by Rye Hart
Probably the only thing stopping him from taking me then and there was the fact that Elsie and Tammy ate dinner with us. Elsie had warmed up to me again after our little scare, talking about the book she was reading and asking me how I was feeling. My conversation flowed easily with Tammy, giving Drake the opportunity to stare at me with a predatory heat in his eyes.
I couldn’t believe how he had just announced we were a couple. How I apparently didn’t have a say in it. But there was something alluring about that too. His confidence was intoxicating.
And though it was also a bit infuriating, I secretly enjoyed it.
I felt like I was going crazy. My hormones were buzzing, and I was trying to rid him from my mind. My body was heating up as I wore his shirt against my skin, his cologne wafting up my nose. I was never going to be able to get a good night’s rest with him on my mind.
I decided to give up on sleep and head to the kitchen to grab a snack. I was hoping that putting something in my stomach would help ease me into a restful slumber. I needed the rest. My body ached for it. But as long as I was thinking about Drake, it wasn’t going to happen.
But when I entered the kitchen, I didn’t find food.
Instead, I saw Drake standing at the sliding doors, staring out into the backyard. Like he was in a trance.
I studied him for a while, watching the way he was lost in thought. His guard was down and his eyes were vulnerable. The look he had on his face was one I’d never seen before. I felt myself gravitating toward him. He was clad in nothing but his pajama pants, and before I could stop myself I was threading my arms around his waist.
Leaning my cheek into his back, I could feel his muscles expanding with his every breath. We stood there for a minute, with no words exchanged between the two of us. The more time I spent around him, the more I understood him and his need for control. All of his life, he had careened out of control. I thought back to his admission that his wife had been pregnant when she’d died. I knew he felt like I was his second chance, and it made me feel hopeful for our future. Hopeful that we could actually have one.I pressed a kiss into his skin, trying to comfort him in his time of need. I felt like I had very few choices with him, yet he was offering me the world. All he wanted was to keep me around.
“Can’t sleep?” Drake asked.
“Not really,” I said.
“Why not?”
“Just not tired,” I said.
He turned around in my arms, a grin spreading across his cheeks.
“I’m sure I could find a way to tire you out,” he said, with a wink.
“Oh really?” I asked.
“Yep,” he replied, then his eyes grew hot again.
He picked me up and I squealed, burying my face into his neck. He ran me back up the steps, then burst into his room. The two of us fell to the bed, our lips intertwined, and our bodies spread out for one another. I could feel his callused hands roaming my body, tugging at the shirt that separated my skin from his.
I was underneath him in a heartbeat. His hands were shoving his pants down as his lips wrapped around my nipples. I rolled into him, moaning and clawing at the bedsheets as electricity ricocheted through my limbs. He was intoxicating. I could barely breathe with the way he kissed me. I spread my legs for him, wanting him inside of me.
Needing him to fill me.
He slid into me with one fluid motion. His mouth swallowed my groans as my hands reaced up his back. His hips pounded into me as wet sounds echoed from between my thighs.
His lips raced down my neck, raking along my skin as I shivered underneath him. I clawed at his back, my legs wrapping around him to pull him in deeper. I felt him stutter as my pussy began to pulse. The friction of our two bodies was too much for me to bear. My eyes were rolling into the back of my head as I clung to him, feeling every sinewy muscle of his body work for my pleasure.
“Don’t go. Don’t leave. Please stay with me.”
His words were so desperate. At first, I didn’t think I’d heard him right. His plea smacked me right across the face. Tears burst forth from my eyes as I came around his cock, tugging him deep into my body as he stilled. I shook against him as he laid off to the side, taking my body with him as tears trickled down my cheeks.
His lips were so soft against my neck, as his cock stayed seated in my body.
“What?” I asked breathlessly.
He kissed my shoulder, causing my body to shiver as he began to move again. I felt him throbbing with the need for release. His hand wandered down my body, sliding over my hip and hooking around my leg. He pulled it over his as he plunged deeper into me.
He held me tightly to him, like he never wanted to let me go.
“Drake,” I said, with a sigh. “You feel so good.”
“You always feel good. Always, to me,” he said.
He rolled deeper and deeper, pressing his cock as far as it could go. My ass slid against his pelvis every time, causing me to gasp for air. I loved the feeling of him against me. I loved the way his arms wrapped around me. One hand tugged at my nipple while the other slid between my pussy lips, coaxing me to another precipice as he circled my clit.
I allowed myself to be overtaken by him.
I bucked against him, adding friction to his growing want as he groaned into my neck. He nipped at my skin and sucked welts into my shoulder, marking me as his cock continued to swell. I reached behind my head, running my fingers through his hair as I pulled his lips to mine.
Tilting my head off to the side, I captured them as we both reached our ends.
He shoved himself deep into my body as my pussy vibrated around him. He held me close to him, his muscles twitching with pleasure as I moaned and whimpered. I curled my fingers tightly into his scalp, drawing him nearer as he spilled into me.
We were panting. Gasping. Overtaken by our want of one another. My eyes grew heavy as Drake’s hand roamed down my side, slowly unhooking my leg from around his body.
But he didn’t slide from between my legs. Instead, he threaded his free arm around me and pulled me closer. He curled around me, filling me up as I nodded off to sleep.
CHAPTER 31
Drake
“I told you I was going home Sunday night, and you convinced me to stay the night with you. So yes, I had Hank bring my damn truck so I could get to work,” Delia said.
“I just want you to take it easy,” I said to her.
“I’m going to work and that’s that. That was the deal we made. I’m fine and the baby is fine Drake, you heard the doctor, it’s just my body growing to accommodate the baby. Now I need to go. You don’t get a say in how I run my life.”
“You’re pregnant with my child. I'm worried about you,” I said. “Why are you upset at me about that?”
“Because I have work and you seem to think that I can just drop my life and bend to your every whim. But that isn’t how this works. That isn’t how a relationship works, Drake.”
“I’m not asking you to quit, Delia! I’m just asking you to stay home until I can get you in to a doctor to clear you for work.”
“You mean like the one in the hospital that said I was fine?” she repeated. “It’s not like I play hockey, I sit at a damn desk all day. I am going to work.”
I hated losing. It wasn’t what I did. I watched Delia walk out of the house and out to her piece of shit truck. She climbed in behind the wheel and flashed me a look as she backed down the drive. Dammit that woman was stubborn.
As she drove off, my heart fell into my stomach. My hands began to tremble as I fought through an incoming panic attack. I hated her being behind the wheel. If I could, I'd drive her everywhere. Hell, I'd keep her wrapped in bubble wrap and near me at all times if it meant I wouldn't lose her. Seeing her in the hospital brought back so many painful memories for me, memories of losing my wife and baby girl.
I couldn't lose Delia too, especially since she was carrying my child. I cursed Hank under my breath for bringing that fucking truck here. He should’
ve hung up the phone and called me when Delia called. He wasn’t hired by her. He was hired by me. I told him to take that shit to her apartment, and that was what he did.
And now, it was driving down my damn driveway carrying my child.
I slammed the front door and stalked out back. I couldn’t focus on the fight or how angry I was at her. I had a ranch I was leaving tomorrow for some fucking mini tour again and I still hadn’t heard from the guys. Far as I knew, I didn’t have a damn band to perform with anymore. Just me and a fucking bus with their faces plastered on it, and Hank. Fucking Hank.
I hadn’t even had a chance to talk to Delia about the new schedule for the tour. Hell, I hadn’t had a chance to talk with her about the tour in general. I had less than twenty-four hours to right my mind for it before I’d have to haul ass out of here, and I didn’t even know when Delia was coming back.
I was still cursing and tossing shit around when Paul rode up out back. He hitched the horse to the back porch and helped me shovel shit around, keeping quiet as I worked out my frustrations. I’d caved and ordered a new damn tractor to be delivered to the house today. I wasn’t gonna have Paul busting his ass trying to fix the shit pile we had out back of the barn.
I didn’t ride the tractors. I could fix them, but I wouldn't ride them. Setting aside the fact that my knee was always gonna be in pain from being shattered and replaced, that fucking thing took my mother from me. The mere idea of sitting on it gave me nightmares. Seeing my momma trying to pull me from its path. They were fucking monstrous machines, and I didn’t dare get on top of them anymore.
But Paul loved the fucking things, so he was the one dealing with the delivery.
I stayed out back with his horse while the delivery took place. Paul signed for it and gathered the paperwork, then came around the corner of the house with a smile on his face. He was whoopin’ and hollerind’ like some babe had just taken her top off and tossed it at him. He drove it all the way back to the barn as I leaned against the house, catching my breath and feeling the sweat pour down my back.
Paul was so busy drooling over his expensive new toy that he forgot about his damn horse. I hopped onto the back of the beautiful animal and rode it all the way back to the barn where I found Paul stroking and eyeballing the damn tractor. Hell, I half expected him to whip out his dick and fuck it. I laughed as I shook my head, then got his horse into a spare stall so I could feed and water the damn thing.
“When you’re done makin’ love to that tractor of yours, your horse is in the barn,” I said.
“Hey. This thing is a beauty. Must’ve cost you a fortune. Thanks, Drake. It’s really gonna help around here,” Paul said.
“Fuckin’ hope it does. A fortune is only half of what I paid for that thing.”
I walked back up to the house as the sun began to rise high in the sky. My stomach was growling for lunch but my mind kept wandering back to Delia. Had she gotten to work okay? Did she have something to eat? Should I take her something? Would that piss her off even more?
Walking into the house, I knocked off my boots, then went in search of my phone. I didn’t keep it on me while I was out in the fields. Too many things could break the thing like it was a cheap piece of plastic. But as I strode around my house trying to find it, panic started rising in my chest.
I didn’t even know why. I just panicked.
Picking up my phone, the screen lit up. No missed calls. No new text messages. No nothing. Delia hadn’t called, hadn’t messaged. I opened my phone and scrolled to her number, ready call just to hear her voice.
But a sound coming up the driveway caught my attention.
I ran toward the front door and whipped it open. The sound of a truck coming up the driveway sent my heart into overdrive. It was Delia. It had to be. Maybe she was coming to have lunch with me. Or maybe she left something behind. Or maybe her boss had sent her home and she was bringing her laptop over.
I’d fucking take anything over this worry I felt boiling in the pit of my gut.
But the moment Hank’s truck crested the horizon, my worry gave way to anger. I knew it wasn’t logical to be angry at the man for bringing Delia her truck, but I couldn’t help it.
“Hey Drake,” Hank said, as he slammed his door shut. “You ready to go over tour dates?”
“Nope,” I said. “Just stoppin’ for lunch.”
“Then I’ll stay until you’ve got some time. We really gotta punch this stuff out before tomorrow,” he said.
“You talked to Delia today?” I asked.
“Nope. Haven’t heard from her. Why? Has something happened again?”
“No, but that is my concern. She would’ve been fine if she hadn’t had her truck here to leave in.”
“Drake, you can’t keep her prisoner here—”
“I’m not keeping her prisoner,” I said with a roar. “I’m not her warden.”
“You sure as hell are acting like one,” Hank said. “When she called asking for her truck, she gave me the rundown. Remember what your therapist keeps telling you.”
“And what the fuck would you know about my therapist?” I asked.
“He says with how you’re programmed, you’re gonna try to exert control over things when you start craving. You been craving?”
“I don’t want fucking alcohol. I want Delia. I want the mother of my child safe in my arms. In this house, where I can watch over her and make sure she doesn’t end up--” I stopped myself. I was afraid of losing Delia like I'd lost Shannon and Ava. It was in my head, but I couldn't just make it go away.
“You’re gonna have to get over that. You’re going on tour tomorrow, and she sure as hell isn’t coming along,” Hank said. “So whatever this control thing is you got goin’ on, squash it. Otherwise, you’re gonna lose her before you even had her.”
“Hank, you know what I've been through, man. I can't just let her go. I can't lose her.”
Hank sighed. “Been divorced twice, so I’m not the person to be consulting on women. My point is, you're trying to control her. You think you’re protecting her, but you’re just trying to run her life. She’s not an animal. She ain’t one of your pregnant heifers. She’s an independent woman who’s trying her best, and every time you go over her head, you’re telling her that her best ain’t good enough. That you can do better and she can’t. Cut that shit out.”
“Thought you weren’t an expert on women,” I said.
“I’m an expert on that. It’s what did my first marriage in. You made her a deal, Drake. That she could go home Sunday night.”
“But this is our home,” I said.
“No. It’s your home. Just because she’s pregnant with your kid don’t make this her home any more than wearing your clothes makes her you. You still gotta grow a relationship with that woman. A baby don’t set a precedence. Her walking around and growing your kid doesn’t automatically give you two history. Y’all gotta make that first.”
“Your accent gets thicker when you’re mad, Hank,” I said.
“Damn straight it does. Now get your ass together. We need to go over these dates.”
CHAPTER 32
Delia
“Delia, come on. Why the hell are we doin’ this over the phone?”
“Because I’m about to go into to work,” I said.
“Why didn’t you come back yesterday? I waited up for you,” Drake said.
“I needed a good night sleep and some quiet. What is it you wanted to talk about?”
“You can’t get a good night sleep with me?”
“I didn’t call you so we could fight. Again. What is it you want?” I asked.
“Look, I got another tour that starts tomorrow. Six acoustic nights, since the guys in the band don’t think I’ll be any fun sober.”
“That sounds good. It could help rehabilitate your public image,” I said.
“Ya sound like Hank.”
“Then Hank’s got a point.”
“The last one’s in Nashville. Couple of
weeks from now. Will you be there for it?”
“Do you want me to be?”
“Of course I want my girlfriend and the mother of my child there with me,” he said.
“Then yeah. I’ll be there,” I said. Hearing him say those words brought a smile to my face. Even with all the problems, I still couldn't deny that I cared for this man, deeply.
“I’ll have Hank set aside a ticket for you at will call. Just give them your name and you can get it. It’ll get you backstage and I can kiss you before I head on out to sing.”
I shoved my earrings into my ears as Drake continued to rattle on. I didn’t go to his house after work on Monday because I was tired and upset. The fight we had that morning about me just going into work was enough to exhaust me, then I had to put in nine hours at work doing mindless paperwork. I had gotten away from Drake’s ranch and I wasn’t ready to go back. I wasn’t ready to fight him every time I had to leave to go to work.
I knew he was just worried about me. After what happened to his wife, I couldn't blame him. However, this was my life. I couldn't fuck things up with this new job just because he couldn't get a grip. Besides, it scared me how fast I was falling for him, and how fast he seemed to be falling for me too.
I hung up the phone with Drake and focused on work. I had a long day of paperwork waiting for me and my boss was hovering over me every second he could. My coworker was quickly becoming a wonderful support system, however. While I fussed with all the paperwork, Stacia was fussing with insurance and taking phone calls for appointments. We worked side by side a lot of the time, and she greeted me Monday morning with edible chocolate flowers sitting on my small desk.
“Gotcha some coffee,” Stacia said. “It’s sittin’ on your desk. And it’s decaf so it’s safe for you to drink. Plus I loaded it up with chocolate syrup and creamer.”
I groaned as I sat down and pulled out the files of paperwork I had to complete.