Her slim arms rise up into the air as she shouts, “What? You don’t know? Are you crazy?”
“Something in my dream is why I say that, although I don’t know why. I say to myself in the dream, ‘If only Kyle was here. If only Laura had been with her.’ That’s why I think they’re key players in keeping you alive.”
“Crap, I hate this!” she says as she slips on her sandals. “I don’t know why he’s putting us through this. Why, Eden, why?”
I slip my T-shirt over my head and go to her, holding her to me. “Please don’t do that, Alyssa. Don’t question. It serves no purpose. For what reason, we may never know. It’s just something which needs to be done. Learn to have faith. Hasn’t anything we’ve been through brought that home to you yet?”
Laying her head against my chest, she wraps her arms around me and says, “What’s so wrong with me that I keep questioning everything over and over again? You’re right and I know it, but I can’t stop myself. In the very beginning, I had so much faith. I’ve lost my confidence as well as my faith.”
I rock her in my arms and place a kiss on top of her head. “You’re hiding from the pain, princess. You’re hiding from who you really are. Since Kyle left, you’ve changed back into the girl you were.”
Her body shudders and she whispers, “I miss him like you can never understand. Only I don’t want him around because it’s so damn hard. I hate myself for wanting him. I love you so much and I don’t understand how I could want you both.”
Her honesty fills my heart. “I know you love me, precious. Kyle is your primary protector and you two have to learn how to live with that. The attraction will have to be dealt with. You both are hiding from it right now and it’s not helping it go away.”
She looks up at me with those sapphire eyes, batting her dark, full lashes. Unshed tears make them glisten as she says, “I suppose you’re right. I’ll call him and tell him about your dream and the crazy man. I don’t know if Laura will want to come or not.”
“Bet she will, princess,” I say with a knowing smile.
That girl isn’t going to let Kyle come out here without her!
“We’ve been up here for hours,” Alyssa says as she pulls out of my arms. “I shudder to think what our parents are thinking about us right now.”
She strides toward the bedroom door and I catch up, slipping my arm around her tiny waist. My laugh is a bit on the evil side as I whisper in her ear, “Probably something terrible, like we’re up here making babies.”
She stops and bats at my chest with her small hand. “Don’t even joke about that, Eden. I forgot to pray before you devoured me while ago.”
“What? You usually pray before we, umm …” I say.
Her voice an octave higher than normal interrupts me, “Of course I do. It’s our only form of contraception. I hope Our Creator will accept an after prayer as opposed to my normal before prayer.”
I laugh and give her a little squeeze. “Princess, we have no control over that. You’ll just have to accept what happens. A baby wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
“We’ve been married just over a month, Eden. Let’s be us for a while before we have to be parents. I mean, damn, we’ve had a lot of transitions. First we get married, then we become giant birds. Adding being pregnant then having a baby to care for, well it’s just too much. I can’t handle anymore right now.”
I kiss her cheek as we trot down the stairs. “I love you, princess.”
“I love you too, my prince. If you care about my feelings, perhaps you could join me in asking Our Creator to give us more time before he bestows a gift upon us.”
I nod and smile, but hide my true feelings from her.
It’s not in our hands after all.
CHAPTER 45
ALYSSA
We go downstairs to find no one in the house, so we wander around until we see our parents out a door off the kitchen. “Look, Eden, they have a swimming pool.”
Eden opens the door. “I see that. Let’s join them.”
Lyle, saunters towards us, and says, “There they are. I was wondering if you were ever going to come join us.”
“We were tired from all the drama, Papa,” Eden says with a smile.
Lyle gives Eden the same devilish look Eden gets sometimes. “Tired? So that’s what they’re calling it now days?” he asks, then turns his attention to me. “Make it a baby girl, Alyssa. I want a sweet little girl to spoil.” My face turns beet red and my head drops like a rock. Lyle’s arm wraps around my shoulders, hugging me to him. “Oh, how I love to see her blush.”
I hit at him faintly. “You’re terrible, Papa,” I reprimand him, as my whole family laughs.
Eden comes to my rescue. “Papa, leave my wife alone,” he tells Lyle and then the rescue effort takes a bad turn. “There will be no babies yet, as my wife has come up with a new way to stay un-pregnant. She uses divine intervention—a prayer prior to marital relations is keeping her safe from becoming a mommy before she’s ready to.” They all laugh again.
Fantastic. I just found out my newly formed family is a bunch of real comedians!
“You guys should take your act on the road sometime or at least off a short pier into alligator infested waters,” I quip as I find I’m madder at my husband for divulging our intimate secrets than I am embarrassed.
Mom tries to help me by distracting the comedic line up that is my husband and Eden’s father. “Oh, come here my baby girl. Let me put some sun block on you before you burn out here,” she tells me as she pulls me away from the rat pack.
“Thanks, Mom. They’re brutal, huh?”
“It’s all in good fun, Alyssa,” she tells me as she lathers me up with sunscreen, then hands me the tube. “Go put some on Eden. I don’t want him to get burned either.”
I take the tube over to my wonderful, yet overly talkative husband as he sits in the bullpen with our fathers. I say, flatly, “I have to put sunscreen on you. Mom said.”
He looks at me and his naturally tan face has a slightly amused look to it. “I tan, Alyssa. I don’t need any.”
“Um … but Mom said, Eden. So … I have to. It’s for your own safety,” I tell him, with a fake sweetness.
“Oh, I see. Well, if it’s for my safety then by all means, please,” he responds, with the same fake sweetness to his velvet voice.
I take a nice-sized dollop of the white goop and place it on his nose. “There you go. All done,” I tell him as a smile crosses my face at how silly he looks.
He looks at me, then his eyes go dark. He leans over to whisper in my ear. “I see you want to play with me. You must feel like laughing since you’ve made me look funny for your amusement. I feel like hearing you giggle, Mrs. Fontaine. I think that will give us both what we want.”
My eyes widen as I remember the last time he wanted to hear me giggle. I almost peed myself as he tickled me.
I can see in his eyes that he’s about to pounce on me. I turn and start moving away from him to the safety of my mother.
I look back as I hear a chair scraping the cement. Sure enough, he’s getting up. If he’s already up, my mother isn’t going to stop him from getting me. I move faster to the side of the house, climbing the railing which runs around the porch. I see a large plant there, so I hide behind it. He walks past it.
Yes! I’m home free!
Then he turns around. “I see you, Alyssa. Don’t move.”
“No, Eden!” I shriek as I start to back out of my hiding place.
“Alyssa! Really, don’t move!” he yells at me.
“What is it?” I ask, remaining perfectly still as I see a worried look on his face.
Then I hear it—a loud humming sound. I raise my eyes to where it’s coming from to see a million red wasps on a massive nest, snuggled inside the plant I’m hiding behind.
One flies directly at my face. I move like lightning and hear the hum of them as they follow me.
I run as fast as I can, right past Eden as he reaches out for me. He runs right behind m
e as the mass of wasps chase him too. I get to the front door and fly into the house. Eden is right behind me, then turns to slam the door shut.
“Crap, those things are freaking fast!” he says, excitedly.
I start to laugh. He still has the sunscreen on his nose as he looks down at me, bringing his face close to mine. I wipe the white goo off his nose, then I close my eyes in anticipation of his lips touching mine.
His hands at my waist take my attention from his lips as he begins his tickle torture. I scream and try to wiggle out of his grasp, giggling like a maniac all the while.
“Stop, Eden, please!”
He lifts me up, tossing me onto the sofa, then goes crazy on me. “Eden, please!” I beg him.
He stops his tickling, but takes my hands up over my head, stretching my arms up and holding them down. “So, no more tickling, then, Alyssa?”
“Please, no more. I’ll be good. I won’t ever put stuff on your face again, ever,” I tell him, in hopes he’ll let me up.
He holds me still. “Do you promise?”
I nod my head. “I promise.”
His eyes turn from playful to serious. “Alyssa, what if someone other than me was holding you down? Do you think you could get away from them?”
“Eden, you’re really strong. Most people aren’t as strong as you are,” I tell him, then remember the fact that I’m pretty strong as well.
Who does he think I’ll be coming up against, the Hulk?
“I’ll lighten up my grip then,” he tells me as I feel a little less pressure on my wrists. “Now try to get away from me.”
I wiggle and move, but can’t pull away from him. I decide to go for the groin, but not hard or anything. He anticipates my move, though, then sits on me, holding my legs down too.
Now I really can’t move.
After a brief struggle, I give up. “I can’t get away from you, Eden,” I confess to him.
He lets my hands go and then stands up. “We have to get you some self-defense lessons. I’ll talk to Beck about it tomorrow.”
I sit up with a new realization that I’m completely incapable of defending myself. “Damn Eden, I can barely make it through his workouts. How can I add more to that?” I whine.
“You’re a lot tougher than you think you are. You’ll get through it,” he says as he lifts me up, placing me back on my feet. “As a matter of fact, you should ask Laura to take them with you. Might give her some incentive to join Kyle when he comes.”
“Did you forget where we are?” I ask him.
“This is a big house, Alyssa. I’m sure there’s at least one more bedroom available.”
“Um … I don’t even know if that would be appropriate. I mean, I have no idea if they’re, well, you know, still together like that.”
“Oh, I bet they are,” he says, with a smile.
Moving past him to go back outside, I look over my shoulder, and say, “He told me he didn’t know if he would stay with her or not. Our little situation has him confused and he’s not one to lead a girl on.”
I open the door to the patio to find dad pulling steaks off of the barbecue pit. “Ally, go tell Scotty to come eat dinner,” he calls out to me.
“Where is he?”
“His game room. Go back through the kitchen, then the living room. There’s a door under the staircase. That’s it,” he directs me.
I turn around to find Eden stopped right behind me. “Game room, huh?” he says as he raises his eyebrows. “I have to see it.”
We walk back through the house to find the door under the staircase, Eden opens it and says, “Wow, it’s like when the Wizard of Oz goes from black and white to full color.”
My eyes have to adjust to the complete darkness, only interrupted by the lights of scattered video games, television screens, and game consoles. The room is huge. I can hear Scotty before I see him. Then my eyes adjust and I finally see him. He has a headset on.
“Scotty,” I call out, but Eden stops me.
He puts his finger to his lips. “Shh, he’s online. Don’t embarrass him,” he whispers to me, then makes some hand signs at Scotty. Unbelievably, Scotty nods his head at Eden, then we leave.
“That cannot be healthy,” I state as Eden closes the door behind us. “Our kids won’t be doing any of that.”
He smiles. “Oh, our kids? So one day we will have kids? Like you’ll quit praying for no kids?”
“Someday, Eden. Not today though. Apparently I have to get buff and become a lethal weapon in order to stay alive,” I tease him.
CHAPTER 46
KYLE
After a whole month of not hearing a word or a thought from Ally, she called to tell me I need to get to her by the morning and she ruined my night.
I also have to do my best to get Laura to come with me, and that feat might prove to be a little hard.
When I left the mansion in New Orleans I was an emotional mess. Laura noticed how quiet I was on the jet ride home and tried to get me to open up to her.
Talking to her about my Phoenix problems is not a thing I’m allowed to do.
That burden is mine to bear. I’ve never felt more alone. I can’t talk to my Ally, the one person I’ve always been able to talk to about anything. It hurts us to be around one another. A deeper love for her, I’ve never had. Yet I can never have her the way I crave.
She’ll be in my life for a very long time. My vow to her gave me a long life—over a hundred years. Along with the gift of longevity, I also got a hell of a lot stronger, and now my plans to go play college football are over.
I’d probably seriously injure or maybe even kill, someone if I played.
My life is supposedly still mine to live where I want, how I want, and with who I want. As if that’s going to be so damn easy to do without being able to tell people who and what I really am.
How am I supposed to live a normal life now?
The Phoenix Foundation will pay everything for me since I’m Ally’s primary guardian and her top protector. I want more than to be a babysitter for my ex-girlfriend. But I’m stumped at just what it is I can do. I still have my scholarships to college and have no idea how I can get out of playing football if I use them.
My heart and mind have been numb for a month. A solid month with no real emotions flowing through me. My parents have accused me of using drugs. My father asked if I was smoking pot and my mother cried. She blames Ally for the change in my behavior.
Mom was never an Ally fan, for reasons I’ve never been clear on. My mom thinks Laura hung the moon and was so happy when we started seeing each other. They hang out a lot, going shopping and to the movies.
It’s probably my mother who’s kept my relationship with Laura going. I’ve been distant to say the least. I prefer to be left alone to read, play video games, or get on my computer to search for Phoenix legends.
I’ve become obsessed with the legends of the Phoenix and Thunderbirds. Now that I know the truth, they all seem like fairy tales.
Laura came to visit this afternoon, like she does on most days. I hung out with her for a whopping fifteen minutes before I palmed her off on Mom. I gave Laura the keys to my truck and asked her to go down to Alamogordo to buy me some new jeans and shirts. I gave her the credit card the butler, Niles, gave me before I left New Orleans and told her to take Mom and make a girl’s day out of it.
My endless supply of money is being questioned only minutely. My parents think it’s money I’ve saved from my jobs the last couple of years. I’ve been given a lot of pats on the back for how well I’ve handled my earnings, a fact which makes me detest myself.
I was on the internet looking up all things Phoenix related when Ally called. My heart stopped when I saw her name flash across my cellphone screen.
I answered it without using words. ‘Hello, Al.’ I sent her with my mind.
“Miss me?” she asked me out loud.
“So, what’s up, princess?” I asked as I closed my laptop.
A flash in my hea
d showed me exactly what was up, as she sent me some weird scene with her lying in a dark street as Eden held her, and rain fell around them. A doctor stood near them, looking down.
Suddenly a short, balding chubby older man filled my mind. He carried some wildflowers as he walked into Ally’s suit at the mansion. Then there was a horrible scene of the guy doing terrible things to someone who seems to be his daughter.
Her words whispered through the phone filled my ear with an invisible heat. “I need you, Kyle.”
“Send the jet. I’ll be there by morning,” I said as fierce protection welled up in me.
“Eden says you need to bring Laura with you,” Ally told me.
“May I ask why?” I asked, thinking Eden would rather me have my own female to keep my mind on.
Her giggle hit my ears and my heart skipped a beat. “That’s not why, silly. Something in the dream told him she helps out with this situation. Somehow she keeps this from happening, along with you.”
“I’ll give it my best shot. I’ve been a bit on the cool side with her. I’m not sure about us at this point. My heart belongs to another, as you’re aware,” I said.
“There’s room in there for more. I’m proof of that. So you haven’t broken up with her?” she asked.
“It was you who said to take that slowly and think about it. She’s had so many guys do her wrong. I’d hate to be added to the list of guys who dumped her for no real reason. She’s a great girl, Al,” I said.
“Nobody knows that more than I do, Kyle. So how’s that going, then?”
“I palm her off on my mother a lot,” I said.
A long period of silence filled the phone. “Your mother likes her?” she asked.
“Likes her? I wouldn’t say that. She loves her,” I said, and immediately was sorry as the hurt Ally felt filled me.
“Wonder what I did to make her hate me.” Ally said.
“Al, come on, baby. You were meant for another after all,” I said.
“I know,” she said. “Anyway, try to get her to come. Don’t worry about packing anything. I’m getting the two of you some clothes brought over here, as well as all the other things you’ll need. The driver won’t be taking you to the mansion. We’re at my parents’ new place. I gave you separate bedrooms. That’s what you want, right?”
Nobody's Girl: A Billionaire Romance Novel Page 74