Hard to Fall

by Marquita Valentine

  “I don’t want to press charges,” Saylor mumbles into my chest.

  “Why the hell not?” I practically shout.

  Hunter steps inside. “Hayden, don’t,” he warns. “It’s her choice.” While I know he works with the Family Victims Unit and has more experience with situations like these, I want to smash his face in.

  I’ve never felt so helplessly fucking violent in my life. Everything primal inside me, which wants to protect the woman in my arms, is warring with the logical side of me, which knows I have to let the law protect her in this situation.

  Sterling’s smile is evilly triumphant. “Isn’t giving women a choice what keeps America great?”

  “Fuck you.” I sneer at him.

  “Is that anyway to talk to your father-in-law?”

  I stare him down, letting every bit of what I’m feeling show on my face. “Get out of our house.”

  This time Sterling doesn’t shoot off his mouth again; he simply leaves.

  “I’ll stand right outside until you say otherwise,” Hunter says, looking at Saylor and me.

  “Appreciate that.”

  Hunter softly closes the door behind him.

  “I’m sorry, Hayden,” she whispers and I literally want to kill her dad. Want to take my bare hands and strangle him for putting her in this position. For trying to hurt her, for…everything.

  At the same time, I want to push her away from me, run as far as I can, because once again a Sterling girl lied to me. Possibly used me.

  Except that’s not Saylor and that’s exactly what she expects me to do. That’s what everyone has done to her. But not me. I refuse to leave.

  I won’t abandon her, even if the truth bites me in the ass for it.

  Leading her to the sofa, I sit down and pull her into my lap. She leans against me and I start to rub her back. Touching her, feeling that she’s safe, helps the rage and fury that were consuming every molecule of my body start to dissipate.

  “Why don’t you start from the beginning,” I suggest.

  “The very beginning?”

  My mouth quirks. “Isn’t that the proper place?”

  She nods. “My mom and Tripp had an affair when she was seventeen and he was twenty-three. I came along nine months later. He was…not father material—at least not to me. So…I never saw him, never had contact with him, and spent my entire childhood traveling all over the world with Taylor. You have to believe me, I don’t even know my sisters, not even Kennedy.”

  Shit. I can’t imagine how hard it was for her to hear me talk about her family like that, to lump her in, even unknowingly. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “Why should you be sorry? You didn’t make her cheat on you. You didn’t make me lie to you, either.” Her lower lip trembles. “I don’t really have an excuse except to say that I lied because I didn’t want to lose you. You wanted me and made me feel so protected and cherished.”

  “Told you that’s my job,” I say gruffly.

  “My mother is the only person in this world who has ever made me feel that way…until you, job or not. I didn’t want to risk being abandoned again.”

  “I’m not leaving you, Saylor.”

  She ignores me, which is irritating, but I’m not so sure she’s ignoring me because she disbelieves me or she doesn’t want to get sidetracked.

  “You have to understand that I had no clue who you were in terms of your family when we got married, or even when we stayed married.”

  “I believe you, sunshine.”

  “How could I have been so blind?” Shaking her head, she sniffs. “It all makes so much sense now.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That Tripp would finally have something to do with me.” She tips up her chin and I can see straight into her sweet soul. It’s been bent a little by the asshole who should have been there for her, but it’s not broken. She’s not broken and she makes up the parts of me I’ve been missing. “He must have known about Tijuana because one of the first things he asked about was my personal life.

  “Your mom guessed that I was a Sterling, by the way, at the brunch,” she adds.

  “You’re joking.”

  “Georgiana said she was one of my mom’s biggest fans and had followed her entire career. And that all the Sterling girls have pretty brown eyes…like mine…,” she says, her voice trailing away.

  I rub my jaw, trying to ease the tension that is ratcheting up. “If my parents knew and they tried to use—”

  “I told her she was wrong in her assumption.” Saylor sighs thickly. “If they did know, then your dad certainly didn’t help himself when he promised you that I didn’t have to go to any political events.”

  “And now your father’s blackmailing you and me, in order to sabotage my dad’s campaign.” That bastard. Should have known something was up when I spoke to Patrick Kelly. The man had been genuinely puzzled over the report and the name of the fire investigator since it wasn’t anyone he was familiar with.

  “My mom admitted to me that she was responsible for his absence, but based on what I’ve seen him try to do with me now, I doubt that a man like him would have allowed my mother to prevent him from seeing me.”

  “True.”

  “But my mom did the best she could,” she says defensively. “He wasn’t married when they first started dating, but he was seeing someone—someone a lot more suitable than some model from the sticks.”

  I caress her cheek. “Not even going to argue with you on that point. I’m glad your mom kept you away from him, and if we’re being all honest, I’m sure as hell glad he stayed away from you, too.”

  “I should have told you a lot sooner instead of you overhearing our conversation,” she adds, taking off her glasses and putting them on the arm of the sofa.

  “Yes, you should have.”

  “I was afraid of losing you,” she repeats for what has to be the fifth time and it makes me want to protect her even more.

  She has no clue what she means to me, the anger I felt when I walked into their conversation, to her dad trying to bully her into spying on us and threatening my job. The red haze that came over me when I witnessed him putting his hands on her. I couldn’t speak fast enough, couldn’t move fast enough to reveal my presence before things went even more downhill between them.

  “I understand, but that doesn’t change the fact—”

  “That you’ll want a divorce now that you know I’m his daughter. You can’t trust me.” She whimpers, her hand going to her stomach.

  “Hell no, I don’t want a divorce, but I am angry that you didn’t trust me enough to give me the chance to make the decision for myself, once we decided to stay together…that what we had was more. You should trust that what we have together is enough.”

  “You said that lying and cheating…and disloyalty are hard lines with you,” she protests.

  “Fuck my lines.” She jumps at the vehemence in my voice. “You didn’t cheat on me, and by telling Tripp no, you’ve proven how loyal you are, even though I didn’t need to hear that, either.”

  “I did lie.”

  “Yeah, but I’m a reasonable man, Saylor. You didn’t lie to protect your ass or so you could get one over on me. Our relationship can handle this. You and I can overcome our families, our past…everything.”

  “But what kind of relationship do we have, beyond sex?” she accuses. “You might be able to live on sex alone, but I can’t. I want more, Hayden.”

  Chapter 24

  Saylor

  Hayden’s sexy face turns tender. “I should have told you weeks ago, but I don’t think I was quite ready to accept that I fell in love with you—that quickly, that easily.”

  “You love me,” I say, incredulous.

  “With every beat of my heart. You’re the first person I think of when I wake up and the last person on my mind when I go to bed.”

  Oh dear Lord. I know Hayden is the king of dirty talk but romantic declarations…“But what about Trip
p and his threats?” I blurt, and then want to kick myself. You’ve just worked it out, dumbtail. Shut up.

  “Doesn’t change a damn thing.” He leans in closer to me, his lips brushing mine. “We can defeat him together. I’m not worried about my job, sunshine. You’re my only concern.”

  His job. I can’t let him be accused of something he didn’t do because of me. There has to be a way out for both of us. I rack my brain, trying to come up with a solution that makes sense, only the one that makes sense makes my heart break into a billion pieces. “But…but…wouldn’t it be best if I just went away for a while, go stay with my mom until the campaign season is…”

  He’s already shaking his head before I can finish.

  “Let me put it in a way you should understand. I’m the alpha and you’re my mate. We can’t be separated, not by distance, by scheming parents, or ex-fiancées…not by anything. I can’t live without you, so don’t try to make me.”

  My eyes widen. I do understand that kind of talk. “I don’t want to make you.”

  “Good.” He stands up, with me in his arms. “Now, I’m taking you to bed so I can show you how much I love you.”

  “Don’t you want to know if I love you back?” I ask, even as his long strides eat up the distance between my bedroom and the living room.

  “I know you love me,” he says smugly. “You wouldn’t have gone to all that trouble of trying to keep me if you didn’t.”

  “You think you know everything about me now, don’t you?”

  “Can’t help that it’s a gift of mine.” Smirking a little, he lays me down on the bed and starts to strip off his clothes.

  While I want to enjoy the display he’s putting on for me, I also want to wipe off that smirk on his face. Besides, I’m done with keeping secrets from him.

  “Then you must totally know I’m pregnant.”

  His hands freeze on the snaps of his jeans and his eyes grow huge. “What did you say?”

  “I’m pregnant—I found out today at the doctor’s office. I had a regular checkup with my gynecologist.” I laugh nervously. “At least now I know why my clothes were getting too tight.”

  His gaze drops to my belly, then bounces up to my face. I can’t tell if he’s happy or angry…well, not beyond the shock that is fully apparent. “How? Obviously…but I thought you’re on—”

  “My birth control failed. There’s a class action against the company who makes it.”

  “Oh.” He licks his bottom lip. “Are you—are you happy?”

  “Yes.” I nod. My heart pounds in anticipation as soon as I ask, “What about you?”

  Suddenly, he drops to his knees by the side of the bed and pulls up the hem of my shirt, peppering my belly with kisses. “Excited. Terrified.” He peers up at me, his angel-blue eyes all at once sexy and vulnerable. “Blessed.”

  I can’t stop the happy tears, can’t stop myself from reaching for him and kissing him with all the love and passion inside me.

  “Let me take care of you. I’ll do all the work,” he whispers as he slowly peels my clothes away.

  He kisses the tips of my breasts, lightly scrapes his teeth across my nipples. They’re so sensitive that I cry out.

  “Want me to stop?”

  “No.”

  His mouth finds mine again, kissing me deeply, passionately, before he settles himself between my thighs, wide shoulders pushing my legs apart.

  “You are so damn pretty here. So pink and wet.” He licks me and I shudder. “Think I can stay right here for a while, sunshine? Make you come and come for me, until I can’t take it and I have to be in you. Have to feel your pussy grip my cock tight.”

  My hips lift, trying to get him to touch me again instead of talk. “Please.”

  He smiles wickedly at me, then his head dips once more. In no time at all, I’m shaking and trembling, calling out his name while he keeps pushing me over the edge again and again.

  It’s like he can’t get enough of me, of how I taste, of making me say his name. He puts his mouth over my clit and sucks gently. My body turns into stardust. There’s no other word for it.

  While I attempt to recover from the aftershocks of my orgasm, he kisses his way up my body, stopping to pay special attention to my stomach with sweet kisses.

  “Still can’t believe it.”

  “Me, either.”

  His sweet kisses take an erotic turn as he cups my breasts in his hands and nibbles on the tips before finally taking one deep into his hot mouth. My back arches, wanting more again, despite all the pleasure he’s given me.

  One of his hands drops away, then I feel the head of his cock nudge against me, and I grab his shoulders, urging him up so I can kiss him when he finally enters me.

  With a groan, he slides inside me and I struggle for only a few seconds to accommodate his size. He moves slowly in and out of me, taking his time to love me, to kiss me…to bring me to that point of no return once again.

  I wrap my legs around his waist and he brings one up and over his shoulder so he can go deeper. My head falls back, my body at his command as he urges me to take more, as he tells me how damn sexy it is to watch my pussy suck him in so greedily.

  “We can stay just like this, sunshine. All the time. You say the word and I’ll spend the rest of my days as your sex slave.”

  I laugh and then moan when he touches my clit. “I don’t think you’d let me be in charge.”

  He flips me over, moving his lean, muscular body until I’m riding him and his back is against the headboard. His strong arms wrap around me fully, pressing my chest to his as he continues to move in deep-seated thrusts.

  “How’s this?” He bites down on my ear and I shiver in delight.

  “Still not in charge,” is my reply.

  “Yes, I am.” He laughs darkly, then glides his hands down my back to rest on my hips. “Take more of me, sunshine. Take every inch.”

  Somehow I grow wetter with his words, with his movements. I place my hands on his shoulders, using them as leverage as I begin to ride him. He groans, his head falling to the crook of my neck.

  “Want to make this last, but I can’t.”

  “Then don’t.” Letting go of one shoulder, I lean back a little so he can watch me. I cup a breast, rubbing my nipple between my thumb and forefinger exactly the way he does to me.

  “Oh…shit, Saylor.”

  “Wait, Hayden. I’m not done.”

  His greedy gaze is on my body, following the movement of my hand as it glides down to touch my clit. I start to rub my clit and desire floods my system.

  My head falls back and Hayden captures one of my nipples in his mouth. His other hand goes to my bottom, lightly pushing me against him as he thrusts.

  Sensation after sensation washes over me, making me wholly focused on us. On where we’re so intimately joined. On the way his larger body feels against my smaller one. On the way he’s so protective of me. On the way he’s the one in charge while we have sex.

  This is the man I want for the rest of my life. This is the man I want as the father of all of my children.

  “Love you so damn much, Saylor.”

  This is the man who will never abandon me.

  He gasps, his body jerking against mine as he comes, filling me.

  Another firm brush of my fingers against my clit and I join him, collapsing against his slick skin.

  “I love you, too,” I finally admit.

  He hugs me tighter. “I knew it, but to hear those words…”

  We kiss again, but this time like two people who’ve finally discovered that they’ve had what they’ve been looking for all along.

  Chapter 25

  Hayden

  “Thanks for making me wait all night for your all-clear text,” Hunter says as we wait for Saylor, Evangeline, and my brother Brooks to arrive at Bohannon’s. “Hell, a simple shout of Go home to your wife, Hunter, would have worked.”

  “It was only an hour.” I grin over the rim of my bottle of beer.
“Be glad that Saylor was done after that.”

  Hunter rolls his eyes. “More like ten minutes.”

  “What happened to all night?”

  He tips up his beer and drinks instead of answering.

  I glance at the time, then up at the television near the bar. It’s parked on CNN and they can’t get enough of the new scandal involving the Walkers and Sterlings. Apparently, everyone knows Saylor’s my dad’s biggest rival’s daughter.

  “Wish they’d quit showing our pictures every five seconds,” I mutter as a shot appears of Saylor and me making out in the lake that time I took her boating. I guess I should be thankful they didn’t make a sex tape of us.

  “Not your best side?” my younger brother says as he joins us.

  “Fuck off.”

  Taking out his laptop from his messenger bag, Brooks sets it in front of him. “The ladies are coming. Something about hitting the bathroom first.”

  “Get that smug-as-fuck look off your face, Walker. You got her pregnant. Big deal. You aren’t the first man to do it,” Hunter says.

  I clap him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. One day your little guys will be strong enough to make a mini-Hunter.”

  “Why are we friends again?”

  “Because we have each other’s back, no matter what,” I say in all seriousness.

  “Truth.” He tips his beer to me in toast and I lightly tap mine against his.

  “I am the greatest!” Brooks’s fingers fly over the keys, his smile turning familiar as he finds what he’s looking for. “Don’t say I never did anything for you.”

  “Wow. I thought you were the only one whose ego could fill up an entire building,” Hunter mutters as my brother pushes the laptop my way.

  I scan through the contents. “Did you seriously hack into Sterling’s private email?”

  “You act like that’s hard.”

  Hunter covers his ears. “I’m not listening to any of this.”

  Brooks rolls his eyes. “This is a legit government site, but that dumbass didn’t use a secure server. The only thing private is the server, which is a huge no-no.”