Summer Obsession: An Instalove Possessive Alpha Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 185)

by Flora Ferrari

  “The good news,” Mark starts, but I’m too wound up.

  “What good news?” I spit out.

  “The libel subpoenas are being drafted, and we just need to put a few more names on the damages and civil cases against anyone who even looked at you today before we can proceed. We’ll win and you’ll get more than your current estate’s worth, I can see to that. The ex-commissioner is gonna help us out.”

  It’s a start, but it doesn’t, it hasn’t brought Jaydee back.

  “I want Jaydee,” I tell him flatly. “I know where she is but I can’t just rush down there and take her back now, can I?”

  At Mark’s suggestion, he gets me her number after I supply the address.

  “Useless,” I tell him, remembering she already said her phone was in the car, and there’s no phone connected to the house.

  “I’ll make sure she gets a message, Colton. Hey! It’s me you’re working with here, give me some credit.”

  I cough a dry laugh but I can’t smile.

  I should never have let her out of my sights, not even for one second. Dammit!

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Jaydee

  I can hear my dad talking on his phone.

  Low murmurs.

  There were a few reporters outside, some lights and I think I heard a news chopper at one point, but I suddenly notice how quiet everything gets.

  Peering out through my bedroom curtains, I don’t see anyone in the front yard or even on the street. I don’t hear a chopper anymore either.

  It’s like they all just vanished as quickly as they appeared.

  Pressing my ear to my door, I can only hear my dad between my own emotional sniffs.

  My breath is shuddering just like when I was with Colton, but for a very different reason.

  What a difference a few hours makes.

  In a snap, I decide I’m leaving.

  I belong with him, not here. My place is by his side, no matter what comes next.

  I get together a bag, clothes mainly, and a few things I know I can’t do without. Like the spare key to my car then I open my door, heading straight for the front door.

  Which is locked.

  Bolted and deadlocked from the inside.

  My house keys?

  In my car, along with my phone.

  My dad’s hung up and is waiting in the doorway to the kitchen, creasing a frown.

  “Jaydee, let’s talk,” he says firmly, and I try the door just one last time, as if it might open by magic.

  “Dad, I don’t know what you’ve done or what you think you’re doing but I’m an adult now and I’d like to leave this house. You have to open the door now,” I say quietly but firmly, realizing how weak I feel, not able to muster the same rage I felt not so long ago.

  “Just hear me out, Jaydee. I’ll open the door, no problems. I only wanted to keep those reporters out, they’re really pushy!” he exclaims, laughing for a second before he gets serious again.

  “Please?” he asks, sounding so far from threatening, almost hurt that I yield and tossing my bag by the door, I slouch onto a stool in the kitchen.

  “First up,” he says, reaching out for me but pulling his hand back when he sees me recoil. “I was worried as hell when the hospital finally reached me at work. Once they found out who you were. By the time I got down there, you’d already left. All hell had broken loose, some major accident or something. People everywhere... ”

  “I’m just so glad you’re safe, Jaydee. That you’re alright,” he murmurs absently.

  I remember the hospital, and it only makes me think of Colton. How he pleasured me in my hospital bed.

  A wry smile plays on my lips, the memory so clear, so intense that I almost forget where I am for a moment. But dad clears his throat, determined to continue with his story.

  “Anyway. Once I heard it was him that took you, I lost it,” he says, his voice growing harder, lower and meaner.

  “You think you know Colton Smith, Jaydee? No you don’t,” he scoffs, and starts to pace the kitchen, gnawing at his thumbnail as his eye twitches. The nervous, agitated tic I’ve only seen when dad’s at his wit’s end.

  Hearing Colton’s name used like this, it doesn’t mean anything to me.

  I do know Colton, more than anyone. He’s the missing part of me, he’s my whole life now.

  Anything dad, or anyone else has to say against him is just rubbish. I don’t even need to tell myself that, I know it.

  “You know I was an orphan,” Dad says, matter of fact. “Well, Colton was too, so we all were, all the boys from the St. Benedict’s home for boys.”

  He pauses, looking at me as if his words should have an effect, and I shrug.

  “So,” I hear myself say calmly. “If you’re about to tell me a horror story about Colton, save your breath. Colton saved my life, dad,” I tell him, my voice quaking with emotion.

  “You’re the one who’s holding me here now, against my wishes. You’re the one who contacted the police, the press about something that just isn’t true. Am I right?” I ask him, hearing my voice growing louder.

  “Am I right?” I shout at him, making him jump.

  “No, Jaydee,” he says softly. “You’re not right.

  “Just hear me out, then you can decide if you want to stay or go. I’ll unlock the door now if you want, but just listen to me, will you?” He places a key in the middle of the table.

  I roll my eyes and sigh impatiently, eyeing the door.

  It’s my dad. I’ll hear him out, but after this I’m gone.

  I’ve made up my mind where I belong now.

  I think dad picks up on this, he knows he’s gone too far but whatever his reasons he keeps talking.

  “There were six of us in the boy’s home growing up. It was pretty clear we would be difficult to foster, let alone get adopted fully. We were all boys, and troublesome at that.”

  “But!” he says suddenly, with passion in his voice. “We promised each other that we’d stick together, no matter what. Even if we got fostered out or adopted, we made a pledge. An oath.

  “Colton Smith wasn’t the man you see today back then. He was the runt of the litter if ever there was one. We didn’t really want to include him in our little gang, but it was clear, by our own intentions that he needed us more than we needed him. We figured if our pledge would stand to help any of us in the home, it would help Colton most.”

  I open my mouth, but decide against saying anything. Once dad’s on a roll, I know better than to interrupt him.

  “That was all fine until the day Mr. Smith Senior came along. He was an old man back then, making nice with the staff, speaking with us individually and it became known that he was actually the money behind the boy’s home.”

  Dad goes quiet, like he’s struck a raw nerve within himself with his own memories.

  “Mr. Smith, wealthy businessman, millionaire and Christ knows what else… well… he went and adopted Colton, practically on the spot.”

  I try to imagine Colton as a little boy, a runt of the litter. I just can’t, but pledge to ask him myself, and soon. I eye the key again that dad’s left out on the table.

  “I’ve really heard enough, Dad,” tell him, getting up to leave.

  “You’re trying to ruin a man’s life because of some ‘oath’ you claim he made when he was a little boy? That’s horrible… you’re horrible,” I tell him, surprising myself with my bluntness. My coldness towards my own father.

  “A promise is a promise, Jaydee! And us boys, we knew, back then as much as we do now that a man’s word is everything. Like I promised your mom, before she left. I promised to take care of you, and I have given you everything.”

  I feel a stab of guilt, but I’m more surprised that my dad really feels this way. It’s like I’m seeing him in a new light for the first time.

  I’ve changed, and I know Colton’s helped me to do that.

  I’m a woman now.

  His eyes narrow on some invisible point in
the room. A place far off and in the past. In his own mind.

  “We swore to look out for one another, and once Colton got settled in his new life. His easy life. He forgot about us as quickly as the sun sets on a cold day. But we didn’t. I sure didn’t.”

  “So once you found out where he was, who he was, you decided to try and ruin his life?” I ask, not wanting to believe he could really be that kind of person.

  Dad nods his head slowly. “Only when I heard he’d taken you, my only child from the hospital. That he’d taken you into… that place he calls a house. I knew he was doing it to rub it in, to add insult to injury, for all of us.”

  I feel my head shaking. “No. No dad, you’ve got it all wrong! Have you even spoken to Colton lately, since you were kids?” I ask, not believing what I’m hearing.

  “I know what makes a man, Jaydee. It’s set in stone from when he’s a boy. And Colton Smith ditched us back then, and he’s trying to destroy us now and it's working! See? He’s even turned my own daughter against me.”

  He moves over towards me again, tears in his eyes as he tries to hug me but I only lean in to take the key from the table.

  Unlocking the front door and not looking back, I grab my back and walk out.

  About half way down the road, a cab stops, asking me if I need a ride.

  “Sure,” I tell the driver. “Can you take me to the pier? My car’s there. I can pay you once I get my purse.”

  I’m going to find Colton, and I’m going to help him clear his name.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Colton

  The commissioner of the police, the deputy mayor. The head of several newspapers, they all call me within moments of me getting off the phone with my own lawyer.

  All a huge misunderstanding, all begging forgiveness. All promising to take no further action, the news, the papers… no story will run.

  Can I please accept their apology?

  There’s talk of pressing formal charges against Noah Beckett. Falsely reporting to police, wasting police time, blah. Blah. Blah. But the damage is done in my mind.

  I decide not to offer anything as concrete as accepting anything, not just yet.

  I decide to let them all sweat it out, until I decide. Until we decide what’s best.

  I want what’s mine first. I want Jaydee back, but even the law and my lawyer cautioned me against going to Jaydee’s house.

  But that doesn’t stop me, she’s mine and I need her by my side. Her old life, whatever life she had living with that man who tells her he’s a good father?

  That’s finished, I can feel it.

  Noah Beckett and a half dozen other names, most of them as old as me and faded from memory.

  After my adoptive Grandpa turned up that day, my life was different.

  I didn’t need a boy’s home and I didn’t need a handful of kids promising me the world, when they themselves had nothing.

  I had something I’d never had before, a family. Certainty and real promises. A man who delivered on everything he told me he would.

  I owe my current life and circumstances to the man who picked me up when nobody else would, to the man who adopted me and taught me how to be my own man. Nobody else.

  Least of all, Noah Beckett and his buddies.

  As quickly as it all comes at me, it’s gone. There’s a hell of a mess on the lawn, trampled bushes and what looks like a busted security system, but I’m suddenly alone again.

  Alone and wondering where Jaydee is right his second. She needs to be with me.

  Where are you?

  I close my eyes, thinking where she’d most likely be. The thought of her staying with her dad? Not likely once she finds out he's the real reason behind this attempt at a scandal, an attempt to ruin my reputation.

  I curl my fingertips, imagining them clutching her hips, sliding down around her and pulling her close to me.

  In a second I’ve raced back to the bedroom, slipped on some clothes, grabbed my keys and headed out.

  The gate can wait, but I lock the house up and take one of the cars from the garage. I head to the only place I can think of that she’d go. The place I’d go if I was her.

  The pier.

  It’s a warm night, and there’s plenty of people out. More than there was during the day, but not as busy as a Friday or Saturday night.

  I find a parking spot, but have to huff it some way back towards the pier. I walk along the beach which I’ve always loved at night but tonight especially I realize quite how many other people do too.

  It kind of ruins it, but I’m really only looking for Jaydee.

  I’m almost jogging to the pier, right down to the spot where I saved her. I figure if I just get myself there, she’ll be there too and we can carry on where we left off.

  But she’s not there.

  There’s a group of kids where I imagined she would be. I groan internally once I remind myself they’re about Jaydee’s age.

  You know you’re getting older when everyone under twenty five is a ‘kid.’

  About a dozen or so, guys and girls nearby. They’re setting up what looks like a bonfire and have coolers stocked with plenty of booze and I even notice some open bags with fireworks.

  I’m off duty as a lifeguard, and if it hadn’t been for this night so far, I’d definitely say something. But tonight? I couldn’t care less what they do now, as long as they don’t bother me or…

  Where are you, Jaydee?

  “Hey! Wanna join us?” one of the girls calls out, squeezing her bikini covered chest together and making a show of it while she leans over offering me a beer. Her girlfriend is doing the same, and then I recognize both of them from earlier in the day.

  “Uh, no thanks,” I tell them dryly. “No fires on the beach either,” I remind them, walking past and hearing them make fun of me for being such a spoilsport.

  I want to look back, to make my point. Out of habit I even consider calling someone… the cops?

  Uh. No thanks. I’m done with that. Done with life-saving too, I figure. My future contributions will be financial only.

  I look at the pier and I feel better at least, noticing the gap in the railing has a barrier across it. Probably marked for repair first thing.

  At least nobody else can fall through it now.

  Her name is the next thing on my mind, always floating to the surface now, no matter what else is happening.

  And turning from the view of the pier, I put my hands out instinctively when I see somebody suddenly in front of me.

  I hear her gasp and then my own low sound of recognition, even before my hands feel her smooth skin against mine telling me what I knew I’d find if I came down to the pier.

  We don’t say a word, only kiss.

  I kiss her like she’s water and I’m a man dying of thirst. I need her like nothing else right now, and having her back in my arms gives me such an intense feeling I’m speechless anyway.

  Her hands and lips are urgent too, getting as much of me as I’m trying to get of her. It’s as though the whole beach disappears for a time, and not until a passerby murmurs for us to ‘get a room’ that I realize where we are.

  That I’m holding my woman, tight as I dare against me. My thick hardness pressed into her belly and her purrs of relief and satisfaction ringing in my ears.

  “I knew you’d be here,” she whispers, kissing me again between trying to speak. “I thought I’d lost you again,” I reply, winded by my emotions.

  “Me?” she asks, shifting my hands up to her chest for me, needing no encouragement to give them a squeeze and making her moan softly. “I told you. I’m yours now, Colton. You’ll have to try harder than that to get rid of me.”

  I’m glad to hear her say it, but I have to remind her. Remind myself for the second time today. “I’m never letting you out of my sight, y’ hear?”

  I slip my hands around her waist, hers gliding around my neck and we just stand there, holding each other on the beach. Our eyes locked with the ris
ing moon shining light in her eyes, reflected from the rising tide.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Jaydee

  “I thought you might be joining the Barbie twins over there,” I tease him, but I can tell it’s the furthest thing from his mind as he pulls me in closer.

  “I want you, Jaydee, nobody and nothing else right now,” he assures me, making me feel more special than I already do as I become aware of the glances we’re getting from the growing party around their smoldering fire.

  It’s nothing compared to the fire that’s been lit between Colton and me though.

  I don’t want to break this feeling, our moment. But I'm kind of dying to know Colton’s side of things. I need to know what the hell actually happened tonight, too. My dad’s reasoning seems cracked.

  “What happened, Colton?” I ask him, noting the pained look in his eyes, the change in his expression.

  “They’re fixing the pier,” he observes changing the topic before taking a shallow breath.

  “Wanna take a walk?” he asks.

  “Long as it’s not on that damned pier,” I murmur and I take the hand he offers in mine, leaning into him as his other arms clutches my waist as we walk together in the soft darkness, away from all the other people on the beach.

  I have a ton of questions, but I get the strong feeling Colton just wants to walk for a while with me, and we do in silence for some time before he gathers his thoughts.

  “I’m adopted. I think I already mentioned that… and once I heard your surname, I thought it must just be coincidence. Lots of people are orphaned, for tons of reasons. Lots of ‘em named Beckett too, so I told myself.”

  I can see Colton’s pained by what he’s trying to say, and I want to tell him what my dad told me, that I know it was all a set up that wasn’t very well planned. That it was just my dad trying to prevent him from losing the one thing he never had, family.

  But I let Colton tell his story in his own time.

  “A lot of people only want to bring you down when you have something they don’t,” he says, and I know he means money.

  I’m just as guilty as anyone, thinking it would be a thing between us, that Colton could never love me because I was from a family that has nothing by comparison.