I feel his body tense a little, but I wait for him to go on.
“I was at a bar with the team’s captain and some other players. He’d had a few but seemed fine. He offered me a ride back to my hotel, warning me we both had training in the morning so I went along with him.”
The crash.
I remember it from the news, but I don’t say anything. This is Blake’s story, not mine.
Not yet, unless he wants it told that way.
Blake sighs, and shifts a little behind me, I try turning to face him but he only asks me point blank, “You wanna hear this story for me or for your paper?”
I move around so I’m facing him, holding onto him like nothing else.
“I want you to tell me whatever you want to.” I remind him, and myself.
“Well… you know what happened next… the whole world does.”
But I don’t. Not really.
“I know you were in a crash, that there was a public scandal…” I start to say, not meaning to interrupt him, but my own curiosity gets the better of me. “I mean… well, how could you have been driving, so many people said they saw you leave as a passenger, a sober passenger,” I add.
Blake goes quiet, and my mind starts to turn things over.
Once a reporter always a reporter, I guess. I hope he isn’t mad with me.
“You’re right,” he finally says. “I didn’t make things easier on myself by refusing the blood test. I was guilty by my refusal to cooperate. My team hushed it up the best they could, the captain kept his place, but I was pushed out of the limelight, until…”
“Go on,” I urge him, holding his huge hand in mine and listening now, not wanting to interrupt him again.
“I was an expensive bench-warmer for the rest of the season, until the training camp. I was put on a small plane to play catch up. A token gesture me even going, I mean. And well… You know that story too. The plane crashed, and I was the only man unaccounted for after everyone else was found a few days later alive and well.”
Blake stops again, blowing air out of his cheeks and tenderly stroking my hair as his eyes come back into focus on mine.
“I figured if the whole world thought I was dead, I’d just go along with it, become a ghost, like my career. Like my life had been for a whole season anyway.”
I feel a wave of sympathy for Blake. Such a great man, reduced by his circumstances to obscurity.
“But…?” I start to ask without even thinking.
“How’d I end up here?” he asks, an ironic grin on his lips as he shakes his head.
I crease a frown. “You don’t have to tell me,” I confess, figuring all that matters is me being here, right now with Blake. Not so much how he got here.
“I feel like I can tell you anything, Lois,” he says, stroking my cheek tenderly.
“But I don’t want to tell the whole world… not yet… maybe not ever,” he adds and I nod slowly. Willing myself to keep my mouth shut for once.
Blake makes it easier by pressing his mouth over mine again, and in a split second, I forget all about it. His story, the paper… everything is gone again.
As if on cue, a deep rumble of thunder signals a fresh downpour and the wind picks up again.
Through the chimney, it stokes the fire to a roaring blaze and I snuggle closer to Blake, dreamily listening to him describe the things he’s going to do to me.
How much he wants to pleasure me all over again.
How well he thinks I fit him and this house.
Chapter Ten
Blake
I’ve never slept so well in this house, almost never on any furniture either. For some reason, I always thought hiding out meant I had to do it rough.
My arm is numb, and it wakes me from a sweet dream where Lois is tugging on it, begging me to come see something in the yard.
I can smell her hair and feel her warmth on me. With my eyes still closed, I tell myself I could live like this forever.
Even with a dead pitching arm.
Our eyes open at the same time, and I feel her breath in deep and stretch some, a little mewing sound escaping her lips.
I want to turn her face to me, to kiss her, but I could just sit and watch her forever too.
Her hands move under the blanket, running over my body.
“Just making sure you’re not a ghost,” she murmurs dreamily, her hand finding what I’ve had ready for her since last night, making her gasp and me groan lightly.
“It’s been up all night,” I tell her honestly, reeling at how hard she makes me and for how long.
Sitting herself up, and letting some blood back into my arm, she turns to face me, looking serious.
Concerned.
“Blake. You don’t mind? That we didn’t…? I mean… you really don’t?”
I kiss her in reply, tenderly. Long.
“I don’t mind,” I tell her, honestly. “You do this to me,” I admit, gently pulling her hand down to my lap again. “But we’ll take things as fast or slow as you want to, okay?”
She nods slowly, a familiar fire kindling in her clear eyes as she bites her lip.
“I wanted to, last night, I really did,” she protests. “But I… We just…”
I’m happy to pick up where we left off, but the sound of tires on gravel cuts through what until just now registers as a quiet morning.
The storm has passed, but something tells me another one is not too far behind on the horizon.
Growling to myself, I peel my body from the couch and despite my nakedness, I lift the curtain back, sighing as I see him coming up onto the porch.
“Better make yourself decent,” I growl again, shaking my head and giving Lois an apologetic look.
She’s startled, but not frightened.
Her eyes seem stuck on my groin too. Only breaking free once the pounding of the Sheriff’s fist on the heavy door echoes through the whole house.
I made sure to bolt the front door from the inside last night.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I have to decide.
Do I blow my cover to the Sheriff or leave Lois on her own. Do I face up, start to own the mess I made, before Lois came into my life?
I give her a questioning look, but it feels like I’m pleading with her somehow.
Wishing she could somehow take us both away from all this.
“Hide.” She instructs me, a matter of fact, pulling her clothes on, calling out to the Sheriff to wait just a minute as she rushes me into the next room, throwing my clothes after me.
I don’t like it, but I admire her initiative.
Maybe she senses I don’t quite feel like dealing with the law just yet.
Not this morning anyhow.
Pulling my pants on and buttoning my shirt, I can hear Lois unbolting the front door and exclaiming in surprise at seeing the Sheriff, who sounds none too happy to see her here after he told her not to come back.
I have to stifle a snarl. She’s my girl and she’s in my house, well, almost my house.
I can hear straight away how Lois will do well as a reporter. She’s not fazed by anything and handles the law like it deserves to be if you’re seeking the truth.
“I know, I know you said not to come back… but Barbara… at the paper… it’s my job if I don’t give her a story today….” Lois chimes.
I duck behind a doorway just as the sheriff turns his head, almost catching sight of my reflection in a huge, dusty mirror on the wall.
He mumbles and grumbles, and Lois starts speaking softly.
I can’t hear what they’re saying. Feeling my hands ball into fists, I decide enough is enough.
I’m about to step out, to tell the sheriff where to get off and to probably get myself arrested, when I catch a glimpse of Lois in the same mirror.
Her eyes are telling me ‘no.’ Her head shakes ever so slightly, and even though the sheriff is raising his voice, I can see she wants me to stay hidden.
For now.
“Well!
Trespassing is trespassing young lady, and I gave you fair warning yesterday, sick of all you younglings snooping around and meddling where you’re not supposed to be! Now, I can take you in myself or I can follow you back to town. Which is it?”
Stuck like glue to the spot, it’s only for the look Lois gives me that I stay silent.
Doing nothing isn’t my style, but whatever she’s up to, I have to trust her.
Trust her?
I love her.
I’d do anything it takes to keep her happy, but letting her get herself arrested?
“I guess you’d better run me in, Sheriff,” she says loudly, firmly. Holding both hands out ready to be cuffed.
The sheriff blusters, turning bright red and taking a step back with both his own hands up a little, his pink palms showing all sweaty.
“Now, just a minute, Miss! No need for anything like that. You can ride with me if you like, but it’s just a formality really. Just to make a show for the kids in town, see?”
I relax, but only a little.
“Alright, Sheriff,” she says, and I feel my back up again. The thought of him, in a car with her.
My growl fills the house and for once, it’s the sheriff who looks spooked.
“Wha- what was that!?” he squeaks, moving closer to Lois, who’s trying not to smile as she shoots me a cool wink in the mirror before leading the sheriff outside.
“Just the wind, Sheriff, just the wind. I can safely say there are no ghosts in the old Barnes place, trust me.”
Why is she leaving? Why would she willingly go with him of all people?
I feel a stab of hurt, then feel angry again.
Mad at myself for letting her go and madder still at him for turning up.
Ruining our morning.
Our whole day I had planned.
Thrusting my hands into my pockets, I want to pace. To brood.
But feeling the sharp edge of Lois’ keys against my fingers, I suddenly get it.
She wants her story after all and she’s using herself as bait, knowing I can’t resist in following her.
Even if it means going into town and coming out of hiding.
I laugh out loud, tossing the keys high into the air and snatching them back again before heading out.
She knows you better than you think.
I hope she knows I’d walk across broken glass, even burning lava for her.
Chapter Eleven
Lois
I hope he’s the kind of guy who would follow me across lava or broken glass.
He did say I was his now.
I don’t want to expose him in front of the sheriff, but I still feel his story needs to be told. So I leave it up to him to decide how far he wants to follow me.
I go with the sheriff, who has his own beef with the local kids and wants a story of his own to tell, stay away from the old Barnes place, or else!
It’s Halloween after all. I guess he’s just trying to have one less thing on his plate.
Me?
I want Blake Barnes on my plate, and me on his, all to ourselves, but I guess I have to go just for now.
Until I can fix it so we can both…
Well. I guess I hadn’t thought that far ahead yet.
Wait a second.
The old Barnes place…? Hmmm. Story indeed. I can’t wait to find out more. If he’ll let me…
My boss, Barbara, is waiting at the office, fuming by the time I get back with the law… and no story ready.
Her look goes from ‘this better be good’ to ‘you’re fired’ once the sheriff explains he’s booking me for trespassing and wants the front page of the afternoon issue to feature as a headline about how anyone caught snooping at the old Barnes place will get the same treatment.
“Enough is enough, Barbara! I’ve warned you and Lois here, as well as the town’s parents and their kids. Somebody’s gonna get hurt up there if it doesn’t stop. It’s private property. I’ve got a duty of care as the law in this town!”
I feel a smile pulling at my cheeks and fight not to roll my eyes, but Barbara goes from ice queen to slutty very quickly.
She shimmies over to the sheriff, sticking her chest out, pouting her heavily painted lips and batting her eyes. This is the part where my eyes actually do roll in my own head.
“Ohhhh, C’mon now Sheldon. Don’t be like that,” she coos.
Sheldon? I guess that’s why he just goes by ‘sheriff’.
“How ‘bout we just forget about this whole business? Lois has a story coming, don’t you Lois?” Her eyes bore into me and I feel my head pumping, wondering how fast I could type something resembling a news story in the next ten minutes.
“You and me Sheldon, we can go get some coffee, maybe a slice of pie?” Barbara drawls, practically melting over the sheriff who even makes her look young by comparison. The guy’s ancient.
Barbara’s eyes narrow back on me, feel like she’s gonna fire me and be done with it… when I hear a familiar coughing chug from out on the street.
“Blake!” I hear myself squeak, tearing my eyes off the other two and rushing to the window.
Sure enough.
He has come.
He’s come for me, at least, I hope he has.
“Blake…?” they both announce, turning to face me and then I feel them coming over to the window, watching him get out of my car, pocketing the keys like they’re his.
He jogs up the side stairs, and we all listen as he opens the door to the rooms where I lived, he must have found the address in my car. His weight creaks the ceiling and in seconds he’s trotted back down to the front door of the office.
I sigh.
But the silence that follows says it all, even as his huge frame squeezes through the door of the tiny office and he pops his neck, eyeing the sheriff for a moment, then Barbara, not relaxing his gaze until he sees me with a half-smile.
But he’s not happy.
I feel the whole room freeze, not sure if it’s my own gasp I hear or Barbara’s or even the Sheriffs.
“Blake… Barnes?” The sheriff says, finally. Hardly able to deny his presence looming over him.
I notice Blake’s knuckles, flexing into fists and I can’t help but do what comes naturally.
I rush to his side, only able to breathe when his firm hand is on my hip, gripping me closer to him.
Where I should be.
Maybe where I should’ve stayed in the first place.
“I told you you’re mine. You’re with me from now on,” he says in that low tone, that commanding, husky voice I know and love.
The man I know I love.
“I’m all yours Blake,” I assure him. Making sure I add, “Barnes,” to the end of my statement, but he doesn’t flinch.
It doesn’t matter. He’s got me. I know I’m his.
With everyone else’s jaws dropped, Blake announces himself, cool as a cucumber.
“I am Blake Barnes and Lois was, is a guest in my own house. What business is it of the police or your newspaper for that matter?”
“Your house!” we all chime, all three of us. I notice my own voice sounding the most surprised.
“Well, sort of…” Blake adds, then asking me quietly, “Is that where you’ve been staying, up there?” he asks, his eyes darting up to the ceiling.
I flush with embarrassment, nodding a yes as I lower my head.
He growls to himself and I notice Barbara sauntering over, losing interest in the Sheriff in a second as she starts to eye Blake from his head to his toes, pausing at all his best features along the way.
I feel a stab of jealously, but Blake’s hand slips into mine and gives it a gentle squeeze.
Telling me what’s what, that I’m his girl.
“Blake Barnes,” Barbara coos, practically draping herself all over him.
She pushes me out of the way, but Blake keeps hold of my hand.
“I think we could do a whole issue on you, Mr. Barnes. You could keep all the sales from the paper too, alon
g with any other payment you’d like to consider,” she says huskily, teasing him with her eyes and puckering those damned lips.
But Blake’s not having any of it. He shifts so suddenly that Barbara has to catch herself on a desk to stop from falling on her face as her heels give out from under her.
“No thanks,” Blake says politely, brushing Barbara off as he draws me closer to him, but it’s the Sheriff’s turn to interrupt now.
Chapter Twelve
Blake
I knew coming after her, especially seeing she’s with the law would expose me.
I also know, that the media will want to feed on me and the story for at least a year.
But I can’t, I won’t spend another minute with Lois out of my reach.
No matter what it costs or takes.
And as for that hole she’s been staying in? No more of that, she’s coming home with me. Today.
Our home. I’ll start cleaning the place up.
Right after I explain myself to mister twenty questions here, plus Lois looks like she has a ton of her own.
I owe her that much, I guess. And I will always tell her the truth.
“How ‘bout you start by explaining just where you’ve been, Mister Barnes? We can get to the alleged claim of ownership of property later,” Sheriff Sheldon wheezes, puffing his cheeks as he takes out a notebook, licking a pencil.
Old school.
I don’t feel much like explaining myself, except to Lois. I tell him as much as I think she needs to know right now.
“I was convicted of a DUI for not cooperating with the police, that much I’m sure you all know,” I begin, suddenly feeling self-conscious about my past in front of Lois, but her hand is still in mine and she flexes it to encourage me.
I know she’ll stick with me, no matter how good or bad my story is.
She’d better, she’s mine now.
Almost.
The thought of words instead of actions makes me tense. I only want to take her home now, but needs must be met and I’d rather deal with a local sheriff than the feds right now.
“How ‘bout you get straight to the part about what you’ve been doing since disappearing in a certain plane crash, eh?” the sheriff drawls, sharing my own impatience.
Haunted By Her Curves: An Instalove Possessive Age Gap Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 206) Page 4