Everything I Need (The Everything Series Book 1)

by A. K. Evans

  Wes gave her a hug before she took off. He sat back down and I was still staring at him.

  “What’s wrong, Charley?” he asked while laughing at me.

  “The X Games, Wes? When are they?” I asked.

  “Yeah, they’re in Aspen at the end of January.”

  “It won’t happen that quick, will it?”

  “What?” he asked.

  “My designs? They won’t be on boards by then, right?”

  “You get some good stuff together…absolutely.”

  I bit my lip nervously.

  His eyes dropped to my mouth. Then, he looked back at my eyes and he spoke. “Gorgeous, nothing happens unless you are comfortable with it. You approve all designs before they are used, but baby, you can do this. You’ve got to start believing in yourself.”

  “He’s right, sweets. You can do this. We all know it. Now you need to believe it,” Emme piped in sitting across the table from me.

  My eyes got wet.

  “And, just sayin’ you get your work on boards at the X Games and that gets me to number ten on my list,” Nikki chimed in. “Can’t have one of my best girls that far away from me becoming famous and nobody around to make her look glamourous.”

  Everyone laughed. I could always count on Nikki to lighten the mood. I looked to her and she winked at me.

  At that moment, Lou was up on stage welcoming everyone and introducing Elle. She took the stage and started her set. We spent the next hour listening and singing along with Elle and I very soon forgot about my anxiety with this huge life change.

  “Be right back, honey. Going to head to the ladies’ room,” I said, leaning into Wes as Elle finished up her set.

  He nodded at me.

  I walked to the restroom, did my business, and was standing at the sink washing my hands when a woman walked up next me and spoke.

  “I saw you come in with Wes,” she said.

  I looked to the woman. She was about my height with far more curves. Her hourglass figure was accentuated by the sparkly gray, form fitting, halter top sweater dress she wore. She had short brown hair that sat just above her shoulders and deep brown, almond shaped eyes. She was beautiful. And, she was talking about Wes.

  “I’m sorry?” I asked, puzzled.

  She smiled. I didn’t like it. I could tell she had a bad attitude and she had only said a few words to me.

  “Wes. You came here with him. Surprised to see him take a break from the snowboarding and work to actually go out,” she said in a condescending tone.

  Who was this woman and why was she being such a bitch?

  “Forgive me, but do I know you?” I asked, still genuinely curious about this woman and a little concerned at this point.

  “No, you don’t,” she said pausing a moment. Then she continued, “But Wes does…”

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I heard called from inside the room. I took that moment to look away from this woman and noticed the bathroom door closing as Elle stood just inside the door. She walked right up to Miss Attitude and came within inches of her face. “I think it’d be in your best interest to keep my brother’s name out of your mouth.”

  Wow. Elle was typically such a sweet woman. Seeing her now I made a mental note to never piss her off. Angry Elle was something else.

  Miss Attitude laughed. I had to hand it to her. Seeing Elle like that sort of scared me and I wasn’t the focus of her anger. This woman had balls to laugh in her face.

  “This couldn’t be more perfect. A reunion with the princess herself,” she said with a smirk on her face.

  “You’ve got about five seconds to get your ass out of here. Stay away from Charley and don’t even think about approaching Wes.”

  The bitch looked to me, still smirking. “Charley? It’s been a pleasure,” she said as she approached the door. “Wish I could say the same about you, Elle. Until next time, ladies.”

  She walked out of the bathroom.

  “Who the fuck was that?” I asked.

  “Scum. Absolute fucking scum. Her name is Dana. She's Wes’ ex and she is, by far, the biggest bitch known to all of mankind.”

  “I guess it’s safe to say you didn’t approve of her?”

  “Hell. No. I love my brother and support him in everything he does, but that bitch was the biggest mistake of his life. Broke his fucking heart.”

  I gasped. The thought of Wes being heartbroken hurt me. I suddenly had a very real understanding of Elle’s rage fueled standoff moments ago. Just thinking of someone hurting Wes made my stomach grow cold.

  “Oh my goodness. I am such a horrible, selfish person,” I said, my eyes tearing up and my nose stinging.

  “What? What the hell are you talking about?”

  “I’ve been so caught up in myself and everything bad that has happened in my life that I never even stopped to consider Wes. He’s been so compassionate, thoughtful, and understanding and I’ve been taking everything he has to offer giving him nothing in return,” I told Elle, tears spilling down my cheeks.

  Elle pulled me into a hug, “Charley, stop. This isn’t my conversation to have with you, but know that Dana has been out of Wes’ life for at least two years now. He has moved on to bigger and better things, you included. You may not think it, but trust me, you give him plenty in return.”

  I stood there in Elle’s arms as my tears fell. After a few moments, she pulled back and did her best to clean up my face.

  “Come on,” she said, “Let’s get you back out there so you can start this new year with your man by your side.”

  I nodded my head at her, smiled, and said, “Thanks, El.”

  She winked at me and we walked out of the bathroom.

  We walked back over to our table to find everyone still having a great time. As we approached, Wes looked over at us and must have noticed something because he immediately pushed his chair back, stood, and strode over to us.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  Before I could answer, Elle started rattling off the story.

  “Your bitch of an ex is here. She saw Charley in the bathroom, cornered her, and was her usual pleasant self,” she said with a roll of her eyes. Then she continued, “Now she’s got Charley questioning and doubting herself.”

  Wes’ eyes came to mine. He said nothing, but I could see him thinking. His face was filled with concern. It figures. He was the one who had his heart broken and he was concerned for me.

  I walked to him, put my arms around his neck, and hugged him tightly. He wrapped his arms around me as I whispered in his ear, “I’m so sorry, Wes. You are amazing and I’ve been a shitty girlfriend.”

  His arms got tight at my declaration, but I ignored it and kept going. “I’ve been selfish. You deserve more. You deserve better than I’ve given. I promise to do better.”

  Wes pulled back to look at my face, but did not loosen his grip on me. “Quiet, Charley. I’m not going to spend tonight discussing that woman. I don’t know what the fuck she said to you, but you don’t need to do anything for me. I can see she said enough to mess with your head and I intend to fix that. For now, for tonight, let’s forget about her. You feel like you need to give me something, give me this. I want you to enjoy tonight with me and our friends. That’s it. When we leave tonight, though, I want you at my place.”

  Our friends. I loved that. I took a deep breath and gave him a small smile. He wanted to have a good night tonight and I figured that if this woman made things miserable for him years ago I was going to make sure she didn’t ever do it again, especially not through me.

  “Ok, Wes.”

  “That’s my girl,” he said as he bent his head to press a kiss to my nose. “You ok?”

  I nodded.

  “Good. Now give me that mouth, gorgeous.”

  I tipped my head up and kissed him. We eventually rejoined our friends and I went off with my girls, Elle included, to do some dancing while the guys watched. It wasn’t long before I had forgotten about Dana and w
as able to really enjoy the rest of the night.

  The guys joined us on the dance floor minutes before midnight. Wes had his arm draped over my shoulders, pressing the side of my body into his front. The countdown to midnight began at twenty and got louder at ten. Wes’ mouth captured mine after everyone shouted, ‘Happy New Year’ and for that moment nothing else existed. It was just us.

  I broke the kiss, put my lips to his ear, and said, “This past year was the toughest of my life. I never thought I’d ever recover and be happy again. You have given me something good to remember about last year. It started horribly, but ended fantastically. I am thrilled to be going into this new year with something to smile about.”

  Wes’ arms tightened around my body. “Going to give you more of that, Charley. I want to see you continuing to smile.”

  “Happy New Year, Wes.”

  “Happy New Year, baby.”

  Chapter 25

  Wes

  Charley and I were in the limo on the way back to my place. This was after we left Lou’s and stopped first at her place. Everyone, the guys and the girls, went in and we all hung with Charley’s friends for a few minutes while she packed a bag to take to my house that night.

  I know she had been a little hesitant to spend the night with me at my place since Nikki and Monroe were here only one more night. Thankfully, they not only reassured her that it was fine, but also encouraged her to go with me. Despite me not knowing the cause of Emme’s nightmares, it was clear that Nikki and Monroe knew that Charley had never spent the night away from Emme. I’m certain that was part of the reason they pushed so hard for her to come and spend the night with me. This would be her first time spending the night at my place and I was very much looking forward to falling asleep with and waking up in my bed with her wrapped in my arms. I was having everyone over tomorrow so I knew she’d be able to spend the day with her girls then.

  After she packed a bag and everyone said their good-byes, we dropped my boys off at Stone’s place since they had all met up there. We told them we’d see them all tomorrow and were now alone in the limo going to my house.

  Stone’s place was about twenty-five minutes from my home, so the moment we were alone Charley pounced. She straddled my lap and ran her fingers through my hair before dropping her mouth to mine.

  Damn if I didn’t love her fucking mouth. My hands gripped her thighs and worked their way to her ass as I kissed her back.

  “You are so damn sexy,” she said as she pulled her mouth from mine.

  “I think you’re a little tipsy, gorgeous.”

  She smiled at me and rolled her hips. “Just tipsy enough to make this fun.”

  “Fuck, you’ve got me so hard,” I said, squeezing her ass in my hands and holding her still on top of me as I thrusted my hips upward.

  I moved one hand up over her thigh and trailed my fingers under her skirt, right up to her sweet spot. I traced along the edge of her panties. She squirmed looking for more friction. I pulled her panties out of the way and gave her what she needed. I learned several weeks ago that I’d never be able to deny this woman anything. Slipping two fingers in and out of her, I heard the beautiful sounds of her moans and watched as she climbed higher and higher towards her climax.

  “Wes,” she rasped out as her head fell back.

  The sound of her voice when she was this close to orgasm was captivating. I could hear her call my name just like that every day for the rest of my life and never tire of it.

  “That’s it, Charley. Take what you need, baby,” I said and she froze. Her head snapped forward, her eyes burning into mine, and she stopped riding my fingers. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?” I asked.

  She stared at me a moment and then tears spilled down her cheeks.

  I pulled my fingers out of her body and gripped her hips. “Charley, fuck…what’s wrong?”

  “I am so sorry, Wes,” she whispered.

  “For what? What just happened?” I asked.

  “You give. You always give.”

  I shook my head, not understanding what she meant. “I’m not following you, baby.”

  She took a deep breath and then spoke, “From the first day I met you, you have looked out for me. You’ve taken care of me. Every night I worked at Parks Ridge ever since the day I met you, you were there to walk me to my car. If I’m out running errands you always call or text to check in on me just to make sure I’m ok or that I’ve made it home safely. You have been there to listen to me when I find that I need to talk about Taj. Before I even told you about Taj or my parents you gave me what I needed by making me feel safe and comforted all while being patient with me. You never pressured me to talk about it. And then, you offered me my dream job.”

  I sat there staring at her not sure what to say, but also certain she wasn’t finished.

  “Up until a little over a month ago, I lived my life working constantly just to keep busy and get through each day. Now, I wake up feeling like I am the luckiest woman in the world. I want to soak up every ounce of joy you’ve brought into my life and draw out that happiness.”

  “Gorgeous, this all sounds like good stuff. I am still not sure I understand why you are in tears.”

  “Wes, you give. You give me you. You give me your compassion. You give me your kindness. You give me a comfortable, safe place to unwind. Most importantly, you give me your love. I was late in learning this, but you keep giving all you have to give. And me? I just keep taking.”

  Seriously? I had this woman on the brink of an orgasm and told her to take what she needed and it brought her to this? Fuck. Shit. Fuck. Dana did a number on her.

  “You give, too. This isn’t one-sided,” I told her.

  “How? Wes, I don’t give you anything.”

  Now I was pissed. She thought that little of herself?

  “Don’t ever fucking say that, Charley. You give me everything. When you ask me to spend the night with you because you like waking up with me, I get what I need knowing you want me next to you. When I learned that you refuse to leave your best friend home alone because she might wake up in the middle of the night with a nightmare, I got what I needed knowing you won’t walk out on the people you love. When you call me two hours after you’ve just been with me simply because you miss me and want to hear my voice, I get what I need. When you call out my name with your raspy voice right before you come, I get what I need. When you told me you loved me for the first time because you didn’t want another day to pass without letting me know how you felt, I got what I needed. But, most importantly, when you nearly jumped out of your boots in excitement when you knew you’d be watching me ride pipe for the first time, I got what I fucking needed.”

  I realized there was so much more I could tell her, but she pulled in a sharp breath at my last statement and the tears were still spilling down her cheeks. I took her face in my hands and swiped at her tears with the pads of my thumbs.

  “That list I just gave you, gorgeous? Tip of the iceberg. I’m thinking maybe you get my point now, though. If not, I’ll hold those other things for when I think you need more reassurance that you give me exactly what I need every single day.”

  It was at that moment the limo stopped. I realized we had just parked in front of my house. We got out of the car and after sending the driver off I took Charley by the hand and walked her into the house. Once we got inside I picked her up and carried her into the bedroom and straight to the bathroom. I set her down on the sink countertop and then turned on the shower.

  We hadn’t said a word to each other yet. As the water ran and heated up in the shower, I walked back to my woman and lifted her up to place her on her feet. I stared into her eyes as I placed my hands on her shoulders. Turning her around I captured her eyes again in the mirror. My hands went to the zipper on the back of her skirt. After unzipping the skirt and letting it slide down her legs to her feet, I lifted her top over her head and tossed it aside. She stood there looking beautiful in her matching slate blue lacy bra an
d panties with the intense sapphire heat swirling in her eyes. I stripped out of my clothes, my eyes still captured by hers, and then removed the last two pieces covering her beautiful body.

  Pressing my front to her back I dipped my head so my mouth was at her ear.

  “Everything I need, gorgeous. Everything,” I whispered.

  Her breath hitched. I put my lips to the skin just below her ear and trailed kisses down her neck to the top of her shoulder. Turning her body so that her front was pressed to mine I continued to kiss moving back in the direction I came from until I was at her jawline and finally at her mouth. I took her mouth. She gave without hesitation.

  Running her hands up my arms until they clasped behind my neck with her mouth still connected to mine, Charley then wrapped her legs around my waist as I lifted her up. We kissed as I walked us into the shower. The warm water hit our bodies and things grew more intense. Charley’s back was now up against the wall of the shower and without hesitation I entered her body.

  Just the same as in the limo, her head fell back against the wall and she groaned.

  As I pumped in and out of her she moved her hips to meet mine with each thrust. I loved the way she came alive when she was hungry for me.

  “Baby. You feel so good,” she rasped out.

  Within minutes I felt her tightening around me. “Oh, God. Wes,” she screamed out.

  I slowed my pace for a bit and helped her ride out that wave of pleasure. Watching her come apart was my undoing. I started moving quickly again and a few thrusts later I was on that same ride.

  I held Charley up, keeping my body pressed to hers as we both came down from the euphoric high we had just experienced. I pulled back and looked at her beautiful face.

  “You are fucking everything to me, Charley.”

  “I’m so thankful for you, Wes. Please tell me you know that.”

  I nodded at her. We finished up in the shower, I put a towel around her, grabbed one for myself, and we stood staring at each other. After a couple moments I said, “Come on, gorgeous. Let’s go to bed.”

  We went into the bedroom, got in bed, and I immediately had Charley on her back while I covered half of her with my body.