by Mia Carson
My last vision was of her head tipping back, her mouth opening as her face twisted in sweet agony. Her soft moan of release joined mine as my back arched, my own head pushing hard into the bed as I spilled into her.
I sighed out of my climax as she sagged, slowly tipping forward to lay on my chest, her lips hungry for mine. I’d come harder, but never had an orgasm so gratified me. I took her lips and devoured her, wanting, needing nothing more than this magnificent creature in my arms, and the little one that came with her.
She sighed as she placed her head on my shoulder. “I love you,” she whispered.
No matter how many times she said it, I never tired of hearing it. “I love you too,” I murmured in reply.
She lay on my chest, not moving, saying nothing, my cock still inside of her, for a very long time. When I finally softened enough to fall from her, she sighed, offered me another sumptuous caress of her lips, and slid to the bed at my side and snuggled in. I wrapped her in my arms and sighed in contentment. Why had I ever let her go? I should have fought for her; I should have come home at my first chance and demanded she tell me she didn’t want me anymore. I’d been such a fool, and it had cost me. It had cost me five years with the woman I loved, and perhaps, four years with my daughter.
As sleep began to take me I made myself a promise. Never again. Never again would I give up on her so easily. From this moment forward, I would always fight for her, and Abby, regardless of who her father was.
The bang of something hitting the side of the trailer jerked me from sleep. My start woke Ella. “What?” she murmured.
“You cocksucker! You fucking whore! I told you what would happen if you didn’t keep him away from my daughter!” Someone was shouting outside.
“Stay here,” I said as I rolled to my feet and quickly slipped on my pants.
“I’m going to fuck you up, you fucking whore! You’ll see! I’m going to take her away from you! She’s my fucking daughter and I warned you! You know you wanted me to fuck you! You’re nothing but a lying cunt! I didn’t fucking rape you, and you know it!”
It had to be Steve, judging by the ‘my daughter’ and ‘rape’ comments, and he was drunker than Cooter Brown. I snatched the door open and stepped out. Ella’s trailer was in the corner of town. There were only a few houses around, none close, and the retirement home nearby. When I stepped out, a man who had been standing in the street jumped into a Dodge pickup and roared away.
Ella was behind me wearing a bathrobe. “I told you to wait inside,” I muttered as I watched the truck disappear.
“Was it Steve?” she asked, ignoring me.
She knew it was Steve, just as I did, but without a positive identification there was nothing the cops could do. “I couldn’t tell in the dark, but probably, based on what the asshole was shouting and the fact he was driving a Dodge.” When she didn’t say anything, I turned to at looked at her.
“You don’t think he’d do anything to hurt Abby, do you?” she asked.
I nudged her back inside and shut the door. “Not if he knows what’s good for him. Is she still asleep?”
Ella nodded. “Yeah. She sleeps like the dead. A heard of elephants could run through her room and she’d sleep right through it.”
I nodded. “Good for her.” I took her arm. “He’s gone now. Let’s go back to bed.”
We returned to the bedroom and I glanced at the clock. It was just after two. We undressed and crawled back into bed. Ella snugged in, but I could feel the tension in her body.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Worried. What if he—”
I kissed her on the head. “He won’t. He’s drunk, that’s all, but if he does try anything, I’m here, and I’ll take him apart.”
“What about when you’re not here?”
“I’ll stay with you until we get this settled.”
“What will your parents say?”
“Do you need some help?”
She snickered. “I hope you’re right.”
I kissed her again. “I am. If it gets too bad, you can stay at our house. If he comes on the property, we’ll fill his ass full of birdshot. We’ll see how he likes that.”
“You keep saving me.”
“It’s my duty, my privilege, to protect you and Abby.”
She nodded and rose up for a kiss. I kissed her lips, and she settled back into her place. “I’m so glad you stayed. If you weren’t here and he’d done that, I’d be a nervous wreck.”
I gave her a caress. “Go back to sleep. Everything’s okay.”
She nodded, and over the next fifteen minutes, I felt the tension slowly drain out of her. Soon her breathing became deep and regular.
Sleep was slower in coming for me. I lay in the darkness, staring at nothing. Tomorrow I’d call and report the disturbance to the authorities. That was all I could do legally. But this was Texas, and sometimes things like this got handled in an unofficial manner. Until now, Steve was just an asshole, but this time he’d crossed the line.
24
Ella
I yawned mightily. After Steve had shown up and made an ass of himself, I hadn’t slept well. I kept jerking awake with a start. I’d lay there and listen for a moment, but after hearing nothing out of the ordinary, I’d settle back into sleep. Thank God Levi was there. Being wrapped in his arms made me feel safe; otherwise I’d have been up pacing all night, afraid to go back to sleep.
This morning he'd walked Abby and me the short distance to my car. He didn’t rush us along, but there was a tension in his posture and his eyes were alert. As we walked to my car, we saw the smashed Wild Turkey bottle lying next to my trailer, probably thrown by Steve, and I assumed the bottle breaking had woken us up last night.
“Good morning, Ella,” Marcy said as she appeared to pick up her morning tickets.
I finished my yawn and smiled at her. “Morning, Marcy.”
“Big day for you yesterday, huh? I’m glad to see the McCormicks and you putting your differences behind you. They’re good people.”
My smile widened. News of what had happened in Dolly’s was spreading through town. “The best,” I agreed as I handed her the tickets from yesterday.
“I guess that’s good if you and Levi are going to get back together.”
“Yeah. It will make things easier, that’s for sure.”
“Did Levi convince them?”
“You might say that.” I could tell Marcy was salivating over a tidbit of news, and I decided to be generous this morning. I also didn’t mind putting the screws to Steve and Cat. “Catherine Meyer admitted she drugged me, and when Will and Judy found out…” I shrugged.
“Cat Meyer admitted that?” Marcy asked, her eyes opening wide.
“Oh, you hadn’t heard?” I asked, pitching my cadence and tone as if it were common knowledge. “Yeah. She confessed it all to Levi. Steve is in a panic that he’s going to go to jail for rape. Who knows, maybe even Cat too, as an accessory.” I smiled at Marcy. God, it felt good to slide that knife into Steve.
“Really?” Marcy breathed.
“Yeah. Once Will and Judy found out the truth, they came to me and apologized. Like you said, they’re good people.”
“Wow! That’s good news for you, huh? Are you going to the police?”
I shrugged. “Levi is handling it. You know he was an MP in the Air Force, right? This is kind of his thing.”
“MP?”
“Military Police.”
“Oh! Well, I’m glad the truth is starting to come out. I never believed those nasty rumors about you anyway. You seem like such a nice young lady.”
It was all I could do not to burst into laughter. “Thanks, Marcy. I appreciate that.”
Marcy looked down, and I wasn’t sure, but I might have detected just a hint of shame in her face as she turned to go. I was still smiling as I picked up my pull list from the shop and started down it to see what parts I had in stock and what I was going to have to order.
The re
st of day was uneventful. I finished my stint at Allgood’s and went to Dolly’s. I wasn’t treated any differently than I had been yesterday, and nobody said anything out of the ordinary. My customers, though, were just a little friendlier than they had been, a little quicker with a smile, a little more willing to converse with me. It was probably all in my imagination, but I’d still take it.
At 7:45, Levi arrived with Abby in tow. After an enthusiastic greeting from Abby and a quick kiss in greeting by Levi, he and Abby sat down at the lunch counter.
“Here for that piece of pie?” Dolly asked.
“I am. Pecan, if you please, and a cup of coffee. The beautiful young lady beside me would like one of your chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk with a lid on it, please.”
“Coming right up,” Dolly said as she moved off to get their order.
I smiled as I eavesdropped. Abby could eat her weight in cookies. I could get used to having Levi and Abby meeting me every evening. I didn’t get to see Mom in the evenings anymore, but it was nice to be able to go home after my shift and not add another half-hour to my day by driving out to our farm to fetch Abby.
I knew it was only temporary. When spring arrived and his family was trying to get their crops in the ground, his days would get really long. Unlike harvesting, planting was only constricted by ground conditions, so fifteen or sixteen-hour days weren’t uncommon. Still, I’d take him and Abby meeting me at work for as long as I could.
As Levi and Abby enjoyed their order, I made one more set of rounds before I clocked out. By the time I was ready to go, Abby was swiveling back and forth in her stool as she talked with Dolly. As I approached, it sounded like she was trying to con Dolly and Levi into giving her another cookie to take home with her for Theodore.
“Ready?” I asked as I approached.
“Yep,” Abby chirped as she jumped down. “Can I ride in Levi’s truck?”
“I’ve been replaced,” I said dramatically.
“It’s okay, Mommy. I can still ride with you in the morning.”
Dolly, Levi, and I all snickered. “That’s true. Sure, you can ride with Levi.”
“See you at home,” Levi said, wrapping his arm around my back and giving me a smooch.
As they went out the front, I left through the back. They were waiting on me when I arrived home, and I made a mental note to get Levi a key.
I helped Abby with her bath and we tucked her into bed. She still wanted Levi to read her a story, but she wanted me to stay too. He finished her story, Goodnight Moon, just like always, and we straightened her covers and kissed her goodnight.
I flopped onto the couch with an exhausted sigh. “Can you stay tonight?” I asked. I hated feeling this way, but having him with me made me feel safe.
“Yeah. I told you, I’d stay with you until we got this mess with Steve sorted out.”
“Did you talk to the police?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
He shrugged. “And nothing. There isn’t a lot they can do since we didn’t actually see who it was, but it’s on record there was a disturbance here last night.”
“Can’t they, I don’t know, get finger prints off the bottle or something?”
He smiled and looked down. I suddenly felt silly for asking the question. He looked back up. “First, they’re not going to waste the time or money checking for prints over something like this. Secondly, even if they did, it probably wouldn’t tell them anything. Even if Steve’s fingerprints were all over it, unless he’d been fingerprinted in the past, it wouldn’t show up anywhere.”
“So we’re stuck? Why can’t the police ever do anything to help when they’re needed?”
“They do the best they can, Ella, but they have rules and laws they have to follow. Would you want them to come busting in here and arresting you without any evidence, based on somebody’s hunch?”
“No, but I haven’t done anything.”
“I know you don’t want to hear this, but legally, neither has Steve. We can’t prove it was Steve here last night.” He caressed my face. “Don’t worry, I’ve already talked to Mom and Dad, and they’re totally on board with me staying with you until we get past this and things settle down again. They also offered to put you and Abby up at their place, if you want to do that.”
I shook my head. “No. This is fine, so long as you stay the night with me.” I smiled. “I actually hope this doesn’t get resolved too quickly. I could get used to having you here every night, keeping me safe. And warm.”
“And relaxed?” he asked, his eyes crinkling and his lips pulling into teasing grin.
“Especially relaxed,” I purred. I licked my lips, nervous about my next question. “Did you check on the other thing?” I asked, trusting him to know I was talking about the paternity kit.
“No, I didn’t have time, dealing with the Steve thing this morning, but I will.” I guess he could read my apprehension because he smiled and pulled me into a quick kiss. “Don’t worry. Nothing has changed since last night. In fact, do you want me to order it now?”
I relaxed. “No, that’s okay.” I smiled, swung a leg over him, and settled into his lap. “I can think of something I’d much rather you do,” I murmured.
He thrust gently at me. “Oh?” he whispered with a smile. “What’s that?”
I slowly licked my lips. “I think you know.”
“I want you to tell me.”
I leaned down, my lips close to his ear. Having him dry fuck me through our clothes reminded me of my lap dance for his nineteenth birthday, and the memory of our innocent naughtiness was turning me on. “As soon as we’re sure someone is asleep, I want you to relax me,” I purred into his ear.
“How do you want me to do that?” he breathed.
“In the way only you—”
“Looks like you’re still spreading it around!” someone yelled from outside.
The bubbling desire for Levi vanished instantly, and I stood as Levi directed me to my feet. “I’ll call the cops,” I said.
“No,” he said as he started for the door. “I’ll handle it.”
“Levi, no! Let the cops deal with him.”
He ignored me as he opened the door and stepped out. “Get out of here, Steve!” he yelled.
“How do you like my sloppy seconds, McCormick?” Steve sneered from the road, a beer bottle held loosely in his hand.
“Go away or I’m calling the cops!” I shouted as I looked around Levi’s broad back.
“It’s a free country. I’m on a public street. I’m allowed to be here if I want.”
Levi trotted down the two steps to my driveway and marched toward the road. “Get out of here or the cops will be the least of your worries,” he warned as he stopped, only the narrow ditch at the edge of the road separating them.
“Are you threatening me?”
“I told you what would happen if you didn’t stop harassing Ella.”
“Fuck you, McCormick, and fuck the lies you’ve started spreading around town.”
I trotted up behind Levi and took his arm. “Levi, please come back inside.”
He shook me off. “Afraid, Steve? Afraid the whole town is going to know you for the limp-dicked, chicken shit you are?”
“You think you’re such hot shit! How’s it feel to be fucking the bitch I got pregnant?”
Levi smiled. “Yeah, you’re a big man, getting an unconscious woman pregnant. Is that how you get off, raping a helpless woman?”
“She wanted it,” he sneered.
“Yeah, that’s why you had to wait until Cat drugged her.”
“That’s a fucking lie!”
“You know it’s true, and now the whole town is going to know. Steve Calhoun, rapist. How’s that sound to you?”
“You can’t prove shit!”
Levi smiled. “Maybe not, but people don’t need evidence to believe something, do they? Ella found that out, and now you’re going to find out.”
“You keep fucking
with me and you’re going to regret it!”
Levi flicked his fingers at Steve. “Come on, take your shot.”
“Levi! No!” I cried.
Steve’s eyes flicked between me and Levi. “Not with a witness.”
Levi smiled, his eyes never leaving Steve. “Go back inside, Ella. Steve and I have business.”
“No! Not unless you come with me!”
“Go inside,” he repeated.
“No! I’m not going!”
Levi looked at me a moment, then back to Steve. “She won’t talk. This is between you and me. Come on, big man, or are you all mouth and no dick?” Steve didn’t move, and Levi chuckled. “Just what I thought. You’re nothing but a pussy. Now I know if Ella had been conscious she’d have kicked your ass.” He turned his back to Steve. “Come on, let’s go. He’s not going to do anything. He doesn’t have the balls.”
“Levi!” I shrieked as Steve charged us.
Levi whirled, pushing me hard as he turned. I stumbled and fell from his push but scrambled to my feet and out of the way, the two men colliding as Steve swung the beer bottle at Levi’s head. Levi ducked under the blow, causing the bottle to hit him on the back with a thud I could hear even ten feet away. Levi bellowed in pain, but he kept pumping his legs, pushing Steve back until they slammed into the side of the Dodge with a crash, their impact hard enough to cave in the side of bed. Steve roared as his truck rocked on its springs from the collision.
I’d left my phone on the table beside the couch. I should’ve run, grabbed my phone, and called the cops, but I was frozen with fear. Levi took a step back as he grabbed Steve by the shirt and loaded up to punch Steve’s lights out, but when he stepped back, his foot went into the ditch and upset his balance. He stumbled back another step, dragging Steve with him. Steve swung at Levi with the bottle again, the glass container thudding into Levi’s shoulder.
Again, Levi cried out in pain, but he never released his grip on Steve’s shirt. He pivoted with the blow, planted, and fired a right straight into Steve’s face. Steve’s head snapped back like it was on a spring as he stumbled backwards and fell, the bottle bouncing from his hand as he hit the ground. Levi went down after him. Steve was bleeding profusely from his mouth, but he wasn’t out of the fight yet. When Levi landed on him, Steve stiff-armed him, spoiling Levi’s aim, allowing Steve to duck Levi’s follow-up blow.
