She smiled. “He gave you his blessing?”
“As long as I promised to get you a better ring.”
She laughed and then held her side. I picked her up and took her to bed. “You know, technically, you didn’t ask me to marry you. You told me I would marry you some day.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You will. There’s no question about it.” I got in the bed and let her adjust her sore body to mine. “Are you willing to talk about today?”
I felt her nod against my chest. “I’ll start, but I’m still sleepy. Don’t hold it against me if I fall asleep.”
“Okay. You should first start by telling me why you took the risk you took. That was very dangerous.”
“I know, but I needed the witnesses. I needed the video. There’s no way I can’t be free of him now.”
“I would’ve found a way to get you released safely.”
“That was going to take too long. Now I have a restraining order and assault charges to speed things up.”
I touched her neck. “And more terrorizing moments to try to get over.”
She held my hand. “I’m fine. I knew what was going to happen.”
“If you’re going to be my wife—”
“Now it’s if?” I felt her smile against my chest.
“Since you’re going to be my wife, I will take care of you.” I placed her hand over my beating heart. “Let me help you with this.”
She ran her fingers over my chest. “I will accept your help, but I can take care of myself.”
“Is that our first compromise?”
She propped herself up and looked at me. “I think it is. It didn’t hurt that bad.” She smiled.
I startled Damon when I walked into his office. He looked at his computer and back to me. “Did I miss a meeting?”
“No. What are you working on?”
“The proposal for—”
“I don’t care. Whatever it is, I need you to stop and work on a different one.”
“Um, okay. What’s this one?” He took out a notebook.
“Hathaway Designs.” I watched him put his pen down. “Is there a problem?”
“It just isn’t the sort of company we go after. We know nothing about photography.”
“Rachael does. Besides, we aren’t going to dismantle this one. We’ll get it running in the black again and then sell it off.”
“That means putting Rachael back out on the road.”
“I’m aware of that.” I turned and walked out.
I ignored the receptionist and walked into Lance’s office. “How are you even still here?”
“I have a company to run. Your girlfriend’s stunt isn’t going to keep me away.”
“Fiancée.” I waited until he looked at me. It didn’t take long. “She’s my fiancée.”
“Congratulations on bagging the easiest girl I know.”
I shook my head. He was trying to set me off, but I wouldn’t take the bait. “I didn’t stop by for your congratulations. I stopped by to tell you that your days are numbered.” I looked around the office.
“Is that supposed to be some sort of a threat?”
“No, it’s a notice.” I tossed a paper on the desk. “You have fifteen days to pay your loan or the company is mine.”
He looked at me for a moment and picked up the paper I had tossed. He rubbed his face. “You can’t do this.”
“I can. I will. I have.”
He came around the desk as I started to walk out. “I won’t let you do this!”
I turned and stormed back to him. “And just what are you going to do about it?” He said nothing, but kept looking in my eyes. “Try it. I’d love for you to put your hand around my neck. No?” I shoved him backwards. “Start packing.”
“Do you think you’ll need help when you start your shop?” I didn’t want to be alone, so I stayed at Carl’s with Deb and Amy.
Deb sighed. “I wish you never asked me about that.”
“What? Why? I think it’s fabulous.”
“I’m not sure I can do it and you’re going to bug me until I do.”
“You named it already. You know you’re going to do it.” I nudged her. “So, do you think you’ll need help?”
“I don’t think we should work together.” She got up and looked out the window at Amy playing. “We’re just getting along and the stress of a new company will put too much of a strain on us.”
“That’s a good point. Will you let me take the photos for your website?”
She sat in the chair next to the sofa. “Sure.”
“Good.” I nodded. “Why didn’t you and Tom have any kids?” I pointed to the window. “You think to do things I wouldn’t. You’d be a great mom.”
She shrugged. “Do you need something to drink?”
“You don’t have to tell me. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“Tom didn’t want them. I thought we were a good match because everyone I knew wanted kids.”
“You didn’t want them, either?”
“No. I’d had enough of kids by then.” She sat back and crossed her legs. “It’s kind of funny that now I’m too old I wish I had them.”
“You’re not even forty yet. You’re not too old.”
“By the time I would be okay to look for a relationship and find the right guy, I would be too old to have babies.”
“You don’t like the guy who lives down the hall from me?”
She shook her head. “Not enough to be tied to for the rest of my life. He’s cute and really good in bed, but he’s an idiot.”
I smiled. “So, how did you meet up with him anyway?”
“I was waiting for you one night, but he showed up before you did.”
“And you just went to his apartment with him?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t care what happened to me at that point.”
“Do you care now?”
She looked me in the eye and nodded. “I’m starting to, but I’m still not giving up my orgasms.”
I needed to go back to my apartment and pack a few things. What I wanted to do was take a nap when Amy did, but I did need to get more clothes. I looked through the mail as I entered my apartment. It was just bills and junk. I tossed it on the coffee table with the other mail I’d get to later and stopped when I looked in the hallway.
“Surprised to see me?” Lance started walking toward me.
I ran for the front door, but he beat me there. I backed up. “You’re not allowed to be here.”
“No one will tell me what I’m allowed to do. No one is going to take my company away from me, either.”
“I don’t want your company. I just wanted out of the contract.”
“Your fiancé wants it.” He picked up a photo I had of Carl and me and looked at it. “The loan against the company is due and he’s going to steal it right out from under me. I just needed a few more jobs out of you to buy me some time.” He threw the photo against the wall, shattering the glass.
I jumped. “I’ll tell him to leave it alone. Just go.”
He pointed at me. “You don’t tell me what to do!”
“I’m trying to help you.”
“Help? Help!” He grabbed my arms and started shaking me. “All of this is your fault!”
“My fault?” I was lifted in the air, and I grabbed his shirt to hang on to in case he decided to toss me again.
“Yes.” He looked over my face and spoke softer. “You were supposed to fight for me. You walked away.”
“You were fucking another woman! How was that supposed to make me want to stay?”
He set me down and paced the living room. “My mother never left. Every time she caught my father, she became a better woman. She worked harder on their marriage.” He turned to me. “You never loved me or you wouldn’t have walked away.”
I shook my head. “That’s messed up. You never loved me or you wouldn’t have taken another woman to our bed.” I swallowed when what I said made me think about Carl.
I felt sick for making him take me to the bed he shared with his wife.
“Don’t tell me how I felt.”
“How can you even imply you loved me? You never kept me home. You pushed me out on the road!”
He stormed over to me. “Don’t sit there and act as if the road was the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do. I pushed you out there because you made us a shit ton of money, but you loved every minute of it!”
“You’re right! I did love it. It got me away from you.”
He hit me with the back of his hand. “Stop pissing me off!” He walked away. “You always have to piss me off. I’d like to just have a conversation with you where I don’t want to kill you.”
I held my face and sat in the chair. “I’m sorry.”
“God, if you had just said that in the beginning . . .” He shook his head. “Things would be so different now. We’d still be on top. Do you know how rich we could’ve been?”
“I wasn’t with you for the money.”
He sat on the sofa. “I know. You wanted a family. Why did you have to go and become a girl all of a sudden?”
“Why did you take the road from me?”
“You only cared about the road. I took away the one thing you would fight for.” He put his head on the back of the sofa. “Then you stopped fighting for that.”
I stood and he lifted his head. “I need to get ice.” I pointed to my face.
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do. It’s starting to swell.”
“You’ll be dead before the swelling is too bad.”
I stopped, but didn’t turn around. “You don’t want to do that.”
He was behind me. “There you go, telling me what I want again.” He bent down as he whispered in my ear. “The bruising you already have is going to make this hurt so much worse.”
He brought his arm up around me. I grabbed it and bit his hand hard. I ran when he pulled back and shook his hand. I had just opened the door and he slammed it shut. “Stop pissing me off!”
I turned and looked at him. “No.” I brought my knee and connected to his groin.
He doubled over, but pushed me into the door and dug his fingers into my arms. He kept his head down when he spoke. “I’m going to enjoy killing you.”
He shoved me to the middle of the room. I went down on my belly. The pain I felt only motivated me to get up. I didn’t want to give him the opportunity to hurt me anymore. I hadn’t replaced my cell phone yet, so I ran for the cordless in the kitchen. I only got halfway through Carl’s number before he ripped it out of my hands.
I ducked as the phone was thrown over my head and smashed into the wall. “Don’t do this.”
He reached out and brushed my cheek with his thumb. “I have to. You’ve left me no choice.”
His hand went lower and wrapped around my throat. I closed my eyes as he tightened his grip. I thought of Carl and Amy. One tear fell as I realized they were about to lose someone else and wondered if they would recover this time.
Another tear fell as I thought of what my parents had already gone through. Would Deb be strong enough to help them? Would Dennis and Rick help keep Deb on track?
I thought about how much my life had changed. How much I had changed. I smiled. Even though it may have been the end for me, I loved the new me. I loved falling in love with Carl and his daughter. I loved the hope of a new future away from the road.
“Why are you smiling? Why aren’t you fighting me?” His voice sounded distant. I tried to open my eyes, but things started to go black. My eyes widened when I saw another man enter the room.
I collapsed to the floor and gasped for air when Lance was hit. I had no idea who the man was in my kitchen with the frying pan. I started to drag myself across the floor to get away from him.
“Oh, hey.” He put the pan down and put his hands up. “Things got too quiet in here from your fight. I thought you needed some help.”
I stopped and rolled to my back. I could only whisper. “You waited until it got quiet?”
“Well, yeah. Deb said you were a spitfire. I figured you could handle him, but then it got quiet.” He shrugged.
I closed my eyes. If that was the guy Deb was seeing, she was right, he was an idiot.
Carl was quiet all evening, but he never let me out of his sight. It wasn’t until Amy had gone to bed that he started talking. “I could’ve lost you today.”
I turned in his arms and straddled him on the sofa. “But you didn’t. Don’t go there, please.” I kissed him.
“I shouldn’t have gone to his office.” He placed his forehead to mine. “I should’ve known he would pull something.”
“We can’t control other people. Please, don’t do this. I’m here. I’m with you and Amy.”
He kissed me hard as if it were going to be the last time, as if he wanted to burn it into his memory. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him tight. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know.” He brushed his fingers over my cheek. “I’m so sorry he went after you.”
“He was going to either way.” I took his hand and kissed his palm. “It isn’t your fault.”
“You have to be tired. Let’s go to bed and I’ll hold you there.”
I got up before he stood. “About that. . .”
“What? Do you want to go back to your apartment?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m sorry for pushing you into taking me to your bedroom.”
He stood and rubbed my arms. “You didn’t push me. You weren’t even awake the first time I took you up there.”
“I know, but you wouldn’t have taken me if I hadn’t made such a big deal about it.”
He held my hips and pulled me close. “Where is this coming from?”
“Hathaway.” I sighed and put my hands on his chest. “I made a comment about him bringing another woman into our bed.” I looked up and held his face. “I felt sick. If you don’t want another woman—”
He kissed me and picked me up. “You’re not another woman. You’re the woman I’m in love with. You’re the woman I’m going to share the rest of my life with—including my bed.”
I woke up to fingers between my legs, doing wonderful things to me. “Don’t stop. My fiancé will be home soon.” I smiled when his fingers stopped for a brief moment.
He rolled on top of me. “Then by all means, we should get to it.”
I spread my legs as I spoke. “We’re going to be late.”
“I’ll talk to your boss.”
I smiled again. “It’s Saturday. We’re supposed to help—” I arched my back as he entered me; it still took my breath away. “Oh . . . maybe just a quick one.”
“Quick?” He started to move slower.
“Oh, God. Don’t torture me.”
He went faster. “Maybe we should call in sick.”
“It’s Saturday.” I started moving my hips. “We can’t call in where we need to go.”
“Sure we can. She’s a big girl. She can handle it herself.” He backed up when I pushed on his chest. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I got up and threw the pillows on the floor. “I need this orgasm you’ve promised me now and you won’t stop talking.” I got on my knees on the bed and bent over to grab the headboard. Ever since that time in his office, if I need something quick and hard, that was how I got it. He couldn’t control himself.
Just as I thought, it took him two seconds to get behind me and thrust. I only wished I had a mirror to watch us. The growl of possession I used to detest was now music to my ears. It lit a fire inside me.
He leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “I still can’t believe you’re mine.”
He pulled me back with him. I reached up and wrapped my arms around his head, placing my back against his chest. He brought his hands around my belly and up to my breasts. I loved how his big hands covered them. He pinched and teased my nipples, making my hips move faster. It was when one hand went lower that I couldn’t take an
y more.
I put my hands on his thighs to brace myself and I took over, going faster. I tilted my head forward when the orgasm built and arched my back when it started to rip through my body. Carl bent me forward again and finally took over the way I needed him to.
“Fuck me.”
He grabbed my hips and pounded hard. Each thrust was increasing in speed and force. I knew he was getting close. I clenched my walls around him.
“Oh, fuck. Do it again.”
I smiled. “I love it when you say that.”
He reached around and rubbed my clit with firm pressure. I gripped the headboard harder. He angled his hips and hit the one spot that never failed to make me scream.
“Don’t stop!”
He didn’t stop, but I could hear him smile. “But we’re going to be late.”
“I will kill you if you stop.”
His chuckle vibrated in my ear when he leaned forward to whisper. “I love it when you get violent. Hang on.”
He took both hands and gripped my hips pulling me back into him with each thrust as he pounded into me. I would be sore later, but I didn’t care. I needed it. My whole body started shaking and I couldn’t hang on to the headboard anymore. I put my forehead to the bed and gripped the sheets.
Carl sat up on his knees, causing my hips to go higher. I was ready to pass out from the pleasure when he finally sent me over the edge. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
He collapsed next to me, trying to catch his breath. “I need a nap now.”
I couldn’t catch my breath, either. “She’s going to kill us.”
“Who?”
“Deb.”
“Oh, shit. Why didn’t you remind me?”
I turned my head toward him, but saw he was smiling. We were exhausted and barely breathing, but his reflexes were still there when our door burst open. He had us covered before Amy could see anything.
“Come on! We’re supposed to go to Deb’s today. Let’s go, lazy heads.” She slammed the door on her way out.
Carl turned his head to me. “Remind me again why we don’t lock the door?”
Striving for Perfection (Striving Series Book 2) Page 29