You’re Everything I Need: A Forbidden Romance

by Ford, Mia

  My heart skips a beat as he walks through the door, I have to gulp down a giant ball of emotion that lodges itself there. I still get that feeling every single time as I see him, he affects me deeply, touching me at the core. This is much better than anything that’s ever come before, I’ve never loved anyone like this.

  Thank God my past has vanished forever. I haven’t ever heard from Trent again and I know I won’t now. I didn’t like it at the time, I wasn’t keen but whatever Cooper did, it worked really well.

  “Hey there, beautiful.” He strides towards me and kisses me. “You look lovely today.”

  “I don’t, you’re the one in a swish suit. I might even still be in my pajamas.”

  “Well, I’m going to take Jack from you right now, and Aubrey and I have some things that we need to get done. During that time, you need to have a nice bubble bath, then there’s a dress on the bed for you.”

  “What? What do you mean? That’s nuts, Cooper.”

  “It isn’t. It’s our anniversary. We deserve a little treat, don’t you think?”

  “Oh yeah, after one hard year of marriage, of course we do!”

  “Exactly, I know it’s hard for you to put up with me every day.”

  I roll my eyes and kiss him on the lips. “Oh yeah, it’s a real challenge here.”

  “Right, come on then, get lost. Me and Aubrey are busy.”

  “What are you doing? I’m intrigued now.”

  “If I told you that, it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?”

  “Oh, come on! Don’t tease me.”

  “Go on. You’ll soon find out.”

  I walk towards the stairs, darting glances back towards Cooper. I’m not about to miss the chance of a hot bubble bath, it sounds amazing. As I go up the stairs my heart swells with love. I really do have the perfect man. He’s wonderful, everything that I could want and more. I’m so lucky.

  I wander into the bedroom first, and immediately am blown away by the dress lying across the sheets. Cooper must have done that this morning, and I’ve been so rushed off my feet that I haven’t seen it. It’s beautiful, he really must have a nice night planned. That’s so sweet. I didn’t think that we were going to bother doing anything to celebrate on the day because it’s been so manic, but Cooper’s sorted it anyway.

  He’s amazing.

  With a giant smile on my face I pick up the dress and I run my fingers down the silky material, gasping with joy as I do. This is probably the nicest thing I own, aside from my wedding dress which he also bought for me. I might just have to send him out shopping for me all the time.

  “Right,” I finally mutter to myself. “Bath time, then dress time.”

  It damn near kills me to walk away from the dress, but I have to. My body’s too worn out and stressed to deserve the dress right now anyway. Once I’m all cleaned and ready, it’ll be different.

  * * *

  “Well?” I twirl around as I reach the bottom of the stairs in the dress. “What do you think?”

  “Oh wow!” Cooper wipes a smudge of sauce off his face. “You look incredible. I knew that dress would be amazing on you, but wow… it’s beautiful. You’ve taken my breath away.”

  “Can I wear a dress?” Aubrey demands. “I want to look pretty too.”

  She doesn’t even wait for Cooper to answer, she bolts towards the stairs, leaving us both laughing.

  “Ooh, so you’re cooking something, are you?” I sniff deeply. “It smells delicious!”

  “It was supposed to be all ready by the time you came down the stairs, but you know what it’s like with kids.”

  “Yeah, yeah, trust me, I know! It’s impossible to get anything done. How’s Jack?”

  “He’s playing on his mat at the moment, giving me a break.”

  “Well, aren’t you lucky? I never get that treatment.”

  I pop my head into the other room to see my son having lots of fun. He’s laughing away to himself in his own little world. I often wonder what’s going through his mind, but of course, until he starts talking I’ll never know.

  “We should have more children, don’t you think?” Cooper spins me around and kisses me. “Make this family bigger. A couple more kids would be awesome.”

  “That’s easy for you to say, you aren’t the one who’s had to give birth.”

  “Oh, I know and I remember you cursing at me and saying never again, but that was just in the heat of the moment, right? That wasn’t something you really meant.”

  “I suppose not, but not today, I want to have a bit more time for just the four of us first.”

  “Okay, fair enough.” He smiles brightly at me. “I can go for that. As long as I know that it’s going to happen one day… oh! Before I forget.” He reaches behind himself and grabs an envelope to hand to me. “Here is your anniversary surprise. I know that we said no gifts, but this is something for all of us.”

  “Oh, really?” My eyes almost bug out in surprise. “I can’t believe I didn’t get you anything.”

  “I don’t want anything from you, I just want you to open it.”

  I tear the envelope apart, excitement crushing down on me however hard I try to disguise it. Immediately I gasp as I see the tickets inside. “You’re taking me on holiday?”

  “Well, we didn’t get to have a honeymoon, did we? You were too pregnant, so I thought instead it would be nice for us to go away as a family. I hope that’s okay?”

  “Of course! This is amazing. I can’t believe it.”

  “Well, Cassie, your mom, and her mom are also coming too, so they can have the kids to give us some alone time. They will be in a separate villa, but around so we can have just some me and you time too.”

  I wrap my arms around him and crash my lips to his. “Cooper, that sounds absolutely perfect, I would love that. A vacation and time for us by ourselves. That’s absolute heaven. You know what, maybe we should start thinking about more kids after all…”

  As we chuckle together and hold on to one another desperately, I think back to that day when I first saw Cooper in the park. He was just a stranger then, just a man whose child thought I was her mother. I didn’t even understand why back then. I sure as hell didn’t think that we would end up here, together and happy.

  Love didn’t come for me at the right time or in the right form, which is why it was a nightmare for a while, but now it’s imperfectly perfect. My own personal happy ending.

  50

  Sneak Peak: Saving Her

  Blurb…

  I just don’t want to SAVE her…I want to stand by her FOREVER!

  The last time I saw her, she was in High School

  I always saw her as my best friend’s little sister

  And now I see her after years…

  The fear in her eyes worries me

  And I didn’t realize that she is gonna be that important to me

  After all, I was a guy who shied away from a relationship…or at least a real one!

  I had made Fire Station my home and the people serving there my family.

  And I was okay with growing old there and dying there alone

  But, Andrea made me reconsider that

  And I know I can and I will…I am so ready for our future together!

  The only question is if she also see’s in my eyes - THE LOVE, THE SUPPORT & THE CARE?

  Chapter 1: Andrea

  Please don’t be positive.

  The bathroom stall felt like a coffin. I sat with my knees pressed against each other, my head hanging low and my hair hiding the tears that were running down my cheeks. I rocked back and forth on the toilet seat, praying to God no one would decide to come in and hear my uncontrolled sobs. I didn’t want anyone knocking on the stall door, asking if I was okay.

  I wasn’t okay. Obviously.

  Not positive. Not positive.

  I kept repeating the words in my mind like a mantra, as if just thinking it would make it true. What was it that they said about positive thinking? Wish it, and it will
be? Some bullshit like that. If it were true, I wouldn’t even be in this situation, locked in a bathroom with a pregnancy test that smelled like urine clutched tightly in my hands while I waited for the damned thing to tell me whether my life would turn into something worse than it already was.

  I was late, two weeks actually, and the only reason I had waited so long to check was because I was scared of what the result might be. Seeing that pink positive sign would kill me. It would be like a hand reaching into my chest cavity, grabbing my heart and squeezing until the blood burst out.

  There was something almost pathetic about it all. I didn’t need a mirror to tell me that my mascara had run wild, making me look like I had war paint on my face. I had shaken my hair so many times, it probably looked like a whirlwind of brunette strands. My eyes burned, my nose was running, and the left sleeve of my blouse was a mix of make-up and tears, a Van Gogh of my anxiety and inevitable misery.

  Just don’t be positive. For fuck’s sake, don’t be positive!

  I had lost track of time, of how long I had been sitting there waiting for the result. The box had instructed me to wait for ten minutes, and I was sure those had gone by already. I just couldn’t bring myself to look at the stick. I would lose it completely if it told me I was pregnant.

  Dennis would be thrilled.

  On second thought, no, Dennis wouldn’t. He’d probably turn into a hurricane of emotions, scream at me for being a ‘dumb cunt’ who couldn’t keep track of her contraception. He’d go on and on about how we couldn’t afford a child, how I was a conniving bitch that had planned to get knocked up just to make his life miserable. I’d probably react in some stupid way, like laugh at the fact that we actually could afford a child if he spent less money on booze and hookers.

  Then the beating would begin. And the screaming.

  Mostly my screaming.

  I sighed, coughed as I felt the breath I took break into staccatos of inhales threatening to suffocate me, and hugged my knees tight. I rocked faster, whispering a prayer I knew would definitely go unanswered. Look at the damn stick and get it over with, the voice of reason screamed in my head. But I didn’t want to. There was only one result I wanted to see, and I had a feeling that the world wasn’t done slapping me across the face just yet. It would be positive, and I’d be screwed.

  I ran a hand through my hair and shook it for the hundredth time since I had sat down. Jeremy would probably be looking for me by now, scouring the offices, ready to drop a shitload of paperwork my way. It was one thing to deal with Dennis’s wrath at home; Jeremy Karp was a completely different story. It wasn’t easy being the secretary for the CEO of KarpTech. People kept telling me that I was lucky to have the job.

  I wanted to slam a fist in those same people’s faces and dare them to walk in my shoes.

  Getting fired is only going to make it worse.

  Dennis would kill me for it. He already had his hands on half my salary, and that was only because he didn’t know just how much I earned. Otherwise, my entire paycheck would be used to fund his nighttime sex-capades and barhopping. The money he got from working at Ford was never enough, or at least that was what he claimed. Then again, I believed him. How much could a good-for-nothing mechanic make anyway, even at Ford?

  I shifted in my place, and the plastic pregnancy stick tapped against the toilet porcelain, reminding me that there were bigger problems looming. Being married to a drunk and cheat was one thing, but there was nothing worse than constantly fearing, I could get beaten up because the chicken was too dry. Telling Dennis I was pregnant would get me a one-way ticket to the emergency room, and that was if I was lucky.

  You’re going to have to get a break sooner or later. Maybe this is it. Check the fucking stick!

  I closed my eyes, took in a deep breath, and brought the stick up. I opened my eyes slowly, my vision blurred by the tears already forming, my body shaking with the anticipation of what it meant to see a positive sign.

  It was negative.

  The stick fell from my hand and clattered across the floor, and my sigh of relief was quickly followed by a rush of tears. I cried freely, having had dodged a bullet, and I fought to stay seated as my legs turned to jelly.

  It took me half an hour before I could finally get up and wash my face.

  * * *

  “Where the hell were you?”

  Karen Briggs pulled me into the conference room just before I could make it to my desk. A fiery redhead with the body of a Greek goddess, she was Jeremy’s right hand woman and the only person in the company who kept him from firing everyone left and right. Of course, there was the added benefit that she actually liked me, which made my job just bearable, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew that if push came to shove, she’d throw me under the bus.

  Karen closed the conference door and turned down the blinds, turning to me with a frown that made me cringe.

  “I had an emergency,” I said. “That time of the month, wasn’t prepared for it.”

  “He’s been asking for you for the past hour, Andrea,” Karen shot.

  “I’m sorry, I really am,” I said, hating how small my voice sounded. Don’t look down. Don’t you dare!

  I lowered my eyes and mentally slapped myself about it. If there was one thing Karen hated, it was lack of confidence, and unfortunately, I had a bucket load of that. Thank you, Dennis.

  “Hey,” Karen cut through my thoughts, finger under my chin and tilting my head back up. She looked at me for a few seconds, and for a moment there, I could feel the tears threatening to come again. The problem was, I knew she could read me like an open book, and if she didn’t say anything, it was only to save herself the agony of listening to my excuses.

  Karen sighed. “Fix your make-up, you look like a whore on a walk of shame,” she said. “Then get back to your desk. I told him that I sent you out on a photocopying errand, so find some memo and make enough copies to validate the lie.”

  Karen opened the conference door, stepped out, then stopped and turned back to me. “And for fuck’s sake, stop crying.”

  She disappeared, and I quickly wiped at my face. I took a few deep breaths, adjusted my clothes, and raced out towards the copying room.

  KarpTech was a bustling beehive of employees, and I tried to avoid eye contact as much as possible. I knew quite a few of the people who worked here and stopping for some friendly chit-chat would only make my situation worse. Still, I couldn’t help but feel a lot lighter than when I had first signed in this morning.

  I’m not pregnant. That’s all that really matters. For now, I’m going to be okay.

  The copy room was on the other side of the floor, tucked in between the break room and the ‘deck’, a row of cubicles devoted to the constant turn-over of interns and newly hires. The rule was, if you could survive three months on the ‘deck’, then you could withstand the stress and hard work that came with a full-time position at KarpTech. I avoided the deck like a plague, mainly because I couldn’t stand to see the pale faces and bloodshot eyes of newly hires who were in over their heads. But also, Kyle Hannigan ran the deck, and for every woman in the company, yours truly included, he was a starting player for the majority of our wet fantasies.

  Of course, none of us actually did anything about it, although the rumor was, Karen enjoyed a little Kyle every now and then after hours. I never asked her to confirm it, and she never brought it up. But I couldn’t ignore the sexual tension when the two of them were in a room together, as if they were mentally undressing each other, yearning for everyone to sign out and go home so they could go at it like bunnies.

  You just had a pregnancy scare. The last thing you should be thinking about right now is sex.

  I shook my head in frustration, pushed into the copy room, and grabbed the first memo lying discarded on the table by the machines. I scanned the contents quickly, making sure that it could pass for something Karen would want photocopied, and went about solidifying my alibi.

  “Mission impossible?”
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br />   I almost jumped at the sound of Kyle Hannigan’s voice behind me and turned around to find him smiling at me from the doorway. I immediately felt self-conscious, wondering why I hadn’t gone to the bathroom first to recheck my make-up.

  “Mr. Hannigan, hello,” I said, attempting to flash a smile that would at least partially hide my discomfort.

  “It’s Kyle,” he said, making his way to the pigeon holes on the opposite wall where copied material was stacked by interns, awaiting to be picked up by managers or their secretaries. “I think we’ve been through this before, Andrea. I hate being called mister.”

  “Sorry, Mr. Hannigan,” I replied, cringing when I heard the words escape my mouth.

  Kyle smiled and shook his head at me. “And the apologies, too,” he said. “Stop it.”

  I nodded.

  “So, Karen’s got you making copies again, huh?”

  “Mr. Karp’s a busy man,” I smiled. “He keeps me busy.”

  “Does he?” Kyle asked, winking. “Or is it Karen who has you running around in circles.”

  “Whatever she needs,” I replied.

  Kyle looked at me for a second, then nodded his approval. “Remind me that If I ever decide to get a secretary, I steal you from Jeremy.”

  I flashed him a polite smile, then turned back to the machine before the flush in my cheeks gave me away. I was still shaken up from the pregnancy scare, and it was strange how just talking to Kyle made me almost forget all about it.

  “Well, always great to see you, Andrea,” Kyle said as he walked out. “Don’t be a stranger.”

  “I won’t,” I said, briefly looking at him as he walked out.

  I quickly took him in with all his splendor. The muscles that bulged under his shirt, the blonde hair that was combed to perfection, the soft stubble of his beard that outlined his strong jaw and somehow made his blue eyes sparkle. I could almost see myself pulling him back into the copy room, locking the door, and tearing his clothes off while those strong arms wrapped around me.