Just like Grey: Alex Romaletti

by Jessie Cooke

  The ranger spoke up then. “There was a car right behind them when the truck hit them. Those people got out to help. One of them was a woman in a wedding gown. She's the one that told us to come and tell you what happened.”

  “Izzy? Fuck! Where is she? This woman in the gown and the man that was driving her…where are they?”

  “I'm not sure sir. The man was the one that called 911 and the woman was giving CPR when we arrived. She wrote down your information for me and told me where you'd be. She said she couldn't get through to you on your cell. I tried calling you on the way up as well. You must not have service up here.” Alex pulled his phone out and looked at it. The ranger was right, he didn't have any service. “I have to find her,” he said. He started toward the parking lot with the voices of his parents and the park ranger and sheriff blurring in his ears. Finally Levi reached out and grabbed his arm.

  “Alex, they're saying that you won't be able to get through. The truck caught fire and the brush around it is on fire now. The fire department has the roads blocked.”

  “What the fuck am I supposed to do?”

  “It sounds like she's okay. I'm sorry about Kelly…”

  “I can't think about that right now. I can't think about Kelly right now. I have to find Izzy. I have to know that she's okay and then, then I'll think about Kelly.”

  “Okay man, but you can't get through the road blocks.”

  “Then I'll go over them.” Alex took off walking again. He heard Levi sigh behind him, but he didn't stop. He walked for two miles with Levi chasing after him until he came out of the park entrance and into the little town. He checked his phone again. It had one bar. He tried to call Izzy, but the call wouldn't go through. He tried Mike with the same result. Cursing again, he went into the sub shop. Levi was still following close behind. “I need to use your phone,” he told the girl behind the counter.

  “Um…I'm not supposed to…” Alex reached over the counter and picked up the phone. The girl was looking at Levi as if to ask if he was crazy. While Alex was dialing, Levi handed the girl a fifty from his wallet and said,

  “For your trouble.”

  She looked down at it like she was going to refuse at first but then shrugged and stuck it in her pocket. Meanwhile Alex was listening to the phone ring on the other end. He'd gotten through, but now Izzy wasn't answering. When it went to her voicemail he said, “I don't have service baby, but I need to know you're okay. If you get this, please call this number back.” He hung up and called Mike. He got his voice mail too. He wasn't as sweet in his message with Mike, he just growled out, “Call me!” He slammed down the phone and looked at the girl and said, “What's the name of that helicopter service around here, the one that does the waterfall tours and all that?”

  “Hanson's Helicopters,” she said.

  “You have the number?” The girl looked at Levi again. He must have seemed like the sane one to her. He nodded, and the girl grabbed a calendar off the wall behind her. Alex saw as she shuffled through it that each month had a different business highlighted. Hanson's was September. The number was printed in bold lettering across the ad. Alex picked up the phone and dialed that number. He waited impatiently through three rings and when it was finally picked up he told them what he needed. When the man on the other end seemed like he was going to refuse Alex said, “Ten thousand dollars, one way.”

  “A car will be there to take you to the heliport in five sir.”

  31

  “You sure you're okay?” Mike asked Isabelle as they sat in a long line of traffic. He was looking at her in the rearview mirror with worry in his eyes. Isabelle looked down at the white wedding gown she'd designed herself. The front of it was covered in blood…and other things. It was Kelly's blood that she'd gotten on her while she pounded the other woman's chest and tried to get her heart to start pumping again. She felt lightheaded now, like the adrenaline shot had left her with a hangover of sorts.

  “Yeah, I'm just…I just hope the sheriff found Alex. He's going to be so worried.” She tried to remember what she'd told the sheriff to tell him. Did she even tell him her name? Everything was crazy by that time. The big logging truck was leaking gas when it turned over and while she was still trying to get Kelly to breathe, it had started on fire. The fire department, already on their way, had arrived minutes later. Kelly's heart was beating, faintly and she was breathing, raggedly, by that time. There hadn't been anything they could do for the driver of the car and she remembered the fireman telling her that. She remembered someone taking her blood pressure and asking her if she had any injuries…and she remembered talking to the sheriff when he arrived. But what she didn't remember was telling him her name. Did Alex even know why she wasn't there? What if he thought she stood him up on their wedding day? This was all her fault for being late in the first place. She was working on that room at the house…his wedding gift…she should have been at the glen already before the accident even happened.

  “Mike, where is my phone?” Izzy was looking around the backseat where she was sitting frantically all of a sudden. She couldn't remember what she'd done with her phone.

  “In your bag?”

  “Where's my bag?” Panic welled in her chest. They were almost back to the house. Alex wouldn't be able to get past those road blocks to get to her and he was probably trying to call… “Shit! I must have left it at the accident site. I had it on my arm when I jumped out of the car…I don't remember seeing it after that. Can I use your phone?” Mike took one hand off the steering wheel and stuck his hand in his pocket. He pulled out his phone and handed it over the seat to her. “Mike, you have a missed call.”

  “Yeah, it rang while the ambulance guys were checking me out. I didn't recognize the number, so I just let it go to voicemail.”

  Isabelle nodded and pressed in the number Mike had saved as “Boss.” It rang once and went to voicemail. The sound of Alex's voice on the recording calmed her down somewhat. At the tone she said, “Hi baby, it's me. I hope the sheriff told you why I'm not there. I can't wait to marry you, but there was this terrible accident…it was Kelly baby. I'm not sure why she was up here…she's alive, but that's all I know. I hope you're not worried. I love you.” She sighed and ended the call before handing the phone over the seat to Mike and thanking him. They drove in silence the rest of the way down the hill. It was still almost an hour drive back to the house that she and Alex were having built. She wished that she could take off the bloody dress. She wished that Alex was there. Most of all, she hoped that he knew how much she loved him…and if Kelly died, she hoped he would believe that she'd done everything she could for the other woman, despite her personal feelings. The sound of a helicopter overhead interrupted her thoughts. She glanced up out the window at it and said, “That's flying low, isn't it?” Mike nodded.

  “Yeah, going to the fire maybe.”

  “It looks like it’s getting even lower.” Isabelle could feel the motion of the car from the wind that was being generated by the swirling blades.

  “I think they're landing it in that parking lot. What the hell are they doing?” Mike slowed the car down. The cars in front of them were slowing down too. Rubberneckers were pulling over to the side of the road to see what was happening. Some people already had their phones out and cameras trained on the helicopter that was just touching down in a small park and ride parking lot. Isabelle watched as the door opened and a figure in black stepped out. Excitement shot through her.

  “Mike! Stop!”

  Mike was already pulling over to the side of the road as he said, “What is it Miss Brazil?”

  She smiled. “It's my groom, Mike.” She could hardly wait for him to stop the car before throwing open the back door and jumping out. She reached down and pulled off her shoes. Alex saw her and started running toward her across the field between them. She saw Levi was behind him, but Levi stood where he was when he saw her. She tossed the shoes aside, held the hem of her dress up with her hands and started running toward him.
They were about a foot apart when she leapt off the ground and into his arms. Alex picked her up and hugged her so tightly that she was afraid she might need CPR herself in a second. Suddenly she thought of the blood all over her dress and she pushed back.

  “Oh my God, Izzy! Is that your blood? Are you okay?”

  With tears in her eyes she said, “No. It's Kelly's blood. I'm sorry Alex. I did what I could for her.”

  “Hey.” He grabbed her face with the palm of his hand and held it gently as he said, “Do you honestly think that I would think you didn't?”

  “What was she doing there? Why was she up here?”

  “She was with my ex-bodyguard, Brody. My guess was that she was still keeping tabs on us. Maybe she had plans to crash the wedding…I don't know. I'm just so glad you're okay, baby. Jesus, I heard them say accident and fatality…my world stopped. I couldn't breathe, and I didn't want to. If I didn't already know that I never want to live another second of my life without you, that moment was the proof. If that had been you, I wouldn't have taken another breath.”

  Isabelle put her arms around his neck and kissed him and then buried her face in his chest again. He held her like that with people on the side of the road taking pictures and video, Mike standing next to the car and Levi next to the helicopter and neither one of them noticed any of it. Once again, they were the only two people in the world.

  Alex stood in the still not quite finished house, blindfolded, shirtless and shoe less. Isabelle was unlocking the door to the “special room” she'd had added on to the house all on her own, and she was about to reveal it to him, before he'd even had a chance to make love to his new wife. This was not what Alex expected their wedding night to be like. Of course, the whole wedding hadn't been quite what anyone was expecting.

  That day when Alex finally found Isabelle all she wanted to do was take off that bloody gown and curl up in his arms…and he was happy to oblige. They spent the rest of that day curled up on the couch in her little apartment with Theo taking turns walking back and forth between them.

  The next day, she'd asked him to go with her to see Kelly. Kelly's family had been at the hospital when they got there, and her brother told them the extent of her injuries. He told them that she was still in critical condition and she had a long road ahead of her, but she was expected to survive. What surprised Alex was what he said to Isabelle,

  “It was you! You're the girl on the video…”

  “What video?” Alex asked him.

  “Someone sent me a video of the accident.” He looked like he might be sick for a second, but then he pulled it together again and said, “It was you in the wedding dress, wasn't it?”

  Isabelle nodded. “Yes.” Alex knew she had given Kelly CPR, but when her brother took out his phone and said,

  “Look,” Alex watched his beautiful bride get out of the car and give no thought to the white, designer gown she was wearing. She just pulled up her sleeves and went to work, even using the tail of her dress to stop the bleeding from Kelly's head wound at one point. That woman made Isabelle miserable. She treated her like shit. She tried to ruin her. She had her kidnapped and drugged…but Isabelle didn't hesitate to help her. When she was handed the chance for the ultimate revenge on a silver platter…she didn't take it. She did the honorable thing…the right thing. God, he loved this woman. He put his arm around Isabelle's shoulders and told Kelly's brother,

  “I hope she'll be okay. You can call us if she needs anything. I'm sorry, we have to go now.”

  Isabelle looked confused, but she didn't argue. She didn't even ask where they were going until they got in the car, and when he told her the justice of the peace, she only smiled and reached for his hand. They were married that day, and it didn't matter that she didn't have a dress or him a tux…or even that there was no one there to witness it but the court staff. She was his wife…that was all that mattered.

  From the courthouse Alex planned on taking her back to the penthouse to celebrate with champagne and a night of wild passion…but Izzy wanted to go to the new house. She wanted him to see the room first because the day before, the day they were supposed to get married, the contractor had helped her finish it…that's why she'd left late, and why she'd been there to save Kelly's life.

  So, because he planned on making sure Izzy got everything she wanted for the rest of her life, he was now standing on the threshold of the new “special room,” waiting for the big reveal. “You ready?” she asked. Her voice echoed off the walls as she shut the door behind them. He heard her flip on a light and there was a red glow around the darkness that was his vision at the moment.

  “Ready,” he said.

  He felt her slip the blindfold off his face and he blinked his eyes a few times to adjust them to the light…the red light. He looked up at the source which was a red, crystal chandelier hanging from the center of the room. He looked down at his feet. They were standing atop the plushest, whitest carpet he'd ever seen. He lifted his head and began to take stock of the room.

  One side of the room had large black letters painted on the wall that said, “HIS” The other side said, “HERS.” On her side of the room the walls were painted blood red. A small stage with a stripper pole adorned one corner and a trapeze hung from the ceiling next to it. The center of the room held what looked like an exam chair for a doctor or dentist office. Leather restraints were attached at four points and there was even a thick leather chest strap that lay across it. Mirrors adorned another wall and a colorful shelving system covered the other. The shelves were filled with toys…dildos of every size and color, whips, paddles, feathers, blindfolds…underneath the shelves was a large CD player attached to two huge red speakers.

  On his side of the room was a bench that she'd shown him in a magazine once. It was called a “spanking bench.” There was an opulent bed with a black down comforter and big, fluffy pillows. There was a “St. Andrews Cross” again, he only knew what it was called because Izzy had slowly been introducing him to these things, one magazine article at a time. Alex walked over to the whipping post and at last Izzy said, “Well? What do you think?”

  He looked at her and a smile spread across his face. Going over to the red leather recliner that sat in between the two rooms he took a seat, swiveled the recliner toward the stripper pole and said, “What time does the show start?”

  Izzy pulled off her dress and tossed it on the floor. Then going over to her shelves, she pulled down a white, felt cowboy hat and put it on her head. She grinned at him and said, “Hang on cowboy, you're in for a wild ride.”

  Just like Grey 3

  Sean Cashman

  He thinks she’s a sub, but she isn’t. She thinks he’s a Dom but he’s not. Or were they right the first time?

  Sean “Cash” Cashman, the son of a rich man, had everything, looks, a beautiful girlfriend and money. But Cash’s life started unraveling a year ago when his father died. He buried himself in his after he buried his father. And his relationship to the girl he knew since he was a boy hung on a thread. But on the day when he was about to pop the question he finds her on the phone with another man, saying things a girl in a committed relationship shouldn’t be saying. Cash, in a spur of the moment decision, decided to take off to the Virgin Islands where he has a condo. In his rush to make the flight he knocks over a beautiful woman, Lexi, and to make it up to her, has her moved to first class where he discovers her copy of 50 Shades of Grey. He assumes she is into BDSM and it fascinates him that Lexi is a submissive.

  Lexi Winters has only one reason to fly to the Virgin Islands. Work. Her boss sent her there to secure the signature of his client, Sean Cashman, on the papers for the merger of his Cashman Corporation to a rival company. But one thing after another goes wrong and when she is knocked over by a sexy stranger, things get bumpier. She finds herself seated next to him on the plane. Taking her best friend’s advice to have fun, she flirts with him, but things takes a strange turn when he finds her best friend’s copy of 50 Shades pokin
g out from her canvas bag. As they tease each other, he introduces himself as Edward Teach, a descendent of the infamous pirate Blackbeard. Lexi doesn’t believe him. When Edward takes her to a BDSM club, she gets an eyeful of a strangely exciting and forbidden world, and she wonders just what she is getting into with this rogue.

  But obstacles appear to Cash and Lexi getting together and exploring their kinky interests, one of them being the sudden arrival of Cash’s girlfriend Tiffany.

  Cash and Lexi’s story is filled with steamy scenes and BDSM content.

  Available Early 2018

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  A Message from Jessie

  I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I did writing it. If you did, I would really appreciate you leaving a review on Amazon.

  It’s helps more readers discover my books and allows me to pay for the coffee that keeps me writing every day :)

  I’m already writing the next book that I hope you will enjoy soon. If you’re on my email list, or follow me on Amazon, you’ll be hearing from me when it is ready.

  Have a lovely day and thanks so much for reading my books. You make my words worthwhile.

  Jessie.

  If you find any editing issues (it has been professionally edited but we’re only human) please email me at jscookeauthor@gmail.com so I can make any changes necessary and everyone can benefit from your kindness.

  Thanks!

  Acknowledgments

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and events are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to people, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.