I climbed into bed and waited. He didn’t come up for over an hour and when he finally entered the room I thought it would be best to pretend I was asleep.
Hale’s body curled into mine and I frowned when I felt his erection. Was that a souvenir from downstairs or something he just acquired here?
“You awake, baby?” His hand slipped under my shirt and cupped my breast. “Rayne?”
“I’m sleeping.” I kept my eyes closed.
A slow chuckle rumbled in his chest as his fingers found my nipple. “I want you.”
I nudged him away. “I’m not in the mood.”
He sighed and turned onto his back. When he didn’t say anything I assumed he’d fallen asleep, but his aggravated breathing proved he wasn’t. He tossed and turned for about twenty minutes, keeping me awake until he got out of bed and quietly left the bedroom.
I sat up, wondering where he was going. The sensor lights on the back of the house kicked on and I climbed out of bed. Looking down at the back patio, I watched him take a seat by the pool, obviously frustrated. Then another light flicked on and I saw Brynlee step out of the guesthouse wearing only a little nightgown.
My breath fogged the glass as it staggered past my lips. “Go back inside,” I whispered.
Hale turned as Brynlee took a step closer to the pool but stopped halfway between him and the guesthouse. He looked at her and my stomach cramped. So help me God, if he touched her I’d go ballistic. When I saw she was talking I searched the window for a lock, desperately needing to hear what she said.
The window didn’t open. What good was that?
I watched in horror as she took another step, but her progress halted when Hale held up a hand. My heart raced. He stood and said something and then he turned and disappeared into the house. Where did he go? Brynlee’s shoulders slouched, but she didn’t move. Go back to your house—
“I thought you were asleep.”
I pivoted, all the heat leaching from my face. “I was looking at stars.”
He glanced at the window and back to me.
“I saw the light come on,” I confessed. And then the nanny come on to you. I glanced back out the window. Brynlee was gone.
He frowned. “I was just getting some air.”
For some reason, I nodded rather than telling him what I saw.
Moving slowly, I climbed back into bed and rested my head on my pillow. Hale returned to his side, but this time he didn’t touch me. The longer the silence lasted the closer I came to the verge of tears.
I assumed Hale had fallen asleep, until he said, “I’ll start looking for a new nanny tomorrow.”
Relief should have been instantaneous, but it wasn’t. My victory was muddled with unanswerable questions. I wanted to know if he was letting her go so the temptation wouldn’t be there or if this was about doing something for me or if I really wasn’t that crazy and something bad just happened by the pool.
But maybe she’d done nothing wrong and was only losing her job because her boss’s girlfriend was a psychopath. It sucked being the crazy person in this scenario and I couldn’t take the guilt.
“You don’t have to fire her.”
The blankets shifted and I turned to my side, facing him. His expression was unreadable and he remained silent. Sliding closer to him, I placed a hand on his chest.
“Hale?”
He caught my fingers and squeezed gently, but didn’t look at me. Then he shifted, and pinned me beneath him, his mouth closing over mine as he kissed me deeply. “I want you.”
I couldn’t shake the horrible feeling that he was getting all turned on by the nanny each time he came on to me. “Slow down there, tiger.”
His body pressed into mine as he nuzzled his way to my neck. “Why are you keeping yourself from me lately?”
“I’m not.” Was I? We’d had sex a few days ago. Or was that last week?
“Rayne, I need to be with you. That connection’s important.”
Hearing the longing in his voice and recognizing the stress in his eyes, I nodded. I didn’t want to examine my reasoning too closely because there were too many unfavorable theories floating through my head. I only knew I wanted to be the one to meet his needs, no one else.
The blankets kicked away as he removed his pants and briefs, his body sliding over mine. He peeled down my panties and wrenched my legs apart, lining his cock up to my sex, but not penetrating.
“Tell me you want me, Rayne. I need to hear you say it.”
“I want you,” I rasped. And I did. I wanted him all to myself and I didn’t want any young women coming onto him, especially in our house.
He thrust into me and whispered, “I don’t like this distance between us and I’m tired of missing you.”
My body bowed against his as I moaned. He cursed and thrust again, his hands crawling over me, needy and rough. I held onto him as he fucked me hard, my cries likely traveling to other parts of the house, but I didn’t care. I did wish I’d gotten that window open though.
There was something about being taken in such an impassioned way that had my insecurities scattering. His desire scared the timid parts of me into hiding and coaxed the braver sides out to play.
He wasn’t gentle and he wasn’t apologetic, but he was certainly demanding. He pulled me into him, treating my body to blatant pleasure as he commanded I come again and again. It was as though he were punishing me in the most erotic way, proving all of my unspoken doubts were unfounded and showing me exactly how deeply he needed me. It was as if he sensed my worry, suffered my withdrawal, and this was his way of telling me he wouldn’t stand for it.
I learned the lesson well.
When he finished, we were both spent. His body collapsed beside me and then came reality. “We forgot a condom again.”
Hale cursed. “I’ll remember next time. I promise.”
I really needed to go on birth control. Tomorrow morning, making that call was the first thing I planned to do because the last thing we needed was another circumstance taking precedence over the natural progression of things.
Hale pulled me into his body and kissed my shoulder. “Get some sleep, baby. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Chapter Fourteen
It’s the fuzz!
“How’s it going down there?” My eyes wondered around the uncluttered doctor’s office. “Find anything interesting?”
It wasn’t like I expected my new gynecologist to pull out a school ring or anything, but I was nervous, so I kept talking. I should know a person pretty well to be in this situation, but at the moment I couldn’t even remember my doctor’s name.
The stool rolled back and her glove snapped off. “Everything looks good.”
“So can I close up shop?”
“You can sit up.”
Finally. I lowered my legs and closed my little smock, hiding away my money shot with the provided paper blanket. It wasn’t as nice as the airplane blankets, but it kept me concealed.
The doctor made some notes in a laptop and said, “I’m going to write you a prescription for the pill, but I want to go over some general guidelines since you’ve never used oral contraception before.”
I nodded and paid close attention as she explained about hormones and the lining of my uterus and the hindering of sperm. It all seemed so government op, like we were staging a defense strategy at the frontlines of my cervix and Hale’s sperm was the enemy. None of his little soldiers were breaching my barricade. I was very confident in her plan because Hale and I sucked at remembering condoms and anything was better than winging it.
“It’s important to take the pill at the same time every day. If you start the pill today, you should use a backup method for the first seven days until the birth control takes effect.”
“I’ll start today.”
When I left the doctor’s with a sample pack of pills in hand, I swallowed one as soon as I reached the car. The pills were tiny, so I didn’t think I needed a drink, but a
s I backed out of the parking lot I could swear the little bugger got stuck on my uvula.
I cleared my throat and made hacking noises as I drove, trying to dislodge that tiny pill stuck in my throat. Even when I was sure it had dissolved, that pill haunted me.
I was in Hale’s Rolls, which he kept immaculate, so there weren’t any water bottles lying around. When I saw a corner store I pulled over. Clearing my throat, I walked into the store and grabbed a bottle of water, chugging it while in the line at the register. When it was my turn, I reached for my purse and—oh no.
“Um… I think I left my purse in the car.” I hoped it was in the car.
The cashier narrowed his eyes. “You pay cash.”
I searched my pockets, which didn’t exist because I’d worn a dress. Putting the bottle on the counter, I said, “Let me run out to the car and grab money. How much is it?”
He glanced at the bottle. “Two-fifty.”
“Two-fifty? For a bottle of water?” What a racket. “I’ll be right back.”
The cashier moved the bottle aside and rang up the next customer. Back in the day, people would offer to help out a stranger, but at two-fifty a bottle, who could afford it?
I searched Hale’s car and cursed when I found nothing. Not only did the man not have a single dime tucked in the cushion of the seats, my purse wasn’t there either.
“Damn it.” I went back into the store and faced the cashier. “I don’t have any money on me, but I can come back later and pay you.”
He scowled. “You pay now.”
Okay, there was clearly a language barrier. “I lost my purse.” The line grew and my face heated. Turning to the other customers, I said, “Can anyone help a girl out? I lost my purse.”
Amazing. Every last one of them acted like I was speaking in a foreign language. Facing the cashier again, I said, “I work for the Davenports. You know the Davenports?” I figured if he knew who I belonged to he’d realize I was good for it.
He examined the bottle and pointed to the cap. “Open. No good now. You pay.”
Trying for patience, I explained, “I know it’s open. I’ll pay you, but I have to get some money.” When I saw he didn’t understand, I huffed and held up a hand. “I’ll be back in five minutes.”
Returning to the car, I backed out of the spot. If I had my purse I’d have called Hale, but my phone was probably sitting in the little dressing room at the gynecologist’s office. Plus, it would take Hale twice as long to get to me. Better to just get the purse and go back and pay for the damn water.
Not being from around there, I saw plenty of odd things whenever I went out. Sometimes Key West seemed like a different planet. It was balmy, teeming with energy, and very colorful, but it was also foreign, seeing that I seldom ventured out without the Davenport entourage. I felt like a total idiot when I couldn’t find the doctor’s office I’d just left, so I continued to circle the same streets, thinking I must have just missed it.
After twenty minutes of driving, I had to pee. “Come on… Where is it?”
Coming across a road I didn’t recognize, I turned the car and a moment later I realized why that was a mistake. Okay, this wasn’t a road so much as it was a cul-de-sac of vendors.
Putting the car in reverse, I glanced in the rearview and… Well, shit.
A police car blocked me in and his lights were definitely flashing. I put the car in park and rolled down the window as he approached.
“You can’t drive down here, miss.”
I fidgeted because I really had to pee and now I was nervous. “Sorry. I got lost.”
“Where are you heading?”
I couldn’t tell him my gynecologist, so I smiled and tried to flirt my way out this. “If you’ll just let me pass, I’ll be on my way.”
Apparently, that wasn’t the right thing to say. He eyed the car, which reeked of wealth and here I was in my boho dress, sweating like a pig, fidgeting so I didn’t pee all over Hale’s leather seats, with a bag of pills to my right.
“License and registration.”
I silently cursed and reached into the glove compartment. When I handed him the registration and insurance, I explained, “I don’t have my purse, which is where I keep my license.”
He reviewed the paperwork. “And I’m guessing you’re not Hale Davenport.”
“No, sir, but I work for the Davenports if that helps.”
He stepped away, speaking into a walkie-talkie and eying the back of the Rolls Royce. When he returned, he said, “I’m going to need you to step out of the car.”
“Look, officer, I swear I didn’t steal the car. I left my purse—”
“Your plate’s been reported. Someone driving this vehicle was identified shoplifting about thirty minutes ago.”
“Shoplifting? I told him I’d be back!”
The door opened. “Step out of the car, miss.”
Unlatching my seatbelt, I slid out of the car and hung my head. The next thing I knew I was sitting in the back of a locked squad car on my way downtown. The jig was up. The fuzz had finally apprehended me. This was a new level of calamity I wasn’t prepared for and I still really needed to pee.
Thankfully, the officer didn’t cuff me or anything so dramatic. When we reached the station he let me use the bathroom and then told me to wait at a chair beside an empty desk. I watched as he made a call and then I waited, figuring someone would eventually come rescue me.
All of this to protect my ovaries from implantation.
It took about thirty minutes for Hale to arrive and he must have entered through a different door because I didn’t get a chance to speak to him before I saw him talking to Officer What’s His Name.
When he finally approached me in the criminal detention zone, I looked up at him and pouted. “This is why I need a chaperone.”
He smirked. “Apparently you were detained for shoplifting and grand theft auto. I got them to drop the charges.”
“Thank you.”
He laughed. “What happened?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Can we please leave?”
We walked out to the lot where a bunch of police cars were parked but I didn’t see the Wraith. “What about your car?”
“Alfonse went to pick it up.” He walked me to a convertible BMW and opened my door. “Get in, Bonnie Parker.”
“Ha-ha,” I said dryly. He was the farthest thing from Clyde. “My purse is at the gynecologist’s office. But I think you sent me to some collapsible setup because I can’t find the building now.”
“They called. Alfonse already picked it up for you.”
“Oh.” I tried imagining the gardener slash chauffeur walking into a woman’s facility and walking out with my pink purse. “Where are we going?”
“Well, you’ve been naughty.”
I pursed my lips. “It wasn’t my fault. These things just happen to me. I told the clerk I’d be back to pay him for the water, but he wouldn’t listen. And why don’t you have money in your car?”
“There’s always a credit card hidden under the front seat, for future crime sprees.”
“You’re so full of jokes today.”
He pulled over just outside of Duval Street and came around to open my door. Escorting me to a bench, he said, “Wait here. Can I trust you not to rob anyone?”
“Seriously, you’re not funny.”
He chuckled and disappeared into a little shop. He returned a moment later with two popsicles. Sitting at my side, he handed me one of the sticks, which had some sort of chocolate covered fantasy on the end.
I eyed it cautiously. “What is this?”
“It’s frozen key lime pie.”
I took the stick and nibbled. Sweet lime flavor burst over my tongue. “You’re rewarding me?”
He took a bite of his own and relaxed. “I happen to like when you’re naughty.”
“I’ve never been arrested before.” I licked at the hard chocolate shell and bit into the soft lime flavored center. Holy happy mo
uth, this was good.
“Did they put you in cuffs?”
“No. Thank God.”
He snickered. “That would have been something to see.”
“It’s not funny. Stuff like this only happens to me.”
Turning his silver gaze on me, he grinned. “I’m not making fun of you, Rayne. I love rescuing you.”
I slouched and finished my frozen pie.
“Hey.” He nudged my shoulder. “Cheer up. Nothing’s on your record and the store clerk’s been paid.”
I sucked on the wooden stick. I could eat about ten more of them.
Hale stood and held out a hand. “Come on. Let’s blow off the day and have some fun.”
I finally smiled. “Really?”
“Yeah.” He took our sticks and tossed them in a nearby trashcan. We didn’t return to the car but rather strolled down Duval Street.
Bikes leaned against a cement wall and pedestrians rambled down roads and sidewalks. The humid air kissed my skin as a temperate breeze teased the palm leaves overhead.
The buildings were a mixture of restaurants, hotels, and cafés. A steady melody of bicycle bells rang as we wandered along the street hand-in-hand. It was the first time we’d actually ventured out like tourists and it felt so incredibly normal. I loved every second of it.
Diners’ conversations spun a low hum in the background as people occupied tables shaded by large umbrellas. Though I’d never been to New Orleans, Duval Street reminded me of a tame version of Bourbon Street, something about that shameless, almost decadent, seediness that pulled a person in. Everything was so alfresco and thrumming with life.
We paused to watch a native roll a handmade cigar. A grand marquis in the distance lit and I gasped at the majestic display. “Is that an old theater?”
“It’s actually a pharmacy now. But they did a magnificent job restoring it. Let’s check out Mallory Square.”
He led us through a more congested area of vendors and the vibe picked up. Doo Wop spilled from bars onto the street.
I gasped again. “Is that Coyote Ugly place like the one in the movie?”
He nodded. “Did you want to go in?”
Passing the door I saw several women stomping along the bar in daisy dukes and cowboy boots. “Let’s keep walking.” There was so much to see.
Calamity Rayne II: Back Again Page 13