He grinned nastily as he dragged her towards her bedroom. “Time to die, whore.” He threw her onto the bed, and as she turned, she saw him draw a gun from his pocket. He grinned and showed it to her.
“I chose ‘shoot.' I’ve got six bullets here and I’m gonna empty all six into your pretty belly, Autumn. No one says no to me, and definitely not a slut like you. But first …you’re going to open those legs for me, baby.”
As he approached the bed and began to unzip his fly, Autumn started to scream.
Dee-Dee Ford went outside to catch some air. She’d given up smoking when she’d found out she was pregnant, but right now she missed it Her guilt over what she’d done was killing her, despite her hatred of Autumn. The heartbreak on her nemesis’s face had gotten to her, and she wished she had never opened her mouth. It would make things very awkward in this tiny little town.
Maybe you could do something about that, Dee. Change your ways. Go apologize. Try to make nice. She could see Pete and Oliver still talking in the coffee shop. Yeah. Maybe she, Dee-Dee, town bitch, could still surprise people. She closed her door and walked down the street toward Autumn’s house. She drew in a deep breath. Yeah, this is the right thing to do.
“What I don’t get is why? Why did Autumn go off at Dee-Dee?” Olivier looked so desolate that Pete shook his head.
“She said something about a note. Wait, she threw it at me.” He went to retrieve the crumpled piece of paper from the floor. “She accused Dee-Dee of sending these to her.”
Pete smoothed out the paper and read it. His face drained of blood and he held the note out to Olivier. Oliver read it and staggered to his feet as Dee-Dee burst into the coffee shop hysterical.
“He’s killing her …Autumn, please, she’s screaming!”
Sally locked reception and stepped out into Main Street in time to see her brother, his wife, Olivier, and some other men running down the street shouting. In horror, she saw them running to Autumn’s little home, and then, the sound of gunshots.
Autumn kicked his groin as he came close and skittered to the other side of the bedroom. Karl, enraged, got off a shot, but it missed her by inches.
“Fucking bitch!” Karl, recovering, advanced on her.
Autumn backed away now, terrified and trapped in her own bedroom. I’m going to die here, she thought as Karl moved towards her, the gun in his hand, lethal, deadly, and aimed at her midriff.
“You always were a stuck-up bitch,” he said, his voice gravelly from hatred and bloodlust. “I wasn’t good enough. That dumb cop wasn’t good enough. Now we know why. You were holding out for a fucking billionaire! Whore …”
He was too close now, but she had nowhere to go. Autumn’s eyes never left the gun as Karl pressed it to her. He really was going to kill her, wasn’t he?
“If that’s what you think, Karl, you’re mistaken. I didn’t know who Olly was until this afternoon and when I found out …I sent him away.”
“Right.” Karl drew out the word, sarcastic and disbelieving. The muzzle of the gun was cold against the skin of her belly. Please, God, make it quick. She closed her eyes …as she heard a shout. Her name being called.
Olivier.
“Olly!” She screamed his name, and as Karl was momentarily distracted, she knocked the gun away from him and ran. His next shot hit the wall in front of her. “Stop, or I swear I’ll kill him too.” Autumn froze. “Turn around.”
Autumn turned as she heard the door being kicked behind her and her name being called. Karl smiled nastily. “Time to die, beautiful.”
He shot her in the belly as Olivier burst into the room, and she saw his face contort in horror and grief as she crumpled. Olivier roared and launched himself at Karl, knocking him to the floor, away from Autumn. The gun skittered out of Karl’s hands. Autumn clutched at her belly, her legs giving way and blood pumping out of her. Darkness was at the edge of her vision and her chest felt tight. So much pain. So much. She could smell her own blood.
Olivier was punching the crap out of Karl, and the other man was limp now, unconscious, if not dead. Autumn reached out her hand to Olivier as Pete burst into the room, followed by a hysterical Sally and a pale, shaken Dee-Dee.
“Oh, god, no!” Sally screamed when she saw Autumn, and her scream brought Olivier back to his senses. He dropped Karl and went to his love, scooping her into his arms. Pete was pale.
“Come on, we’ll go in my cruiser. It’ll be faster. There’s an emergency room at Gold Beach.”
Autumn was still conscious as Olivier held her in his arms in the back of the cruiser. His hand, his big, warm hand, was pressing down on her wound, keeping the precious blood inside her. She smiled up at him. “You saved me.”
Olivier, his face tense and desolate shook his head. “This was my fault. If I had told you the truth from the beginning, you wouldn’t have been alone and vulnerable tonight.”
“No,” she said, drifting now. “This is Karl’s doing …he was crazy jealous …I’m not his. I was never his …I’m yours, Olly …I love you …”
Her head fell back and her eyes closed. “God, no, Autumn, you cannot die. Pete, fucking drive faster. She’s bleeding to death …”
Pete, the sirens on and already doing a hundred miles an hour, stepped on the gas. Soon they were screeching up to the entrance to the E.R., and within seconds, they were swept up in a deluge of doctors and emergency room staff as they bore Autumn off to surgery.
Olivier sat in the emergency room, his head in his hands. Pete sat opposite him, with Dee-Dee clutching his hands. None of them spoke. Olivier’s clothes were covered in Autumn’s blood.
Sally arrived then, having been brought by the deputy. “Karl’s in jail. He demanded to be brought to the hospital, but Harry said no way. He threw him in a cell and told him to man up. I said he should have said ‘woman up,’ just to piss Karl off, the bastard.” She drew in a shaky breath. “How is she?”
Olly shook his head. “We don’t know yet.”
“Miss Keller will be fine.” The doctor appeared behind Sally and smiled at them all. “The bullet didn’t hit any major organs, although she lost a lot of blood. We stabilized her now. You’ll be able to see her in a few hours.”
Olivier thought he might collapse with relief. “Oh god, thank you. Thank you.”
Sally burst into tears and hugged the surprised doctor. “Well, well,” he said, patting her back. Pete too looked on the edge of tears.
Later, the doctor said Autumn could have one visitor. Olly suddenly felt like he couldn’t impose, but Sally and Pete looked at each other. Sally hugged Olivier. “Give her our love and tell her we’ll come visit her tomorrow, if that’s okay.”
Olivier felt a rush of warmth and gratitude. “Really?”
“Really.” Pete clapped him on the back. “Go get your girl.”
Olivier opened the door to Autumn’s room and slipped inside. He thought she was asleep, but then she turned her head and gave him the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. He crossed the room to her in a second and pressed his lips against hers.
They were both breathless when they broke apart, and Autumn laughed, gasping for air a little. Olivier, his eyes serious, held her face in his hands. “I love you, Autumn Keller. I think I’ve loved you since that first night. You are the light in my heart.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I am so in love with you, Olly. Like I have never experienced. I’m so sorry I sent you away …forgive me?”
“If you’ll forgive me for not telling you the whole truth.”
Autumn nodded, tears dropping down her face now, though she was smiling. “Olly …”
He kissed her again and again until they were both laughing.
The next day, Autumn was waking from a nap when there was a hesitant knocking on her door. “Come in.”
Dee-Dee came in, her face pale. Autumn was astonished, but tried to smile. “I really don’t want to fight. But if you’ve come to finish what I started, well played. I’m down and out.”
Dee
-Dee laughed softly. “No, I haven’t come to fight. Autumn, I can’t apologize enough for what I did …if I hadn’t opened my dumb mouth.”
Autumn smiled. “Well, if I hadn’t acted like a psycho …”
Dee-Dee sat down on the chair beside Autumn’s bed. “You had every reason to believe I wrote those notes. God, Autumn, why the hell didn’t you tell Pete about them after the first one?”
Autumn sighed. “Because …I did think it was you and I didn’t want to start a thing …until I did start the thing. Dee, I know we have every reason to hate each other, but I’m so sick of it. You and Pete are together, the baby’s coming, and I have Olly.”
Dee leaned in conspiratorially. “The billionaire.” She grinned.
Autumn laughed. “Believe me, that was news to me, and it doesn’t make any difference to me. I’m no gold-digger.”
“No,” Dee-Dee nodded. “You’re not.”
There was a small silence, then Autumn said, “Dee, the thing with me and Pete a few months ago …I don’t know what I was thinking, and I apologize. I want you to know …I did not sleep with him during that time. I just got caught up in whatever it was Pete had going on. I’m sorry. I really am.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that. For my part, I guessed that it was one of Pete’s …episodes, shall we say.”
Autumn reached for her hand. “Dee, if you hadn’t come that night—if you hadn’t brought the others—I’d be dead. Thank you.”
Dee flushed. “It was the least I could do. I’m glad you’re going to be okay.”
Autumn smiled. “Dee …shall we surprise everyone and try and be friends?”
Dee grinned. “I would like that. Besides. I don’t have anyone else to throw me a baby shower except you and Sally, so …” She hesitated, then hugged Autumn gingerly. “Get well, sweetie. We have a lot of years to catch up on.”
Autumn stretched her body out on the sun lounger and yawned expansively. Olivier, his hands occupied with two cocktail glasses, set them down on the table beside her and then straddled her bed. She grinned up at him. Olivier’s eyes ran all over her gloriously naked body.
“Damn, girl, you are one sexy woman.”
Autumn grinned at him. Three weeks on this tropical island—the tropical island that his family owned, for chrissakes—was definitely making her recovery a whole lot easier. Well, she called it recovery. In truth, it had been six months since she’d been shot and now she was fully recovered. She gazed up at her lover, his swarthy skin tanned by the sun and his cock standing proud and hard against his belly. Autumn smiled lazily at him. “Is that for me, sir?”
She spread her legs slowly, then shrieked with laughter as Olly moved quickly, dropping down and thrusting into her. She moaned happily as his cock plowed deep into her cunt, and his mouth was harsh on hers. She gasped as he seemed to go deeper and harder than ever before, and she nipped his earlobe with her teeth as she whispered to him. “God, I love you, Olivier Gallo.”
Her new husband grinned back at her. “As I love and will love you forever, Mrs. Gallo …”
And they made love long into the night.
The End.
Before I Ever Met you An Erotic Romantic Suspense Story
By Michelle Love
Tahlia pounded the sidewalk hard as she ran along the last stretch before home and wondered why she had decided that running was the answer to her depression. Her friends, all runners, had told her that the endorphins would flood her body, keep her blood pumping, and that she would feel ‘high’ afterward.
Instead, all she felt was exhausted. She limped the last two blocks, then let herself into her home, a ground-floor apartment overlooking Elliott Bay. She had her rising law career to thank for that, as well as the inheritance from her parents, and from Cade’s estate. In fact, her older brother’s estate meant she wouldn’t have to work ever again if she didn’t want to. Before he’d died a year ago, Cade had been one of the most popular actors in the world. His natural charm and dark good looks were catnip to the viewing public. His career had been at its peak, and he had been happy in his personal life too, dating a college professor, Molly, who was warm, funny, intelligent, and most importantly, who adored Cade’s little sister, Tahlia.
Tahlia had idolized her older brother. There were nearly sixteen years between them, but from the start, Cade had been Tahlia’s champion and buddy. She had been eight years old when their parents had been killed in a car wreck, and Cade had stepped into the role of caregiver without a second glance. Nineteen years later, they had both forged careers in their respective fields. Tahlia had graduated top of her class from Harvard Law, Cade had won his second Oscar, and the siblings had been planning a hiking vacation in Arizona.
Before that, they’d arranged to go hike around their small island off the coast of Seattle to try and improve their fitness. Both hated working out, but knew they had to at least get semi-athletic before the vacation. Cade had been in Seattle and staying with her at their parents’ old condo on the island, a place he had said he’d felt like himself, rather than a movie star. People on the island knew who he was, of course, but they left him in peace. Most of them had known him since birth.
Cade had gone out earlier that day to go into the city, to meet his best friend and lawyer, Ellory Mackenzie. If Cade was a surrogate dad to Tahlia, then Ellory was her uncle, a big bear of a man who looked out after her and helped her immeasurably with her studies. When she’d made a name for herself on her own, he had offered her a place in his law firm, and she had quickly become his right-hand woman.
Ellory had called her an hour after Cade had left that morning. “Hey, gorgeous …have you seen Cade? He was supposed to meet me in the city a half hour ago. So far, no show, and you know how anal he is about timekeeping.”
Tahlia had laughed. “Yup. No, he left on time …maybe the ferry got delayed or something?”
“Maybe. I’ve been trying to call him, but I keep getting voicemail.”
Tahlia’s smile faded. “That is weird …listen, give him another half hour. I’ll keep trying to call him and let you know if I hear anything.”
“Thanks, Tally.”
She had called Cade’s phone, but it had gone straight to voicemail, as it had done for Ellory. She was about to call Ellory back when a text message appeared from Cade.
Come to the lighthouse.
She’d read the message and grinned. ‘How very Virginia Wolff of you. Ellory is trying to get hold of you. You stood him up.’ She’d thought nothing of the fact that he hadn’t answered. She’d gotten into her car and, driving straight to the far side of the island, she’d trekked up the well-worn path to the old, de-commissioned light house, smiling to herself. She knew Cade and knew he was planning some sort of surprise. The scent of the pines had been heavy that day. She’d puffed a little as she’d neared the lighthouse, tramping into the clearing. Then she’d stood, catching her breath as she looked around.
He was nowhere. She’d called his name and only the breeze answered. She’d circled the lighthouse, her smile becoming strained. “Cade?” She’d noticed it then. His watch, their dad’s watch, strap broken in the grass near the edge. She’d picked it up, her heart thumping. She’d walked to the unprotected cliff edge, worn away by the last few big storms, and looked down.
Only then had she seen him. She had seen him …but she had not understood.
Now, she looked at his photograph and there was a terrible pull in her chest, her head felt muzzy and unsettled, and exhaustion settled over her. She closed her eyes again and willed the visions to stop. Cade’s eyes open and staring, his beautiful face one of fear and terror. His brains dashed against the harsh rocks.
Cade, her beloved brother, dead. And the blood. So much blood. She didn’t know how she’d had the ability to call Ellory before she’d scrambled down the cliff and held her dead brother’s head on her lap. Ellory and the police had found her soon after, almost catatonic with shock and grief. Ellory had cared for her, never leaving her
side as they look her to the hospital. When she’d recovered enough, she had wanted to see him, but Ellory had told her he had already identified Cade for the police. “You don’t need to see him like that, baby.”
They'd handed her Cade’s personal effects—his phone and wallet—but Tahlia had gotten hysterical when they’d told her that the St. Christopher that Cade had worn since their parent’s deaths was gone. She’d sobbed in Ellory’s arms, knowing it was a stupid thing to care about, but that pendant was so much a part of Cade …whenever they had said goodbye as he flew off around the world, they would both kiss it for luck. “Kiss it,” he would grin at her. “And don’t miss it.”
Tahlia buried her head in her pillow and screamed her pain into it. No, stop it, she thought and flipped over onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. She ran through what she had to do today to try and calm herself down, but the pain in her chest seemed to get worse. She toyed with the idea of seeing her doctor, then dismissed it. It’s just the anniversary, she thought, glancing over at Cade’s picture.
“I miss you.” She didn’t care that she was speaking to no one—to someone who would never hear her again. Her gaze fell on her cell phone on the nightstand. Ellory had called three times. Darn it. She stood and the room whirled, then she sat down again, sucking in great lungfuls of air. The dark spots at the corner of her eyes began to recede. Maybe she was sick. It was the fatigue more than the nausea that was overwhelming.
In the bathroom, she ran the shower, stripping off and standing under the water. It helped. She washed her hair, scrubbed at her body, and tried not to think about Cade. Just all gone, like that. Tahlia turned the hot water off and let the cold sting her body, desperate to distract herself. She could feel herself sinking again. The black haze in her eyes had returned. Her chest felt too tight to get air into her lungs. She shut off the water and sat down in the bath, resting her burning head against the cold enamel. I’m lonely, she thought. That’s what it is. She hated feeling like this, feeling so self-pitying, but take away her work and there was nothing else. Maybe I should get a dog. She was trying to avoid thinking of what had happened between herself and Ellory a few weeks ago.
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