Remember Cinderella (True Loves Fairytale Book 2)

by Tracey Champion

  “Cara, please.” I turned to look out the window before I lost it.

  “Damn it Jordan, shut up. You kissed her. You fucking kissed her! Be thankful I’m coming home. I hate you right now.” That was the last thing I said to him.

  JORDAN

  My night was ruined. I had spent the last few months planning this and Niki ruined it. Her little distraction got my attention and she won. She ruined the best night for me and Cara, my pretty girl. I don’t know if I will be able to repair this.

  Fuck! I can’t do anything about it. I don’t have all the right pieces yet. I want to just hold her and explain myself, but that would only make this worse. How do I fix this wrong? It’s going to rip me to pieces.

  I’m sad, but I will have to put the item in my pocket back in the safe in my office. Hopefully, I can still give it to her just on another day.

  Cara said the most hurtful three words to me. “I hate you.” Those words play over and over in my head.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CARA

  January 2, 2016

  I have spent the last few days alone. I wasn’t that surprised when Jordan let me actually sleep in one of the guest rooms. He didn’t even get upset when I took the puppies to bed with me. I made a choice to turn off my cell phone too. I don’t want to talk to anyone until I figure out what to do.

  I just dropped a lot of money to pay off this house for him. I don’t even really know if Winnie and Rory are really my dogs, but I love them.

  I love him.

  How could he do that to me? I mean he kissed her in front of everyone. I hate it. Yesterday he told me in passing that he needed to go into the office. I didn’t respond to him and he just left.

  What was I going to say? Thank you. He kissed her. The evil woman who’s butting into our lives. I’m not sure what to do about it. I mean he had her red lipstick on his lips. Is that what he wants? The kind of woman she is. I mean I remember how Hanna was early on. She dressed in slutty attire and wore tons of makeup.

  Maybe that’s what I have to do.

  January 3, 2016

  Jordan spent all day yesterday at the office. I turned my phone on late last night before I went to bed. I had many missed calls from Jessica and Hanna. I even had a few from Amber and my text messages was loaded.

  I tried to read them all, but I gave up. I just told them I didn’t want to talk and I needed time. I even had a few from the anonymous number. It's weird things. Like one asked me if I knew where Jordan was and who he was with. Another asked me why I was still with a man who no longer loved me.

  I hate these messages. I want them to stop, but then I told Jordan when they started. Why isn’t he seeing them? Maybe, I’m the only one who sees the messages because they aren’t really there.

  I’ve been lucky to have the puppies with me the last few nights. They woke me up from a nightmare last night. The person in my dream with Travis talks now. I don’t hear all of what’s said because it’s almost like I’m under water when they talk. Whoever it is, they’re in control.

  JORDAN

  “Hey, Jordan are you okay?” I looked up from my desk to see Seth. I was almost done reading the journal belonging to Travis. All of it is crazy talk. I need to look into something that he mentioned, but from the looks of it, this book isn’t done yet. I wonder if Matt knows about another journal.

  “I’ll be okay.” Seth walks into my office and sits on my couch.

  “Dude you look exhausted. You not sleeping?” That’s an understatement.

  “I try to sleep, but I can’t. I’m up at every little noise on top of being extremely worried about Cara.” Which meant I wasn’t sleeping at all. I miss having her in my bed.

  “How’s she doing?” I shook my head.

  “I don’t know she won’t talk to me.”

  “Jordan she isn’t talking to anyone. Maria has tried to call her and it goes to her voicemail. I mean you kissed Niki at midnight on New Year’s Eve that’s a big deal.” Okay, now he sounds like a woman.

  “Maria send you in to talk to me?” Seth let out a sigh.

  “She threatened to cut me off from sex if I didn’t do this for her.” I ran my hand over my short hair. He was right I need to do something. “Do you have feelings for Niki?”

  I glared at Seth now. What the fuck? A creepy chill crawled up my back.

  “Fuck no.”

  “Good answer.” Seth then got to his feet and left the office. I couldn’t just go home and I needed to finish these last few pages of the journal. All I read was more of the same stuff until I hit one line.

  I know the truth. I did something Jordan wasn’t man enough to do. I know she won’t admit to it, but her baby…is my baby.

  I grabbed my phone and called Matt.

  “Matt is there another journal?”

  “Dude, what no hello, Jordan.” I let out a breath.

  “Hello, now my question.” Matt was laughing.

  “No, we only had that one.” Damn it.

  “I gave you all I had on Travis, but I need to find out if you have a DNA sample I can run against another.” I wanted to know this answer.

  “Why.” That was my business.

  “I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I need to test it against another’s.”

  “I’ll try to get you something there as soon as I can.”

  “Thank you.” I hung up my phone and decided to head home. I grabbed food hoping it would ease things between me and Cara.

  When I got home she was laying on the couch asleep. I was quiet when I put the food in the kitchen and proceeded to wake her. I sat next to her and rubbed on her arm.

  “Hey Cara,” I spoke softly as she began to wake. “I brought home dinner.”

  “I’m not really hungry.” Damn it.

  “You haven’t been eating the last couple days pretty girl.” She turned on the couch with this very deep, angered face.

  “What do you want from me? You want me to eat. Fine, I’ll eat. You want me to be happy, then you can go to hell. You kissed her Jordan and you know how I feel about her.”

  “Cara, she kissed me.” I watch her move on the couch and draw her knees up to her chest.

  “And what you couldn’t stop her? You didn’t do anything about it. Let me guess it’s all true I’m just crazy and it was nothing.” She turned her head away from me. I had to say the right thing.

  “Pretty girl, I didn’t want her to kiss me. I want you in my life. I have no feelings for her. Please eat dinner with me. I miss you.”

  “I’ll eat with you, but I don’t want to talk anymore.” That was something and I took it. I went and put her burrito on a plate and took it out to the couch.

  We sat and I was surprised when she ate almost the entire thing. She even stayed out here with me and watched an entire movie. She seemed a little uncomfortable when her phone chimed, but I didn’t ask who was messaging her.

  “Cara?”

  “What?” I really wasn’t expecting her to talk to me.

  “Are you coming to bed with me tonight? I don’t like that you’re sleeping upstairs.” She turned and locked eyes with me. Those blue/gray eyes were full of emotion.

  “I don’t think it’s my place anymore. I’m going to let the puppies outside and then I’m going to bed. It's late.” I cleaned up everything from dinner and then watched Cara with the dogs.

  I think I made a good choice in getting them for her. I wanted her to have something to keep her busy. Luckily the people I have come out to take care of the yard clean that up for me. I just don’t have the time it takes to keep the backyard nice and the rocks in the front clean.

  After a while, I went into the bedroom. I showered, shaved and tried to get some form of sleep.

  CARA

  My mind was full of all kinds of things. I wanted to ask so many questions, but the more I thought about them the crazier they sounded. I wasn’t helping myself at all by focusing on what happened. All that did was cause a sharp pain in my chest.


  I brought the puppies inside and went to bed. I hated sleeping in this room. Nothing felt right. I needed to figure out what I wanted.

  I changed and crawled into bed, hoping the nightmares would leave me alone tonight. However, they never listened to me.

  “Cara, it’s time for you to play with me.” Travis was sitting next to me on the bed. I tried to tug my arms free, but I was bound to something.

  “I told you I don’t want to play.” I tried to look around the room but was only able to see him and a shadowy figure.

  “You have to play Cara. My plans won’t work if you don’t do as your told.” Who was talking to me? Their voice sounded funny. Then the person giggled. Was it a woman?

  “I have done as I’m told, Cara. I can’t hurt Jordan. That’s against the rules, but you I can do with as I please. I’m not sure if I want to get a sample of what makes you so sweet or to see what color you bleed.” Travis smiled, his eyes void of any emotion.

  It was then I saw a knife in his hands. He brought it close to me and then raised his arm.

  I sat up in shock. I was now struggling to catch my breath. Deep breath in. Let it out. I chanted over and over in my head trying to calm myself with some luck.

  I had put the puppies in the laundry room before coming to bed. My entire body was shaking and I wanted some form of comfort. I was still struggling to breathe. I climbed out of the bed and carefully made my way to the master bedroom.

  It was after one in the morning and there was a light on in the bedroom.

  “Nope, that won’t work. That’s too boring.” Jordan was talking to someone and then I heard him laugh a little. My heart dropped to my stomach and I let out a little cry. I choked on it but then I turned to go back to my new room. I only took a step when an arm grabbed me scaring me half to death.

  “Pretty girl, what wrong?” He looked just as freaked out as I was.

  “I… I had a bad dream again. Well, I’ve had them every night and well.” I didn’t know what to say to him. I took a sharp painful breath in. Jordan tugged me to him and hugged me. I fell apart in him arms.

  “Cara, I hate seeing you like this, but I love you so fucking much.”

  “Do you hate me?” I don’t know why I asked that.

  “There’s no way I could hate you.” Jordan pulled away from me and took me into the bedroom. He sat on the bed and motioned for me to come over to him.

  “Why is this not easy for us? I want easy, the fairytale. You know all Cinderella did was lose her shoe and the prince found her and it was happily ever after.”

  “Cara, I think they both had to work for it. You have to understand we live in a real world. If you want something bad enough, you have to fight for it.” I was now standing in front of Jordan.

  “Can I sleep with you tonight?” I said quietly.

  “Maybe, it’s going to cost you.” He tilted his head to catch my full attention and I wanted to cry. “Think I can get a kiss.”

  I moved closer to him and he then pulled me onto his lap. I cupped his face with both my hands and pressed my lips on him. He was the one to deepen the kiss, but the mingling of our tongues caused a fire to burn in my belly. I wanted him.

  Jordan had placed his hands on my hips. I dropped one of mine from his face and reached between us. I ran my hand along his length through his boxers. He let out a hiss from between his lips.

  “Cara?” My heart was racing and I was scared to death that he would deny me.

  “I want you Jordan. Please don’t tell me no.” I removed my hand and took off my nightgown since it was the only thing I had on.

  Jordan stood with me in his arms and laid me on my back. I teased him by scooting away from him. I wiggled my finger silently begging him to come to me.

  “I want to feel how much you love me.” He smiled and stripped off his boxers and just stood there. I reached between my legs to feel my own wetness.

  “Cara Mia, you can’t be doing things like that,” Jordan growled at me.

  “Yes, I can because I want you.” He climbed up on the bed and was hovering over me before I could blink. I opened my legs for him and he slid right inside me.

  Jordan brought his head down to my neck and left a trail of kisses as he rocked into me. I tried to meet him each time he slid into me. The position he had us in caused him to rock deep inside me. I worshiped the feeling of his piercing rubbing inside me.

  “Jordan,” I moaned his name. This wasn’t about us having earth shattering sex it was slow and sweet. Jordan kissed me forcing our tongues to dance. My body warmed quickly.

  “Hold it, my pretty girl. I don’t want you to cum yet.” I felt the tingling of my orgasm begin. I tried to fight it off, but the way he was loving on me was about to cause a combustion.

  Jordan sat back and again pulled me to his lap. This was becoming our favorite position. I scooted close to his body while he was seated deep inside me. I rocked my hips with his help.

  I was lost in the feel of him when he slipped his hand up into my hair. He grabbed hold of it and tugged me back. My neck was exposed and he trailed kisses up and down my skin. Every so often he would nibble on me.

  “Oh Jordan, I can’t hold off much longer.” He kissed up to my ear.

  “Then don’t.” I cried out my release as he rolled me onto my back. It wasn’t long before he found his own release. I had high hopes that our troubles would be over with. How wrong could I be?

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  It had been a few days since things mellowed out between me and Jordan. I wanted more than anything for it to be back to normal. However, I was wrong.

  Jordan was spending late nights at work. He told me that it was the case with Amber and Ryan. I had to trust him on that, but the weird messages didn’t stop. I had a picture come in again of Jordan and Niki. I couldn’t tell where they were because how close the photo was.

  It caused my heart to sink. I wanted to ask him about the photo, but I didn’t want to be lied to anymore. I was trying to keep myself busy at the gym and with the puppies.

  I didn’t know what to do with everything that had happened. I was also lying to my friends. I wasn’t telling them that I was losing my mind with worry. I was able to hide my fingers when I did worry. Jordan was coming home so late that he only saw me in bed. By morning, my fingers looked fine, but rubbing them was becoming a great habit of mine.

  I spent the last few nights looking over the book Jordan got for Christmas. Inside the book I read over the notes she made, the movie tickets, concert tickets, I read everything. I stared at the ones of them together. He looked happy.

  I looked at all the photos I have of us and there was a big difference. I just wasn’t sure what that was. Today I’m going out with Hanna. I asked her to take me shopping and that I wanted her to help me pick out a few things.

  She showed up an hour later. I rushed to put the book away and answered the door.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey, you ready to go?” I grabbed my purse.

  “Now I am.” We left to go over to the mall. Once we got inside the mall that’s when she hounded me with questions.

  “What are we looking for?”

  “I need a piece of black lingerie and makeup.” She made a strange face at me.

  “Why?” Did I want to tell her the truth? It had been a week since Jordan and I were intimate. He also seemed puzzled and distant. I didn’t know what was going on in his head.

  JORDAN

  I can’t stand this. Everything I look at with this case is a mess. I have tried to give answers to Courtney and I have nothing.

  I mean hell every time I turn around we end up with another case on top of this one. I’ve had to put this case on hold until later. I mean how the hell are we to catch someone who runs the show, but has nothing to prove that he’s the boss.

  Amber was with Ryan looking into a missing little girl. One of Tyrone’s men may have kidnapped his own eight-year-old daughter. I mean I hate that I had to read the
man’s file. Tia is her name and to have a father like him sickens me.

  I told Ryan to do what is necessary if need be. Hell, I told him if the man flinches put a bullet in his head. The top priority is the child.

  I let out a breath. Talking about children, Matt was kind enough to file a claim on the DNA I needed. I had to know if Isabella belonged to Travis. I even made sure to double check the lab I worked with. I’m not her father nothing was altered on that test.

  I honestly don’t know what I would have done if the test had come back differently. I know now with what Cara’s going through that I probably would have lost her. I’ve talked with Jessica many times on this. It’s a big reason I get up early in the morning. I’m taking a class on PTSD at Grand Canyon University.

  I want to be able to help her. I enrolled last November for this semester classes. I have two this week. I do most of my homework at the office. One class is at the campus the other is online. These should be worth it, but they tend to keep me busy here at the office with everything else I have to handle.

  I had a big meeting with everyone a few nights ago. I had been to the doctor and was given the all clear. My scar looks pretty wicked but other than that I am good to go. Right now I don’t want to put myself into a bad situation. I don’t think Cara could handle herself if something happened to me.

  I basically told everyone that I would not be going out into the field. I could do light work in the field, but the major tasks would go to someone else. I even brought on the twins if needed. They accepted the offer without even thinking about it. I wasn’t expecting anything less from them.

  I wanted to make sure I was putting what was most important to the top of my list, Cara. I’ve been spending my time doing that. Now that I think I have everything settled and everyone knows their job, I have to tell Cara. I just hope she will be cool with my new plan.

  It's only temporary until she mellows out again. I don’t care how long this has to go on. I just want her calm and stronger with herself. Whatever she’s fighting I want to give her my time to fix it. I have something to take care of before I can go home.