by Carter Ashby
Kellen bit back his irritation. They were racking up an even bigger fee by not getting it out to begin with. “Does Zoey know?”
“Nah, I didn’t want to bother her.”
Kellen nodded, as though he could possibly understand. “What’s the fee?”
“Total, today, it’s five hundred.”
“What? Are you serious?” He couldn’t disguise his surprise. But then, it made sense. The vehicle had probably been towed a week ago. Their fee doubled because they wouldn’t take the time to deal with the problem right from the beginning.
Tracy just shrugged as though there was nothing she could do.
“Alright,” Kellen said. “Well where’s Mark?”
“Sleeping.”
It was nearly noon. “Okay, well you go wake him up, and me and him will go get your car back. Sound good?”
He was glad when Tracy went to get Mark. He was afraid she’d want to go with him herself, but he really didn’t want to be alone in a vehicle with her, even for the short drive to the car lot.
Mark finally came around and they retrieved the car fairly easily, aside from the hit to Kellen’s bank account. He took Mark to a gas station and filled up the tank for him, because apparently they didn’t have enough money for even that. Kellen’s goal was to get them into a position where they could leave if they got the itch. He’d give them just enough money to get them far enough down the road that they forgot all about Zoey for a while. Then he’d make sure that they never stepped foot in her house again.
Back at Zoey’s house, he found Maya in the basement watching television while the kids played. “Any word from Zoey?” he asked.
“Yeah. She paid a fine and has, like, two weeks of probation or something. She’s on her way home. Should be here in about thirty minutes.”
He nodded. “Great. Let me see what I can do about getting Tracy and Mark out of her bedroom.”
He turned to leave, but Maya halted him. “Hey. How do you propose to do that?”
He shrugged. “I’ll use my never-ending supply of charm.”
Maya smiled. “Next question—why?”
He looked into her. “You know why.”
“Say it anyway.”
“Because, I love Zoey.”
Maya folded her hands over her heart and squealed. Kellen rolled his eyes and went upstairs. He found Tracy in the kitchen, digging through Zoey’s secret candy drawer. He steeled himself for the disgusting task, swallowing down the nausea that crept up his chest.
He went up behind her and braced his hand on the counter next to her, leaning over her. “What is that scent?” he asked, smelling her hair. God, he hated himself.
Tracy leaned back against the counter and used her arms to press her breasts together. Her shirt was two sizes too small already, he didn’t need any assistance in viewing her cleavage. “Herbal Essences shampoo. You like it?”
“I do. You’ll have to let Zoey use some.”
“I thought you two broke up.”
“We did. I’m getting her back, though. I wonder if you could help me out with that?”
“Sure, baby. What can I do for you?” She trailed her fingertips up the side of his neck and along his hairline.
“It’s kind of a big favor.” He dropped his eyes to her chest and let his gaze meander its way back up to her eyes. She was fully blushing, now.
“Anything for you, Kellen.”
He grinned. “See, I’ve got this old back injury from football in high school. Last time I slept on that hide-a-bed downstairs, I could barely walk the next day. I’d really like to show Zoey a good time. You think we could have the master bed? Just for tonight?”
He wanted so badly to just kick her and Mark out of the room, but he reminded himself that he was focusing on making Zoey’s life easier. Since it was important to her that she not hurt her mom’s feelings, he was having to act like a slut to get what he wanted.
Tracy, still touching him, smiled lustfully. “I’ll bet that flimsy hide-a-bed would completely give out with what you’re planning to do tonight.”
“You know it. So—can we have the bed?”
She laid her hand along his cheek and gave him a pat. “Sure, baby. Just for tonight.”
“Thanks, Tracy. You’re an angel.” He kissed her on the cheek and then got the hell away from her.
Just for tonight? No, it would be for much longer than that. Tracy and her stripper boyfriend wouldn’t be stepping into that room ever again. He helped her move her things to the basement so he could get the sheets changed and ready for his ‘wild night’ with Zoey.
In actuality, he was planning on tucking her into her own bed and sleeping on the couch. He didn’t have a back injury. He’d flat out lied. He felt no remorse whatsoever.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Zoey drove home, drained of all energy. She hadn’t put up a fight. In fact, she’d even apologized to the man she’d kneed in the balls. She felt defeated but also better. She wasn’t angry that the man had pulled her hair before she’d taken action against him. She could have been, but she wasn’t. Instead, she was relieved. And tired.
When she pulled into her driveway, there were two vehicles that shouldn’t be there. One was her mom’s car. The other was Kellen’s truck. He’d parked on the street so that she was able to get to her garage. Her heart rate kicked up as she stepped inside her house. He was lounging in a recliner, reading a book and sipping coffee. Maya was in the other recliner sleeping. She could hear the kids in their room.
Kellen looked up at her and smiled. He stood and dropped his book in the chair. “Come here, I’ve got a surprise for you.”
She frowned and kept just standing there. So he came toward her, took her hand, and pulled her back to her bedroom. He closed the door behind them. “What kind of surprise is this?” she asked skeptically.
“I got you your room back. Nice, isn’t it?”
It looked exactly the same, except that Tracy and Mark’s crap wasn’t spread out everywhere. He jogged to the bed and pulled back the covers. “Clean sheets. See?”
She stared at the bed. Then she stared at him.
He pulled the covers all the way back and ran his hand over the sheets. “Mmm. Nice and cool. Don’t you just wanna get naked and climb in there.”
She still couldn’t work up a reaction. “Yes,” she numbly. “Yes, I do.”
“Well, go ahead. It’s all yours.” He came behind her and pushed her toward the bed. He helped her out of her coat and draped it over the footboard.
She stared down at the bed, feeling like she should be asking him something. But she couldn’t quite think of it, and that bed did look amazingly inviting. She reached down and touched it. Then she bent over and pressed her cheek to the sheet. “Hello, old friend.”
Kellen laughed and patted her back. “I’ll be here when you wake up. Have a good nap.”
She heard the door click shut. Then she stripped out of her clothes, shed her underwear, and climbed into her bed. She piled the blankets on top of herself and fell steadily into sleep.
Her eyes popped open a second later. Only it wasn’t a second; it was three hours. And she smelled something. Something good.
She rose and dressed. She followed her nose down the hall and into the kitchen. Kellen and Maya were at the counter. He was cooking burgers on the griddle, and she was slicing carrots and celery into sticks.
“Hey, baby doll!” Tracy said. “Did you have a good nap?”
Zoey didn’t understand what was going on. She went to Kellen and tapped him on the shoulder. “What are you doing here?”
He set down his spatula, cupped her jaw, and leaned down. He pressed his cheek to hers and spoke softly in her ear. “I realized that I belong by your side.” He held her there for a moment. She gripped his shirt and pressed her legs together as excitement surged through her.
He slid back, his cheek brushing hers, and smiled down at her. She let go of his shirt, filled her hands with his hair, and pulle
d him into a rough, desperate kiss.
Tracy cheered in the background. The people in the room were the only things keeping her from doing him right there. When they both managed to pull away, she looked up into a face stripped of its cocky self-certainty. His expression was all naked fear and wonder. “I love you, Zoey,” he said.
She gasped and scrambled up his body for another kiss. She wrapped her legs around his waist and clawed at his shoulders. This time when he pulled back, he was laughing. “Now, or later?”
She could barely think or breathe or speak, but she realized the children were at the table glancing her direction. “Later,” she squeaked and stared into his eyes with desperate regret.
He laughed again and brought her into a hug. “Later, and for a long time.”
She nodded.
He moved away from her but held her hand as he picked up his spatula and flipped the burgers.
They sat around the table and ate. She forced the food down, but her stomach wasn’t remotely interested. She didn’t know how Kellen had managed to get Tracy and Mark to move downstairs, but whatever he had done had caused very little upheaval. Tracy was just as happy as if nothing had changed.
That night, Zoey helped Maya tuck the kids into bed. They liked to get a story from each of them. The next day they would start back to school. Zoey had already started back to work. Her schedule had been interrupted that day to go pay her debt to society.
Right after the kids went to bed, Maya disappeared into her room. Mark was drinking the last of Zoey’s beer, again, and Tracy was on the internet doing God only knew what. So Zoey grabbed Kellen by the waist of his jeans and dragged him back to her bedroom. He closed the door and said, “I wasn’t going to do this, Zoey.”
She started unbuttoning her blouse. “Well, you’re gonna now, right?”
“Don’t you think we should slow things down a little? Give us time to get to know each other?”
She whipped off her shirt and kicked off her shoes. “I am having sex in this bed. Right now. Are you with me or not?”
He grinned and peeled off his shirt. Zoey took a moment to sigh in appreciation. He stalked toward her, took her in his arms, and kissed her. When his lips moved to her neck, she said, “Kellen, before we go any further, I just wanted to tell you…I love you, too.”
He pulled back and studied her eyes.
“I love you,” she repeated.
He was breathing heavily, already. He nodded. “I love you, too, Zoey. And you just say those words as often as you want, okay?”
He kissed her again and reached behind her to unclasp her bra. It slid down her arms and to the floor. He filled his hands and moaned. He trailed long, languorous kisses down her neck and between her breasts. He was being so gentle. So loving. Tears stung her eyes and she felt her heart opening to him. Where was she to go with this overwhelming passion struggling to burst out of her?
“Rough, Kellen. I want it rough.”
He stood and the two of them unfastened their jeans and shoved them down. “I don’t want to be rough with you,” he said. “Not tonight.”
“I want it rough. I need it, Kellen.”
“Not tonight. I’ll kiss you and you’ll be mine and I’ll do whatever I want with you.”
His words lit her up. She leapt at him. He caught her and slammed her down onto the bed, falling on top of her. She wrapped her legs around him, urging him forward. Once his lips were on hers, she felt all her will dissipate. He was right. He could do whatever he wanted with her.
While he kissed her long and deep, he took first one of her hands, then the other, and guided them up to the headboard. She gripped, understanding that he meant for her to hold on. Time slowed. His lips left hers and made their way down her body. Her heart thundered in her chest, but she stayed relaxed, sucking in deep breaths and letting her body just feel.
When he went down between her legs, she held her breath. As his tongue stroked her, her body arched off the bed and she sobbed in pleasure. He plied her relentlessly with his mouth until she came hard.
As the waves of pleasure subsided, she felt more awake and alive than she had in weeks. As though he was slowly, systematically purging her of all the toxic emotions she’d been harboring. He rolled her onto her stomach and stretched out on top of her. He pulled her hair back and over her shoulder. Then he kissed her cheek and neck and behind her ear. His hand moved down her side, grazing the sides of her breasts.
She felt his hard length between her legs. He slid into her smoothly, filling her. He laced his fingers with hers and pressed her hands into the bed. His kisses across her upper back and shoulders managed to ignite her passion while blanketing her in a sense of peace. He thrust in and out of her languorously as though he had all the time in the world.
He moved his legs to the outside of hers, so that she was entirely wrapped in him, bracketed in this world and transported to her own, private realm of pleasure. His thrusts became more insistent, and his groans more desperate. When he slipped his hand beneath her and began massaging her, she broke with loud, low sobs.
He continued, harder and faster. He shifted, wrapping his arms around her hips and lifting them, bringing his knees up to support his weight. “Oh, God,” he gasped.
She clutched at the sheets, struggling for something stable to cling to. Her world was shattered, and when he came with a sharp cry, she knew his was, too. She felt his forehead against her back, the tension in his muscles slowly draining.
He eased out of her and rolled her to her back. He put his mouth on hers, again, and kissed her until the world made sense.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Kellen awoke with the dawn. With his eyes still closed, he smiled and stretched. Zoey stretched next to him, the length of her body alongside his. She moved her head to his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her. “You are amazing,” he croaked, his throat dry and parched.
“How did you get my bed back without upsetting anyone?”
“Used my charm.”
She let out a little snort. “Whatever you did, thank you. Now maybe you can talk her into going away altogether.”
“Zoey, I will physically carry them both out of this house if you ask me to. I’ll also cook them breakfast and babysit them if that’s what you want. She’s your mom, and I understand how important she is to you.”
She sat up on her elbow and looked down on him, her hair spilling around her face. “She doesn’t love me.”
He stared at her and wondered if she was asking him a question.
“My mom doesn’t love me.” She looked like she was about to choke on the words. “But you do, and you show it by coming into my home and standing by my side, helping me hold up my self-inflicted responsibilities.”
He still wasn’t sure if she wanted him to respond. He reached up and played with her hair.
“I’ve always wanted, for as long as I can remember, a mother like Claire Huxtable. Someone I could depend on as a child and respect as an adult. Tracy has been none of that to me. So fuck her. Right?”
He leaned up and kissed her. “She’s your mom. It’s okay to love her. Just don’t lose track of yourself.”
She patted him on the cheek. Her expression turned resigned. “All right. Get dressed. Project get-my-mom-the-fuck-out-of-my-house is on.” She swung out of bed and Kellen watched her dress.
She either didn’t notice him watching or didn’t care. She was on a mission. He clambered out of bed and into his clothes, following her around the house. She headed straight for the basement stairs. He followed about halfway down and then crouched to watch. Mark was sleeping on a blanket on the floor and Tracy had fallen into the middle of the bed.
“Hey, Mom!” Zoey said, louder than was strictly necessary. She shook her mom by the shoulder.
Tracy rolled to her back and squinted up at her. “What the hell?”
“Hey, I gotta go to work, so I need your help.”
“What are you talking about?”
�
�I have a job so I can earn money to feed the people who stay at my house. I need you to get up because somebody has to take Maya’s kids to school.”
“What? I ain’t takin’ no little kids to school.”
“Mom, with school starting back and Maya still injured, me with work, and Kellen, well, he’s just plain undependable—so we all have to pitch in. Come on, I’ve got coffee made.”
Kellen grinned at the undependable remark and watched as Zoey pulled Tracy to a sitting position and then waited until she was pulling on her jeans. He went upstairs. Zoey came up a moment later. She grabbed him round the waist and tip-toed up for a kiss.
Tracy stumbled up the stairs. “It’s too early. I don’t like to get up before eight.”
“Well, no one likes to get up before eight, but that’s life,” Zoey said. “I’m gonna go wake up the kids.”
Kellen didn’t know what she told them when she went into their room, but Sophie and Matthew came running out screaming, “Yay! School’s back in session!”
Sophie charged into Tracy, hugging her hips and causing some coffee to slosh out of Tracy’s cup onto her hand. “Shit, be careful, kid,” she said.
“Are you gonna take us to school, Aunt Tracy?” Sophie shrieked.
Tracy winced. “I’m not your aunt, sweetie.”
Matthew ran up to Tracy. “Can you fix us some breakfast? Mom says we need to have eggs before school, not cereal.”
“I don’t cook. Kellen?” Tracy batted her eyelashes at him.
He sipped his coffee. “I wish I could,” he said, “but I don’t feel like it.” He sat behind the bar. Tracy’s smile vanished.
“Zoey!” she shouted.
Maya came in, then. “She’s in the bathroom.” Maya folded one arm over her ribs. “Ow, my side hurts so badly. Can you go ask Mark to give me back my pain meds?”