Lowering my arms, I place my hands on her hips and gently turn her around to where she can look at me as I claim her lips… again. I just stand here as still as a statue waiting on her to make a decision. She may not understand, but once she gives into me on this, she’s signed on the dotted line and she’ll belong to me. I’ll never allow her to place any distance between us. She’s mine and I’m hers and no one will ever come between us again, not even me. I won’t allow it, it’s time that I show her how serious I am when it comes to rebuilding what we once had.
“Yes,” she quietly, barely above an audible sigh, says to me in response.
Needing her to understand where I’m coming from, I repeat my earlier inner thoughts to her. “This means everything, Jacey. There’s no turning back once I get a taste of those lips again. You will be mine again, in every way that counts.”
“Slowly, Rayne. I’m willing to give us a chance, but I want us to take our time and build the new us on a more solid foundation than what we had before.”
“How slow are we talking here, Jacey? Because if I have my way about things, you’ll be in front of a judge, a ring on your finger and signing that document that proclaims you as my wife as early as tomorrow morning.”
“Um, I’m just gonna put this out there—that’s all a bit too quick for me. I want to date for a while. I want to get dressed up and have you take me out on the town. I want to work up to becoming lovers then we’ll work our way up to discussing that ring and paper you were talking about.”
Dear fucking God! Is she talking a few days here, weeks, months, a year? My dick needs to know these things. Is my palm going to become my second girlfriend? These are things that you can’t keep a man wondering about. “Uh,” is the only thing that escapes my lips. I’m an intellectual man, you’d think I’d be able to get more than one syllable uttered in response.
Jacey simply smiles up at me and pats my cheek with the palm of her hand. “You’ll survive, Rayne. I won’t make you wait too long.” The last word comes out with a ruptured giggle. Losing myself in her happiness, I lean down as she lifts up. Meeting in the middle, we both greedily claim one another.
My heart rapidly beats in my chest as my hands grow clammy, just as they used to when we’d meld together as one. My woman has once again reeled me in… hook, line, and sinker.
I am hers and always will be.
18
Rayne
“What do you mean I’m fired!” Jameson thunderously roars out at me and my sisters. His veins are protruding from his neck and his fists are balled at his sides. If he so much as thinks of taking a swing at one of my sisters, I’ll remove his testicles and feed them to those damn piglets at that petting zoo I took Hadley to.
“We know what you did, Jameson. How you kept my family from me, helped hide the fact that I’m a father. On top of that, we have discovered you’ve also been taking some money from us and profiting from our hard work. We pay you fucking good, man, much better than most managers, yet you tried your hardest to fuck us over. We’ve been gathering evidence against you for a while now. You’re done, get the fuck out.” He turns around and punches a hole in the sheetrock that’s in the conference room of the hotel we’re staying at, which is where we’ve chosen to have this meeting with him.
“That’s coming out of your last paycheck,” Billie rumbles as she eyes the deep hole that’s predominantly staring at us. “There goes that severance package we were debating on handing out to you.”
“Fuck that. I think he’s given himself enough severance. He took that shit for himself,” Sibley utters through a hiss.
Jameson lets his anger take control of him; he begins tossing chairs around the room and throwing inanimate objects. One missiles over Justine’s head and I’ve had enough of his temper tantrum.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—no one, ever, threatens to hurt or comes close to hurting one of my sisters!” I roar as I leap out of my chair and drive my head into his stomach. His feet momentarily lift off of the ground as I make contact. Once his back is touching the ground, I straddle him and begin whaling on him. I don’t black out per se, but I lose all cognitive thought when all that is running through my head is his deception and the fact that he nearly hit my sister.
In my subconscious mind, I can hear voices buzzing around in the background and feel feather light touches as my sisters attempt to pull me from Jameson’s person. But I have too much anger and resentment stored inside of me; my body feels like a cyclone set on destruction. I have only one target that I wanna rip apart and that happens to be the motherfucker beneath me.
Punch after punch, I allow myself to take out my life’s aggravation. He is the one who was the driving force that took precious years with my daughter away from me after all. As my body begins to wind down, I am pulled off of him by those stronger than my siblings. Finally coming down from my adrenaline rush, I look over and notice two security guards are holding me back as my personal security detail is lifting Jameson’s bloody body from the floor. As soon as he’s back on his feet, I’m not sure what comes over me, but I spit on him. “You’re done, motherfucker!” I make sure to get one more jab out. “All the information gathered by my attorney has been sent to Sebastian. You’ll be lucky if you get a job scrubbing toilets at a stadium. You’ll never work for a band again. Our contract is up for renewal, dickhead, and we refuse to sign until the company places charges on you themselves. You. Are. Through!”
He has to make one last threat before being dragged out of the conference room. “Watch your woman and daughter closely, Rayne. You don’t know what you’ve done making an enemy out of me. I have nothing left to lose.” Then he gives me a menacing smile, thinking he’s gotten the upper hand.
Wrong.
“You fool, you just threatened my family and their safety in front of a room full of witnesses. It’s you who better watch yourself.” My chest is heaving from exertion, but my mind is mentally calculating what all I need to enforce to ensure my girls’ safety from this madman and any associates he may have. He just laid his cards out on the table for me, but in the end, he’ll be the one folding, not me.
“Well, that was fun,” Billie announces, breaking the tension in the room. As we all look around at one another, a burst of laughter leaks out and soon, we find ourselves with tears running down our cheeks and our stomachs cramping from the movement.
“Excuse me,” an officer says, gaining our attention. “We need you all to come down to the station and give sworn statements.”
For the next several hours, this is how we find our day occupied. Statements are taken from each one of us. Our attorney comes in and hands over a stack of copied evidence. Before we get a chance to escape the police department, we find ourselves signing our names on blank slips of paper for our cop fans and taking selfies with them. Something I learned in this industry is the more hands you butter, the easier it is to get away with screwing the pooch. In this instance, the mutt is Jameson. I hope someone makes him their bitch.
Jacey
I’m wrapping up my business day as the phone on my desk begins to ring. Before picking it up, I look at the caller ID and am surprised to see that it’s Chief Langley calling me.
“Hello?” I answer with a quiver in my tone. I’m petrified that Jameson followed through with his earlier threats. Rayne told me that today is the day they planned on firing Jameson. Did that piece of shit do something to my baby in retaliation?
“Jacey, it’s Chief Langley. I need you to come down to the office to meet with me.”
“Is it my baby, Chief? Did something happen to Hadley?”
Fear must be laced in my words because he’s quick to reassure me, “Hadley’s fine, this is about an incident that happened today. It’s been brought to our attention that Jameson Davis has been threatening and blackmailing you.”
“Um. Yes, that’s right,” I agree, clearing my throat. “I can come in quickly, Chief, but I have to pick Hadley up in forty-fiv
e minutes from preschool.”
“We’ll make it quick. After you write up your sworn statement, I’ll get it typed up and bring it by tomorrow for you to sign.”
“Thank you, Chief, I’ll be there soon.”
“I’ll have everything ready for you and will personally be waiting up front for your arrival.”
“Again, thank you, Chief,” I respond, hanging up the phone and rushing to my car.
True to his word, everything was waiting for me. It took twenty minutes to write out a brief summary of my dealings with Jameson, and I barely managed to make it in time to pick Hadley up before being fined for being late. That shit gets expensive after the first five minutes. They charge a flat-rate fee for the first five, then it picks up for every minute afterward that a parent or guardian is late.
“I’m in the wrong business,” I mumble to myself as I step out of my vehicle. As I go around to the back to get Hadley from her seat, Rayne comes roaring up behind us. But what has my tongue waggling and my mouth drying up like the Sahara Desert, is that he pulls up on a motorcycle. My heart skips a few beats as my lungs beg for the air I’ve deprived them of.
“Mommy! Mommy, I wants out.” I hear Hadley’s voice, which snaps me out of my Rayne-induced fog.
“Can the asshole get any hotter?” I mutter to myself as I open the back door. Reaching in, I unclasp the belts of the car seat and assist Hadley out.
“Daddy! You’s got a bike! A big one,” she giddily says as her feet begin to tap in exhilaration.
Rayne makes it over to us, and I swear I hear him utter, ‘That’s what she said’, before reaching down and picking up Hads. No, I shake my head dismissing those thoughts, surely, he didn’t. Then I look into his eyes and see the twinkling of mischief dancing in them. Oh God, he did!
“My sisters are coming over and taking Hadley to the hotel for the night. They’re gonna swim in the pool and paint each other’s nails and do all that girly shit with her,” he notifies me. “Plus, it gives the parents enough time to spoil her rotten before they leave. Dad’s been called back to work so they have to leave in two days.”
“They are, are they? Are you asking my permission, Rayne, or are you telling me?” I’m mentally excited about spending an entire evening alone with him, but I can’t let him know that. I have to give him a hard time every now and again, otherwise things become stale and old. “And yeah, spending time alone with her grandparents and aunts will make her little heart leap.”
“Neither, babe. I’m promising you a fun, child-free night of riding on that beast,” he says, pointing his finger at the motorcycle. “Some dinner, catch a movie, whatever you’d like to do.” He doesn’t reply to my words about alone time with her Nonas and Papas, so I let that subject go. At some point, I’m going to have to face my mom and talk to her. I saw and heard how upset and hurt she was. Even my explanation to all of them wasn’t enough to satisfy her need to understand why I made the choices and decisions that I did.
“Rayne, the media. You know they’ll follow and take pictures. We’ll be splashed all over the tabloids.”
“So the fuck what. I told you, Jace, I’m not ever gonna hide us again.”
“Oh,” is the only intellectual thing I can come up with to say in response.
“Come on, love bug, let’s go pack you an overnight bag,” Rayne says as he ushers Hadley off and leaves me with my mouth gaped open, standing still in the front yard. “Coming, Jace?”
Why is it this man has the capability of shocking me to my core?
“Yeah, coming,” I mumble back as I make my way into the house. I assist Rayne in packing up everything Hadley needs for her sleepover. My hands tremble the entire time as my mind conjures up scenarios for how tonight will most likely play out.
I’m not sure if the shakiness I’m enduring is from terror or excitement. Either way, I guess we’re coming out and shocking the fuck out of the public.
19
Jacey
Holy shit balls. Every move we make is being spotlighted by cameras and paparazzi. It’s as if someone leaked our itinerary for the night and shared it with the media. My eyes have lights dancing in them as we make our way out of the restaurant. We went to a five-star Italian, mom-and-pop place to eat. The cuisine was exquisite. My stomach is full and my taste buds are satisfied.
“Rayne, could you and your manager smile for the camera?” one of the annoying men asks him.
“My woman,” Rayne counters, “and I’ll give you a better picture to capture than a mere smile.” Rayne leans me back, one of his arms in the curve of my spine as his other hand comes up and grasps the hair at the nape of my neck. Before it dawns on me what’s fixing to happen, he plants his lips on top of mine. As normal, I can’t resist him and open wide. Closing my eyes, I forget that we’re on display and lose myself in the only man I’ve ever loved.
I don’t hear the click of cameras as they capture our image. I forget that we’re anywhere other than lost in each other’s arms. That wall I tried to once again put over my heart crumbles into fractured pieces. I could never resist him in the past, what in the hell made me think I could do so now?
When our lips finally break from one another, I pull in a deep breath of oxygen. This is the second time today I’ve made them protest their lack of fresh air. When I come to my senses, I see Rayne down on bended knee in front of me, a ring box opened wide and the classiest diamond engagement ring sparkling back at me.
“Jacey…” He speaks my name before clearing his throat. “I’ve been the worst type of man out there. I lost you once because of my so-called image. I allowed you to walk away from me, then, I tried to lose myself in cheap, loose women and shoddy booze. They were the biggest mistakes of my life. I pride myself in being a man who learns from his life’s lessons. I will honor and cherish you for the rest of our lives. I will never cheat on you, lie to you, or let others come between us. I will fight to be at your side each and every day. You are my world, my everything. Will you make me the luckiest and happiest man on the planet and become my wife?”
I just know that my shocked look is going to be what’s captured and displayed in tomorrow’s newspapers. But I can’t help it. I never in a million years saw this coming. I thought we were going to take things slow. But I love this man to the depths of my soul, can I really say no? I mean, I hate the fact that my proposal had women and booze mentioned, but I know why he did so. He was beating the tabloid stories before women could sell theirs to them. He wanted to cut the head off the she-devils before they could make a profit off their night with the most eligible, sought-after bachelor.
Well, not anymore because I’m fixing to give Rayne my answer.
“Yes,” I come back with as tears leak from my eyes. “I would love to walk through life with you at mine and our daughter’s side.” There, I answered and at the same time, let those women know if they blasted their stories to the public, they’d be known as nothing more than homewrecking sluts. Tit for tat, bitches.
Still with his knee to the ground, he pulls out the ring and places it on my finger. At this point and time, I don’t know who’s more nervous since both of our hands are shaky. Once that sparkling diamond is resting on my hand, Rayne raises up and plants another lip lock on me.
My libido kicks into high gear, my nipples pebble and my center aches. The desperation and desire for him plays havoc on not only my body, but my soul as well.
Rayne
It’s been a few months since I came crashing into Jacey’s life again. My balls are blue. They are swollen and needy. Tonight, my sisters and family have Hadley which makes my manhood roar in happiness. They’ve hinted that they need a girls’ night with her, and I’m going to take full advantage of our daughter being away with them tonight.
Not only did I plan on proposing to my woman, but I plan on reclaiming my ownership over her body. As we mount my bike and speed away from the prying eyes of the public, I plan on breaking as many speeding laws as I can get away with. In my short
time here, I’ve learned where all the speed traps are and I plan on avoiding them like the bubonic plague.
Jacey’s arms are wrapped around my middle and I feel as if everything in my life is finally slipping into place. I have my woman, my daughter, my sisters and our band. Life couldn’t get any sweeter than it already is.
As soon as we pull into the driveway, I assist Jacey off of the bike and rip both of our helmets off before swinging my legs around and dismounting myself. I take her hand in mine and pull her into my chest. Our hearts are syncing together, beating as one. How the hell was I able to survive without this woman lighting up my world?
I lean down and plant my lips on hers. It’s a dominating, posessive claiming of ownership. The question is, who owns who? When we pull apart, we’re both vying for our next breath. Our chests are heaving with exertion and excitement, both recognizing the other and understanding the bond we’re fixing to cement our relationship with. When we connect intimately with one another, there will be no more her or me, it will be us forever throughout life’s events. Whatever they will be, we will be triumphant and overcome it all.
We are, and have always been, stronger as one cohesive unit. We’ve always been able to march our way through life to the beat of my drums. She is the missing part of me that I threw away. I kick myself in the pants more each and every day for allowing that to happen.
Uninhibited : Savage Wilde Page 10