Unraveling Mordecai - Marisa Maichel (top ten books of all time .TXT) 📗

I stuck my tongue out at the back of his head, then went outside to smoke a cigarette. Except…
Crap, I don’t have any cigarettes.
Time for a visit to the gas station. I needed a refill on my Nissan, anyway.

The gas station was only a mile away, so I was able to get there in time and filled up the tank in minutes. I went inside after I was done.
“Pack of Marlboro Silvers, please,” I said.
“Long or shorts?”
“Long.”
The clerk scanned my ID and I handed him some cash for the cigarettes.
“Reese? Reese Emerson?”
I turned at the high-pitched feminine voice.
Oh, shit fire.
It was Scarlett Hart. She wore a black tank top, short tight denim shorts, silver hoop earrings, and her usual red lipstick. Her black hair was in its usual high ponytail. She wore ankle boots and fishnets.
“Hi, Scarlett.”
“Hello. I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes.
“I live in this town. I sort of need to stay nearby.”
“What are you doing with yourself these days?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m about to become a father in six months. Sarah’s pregnant.”
She blinked, then touched my arm. “I bet you get lonely. You can’t have sex while she’s pregnant.”
“I manage.”
“It’s not the same as real sex, though, is it? I mean, real sex is…well, it’s amazing. Being close to someone you have feelings for, being connected in the best way possible, it’s so incredible.”
She stepped closer to me; she smelled like roses. I could feel myself getting excited.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
“What do you say? You want to feel what a real woman can do to your manhood?”
“No, thanks, Scarlett,” I replied. “Sarah is a real woman, and she’s handled my manhood well.”
I left her looking rejected and furious.

I went straight to Louis.
“Scarlett hit on me, and I got turned on,” I said.
“Hold on,” he said to the person at the other end of the phone. He put his hand over the receiver. “One-minute, little buddy. Geez. Sorry, Ambassador, what was that?” he continued. “Okay, well, I wouldn’t know for sure. My father or my uncle might, though. Do you have Mordecai’s number? His number is-“ He rattled off the number. “That’s his work number. Sorry, I don’t give out his personal number without his permission. I understand, but this is not a life-or-death issue. It’s an economy issue. I know, economy issues can become life-or-death, but it’s not an immediate concern. There’s no need for that kind of language. I understand, ma’am. Ma’am-ah, she hung up on me. What were you saying, little buddy?”
I repeated myself.
Louis rubbed his chin thoughtfully. I noticed that he had some whiskers growing on his chin. “I mean, you have been with Sarah for a while, and Scarlett’s a very beautiful girl. Maybe you’re just getting the urge.”
“The urge?”
“You know, guy’s been with his girlfriend for a while, a beautiful lady catches his attention. The urge.”
“You mean cheating?!”
Louis shrugged. “Men your age are prone to weakness, little buddy. Similar to guys in their forties or fifties. You’ve been with other people besides Sarah.”
“Yes, but with Evan, we weren’t together yet, and my tryst with Sadie doesn’t count, because we were technically broken up at the time. Even Sarah admitted that, although I know it hurt her. Just like it hurt me when she briefly dated Caden Cartwright while we were broken up.”
Louis shrugged. “I can’t really give you any advice, little buddy. You know the difference between right and wrong. Would it kill you if you and Sarah broke up? Probably. Would it kill you if you had relations with Scarlett? Probably not. Would it kill Sarah? Maybe. But that’s only if she finds out, right?”
“You’ve cheated before!”
“Yes, and it came back to bite me in the butt when Claudia gave me what-for for cheating on Reni. I also cheated on Jillian, Diana, Harper, Clara, and Little Wolf. All of them dumped me or kicked my ass, except for Clara, who begged me to stay with her. Man, that chick was nuts. Little Wolf was just as nuts, but in a different way-she literally kicked my ass and then tried to tear my balls off. I had to restrain her and then tie her up. She still hates me to this day. But if there’s anything I learned from my many, many trysts, it’s this: cheating hurts everyone involved, especially the cheater and the cheatee.”
I thought about what he said as I went back to Sarah’s room. She was in the shower, so I laid out some underwear for her and a clean t-shirt that said POPCORN ROCKS! I looked through her clothes and found a few that still had tags on them. I snipped the tags off, then laid out a pair of jeans and brown ankle boots for her. She’d wear this outfit.
When she came back in, towel wrapped around her head, she looked at the outfit and laughed.
“I need a maternity shirt, Reese,” she said.
“This isn’t maternity?” I lifted it up.
“No, it’s for people with flat stomachs, because it’s meant to expose a little midriff.”
I tilted my head in confusion. “What’s the point?”
“To look cute, duh.” She examined the outfit I’d laid out. “Sorry Reese, but this outfit is a major flop. Nothing will fit me now.”
Frustrated, I wadded up the shirt and threw it across the room.
“Hey, you tried,” she assured me, pecking me on the lips. She had chosen soap that smelled like oranges this time. I was sort of getting tired of smelling the same scent all the time-gardenias and roses, despite her efforts to have a different scent every day. Well, she was distantly related to the goddess of love, beauty, fertility, and sexuality.
I’d only met Aphrodite briefly, and never got a chance to speak to her, and I was still revved by the experience when I thought about it. But Sarah no longer revved me up the way she used to. I knew everything about her at this point. There was very little spark. Plus, she’d gained some weight. I know that’s extremely shallow and self-centered, and I know that pregnant women are supposed to gain weight, but she just had so many stretch marks now that I found it ridiculous.
Sarah glared at me for my brief fit, and then she went to her closet.
“Damn, I cut the tags off those shirts,” she said. “I was going to return them.”
Oops.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We picked the dogs up on Saturday. First, we got the husky, Koda. He was a pretty blue-eyed and black-and-white-furred yearling stud, and he jumped around us and licked our hands as I handed over the cash to his previous owner, a woman named Judy.
Then we got the Boston terrier pup named Scooter, and he came from a puppy mill owner. She explained that he’d just gotten over kennel cough, and was still weak. He was beautiful, with black and white spots all over him. He and Koda growled at each other at first, then started to play in the backseat of Sarah’s gold Honda.
They also jumped all over me. Koda kissed me multiple times, and tried to lick Sarah, but I kept him back so she could drive safely.
We went to the shelter where Jasmine was being kept, and we found a lovely tanned-brown happy-go-lucky pitbull with one brown eye and one blue eye playing with her sister. We were less happy when we found out that the owner went back on his word and promised Lola to another family. Sarah got upset, and I yelled at the owner for lying to us. And then we were even less happy when Scarlett came to pick up the dog.
“Hello, Reese, Sarah. Abe,” she said, walking toward us.
“You’re the buyer?” I asked in disbelief. Scarlett shrugged.
“Hey, she was promised to me.”
“She was also promised to us.”
She shrugged again. “Too bad. I need the protection more.”
“You bought a dog for protection?”
“Yes. Thanks to you, my parents threw me out of the house, and now I’m forced to work as both a dancer and a barista while I scrounge up metal to sell. They won’t even pay for college anymore!”
“And you blame us?”
“Well, it is your fault. You had to let everyone know what we were doing, Reese. And so did you, Sarah. You know what, I don’t even want the dog anymore. Go ahead and take her.”
She stalked away, and that’s how we wound up with Lola.

It was cramped in the car with four dogs. I had the Boston terrier pup in my lap, and the two pitbulls and the husky in the back. Lola and Jasmine were sniffing Koda, while he was sniffing Jasmine.
When we got home, all the dogs burst out of the car when we opened the doors. Koda spotted a rabbit and started chasing her, while Jasmine and Lola started smelling the lilac bushes. Scooter jumped out of my arms and immediately ran over to an ornamental cherry tree.
I opened the door, and was greeted by Shadowfang in his cat form. He twisted around my legs.
“You smell like dog,” he complained. Then his fur stood up on end and he arched his back. Lola had come inside, and was now staring at him curiously.
“You did bring a dog over,” he said.
“Actually-“
“Oh my god, I see more than one! How could you do this to me, Reese Emerson?!”
“Hey, they aren’t mine, at least, not fully. They belong to the girls.”
“Why so many?”
“Two of them belong to Sabine, the other two are Sarah’s.”
Just then, Spunk and Coffee appeared, and Coffee growled from a distance while Spunk sniffed Lola and she sniffed him back. Sarah let the other three dogs in, and it was pure chaos for about an hour while the dogs introduced themselves to each other and Jasmine chased Shadowfang around the living room. He finally jumped to the top of the refrigerator and refused to come down.
“Are you ever going to forgive me, Shadow?” Sarah asked.
“That depends. Are you keeping the mongrels?”
She shrugged. “Sorry. But yeah, they’re permanent.”
“Then no.”
She turned to me with a hurt look.
“He’ll forgive you,” I assured her, chuckling. “Eventually.”
Mom walked downstairs then with Selena and the chaos started up again. Zie appeared with Cirino a few minutes after that and they all wanted to meet the baby. He wasn’t sure if he liked all the dogs. He’d smile, then it would disappear and he’d hide his face in Zie’s chest.
“Why’d you get the mutts, anyway?” Shadow asked.
“Sarah needed an emotional support animal,” Mother replied. “Spunk could be it, but he’s stupid, and Coffee is a bitch. We are going to train these dogs to be good dogs. Besides, we need protection. We are going to train Koda and Lola and Jasmine to be protectors of the girls. We need them when we cannot be around. And we cannot trust the guards anymore. Chirag was only the latest to betray us, and before we know it, even Toby may turn his back on us!”
“Toby wouldn’t,” I assured her. “He’s too loyal to my uncle, and I consider him a friend.”
“More guards are coming tonight,” Alexander said, moving the baby gate as he walked downstairs. “I believe their names are Marcus and Renata. They are mates, as I’ve been told. They take their jobs seriously and came highly recommended from the vampire governor of Minnesota.”
“There are vampire governors?” Sarah asked.
“Well, sure,” I said. “There are also vampire mayors, vampire presidents, and so on. But we’re at the top. The vampire presidential position for the USA has