by Hope Ford
“Tell me about you,” he says and I try not to stiffen at his words.
I try to laugh it off. “There’s not a lot to tell.”
He rubs his stubbly chin across my neck and insists, “C’mon, Carly. I want to know it all. Tell me about your family, hell, I don’t even know what you do for a living.”
I laugh, making him think he’s tickling my neck. How do you tell the man you just slept with that you’re a millionaire? It’s too soon for that. I want one more day of being with someone that is with me for me. As soon as people find out who I am, what I have, they get weird around me. They change. “Well, let’s see. Right now, I’m a babysitter for a precious ten-year-old and well, family, uh, I don’t have any.”
“Oh shit, Anna told me that. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.” He apologizes, kissing my forehead.
I sink into him then. I bury my face into his neck and kiss him. He moves his body and I can feel his hard cock pressing against my leg. I can’t resist; I raise off of him to look in his face. “There’s no way.”
He looks at me questioningly and I nudge my leg against his hardness again. “There’s no way you could go again.”
He smirks at me. “Are you really willing to make that bet?”
I can’t help it; I look at him in amazement. “But how? There’s no way.”
He wraps his hand around mine and moves it down between us. His already hard cock strengthens and gains in size. “Honey, any time you’re around this is what I’m dealing with. Do you know how many cold showers I’ve had to take since I found you on my couch that first night?” He pulls me down for a kiss and when he pulls away, he whispers and I can barely make it out, but I swear he says, “I’ll never get enough.”
9
Luke
I raise my head off the pillow and look at the clock. It says one o’clock. I raise up quickly, surprised that I slept this late. I look over at the pillow next to me and pick up the piece of paper. I scan it quickly, hating that I woke up after Carly had gotten out of bed.
Luke,
I took Anna to the store so you could sleep awhile. We’ll be back after lunch.
Carly
I hear a pounding on the door and at first I think it’s mine, but when I raise up to pull my pants on, I realize it’s at the neighbor’s. When the knocking doesn’t stop, I open my door and see a man at Carly’s apartment.
“Hey, Carly’s not home. Can I help you?” I ask him. I don’t like that there’s some random guy knocking at her door.
He looks at me with distaste and I cross my arms across my chest.
He taps his high dollar shoe on the ground. “Why in the world she would move to this hovel is beyond me.”
He has to see the confusion on my face, because he says, “She’s a millionaire and decided to up and move to this, uh, place. I mean really, if she wanted to find herself, could she not have done it in Paris or Brazil or someplace exotic like everyone else?”
He starts to walk away, but I stop him. “Wait, are you saying that Carly is a millionaire?”
He turns his nose up at me. “Colton Medical?”
When I shake my head, letting him know I have no idea what he’s talking about, he says, “They’re only the leading firm in medical research.”
He shrugs when I still look at him confused. “Anyway, if you see her, please tell her that her attorney stopped by and I have papers for her to sign.”
He walks away then and I can tell by the way he puts his hand on the railing and then jerks it back, he thinks we’re just poor people that are beneath him. And he’s Carly’s friend. I look then around my apartment and try to see it through her eyes. The chipped paint, the scuffed floors, the cheap decorations. I should have seen it. I should have figured that she doesn’t fit in here.
I clench my fist and slam the door of my apartment. I knew it – I knew she was too good to be true.
Carly
We no sooner walk into the apartment than I can tell he’s mad. He’s already in his uniform and I should have called him, but Anna and I were having so much fun, I just couldn’t make her leave.
I hold my hand up when he walks toward me. “Look, I’m sorry we’re late. I should have called you.”
He looks between me and Anna. “Anna, what’s in the bags?”
She’s hopping from one foot to the other, bouncing the bag up and down as she goes. “Clothes. You won’t believe the clothes that Carly got me, Bub.”
I watch as his jaw tightens. “Take your stuff to your room and you can show me later. I have to go to work soon.”
She nods and starts to walk away, but she stops and runs back to Luke. She throws her arms around his waist and looks up at him. “I love you, Luke.”
He runs his hands through her hair and tells her he loves her too.
She smiles at me and then runs to her room. I’m sure her attitude is because when we were shopping I was telling her how lucky she was that she had someone that loved her no matter what and that he would always be on her side. I know what it’s like to not have parents and I’m glad she’s not completely on her own. She has Luke… and if I have anything to say about it, she’ll have me too.
When Luke looks back at me, his face hardens again. He stalks over to me and pulls me over toward the door so that Anna can’t see us or hear us.
“What is it? You decide to go slumming?” he asks me with a sneer in his voice.
I pull back and look at him with surprise. “What?”
He forces me backwards until I’m pressed up against the door. I can feel the anger coming off of him in waves. “You forgot to mention that you’re a millionaire. I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing but I won’t be used. What is it? Some joke with your friends… or are you trying to get something from your daddy and you think dating a poor boy will get it for you? Huh, what were you going to do, introduce me to him and then what, he gets you a new car if you break it off with me? I mean, c’mon, what’s it worth to you that you even spread your legs for it?”
I raise my hand to smack him. It’s my first thought, but he grips my wrist tightly, stopping me. We stare at each other and I can’t stop the tears that are welling up in my eyes. I want to fight it, I want to be strong, but when one slips over and I feel it rolling down my cheek, he looks shocked, surprised even. “Carly?”
I jerk from his hold. “My parents died last month. And this time with you and Anna is the first time I’ve been happy for some time. I actually thought”—I laugh—“today that I wish my dad could’ve met you. He would have liked you. I didn’t tell you that I was rich because every person in my life is in it because of my money. I couldn’t trust anyone. I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do – take over the family business, expand it, sell it – because honestly, the money means nothing to me. I would give it all away if I could spend one more day with my mom and dad. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I just wanted a normal life…”
“Carly… look, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” he starts, but I hold up my hand to stop him.
“No. You said it plain as day what you think of me. I mean, you’re right, I even spread my legs for you after only knowing you a day.” I choke on the words as I say them. It’s obvious what he thinks of me.
He takes a step toward me. “Carly, no, I didn’t mean it…”
I walk a few steps away. “I’m going to watch Anna tonight, because I promised her I would. You’re going to need to find another sitter, but I would still like to be friends with her.”
He starts to say something but I look away, not interested in what he has to say. “Okay, sure…” he tells me.
I nod my head. “Okay, I’m going to let you get ready,” I say and walk back to the bathroom to clean up my face before I face Anna.
10
Luke
I should have known this wouldn’t be my day. I walked straight into a hostage situation. We were serving a warrant at a club downtown and when the man saw us, he started
shooting his gun and grabbed a hostage.
Everyone escaped the building except for the hostage and me.
“Look, Mark, look at me. Just let her go. Trust me, you only need me.” I’ve tried to encourage him to let her go for the last hour now, but he’s not budging.
“Look man, I can’t go back to jail,” he says, and it’s obvious he’s so hopped up on pills he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. He jerks on the woman’s neck and she cries out.
I take a step toward them but he points his gun at me and I stop.
“I get it. I do. You don’t want to go to jail. I don’t want to put you there. This was just a few parking tickets, Mark. I could have given you the papers and that would have been it. You could have paid them. Now you’re looking at 5-10 years for kidnapping, assault of an officer, I mean by the end of the night the list can go on and on. Unless, that is, you let us go.”
“Have you ever been in love?” he asks me out of the blue.
And although the questions surprises me, my first thought goes to Carly. I shrug my shoulders at him.
“Yeah, man, I see it in your face. You’ve been in love. Now, imagine if you lost that love? Imagine going away and never seeing her again. Do you know how much that hurts? The last time I went away, she told me, she told me if I went away again, she’s done. No more screwups.”
He’s shaking his head and the look of defeat on his face tells me that he knows he’s screwed up.
I nod my head at him. “I get it. And you’re right, I have been in love. It was new, but I felt it. But fuck, any and everything I could have done to fuck it up, I’ve done. I hurt her, fuck man, I hurt her so bad she’ll probably never forgive me. But do you know what? When I get out of here, and Mark, we’re both getting out of here, I’m going straight for her. I’m going to show her that I can be the man she needs, the one she wants. I’m going to prove my love to her over and over again until she finally takes me back. Because that’s what this is about, Mark. Love. If you love her, you won’t give up. Maybe this time we can get you help, get you off the pills for good this time.”
Carly
It’s almost ten o’clock when there’s a knock on the door. I look through the peephole and see the woman in a police uniform and wrench the door open. “Is Luke okay?”
She takes a deep breath. “No, but he will be.”
I usher her in the apartment. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
The police officer holds out her hand to me. “I’m Heather. I’m Luke’s partner.”
I put my hand in hers and she holds on to it. “I’m Carly.”
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, you’re all I’ve heard about for the last two nights.”
I shake my head. “I’m so confused. Is Luke okay?”
Heather nods her head. “Yes, he’s okay. Well, he was actually in a hostage situation earlier, but he’s good now. He’s at the precinct filling out paperwork.”
“Oh my God, I have to sit down. Hostage situation?” I walk over to the edge of the sofa and collapse on it.
Heather just nods her head and acts like it’s another day. When right now, my life has completely turned upside down.
She holds out her phone. “I want you to hear something. Look, I know he screwed up, but he grew up with nothing. He’s sensitive about money and I’m sure he overreacted, but I wanted you to hear this.”
I try to take the phone from her, but she holds on to it. “Technically, I can’t let you see it. It’s from Luke’s bodycam and all you’re going to see is the perpetrator’s face. I want you to listen to it, listen to Luke’s voice.”
I nod my head and she pushes the button to play it.
I hear a strange man say, “Have you ever been in love?”
I listen to the whole thing and by the end of it, when he’s talking about loving me and not giving up, that’s when I’m sobbing. I ask her to play it again and she does, gladly and with a smile on her face.
I don’t want to get my hopes up. Did he say all that because he meant it? I ask myself, but deep down I know the answer.
I start to ask her when he should be done and the front door opens. It takes everything I have not to run to him.
He looks at Heather. “What are you doing here?”
Heather just shrugs and starts walking to the door. “I had to meet Carly after everything I heard about her.”
Luke looks at her strangely, but before she leaves, he stops her. “Hey, just a heads-up, Baker was at the precinct. He pulled in the fire truck hot and went searching through the precinct for you.”
Heather tries to keep her face free of any emotion, but I see the tiny spark in her eyes.
“See you tomorrow, Luke. Night, Carly.”
But Luke doesn’t give up. “You’re going to have to forgive him sometime, Heather.”
She just shrugs her shoulders and walks out the door.
I stand there watching him as he locks the door behind her and flips off the outside light.
He clears his throat. “How was everything here tonight?”
“Uh, good. I guess I’ll go home.” I get up to find my purse, but he stops me.
“I know I fucked up, Carly. But I wish you would stay.” He says it with so much feeling, it’s like the recording of his voice telling that man that he loves me is playing over and over in my head.
I should make him beg for it. I should make him apologize. But I’m hurting just as much as he is.
I drop my purse back on the table and walk over to him. “You want me to stay?”
He holds his hand out to me. “I don’t ever want you to leave.”
I smile up at him, walk up to him and wrap my arms around his waist. The fact I could have lost him tonight hits me hard as I hold him against me.
I feel him lean down and breathe me in before kissing the top of my head. He whispers softly, “I love you, Carly.”
I smile against him. “I know.”
Epilogue
Luke
9 Months Later
“You have to quit. You’re spoiling her,” I tell Carly.
She just laughs and leans up for me to kiss her.
We’re having Anna’s eleventh birthday party and Carly has gone all out. There’s people everywhere and she’s turned the back yard of our new house into a country fair.
She’s added one more present to the pile that’s already there and shrugs her shoulders. “You’re only eleven once, Luke.”
I just laugh. I can’t be mad at her and I think she knows that. She has me and Anna wrapped around her finger. Of course it might have something to do with how much happiness she’s brought into our lives.
I cup her rounded belly and I lean down for a kiss. “Now sit down, wife. You are supposed to be resting.”
She says, “I’ll rest after the party,” but she lets me pull her down into my lap.
She curls into me and I rest my head against hers.
When she sighs, I have to ask her, “Are you happy, Carly?”
I feel her lips stretch into a smile against my neck. “Yes. Happier than I’ve ever been.”
Everything seemed to fall into place after that night I was held hostage. Carly finally decided what she wanted to do with her parents’ company. Even though she didn’t have the experience or knowledge needed for the medical research, she did have determination. She hired all the right people to put them in place and to carry out her parents’ dreams. She even added an extra resource in asthma research, wanting to help Anna and other kids like her.
As for me, I finally graduated and got the detective job. The only thing was Carly and I both hated the hours. So I joined on at Colton Medical as the chief of security. This way I got to see my wife every day. Yeah, my life couldn’t get any better.
I feel Carly’s body tighten over top of me. “Honey, are you okay?”
She grunts a yeah at me. But I can tell by the clench of her face she’s in pain.
I pull back from her and look down in her eyes.
“Are you in labor?”
She starts to lie, I can tell, but she quickly answers, “Yes, but I didn’t want to take away from Anna’s birthday.”
“You’re having the baby now? My little brother is going to be born on my birthday?” Anna asks excitedly, running over to us.
Carly blows out a breath. “Well, I guess I was worried for nothing.”
I stand up then and carry her to the front door. “C’mon, let’s go have a baby.”
She looks back at me with a beautiful smile full of promises. “Sounds good to me. I love you, Luke.”
I just laugh. “I know.”
Not Playing You
1
Baker
Usually I don’t have any problem. I have complete focus on my job. I’m a fireman; I have to. But today’s different. Right as our truck pulls in and we start dragging the hose, a police car drives in behind us. When I see her get out of the passenger seat of the police car and walk around to the driver, my heart stops beating for at least three seconds. Her partner bends down to talk to her, putting a smile on her face. Two things hit me at once. One, she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Two, I don’t want her smiling at him. Only at me.
I shake my head, trying to get it out of my head and focus on what I’m here to do. There’s a party and the grill has caught on fire. It would be an easy fire to extinguish if there weren’t so many people around. I’m trying to get all the people out of the way but nobody is moving. Which is rare; most times people move out of our way pretty quickly. But by the looks of it, with the number of beer cans on the yard and in people’s hands, this has become somewhat of a rager.