by Lauren Wood
“We can’t do this Carlos. You just don’t understand.”
“I do. Joel told me and I know what it is that you need to make this okay.”
I didn’t know what he was talking about. Nothing was going to make this any better and nothing was going to make it okay that I was found with him in such a way. It wouldn’t change who he was and the fact that he wasn’t a man of morals.
Chapter 13
Carlos
I was sick of hearing how it wasn’t going to work out. I wasn’t going to take that as an answer and I moved to kiss her again. She didn’t say no, so I wasn’t paying attention to the soft hands that pushed on my chest. Eve liked to resist because she felt like what we did was wrong, but I didn’t feel that way. Everything with her was right, that was all I knew.
When my mouth wasn’t going to cut it, I knew that she wanted to hear the words. Pulling away from her, I waited for her eyes to open and really look at me. “Let’s go from here and talk, where we can really talk because I have a feeling that they are listening to every word.”
She giggled and agreed, telling me that I was right. I didn’t see her family, but there was a feeling that they were close at hand.
“Fine, but not for too long. It is going to be dark soon.”
I didn’t know what that mattered, but I figured it was something with her family and the rules. I had never been around anyone quite like them before and after spending an hour with the two that had made Eve, I felt like I knew more about her then I had all of the time we had spent together.
Taking her hand, I pulled her outside and started to take her to my car. She shook her head and instead wanted to go for a walk. It was not something that I wasn’t too used to doing, certainly didn’t walk very far in the city if I didn’t have to, but I would have followed her anywhere.
“Where are we going?”
“Just somewhere quiet and private. There are no secrets in this town.”
I chuckled. “Nothing like the city. Nobody knows each other there. You can do as you please and no one will even bat an eye.”
“It is not like that here. I just don’t think you understand Carlos. What are you doing here?”
She was starting to sound like a broken record and I knew that my answers just hadn’t been sufficient for her apparently. I was giving her more than I had ever said before and of course, to Eve it wasn’t enough.
“I am here to marry you Eve. If that is the only way I can have you, I want to marry you and take you home with me. I miss you Eve and it took you leaving for me to realize that.”
It wasn’t how I had wanted this all to go. In my head it had gone so much differently, but it was out and by the widened eyes I knew that she had heard me.
“What?”
I shook my head and stopped her with a kiss. “Marry me Eve. That is what I am here for. I am not leaving until you are my wife and you come with me.”
Eve’s face was shocked and I kissed her again, taking advantage of the moment. We were only a block from her house and kissing in the middle of the street as cars went by. Suddenly it didn’t seem like Eve was that worried about what others thought and I liked that. She was mine and the sooner she realized it the better.
“So where is this place that you said we would get some privacy?”
Finally that got her looking at me again and she had the same grin on her face as she had when I had come upon her naked in bed. It was a look that I was never going to forget and I was surely never going to get sick of. It just made me want her more than I ever thought was possible.
***
The place was unlike anything that I had been to. I was raised in New York and there were no places to really be alone. There was always someone there and awake. It was always that way and to be in the middle of the woods, under an old bridge that had once had trains running over it, was unlike anything that I had ever seen before. It was beautiful and like her, so unexpectedly what I needed.
“So this is where you would take your other boyfriends?”
Eve shook her head. “I have never brought anyone here before. This was where I would go to think for a while, without being observed and silently judged. Half of the town goes to the same church, the one my father give sermons at once in a while. This was my place to think of where I was going to go when I could finally get out of here.”
“But you came back.”
She still hadn’t really given me an answer either. Her mind was elsewhere, that much was clear and I desperately wanted it to go back the way I had steered her.
“I did because I wasn’t doing as well as I would have liked to. I would have liked to have done things differently.”
“Come back and we can do it together. The apartment is still open or you can move in with me.” At this point, I was willing to take whatever I could get. If she wasn’t ready to marry me, we could play house for a time until she was ready. Every part of me told me that she was already mine, so if I had to wait, I knew that she was worth it.
“Is that what you want, really?”
“I want you to be my wife Eve. Beyond that, I want to take you back to the city and live together.”
She blushed again, but still there was no answer on her tongue. I wanted to know what it was that she wanted. Eve hadn’t said much about the proposal. I hadn’t thought of that right off the bat, hadn’t prepared really, but it was enough to get on her mother’s good side. Eve of course wasn’t as easily swayed.
“I don’t know what to say Carlos.”
“Don’t say anything. I think we do better when we let our bodies talk.”
She shivered underneath me as I pushed her back onto the grass under the older overpass and there was just something about the way she looked at me that made me melt right then and there.
I was in heaven and like before, her hips lifted up to meet mine. It was a moment of need that I wasn’t going to soon forget. She wanted me as badly as I wanted her and that was enough. What I wasn’t too sure of was how I was ever going to let her go if she didn’t say yes.
“God, I love you Eve. I have never loved anyone in my whole life but you and I don’t want to live without you anymore.”
Her only response was a small gasp, as I pulled her body away long enough to pull her skirt up and her panties down. I liked the new attire that she was wearing. It was far easier to get into and more important than anything she was ready for me as before. There was no denying how wet she was, glistening in the sunshine perfectly.
“I see you have missed me.”
Even nodded and wrapped her legs around me before I could get rid of my own clothes. She was impatient, as she had been last time and before I could stop her, Eve had me pulled down and was looking up at me as if I was the one. I wanted to be the one for her and I slide inside quickly, giving her what it was that she needed. The only thing that I heard over the pounding in my ears was the sound of her pleasure, coming out as I slid deeper.
“I love you too Carlos. I think I have loved you since I woke up in your bed.”
Kissing her, I silenced her words, rocking us both to the point of madness over and over again. I just couldn’t get enough of her and even when she pushed on my chest, begging for a break, I couldn’t stop. I pushed her as far past her limit as she had pushed me.
“Please Carlos, I can’t.”
“Yes you can Eve. You are going to do what I want.”
Chapter 14
Eve
“Who would have thought that you would be getting married here? I wish I would have seen mother’s face when you told her. Was she shocked?”
Shocked didn’t even start to explain how she had looked at me. I knew that Carlos had said something to her about it, but at the end of the day, it was still a surprise to hear it. Maybe she had thought that I would say no, but that was the very last thing that I had thought to do.
“Well she was definitely surprised, but she started crying almost immediately. You know how mom is.”
“Yeah, I do. When I told her that me and Barry were getting married, she had to have known it was coming, but she still wept every time she saw me for a week.”
“I don’t think I am going to be here that long, so she is going to have to get it all out at the wedding.”
My sister looked at me alarmed. “You aren’t going to stay here?”
I shook my head that I wasn’t going to. I had no intentions on staying here for another moment after we got married. I didn’t want to live there in that small town anymore. I had spent too much of my life there and when I told Constance that, I wished I had said it a better way.
“I didn’t mean it like that.” She was clearly offended and her feelings were hurt.
“What did you mean then? Do you really have nothing to stay around here for?”
“There is no work for me and Carlos owns two businesses in the city. I have to go. There is nothing for me here anymore. I don’t know if there ever was. I will miss you and our parents, but I will visit often. It is not that far away.”
Constance was watery eyed and she made me feel bad that I had made her that way. She was as bad as mom was about guilt and I felt guilty for even wanting to live somewhere else. I knew that it was what was best for me, but that didn’t really stop me from wanting to leave. I couldn’t live another person’s life anymore. It was time for me to live for myself and Carlos was my future. He was my destiny and wherever it was that he was, that was where I belonged. I understood that now, more so than I ever had before. Why couldn’t they be happy for me?
“But why today?”
“Because it is time. We have been here almost a week getting everything ready. I told mom that I would do it here at the church, like she always wanted, but after that, I am done living for them Constance. I have to live for me. I know that you won’t get it, but you are happy here with Barry. You are happy in Watertown, right?”
There was a moment of hesitation as the façade fell, but it was back up so quickly that I wasn’t sure if what I thought I saw was real. “You are happy here, right?”
She shook her head, but there was a tear in her eye that she brushed away and tried to laugh off. Everything was not as perfect as she would like me to think, but I couldn’t think of that today. Constance knew that I would always listen, but by the looks of her, she was not quite ready to give it all up just yet.
“You know that you can always come and visit us if you like Constance, with or without Barry.”
I could tell that she was rather surprised by the invitation and how it was given to her, but I wanted her to know that she was always welcome if she had to get away. I wasn’t going to tell her to forgive him if he did wrong. I would be there for my sister, not for the sake of her marriage.
“It is just going to be so strange without you. When you were gone before, I thought I was going to go crazy with no one to talk to.”
“I am only a couple of hours away and you can always call. I write at home most of the time, so I am always ready to talk. I felt the same way when you got married. I thought I was going to lose you or something, but I didn’t.”
Constance was crying freely now and I was doing my best not to. “Please Constance. I don’t need to smear my makeup. It took forever to get it on there.”
Smiling at me and wiping my eyes, she just laughed. “I did it too. I was smeary seconds before I walked down the aisle with Barry. Mom thought I was backing out, but it was really just too much to deal with all at once. How are you feeling about everything right now? Are you okay?”
I told her that I was. For a moment I had been nervous, but now all of that was going away and all I could think about was what I wanted to do next. I was ready to get married, because I knew that Carlos was the one for me. And he had promised me that if I ever forgot why I said yes to him, he would remind me again in a thousand ways. I really hoped a few of those ways ended up in the bedroom. He was very convincing there.
***
“Do you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health as long as you both shall live?”
I nodded my head and finally squawked out an answer, hoping that it was loud enough to be heard. Carlos was holding his breath and finally let it go with my answer. Did he really for a second think that I would say no?
He didn’t wait for the preacher to give the okay, signifying that we were married in God’s hands. Instead he pulled me to him and made quite a scene in the church. I could hear the gasping from behind me, but I also knew that every woman there wished that her husband had done the same. I was too busy dealing with the lips that could convince me of anything. All he had to do was ask and I was left helpless to not give him what he wanted.
When he pulled away, it was me who was finding it hard to breathe and I panted a little, my mind already going to what was going to be in store for us. I knew that it was going to be perfect. He was perfect and it didn’t matter what was ahead, as long as he was with me. With Carlos, I knew that I could do anything and now it was just official.
Walking back down the aisle hand in hand with the man I love was something that I would never forget. I didn’t see anyone else, nor was I going to remember anyone else. All I was going to remember was those dark brown eyes that twinkled at me and the beginnings of a beard that I missed so much.
“I love you Eve. I never thought I would feel this way, but I can’t think of what it would be like without you with me and I never want to find out.”
“I love you too Carlos. I am not going anywhere, ever again.”
Helping me into our getaway car, I moved to kiss him, grabbing his face and pulling him in. It was the first time that I had done it, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be to be the last. With Carlos, there was no right and wrong, there was only us.
THE END
ALWAYS MINE: A BAD BOY NEXT DOOR ROMANCE
“I knew once I saw you that I would make you mine. You were pure and a little dirty in the same breath. It was going to take a lifetime to know you, to really know you.”
BLURB
There wasn’t a woman alive that I couldn’t have…and I wanted them all.
I knew that I had to have Cameron the first time that I saw her. She was beautiful and the fire in her eyes was hard to deny.
It was only a matter of time before I made her mine. With my hard body, bike and tattoos, I was irresistible and I had never met a woman yet that wouldn’t drop her panties for me. Once I got a girl in my head, there was nothing in the world that was going to save her from Joel Radici.
Sure she can fight it, think that she has a choice.
Cameron can tell me that she doesn’t like bad boys.
She can try and scare me off with that haughty look all she wants.
None of that matters to me one bit.
Because I already claimed that curvy body of hers and I was going to make her mine. I didn’t matter what the cost, Cameron was going to be underneath me soon enough, screaming out my name for more.
How could she deny me, when I know what it is that she really needs?
***
Chapter 1
Cameron
“Hold the door?”
I looked back at the tall man in a leather jacket that was talking to me in such a gruff voice. He had his hands full, but the problem was that I didn’t know who he was. The door was usually locked for safety reasons and I didn’t want to be the one to let him in.
“I’m sorry Sir, but if you don’t live here, I can’t let you in.”
“I am moving in today, so hold the door.”
He gestured to all of the items in his hands and there was a moment that I thought it would be best if I did let him in. But there was another side of me that was sure that he didn’t live here. I had lived in the building for many years and I would have remembered a man like him. He was hard to forget with his tattoos and dark brown eyes.
“I’m sorry, but you should have a key then. I can’t let you in, bu
t I will give you a number to call the manager if you want.”
He looked at me as if I was a little crazy and I ignored the look that he gave me. I closed the door behind me and there was a bit of noise when I did so. I looked back over my shoulder once to catch his dark gaze. If I would have been wax, I would have melted right then and there from the stare. It was clear that he wasn’t the least bit happy with me. The man’s dark brown eyes bore into me until it was hard for me to speak, let alone go up the stairs to my own apartment. What if he was telling the truth? There was no way that we were going to be friends or anything short of enemies.
I tried not to think about it again as I opened the door to my apartment. The city wasn’t as safe as it had been and if I was wrong, there was no telling what could happen. Besides, he looked a little rough for this neighborhood. Whoever the man was, he didn’t look like he belonged. It was men like him that I tried to stay away from. That was why I lived in a place that had better security than my last place and I paid a premium in rent.
Forgetting about the man from the door, I took a shower and got ready to go out for the evening. Carol had invited me to drinks and it had been one of those weeks that I needed one. It wasn’t long before I was making my way back down the stairs and I stopped short when I saw the landlord and the rude man from before. I cringed inside. Of course he was telling the truth.
“Cameron. How are you doing?”
I smiled at the old man and told him that I was fine. I tried my best to ignore the look that I was getting from the dark-haired man standing next to him. It was obvious that he wasn’t very happy with me and I didn’t blame him now. In my defense, I didn’t really know who he was. He could have been anyone.