Ready to Fall (A Second Chance Bad Boy Next Door Romance)

by Anne Connor

  “Hey, Sean.” She pushes a stray hair behind her ear and twirls it in her finger. She bites down on her lip and smiles wide. It’s genuine. It’s beautiful. And it’s her. The real her.

  I step into the house and take her face in my hands, collapsing the space between us into nothing as we come together. Manic energy weaves between us and our lips crush together, her mouth opening up softly for me.

  We stumble into her foyer and I guide her blindly to the couch, the soft cushions enveloping us.

  “We can’t,” she giggles, “Kayla is upstairs for her nap.”

  I sit up and take her hands in mine, caressing her wrists with my thumbs. She still has marks where the bound her, but now all I want to do is hold her there, keeping her safe from anything that might threaten her again.

  “Are her parents okay with her being around me?”

  “I spoke to her dad at the hospital last week,” she says, nodding. “I ran into him while you were talking to the doctors. I explained what happened, without getting into details about what you had to do. He said you didn’t sound like a bad man at all. Just someone who did what they had to in a bad situation.”

  I swallow thickly and shake my head.

  “I don’t want to be bad. I don’t want to be good. I want to be exactly what you need me to be. And if that means doing bad things to protect you, that’s what I’ll do, sweetheart.”

  I run my hands along her arms and trace them up to her face. I lean into her and she closes her eyes as I kiss her behind her ear, making her moan sweetly, making my cock get hard.

  “You’re beautiful. And you don’t have to worry about being unsafe again. I am going to protect you.”

  As we’re lost in our kiss, her phone rings. We both ignore it; nothing is going to pull us out of this moment. She moans sweetly as I move to the floor between her legs, pushing her knees apart.

  God what she’s wearing to today is so different from what I first saw her in. The white sundress makes her so young and pure, makes her look like an innocent virgin. But I know the dirty girl inside.

  I slide my hands up her thighs and hook my fingers onto either side of her white lace panties and pull them down, exposing her bare flesh to me.

  “Cherry,” I say, nudging her knees open. She spreads herself for me, her mouth slightly agape as I move closer to her. “The lie I told might have been very fake, but my feelings for you...there’s something between us. There’s something about you. Something I don’t want to just let go of.”

  I kiss her between her legs and she sinks down, sliding her ass to the edge of the couch. I take her clit between my lips and flick my tongue over it. I just want to make her feel good after everything she’s been through. I just want to know her. I just want to make this real. I’m tired of pretending to be something I’m not. I don’t want to let her go. And I won’t.

  “I have feeling for you too, Sean,” she says sweetly, her breath shaking as I move between her legs. “I didn’t know if I even wanted to admit it to myself. You put everything on the line for me. You’ve made me feel things...new things…”

  I push her open and glide two fingers into her, twisting my palm up to curl my fingers up inside her. Her face heats and flushes, her soft pussy so wet, like luscious velvet.

  “Cum for me, Cherry. I want you to feel it. Cum, my little dirty girl.”

  She moans softly, throwing her head back against the couch as her legs start to tremble. I keep my mouth on her, rocking my fingers in and out of her at a slow, even tempo. I can’t wait to bring her home and away from all the pain and heartache she’s felt.

  I join her on the couch and bring her up onto my lap, rocking her gently in my arms, kissing her hair. She closes her eyes and nuzzles into me, and I swear a see a tear forming at the corner of her eye. But she squeezes it away and it disappears.

  She sighs, breathing out hard.

  “Sean...I want to tell you something…”

  “What is it?” I run my thumb along her cheek, down to her lip. She still has a mark from where she was injured. Seeing that incites anger inside my bones, but I push it down. It’s not worth it. All I can do is move forward. All we can do is move forward.

  She looks up at me, and then her eyes flash to her phone, seeing that she has a missed called and a voicemail. Fear and panic race behind her eyes as she looks back up to me, then grabs her phone and taps her voicemail icon.

  My blood cools when I realize who it might be, who I know she assumes it is. Her eyes flash to mine and she brings her thumb to her mouth, and begins nibbling anxiously at her nail. I don’t want it to be the news we’ve been waiting for. At least I’m with her now, when she learns what happened.

  She holds her eyes on the coffee table, looking at nothing, almost looking through it. She brings the phone away from her ear and swallows, looking up at me.

  “What is it?” I ask, putting my hand on her knee. “Good news? Bad?”

  “It was Dr. Peterson. He just said that I needed to call him back right away.”

  She hesitates, putting the phone back gently on the coffee table. She doesn’t want to know what the news is. Right now, she’s in a state of suspended animation; she’s in limbo. She wants to stay right here.

  “You need to call him back,” I say gently. “You need to know what’s going on.”

  “What if I don’t want to?” she chokes, looking back at me and throwing her arms around my neck. “What if I don’t want to know what’s going on? What if it’s bad news?”

  “Then you have to face it the best you can,” I say, hugging her tight. “And I’ll be here with you.”

  She needs to know the truth. I don’t want her to lose him. I don’t want him to never know what happened to his baby girl. I want him to wake up so I can make sure he approves of me being with her. Because as much as I don’t give a shit what tries to keep us apart, as much as I’ll fight for her, I want her old man to approve of what I feel for her.

  I want him to know I’ll do anything to protect her.

  But I can’t protect her from everything. I can’t protect her from the news the doctor has on the other end of her phone.

  I keep her body pressed against mine and shift to take her phone from the table.

  “Cherry, you need to make the call.” I slip the phone into her hand and she pulls away from me, nodding.

  “I should already be at the hospital,” she says. “I should have done more for him.”

  “There’s nothing else you could have done, sweetheart. There’s nothing else you could have done for him.”

  She shakes her head and takes a deep breath, tapping her phone and bringing it to her ear.

  A muffled voice picks up on the other end.

  “Yes, Dr. Peterson? Yes, I’ll hold.”

  Her eyes stare straight ahead, though I know she can’t even see what’s right in front of her. She’s in her own head. All her senses are blotted out as she waits for the news.

  I’ve never been a religious man. But I believe there’s something up above, something out there, shaping the outcomes of our actions. I say a silent prayer for Cherry and her old man. They need this to come out in their favor. They’ve had the odds stacked against them for too long. They need a little bit of luck right now.

  “Yes,” she says into the phone. “I’m here.”

  Her eyes close and she nods as she listens.

  “Yes. Yes. Okay, I’m on my way.”

  Tears begin to roll down her cheeks and she looks up at me.

  I don’t know if it’s good news or bad. My heart clenches behind my ribs, beating a million miles a second.

  “They say…they say he’s woken up.”

  Blood rushes through my veins and we stand up as I throw my arms around her.

  “Oh, baby,” I say, my voice muffled against her neck. “I’m so happy. I’m so fucking happy.”

  The air around us feels light, and her face brightens as she pulls away from me.

  “They don’t know wh
at his condition is going to be, but this is good news. This is definitely a good thing.” She grabs her cardigan and phone and rushes over to the stairs, disappearing up them.

  I push my hair back with my hands. I feel like my chest could explode with happiness.

  I was angry at him. I cursed him for inviting trouble like me into his life. But I can’t be angry anymore. I just want Cherry to see her old man again.

  “We’re going to visit your daddy at work,” she says, carrying Kayla down the stairs. The little girl looks groggy, and she rubs her eyes with her little fists. When she brings them away, her eyes widen when she sees me.

  “Who is that?” she says with wonder in her eyes, pointing at me. I stuff my hands into my pockets and lean back on my heels, fighting the smirk that’s pulling at the corner of my mouth.

  “That’s an old friend of my dad’s,” Cherry says, smiling at me and putting Kayla down to prepare to fasten her into her shoes.

  “Come on,” I say softly, “is that all I am to you?”

  “No,” she says, putting her arm around me. “It isn’t.”

  “Cherry, he’s so tall!” The little girl points up at me, grinning.

  “That’s just because you don’t have your shoes on yet, Kay,” I say, teasing the little girl. I never thought I’d be joking around with a little girl like this, with pigtails and maryjanes and a popsicle-stained mouth.

  “Come on, Kayla, get your shoes on so you can be as tall as Sean. Don’t you want to be as tall as Sean?” Cherry laughs, the brightness and spark that I saw in the picture of her and her dad finally coming back. “We’ve got to go visit Daddy at work. Come on, sweetie.”

  She picks up the little girl and we start out of the house. I look back at the home as we leave, and then I continue following them past the lawn.

  Cherry

  I haven’t allowed myself to get too excited, but all I want to do is smile. I could burst with excitement. I’ll do anything for Dad. I just want to see him.

  Dr. Peterson said Dad would be able to speak with me. He said he called me as soon as he woke up, and Dad asked for me right away.

  If I were driving alone, I’d have sped to the hospital. But I can’t; not with Kayla in the car with us. I check the rearview mirror a few times to see her. Sean reaches over and takes my hand a few times during the drive.

  I pull up to the parking lot and find a spot near the entrance. I tell Sean to go on ahead as I gather Kayla from her car seat. My fingers tremble as I undo all of the straps and buckles, and once I have her, we make our way quickly through the sliding doors.

  Just inside, I find Sean waiting for me. He must see the puzzled look on my face.

  “I told them we were here, but I couldn’t go up without you. You should be here. We should do this together.”

  I can’t wait to see him, and my body is flooded with nervous adrenaline. We take the elevator to his floor and as soon as it dings, I dash through the door with Kayla and rush down the hall.

  “Dr. Peterson,” I say, struggling to catch my breath as I spot him. “Where’s Dad?”

  He looks up from his clipboard and gives me a tight-lipped smile. My heart drops. I didn’t want myself to become to hopeful. This is why.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” he says, slipping his pen into his pocket and holding the clipboard to his chest. “Follow me.”

  He takes his little girl’s hand as I put her down, and I follow him down the hall. My chest feels tight and my lungs feel cold from breathing so fast, but my mind is swimming with heat.

  “Is he okay?” My frantic questions spill out of my mouth. “Is he awake? Can I talk to him?”

  “He’s a little bit disoriented because he just woke up about an hour ago, but he’s cogent. He can speak.”

  “Dr. Peterson,” I say, looking at him with my eyes wide. I want to beg him to make Dad better. To do anything to make him okay. “Is he gonna be alright?”

  “Cherry, I don’t want to say too much right now, but…”

  He puts one of his hands on my shoulder and looks down at me sympathetically.

  “All signs say he is going to be okay. His vitals look good right now, and we will continue to monitor them. But Cherry...he’s going to be okay.”

  The words wash over me like a tidal wave that’s sucked me under the surface of the sea is spitting me back out on shore just before I’m about to drown. I feel like I can finally breathe again, really breathe.

  “Oh my God.” My hand comes to my chest and I hold it there, warm tears beginning to roll down my cheeks. “I can’t believe it.”

  Sean comes up to me and puts his arm around my shoulder, and I turn and collapse into his chest as his hand comes to the back of my head, enveloping me, holding me close.

  “Thank you,” I cry into his chest. “Thank you.”

  I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost Dad. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d been taken into Sean’s world, if he hadn’t saved me. Who would have cared for Dad? Who would have mourned for him? And would anyone have really cared that I was gone, either?

  “Do you want to see your father now?” he asks gently, stroking my hair, running his fingers through it.

  “Yes,” I say. “Yes. And Dr. Peterson,” I add, turning to him and shaking his hand, “thank you so much for helping Dad.”

  He smiles softly and nods, guiding me into Dad’s room where the curtains over the window to the hallway are shut tight. I step in slowly, cautiously; it’s almost as though I don’t believe he’s finally okay. That I finally know he’s going to be fine.

  The room is filled with vases fresh flowers: tulips, daisies. There’s even a few small potted cactus plants, which are his favorite.

  When we turn the corner and I see him, my heart swells and I feel a lump rise into my throat. Dad’s sitting up on the bed with his glasses on and a newspaper on his lap, but he isn’t reading. He’s looking straight over to the door, like he’s been waiting for me this whole time.

  “Dad…” I rush over to him and throw my arms around his neck and sob into him. I can’t help myself. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to do this again, and now that I can, I don’t want to pull myself away. I know I’ll lose Dad some day, but not today; he’s still too young. It isn’t his time.

  “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry,” he says, wrapping his arms around me. I sit on the edge of the bed and put a kiss on his cheek and he presses it into his skin like he did when I was little.

  “I’m so happy you’re okay.” I look around the room at all the machinery he’s hooked up to. It’s still beeping in the same way as it was before, and it’s still working to help him, but it doesn’t portend death anymore. Now, I see it as optimistic. It’s helping him to live. And it’s really working.

  “I wasn’t going to leave you, Cherry. I wasn’t going to leave you.” He takes my hand and kisses it, and holds it to his cheek. His eyes drift from me over to the door, and I turn around to see Sean standing there. I look back to Dad and see a suspicious glint in his eye.

  “Sean? What are you doing here?” He looks back to me and his eyebrows knit in the center.

  “Dad, it’s okay,” I say, smiling and stroking his hand. “He isn’t here for that.”

  “I...I don’t understand.” His words come out like tiny pebbles skipping across a pond. He doesn’t grasp what’s going on. I don’t blame him. I can barely understand all of it myself.

  “It’s okay, Mr. Davenport. She knows.” Sean shifts into the room and comes next to me, putting his hands on my shoulders. Dad’s eyes grow wide and a bemused smirk plays at the corner of his mouth.

  “Dad…” I don’t know how to say what I’m about to tell him. I don’t know what this is, anyway. A week ago I was at an off-limits strip club on Sean’s arm pretending to be his fiancee, and now I have real feelings for him. Feelings that I know won’t go away. Feelings that I don’t have to push away for the first time in a long while.

  “Mr. Davenport, your d
ebt is cleared. I’ve taken care of it.” He glides his hands down my shoulders so he’s gripping my arms. My skin begins to prick up with goosebumps beneath his touch. “And…”

  Dad’s eyes brighten as his gaze shifts from Sean down to me. He brings his hands together in a silent prayer and squeezes his eyes shut, shaking his head from side to size.

  “Sean, what is it? What’s the matter?” Dad asks, bringing his hand down onto mine.

  He steadies himself behind me and rubs my arm with his thumb gliding smoothly against my skin.

  “And I’m in love with your daughter.”

  My heart flutters and I turn my head to look up at him. He flashes his gorgeous smile at me and pulls me off the bed, taking me into his arms.

  “What? How did this happen?” Dad asks in disbelief, taking his glasses off and putting them on the nightstand.

  “I’ll tell you everything, Frank, but the important thing for you to know is that I’ve left behind the life I knew. I don’t want it anymore. I don’t think I ever really did. But now I know for sure. Cherry made me see that.”

  Sean shift his focus from Dad to me and looks down into my eyes. I want to get lost in them, but I no longer need him to save me. He’s already done that.

  “Cherry, I love you. I can’t live without you. I feel like all the bullshit we’ve been through has been worth it because it brought us together.”

  My eyes are already filled with tears, but they’re the good kind. They’re the kind you feel when you finally get what you’ve been running toward. Sometimes you find it when you’ve been running away from something. But isn’t running away from something and running toward something really the same in the end?

  “I love you too, Sean. And thank you for what you’ve done for me. I owe you everything.”

  “No, Cherry. I don’t know what I was thinking that day, but I knew I had to save you. What really happened was you saved me. From the life I had, from the life I wanted to get out of. You’ve given me the future I wanted to look forward to, but never thought I could.”