by Dawn Martens
Blake comes home, and I’m expecting blood or bruises, something, but he doesn’t have any of that. “What happened?” I ask him, worried.
“It’s all good. Dray feels like shit. Trust me, he’s going to fix it.”
“You are amazing,” I breathe.
He smiles at me, pulling me into him, kissing me softly. “Want to go out today?”
“Go where?” I ask him.
“Buddy of mine has a shooting range behind his farm. We can go out there, shoot a few rounds, and then maybe go out for supper?”
“Sounds like a plan.” I pause. “Does this shooting range have trees hidden out of sight?” I ask, biting my lip.
He narrows his eyes at me. “Yes,” he says slowly.
“Perfect. I can have my way with you then.”
His gaze turns hungry. “How about we do that now?”
I shake my head. “Nope, we’re gonna be adventurous.”
*~*
Blake kicks at my feet. “Your stance is all wrong. Spread your feet. Square your shoulders. Relax your arm slightly. This pistol doesn’t have much of a kickback, but you’ll still feel it.”
“Yes, sir.” I grin as he fixes my protective ear muffs for me. I shove my goggles back up my nose because they keep sliding down.
I really love the feel of this gun. I feel powerful and in control. I like it a lot.
Blake teases that maybe I like it a little too much. At first, I thought I would suck badly, but it turns out that I have great aim.
Blake shakes his head, seeing I shot my poster in the head, neck, and heart.
“My girl is a total badass,” he boasts, giving me a quick peck before taking his turn.
I watch him as he handles the rifle he’s using with ease. He looks so damn sexy holding it in his arms.
“Tell you what. If you can beat your personal best, distance wise, I will reward you handsomely.”
Blake fires off round after round but isn’t able to beat his record. After turning in our gear, we run through a drive-thru for dinner. Blake brought a blanket for us to picnic on. We settle on burgers and fries with apple pie for desert. All that shooting made me hungry.
“Your arm will be a little sore when you have to type at work, but I have some good muscle rub in my desk if you need it.”
“Thanks.” I flick his nose with a fry as he kicks his shoes off and gets comfortable on his plaid blanket.
We talk a little about work. I try to pry information out of him about Clara and Adam, but he doesn’t know much more than I do. I have just finished my apple pie when Blake leans forward and licks some of the filling from the corner of my mouth.
“Gross!” I shriek, leaning away from him.
“Baby, it isn’t gross. I lick your pussy, so licking a little pie from your mouth is nothing,” he jokes, testing my temper.
“You have a point.” I cock my brow, feeling devious as I think about putting my plan into motion. “You ever mess around in the woods?”
“No, why?” He leans back on his elbows, missing the point of my question.
“Figured we could give the wildlife something to talk about.”
He is on me like a bear to honey before I can say more.
Blake’s pants are down around his knees in an instant. He strokes his cock, and I lick my lips. I have never been big on giving head, but with Blake, I want to do it for him.
My tongue darts out, swirling his tip, and he groans loudly.
“As much as I want to fuck your mouth, I need in you now.”
“That so?” I tease, removing my clothes slowly.
“It’s a fact.” He goes down on his knees, ready to claim me.
I roll away from him and start bouncing around on my socks. “You have to catch me first.”
I barely get around the tree before his arms grab me, hooking around my bare waist. My back goes against the tree, and he commands my body, wrapping my legs around his waist.
“Blake, kind of rough on my back. The bark.”
“Sorry.” He carries me back to our blanket and orders me to lay down.
“No way. I want on top. I don’t want twigs and shit getting all in my hair and having ants crawling in my ass crack.”
“Your wish is my command, but if ants get in my crack, I make no apologies if I shoot up from under you.”
BLAKE
We made it home in silence, mainly because my backside is itchy as hell since Cori fucked me so hard we moved off the blanket and into the dirt. And Cori bitched about having a mosquito bite on her ass. I go to pull Cori close to me when I hear it. “No!” I hear screamed. I jolt out of bed and look down at Cori, squirming around. “Please don’t. Please!” she cries. Her legs jerk as her body shakes in terror.
I lean down, putting my hand on her shoulders. “Cori, baby, wake up. It’s only a dream,” I tell her, jarring her slightly.
“Please stop! Please! Don’t take my baby!” Her words have me frozen to the spot. Her baby? “Please give him back! Please!” Her arms stretch out.
“Corinne!” I shout, lifting her up from the bed, cradling her in my arms. She comes awake in a panic, and her breath comes out raggedly. Her skin is cold and clamored in sweat.
“I haven’t had one of those in years,” she whispers in a haunted tone.
“It’s just a dream, babe. You’re safe. You’re fine,” I placate, trying to soothe her.
She shakes her head. “You’re wrong. It might have been a dream just now, but it was real. It was real.”
I hold her close. I want to ask more about this dream, but I’m worried it will push her away. I need to call Angel up and ask him to hurry up with her file. I need to find out what the fuck happened to her.
Today was amazing—the way she rode me in the woods, the way she tried desperately to not scream so Mathias wouldn’t come out to check on us. And now, I’m holding her in my arms, and she is scared as fuck.
“Cori, talk to me?” I whisper.
“No, Blake. I can’t. Not now,” she answers, shutting down.
“I’m here, always, if you ever need to talk about those dreams.”
Her tense body relaxes some. “I know, Blake,” she says sincerely.
I really hope she talks to me about these dreams. I talked to Melissa about them the other day, and she said she hasn’t had one in a long ass time. Now they are coming on more and more frequently.
And the shitty part about it? I’ve been having nightmares about my past, too.
Chapter 28
Cori
I wake up to a breeze on my face. I roll over, snuggling in deeper to Blake. As I’m about to fall back to sleep, it’s back, only this time, I feel a wet finger going into my ear.
“What the hell!” I shout, sitting up.
Chelsea and Melissa are both grinning down at me. “You wouldn’t wake up,” Chelsea says with a shrug.
Blake sits up behind me, chuckling. “We tried a few times, babe. You weren’t budging.”
I glare at him.
“Yeah, we’ve tried talking to you and poking you. We thought for sure the blowing on your face thing would work, but then Chelsea decided to give you the wet willy,” Melissa says.
“By the way, you need to clean your ears. Yuck,” Chelsea tells me.
“Well, I’m up now, so what’s so important to wake me?”
“I was just sick of your phone going off,” Melissa states.
“I just wanted to bug you,” Chelsea adds.
Both girls leave the room, shutting the door behind them. I look to Blake and glare at him. “Thanks for ganging up on me. Gee.”
He chuckles, pulling me to him, kissing my forehead. “It was worth it. Now you get up, shower, whatever, check your phone. I have to meet up with Adam and the Angels in a few hours. We’re arranging a charity thing.”
“Oh, Eden and Lilly told me about that. They’re really pushing for a bake sale.”
Blake’s face shuts down. “We’re men. We don’t do that frou-frou shit.�
�
I burst out laughing. “I know, but the guys are so whipped by their women, if that’s what they wanna do, that’s what will happen.”
“Great,” he mumbles.
An hour later, I am ready and out the door.
I get to the entryway of the south doors of the mall and spot Clara standing there, waiting for me. “Hey! Ready for some retail therapy?” I ask her, grinning.
She doesn’t grin back, just nods. We make our way through a few stores. I pick up a few things and new underwear, while Clara hangs back each time, just flicking through the racks. Finally, I’ve had enough, and we find a bench to sit down.
“Okay, enough is enough. You called me for retail therapy, but you are gloomy, and as we continue throughout the mall, you get worse. What on earth is going on?”
“Adam signed the papers,” she whispers, gutted.
“Um, okay. Isn’t that what you wanted?” I ask her, confused.
“Yes, and no. I don’t know,” she confides, throwing her hands up.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
And she starts. “He and my big sister were best friends, always, never anything more, but the minute I entered high school, I was a grade below him, we were attached. Sophia was over the moon happy for this development. So when the time came that Adam was going away for the summer with friends, before he went off to college, of course my sister went, too. He broke it off with me. God, Cori, it was such a giant blow.” She takes a breath before continuing. “Sophia had been acting weird about a month before the summer trip, just off. I never got it until she came home at the end of the summer, with Adam in tow, married, having a baby.”
“Oh, Clara,” I whisper. Fucking stupid Adam. She must have been devastated. That is horrible. Fucked over by her boyfriend and her sister.
“We worked it out. A year later, they divorced, and once he explained everything to me, both he and Sophia, I forgave them and we got married. The baby wasn’t his. Sophia’s boyfriend started getting abusive, and since they had been best friends for years, he wanted to help her. They said it was the only way at that time,” she explains.
“Okay, but you said you forgave them and got married. What happened to have you want to divorce him?”
“I couldn’t handle their friendship. I might have forgiven them for what they did to me, but I didn’t like them still being as close as they were—cuddling, Adam babysitting so damn often we never had time together, and then I heard Kayden, Sophie’s son, ask Adam to please love his mommy more so he could be his daddy for real. God, my heart broke hearing that. And Adam, he said... Fuck. He said, ‘I wish I could, buddy’.”
I sit back on the bench and stare at her. “Clara,” I start. I want to explain to her what he most likely meant, because his response was actually normal.
“And that’s not even the worst of it, because Sophia and Adam didn’t want Joel to ever be able to get custody of Kayden. Adam is listed on the birth certificate. They didn’t even tell me.” She sniffles, getting choked up.
I grasp her hands in mine. “There’s more, isn’t there?” I ask, dreading the answer.
“Yeah, Sophia was standing behind me when I overheard that, and when I turned around, I lost it. I yelled at her, told her I hated her and wanted nothing to do with her ever again. Adam came running out of the living room, and I told him to choose. Sophia or me. He said he couldn’t choose, saying that as he looked to Kayden, so I made it easy on him. I told him I was gone.” She takes a deep breath and finishes. “I left, never looked back. I moved away for a bit. Adam always seemed to find my new number or new email address, and was constantly contacting me, all the time, for years. I never replied to him, ever. I was originally Blake’s assistant, but when Adam found out I was, he switched me. I didn’t even know this was Adam’s work place until my first day here. I was gonna quit, never come back, but the pay was too good to pass up. And a small part of me loved being able to see Adam again, even without actually having him.”
She cries quietly, and I pull her into a hug. “It will be okay, Clara. I promise you. Either you need to really sit down and talk with Adam, or let him go for good.”
“I know. I know.”
“Sit on those papers for a while. Really think it over, Clara. If it’s what you truly want, go forward with it. If it’s not what you really truly deep down want, fight for the man you love.”
BLAKE
Melissa and Chelsea left the Clara bonding to just Cori, saying they didn’t really know the woman well enough to help her out, so they decided to come to the office with me. I swear, next time, they are taking their own car, because listening to this shit that they have playing is gonna make my ears bleed.
Finally, I park and get out of the car. I see the Angels’ bikes all lined in a row and Adam’s car in his spot.
I groan as Melissa and Chelsea rush out of the car and skip into the building. I shake my head. They are going to kill me.
I get into the building to see Lilly and Eden standing around, chatting with Melissa and Chelsea.
Angel comes over with a grin. “I know you said guys only, but they begged and we couldn’t say no. And it looks like you went through the same thing. But where’s Cori?” he explains then asks.
“She’s hanging out with Clara today. Those two just randomly put themselves in my car.” I point to Melissa and Chelsea. “Moira didn’t come?”
“No, she’s home with the kids, and Tori is helping her out. They were gonna come, but then we’d have to bring all the kids, so they decided to stay behind.”
“We have the best idea!” Eden shouts suddenly.
Angel groans.
“Bake sale!” All four women shout at the same time.
“No!” I yell over them.
“I’ll even pitch in on baking,” Melissa says, ignoring me.
“Me too. I have tons of recipes to try out,” Eden says, also ignoring me.
I throw my hands up in frustration and look at Angel. “Seriously?”
He shrugs. “May as well do it. Otherwise, they’ll be after us to do a bake sale every single time we want to do something.”
I groan. “Fine. We’ll do a damn bake sale.”
We talk everything over, and Melissa and Chelsea are in charge of the bake sale downtown while Eden and Lilly are hosting the one in Airdrie. Zippo suggested having the two locations to help bring in more money. They’re going to split up the club so they can be in both places for it. We’re going to donate all of this money to four new families that the Angels just helped get on their feet, hoping to bring them in more money so they can have a little extra.
A few hours later, we all drive off and head back to the condo. Melissa gets a text and starts getting pissed. “Ugh, I don’t want to talk to that dick,” she says, shutting her phone off and putting it into her purse.
Chelsea chews on her bottom lip, wanting to say something but backs off. When we arrive home, Melissa stomps out the doors. “Where’s she going?” I ask Chelsea.
“Went to get pop.”
“She does realize she’s pregnant and can’t drink all the shit she just bought, right?” On the way home, Melissa made me pull into the liquor store, and she came out of there with a giant box full of rum and some wine.
“Yeah, she does,” Chelsea says, looking in the direction Melissa stomped off in.
“I’m going to order a couple pizzas. Anything you don’t like?” I ask her as she unlocks the door.
“I like everything. Melissa and Cori only like Pepperoni, though.”
I place the order and sit down on the couch, waiting for Cori to get home.
Chapter 29
Cori
The second I get home after being with Clara, I feel icky. I like Clara, don’t get me wrong, but it has me feeling run down. I do know, when I get my hands on Adam, I’m gonna wring his neck. How could he not be able to choose between his wife and her sister? That’s not right.
“Babe, I ordered pizza,” B
lake calls from the living room as I shut the door.
“Oh, thank God.” I walk to him, finding him sitting on the couch, papers all over my coffee table. “Busy day?”
“You could say that. Your damn sister, Chelsea, and the other girls won on the damn bake sale charity,” he grumbles.
I smirk. “Told you.”
“Told him what?” Chelsea asks, skipping over to me.
“Nothing,” I say, winking at her.
“Today was so much fun, and Mason was totally pissed about what Keller did to me. Says he wants to hunt him down and wring him up by the balls. It was awesome,” Chelsea says gleefully.
I laugh. “I bet. Where is Melissa?”
“Oh, she ran to the store to get some pop for the mountain of booze she bought today.”
I frown. “But she can’t drink.”
Ten minutes later, the front door opens, followed by the smell of pizza. “Blake, come pay this guy,” Melissa shouts.
She comes in the living room, six bags full of pop in her arms, and she sets them down. “Let’s get drunk,” she declares.
“Uh, Melissa, you’re pregnant. You can’t drink,” I tell her.
“I know that, but I can have a glass of red wine. My doctor said it was okay. The booze is for you guys. I need fun in my life, and watching you all get drunk is the greatest,” she says, grinning.
I shake my head at her, and Blake comes in the room with two boxes of pizza. “The works and a pepperoni with extra cheese.”
I wrinkle my nose at the works pizza—that’s so nasty—and grab the pepperoni box from him. Melissa mixes my drink, and as she’s about to start Chelsea’s, her phone goes off.
“I’ll be home tomorrow,” Chelsea says, bolting out the front door, but not before grabbing a slice of Blake’s disgusting pizza.
“Where is she going?” I ask.
Melissa looks at me, confused. “Not a clue.”
We dig into our food and our drinks, and turn on the TV to re-watch some Game Of Thrones.
I look to Blake after a while, hearing him chew. It’s annoying as hell, and I’m about to snap at him when I see him picking a mushroom off his pizza.
