UnKiss Me

by Dawn Martens

  Charging at me, she gets in a swing before I realize what she’s even doing. When my hands grab her wrists to try to calm her down, she pales and starts shaking violently.

  “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” she chants, repeatedly, trying to pull away from me.

  I let go of her wrists and wrap my arms around her body, pulling her in tight. I just want to take all of her hurt away and protect her. “Darlin’, I didn’t mean to scare you. I’d never hurt you.” Fuck, I don’t want her to be afraid of me. I still love her. I plan on getting her back and soon.

  I didn’t mean to flip out on him that badly. I just snapped, but when he grabbed my arms, I lost it.

  I knew the slap was coming before he probably even did. I worked later than usual, but the extra cash was needed. It also meant that I wasn’t home to make supper for Dad by the time he got off work.

  “Where is my supper?” Dad shouted in an angry boom.

  “It’s almost done. I got off work late today. Should be done in about ten minutes,” I told him timidly.

  He stormed over to me, and his fist crashed into my face. “I don’t give a fuck! I told you my food is to be plated as you hear me walk in that fucking door,” he yelled at me, backhanding me. I nearly dropped the plate I was trying to fix for his sorry ass.

  “Calm down, Darlin’. It’s okay. I promise you’re okay.” I hear Jasper’s soothing voice, it slowly breaking me out of my memory.

  I calm down and take a step away, making his arms fall away from around me. I shake my head slightly, snapping out of it. “I’m not working for you. I’m going down to that diner and asking for my job back. I’m doing this for myself,” I tell him. I know I asked for his help, but I need my independence. I didn’t escape my father only to end up being controlled by another man. I asked for help to keep Glenna safe.

  “Edie, you’re not,” Jasper tells me firmly, using my nickname.

  “You can’t tell me what I can and can’t do! And you don’t get to call me by that anymore,” I shout. I go to move around him to grab my purse and keys, but he grabs a hold of me. This time, I don’t feel fear. He pushes me gently into the wall, his hand going to my hair, grasping it lightly.

  His lips crash down on mine, his beard rubbing roughly against my face. I don’t even bother to fight the kiss, parting my lips to let his tongue in. I should be shoving him off, something—not moaning and giving in. What is wrong with me? His tongue feels so good as it dances with mine. I can taste the cool mint of his toothpaste. It’s so easy to lose myself in his kiss. It always has been.

  He nips at my bottom lip, grinning at me with wide eyes. “That’s one way to shut you up. You’ll always be my Edie,” he mutters, breaking the kiss. He presses his body into mine, and I feel his hardness dig into my stomach. “You’ll be mine again, Eden. Don’t even deny it. This cat and mouse game, though it might be fun, it’s not gonna last for long,” he promises, so sure of it. That’s where he’s wrong. I can’t allow myself to get caught up in him again. Look where it landed me the last time.

  I try to shove him off me. “I’m not playing a game with you. We’ve been over for years. We’re not getting back together.” Looking him straight in the eye, I try to remain stern.

  He grins. “Keep telling yourself that. It will happen. Before long, you’ll be pregnant with my kid, and we’ll be married, living together.” He pauses. “We’ll be happy again, Eden. I promise you that,” he says quietly. He has this far off look in his eyes, as though that is what he is seeing now in his mind—imagining us married, me with a swollen baby bump. God that kills me. “And the thing is, technically, we never broke up. You ran off, so really, you and I, we’re still together.”

  I shake my head. “No, we won’t. I’m not doing this with you again.” I’m not sure who I’m trying harder to convince, him or me.

  “We’ll see,” he says, losing his smile. “For now, I’ll give you a ride into work and show you the ropes. Let’s go. You’re on my bike.”

  “I don’t need you to drive me. I can walk just fine,” I tell him stubbornly.

  “You ain’t walkin’ there. And I swear to God, if you don’t move it, I’ll just have to carry you,” he says to me with his brow crinkled.

  I huff and stomp my feet as I walk out the door. “Fine. Let’s go.” I don’t know why I bother fighting him or telling him no. Jasper is one of those men that takes what he wants when he wants it.

  I can’t wait until Hilary comes back. She and Lilly can help me with this Jasper problem.

  I don’t remember her being so fuckin’ stubborn. She’s always been a spitfire, but always gave in to anything I said. Walking out behind her, she tosses her house keys over her shoulder. “Catch. Lock it up,” she says without looking at me as she keeps moving toward my bike.

  Sighing with a shake of my head, I just pocket the keys. No one around here locks doors. It’s a safe area. I stare at her before moving down her front steps. What the hell did I do for her not to want me? She knows I was with Roni that night, but not the way she thought. I think she bought the lie I told when Glenna blurted out I was dating Monica. I’ll have to find the right time to explain the whole situation to her. Monica wasn’t exactly my girlfriend, but I was seeing her. Why does shit have to be so complicated?

  I throw a leg over the bike to straddle it. “Get on behind me.” She belongs on the back of it permanently, and I am going to see to it that she is.

  “Uh, helmet?” she asks in all seriousness.

  “We’re just a few streets over. Hop on.” I shake my head at her. She has nothing to worry about when she rides with me.

  “Not without a helmet. It’s illegal in Canada, ya know,” she says with her hands on her hips. Fuck, this woman is killing me in more ways than one. I look at her now, wearing tight jeans and a long-sleeved black button down shirt that hugs her breasts under her denim jacket.

  Sighing again, I hop off and pull out the helmet from my saddlebag, and then toss it to her. “Now, hop on.”

  With more attitude, she does, but she doesn’t wrap her arms around me, where I want them. She holds on to the leather seat.

  “Are you seriously going to fight me on everything?” She’s so infuriating.

  “Fine.” She wraps her arms around me, and at that moment, I almost want to just keep riding and not stop for anything. She feels really damn good wrapped around me. I’d like to take her straight to my bed and fuck every stubborn bone out of her body.

  The ride to my garage only takes five minutes. Although I could have let her walk, I wanted her with me—feels damn good to have her riding with me.

  “Let’s go into the office, and I’ll show you around,” I say, putting the helmet she passed me into my saddlebag. I escort her inside and show her the basics of the ins and outs of the garage. Really not much to know, but I still feel it’s important to give her a proper tour.

  “Looks like I might put my degree to use here,” she tells me, eyeing the mountain of paperwork on the desk. I learned from the background check on her that she went to business school to work for Office Administration training. I didn’t know people actually went to college for that shit; anyone can file and answer a phone.

  “This is your desk. Make yourself comfortable. Shift is eight to five and one Saturday a month. Your job will be whatever comes your way; whether it’s submitting orders, payroll, or calling the clients to let them know what’s wrong with their vehicle or to tell them it’s ready, and answering when clients call,” I explain, glossing over the common sense duties.

  Eden nods her head and sits down at the desk, starting in. She already looks comfortable. Seeing her sitting here, it hits me that she’s really back, and I really have a shot to make things right with her.

  After realizing Eden’s a pro on the computer and with filing paperwork, I’m ready to leave her to it, but the phone on the desk rings. “Hello?” I answer. Eden shoots me a glare that clearly states that was her job.

  “This Angel’s
Mechanic Shop?” the female voice asks. Shit, Eden has me so worked up, I can’t even answer the phone properly.

  “Sure is. What can I do for you?”

  “It’s Hilary. I need a tow. Some asshole swerved at me on the road. I’m in a ditch,” she tells me. I turn away from Eden, not wanting her to know it’s Hilary. I want her arrival to be a surprise for Eden.

  I laugh. “I’ll be there with the tow in a bit. Tell me where you’re at.”

  After Hilary tells me where she’s at, I hang up and take a look at Eden, who is clicking away at the computer. “Be back in a bit. Got a call out for a tow.”

  She just shrugs her shoulders at me, while muttering, “Don’t care.” I bite my tongue from wanting to say something, anything. I’m going to have to call up the ladies and get them to take care of Glenna tonight for a bit, because one way or another, tonight, Eden will be screaming my name from underneath me. We have lost enough time already—time to make up for it, starting tonight.

  *~*

  I finish unhooking Hilary’s car from the tow truck when Zippo comes out of the garage. “Well, if it isn’t Hilary, miss big power defense attorney,” he drawls. He stares her up and down, taking in her long black hair swept neatly behind her ears.

  “Well, if it isn’t small dick Vinny, and actually, I specialize as a divorce lawyer, retard,” she says sarcastically. “How’s Lilly? Oh, wait, you wouldn’t know, right, considering you dumped her pregnant ass,” she quips, rolling her eyes in his direction. “It’s a sad thing that you two weren’t married. I would have loved to take you to the cleaners.”

  “Fuck this,” he says, throwing his arms up and storming back into the garage.

  “I take it you heard about everything?” I ask her, leaning against my truck.

  “Sure did. Mom called me, of course, and so did both Lilly and Eden. Told me everything. Guy is a fucking asshole for that move,” she says, glaring toward the garage.

  “Speaking of assholes, you wanna tell me why you have two kids, and Mason doesn’t even know about them?” I ask her, looking over at the two kids that look a little older than Glenna’s age, playing with their iPads on the ground outside the doors of my shop.

  When I first arrived at the place to get Hilary out of the ditch, my heart stopped when I saw those kids. They were lucky no one got hurt. What killed me most, though, were the names she chose for them. I felt as if my heart was being ripped open. Jessica and Ethan, she named them.

  Those were the names that Eden and I had picked out for our future kids. All these years wasted with each other, and we could have been a family.

  “Really none of your business at this point,” Hilary says full of attitude.

  “Did you have any problems getting the time off from work?” I ask her, letting her latest comment go, not wanting to get into a sparring round with her. The bitch is lethal.

  I met everyone just outside Momma B’s bakery. As I spotted Eden sitting by Mason and Hilary, she turned and saw me, wriggling her nose with a head tilt at the couple. I smirked.

  “Hey, guys,” I said, coming up to the group. Hilary and Mason finally broke up their little mouth fuck and greeted me.

  I sat down on the bench and grabbed Eden, making her sit on my lap. “Where’s Vinny and Lilly?” I asked.

  “Lilly is actually inside getting us some yummies, and Vinny’s with Kayla tonight, I think,” Eden said.

  “Why would Vinny be with Kayla?” I asked, confused.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know, but I overheard them talking at lunch today, saying they were meeting up later.”

  That was strange. I had no clue that Vinny and Kayla even talked.

  Lilly came out, and Mason stared at her legs and gave a low whistle. “Damn, Lilly-pad, I didn’t realize you had legs that went on and on.”

  Hilary smacked him in the back of the head. “Really?” she sneered at him.

  “Nothing wrong with looking,” Mason said.

  “Is that so?” Hilary grinned. Uh oh. Just then, Bryce, Vinny’s big brother, walked by. I put my forehead to Eden’s shoulder. “Hey there, hot stuff. Mighty fine ass, baby,” Hilary catcalled.

  Bryce just smirked and shook his head, but didn’t say anything back.

  “Bitch, that was uncool,” Mason growled.

  “Oh, no it wasn’t, motherfucker. And what the hell did I tell you about that bitch shit? Huh? Do you want to lose your balls? Because, trust me, I can make it happen,” she said, sounding deadly.

  I thought my own balls were going to shrivel up with that comment and how she said it.

  “Nope, actually, I decided to quit. One of the partners in the firm is a dick. Kept trying to come on to me, saying I wouldn’t make partner unless I sucked his dick,” she says with a shrug of her shoulder. “I got those two over there. I ain’t doing shit to make them think less of me one day.”

  My eyes narrow at her. “So what are you doing for work?” She hasn’t changed a bit.

  “I decided I’m going to compete against Phil—that old bastard has been the only attorney in town since I was a kid. Need to keep him on his toes, I think,” she tells me with a smug smile. “My boxes should all be here in a few days. The moving company cost me out the ass, but my landlord was able to get me out of my lease without penalties since he had a waiting list.”

  I nod. “Good. You gonna be staying at your house?” I’m wondering how soon shit will blow up if she moves back to her home she once shared with Mason.

  She tilts her head and looks at me like I’m stupid. “You are a funny guy, aren’t ya? No, I’m gonna crash with Lilly. Girl needs help, and since Vinny might soon die a very fortunate death, I’m gonna help her out.”

  I’m starting to feel sorry for Zippo. All the women are turning against him and are out for his balls.

  “Let’s go say hi to Eden. I’ve missed that crazy bitch. I just talked to her last night, but didn’t tell her I was coming down,” she says, sounding giddy. “Kids, let’s go in.”

  “Follow me,” I say, and move away from my truck, walking into the office. Those kids- though I have never seen them before now, look familiar to me, and not just because they’re Hilary’s kids. But fuck, I have dealt with a lot of kids over the years, so I let the feeling go.

  She stays back slightly, whispering to the kids. They look at me a moment, smile and wave, then follow behind me quickly. When I get into the office, she’s not there, not even her purse. “Fuck!” I shout, forgetting I have two kids following me. Don’t tell me she has already skipped out on me. I just got her back.

  I run out of the office, almost knocking a confused Hilary on her ass as I make my way into the garage. “Anyone see Eden?” I ask. She better not have ran off.

  “Uh, she took off about thirty minutes ago like a bat out of hell. I think I saw her climb on the back of Reaper’s bike,” Zippo says.

  Jealousy fills me; he better not fuckin’ touch her. She’s mine, always has been, always will be. I’ve always been somewhat jealous of those two together, but they always both assured me they were friends, best friends.

  My phone rings. Pulling it out of my pocket, I see Reaper’s name flashing on the screen. “Why the fuck did you take off with Eden?” I growl into the phone.

  “Turn off that jealousy switch, brother. You need to get down to the school. Now.” He clicks off.

  “Something’s up. Hilary, go find your mom. Tell her to rally a few members and get over to the school, and to get the others to clubhouse. Zippo, bike, follow me,” I shout out orders.

  After getting to the school, I hop off the bike and storm in the front doors. Reaper is standing in the window of the office, looking out, probably watching for me. He jerks his head for me to go in. “Zippo, stay out here. Not sure what the hell I’m going to be walking in on, but it doesn’t look good.”

  “Sure thing, Pres,” he says, taking a seat outside the office.

  It’s not long after Jasper leaves when my cell phone rings. “Hello? I’m look
ing for Eden Blake,” says the nervous voice on the phone.

  “Speaking,” I say.

  “Hi, this is Mrs. Palmer from the elementary school. I don’t want to alarm you, but there is a woman here claiming to be Glenna’s mother, trying to take her off the property. We haven’t let the woman near Glenna, nor told her the classroom she’s in, because the woman isn’t even on the list.”

  Fuck! “Do not let either of them leave. I’ll be there soon,” I tell her, hanging up quickly. There is only one person I can think it might be. She is going to start this shit now? I really don’t need anything else on my plate stressing me out.

  I grab my purse and fly out the door, ignoring Zippo’s glare. Mason sees me running down the street and pulls over. “What’s goin’ on?” he asks me, sounding somewhat worried.

  “I have to get to the school right away,” I tell him, only stopping for a second before I keep running.

  “Climb on! I’ll get you there faster,” he shouts.

  I take him up on his offer and run back to him, swinging myself onto his bike and holding on tightly, not worrying about a helmet.

  We arrive at the school in three minutes, breaking every traffic law in town probably. I quickly get off the bike, but before I make it to the school doors, an arm clamps around me.

  “Fill me in on what we’re walking into,” Mason demands.

  “I got a call. Some woman is claiming to be Glenna’s mother and trying to take her off school grounds,” I say in a rush.

  His eyes narrow at me. He lets me go and storms into the school. I follow quickly behind him, hearing crazy shouts from a woman.

  “She’s my fucking daughter! Let me see her!”

  “Ma’am, you are not on the list. We don’t know you. We can’t just hand over a child to you,” Mrs. Palmer says calmly.

  “We have a problem here, Foxy?” Mason says, glaring at the woman as if he knows her. I’ve heard of this woman, but I don’t remember seeing her before. However, as I look at her now, I do recognize her from around town when I was a kid.