Calamity Rayne II: Back Again

by Lydia Michaels

  He’d made me come countless times and I was shocked he still managed to hold out. When his gaze finally found mine he slowed, his face a picture of devotion with love and affection banked in the depths of those silver eyes. That was Hale. No matter how intensely he came at me, no matter how raw we were, when he finished he always made sure I was looking at him so I could see the love in his eyes.

  “I love you, baby.” He thrust deep and shivered.

  My hands slid down his back and I let out a long exhale as his weight settled over me. “Wow.”

  Lifting his body, he gently kissed me and slowly withdrew. “Shit.”

  That didn’t sound right. “Problem?” I slurred because words would soon be beyond my ability.

  “The condom broke.”

  And there went my post-coital bliss. I eased up on my elbows. Hale was already standing. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. Damn. Are we … safe?”

  “Uh…” My head tried to do the math, but all my little brain minions were lounging around in silk robes, smoking cigarettes with sex-glazed eyes. “We should be fine.” No sense in worrying. Later, I’d look at a calendar and check for sure.

  He disappeared into the bathroom. “What the hell did you do in here?”

  “Girlie things. Shut up.”

  He returned and fell onto the bed, pulling me into every nook of his long body. My butt nestled into his hips and I sighed. There was nothing like being held by Hale.

  I was feeling rather sexy until my stomach rumbled. “Sorry.”

  “Are you hungry?”

  I laughed. “You know, I actually am. I haven’t had an appetite in weeks.”

  “I can order room service.”

  “What about Elara and your family?”

  “They can wait a while. My mom’s fine and Barrett probably went out.”

  I was a little surprised his brother made the trip. Barrett was whom Elle referred to as The Hot One. Not that she’d ever met him in person, but the Davenports were on television all the time.

  Hale had originally been deemed The Other One. Of course, that was before I actually met him. Although he wasn’t very photogenic, in person he had a devastating presence, the kind that shot right to the nipples and rendered women speechless.

  Barrett... Well, he was so seriously hot he probably outranked Hale, but in a dangerous way. I much preferred Hale to all the other Davenports. There was just something mysterious and authoritative about him, something Barrett lacked.

  Barrett knew he was good looking and never failed to flaunt it. He was an underwear model for crying out loud! Sometimes he was hard to look at, like the sun. Once I looked at him for a full ten seconds, and I think I hurt myself.

  Hale was devastating in a whole different way because he didn’t boast openly about his prowess or sex appeal. But it was there. Oh, it was there.

  “What do you want to eat?” He gave me a little nudge with his nose as his lips pressed into my shoulder.

  “You.”

  He chuckled. “You had me.”

  “I want you again.” I nestled my bottom against him and his hand cupped my breast, massaging gently.

  “So you don’t want food? That’s not like you.”

  I wasn’t overweight. I mean, I had fluffy parts, but my metabolism usually kept me pretty fit. However, I loved food, especially sweets, but lately, my life had been so chaotic I’d been surviving off vending machines. “I wish you’d brought Laurent.” Laurent was Remington’s chef and his food was to die for. I’d give anything to eat one of his beignets right now.

  “What’s good in Oregon?”

  “We’re known for fruit. I want something a little more savory than that.”

  His smile curved against my shoulder. “Are you feeling like a carnivore?”

  “Mmm. Yes.”

  While Hale ordered dinner I cleaned up my mess in the bathroom. My lady bits were delightfully sore and I loved traipsing around the hotel room naked.

  “Make it two baked potatoes,” he told the person on the phone.

  I peeked out the curtains and gasped. All of Oregon was out there. We should totally do it against this window. I was pretty sure we were high enough that no one would recognize me.

  “Thank you. Just leave it outside the door.” The phone clicked as he laid it back in the cradle. “There was a time you couldn’t bear being naked in front of me.”

  He grinned and folded his arms behind his head, his legs stretching across the rumpled bedding—dick just dancing in the wind. Hale had never been shy about nudity.

  I turned and pushed my butt between the curtains. “I’m totally mooning Oregon right now.”

  He laughed. “Get over here.”

  Prancing to the bed, I jumped and landed on my knees. “I can’t believe you’re here.” Leaning in, I kissed him. “Your dad has his cast off. How’s that going?”

  “It’s going. He’s in Maine right now.”

  “Maine? What’s he doing there?”

  “Checking on things. I expect he’ll be traveling for a while. By the end of those six weeks, he had severe cabin fever.”

  “Well, he better take it easy. He’s still got some healing to do.”

  Remington was old, but he had the energy of jarred lightning. Still, he was old and shouldn’t push too hard too fast. I worried for the old bugger.

  “You try telling him that.” Hale pulled me to his chest and I snuggled into him.

  “I love hotels. I don’t know why, but they always make me happy. I think it’s the fresh towels and room service.”

  He made a sound that he’d heard me, but no other response came. Hale had gotten that sort of luxury treatment all his life. Even at home, there was a wait staff and turn-down service.

  His soft lips teased my temple. “Did you have plans tonight?”

  I did, but they changed the minute I saw him. “I was going to go to the hospital for a bit.”

  “How long do you usually visit?”

  Not that I thought he would mind the long hours I sat at Elle’s bedside, but I didn’t feel like getting another lecture about not taking care of myself. Tyler and my mom already reprimanded me for not getting enough sleep or eating regularly. “I usually go for a few hours after work.”

  “When do visiting hours end?”

  Visiting hours didn’t apply to me. They should, but those nurses never got me out of there by eight. Some nights I slept on the loveseat, despite being told I had to leave. “They’re not real strict.”

  “We can take a ride over after dinner.”

  I pressed a cheek to his chest and smiled. Hale had never met Elle, but he knew she was important to me. “Thank you.”

  After we ate I changed into my clothes and grabbed the things I needed to take with us to the hospital. Hale made a quick call to his mom to check on Elara and told her we’d be back in an hour. I tried not to panic over his timeline, but an hour wasn’t enough Elle time.

  Chapter Five

  It’s Not About Me

  The moment we stepped into Elle’s room I sensed Hale slipping on a mask. I suppose it was a bit jarring, seeing a woman in such a state. All the tubes and wires hardly registered with me anymore. I no longer came to this place with expectations, only with the hope that I might add a little sunshine to my friend’s long, quiet days.

  Putting my belongings on the loveseat, I turned and faced Hale who waited at the door, expression blank. “It’s okay. You can come in.”

  His eyes were watchful as he took those first steps. I moved another chair beside the one that I usually sat in.

  “You can sit.”

  He lowered himself into the chair as I rummaged through a drawer. Once I found Elle’s hairbrush, I carefully combed out the tangles that remained on the side of her head and dusted my fingers over the short spikes that had started to grow. Her stitches had been removed and her little sprouts were coming in nicely. Hale watched silently as I gingerly tucked her blonde strands behind her ear an
d grinned.

  “We’re both struggling,” I told him. “Elle’s been in charge of my hair since I was fifteen. I’m desperately in need of a trim, but I promised her long ago she was my forever hairdresser.”

  When he smiled, it didn’t reach his eyes.

  “That looks good,” I told her. “I brought you something.”

  Tucking the brush away, I went to my bag and retrieved the nail polish remover. Swiping a few tissues from the box on the counter, I sat beside Hale and got to work. He watched as I removed the polish from her thin fingertips, but said nothing.

  “I got you this pretty blue-green. It’s called Teal the Cows Come Home.”

  Carefully untwisting the cap, I held her fingers and I dragged the brush over her nails. I was terrible at keeping the paint off the skin, but Elle never complained. When I finished the first hand, I rested it on a tissue and moved to the other side of the bed.

  “You’re quiet,” I said to Hale as I rubbed the polish off.

  His gaze lifted, but his expression remained utterly blank. “I don’t know what to say, Rayne.”

  My throat got tight, but there would be no crying today. Hale was here and it was a special night I didn’t want to ruin. Drawing in a steadying breath I smiled.

  “Hale’s here. Remember Hale, the guy I told you about?”

  The last awake conversation Elle and I had was right after I found out Hale was going to be a father. Elle told me to pack up shop, but I didn’t listen.

  “He had his baby. We’re going to see her after this. Her name’s Elara and she’s the teeniest little thing, Elle. You’d love her.”

  I blinked because sometimes my allergies got to me in this room. Voice tight, I said, “Hale surprised me today. Isn’t that sweet?”

  Forcing out a breath, I decided not to talk for a while, because my throat was getting really tight. After I finished her manicure, which looked like a two-year-old did it, I lifted her covers and gave her a leg massage. Her legs looked like mine had a few hours ago, but that was okay. At least her blonde hair wasn’t as noticeable as my dark fur.

  After an hour of taking care of her, I sat and held her hand. Hale was a silent statue the entire visit. I hadn’t known what to say at first either. It took me days to have a full conversation with her and I wasn’t sure if that was because she’d been so battered and unrecognizable, or if it had to do with my own self-consciousness. Now, I talked to her all the time. Tonight, I was actually holding back on account of Hale.

  When an hour and a half passed I felt pulled to leave. I didn’t want to go because it wasn’t nearly enough time to be with her, but it wasn’t fair to keep Hale there.

  Fixing her blankets, I leaned close and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “I’ll be back tomorrow, sweetie. I love you.”

  My chest hurt as we walked out of the room. I should have painted her toes. I’d do that tomorrow.

  We waited for the elevator and I glanced at Hale who still wore a blank expression. Maybe he got weird in hospitals. He’d seemed okay when Elara was born, but that was the maternity ward. Sometimes medical things made people uncomfortable.

  His fingers brushed mine as we stepped into the elevator and I found my hand wrapped in a tight grip, but he remained silent. As we drifted to the lobby I contemplated his silence, assuring myself it was the situation and not me. But there was a curious tug in my chest that warned Hale was worried. About me, Elle, or something totally unrelated, I wasn’t sure.

  I tried to think of something to say to break the ice but drew a blank. His questionable silence worried me. What if he was too detached from the situation to see the logic in me staying here? I needed him to not just accept, but agree that I was doing the right thing.

  The longer his silence went on the more anxious I became. Deep down I knew what he saw, a girl so damaged she was in no condition to wake and bounce back into life. Elle was in trouble and she would be for a while, which meant I’d be here … for a while.

  He opened the car door, but caught my arm and as I moved to get inside, startling me as he pulled me into a tight hug. “Oh.”

  His face pressed to my shoulder as he squeezed tighter. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

  Condolences were for death. Elle was very much alive in there. “It’s okay. She’s just building up her strength.”

  His arms tightened even more and I patted his back. I didn’t realize seeing her would upset him. When he released me I was a bit confused.

  We rode in silence back to the hotel, but as we neared the building, he finally asked, “How often do you visit her?”

  “Every day. Sometimes a couple times a day.”

  “Does anyone else visit?”

  I’d told him about Chris and that her parents were gone. “Sometimes Tyler comes by, but he doesn’t go every day anymore. Just the days I have to work and can’t be there until later.”

  His brow furrowed. “And you stay for over an hour every time?”

  I shrugged. I usually stayed all night. “She’s there twenty-four-seven. I don’t want her to get lonely.”

  His mouth flattened.

  “Is something wrong?”

  He shook his head. “I just can’t imagine doing that every day. I knew you’ve been visiting her regularly, but… I guess I wasn’t thinking what that actually meant.”

  My head tipped back against the headrest. Yes, it was tough. Some days it was downright brutal. Once I’d started talking to her I tried everything. I pinched her, tickled her, I even yelled at her, but she never moved.

  Elle had always been so pretty, so feminine. Next to her, I was a walking disaster, but she loved me anyway. I knew the nurses would meet her medical needs, but someone had to meet her emotional ones, so I took care of her as best I could.

  But Hale was right. Others should be there. Elle deserved a room full of people caring for her. But at the end of the day, the most she had was me. Sometimes I blamed myself, believing if I wasn’t such a codependent person she could have gone off to do whatever she wanted in life.

  That might be misplaced blame, but it existed all the same. For all of my awkwardness, Elle had twice as much elegance. She was smart and funny and graceful in every sense of the word. She stayed in Oregon because Tyler and I were here, but she’d been the first to encourage me to leave when my boring life got to me. I should have encouraged her as well. She was meant for bigger things. She could have worked at an upscale salon in New York or gone to Hollywood to work on movie sets. But as long as I stayed in Oregon, she stuck by my side. Loyal. And then I left.

  All of my life I’d been terrified of losing the one true friend who put up with me. And now I might have lost her. The guilt gnawed at me, too shameful and unflattering to speak.

  Elle had to get better because she had to get out there, chase her biggest dreams, fall in love, and stop worrying about me. Those opportunities were still out there. And maybe I was bartering, but if she could just wake up and return to her old self, I swore I’d never hold her back again.

  When we reached the hotel, Hale checked his phone. It was late and I wasn’t sure if I’d see Elara tonight. “Am I staying here with you?”

  Tucking away his phone, he faced me. “Isn’t that what you want? I’d hoped you would.”

  “No, I do, but I should let my mom know where I am.” Otherwise, she’d think I was sleeping at the hospital again.

  On the way up to his floor, I called my mom and told her Hale had come to visit. I don’t think she believed me. Ending the call, I huffed.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” I pursed my lips. “It’s amazing how many people think I made you up. Is it that hard to believe that I could have a boyfriend? Jeez.”

  I mean, I knew I’d always rolled my eyes at the whole coupling thing and never showed much interest, but it wasn’t like I was that awkward.

  He laughed. “We’ll prove I exist tomorrow when I drive you home.”

  I snickered. Then she’d see. I could have a boyfr
iend if I wanted to. I just never wanted one before.

  “My mom’s going to keep Elara overnight. I’m going to run down the hall and say goodnight to her. Do you want to come?”

  It was after ten and I was a bit drained, but the thought of missing a chance to see Elara... “I’ll come with you.”

  His smile was gentle, his eyes sympathetic. “I know you’re tired, Rayne. She’ll be sleeping. No one’s going to judge you if you wait until tomorrow to say hello.”

  And that was why I loved him. “I’ll see her in the morning. Tell your mom I can’t wait to catch up.”

  “I’m sure she can’t wait, too. Go get ready for bed. I’ll meet you there in a few minutes.”

  After washing up, I stripped down to my T-shirt and crawled into bed. Hale took longer than expected, but I heard him come in a while later. The television played softly as he moved about the room. I thought he might have made a phone call, but I couldn’t be too sure, as I kept drifting off. Sometime later, I felt him slide behind me and kiss me goodnight.

  Chapter Six

  Moms and Dads

  I awoke the following morning to the sound of cooing and Hale having a pretty intense conversation about a missing bootie. Rolling to my side, I watched him through the doorway as he held Elara and searched the sitting room for a missing baby shoe.

  “Be still my heart,” I whispered, smiling to myself.

  So the whole baby thing, it sort of came out of nowhere. I wasn’t a baby-crazed woman. I was an avoid children at all costs kind of gal, and usually cheated in Rock-Paper-Scissors at the bar when families sat in the restaurant section. Kids were messy and babies were fragile on top of the messy. But Elara was so cute I gave her a pass.

  Still, I had to constantly remind myself that she was Hale’s and not mine. Not that I was thinking about kidnapping her or anything. Seriously, what would I do with a baby? I still wanted to enjoy the newness of us, but that newness included an infant who stirred up all kinds of nonsense where my ovaries were concerned.

  I accepted his fatherhood status, maybe even fell in love with him a bit more once I understood what he’d done to become a father, but I wasn’t here to be a mom. I was here to be a sex goddess.