I look back at her and smile. “A bright one you are.”
“That I am, and I will prove more useful, just you wait.”
We make our way through the side door and take the stairs up to the second floor. Room 221 is at the end and we move in. I knock hard and yell, “Ashley, let me in!”
I hear shuffling and everyone starts yelling her name as we all bang on the door and the walls. A gunshot rings out from inside and we all stop and look at each other. In an instant we all step back as Luke, who’s a massive man, takes a few steps back then runs at the door. The wood frame splinters and with one more hit it opens.
Ashley is on the floor, her body half way behind the sofa. I walk over to find she’s shot herself in the head. Averting my eyes I yell, “Lexi!”
We all yell out for her over and over, but there’s no response. I fear we’ll find her dead and have to push that away so I can keep thinking straight. Kate picks up a set of small keys off a bookcase and says, “She’s behind this bookcase.”
Luke has it moved before we know it and there’s a door. “Let me,” I say and grab the knob. As I twist it in my hand, I pray that she’s alive.
Light from this room fills the small room and I see her lying still on a small bed.
She’s not moving!
Alexis
The sound of a steady beep wakes me from the soundest sleep I’ve ever had. I try to take a breath and find it hard. I feel something in my mouth and try to touch it, but my hands are held by something. I try to open my eyes and it takes every ounce of energy I have to accomplish such a small feat.
“Get the nurse! She’s waking up!”
It’s Max!
A dark blur leans over me and he laughs. “Hey there, sleepy head,” he says softly. “You be still and the nurse will be here in a minute to get all this stuff off you. You’ve been asleep for a few days, princess.”
A few days! What’s happened to me?
My mind is in a fog and then I remember.
Ashley!
Max strokes my cheek. “I’ve missed you so much, Lexi.”
Wait! Isn’t he married to Kate?
His warm lips touch my forehead and warmth flows through me. He moves away. “I’ll be right here, princess. Don’t worry.”
A white blur moves over me. “Let us get this respirator off you, Miss Mathews.”
The thing in my mouth is pulled and I start to gag as she pulls it out.
Jeez! Did that thing go to my toes or what!
The top of the bed moves up after she takes the thing out and she places my glasses on my face and I see a room full of people. My parents and brothers, Marcos with his arm around Kate and her parents and Logan. Then my eyes fall on Max and I find I’m crying.
My mother rushes forward and embraces me. “Oh, my baby. I’ve been so worried.” She kisses my cheek then moves back to let my dad hug me, then the procession of hugs from each one in the room begins.
Max is the only one left and tears fall down his cheeks. He’s shaking as he moves towards me. His arms wrap around me and it is like fireworks are going off in my chest. The beeping sound increases in speed and I realize it’s my heart beating on some machine. Everyone in the room laughs and Mom says, “I guess she likes him a little bit.”
“I love you,” Max whispers in my ear.
I swallow hard and find my throat hurts really badly. I lick my lips and whisper, “I love you too.”
He seems like he never wants to let me go and I wish he didn’t have to, but I hear a door open and a man says, “So, my patient has finally decided to wake up?”
Max reluctantly lets me go and as he pulls away from me I see the tears are still flowing down his devastatingly handsome face. My eyes run to his left hand and I see no wedding ring.
Maybe he isn’t married!
I look at Kate’s left hand, and no ring is on it either. Also, there’s the fact Marcos is wrapped around her like a blanket.
What’s happened?
The man who came in must be my doctor, he holds the door open as he says, “Okay, I must examine Miss Mathews now, so you all will have to wait out in the waiting room.”
They all wave as they file out, Max is last, and he looks back at me. “I’ll be right out here, princess.”
I nod and try to smile. But my lips are so chapped it hurts to move them. The doctor and nurse hover over me. The nurse smiles. “You’re one very lucky young woman, Lexi. Most people can’t live eight days with no water or food.”
“Wow,” I say. “I’m stronger than I thought.”
The doctor chuckles. “You certainly are strong. Now, let’s get you all better and you’ll be physically strong before you know it.”
“I hope so,” I say. “I feel as weak as a kitten.”
The nurse puts a bag of some clear liquid up on an IV stand. “It’s going to take some time to get you back on your feet, but we will, don’t you worry about that. You sure do have a lot of people who care about you.”
“I do, don’t I? I didn’t realize that before.”
The nurse gives me a wink. “That man of yours is some hot number isn’t he?”
“He’s not mine,” I say. “He married someone else.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know why you’d think that. He’s not, and he’s never left your side since he came with you in the ambulance. He’s the most devoted man I’ve ever seen.”
“That Ashley woman told me he’d married. Is she in jail?” I ask.
The doctor and nurse look at each other, then the doctor says, “She committed suicide when your family found her.”
“So she’s dead?” I ask and find myself filled with relief and sadness at the same time. “I’m sorry it ended that way. She was a tortured soul and I hope she’s found peace now.”
“You’re a very forgiving person, Lexi,” the nurse says. “I wouldn’t wish her anything good if she did to me what she did to you.”
“To hold hate in your heart is to let her win. I’m winning this battle, not her,” I say.
They both smile at me and I feel better knowing I’m a fighter, not a quitter.
Max
Birds chirp merrily as I make my way down the hallway to our bedroom. Lexi’s been home for two weeks after her two week stay in the hospital. She’s getting a little stronger each day. Today I’m taking her for a swim to help strengthen her arms and legs.
The nurse should have her up and dressed by now. I knock on the bedroom door. “Are you decent yet?” I ask.
“As decent as I get,” Lexi answers.
I open the door and find her wearing shorts and a T-shirt. “No bathing suit?” I ask.
She shakes her head and her long ponytail whips through the air. “I’m far too skinny to be seen in that just yet.”
Her body had withered away to almost nothing. She weighed a daunting seventy-five pounds when we found her. Her cheeks are sunken in as well as most every part of her body.
Hilda is taking great pride in finding the absolute best foods to feed her so she can regain her weight. She’s put on fifteen pounds so far and I can see the difference.
I help her off the bed and into the wheelchair. We took a bedroom on the bottom floor until she can make it up the stairs, which will be awhile. I kiss the top of her head and push her out to the pool. “It’s gorgeous outside today, my love.”
She reaches up and rubs the back of my hand. “Every day is gorgeous when I’m with you, babe.”
I stop at the edge of the pool and pick her up. Her body is light in my arms as I walk into the pool with her. Her sparling blue eyes look into mine and I see what was always missing in hers. She’s allowed herself to stop being afraid of what we have. She cherishes me as I do her and she’s finally living in the moment. I guess that’s what nearly dying does to some people.
“How long will it take before I’m back to my normal self?” she asks.
“Not much longer, love. Now let those long ass legs of yours float out in front o
f you and I’ll hold you while you kick them and make them as shapely as they used to be.”
She does and although they move slowly, they do move and she sighs. “This is so much easier than the physical therapist’s exercises. That man is a demon straight from Hades.”
“He’s great at what he does, Lexi.”
She turns around in my arms and presses her breasts to my chest. Then pulls her body against mine. We’ve not made love since she left me. I’ve kissed her only a few times as I don’t want her to over exert herself. Her eyes are looking hungrily at my lips and I know how she’s feeling.
“I feel so much stronger in the water, Max,” she says as she wraps her legs around me and her arms around my neck.
I smile and place my lips on hers, gently. Her hands tangle up in my hair as the tip of her tongue touches my lips, wanting to come in and play. I open my mouth and she swirls her tongue with mine.
It’s been so long since I’ve held her this way or kissed her like this and I grow hot and swell against her. I pull my lips away and say, “Princess, you’re making me crazy.”
“I want you,” she says. “Please, Max, I can do this in the water. I feel strong enough.”
“I don’t know, Lexi.” I say. She pulls my mouth to hers again and I know that I have to give her what she wants.
Alexis
Cool water flows around me, making me feel my old self again. Max holds me in his arms as his tongue rolls over mine. I unwrap my legs from around his waist and drop my shorts, then push at his trunks to release his beast. He moans as I rub up against him, then wrap my legs back around him.
My hip bones press into him as I wiggle a little and his long, hard cock pushes into me. My lips leave his as I take him in and sigh deeply with feeling him like this again. “My God, I’ve missed you, Max.”
His hot mouth bites at my neck and he groans as he moves himself in and nearly all the way out of me in long strokes. I run my hands over his muscled back and revel in the sensation it gives me.
I put my mouth on his neck and bite then press my lips to kiss his warm flesh. Moving my arms from around his neck, I lay back into the water, floating. He pulls my body back and forth through the water, stroking his hard dick as he glides one finger back and forth over my clit.
I feel as if we’re making love on a cloud, it’s so surreal. “Take your shirt off,” he says.
I pull the T-shirt off. I’ve been so self-conscious about my body since I lost so much weight, but being with him like this makes me feel sexy and beautiful. One of his hands runs over my stomach and up to one of my breasts. It flows over it and he messages it then pinches my nipple slightly. I arch up and he grabs my bottom in the other hand.
A sudden ache begins deep inside me and I’m building up. He strokes faster and I can feel him harden even more. “Oh, Lexi, I need you to come with me, baby.”
I watch him as he looks down, watching his dick slide in and out of me. He’s completely beautiful, and he’s mine. He stiffens and heat flows into me as he pulses inside me, making me orgasm and draw all that he has to offer out of him. He pulls me up and wraps me in his strong arms. His words hot on my ear, he whispers, “I love you, princess.”
“I love you too, Max.”
The click clack of shoes on the cement make me open my eyes and look over his shoulder. Hilda walks out the door and shields her eyes from the sun. “Max,” she calls out.
“Oh my God!” I say and Max moves us to the side of the pool so hopefully she won’t realize we’re naked. He hides me behind him.
“Hilda!” he says, with a high pitch to his normally deep voice. “What’s up?”
She stops a little ways from us and I notice her eyes are looking past us at something. I look back to see my shirt and shorts floating and a short ways from them is Max’s board shorts.
Busted!
“Oh!” she says. “I’m, uh, I’m, uh sorry I guess.”
Max asks, “What, Hilda?”
“Oh, you have a visitor. It’s a woman, and she said she has to see you. I haven’t let her in the gate yet as I’ve never heard you mention her. She said when I told you her name you’d know her.”
“What is it?” he asks, clearly irritated.
“Sissy Lawton,” she says and Max’s body tenses all over.
“My mother,” he says under his breath. “Let her in.”
Hilda walks away as he moves around gathering our clothes. He isn’t talking at all. I know he never wanted to see her again. “Max, are you okay?”
He shakes his head. “Here let me put these on for you.” He pulls my shorts on and my wet shirt over my head then puts his on. He carries me to my wheelchair and in silence he takes me to our bedroom.
“Max, you seemed shocked.”
“I know where this will lead and it won’t be good, Lexi.”
My heart breaks for him and I can’t help feeling things are about to change. Maybe our life together will never be roses and rainbows.
Part 7 Secrets of Romance
Max
Shadows fall around my mother’s face as she’s brought into my office. I sit behind my large mahogany desk, hoping to start things off with her with me having the upper hand. She looks nothing like I remember, and is thin, much too thin. Her face is deeply wrinkled and her pores are large. She must’ve had acne at some point as pits are all over it. Her hair is thin and white, her hands are shaking and she twitches. “Randy, is that you?”
I flinch as she says my real name. “My name is Max now, but you know that. How did you find me?”
There are two, high backed, leather chairs in front of my desk and she sits in the one on the left. “I was contacted by a woman named Ashley Sinclair. She said I should come and see you.”
That fucking bitch! I hope she rots in Hell!
“She’s dead,” I say and lean back in my chair. “And she was wrong to tell you to come and see me.”
“Oh?” she asks and wrings her hands in her lap. “So you’re mad at me for sending you away?”
“That was the best decision you ever made,” I say and lean up, placing my chin on top of my clasped hands. “Thank you for doing that.”
“Randy, I didn’t mean to give you up. They were going to send you to foster care if I didn’t do something else with you. It wasn’t my choice to give you away.”
I nod. “Okay, I see. It was better for me anyway, no matter how it happened.”
She twists oddly in the chair and I see the veins on the inside of her arms are swollen and large. She pulls a pack of cigarettes from inside her shirt and waves her hand like she’s trying to swat a fly. “Gotta light, son?”
I shake my head. “No, and there’s no smoking in my home, ever and not anywhere on my property. You’ll have to leave if you want to smoke.”
She smashes the thing back into the pack and shoves it back into her shirt. “You went and got all high and mighty, I see. Too good for me, huh?”
I nod. “You hit the nail on the head, Sissy.”
“Sissy?” she asks as she twists her head sideways. “I’m no longer Mom to you?”
“You haven’t ever really been a mother.”
“I admit I have my problems, son, but I am your mother and always will be no matter if you accept it or not.” In a quick motion, she stands and paces like a lion in a cage. “I’ll just spit this out and let you deal with it. I need a place to live. I’ve been homeless for a year and was living out of my car. The blasted thing caught on fire several days ago and now I have nowhere to live and nothing to my name.”
“That’s not my problem,” I say and nearly shudder as it horrifies me how cold I’m being. This isn’t me, yet she’s making me feel like someone I’m not. “Stay where you’ve been staying since it burnt.”
“I was at a homeless shelter and I got raped.” She sits and runs her hands over her skinny legs.
“Really?” I ask because I can’t believe she can say such a thing with no emotion behind it.
�
��Yep, it’s the truth and I’m not going through that again. I’ve been raped about twenty times in my life and I’d say if I had a safe place to live that wouldn’t happen no more. You must have at least one spare bedroom in this big place.”
I don’t even want her to sleep in a tent on the lawn. “I’ll have to think about this, and I have a girlfriend to discuss it with as well. She’s been through a lot and I’m not sure she’d be able to handle you here.”
“You ain’t married?” she asks and stands up again, this time she goes and looks out the window. It overlooks the waterfall of the pool. “You’re filthy rich, but haven’t found someone to marry yet?”
“I’m going to marry this woman. She’s very weak right now, but once she’s better we’ll get married and start a family.”
She turns abruptly. “I’d love to get to spoil my grandkids, Randy. If you let me stay, I can help with ‘em.”
The idea of her around my children is horrifying. “That’s probably a bad idea, Sissy.”
In slow motion, she begins to fall to the floor. Seemingly melting into it. Lying out on it, she starts to cry. It’s a weak and pitiful sound. Though I stay in my chair, it’s taking everything in me not to go grab her up and make her stop.
I look away as she continues, she murmurs, “I may as well kill myself.”
My hand forms a fist and I slam it on my desk. “God dammit, woman, what do you expect from me!”
She continues to lay on the floor and whimper like a beaten dog. “Nothing, I guess. This world isn’t for me. I’ll leave.”
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