The Love She Craves: Selling Her Soul to Declan

by Gemma Jenkins

  He drove deep and hard, giving her more of himself than ever before. He’d never been so hard before or so aroused.

  “Give me your arms.”

  With her upper bodyweight pressed into the mattress, she reached behind her. He grabbed her elbows and pulled them together behind her back and held them in place with one hand. The painful strain on her shoulders forced her back to arch and her hips to rotate until every thrust into her depths slammed his balls against her clitoris.

  “Come for me, Nyxie” he rasped. “I want to feel your cunt clutching my dick.”

  She erupted, wave after wave of sweet ecstasy roiled through her body. She whimpered, she hummed and cried out, begging and pleading for something beyond words.

  He grabbed her undulating hips and buried himself in her. He came with a primal grunt of male pleasure, a sound unchanged from days of Neanderthal, a sounds so ferocious, a woman might think him in pain. It was the sound of a man claiming his mate, warding off all other males, the sound of possession and conquest.

  It was the sound of love.

  40

  Declan had a hot bath waiting for Nyxie when he woke her the next morning. She insisted she was fine and made few movements to make him suspect otherwise. She did accept the OTC analgesic he offered and begged off any food insisting she was too nervous to eat. He tucked a protein bar into her purse in case she changed her mind.

  Declan wore a pair of khakis with a white button-down shirt, navy blazer and a navy and tan striped tie. Nyxie suspected he could fit in anywhere in the world dressed like that.

  She liked her dress also although she didn’t look like she belonged with him. He told her to buy a dress that looked like a waitress would wear to church and she was confident the dress fit the bill. It was a colorful floral print on a cream background with a pink belt at the waist. It had a retro feel to the cut with a faux button placard down to the waist, an open collar and short tailored sleeves. The conservative hemline stopped mid-knee. It was modest without being unfashionable. She paired it with a pair of pink flats and a $10 silver tone cross pendant she’d spotted walking through JCPenney’s jewelry department.

  Declan fingered the necklace. “Nice touch,” he said.

  “It couldn’t hurt in a town this conservative.”

  Up until the last five years, Lubbock had been the largest city in America that was dry. The 220,000 inhabitants could only buy alcohol in a restaurant by the drink inside the city limits. If you wanted a bottle of wine or a six pack of beer, you had to go to the strip—the row of liquor stores just outside the city limits.

  Chimera Flats was the same way, accept the truck stop with its convenience store had been outside the city limits and was a steady source of alcohol for her parents.

  Although they had taken her car, Declan had driven knowing her mind was not on the road. They met the lawyer in the corridor just outside the courtroom fifteen minutes before their 9:00 AM hearing.

  They entered the small courtroom from the side and the room was deep and narrow as if the county decided to turn one courtroom into two and this was the result. The judge’s bench sat midway between the door and the far wall facing the room sideways to Nyxie’s way of thinking. An empty jury box sat next to the door they entered through and there were only two pews for interested parties to sit.

  She quickly scanned the room for the girls, but there were only adults in attendance. The strangers sat on the front row, a middle-age man and his wife sat with a young woman wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase. On the far side, a middle-aged woman sat with her arms folded over her chest, staring straight ahead.

  Junior Vaughn headed straight to a table at the front with Declan and Nyxie at his heels. He placed his briefcase on the table and pulled out two folders.

  “Do you have the check?” he asked Declan in a library voice.

  “Of course.” Declan placed the check for the rent in his hand along with an envelope. “Here’s the bill of sales for her car. Everything’s in Nyxie’s name. Do you have the lease?”

  “I’m a step ahead of you.” He reached into his shirt pocket and handed Declan his pen. “Sign here and here. Sign and date here.”

  “Have a seat, Onyx.” He quickly went through the lease having Nyxie sign and initial different places. “I’ve got you signed up for online parenting classes. They are paid for already. By the next hearing, I want you finished with them. This paper has the URL, your login and your password. Print off a half-dozen copies of your certificate when you’re done. You know what, run off a dozen. The judge may want one for each child’s file and yours as well and CPS will, also. And I suppose I might, too. One more for yourself—just in case.”

  “Okay. I will,” she said nodding and turning her phone off.

  “Junior, we may have another small problem. Nyxie procured her learner’s permit with the wrong birth date. As a matter of fact, she gave you the wrong date, too.”

  “Oh, shit. Not a little problem, Stryker.”

  The lawyer picked up his cell phone and called his office. He demanded the person on the other end change her birthday on all the paperwork and get their ass over to the courthouse with them immediately – in triplicate.

  “I’m sorry; I didn’t know it was wrong. I’ve always gone by that date.”

  The same CPS caseworker who took the girls, showed up with the state’s attorney. Nyxie felt deflated that her nieces hadn’t come. She missed them. The previous night’s glimpse only made her miss them more.

  Declan stepped over the rail to sit directly behind her and gave the woman sitting by herself and apologetic smile and a nod as he took his seat.

  The woman looked to be in her early sixties with bottle-blonde hair and big doe eyes. He looked a little closer. He recognized a family resemblance in her delicate bone structure.

  Declan’s head jerked around to the other people in the room. The man was a few years older than the woman with gray liberally sprinkled in his hair. Declan could see where Nyxie’s black hair and chocolate brown eyes had come from.

  He realized the young woman with them was an attorney, dressed in her finest court attire. Every set of her grandparents’ eyes were glued on Nyxie, studying her.

  Fuck.

  Declan stood up and leaned over the railing. “Junior, these people are relatives—grandparents if I don’t miss my mark.”

  Junior was more subtle turning around to look at the people than Nyxie.

  “They won’t give my kids to them, will they?” Nyxie asked her lawyer. “These people are strangers. Haven’t their lives been turned upside-down enough?”

  “Did you know about this?” Declan asked Junior in an accusatory tone.

  “No. I mean, I knew the possibility existed, but I didn’t know anyone else had been found who wanted the kids.” He turned to Nyxie covering her hand with his and patted. “I’m not letting them take them without a fight.”

  As Nyxie pulled her hand free and put it in her lap, the door open in the front of the courtroom and a woman walked in and sat down at the stenographer's desk followed by the bailiff wearing his sheriff’s deputy uniform.

  “All rise….”

  “Always stand and addressed the judge as, ‘Your Honor’ or ‘sir,’” Junior said into her ear as he took her by the elbow and stood up, compelling her upwards also.

  As the hearing began, Declan sat behind Nyxie paying more attention to the way she rocked herself in the chair than he paid to the proceedings. If he could have touched her, reassuring her, giving her his strength, he would have.

  Junior rose to his feet and began speaking directly to the judge, stating the reasons they were there.

  Declan turned his attention to the man behind the bench who looked more interested in organizing the papers on his desk than what the expensive lawyer had to say. The judge was a tall, bald man who looked to be a contemporary of the man they suspected was her grandfather.

  When Junior finished, the lawyer for the state stood up to tell why
CPS opposed her guardianship for all three children.

  “Your Honor,” the opposing counsel said. “CPS has located alternate placements for the minor children and is currently in the process of sending out workers to complete the home studies.”

  The door from the corridor opened and a young man entered the room talking in full voice. He immediately stopped talking when he realized court was in session, but the distraction made everyone turn.

  Nyxie saw Lotus and Reina at almost the same moment they spotted her. She didn’t even think, she just ran towards them and the girls shot past the man, into Nyxie’s open arms. Nyxie fell to her knees as they embraced, the judge banging his gavel.

  “Your Honor, I apologize. I was told the hearing wasn’t starting until 9:30.”

  “Who are you, sir?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m Miguel Carrera. I’m Lotus and Reina’s CASA volunteer.”

  The judge turned to Junior Vaughn with a stern look. “I assume you staged this little show for my benefit?”

  Junior’s lip curled into a half smile. “Yes, Your Honor.”

  “The court finds you in contempt and fines you five hundred dollars,” Judge Mason said banging his gavel.

  Declan resisted the urge to reach in his back pocket and toss his credit card onto his lawyer’s table. He was perfectly happy to pay for anything that would get the children back for Nyxie.

  “Ms. Carmichael, please return to your seat so we can continue.”

  Nyxie looked up from her embrace. “Your Honor, may the girls sit with me?”

  The man looked at her with disdain. “No. I don’t even know why they need to be here at all.”

  “Your Honor,” Miguel Carrera said. “The girls wanted a say in their placement. As their Court-Appointed Special Advocate, I am here—we are here to speak to their wishes. I have only had the few minutes’ drive over here to acquaint myself with them and this case, but I can assure you the love these girls displayed just now for their aunt is genuine. And they don’t understand why they were taken away from her.”

  “Mr. Carrera, are you new to your position?”

  “Yes, Your Honor.”

  “We don’t just blurt things out in court. You wait until I ask.”

  The man twisted his neck awkwardly as if his collar was suddenly too tight. “Yes, sir.”

  “Lotus, Reina, go sit behind me next to Dr. Stryker. No talking unless the judge asks you something,” she said pointing at Declan in case they didn’t recognize him.

  Declan moved down the pew far enough for the three newcomers to sit and smiled warmly at the girls as Nyxie returned to her chair.

  The opposing counsel continued to stand at his table waiting to finish his spiel.

  “Counselor, you may continue.”

  “Uh, Your Honor, uh, as I was saying…. Penelope Nixon, the girls' great-grandmother has agreed to take the female minor children. And Martin and Olivia Carmichael have agreed to take the minor boy, uh…” He looked down at his paperwork. “Cody Carmichael who still remains in the hospital after his sister’s neglect landed him in the hospital.”

  “Your Honor, I object,” Junior said shooting to his feet. “Ms. Carmichael was at work providing for her family when the accident occurred. I have letters from Cody’s teachers, principal and two of Chimera Flats' finest police officers plus the chief of police attesting to his maturity. This accident occurred not because she was neglecting her kids, but because a seventeen-year-old was driving recklessly through their neighborhood. She could have been at home just as easily when the accident occurred. The Police Department in Chimera Flats is acquainted with Ms. Carmichael and her family and has never had cause to have CPS to intervene. The fact that they were called this time was because they wanted an impartial body assessing the situation.”

  “And we have assessed….” the CPS worker interrupted.

  “Your Honor, Ms. Carmichael circumstances have drastically changed in the last ten days. She has a place to live for the next three years which will decrease her living expenses greatly. She has signed up for parenting classes and is working on getting her GED and driver’s license. She plans to continue her education after she gets her diploma.”

  “And how is she going to support them while she is taking these classes?”

  “Your Honor,” Declan stood up. “She isn’t. I am. I am going to support Onyx. I have already signed a lease agreement for her to let my rental unit for three years for one dollar a month which she has paid in full already.”

  The judge locked eyes on Declan. “Who are you and how do you know this woman?”

  “My name is Declan Stryker. I was one of Cody’s surgeons. Ms. Carmichael and I attended the same high school. We’ve become better acquainted since the accident.”

  The judge leaned back in his chair eyeing Declan and Nyxie alternately.

  “You are her boyfriend?”

  His mouth flattened into a hard line. To say he was her boyfriend was technically a lie and even though he had not sworn to tell the truth, he was in court and preferred to be truthful.

  “Onyx and I are in an exclusive relationship, Your Honor.”

  The man stared at him, frowning. “I don’t like this,” he said slowly. “This doesn’t play true. But I’m not sure if you’re trying to influence me unduly or if she’s manipulating you. I think this girl looked at you and saw a meal ticket. Don’t you see she’s using you?”

  Declan’s face became stony cold. “No offense, Judge, but you don’t know jack about what’s going on. I am the one who pursued Onyx. She had no means to fight CPS. I used the promise of hiring a lawyer to get her to enter a relationship with me. I suppose I should pretend to be contrite about being so underhanded, but frankly, if I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

  Martin Carmichael made a scoffing sound. “She’s a conniving whore like her mother,” he whispered loudly to his wife.

  Nyxie reeled around on Martin Carmichael. “If my mother was a whore, it’s because your son turned her into one. Your son never held a job during my lifetime. He was an abusive drunk. If my father was the product of his upbringing, the worst thing the judge could ever do is to put Cody into your hands.”

  Judge Mason pounded his gavel loudly. “Ms. Carmichael, you will not speak unless you are spoken to. Is that clear?”

  Declan could see she wanted to argue that she was only defending her mother’s honor, but to her the prospect of angering the man who could rule against her overwhelmed her protest.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Declan rankled when she called the judge ‘sir’. He was her sir and he absolutely didn’t want to hear her calling another man by his title.

  After giving Nyxie a few moments to digest her censure, the judge turned back to Declan. “You’ve been dating a week. Who says it will last?”

  Irritation crossed Declan’s face. “Who says any relationship will last, Judge Mason? I have agreed to rent Nyxie a four-bedroom home for three years, all bills paid. If we do part ways, she would only be responsible for groceries and other day-to-day expenses for the remainder of the three years. Hopefully, by then, she’ll be qualified for a better job and Cody will be fifteen, certainly old enough in anyone’s eyes to babysit until Nyxie gets home from work.”

  “Your Honor,” the female lawyer said from the gallery. “This is all irrelevant. My clients are willing to take custody of their grandson. I’ve got their petition right here,” she said lifting papers in the direction of the bailiff.

  “Your Honor,” Nyxie said rising to her feet. “I beg you, please, don’t give my brother to them. They are not good people. Neither is my mother’s mother,” she said pointing at the other woman. “My mother was fourteen when she got pregnant. That woman threatened to have my fifteen-year-old father thrown in jail for statutory rape if he didn’t marry her. They were teenagers. They had no business getting married. And then both sets of parents abandoned them.”

  “That slut, Mandy, intentionally tr
apped our boy so she could get at our money. We weren’t going to support that.”

  Penelope pointed her finger at the Carmichaels. “Your boy should’ve kept his dick in his pants. You weren’t going to make him take responsibility. I paid their first month’s rent and deposit and your son didn’t even say thank you.”

  The judge began pounding on the gavel. “Order, order. Sit down everyone. This is ridiculous,” the judge shouted over the noise.

  One by one every person in the room sat down and stopped talking.

  “Obviously, there’s a lot of history and ill-will. The next person who speaks out of turn will be found in contempt. Mr. Vaughn—I have your petitions. Let us deal first with the girls and then with the boy.”

  “Yes, Your Honor. Lotus and Reina are the daughters of Onyx’s sister. She is a drug addict and abandoned the girls with her sister last year. We located Melinda in the county jail a few days ago. She has legally signed over guardianship to Onyx, Your Honor; we are here to have the courts acknowledge her right to pursue regaining full and legal custody.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. And their father or fathers?”

  “We don’t know who either girl’s father is.”

  Martin Carmichael harrumphed drawing Judge Mason’s attention. He frowned, but told Junior to continue without censuring the man.

  “This was only intended to be a hearing to determine Miss Carmichael’s right to the children, but if CPS is determined to place them today, they should be placed in the only stable and loving home they’ve ever known.”

  “I will hear both sides, but unless I hear compelling arguments, I see no reason to make a judgment on custody until the home studies are completed.”

  “Thank you, Your Honor,” Junior Vaughn said. “About Cody Carmichael, we would ask that emergency guardianship ad litem be granted to Ms. Carmichael immediately. He is currently in the hospital and we believe his medical decisions should be placed in Ms. Carmichael’s hands and taken from the state. The state has shown a lack of interest in his care and is blindly allowing the doctors to make any and all medical decisions without due consideration of his welfare. The state does not know his past and is making decisions about his care uninformed and with total disregard for his previous medical history.”