Mom drops several large bags on the couch. “You need a hearing aid, Joe.”
Dad mumbles something about not wanting to hear everything, and Mom shoots him a look of irritation. Laura comes inside holding more bags. I decide to turn on the charm, trying to get her to agree to go with me to New Orleans.
Taking the bags from her, I kiss her cheek. “Did you have a good time, baby doll?” I ask.
Her light blue eyes look at me with curiosity as she says, “Baby doll? It’s been a while since you’ve called me that, Kyle.”
I set the bags down, and pull her up into a hug, lifting her off her feet. “I know, and I think a break from this place would help our relationship.”
I spin her around and carry her off to my bedroom. “Kyle!” she shouts as her face turns red. “Your parents!”
I look back to see my mother beaming at us. “Never mind them, Laura. They love you and want us to be happy.”
Carrying her into my room, I kick the door closed behind us, and lay her down on my unmade bed. Her blonde hair fans out on my pillow as she looks up at me with a twinkle in her eyes. “How sweet you’re being,” she says.
I sit down on the bed, and run my hands through her silky, soft hair. “I’ve been neglecting you. My mind’s been a mess. We’ve had an offer, and I’ve already accepted for my part. I’m going to New Orleans early in the morning. Ally’s parents got a new house, and we’re invited to go for a visit. She and Eden are there already.”
Laura looks away from me, her face is void of any readable emotion. “So that’s why the good mood. You get to go see Ally.” Her words are soft but full of hurt.
I kiss her cheek and lean my forehead to the side of hers as she continues to turn her head from me. “That’s not why, Laura. It gives us a chance to get away from here for a little while. We need that, don’t you think?”
“We need something, I agree,” she says, then scoots over, moving away from me. “Why is that do you think?”
Great! She needs to talk, and we’ve little time to get things right with us before I need to leave, and get her to come with me.
“Things are different, and I don’t do different really well,” I say as I stand up, and pace around my bedroom. “That’s why I need to spend more time with Ally and her husband. So I can get it through my thick head she and I are over. You and I are together, and I need to appreciate that.”
She turns on her side, resting her head on her hand. “You and I don’t have to be together. You go on without me and see if you miss me at all.”
I need her to go!
“Laura, of course I would miss you. Come on, go with me. It’ll be fun. She’s sending the jet for us. You and I can work through this little rough patch. I care about you a lot,” I say, then sit back down on the bed, and run my hand up her tanned leg.
“You care about me. That should be enough, shouldn’t it?” she asks. “You have a bit of trouble telling me that. You don’t say it very often. Yet, you have no trouble telling Ally you love her.”
Ouch! She’s not pulling any punches.
“You’d rather I tell you something I don’t feel yet?” I ask, taking her chin in my hand to make her look at me. “I care deeply about you, Laura. And may I add, you haven’t told me how you feel about me in a long time either.”
Her eyes narrow. “Kyle, I’m crazy about you, and you have to know that. I come over here, uninvited every day to see you. You don’t call me, take me anywhere, or walk me home. Yet I hang on, hoping you’ll get it Ally has moved on, and left you behind.”
My heart contracts at her words. She has done all that, and I sit in my room and whine to myself how I love Ally. My life is going to always have her in it, and it’s making me nuts. If I could only talk to Laura about this, things would be so much better.
Threading my fingers through hers, I look at her. “I know I’ve been a crappy boyfriend. I asked you not to see anyone else and have done nothing with you. Left you dangling.”
“Yeah, you have,” she says. “Do you remember the last time we kissed?”
I nod because I know it was the night before we left the mansion in New Orleans. Before Ally and I almost kissed.
“You love her, and you still want her. I’m not good enough anymore,” she says, then sits up. “I have to admit she looked fucking fantastic. With enough money I suppose most women could look that good.”
“Money huh? Is that what you think about her? It’s only money that makes her glow and shine like a star? Wow, Laura, some friend.”
Standing now, she makes her way to the door. “I’ll make this easy on you, Kyle. We’re over.”
What? Shit! What have I done?
She moves quickly to the front door. My mother looks up from her seat on the couch. “Are you leaving, sweetie?” she asks Laura.
Laura stops her hasty retreat and looks at my mother. “Yes, mam. I’m sorry, I’ll explain later,” she says, then turns to look back to me as I’ve emerged from my bedroom. “Have a nice time in New Orleans.”
She walks out the door, leaving my parents looking at me. My mother jumps up, and runs at me. “What did you do to her, boy?”
I raise my hands over my head in an exaggerated shrug. “Hell if I know, Ma! I asked her to go with me to New Orleans where we’ll stay in the Devlin’s new mansion for a visit. How horrible of me, huh?”
“Ally’s? You asked her to go with you to see that girl?” my mother asks, then pokes me in my chest with her skinny finger. “You are an idiot, son! That girl is married. I knew she wasn’t the one for you. You got lucky when Laura accepted your advances.”
“My advances?” I ask
Mom turns to walk away from me, but I grab her narrow shoulders, and spin her around to look at me. “She told me what you did to her, Kyle.”
My mother’s words make my world tilt on its axis. Laura told my mother about how we got together. She’s insane!
Mom looks at me, her eyes growing gentle, and her words not coming out as harsh. “She’s a great girl, son. Let Ally go. She’s gone anyway. Hold on to Laura, she’s a keeper.”
I spin around to walk out the front door. I have to go fight for my girl. I’ve hurt her with my insane notion of Ally, and a love which is nothing more than a connection for me to protect her.
Laura lives three doors down, and although she walked out of my house with her head held high, and no tears on her face, I see her leaning against the wall by her front door. Her hands cover her face, and I know she’s crying. It is killing me, and I jog over, careful to be quiet so she doesn’t hear me, and run inside.
Her cries are quiet, and her body shakes as I approach her. I take her in my arms, pulling her close to me. She buries her face in my chest, and clings to me. “I love you, Laura,” I say without knowing I was going to do it.
I guess that’s how you know sometimes. If the thought of losing them makes you weak, then it must be love. My mother’s right. Laura is wonderful, and patient with a foolish boy who pines after one he can never have.
I have to get over Ally and be happy with who I have right in front of me.
The tears have streaked her pink cheeks as she looks up at me. “Really, Kyle?” she asks. “You aren’t just saying that?”
I kiss the top of her head “No, I’m not just saying that. I love you, Laura. When you said we were over, and walked out, something in me broke wide open. I see what, and who is important to me now.”
Her bottom lip quivers as she says, “I love you too, Kyle. I have for a while.”
She’s loved me!
Slowly I lean to touch her lips with mine. Her arms reach up around my neck, and she pulls me to her. It’s been so long since our lips have touched, and when they do I fall apart inside. She makes heat fill my body.
She pulls away from me a little. “Kyle, I don’t want you to go to New Orleans.”
I press my forehead to hers. She thinks I only want to go see Ally, and that’s not it at all. Maybe a form of the truth wo
uld make her agree to come with me.
“Baby doll, I didn’t tell you why we’ve been invited,” I say. “A man may be trying to hurt Ally. The father of an old girlfriend of Eden’s. The guy’s crazy, he raped his daughter, and left her for dead, now it seems he may be after Ally.”
She pulls out of my arms and turns away. “Are you serious?”
“I am. You can call her if you want to.”
She runs her hands up and down her arms as if she’s cold but it’s nowhere near cold. She turns back, and says, “I’m being a jealous ass, and I’m done being that. You were right about one thing. What kind of friend am I? I love her too, and I should put that at the top of my priorities. Tell her I’m coming too.”
I smile at her as my heart fills with a new feeling for her. “You’re pretty fantastic, baby.”
She takes my hand in hers and pulls me into her house. “Mom and Dad won’t be back for hours. Why don’t you come in for a while? I want to show you how much I love you, then you can show me how much you love me,” she says, and I find I’m happy to hear her words.
Chapter 47
ALYSSA
I notice I’ve missed a call when I pick the phone up, off my night stand. I hit the button to listen to my voice mail. A man’s voice comes out of the phone’s speaker.
“So they think that by moving you it will stop me from getting you. I will get you, Alyssa Fontaine. You took my daughter’s place in that family. She should be living that life not you. I should be living in that house not you. I can’t wait to get my hands on you, bitch,” a man’s voice says. I realize right away it’s Darren Stiles voice on the recording.
I drop the phone, staring at it helplessly. I can’t believe what I’ve just heard. I find I’m shaking uncontrollably. That man did terrible things to his own daughter, what in the hell would he do to me?
Tears begin to fall out of my eyes without me even realizing it. I have to let them know. I pick the phone back up and take it with me. I find my father sitting with Lyle in the living room.
My voice is shaky as I call out to him, “Daddy.”
“Yes, sweetie?”
I hold my phone out to him. “He wants me.”
Lyle stands up quickly, coming to wrap his arm around me, pulling me to sit down on the sofa with him. He holds me tightly to his side. I sink into his chest, feeling very drained. The reality I could end up dead, and very soon, has hit me like a brick wall.
“Alyssa, you’re white as a ghost. Who wants you?” Lyle asks me.
“Press the voice mail button, Daddy.”
My father pushes the button. He and Lyle listen to the man’s message. My father’s face pales, then he stands up.
“I’ll call the police, I’m getting your mother Alyssa, stay with Lyle,” Dad tells me, then leaves the room hastily.
I find I’m suddenly sobbing. Eden’s father holds me close to him as he says, “Alyssa, we won’t let anything happen to you. You’re safe. You have to believe me, you are safe.”
I feel a tug on my shoulder. “Alyssa,” I hear my mother’s voice say.
I turn away from Lyle to grab onto my mother. “Oh, Mom, what’s happening?”
Mom has me in a protective hold. “I’m taking her to her room.”
She sits me down on the bed, then walks over to the one window in the bedroom, making sure it’s locked, pulling the curtains together, and closing them. “Things change so fast around here, don’t they Darling?”
She goes into the bathroom, coming out with a wet wash cloth, blotting my face with it. The coolness of it makes me feel better and I start to calm down.
“Mom, why are there such bad people in the world?” I ask as if I’m a child.
Her arm slides around my shoulders. “I don’t know. I guess only God knows that. You’ll be fine, Alyssa. That man can’t get to you. There are too many people here to protect you for him to be able to get to you. He’s just trying to upset you. Don’t let him do that to you. You’re not a victim, Ally.”
The bedroom door flies open, as Eden rushes to me, grabbing me up into his arms, wrapping himself around me. “I’m so sorry, Alyssa, I can’t believe I brought this down on you. I was a fool.”
I hear the door close as my mother leaves the room. I hate that Eden thinks this is his fault. I can’t stand it. I pull back from him, wiping my eyes.
“Eden, nothing is your fault, the man is crazy. You didn’t make him that way. You just did a nice thing for his poor daughter. I’ll be fine. I just got freaked out. I’m okay now. I have faith all the people around me will make sure I stay safe. I’m done crying about it.”
His hands go to either side of my face, holding it gently. “Alyssa, it is my fault. I should’ve had our people do a background check on her, and her family before I agreed to do anything with her. I didn’t do that and now look where we are.”
“Eden, if you would’ve done that, then you would have never taken her to the prom,” I say as I run my hands over his arms. “Or let her come over to your house and given her a few moments of happiness. Her life must have been horrible. I’m happy she got to go to her prom. I’m happy you did that for her. Don’t second guess it now, it doesn’t help the situation any.”
He looks away from me, then sits down on the edge of the bed. He drops his head down, looking at the floor, shaking his head back and forth slowly, then stops. “I’ll try harder not to blame myself for this. You’re right, I suppose. If anything happens to you though, I’ll never forgive myself for all of eternity.”
I move his hands from my face, and hold them in my lap as I giggle. “Eden, don’t say that. I have to spend eternity with you. I can’t spend it with a spirit who resents itself.”
I see a weak smile begin to form on his face, and he says, “You giggled. I love it when you giggle.”
“I know you do, my prince. Now show me some of that faith you have so much of, and I sorely lack. You’re supposed to be the strong one who never shows fear.”
The touch of his hand running through my hair makes chills run through me. “Princess, I’m weak as a kitten when it comes to you.”
My heart pounds in my chest as I feel his fear for me. It takes everything in me to stop myself from freaking out.
If he’s this afraid for me, then I’m really in a lot of danger!
‘Take my mind off this,’ I send to my mate.
His strong hands move over my neck and back, massaging them as he sends back, ‘Your wish is my command, Princess.’
Lips as soft as downy feathers cover my shoulder as he moves the thin strap of my sundress off. I stretch my neck, and he moves his mouth to it. A quick nip at the nape of my neck then softly he sucks at it. My body flashes with a fire which runs from the tip of my toes to the top of my head.
I want him now!
I stand and drop my dress, then pull his shirt over his head. His tattoos are beautiful and I run my hands over them. All have meaning and the cross in the middle of his chest shows exactly who it is he works for.
Though he’s made fun of me for it. I say my prayer in hopes of staying us for a while longer rather than, an us with a child, and kiss the cross on his chest.
Lifting me by my chin, he looks into my eyes. Putting his arms around me, he unhooks my bra, then pulls it off. My stomach flutters as he bends down, and places his warm mouth over my breast.
I hear the button on his shorts pop and feel them drop past my legs to the floor. His mouth travels between my breasts up to my neck, then finally to my mouth.
The sweet taste of cinnamon fills my mouth as Eden’s tongue roves over mine in a tangle of wet desire. My hands flow over his shoulders and down his back until they find his muscular butt where I hold him, pressing him to me.
He picks me up, and tosses me onto the bed. I smile at him as he leans over me to rid me of my panties. Kissing my leg as he moves back up. ‘I’m about to make you forget everything, but me, Princess,’ he sends me.
I close my eyes and prepare to think
only about my mate, and how he makes me glow inside. My body shakes as his lips touch the little pearl which pulses with desire. His tongue runs over it, and my hands tangle up in his luscious locks as I hold him to me, and groan in ecstasy.
‘You taste like Heaven, precious,’ he sends me.
My tongue flows over my lips as I send him what I want, ‘Let me taste you while you taste me.’
His mouth leaves me as he looks up. “Really?” he asks with a smile on his face.
I smile and nod, and he moves so I can get on top of him. When my mouth slides over his hard erection, his moan vibrates my clit as his tongue runs over it. I shudder with exhilaration.
The touch of his mouth on me spurs me on to slide my mouth over his hot, silky, throbbing member. My hand strokes as I run my tongue over the tip, and down the shaft.
With no indication Eden rolls me over, I end up on my knees as he pulls me back by my waist. One hand grabs a fistful of my hair as he fills me from behind, jerking me back to him. He pounds into me, and I quiver with how hard he’s breathing, and how wild I feel with him. “You like it, Princess?”
I moan my answer, as I quake inside, about to lose it. An orgasm rips through me, sending me into a loud shriek. I drop my face into the mattress to stifle the noise, and Eden pounds me harder, and faster.
My legs shake with weakness but he doesn’t ease up. And I feel it welling up in me again.
How the hell can it happen again so quick!
Eden pulls at my hair as he hammers me, my face is pulled away from the mattress. My insides erupt, and I scream Eden’s name as I come undone.
He stiffens behind me, and groans loudly, “Alyssa!”
Slowly he falls on my back, and I lay out on the bed, barely able to draw air into my lungs.
Yep, that worked. I can’t think about anything but him!
Once we’re able to catch our breath, Eden pulls me to spoon with him as he runs his hands along my side. I no time I find I’m falling asleep and just before I do I find Eden must’ve fallen asleep and his dream starts in my head and I shudder as I watch myself die in his arms again.
Quartet Complete Series: Billionaire Romance Box Set (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) Page 94
