by R B Hilliard
“I spoke with Dooley today,” he said, kissing the top of my head. When I didn’t say anything, he continued. “He said you must have misunderstood and that he was sorry for making you uncomfortable.” My body stiffened when he said this. Uncomfortable? Try disgusted or repulsed. “Regardless,” he continued, “I made it very clear that you are mine, and Piper?” He waited for me to raise my eyes to his. “Make no mistakes, you are mine and I never again want to spend another night like the one I had last night. Do you follow?” I nodded my head and his eyes warmed. “I love you, Princess,” he whispered. “I hate fighting with you like this and never want to do it again, okay? We are both adults and, as adults, there’s nothing we can’t discuss.”
It may be all well and good for him, but last night he didn’t even pretend to believe me. That wasn’t something I could easily brush off. It would have bothered me a lot more had he not just told me that he loved me. Deciding to let it go for now, I leaned in and gave him a kiss. “I love you too, Cowboy.”
He pulled back and studied me. “Are we good?”
Yanking him back to me, I wrapped my arms around him and reveled in his warmth. “We’re good,” I told him. I knew the truth about Dooley and that’s what mattered. I would keep him at arms-length. I had only seen the guy a handful of times over the past three months so keeping out of his line of sight shouldn’t be that difficult, right?
Why couldn’t Ellie just meet me at the doctor’s office? It had been two weeks since I had seen Gage with Missy at the bonfire and here I was heading back into the viper’s den. Please don’t let Gage be here.
Max had a meeting in town that would cut too close to the time of the doctor’s appointment for him to drive back to the garage and pick up Ellie. Kurt and Dillon were meeting with suppliers at Dragonfly and Joss was having a pedicure. When Ellie called and asked if I was busy, stupid me said, “No.” Why didn’t I lie? Because I need to be here for Ellie. I just wish that didn’t mean that I had to pick her up at the same place Gage lives and works.
I pulled my car behind the garage and parked. As I waited, contemplating whether or not to honk for her, I heard it. Harley pipes. Closing my eyes, I bowed my head and memories rolled through me.
“Love you like mad, Princess.”
“Backatcha, Cowboy.”
Tapping on my window jerked me back. I could sense him on the other side and turned my head to peek out my window. His blue eyes met mine. I’d almost forgotten how mesmerizing his eyes were and that his beard had natural red highlights mixed in with the blond. He motioned for me to roll down my window and without giving it a second thought, I obeyed.
“You okay?” he asked. His voice was laced with concern. Just the sound of it made me want to forgive, to forget. But I couldn’t.
Instead, I plastered on a fake smile and said, “I’m good. I’m here to pick up Ellie for her doctor’s appointment.”
His eyes narrowed. “You sure?”
I couldn’t handle him being all lovey and nice right now. After everything that had happened with Lester and then seeing him with Missy at the bonfire, I needed for him to be an ass. A nice, lovey Gage would tip me right over my emotional cliff. Time to deflect.
I glanced out my passenger window and then out my back window, hoping he would bite.
“Looking for something?” he asked.
“Just wondering where Missy is?” And, like that, the concern disappeared and was replaced by a blank expression.
“I think she’s still in my bed. You want me to go up and get her?” His words made me physically flinch, which was something he did not miss. A look of remorse slid across his face before he stood from his squatting position. My eyes smarted.
Not wanting him to see how deep the hurt went, I shot back. “I’ll pass, but be sure and use lots of protection – as in wrap it twice – because the last I heard, Missy’s ex-boyfriend’s genital herpes had spread clear down to his nuts.” I touched his arm in mock concern and in my sweetest voice said, “Please be careful Gage. I would hate for that pretty package of yours to become riddled and ruined with weepy sores.”
His lips twitched and he opened his mouth, but before he had a chance to respond, my passenger door flew open and Ellie plopped down in the seat next to me.
“Good to see you two are finally talking,” she said with a big grin on her face.
My eyes shot to Gage and widened. He threw back his head laughed. “Always a pleasure seeing you, Princess,” he said. Then he turned and walked away.
I banged my head on the steering wheel a few times and sighed deeply. “Don’t ask,” I warned.
We drove for a few minutes when I felt Ellie’s hand squeeze my arm. “You two obviously love each other, Piper.”
I shook my head. “Yes, but I wasn’t paid to love him, Ellie. I just did.”
She gasped and I wanted to kick myself for oversharing. “Forget I said that.”
“What do you mean you weren’t paid?” she asked.
Trying to play it off, I said, “Nothing. I’m just frustrated and running my mouth.”
“Tell me, Piper,” she commanded in her I’m-not-messing-around-voice and I wanted to take off my shoe and beat myself with it.
“I’m in enough trouble as it is, Ells. You can’t run back to Max and tell on me this time.” The hurt look on her face made me feel shitty, but I really did not need her telling Max what I had just said.
“Nevermind,” she shrugged, “you don’t have to tell me. Sorry I pushed.” The hurt in her voice gutted me.
“Fuck!” I screamed and beat my hand on the steering wheel. Then I blew out a huge breath. “Ellie, you cannot tell Max and I mean it.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
“Gage’s boss had a thing for me.”
“Did Gage know this?”
“Um…yes?”
I glanced over at her and our eyes met. I could see the wheels turning in her head and knew that it was only a matter of time.
“Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “Is that who hurt you?”
I nodded my head.
“And Gage knows this?”
This is where it got complicated. Gage helped Ellie when she really needed it and they forged a bond. I didn’t want to be the one to break that. Not to mention that Gage and Max were now partners in a business. For these reasons I hedged. “Gage was away when it happened.”
“Who got paid?” she skeptically asked and, before I could make something up, she dramatically gasped, “Did his boss pay someone to rape you?”
I shook my head. “No, Ells. Rape never happened.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered.
I had never been so glad to see a doctor’s office in my life. Pulling into a parking space, I turned off the car and grabbed her hand. “There is a lot more to this Ellie. There are things I can’t and won’t discuss with you. I know I am putting you in a bad position, but”…
She placed her hand over my mouth. “I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it and I won’t tell. Please just know that you can always talk to me. I mean that, Piper. You can always talk to me.”
I pulled her hand from my mouth and thanked her.
We got out of the car and Max was waiting at the door. “Everything okay?” he asked.
Ellie gave him a quick kiss and told him that everything was great. He quirked his eyebrow at me and I smiled. Joss, Kurt, Ellie’s dad Sam, Benny, and Dillon were all waiting inside.
Ellie and Max went back to get everything set up before calling us all back. Max held one of Ellie’s hands and Sam held the other.
“I wish my aunt was here. She would have loved seeing me married and pregnant,” Ellie said.
“Or pregnant and married,” Sam mused and everybody laughed.
Ellie’s Aunt Elizabeth’s greatest fear was that Ellie would turn out like her mother. To see Ellie pregnant before she was married would have killed her if she wasn’t already dead.
“Are we ready?” the tech asked. We all nodded.
When baby McLellan’s profile appeared on the monitor a collective gasp was let out. The tech measured the spine, fingers, toes, femur and head. Then she turned to us. “It all looks great. Do you want to know what you’re having?”
“Yes!” everyone screamed and she laughed.
Using what looked light a highlighter, she drew a circle around a tiny spot.
“Is that what I think it is?” Max asked in a voice filled with wonder.
“It sure is, dad,” the tech replied. “Congrats, you are having a boy!”
Chapter Nine
I tried not to resent the fact that Gage believed Dooley over me. With time and several more propositions from Dooley, my resentment grew until I was practically choking on it. In order to make things better I decided to officially move in with Gage and for a while it seemed to work. However, every time he was called away on some bogus errand and Dooley showed up wherever I was, I found it increasingly more difficult to find my way back. How could Gage not see what was happening right under his nose?
Selina further complicated matters. The woman was a hateful, deceptive bitch. When Gage was around she practically tripped over herself to get to him. What bothered me the most was that he either didn’t see it or pretended not to see it. Whichever it was, it sucked for me.
Every time I questioned him about it, he would give me a stern look and say, “I love you, Princess,” or “Green is not a good color on you, Baby,” and I wanted to kick him.
I knew I was pulling away, but I couldn’t seem to stop it from happening. He was busy with his head up Dooley’s ass while I was breaking apart at the seams. The more he traveled on trips for Dooley, the more I worried about the physical and emotional distance between us. The worst part was that I couldn’t talk to him about it.
We had been together for a little over three months when the proverbial shit hit the fan. It was a Thursday night, and for the first time in what felt like forever Gage was home and wanted to take me to dinner. After dinner we were both relaxed and decided to enjoy a glass of wine by the fire. Maybe the distance I had been feeling lately was Gage simply reacting to my moods? The sex was still out of this world, but there was a definite disconnect on my part. Tonight I was going to remedy that. I was going to put all of my resentment aside and work on finding my way back to where we were before Dooley Shane interfered.
Placing my wine glass on the coffee table, I scooted closer to Gage and rested my hand on his chest. “Thanks for dinner, Cowboy.”
“My pleasure, Princess,” he said and lightly placed a kiss on my lips. Ribbons of desire rippled through me and I couldn’t stop a quiet moan from slipping out. No matter how frustrated he made me, I always wanted him. Brushing his fingers across my face, he lowered his mouth back to mine and I melted. His fingers curled around my jaw as he tilted my head to the side and deepened the kiss. I stroked my tongue against his and was reaching for the top button of his shirt when his phone rang. I made a noise of protest and shook my head, but kept my lips sealed to his. On the third ring, he pulled back and checked to see who was calling. I could tell by the look on his face that he didn’t want to answer it but that didn’t stop him.
“Hey man, what’s up?” It had to be either Dooley or Lester on the other end, as they were the only two people who were rude enough to call this late on a Thursday night. I felt his body tense before he growled…yes, growled into the phone. “Get Buck or Zeke to do it.” After what seemed like an hour, he sighed. “I hear you. I’ll see you in a few.” He hung up and his blue gaze landed on me.
“Please tell me you are not leaving,” I quietly said.
“I have to.”
“No you don’t. Just tell him no.”
“I can’t.”
I sat up, cradled his face between my hands and stared into his insanely beautiful eyes. “Yes you can,” I urged. “You have more than paid Dooley back, babe. Tonight is about us reconnecting and I need you. Please don’t go.” Resentment reared its ugly head and I couldn’t help but feel like he was, once again, choosing Dooley over me.
His gaze hardened. “You think I want to go? Jesus, Piper, I would do anything for you”…
“Except stay,” I finished for him.
He curled his hand around the nape of my neck and pressed his forehead to mine. “You are asking me to ignore my boss and risk losing my job. It is the only job I have. Is that really what you want?”
Tears of shame stung the backs of my eyes. “Of course not,” I whispered.
He let out a deep sigh and in a pained voice said, “I don’t know what is happening to us.” I do but you don’t want to hear it. His hand on my nape moved down to my face where it held me captive. Staring deep into my eyes, he said, “I love you.” Then he kissed me. It was a kiss full of such desperation and sadness that I felt it to the bottom of my soul. It felt like a kiss goodbye.
I watched as he packed his things and tried not to cry. This was supposed to be our night to reconnect and here I was saying goodbye. He picked up his bag, gave me a quick peck, said, “See you in a few days,” and walked out the door.
Around midnight my phone rang. I jerked the phone off the nightstand. “Gage, is that you?”
“Piper, this is Lester. Dooley needs you at his house.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood up. “Why? Has something happened to Gage?” The long pause of silence made my heart drop. “Lester, is he okay?”
“You need to get here,” was all he said.
“I’ll be there soon.” I hung up, jumped from the bed and threw on a pair of jeans, long sleeved tee and my running shoes. Then I pulled my hair up into a pony tail and plucked my phone from the bedside table. On the way out the door I snagged my purse from the side table.
Please let Gage be okay.
When I arrived at Dooley’s the gates were wide open and the guards were nowhere to be found. I parked in front of the main house and sprinted for the front door. Dooley can kiss it if he doesn’t like it. I raised my hand to ring the doorbell, the door swung open and there stood the devil himself.
“Where is he?” I asked while pushing past him into the house.
“Who?” he asked, closing the door behind us.
“What do you mean who? Gage!” I yelled.
“Well, I assume that Gage is halfway to Arkansas by now.”
This stopped me in my tracks. “What do you mean he’s halfway to Arkansas? Lester said…”
“Ah, that Lester,” he chuckled. “I can see he took me very literally when I told him I wanted to see you.”
“So…Gage isn’t here?” I asked, taking stock of my surroundings. The house was freaking huge, not to mention gaudy.
“I’m surprised he didn’t tell you that he was leaving. After all, he is your lover. If my lover was leaving for a week, I would hope that she would inform me before doing so.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Cut the crap Dooley. Gage told me he was leaving and that would be back in a few days. Whatever game it is you are playing, you’re just going to have to play it without me.”
His eyes widened in surprise and his nostrils flared. “Such insolence. If you were my woman”…
I cut him off before he could finish. “Well I’m not and I never will be, so get over it.” I started for the door and, like a flash, he was on me. Before I could register what was happening he had me pinned against the wall. “What the hell!” I shrieked.
“Show-me-respect,” he said through clinched teeth.
Panic and rage raced through me; however, rage was the predominant emotion. I matched his glare and likewise, through clinched teeth, said, “Go-fuck-yourself.”
He struck so fast that I didn’t see it coming and it hurt. My brothers and I hit on each other growing up but never like this…never a direct fist to the face. My eyes smarted but I refused to cry in front of him.
“Look what you made me do!” he shouted.
I defiantly stared into his beady, evil eyes and reached inside my
purse for my phone. “Gage will kill you for this,” I gritted out. Securing my purse back on my arm, I started to dial Gage’s number.
With a flick of his wrist, Dooley snatched my phone out of my hands and laughed – laughed, right in my face. “Being that Gage helped me plan this little rendezvous, I kind of doubt that. Now, be a good girl and behave.” His words infuriated me.
“Give me my phone back, Dooley.”
Instead of handing over my phone he stalked across the entry hall and through some decorative French doors. In order to get my phone back, I followed. The garish entry hall was gorgeous compared to his office. It looked like someone had thrown up black and yellow everywhere. A ginormous black lacquered desk took up most of the room. Yellow and black built-in cabinets stretched along the wall behind it. The top two shelves held a multitude of books while the bottom appeared to be drawers and cabinets. Two black club chairs with yellow and black diamond seat cushions sat in front of his desk. The walls were adorned with modern looking prints featuring yellow and black fractal patterns. Overdone obviously is not in this man’s vocabulary. I watched as he pulled a set of keys from his back pocket and squatted down in front of the built-ins. He opened a cabinet door, inserted the key into what looked like a large, deep file cabinet and dropped my phone down inside. Like a beady eyed python, his head turned, his eyes shot to me and he snapped his fingers.
“Purse.”
Oh hell no. I turned to bolt from the room and smacked head first into Lester, who quickly divested me of my purse. As I watched it, too, disappear into the file cabinet, the seriousness of the situation registered and my mind started to race.
“You have lost your ever loving mind if you think that I would…in a million… gazillion years believe that Gage would condone this. I don’t care how much money you have, old man. It would never be enough. For the sake of your relationship with Gage, reach your slimy hands back into that cabinet and hand me my things. You let me go now and we will pretend this night ever happened.”