The Love He Craves (The Love She Craves: Selling Her Soul to Declan Book 2)

by Jenkins, Gemma

  Dorothea gave Emily a hard look as if she wanted her to go away, so she could have a private word with Nyxie.

  “Oh, have you met Dr. Saunders yet? She’s one of Declan’s colleagues.”

  “Yes, I figured as much when you said doctor.”

  “Emily,” she said. “Just Emily is fine.”

  “Emily, nice to meet you. I’m sure you would agree that Nyxie set womanhood back fifty years today.”

  Emily laughed. “All of womankind? Are you referring to her vow to obey?”

  “Yes, of course, to what else would I be referring? No one says obey anymore.”

  Nyxie lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “You know how men always like to believe they’re the boss,” Nyxie said lightly, hoping her tone would sound dismissive of the issue. She wished Declan would notice his mother talking to her. “It was my decision to say it.”

  She knew without having to be told that it had pleased Declan. Whether she said it or not, it would not change the dynamics of their relationship. She had entered into their relationship as his submissive. It was as much a part of her personality as being dominant was part of Declan’s.

  “If I had known my words carry any weight outside of our marriage, I would have said them more quietly.”

  Dorothea’s eyes narrowed at Nyxie. “Is that what you want for your nieces?”

  Nyxie looked across to Lotus and Reina, giggling and playing with their nanny. Several of the other children there had joined in what appeared to be a game of some sort. “I hope they will choose words that suit them, just as I did. Declan didn’t ask me to say obey—he didn’t know I planned to say it until the words came out of my mouth. I’m sorry if it offended you.”

  The older woman threw her arms up in the air in frustration. “It should also offend you.”

  Dorothea’s brows lowered as she leaned in toward her. With Dorothea’s military bearing, Nyxie shrank back slightly and pulled her lips between her teeth. She wished she could explain it in a way that her mother-in-law would understand, but would not expose that aspect of their relationship.

  “What do you think, Emily?” Dorothea asked.

  “It was her decision to make. Did I cringe when I heard it? Maybe a little, but I suspect I know more about their relationship than anyone, and it didn’t surprise me. You’ve raised him to be competitive in all things—maybe when he’s home, he likes to relax and not compete.”

  Major eyed Nyxie speculatively. “I guess I can understand that. But you don’t have to let him have his way all the time.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Really? Tell me one time that you have asserted yourself and made him take a backseat.”

  Nyxie could’ve pointed out that he allowed her to mete out the kids’ discipline when necessary, but Dorothea would have pointed out they were her kids, not his. Or she might have said that he had agreed not to make her see his parents except on special occasions. She chose not to mention that either because she didn’t want to offend his mother.

  “I trust Declan to make decisions that are in my best interest. I’ve been making decisions for my family for as long as I can remember. It’s a relief to let someone else make them.”

  “I’m sure,” Major said condescendingly. “I imagine Declan has nothing better to do than tell you which paper towels to buy. I’m sure his patients appreciate the distraction.”

  Nyxie stared at the woman at a complete loss. “It’s not like that. I don’t call him at work unless it’s an emergency.”

  “Oh, so you wait till he’s home from a hard, high-pressure day at work to help you.”

  Nyxie’s head involuntarily turned to seek out Declan, but he and Clete were still deep in conversation.

  “I don’t ask him to make my decisions for me. He just does it.”

  “Then what kind of decisions are you referring to?”

  Nyxie shrugged. “I don’t know…like buying me a car,” Nyxie said, and winced when she realized the woman would not want to know he had spent his money on a car for her. “I don’t just follow him blindly. Sometimes we disagree about big stuff.”

  “Such as?”

  Nyxie racked her brain. It didn’t help that she was so nervous and intimidated by Dorothea that her hands were trembling. “Like whether or not I should be on birth control.”

  Emily made a scoffing sound. “Oh please, Nyxie. You caved on that one.”

  “Eventually. He wore me down.”

  A small smile played on Major’s lips. “I’m glad to hear it. You don’t need to add to your family.”

  Emily and Nyxie looked away in different directions as if his mother would not see the truth if she couldn’t see their expressions. Finally, Declan made eye contact. He turned and began walking in her direction. “He wants me to get a degree and he’s going to let me decide what I want to get it in.”

  “That sounds like a challenge,” she said under her breath as if Nyxie wasn’t actually supposed to hear the insult.

  Nyxie tried to hold her facial features neutral. “I didn’t flunk out of school. My grades were okay. But because I didn’t finish, I’m sure it will be more of a challenge for me.”

  “What else, dear,” she said in a saccharine sweet way. “Ah, Declan, darling, I’m glad you’ve joined us.”

  Declan stepped up behind Nyxie, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her against his torso. He placed a kiss on the crown of her head.

  “Plotting ways to double-team me?” he asked.

  “Don’t be foolish, sweetheart. We were discussing Onyx’s choice of vows.”

  “Ah. Why do you care, Major? No one is asking you to obey.”

  “That’s not the point. No woman should say that. It was absolutely… medieval.”

  Declan laughed. “I thought it was sexy as hell.” He splayed his fingers and made small circles on her abdomen. “Made me want to make love to her right then and there. Mind if we borrow your bed for a little bit.”

  Nyxie saw the look of disgust on Dorothea’s face as she spied his hands’ movements. Nyxie put her hands on Declan’s wrists and tried to push them away. “Stop.”

  His hands froze in place. “What the…?”

  “Declan, stop,” Nyxie said. “You’re not helping matters. Your mother already dislikes me. You’re making it worse.”

  “Listen to your girlfriend for once, Declan,” Dorothea said.

  Nyxie wasn’t surprised his mother didn’t deny that she disliked her. She had made no attempt to disguise her feelings before, so why start now?

  “Wife, Nyxie’s my wife, not my girlfriend.” Looking at his mother, his stilled hands tightened on Nyxie possessively. “I know this feels really sudden to you, but if you force me to make a choice, I’m picking my wife.”

  “Only because you know that will hurt me,” Dorothea said, her face fighting the Botox to frown.

  “I don’t want to hurt you. I love Nyxie. I want to be with her for the rest of my life. She will be the mother of your grandchildren. You’re not even giving her a chance.”

  “It’s because I don’t understand it. Why her? Why not this one?” she said pointing at Emily.

  “Emily is not my type.”

  “Mrs. Stryker,” Nyxie interrupted. “Declan likes to be in charge. He gives my life structure I’ve never known before. If I had had a thirty-year-old boyfriend when I was twelve, my parents would not have cared. They didn’t care if I went to school, or roamed around town all day, as long as I wasn’t underfoot. You were in the military. Surely, you can understand the need for rules.”

  Dorothea’s eyes narrowed at her son and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Did my parents spoil you so much that you don’t know how to compromise? You can’t have your way all the time.”

  “Do not say anything about Grams and Gramps. They have nothing to do with this.”

  His mother’s lips pursed, making unattractive lines through her upper lip. “They have everything to do with this. You’re spoiled rotten and you h
ave to have your own way.”

  “No, Major, this has nothing to do with them. I’m not going to try to explain it to you because frankly, it’s none of your business. I love Nyxie and she loves me—that’s all you need to know.”

  “Love isn’t enough,” Dorothea said. “When love fades, what then? You have nothing in common. Nyxie will get tired of being the little woman and playing house soon enough.”

  “Please, Mrs. Stryker, it’s not like that,” Nyxie said. “Maybe rule is too strong of a word. He doesn’t treat me like a housewife from the fifties, or go around making up unrealistic rules. My family was a train-wreck. All the things that seem normal and mundane to other people are foreign to me. If Declan tells me not to let the gas tank on the car fall below half a tank, I make sure I keep it above the line so he doesn’t have to worry about me running out of gas. I’ve never had a car before, so it’s nice to have guidelines to follow. If he told me he wants me to spend two hours a day learning calculus, until I can pass my GED test, I want him to know I will do it. I know when he tells me to do something, it’s because he has a reason, and he loves me and wants what is best for me. How is it going to harm me to do that?”

  “Jesus Christ! Are you kidding me?”

  “I actually find their dynamic fascinating,” Emily said. “Declan is like a different person around her. He’s kind and solicitous to her. I’ve known Declan almost two years now. Before Nyxie, he was this uber impatient, short-tempered jerk.”

  “Gee, thanks, Emily,” he said sarcastically.

  “But he’s not like that around her. He’s sweet and he likes taking care of her. He worries about her—much more than he needs to. He must look at her picture on his phone every five minutes.”

  Nyxie craned her head around to look at him. “You do?”

  A chagrined smile formed on his lips and he gave her a little nod. “That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I did set your picture as the wallpaper on my phone and every time I check my phone I get to see your picture.”

  “Not the changing-room selfie, I hope.”

  “No, the Say-goodbye-to-Onyx, picture.”

  She chuckled softly. “I should have known.”

  “Yes, you should have. And honestly, I should change it to the other picture. I’d get more work done.”

  Dorothea shook her head, and put her hands on her hips. “Haven’t you heard enough horror stories about women sending naked pictures to others to know not to do it?”

  “I wasn’t naked. I was wearing jeans and a bra, nothing showing. Trust me, no one wants to see me fully undressed.”

  “You are going to pay for that remark later,” he whispered into her ear.

  A wide smile crossed her lips and she wiggled her bottom. “Promise?”

  “You know, Mrs. Stryker,” Emily said. “Declan once told me you hated Nyxie. I really thought he was overstating it, but I can see that he wasn’t.”

  “I don’t hate her; I barely know her. I don’t understand how Declan can fall for someone like her. She’s uneducated. She’s weak. She’s not even particularly pretty.”

  “If you think she’s weak, I can tell you, you are dead wrong. I once heard Declan refer to her as a wounded bird. But she’s not like that either. When you were sixteen, you were living at home, going to school, wondering if that boy you liked returned the feelings. When she—”

  “Stop!” Nyxie said to Emily. “I don’t need you to defend me. You think you’re going to say just the right thing to convince her that I’m worthy of her son. It’s not going to happen. For Declan’s sake it would be nice if she could at least tolerate me, but what you don’t seem to understand is I don’t care if she likes me or not. People in this town mean as little to me as I do to them. I learned to accept that a long time ago. I don’t need their friendship. I don’t need their pity. I don’t need their acceptance. I certainly don’t need their judgment or their distain.”

  Nyxie lifted her hand and pointed at Dorothea, but continued to talk to Emily. “She’s already asked around about me. She believes everything she heard about my family and me; I’m sure most of it was true. She thinks she already has a handle on who I am, and that’s fine. I don’t want her to know any more about me. Anything you say, anything I say, will just give her fodder to hate me more.”

  Nyxie pulled out of Declan’s arms. “I’m sorry. I tried to be nice.”

  Chapter 30

  As much as Nyxie might have liked to have left and gone home, she didn’t want to make a scene. All of his extended family treated her kindly and were welcoming. Many of them had traveled quite a distance to be there. His father was one of five children and Declan had a dozen cousins. He was one of the younger cousins; so many were married with kids.

  Surprisingly, Bob was hanging out with Declan’s dad. Roy was manning a large barbecue grill, so she assumed Bob had honed in on him because he liked to cook.

  Nyxie decided to go talk with Mrs. North and her husband. As her former teacher, she was the only other person there she knew. Joseph had not been able to get his shift covered and had sent his apologies.

  If Roy Stryker ever needed a third career, he could’ve been a caterer. He was a man who knew how to barbecue. As soon as the reception line had petered out, Roy was orchestrating the appearance of the food. He quickly placed hamburger patties and hotdogs on the enormous gas grill, and as soon as they were cooking, he pulled out a huge brisket, several racks of ribs, and macaroni and cheese out of his smoker. Relatives were recruited to retrieve the cold foods from the second refrigerator in the garage and place them in wading pools filled with ice atop a large round table. Cousin after cousin carried out bowls filled with watermelon and cantaloupe, potato salad, and all sorts of fixings for the burgers and dogs. And because Dorothea had insisted on real vegetables, salad and coleslaw finished filling the first table. The second table was spread with a crockpot filled with Boston baked beans, topped with French fried onions and two huge cobblers straight from the oven—one peach and one apple.

  The white wooden chairs the guests had sat in during the ceremony, were moved around a dozen large rented banquet tables. If anyone thought it was odd that they were eating a huge barbecue dinner off expensive china, no one mentioned it. Nyxie suspected that Declan had asked his parents to keep the atmosphere casual to make her feel more at ease. His extended family didn’t seem affected by the informality.

  When the serving line formed, Nyxie automatically headed towards her kids to help them get their food, before getting her own.

  “I’ll help Cody,” Mrs. North said.

  “And I’ve got the girls,” the nanny said.

  “Come on, Nyxie,” Declan said, putting his arm around her waist. “You are queen for the day. Everyone needs to attend to your desires, not the other way around.”

  Nyxie allowed him to slip her into the line, where they both filled their plates and sat down at the table reserved for them.

  “Oh, I love this potato salad,” Nyxie said, after taking her first bite.

  “Then you’re the only one,” Declan said, and she noticed he didn’t have any on his plate.

  “Every time he makes it with bread-and-butter pickles, you hear everyone tell Coach how they like it with kosher dills, or they make theirs with dill pickles. But he never changes it.”

  “I like it.”

  With a look of mock disgust on his face, Declan visually searched the other tables until he found Coach. “Dad!” he shouted, and waited until Roy turned to face him. “I married the only other human being on the planet who likes your tater salad.”

  “I knew she was smart and had good taste. She married my son, didn’t she?”

  Nyxie couldn’t help but smile. Although she suspected Roy was putting on a public front to hide his dislike for her, it almost sounded like he was happy with their marriage.

  “I’d love the recipe,” she said loudly to Roy.

  “No, Dad, don’t you dare.”

  Everyone laughed.


  When Roy began telling her everything in it, Declan put his hands over her ears and kissed her.

  After his father had finished talking, Declan slowly released her. “No,” he said as her eyes opened.

  “Coach Stryker, I think I missed a few ingredients. Could you tell me again?”

  As he began listing the recipe again, Declan again covered her ears and kissed her.

  “I can keep this up all day,” he said when he released her the second time.

  “That’s the idea,” she laughed. “Coach….”

  ~*~

  After the meal, as they sat around talking to his family, friends, and relatives, Junior Vaughn approached.

  “I need to speak with y’all,” he said.

  “Both of us?”

  “It’s concerning what you said about the adoption.”

  Nyxie practically jumped out of her seat and Declan followed as the lawyer led them to the covered porch. The food had been put away, and the kids had all changed into their swimsuits and were splashing in the pool.

  “What’s wrong?” Nyxie asked, her voice high with tension.

  “Nothing is wrong exactly; I just need to clarify something.” He turned to Declan. “You said when Nyxie adopted them, you’d be their stepfather. That isn’t the way it works. If Nyxie adopted them before you were married, that would’ve been the case, but one half of a married couple doesn’t adopt without the other. You are either both in, or out. You are both adopting, or you aren’t. You will legally be Mom,” he said pointing at Nyxie, before pointing at Declan, “and Dad.”

  “But….” Nyxie hesitated as she realized if they divorced, Declan would have as much right to custody as she had.

  “But Nyxie’s the one related to them.”

  “It’s irrelevant. You both have to sign the papers. You are both responsible for the kids. If you divorce, custody will have to be discussed and child support paid.”

  Declan glanced at Nyxie and saw she was more upset over the news than he would have expected. “We can put an addendum on the nuptial agreement we already signed. I wouldn’t take them from you.”