“Fuck, Payton. We needed that after tonight. Now I want to take you home and make love to you, properly,” Jack whispers into my ear.
I awkwardly exit the passenger side and adjust my pants, sans underwear. Guess I’m going commando for a little bit. I fix my bra as Jack gets out and situates himself. Once finished, he envelops me in his arms and rocks us back and forth. No words are said, but I understand. We return to the vehicle and head home.
Just as we’re about to pull into the driveway, I ask Jack about his pacing before we had our car adventure.
“I was torn between taking you to the hospital, taking you home to rest, and fucking you so I could prove to myself you were alive and relatively unharmed,” Jack explains.
We lock up the car and make our way into the house. Once we clean up, and Jack examines me head-to-toe, we make our way to bed. I’m wiped. Just as my eyelids are closing Jack leans over and starts kissing my neck.
“I promised the medic I’d make sure you stayed awake. No sleep for you tonight, bella,” Jack says with a promise.
I’m sure I’ll be okay with his method of keeping me up.
* * *
The next day, around two in the afternoon, Jack informs me that he has to bring me to the station to make my statement about last night. I still feel a little sore from being smacked around and don’t really feel up to doing this, but he assures me that it’s best to do it while it’s fresh in my mind.
As soon as we enter the building, a uniformed police officer approaches me and asks me to follow him. Jack and I follow close behind, hand in hand. We’re seated at a hardwood desk and then the policeman leaves us alone. Within seconds of sitting at the desk, the agent that questioned me before about my so-called relationship with Dag walks in and sits in the chair across from me. Shit! I really hope he’s not going to be a dickhead like he was the last time.
“Ms. Clare, Detective De Luca,” he greets, nodding his head at us.
Jack just returns his greeting with a nod, but says nothing. “Let’s get this over with,” I say, wanting to get on with it so we can head back to the condo to relax. He records my statement as I proceed to tell him every single detail about last night. As soon as I finish giving my account of the kidnapping, Agent Vaughn looks over at Jack. Both are wearing grim expressions on their faces.
“Did I hear you correctly when you said there were five individuals at the warehouse last night?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I answer, looking at him then back at Jack.
“We only apprehended four men. Are you absolutely sure there were five?” he inquires again.
“Yes, I only saw the faces of four of them. I’ve seen them at work with Jack before, so I recognized them, but the fifth guy I didn’t get a good look at. It was dark where he was standing, and his face was in the shadows, but there was definitely a fifth guy,” I confirm.
“You’re sure about this?” Jack questions.
“Positive. They kept calling him ‘Boss’.”
“Fuck!” he shouts, slamming his fist down on the desk. “How in the fuck do we keep missing this shit?” he barks out before stomping out of the room.
After concluding our interview, Agent Vaughn tells me to stay put while he goes to find Jack. I sit there impatiently waiting, wishing that he’d hurry the fuck up so I can go home. I woke up yesterday morning at around eight o’clock, and now it’s just after four o’clock in the afternoon. As I continue to wait, my eyelids are getting heavy from lack of sleep. I tell myself that I’m just going to close them for a second to give them a rest.
The next thing I know, I’m being lifted up into a pair of strong arms and carried out to the car. During the drive home, my eyes close and I’m out again. I wake briefly as we arrive at the condo, and Jack picks me up in his powerful arms to carry me up to our apartment. I vaguely recall him undressing me, laying me on the bed, and joining me shortly after. The heat from his body, and the safety of his arms wrapped around me quickly lulls me into deep, peaceful sleep.
Chapter 22
Mom and Daddy-O
I jolt awake as “Mama” by The Spice Girls starts playing from my phone on the side table. My head’s slightly tender, but nothing too serious. Jack’s arm pulls me tighter to him just as I reach my cell. I really, really want to ignore the phone, snuggle back into his hot body, and go back to sleep, but knowing it’s my mother I’d feel guilty doing that. My finger taps the screen on my phone, answering the incoming call.
“Mornin’,” I greet her, in my throaty not-quite-awake voice.
“Morning, sweetie. You still in bed?” she asks, almost sounding shocked.
“Yeah, what time is it anyway?” I wonder. Lifting my head from Jack’s arm, I look over to his side of the bed to check out the time on the alarm clock. “Oh shit! It’s almost two o’clock in the afternoon! I thought it was early,” I shriek.
“Must’ve had a late night out having a wild and crazy time,” my mother says through a chuckle.
“You have no idea,” I respond.
“Who is it, bella?” Jack mumbles in my ear, before kissing my bare shoulder. God, he sounds sexy when he’s just waking up.
“My mom,” I mouth to him. Suddenly he’s wide awake as he brushes his lips against mine, while at the same time taking the phone away from me. “Hey!” I softly squeal at him. Oh, shit! I just remembered. I forgot to tell my family about moving in with Jack. And more importantly, I also don’t want them knowing I was abducted the night before last. They’re already worried enough about me; I don’t want to give them something else to fret about. “Jack, give me the phone,” I order him, but he ignores me.
Shifting his body up and away from me, he sits with his back to me on the edge of the bed. “Karen, how’s it going, honey?” he asks into my phone. Umm. What? He seems awfully chummy with my mother. When the hell did that happen? Suddenly, he stands up and pads over to the bathroom. Naked. Just before he closes the door I hear him say, “Good, not going to lie, could be better.” I’m guessing she just asked him how he was, too.
I lie back down, roll over, and bury my face into Jack’s pillow. What the hell are they talking about in there? Anxiety builds when I think about all of the things they could be discussing. My head comes up from the pillow as the bathroom door reopens a few minutes later. Once again, I can’t help but size up my man as he saunters back to the bed.
With a gorgeous smile on his face, he hands me the phone and says, “Wants to talk to you.” This feeling of dread washes over me.
“Did you tell her about the other night?” I whisper, the phone pressed to my chest. His smile falters, as he shakes his head no. Thank Christ! I’ve got one more question for him before I talk to my mother. “Did you tell her about us living together?” He nods, his smile returning. Oh my God! She’s going to kill me. Jack places a small kiss on my forehead, pulls on the pair of jeans he threw on the floor last night, and heads downstairs, giving me some privacy. I nervously put the phone to my ear and say, “Hey.”
“Were you ever going to tell me that you were living with Jack?” she asks, but she doesn’t sound pissed. She sounds like she’s trying to keep from laughing. Not what I was expecting. “Or were you just going to wait until you married him and pushed out a couple of grandbabies for me.” Sweet Mother of God, she did not just say that to me.
“Mom, I didn’t intentionally hide it from you. With everything that’s gone on since my birthday party, it kind of just slipped my mind. You’re not angry with me, are you?” I ask, but I can tell by her voice that she’s not.
“Hell no. Good for you, baby girl. He’s a fine piece of ass.”
“Really, Mom! You did not just say that!” I shout at her.
“What? I’m married, not dead. He’s hot. You’re a lucky girl, sweetie. And you’re going to have beautiful babies with him,” she says the last part softly.
“Mom!” I groan, twisting my body and putting my face into the pillow again. This is not happening. “What else did Ja
ck say to you?” I grumble.
“Not much. Other than informing me of your new living arrangements, he wanted to know when we were coming out. I gave him the dates, and he told me not to worry about anything, that he’d purchase our plane tickets for us and take care of our hotel accommodations. I said that wasn’t necessary, but sweetie your man’s really insistent,” she informs me. Yeah, like I didn’t already know that.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I mumble. She chuckles into my ear.
“I told him to go ahead with the airplane tickets, but I’m going to call Ella to see if we can stay there. Not only do I need some quality time with you, but I need some with her and the babies as well. Ryder’s a whole other story,” she purrs the last bit.
“Ugh, Mom. Really?” I say with disgust. Yeah, Ryder’s hot and all, but this is my mom here. I mean, come on.
“Okay, okay. I’ll stop,” she says through laughter.
I turn serious all of a sudden when I say, “Mom?”
“Yeah, sweetie?”
“I can’t wait to see you guys. I miss you all like crazy bad,” I confess.
“I know, baby girl. And we miss you, too. So much. Listen, I don’t want to keep you on the phone too long with that stud close by.”
“Mom!” I snap at her.
“Sorry. Love you, Payton. Take care, baby, and I’ll be talking to you soon,” she says.
“Love you too, Mom. Bye,” I touch the screen to disconnect the call. I stand up on the bed, jump up and down, and squeal in excitement. Shit, shouldn’t have done that. I forgot my head still hurts a bit. Jack quickly makes his way up over the stairs and walks to the edge of the bed. He stands there, looking at me with a happy look on his face.
“My family’s coming in two weeks!” I screech.
“What else did she say?” Jack asks.
“Um … ah … she’s happy for us that we’re living together,” I tell him. Which is more or less the truth—just leaving out the whole thing about her thinking he has a fine ass.
“And?”
“She loves and misses me,” I tell him.
“Anything else?” he inquires further.
“That we’d have beautiful babies,” I whisper and can’t help but smile.
“She’s not wrong,” he tells me, placing one knee on the bed as he leans over to grab me by the waist. We fall back into bed and spend the rest of the day there. And I’m not talking in the biblical sense either. All we do is nap, cuddle, and talk, and I love every fucking second of it!
* * *
A couple weeks later, we’re finally at the airport picking up my family. They’re only here for a week, so I’m going to make the most of the next seven days. I didn’t realize how much I actually missed them until I see my mom and stepfather walk off their flight. I run over and smash my body to my mother’s, hugging her as tightly as I can. She returns my hug with the same fierce intensity.
“Oh my, baby,” she says, pulling back and looking at me.
“I missed you, Mom,” I confess, feeling the tears lightly falling down my cheeks.
They still don’t know about the kidnapping, and I made Jack promise not to tell them. They’re going through enough right now worrying about me and how I’m coping with the rape; I don’t want to add more to the pile. He isn’t happy about keeping them in the dark and thinks that they should be informed, but I just want to enjoy the time I’m going to have with them. He still won’t let me go anywhere by myself considering one of my kidnappers is still on the loose.
Over the last two weeks, Jack has made sure that I’ve had protective detail assigned to me at all times until they find the fifth guy. I haven’t been alone—other than bathroom breaks—for the past fourteen days. Since my family is in the dark about the recent goings-on, he ordered them to stay unnoticed while my family’s visiting by parking farther down the road in an unmarked car.
I finally release Mom and turn to embrace my stepfather.
“God, we missed you,” he tells me, kissing my cheek. I really love him. When my father was sick I never dreamt my mother would remarry because she loved my dad so much, but a little over a year later she started getting better and laughing a bit more. Finally, Ella’s mother, who was also my mother’s best friend, convinced her to start dating again. She wouldn’t go for it at first, but after a couple of weeks she agreed to go out with one of Ella’s father’s co-workers. I remember how nervous she was before their first date and then how happy she was when she came home and told me all about how handsome, funny, and nice he was. They dated for a few months before she let him meet us. When we first met him, we instantly loved him as well. Surprisingly, they married exactly a year to the day of the anniversary of their first date. He isn’t my dad, but he’s the next best thing, and I know he loves us like we’re his own. He spoils us in every way possible.
They tried to have a child of their own, but it just never worked out for them, which was sad because I know from the way he treats us that he would’ve made an amazing father. He definitely deserved one of his own, but he seems happy and content enough with what he has, and that makes it all okay.
“I missed you too, Daddy-O,” I say, pulling away from him. I turn around to see where Jack is and helplessly watch as my mother pulls him into a tight hug.
“Um … Mom, do you think you can stop molesting my boyfriend?” I ask, chuckling.
“No, I don’t know the next time I’ll get to hug a sexy man like this, Payton. You’ve done very well for yourself, honey,” she says, winking at me and pinching his ass at the same time. I’m guess that’s where I inherited my ass-squeezing obsession. I watch as Jack tenses and looks up at John nervously. All I can do is laugh.
“What do you mean, Karen? I’m not sexy enough?” John asks, puffing out his chest, trying to look like Jack, but completely failing.
“Oh hush, you’ll get your turn. Just give me one more minute,” Mom tells John, smiling brazenly at him.
When she finally decides to stop groping Jack, we head over to the baggage claim to get their suitcases. As we wait, I ask my mom where Evan is. Apparently, an unexpected paper was due in class, and she needed to stay home to work on it. She was disappointed that she couldn’t come, but she told them to make sure that I know how much she loves and misses me. I personally think the paper excuse is a lie. I’m thinking the real reason she didn’t want to come out here goes by the name of Cade Foster.
Once we have their luggage packed away in the car, we make our way to Ella and Ryder’s house so Mom can see them all. She’s very anxious because she doesn’t get to see them very often. As soon as we walk through the door, Ella comes running at us and shrieking like a banshee. She pulls both my mom and stepfather into a hug at the same time.
“Where are Ryder and the twins?” my mom asks, pulling back from Ella’s embrace.
“He’s in the bathroom trying to get Hendrix to use the potty. Harley is in there, watching, and hopefully learning. It’s hit and miss with the both of them. Can I ask you how long it took to potty-train Payton and Evan?” Oh shit, I don’t need Jack knowing stuff like that. How embarrassing.
“Payton was a fast learner. She was twenty-two months old, but her sister was a whole other ordeal. Sometimes I swear that girl wasn’t trained until she was ten years old,” she says, obviously joking. We all laugh at the comment. “Don’t worry about it, sweetie. When they’re ready, it’ll happen,” she adds.
Not five minutes later, Ryder walks out with my two favorite little munchkins following closely behind. He makes his way over and hugs my mother, who once again sneaks in a little ass squeeze, but Ryder’s used to that now and isn’t taken by surprise like Jack was. He gives my stepfather one of those one-armed man hugs. Mom instantly bends down and snags Hendrix and Harley up off of the floor and hugs them tightly as they scream out, “Nana Karen!”
“How’s my little cuddle bugs? Nana missed you guys so much,” she coos. Ella’s cuddled into Ryder’s side now watching the ex
change between her children and my mother with a wide smile on her face. “Who wants to play?” my mom asks. They answer with a synchronized, “I do!”
A half an hour later, we’re all still playing with the twins when Jack comes along and scoops Harley up from the floor. He’s blowing raspberries on her little tummy and talking baby talk to her. He’s so hot right now that my ovaries start to throb—he needs to have kids of his own. Not right now, but in good time. He deserves that, and I want to be the one to give it to him.
“Woo, Harley girl, you sure know how to put a grown man to shame. That’s more toxic than your daddy,” he says, holding her at arm’s length and screwing up his nose.
“Here, I can change her,” I offer, walking over to him with my arms held out.
“I got this,” he tells me before heading toward their room so he can change her. I follow them in, curious as to what he knows about changing babies. “I’ve changed lots of poopy bums. Had lots of practice with my nieces,” he says winking at me.
“Yeah, I keep forgetting that,” I say grinning. Just watching him with her sends little warm fuzzies through my body. The way he gently moves her as he cleans her, exchanges the dirty diaper for a clean one and speaks softly with her the whole time makes me picture Jack changing our little baby someday. I know right then and there that this is what I want for the rest of my life. I still need to work on myself, but I want him and a family right along my side.
“All set,” Jack says, jarring me out of my thoughts. I look up and notice him lifting Harley off the changing table, and she’s all clean, thanks to Uncle Jack.
“Come see Auntie Payton,” I coo at her. Jack hands her over, and we head back out to the living room. I sit on the floor next to Mom and Ella where we spend the rest of the afternoon playing with my two favorite people.
“Hey, baby,” Jack leans over kissing the top of my head. “Ma just called wanting us to have dinner with them at D.W.’s house. I told her not tonight, but maybe next time because Karen and John are visiting, but she wants them to join us, along with Ryder, Ella, and the kids, too. What do you think?”
Sweet Ride Page 26