!

"Gareth... I..." She was looking right at him. His eyes so close. She could just-

Her phone rang. For one brief, panic-stricken moment Dani thought it was Jake.

It wasn't. "Hey Zee," she said. "What's up?"

"I need to see you!" Zehra said. "This is an emergency!"

Dani offered Gareth an apologetic smile. "I have to go: Zee needs me."

"Sure," he smiled at her; his face filled with warmth and support. "Go see your friend. We'll talk again tomorrow, right?"

"Sure."

*****

"Hey! What's the emergency?" Dani exclaimed as she hurriedly collapsed onto the stool next to Zehra's, dumping her work bag on the bar in front of her and holding it tightly against the reasonably large crowd in the club tonight; although only a few were by the bar, with most out on the dance floor enjoying some poor man's synthwave. As this was a Thursday her friend, Rhian, wasn't working behind the bar, and Dani wasn't surprised to see Rhian's boss, the tall, blonde and equally tattooed Alexa Matthews-Kent serving drinks instead.

"Apple spritzer, please!" She said to Alexa. The much taller woman rolled her eyes but went off to make the cocktail anyway. Dani smiled at that: it seemed she was very much a slave to habit with her drinks, ordering the same thing every time she drank. "So what's up, Zee?"

Zehra looked at her with despair. "I want to have sex with Logan!"

"Fucking knew it!" Dani said, slapping the surface of the bar. "I knew you wanted a ride on the Logan Log!"

Zehra closed her eyes. "Please tell me that's not what people call it."

"That's what I called it!" Alexa spoke up. Then she glanced at the two women. "We are talking about Logan Evans, right?"

"The one, the only," Zehra sighed. "The 'Logan Log'... really?!?"

"It's fucking huge," Alexa said. "I mean... I've fucked some big dicks in my life, but Logan? Girl you are..." Alexa's voice trailed off as she positioned her hands in the air in front of her, a good ten inches or so apart, Zehra reckoned.

"Fuck..." Zehra said breathlessly.

The Dani from a week ago would have found her friend's reaction amusing - Jake was just as big as Logan, after all - but the Dani of today found the size an uncomfortable reminder of Jake and the power he held over her. It wasn't just his big dick and the way he made her feel with it, but that he knew she had liked it when he had fucked her on the stairs.

"Shoo, Alex!" Dani said, gesturing with a hand. Eager for the conversation to move away from how big Logan was down there. "Go be boss girl somewhere. I need a moment with my bestie here." Ignoring Alexa's look, Dani turned to Zehra. "Is this a two-way street?"

"No! At least... I'm fairly sure he doesn't fancy me," Zehra said.

"Oh Jesus, Zee..." Dani sighed, although she was happy that her friend was apparently leading a life less complicated than hers. "Tell me you're not thinking of acting on this, are you?"

"Hmm?"

"I said you're not thinking of actually fucking him, right?" Dani said, her eyes wide. "I mean... Christ, Zee! Adrian's a sweet man!"

"I'm not going to cheat on my boyfriend!" Zehra said in annoyance. "I love Adrian. He's been the best thing to happen to me in fucking years! He GETS me! He fucking deals with my shit! I'm not going to fuck anyone behind his back; ESPECIALLY not his best friend! Logan and Adrian go back YEARS! I'm not going to get in between them like that!"

"Jesus, Zee... just making sure you weren't thinking of doing something fucking stupid like get your vagina wet with someone else's dick," Dani muttered. Getting HER pussy wet with a certain other man's cock would definitely be a bad idea.

"I'm not!" Zehra insisted. "It's just a fantasy, OK? Just a little..."

"Please tell me you're not masturbating to him."

"God no! It's Henry Cavill, like a normal person."

Strange: Dani also enjoyed shlicking one out to Henry Cavill. Especially watching him painting Warhammer miniatures... what girl could resist a handsome man with a chiselled jawline who could fucking paint? Not Dani Cohen, that was for certain.

It was what had attracted her to Jake. His good looks. Chiselled jawline.

He wasn't very creative though (outside the kitchen).

Now Gareth on the other hand... handsome as fuck... and he could actually paint...

"Good girl," Dani took a sip from her drink. "Hmm... this is nice. Hey, what's in this?" Calling out down the bar to where Alexa was serving someone else.

Alexa half-turned to regard Dani and called back "Apples!"

"Bet you think you're funny!"

"Fucking hilarious," Alexa said. "You gonna pay your tab?"

Dani made a half-strangled laugh, then turned back to Zehra. "She gets me."

"I think she wants to kill you."

"No, she's just got a really bad case of resting bitch face. Worse than yours."

"It's not that bad, is it?" Zehra said. Prodding her cheeks with her fingers as she spoke. Then a strange look came over her friend's face. "Hey... Dani... do you think... if a guy actually likes you, but is afraid to show it... could he be an asshole to you?"

"What? Like pulling your hair in school because he has a crush on you?" Dani said, smiling at the image she conjured. "Do you think Logan's got a crush on you, then? He's acting all mean to you because he doesn't want Adrian to know he fancies the pants off you?" That was certainly an opposite display of affection than Gareth, who was practically dripping with his desire for her.

"Oh God..." Zehra's eyes widened. "I've done the same to him."

"Wow... you two are children," Dani said, as she licked the inside of her cocktail glass clean.

"Hark who's talking." Zehra sighed. "This just makes things more awkward. I mean... if I like him, and he likes me, but I'm dating his best friend..."

"Your life is a shitty romance novel," Dani said.

"You're right. Any advice?"

"I've got some," Alexa said, having moved back down to their end of the bar.

Zehra regarded her with obvious irritation. "And what would that be?"

Alexa grinned a savage grin. "Turn it into shitty erotica instead."

"Real fucking helpful, Alex," Dani said. "Is that your advice for every problem? Fuck it?"

"It's worked for me."

Dani rolled her eyes. There was no way she could turn HER life into shitty erotica. It was a bad Colleen Hoover novel instead. Just her fucking luck.

"So enough about me," Zehra said, plunging Dani into a state of fear: she had been enjoying her friend bitching about her lovelife. "What's going on with you lately? Didn't disturb some quality time with you and... what's-his-face?"

"Gareth? No..." Dani sighed. She didn't want to lie to Zehra. No, her friend deserved the truth.

So Dani told Zehra everything.

Including the parts she hadn't told Gareth.

Dani could see Zehra's face become more and more furious the longer her story went on, until she finally finished and her friend exploded: "I WILL FUCKING KILL HIM!" Zehra snarled as she turned to leave, forcing Dani to restrain her. "Dee! What the fuck? After what he did to you?"

"Come on Zee?" Dani hissed. "What are you going to do? March into my house and beat the shit out of my boyfriend?"

"YES!"

"He'll just charge you with breaking and entering and GBH," Alexa muttered, cleaning a glass as she stood behind the bar.

"Wait... he can't do that... right?" Zehra said, looking from Dani to Alexa.

"No, she's right... I think..." Dani looked questioningly at Alexa.

"Your boyfriend's Jacob Cook, right?" When Dani nodded, apparently confused as to why this nightclub owner knew her boyfriend, Alexa clarified: "My husband, Mark, is a colleague of Jake. Apparently Jake doesn't get on with most people at H&F, Mark included."

"Yeah... I've met another H&F guy, Theo," Dani said, noticing Alexa's lips curl into a smile at the mention of the name. Curious. "He says Jake's not popular too."

"Except with the bigwigs," Alexa said. "Unfortunately that's all that counts. Jake brings in the big clients. Clients that make H&F a lot of money. You're not the first woman he's wrapped in his spider's web."

"What happened to them?" Dani asked, realising that Jake had never spoken about his exes.

"Left town," Alexa said. "It seems Coytoss isn't big enough for Jake and any woman that pisses him off."

"What did he do? Harass them?"

"Don't need to when you're golfing buddies with John Follett and his friends," Alexa said.

Dani whistled. No wonder Jake didn't talk much about work: keeping that under wraps was a definite power move. John Follett - the Follett in Hills & Follett - was arguably one of the most powerful men in the city. Possibly Eroshire. Possibly even the UK. He didn't have quite as big a house as the Throne, but it was up there; in that suburb within the city, the Sashan Grey Estate, where you could find a few other big families, the movers-and-shakers of Coytoss, like the Khans and the Matthews; the Kents and the Chens. John Follett and his golfing buddies were the type of people who could say one thing and every employer in the city would be tossing your CV in the bin the moment they saw your name. It would render you unemployable to anyone except binmen, cleaners, and the Pret A Manger on the corner. No wonder the women left town.

"No way we're fucking letting that happen to Dani!" Zehra growled. "We need to get her out of this ASAP-"

Dani's phone went off. She looked at the screen and sighed.

"Don't answer it!" Zehra said, noticing the name on the screen.

"I have to," Dani said. "He'll only get worse if I don't." Holding a finger up to her friend's anger Dani held the phone up to her ear. "I'm not at work. I'm at PC with Zee."

"Really?" Jake said. Sounding unconvinced.

"Yes, really!" Dani said, trying to remain calm. "Zee called and-"

"Let me speak to that fucking cunt!" Zehra hissed through Dani's finger, by now almost held firm against her face.

"Tell Zehra I can hear her."

Dani looked at Zehra. "He can hear you."

"Good!" Zehra leaned as close to Dani as she could; Dani furiously tried to keep her friend at bay with one hand while holding the phone with the other. "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID! IF I SEE YOU I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"Put me on speaker," Jake said.

Feeling a cold chill Dani did.

"Hey Zehra, how's the job hunting going?"

Zehra's eyes widened. "You haven't-"

"Did you think I wasn't listening when you told Dani those lies about me?"

Dani groaned. That had been months ago! Zehra had come round the flat before the move out to Myle Hye. She and Dani had been sharing a drink on the balcony overlooking the roundabout known as Miller's Madness. Zehra had been pointing out her new boyfriend's flat on the other side of the roundabout. They had been laughing about it. The conversation had shifted to Dani's boyfriend. Zehra had said a few choice remarks about Jake (she was somewhere between four or five vodka tonics into the evening). Dani was sure Jake had been in the kitchen, cooking snacks for the evening!

Zehra grabbed the phone and held it closer to her. "Well, I was right, wasn't I? You're a fucking control freak! You and your chums can blacklist me all you fucking want! I'm not leaving!"

"I don't expect you to, Zehra," Jake said. Dani hated how calm he sounded. "But you're going to be a good girl and keep to your lane. You're not going to give Dani any shitty advice, OK?"

"Or what?" Zehra snarled.

Dani wished she hadn't said that.

"Dani's been making such great progress. I'm sure they'll let her see Chloe soon. You wouldn't want to be responsible for messing that up, would you?"

Dani turned the speaker off and held the phone to her ear while Zehra's face grew white. "I'm coming home," she croaked. "We'll talk then."

"I'm sure we will," Jake said, sounding pleased with himself.

Disconnecting the call Dani looked at her friend in shock. "I never told him!"

"Oh shit!" Zehra said. "How did he find out...?"

A moment of shocked silence descended between the two women. They look at each other, too stunned to talk. A phone slid across the counter towards Dani; she looked up at Alexa. "Give me your number," the tall woman said. "My husband works for H&F. He'll work something out."

Dani nodded. She felt numb. "Thank you..." After typing her number into Alexa's phone she got to her feet, swaying slightly. "I'm sorry... I need to go..." She felt Zehra's hands in hers, but couldn't give her friend more than a look of panic before she turned and hurried out of the club.

*****

Panic had given way to rage by the time she arrived back at Jake's house (she couldn't regard it as home anymore). Letting herself in she found him in the kitchen, preparing dinner.

"HOW DARE YOU USE MY DAUGHTER AGAINST ME!" Dani screamed as she strode up to him.

"I'm hurt that you never told me you had one," Jake said with a calmness that infuriated her. "I thought we had a relationship built on truth and honesty."

Dani stared at him, incredulous. "How dare you-"

"If you told me about her from the start this might all have turned out a little differently."

"Am I honestly to believe you've been torturing me because you're butthurt I didn't tell you I have a daughter?" Dani snarled. "Moving out here! The Farrows! Your little ways of punishing me for not telling you?"

"I feel I should know that you have a child with another man."

"You have no right to that!" Dani said. She was standing right next to him. Unperturbed by the height difference between them.

With a speed that took her by surprise Jake grabbed her hips and pinned her against the other counter. His face was close to hers. A smile on his face. "What a sad little girl you were," he said, and as he spoke his hand moved to slide down between her jeans and panties, and her pale skin. "All drugged up and shacking up with all kinds of bad men." His fingers slid inside her. Dani felt her breath catch and with horror realised she was actually finding this arousing - and he knew! This bastard knew! "One of them took advantage of you... knocked you up... but they wouldn't let you keep the baby... they took it away from you..."

"Her..." Dani whispered. She countered - her hands slipped beneath his jeans. "She has a name you cunt."

"Do remind me..." Jake's face was almost touching hers. Their lips so close together.

"Chloe," Dani said. Hating that she was telling this manipulative piece of shit one of the most personal aspects of her life. Her baby girl; taken from her by social services so many years ago. A daughter she had never seen. She was promised if she got clean and got a stable income that she might, one day, see Chloe again.

Jake kissed her. She kissed him back. How she hated kissing him back, but she was, and her hands were around his cock, and his were pleasing her cunt like he had so often did, in that way of his that made her feel fire down below, and before Dani realised it he had lifted her up and perched her on the side of the counter, and he had pushed himself inside her, and Dani had her arms around his neck, her lips to his ear, whispering how much of a cunt he was, and that she hated him - hated him so much - but he was making her cum like only Jake could do...

The dinner was forgotten: Jake fucked her in the kitchen for hours, moving her from counter to floor; pounding his monstrous cock into her in ways he knew made her cum hard enough to see stars. Dani screamed obscenities as she climaxed again and again - actual obscenities, about how much she hated him and what he was doing to her, even as she clawed at his back, bucking her hips up to meet his thrusts as he fucked her, before she clutched her legs around his waist as he blasted her insides with copious amounts of his cum.

His sordid method of torturing her continued to their bedroom, and he pounded her into the bed over and over, until Dani's screams became incoherent as she came over and over; Jake kept flooding her pussy with his cum until it felt like her eyes would turn white with his vile (but oh so fucking tasty) cum.

It was sometime in the early morning when he finally stopped. Holding himself above her, his face drenched in sweat, Jake grinned as he watched her come to her senses. "Are you going to be a good girl, Dani?" He growled.

Post-nut clarity was a real bitch, Dani mused as she brought her head up. Eyes filled with such loathing for this man. This handsome stud of a man who never failed to give her the best sex of her life, even now that she hated him with a passion she didn't think she was capable of. Hated him, and still wanted him. Fuck him. Fuck him literally and figuratively.