Entangled: A Dark Erotic Novella
ENTANGLED
HARLEIGH BECK
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2022 by Harleigh Beck
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover design: 3Crows Author Services
Editing: Chris Williams
Proofreading: Green Proofreads
*Not suitable for readers under 18
For the lovers of dirty-talking fictional men who slap your kitty and demand that you call them ‘Daddy.’ This one is for you.
CONTENTS
Trigger warning
Prologue
1. Willow
2. willow
3. willow
4. Willow
5. willow
6. willow
7. Grayson
8. Willow
9. Willow
10. Grayson
11. willow
12. Willow
13. willow
14. Grayson
15. willow
16. Willow
Epilogue
Also by Harleigh Beck
Acknowledgments
About the Author
TRIGGER WARNING
Entangled is a dark erotic, suspense novella. This book isn’t a romance and doesn’t guarantee a happy ending. It’s very dark and contains disturbing scenes that may be triggering for some readers. This includes sexually explicit content, degradation, breath play, voyeurism, death of a loved one, a taboo age-gap relationship, murder, dubious cheating, and threats of violence.
PROLOGUE
WILLOW, AGE 10
“Should they kiss?” I ask my best friend, Chloe, as I brush my barbie’s hair while she roots through the box filled with clothes and dolls that we brought out to her front yard. The warm sun heats my freckled shoulders. Her dad, Mr. Reid, mowed the lawn this morning, so now it smells of freshly cut grass that sticks to my knees. Chloe holds up a tuxedo and proceeds to change her Ken doll’s clothes. “I think they should get married. Look in the box for a wedding dress.”
I’ve always coveted Chloe’s extensive Barbie collection. Mr. Reid spoils her. My mom doesn’t want to buy me nice things.
I change my Barbie’s clothes, and we hold them up next to each other. Chloe’s mischievous eyes find mine as she says in her deepest voice, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” We smash Barbie and Ken’s mouths together while making kissy noises.
Chloe breaks into giggles first, and I soon follow.
“Look what I got for my birthday,” Dylan calls out to us from the sidewalk, where he stands with a skateboard in his hands. Chloe is up on her feet first. She has always liked Dylan. I don’t; he’s annoying with his big smile and blue eyes. My Barbie and Chloe’s Ken lie abandoned on the grass when I join them.
“My dad got it for me for my eleventh birthday,” Dylan boasts.
“I don’t know how you dare use it. I would break a leg.”
“It’s easy. Want me to teach you?”
Chloe’s high pigtails sway as she quickly shakes her head. I step forward. “I’d like to try.”
“Okay, yeah, sure.” Dylan places it down on the ground, and I tentatively put my foot on it. It feels unstable.
“Keep your toes pointed forward and push off with the other foot, then do this.” Dylan demonstrates how to step on.
How difficult can it be? I follow his instructions, but it’s a lot harder than I anticipated. I quickly lose my balance and fall to the ground as I roll down the street.
“Oh, shit.” Dylan runs up to me and crouches down. “Are you okay?”
My knee is bleeding, and the sting has me wincing. Dylan goes to help me up, but Mr. Reid cuts across the grass with Chloe close on his heels. “What happened?”
“Willow fell off the skateboard.”
Mr. Reid crouches down in front of me and inspects my wound with gentle fingers. I’ve always been jealous of Chloe for having a dad who cares. I’ve never met mine. I don’t even know who he is.
“Let’s get you cleaned up inside.” He helps me to my feet, and Chloe smiles at me as I hobble past her. She doesn’t follow. Not now that Dylan is here and ready to show her his tricks.
When I join Mr. Reid in the kitchen, he grabs me by my hips and lifts me up on the counter. My feet dangle in the air while I watch him dig in the cupboard for band-aids.
“You should have worn kneepads.”
“I didn’t know.”
“It’s okay,” he says, gently lifting my leg beneath my knee and resting my sandalled foot on his stomach. He cleans the wound and applies a pink band-aid with white unicorns. I stare at him the entire time, wondering if this is what it’s like to have a dad. Or a parent who cares. My mom never cleans my wounds. She tells me to go away, to make less noise.
“There, good as new.” Mr. Reid helps me down. “Be careful out there.”
“Thank you.”
I join Chloe and Dylan outside in the warm afternoon sun. Dylan rides down the street and then back. “Check this out.” He does a flip, and Chloe claps her hands together excitedly.
“That was so cool!”
Dylan beams, kicking the board up into his hand. “Yeah?”
My eyes roll while Chloe nods eagerly. She’s become obsessed with boys this summer, especially Dylan. He goes to the same school as us and is a year older. I don’t understand what’s so interesting about boys. They’re annoying, always interrupting us when Barbie is about to get her happily ever after with Ken. And they steal your best friend. I especially don’t understand what is so fascinating about Dylan. He’s the most annoying boy of all. He’s tall for his age, his hair is a constant mess, and he always has streaks of mud somewhere. If not on his cheek, then on his tanned arms.
I sit back down on the grass and pick up my Barbie. The wedding dress is stupid, so I tear it off her and select another one while Chloe continues gushing over Dylan and his stupid skateboard.
As I shift, my eyes catch on the unicorn band-aid on my knee. There’s a red patch of blood on it.
The sound of a car draws my attention.
Mrs. Reid’s Volvo parks in the driveway.
“Mom,” Chloe calls out, waving as Mrs. Reid steps out and shoulders her bag. She’s beautiful, with her hazel brown hair tied back and her knee-length skirt. Chloe’s mom is always immaculately dressed and smiling. Unlike my mom, who rarely smiles and is always in a bad mood. Even at ten, I know Chloe and I are from different worlds.
Mr. Reid steps out of the house, embracing his wife. In that moment, I’m jealous of Chloe and her perfect life. My Barbie will never get her Ken and the Dreamhouse.
CHAPTER 1
WILLOW
OCTOBER 27TH, 2015
7 YEARS LATER
“Mom?” I call out, emerging from my bedroom. The house is quiet except for the grandfather clock in the hallway. My heart sinks, which is stupid. Even after all this time, I wish she would be here to say good morning. To give a damn about her daughter. But she doesn’t. Some things never change.
I eat breakfast alone in the kitchen. The radio is on to help me feel less empty inside. The silence is the worst. It’s loud, and if I let it sneak in, it soon starts to scream.
I’m taking the last bite of my sandwich when the doorbell rings.
As Chloe enters, my face spreads in a smile.
“Where’s my favorite bitch?”
Sliding my chair back, I join her in the hallway. She eyes my Chucks with distaste as I put them on.
“What?” I laugh.
“We need to get you a new wardrobe.”
“What’s wrong with my clothes this time?”
Chloe is very girly, and I’m not. She likes colors and heels while I prefer to dress in denim skirts and T-shirts. Sometimes I wear something colorful if I’m adventurous, but I don’t venture away from my Chucks. Heels are off the table. I’d break my ankle.
“What does the quote say on your T-shirt today?”
I look down. “‘The answer is no.’”
With an eye roll and a soft laugh, she walks out. I lock up, dropping the key in my bag. We’re neighbors. I live next door, and Dylan’s house is across the street from us.
When we’re buckled up in her car, she lowers the roof and attempts a smile.
“How are you holding up?” I ask.
Today is the five-year anniversary of when her mother disappeared without a trace. She went to work one day and never came home. Chloe was never the same again. Beneath her convincing smile is the ghost of the girl I once knew.
Drawing in a deep sigh, she reverses out of the driveway. It’s not until we’re on the main road that she replies in a choked voice, “It would be so much easier if they had found a body, you know?”
“That way, you could have closure.”
She nods, wringing the steering wheel. “Yeah.”
I feel like that with my mom sometimes. I wish she would either make an effort or disappear for good. To come home after school and see the evidence of her presence: the sloshing sound of the dishwasher, the new air freshener installed in the hallway as you enter, an open magazine on the coffee table—it hurts more than it would if she just disappeared. At least then, I could move on and not hold out for her to change her mind and decide she wants a relationship with me.
“I’m sorry.”
She grabs my hand. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Squeezing her back, I reply, “I wish I could do more.”
We slow at a stop light and Chloe switches on the radio before tucking her long hair behind her ears. She’s the spitting image of her mom, with the same almond-colored eyes, hazel hair and upturned nose. She always says she wishes she had honey-blonde hair like me. It makes no sense. I would love to have her hair color. I suppose we always want what we don’t have.
Dylan waits for us as we arrive at school. We’ve barely exited the car when he pulls her in for a kiss. They’ve been together since they were fourteen, and it’s a sweet relationship, but it’s also an intense one. They’re rarely apart, and Dylan is possessive. The girls at school swoon over him with his blonde, tousled hair and dimples. I don’t know what it is about girls and their attraction to alphaholes.
“Willow, Willow, Willow,” Dylan says in greeting because he knows it gets on my nerves.
“Dylan, Dylan, Dylan,” I reply, pushing the car door shut and walking ahead.
Chloe giggles behind me, and it’s all I can do not to roll my eyes. “Are you coming to the party tonight, Willow?” Dylan asks.
Winking at me, Chloe replies, “I’m not giving her a choice.”
My heart softens. I would do anything to help Chloe keep her focus off her mother today. I know how hard this day is for her, and the last thing I want is for her to be alone. If she wants to drag me to a party, I’ll put my antisocial tendencies aside for one night and suffer through it. I’ll sit in a corner and pretend I’m blind to the drunk girls dancing on the tables and the boys doing a keg stand in the kitchen. I’ll even pretend I’m having a good time. I can be an amazing actress when I want to be.
I smile at Dylan over my shoulder. “I’ll be there.”
“You know,” he starts, walking ahead to open the door for us, “my friend, Luca, has the hots for you. I can introduce you to him.”
I raise my brow but don’t reply as I step into the crowded hallway. I’m not interested in his friends. They’re all the same: fucking random girls and spending their free time riding their skateboards down at the park.
“Luca is nice,” Chloe says to me as we make our way to our lockers.
“If you’re into boys like that, sure,” I reply drily, sidestepping a football player. Why are they all built like tanks?
We reach the lockers, and Chloe leans her shoulder against hers, studying me. “What’s your type? We’re seventeen, and you’ve never dated anyone.”
Shrugging, I input my combination. “I don’t think I have a type. The boys here bore me, that’s all.”
“You won’t give anyone a chance.” She opens her locker. “If you let Luca take you out, he might surprise you.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.” She shuts her locker, zips up her bag, and shoulders it. “Maybe you have more in common than you think.”
I humor her because the eagerness in her eyes is cute. “Like what?”
“Maybe you both like popcorn? Or maybe you both have an affinity for true crime? Maybe he’s really funny?”
“Funny?” I shut my locker too, shouldering my bag. “Now that would be a surprise.”
“You love that show… What’s it called? Where they’re stranded on an island?”
“Lost?”
“That’s the one,” she says as we start walking toward the classroom. “Maybe he likes it too?”
“Or maybe he doesn’t.”
“You won’t know that unless you let him take you out.” With a mischievous smile, she nudges my elbow, and I find myself chuckling.
“You’re very adamant that I should give him a chance.”
Pausing outside the classroom, she shrugs her shoulders. “I think you’ll have a good time.”
I reach up and flick her long ponytail. “I’m holding you personally responsible when I have the worst time of my life. You know, at the end of the night, when he tries to kiss me in his car, and we end up bumping noses instead? Yeah, you’ll never hear the end of it. We’ll turn thirty, and I’ll still complain about that one time I let you talk me into going on a date with Luca.”
Her beaming face makes the sacrifice worth it. If it keeps her smiling today, I’ll let every boy at school bore me with their Star Wars talk.
“And I promise to always put you in uncomfortable positions that we can laugh about twenty years from now because that’s what best friends do.”
Laughing, we enter the classroom.
CHAPTER 2
WILLOW
Music plays from Chloe’s speakers while she applies her blood-red lipstick in the mirror. I’m like a newborn lamb on ice as I step out of the adjoining bathroom in a pair of six-inch, black heels and a gold dress, which she insisted I try on. “I feel stupid.”
She smacks her lips, fluffing her hair, then straightens up. Her excited squeal makes me wince. “You look amazing! Wow, look at your tits in that dress.”
Swaying on my feet, I tug down on the fabric around my thighs. Well, I try to, but it barely covers my ass. “I look ridiculous.”
“Don’t be silly. You’ll have every man drooling over you tonight.”
Just then, there’s a knock on the door, and Dylan enters the room. When he spots me, he does a double take. “Holy shit!”
“Right?” Chloe’s tinkling laughter drifts on the heavy bass like a crowd-surfing rockstar. “Doesn’t she look amazing?”
“Who knew you hid all that beneath your band T-shirts, Willow?”
I flip him off.
“Luca will be here soon. He’s running five minutes late.”
Walking over to the door, I throw a look at Chloe, who waves me off.
“Don’t write him off just yet.”
“I’m grabbing a beer. Do you guys want one?”