She shakes her head. “No, you’re a guy, and guys don’t always notice how sneaky and underhanded some women can be.”
“You’re beautiful, you know that?”
She rolls her eyes. “I just woke up, and this thing…” She points to her nose, “makes me look like a fucking walrus,” she mumbles.
“You’re the most adorable walrus I’ve ever seen,” I say as I kiss her neck, and she swats at my chest.
In the next second, her playful side is gone, and she looks lost in thought, which has me a little worried.
“What’s wrong?”
“The night of the attack, I had wanted to come see you, but then ended up having to work late.”
I’m sure I have a shocked look on my face, but I wasn’t expecting that.
“What? You wanted to see me?” She hasn’t once told me that she wanted to see or talk to me since we split up. This feels like fucking Christmas.
“Yeah.” She puts her head down in embarrassment, so I lift her chin so she has to look at me.
“I’m glad.” I lean down, and for the first time in weeks, I kiss my wife. I kiss her like my life depends on it.
When I finally pull back from her, I look into her clover eyes. “Please tell me to come home.”
“Come home, Ev.” She collapses into my arms, and I catch her as I carefully slide us both down to the floor.
All the emotions from the last several weeks, have finally caught up to me. Also, it feels good to cry with her after being apart for so long. I’ve missed this woman so damn much.
“You mean it?” I ask as I search her eyes for any doubt I might find.
“Yes. We need you here with us.”
“Thank fuck.”
In the next instant, I’m devouring her mouth like a starving man. I’d love to take her to bed right now and spend the next week making love to her, but I know that can’t happen until she’s healed.
45
Evan
“Hello?” I answer my phone after the second ring, not bothering to see who’s calling at this God-awful time of day.
I mindlessly stroke Avery’s hair as she leans over my chest to look at the clock. My girl is not a morning person.
“Evan, it’s Anthony.”
I feel her tense, and it’s obvious she can hear him.
“Yeah, what’s up?” I quickly kiss the side of her face and then get out of bed. I should probably not have this conversation around her. I have no idea what he’s about to tell me.
I grab my pants and then make my way out to the front porch. As soon as the front door slams shut behind me, I hear him sigh.
“I need you to come down to the station.”
The thought that they may have a lead on Avery’s attacker makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I spent all afternoon at the station yesterday, and last I heard, they still didn’t know anything.
“What’s going on?”
He doesn’t respond right away, which has me more on edge. “Remember my buddy, Officer Caden Harris?”
I do remember him. He’s met us at Ryke’s a few times for a beer. Seemed like a nice enough guy, but I don’t know where the hell he’s going with this.
“Yes….” I say hesitantly.
“Well,” he pauses, and I hear shuffling of papers in the background. “He pulled a woman over late last night for speeding, but she had a picture of you and a baby, I’m assuming Zoey, on her dashboard.”
The thought gives me a sinking feeling in my gut. Who the hell would have a picture of me and my daughter? In their car, nonetheless.
“What the fuck?” I bark out.
“Dude, calm down. Just get down here so Caden can talk to you, alright?”
“Yeah, alright. You think this has to do with Avery’s attack?”
“We don’t know, but we’re trying to figure that out.”
I hang up and then throw my head back in frustration. This is so fucking messed up, and I know I can’t tell Avery what Anthony just told me, because she’ll freak the hell out. Not that I could really blame her.
I don’t feel comfortable leaving her and Zoey home alone, so I send my sister a quick text asking her to invite Avery for breakfast. Claire is nosey, but doesn’t ask questions. She knows we’re trying to get to the bottom of this.
I walk back into the house, and she’s feeding Zoey, but thankfully doesn’t ask questions. I don’t know what I would say to her right now anyway.
“Claire is coming to get me and Zo in an hour to go to breakfast.”
I smile at her and then kiss the top of her head. “Sounds good.”
She gives me a small smile, the concern obvious in her eyes. “Everything okay?”
I pull away from her and run a hand through my hair and sigh. “It will be. Let me handle it, alright?”
She nods, but I can tell she doesn’t like my response.
“Go have fun with Claire, and then we’ll order Chinese tonight. Sound good?”
She relaxes into the rocking chair. “Yeah.”
* * *
An hour later, I’m walking into the PD, ready to find out what the hell is going on. I didn’t leave home until I knew that my wife and daughter weren’t alone. The protective asshole that I am, I text Ryke asking him to go with the girls. I just need to know that they’re safe until we find out who the hell hurt her.
“Hey, man.” Anthony greets me when I walk into the building.
I shake his hand. “Hey, thanks for calling.”
He nods and then leads me back to his cubicle where Officer Harris is waiting for us.
“Evan.” He stands from his seat and shakes my hand.
“Hey, Anthony said you may have a lead on my wife’s attack?” I cringe inside, realizing I’m about to find out who hurt her, but not knowing has been killing me inside.
He sits back down and points to the chair across from him as Anthony takes the seat behind his desk.
He leans his elbows on his knees. “Do you know a Mallory Parker?”
What the actual fuck? I immediately see red. Did she fucking do this to Avery?
“Did- did she do this?” I clear my throat.
“How do you know her?” Caden asks.
I don’t answer right away, so Anthony chimes in. “She was his assistant and the one who split him and Avery up. She made her think that they slept together.”
Caden raises his eyebrows at me. “Seriously?”
I grab the back of my neck, desperately needing to punch something. I’m not one for hitting women, but let’s just say Mallory is damn lucky she’s not within my reach.
“How the fuck did she get a picture of me and my daughter?”
He stands from his chair. “I don’t know, but we need to get to the bottom of this. Me and Anthony are going to go to her house and question her.”
I answer with a nod. I know they won’t let me, but I want to go with them. Although, it’s probably best I don’t. I just got my wife back; I don’t want to land my own ass in jail.
Anthony types away on his laptop and then spins it toward me.
“This her?” On the screen is what appears to be Mallory’s Facebook profile picture.
“That’s her.”
Caden moves closer to look at it. “Yep, that’s who I pulled over yesterday.”
“God damn it.” I grip at my hair in frustration.
* * *
That night, my phone vibrates in my pocket while we’re at dinner at Claire and Ryke’s. I glance at the screen and see that it’s Anthony. I’ve been waiting for his call all day, and I know I’ve been acting like an ass while being on pins and needles until I know what the hell is going on.
I stand from the table, and Avery gives me a questioning look, but I ignore it while I walk out of the room. I haven’t told her that Mallory is a prime suspect of her attack yet. I wanted to know for sure.
“What’d you find out?” I ask in way of answering as I walk outside. Nobody else needs to hear this conversation
.
I hear him sigh heavily. “Her fingerprints matched the ones found on Avery’s car after the attack.”
I suddenly have a sick feeling in my stomach, and I think I may need to throw up.
“Evan, you there?” Anthony asks when I don’t respond.
“Yeah. I’m here.”
“We found her fingerprints, but she also admitted to attacking her. We now have her in custody.”
I drop my phone on the sidewalk and immediately evacuate the contents of my stomach in one of the bushes.
This is my fucking fault. She attacked my wife because I got her fired for the shit she pulled in Dallas.
I hear Anthony on the other line, calling my name, but I can’t bear to hear another word about this.
“Ev?” I hear Avery call out as she runs down the driveway. “What’s wrong?”
Once I’m confident that I won’t puke again, I stand back up and then wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.
“It was Mallory,” I rasp out. She gives me a confused look, but then I can tell when she understands what I’m talking about.
“She attacked me?” I see the tears in her eyes, and I want nothing more than to keep her locked away, where I know she’ll be safe. I don’t care how much of an ass that makes me. I didn’t protect her before, and now, she’s suffered because of it.
I can’t speak, so I answer with a nod.
Her face goes pale, and in the next moment, her legs give out, but I quickly catch her.
“Let’s get you inside,” I lift her into my arms.
As soon as we walk inside, I carry her to the guest bedroom I had been staying in. I lay her on the bed and let her weep into my chest.
Finally, after what feels like hours, she stares up at me, her tears starting to dry on her face.
I tuck a stray hair behind her ear.
“I’m so sorry, Av. This is all my fault.” I just got my wife back, and now, we have to face all this shit.
She pulls out of my arms. “Evan Porter, don’t you dare blame yourself. You hear me? This is not your fault.”
I squeeze her into my chest, not wanting to ever let her go. “Why are you so good to me?”
She looks up at me. “Because I love you.”
I smile down at her. “I love you, too.” I take her into a kiss.
“Av, we’re going to get through this together.” She nods. “I swear to you, I’ll never let another person lay a hand on you again.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” I ask her, wanting to make sure she believes me.
“Yeah.” She nods. “Let’s go get Zo and go home.”
I grab her face and take her mouth into mine, never wanting to be away from this woman again.
46
Avery
It’s been two months since Evan came back home, and I can honestly say, they have been the best two months of my life. I’m still healing from the attack, so we haven’t gotten to be physical, besides kissing and groping, but the man has made me so happy.
We are still waiting for Mallory’s trial, but it’s a relief to know she’s behind bars.
I decided not to go back to work at Kinsley. I knew that Evan didn’t want me to either, but he let me decide this on my own. After the assault, I didn’t feel safe, but also, I want to spend all the time I can with Zoey while she’s young. In a few months, I’m going to start doing some private designing from home, but I’ve already decided that I’ll only take on one or two clients at a time.
“Knock, knock,” Evan says from the bathroom door before lifting me into his arms. “You ready to go, birthday girl?” He kisses along my neck, and I try swatting him away, but he doesn’t let up.
“Ev!” I giggle. “You’re going to mess my hair up.”
He looks at me through the mirror and smirks. “We could just stay home, and I can mess your hair up all night.”
“No way. I worked my ass off to look this good.” I wink at him before passing him to grab my earrings from my jewelry box.
He huffs in exaggeration.
“Fine.” He walks past me and swats my ass. “Hurry up then.”
I roll my eye at his dramatics. Tonight, I’m wearing my auburn hair up in a chignon, in hopes that I won’t die from the heat. I’ve always had long hair, but this time of year it stays up most of the time, because I can’t stand it sticking to my neck. It’s so damn hot out.
The dress I’m wearing is an emerald green halter-top. It makes my boobs look amazing. Evan bought it for me with a matching bra and panties. I’m hoping the panties get torn to shit tonight. Cut me a break. I’m freaking horny. I’ve been under the same roof as my husband for eight weeks and haven’t gotten to do much. I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday, and he agreed to me not wearing the obnoxious brace any longer. My ribs don’t hurt anymore, so he said that as long as I’m careful I can get back to regular activity. And well, sex is definitely a regular activity around here.
I grab my sexy strappy heels and make my way out to the kitchen.
“Did Zo do okay when you dropped her off with Claire?” I grab a bottle of water out of the fridge. This is the first time I’ve been left alone in the last two months, but I thought it would be a good idea to do a small trial run while Zo wasn’t here. I handled it a lot better than I thought I would.
“Yeah, she was already playing with Aria when I left.” He kisses me on the cheek. “Tonight, I want to practice for number two.”
I roll my eyes at him. I thought that joking around like this would upset me, but it really doesn’t. After he moved back home, we decided that we aren’t going to try for another baby. If it happens, it happens, but the heartbreak before having Zoey was terrible and neither of us want to go through that again. But we still would like to have more children, even if not biologically.
Next week, we start foster care classes. Our end goal is to eventually adopt. We’ve met a few other families who have successfully adopted a child, and we know that heartache can also rear its ugly head with adopting, but we’ve both come to realize that we can face anything as long as we have each other.
“How do you know I want to practice?” I wiggle my eyebrows at him, and he knows I’m full of shit.
“Because I know my wife, and I know that she’s a little sex fiend.” He wraps his arms around me from behind as he nibbles at my neck. His hands find their way to my boobs, and I halt his movements.
“Ev, stop.” Now I’m panting.
He pulls away from me, and I moan in frustration.
“What?” He raises his eyebrows at me. “You told me to stop.”
“What time is our reservation?”
“We don’t have one.” Just the words I wanted to hear.
“Good.” In the next instant, my dress is flying through the air, and I’m now standing before my husband in only my bra, panties, and heels.
“Holy. Fuck,” Evan says as he looks at me like he wants to have me for dinner.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
He wastes no time in his walk toward me, and then my lips are being covered by his. This kiss is all teeth and tongue and speaks of how hungry he is for me.
I pull away from him. “Mr. Porter, you have got to lose the clothes.”
He smirks at me. “Yes, ma’am.” He slowly drags his dress pants down his legs and is now in front of me in nothing but his shirt and red boxers. He unbuttons his shirt and slides it down his arms. Before he can get to his boxers, I take it upon myself to help him, and I go to the floor with them.
I look up at him, and he smiles down at me.
“What are you doing?” He croaks out, and I can tell I’m affecting him. I’ve pleasured him a few times like this over the last few weeks, but tonight, I plan on taking things much further. I’m hoping he’ll just cancel whatever plans he had for us and keep me locked up in our room all night.
I stroke his long shaft and then slowly take the tip into my mouth, moaning around it as I go.
“
Oh, fuck.” He throws his head back. “Right there.” He grabs me by the hair and pumps into my mouth. I can taste his pre-cum, and I’m getting more turned on by the damn minute. I can feel the wetness pool between my legs, and I don’t know how long I can wait for him to be inside of me.
“I should be giving you a gift today for your birthday.”
I release him from my mouth.
“You can if you want.” I wink at him and then take him back into my mouth. In the next second, I’m being lifted into the air, and then I’m on top of the counter.
I giggle as he pulls at the sides of my panties, and just as I had hoped, rips them from my body.
“Hey! I liked those!” I jokingly say, but I’m really about to come undone at any minute.
“I’ll buy you more just like them.”
Once my panties are on the floor, he spreads my legs and then wastes no time in devouring my core.
“Ahh!” I scream, and it’s going to be a damn miracle if I last long. It has been way too long. I have a feeling that nothing about this night is going to be slow or sweet. Thank fuck though, I’m too turned on for that.
He lightly pushes on my stomach, directing me to lay back on the counter as his tongue continues to move in and out of me. He uses his finger to rub my clit, and that’s all it takes to cause me to start seeing fireworks behind my eyelids.
“Ev!” I holler, and I’m pretty sure our neighbors just heard me, but I’m too damned lost in his touch to care.
Once I’m finally able to open my eyes after the best orgasm I’ve ever had, he lifts me off the counter, into his arms.
No words are spoken as he kisses along my neck and then my mouth again.
When we make it to our room, he lays me on the bed and crawls on top of me.
“I’m going to worship this body all night long,” he whispers into my hair.
“Please do,” I moan as I run my hands through his hair. The scruff from his beard is rubbing against my chest, and the sensation is making me even wetter.
Renewed: The Unexpected Series Page 20