Troublemaker

by Bladon, Deborah

  I never bothered to step foot in the place again.

  I throw the empty bottle of scotch against the wall. It shatters sending a shower of glass everywhere. I drop to my knees and bury my face in my hands.

  Why the fuck didn't I see her face then? I wasted too much of my life without her, and now, I don't know if I'll ever see her again.

  ***

  "Crew." Adley's soft voice whispers in my ear. "I'm here. I'm right here."

  I feel her arms circle me from behind. The warmth of her skin caresses my bare back.

  "I've got you." She peppers my shoulder with kisses.

  I roll over on the floor, my head pounding, my eyes shuttered closed. "Adley."

  "Tell me you're all right," she whispers against my mouth.

  I reach up and grab her shoulders. The heat from her skin soothes me. "You knew. You knew it was me all along."

  She crawls closer to me. Her entire body presses into mine. "I knew."

  I know why she didn't tell me. I looked right through her that night. I only saw her fear. I didn't see her face.

  I move to sit up, but the fucking room is spinning. I rest my head back down on the cold floor. "I should have killed that bastard. You didn't belong in that place. Why the fuck were you in that place?"

  "The same reason you were." Her hand runs over my chest. "I wanted the thrill. I wanted to feel a rush. I wanted more than he could give me."

  A deep guttural sound escapes me. It's pained. It's primal. It's uncontrollable. "I was there. I was fucking there and didn't see what was right in front of me."

  "You see me now," she says through a sob. I feel her tears on my skin. "You love me now."

  "I love you. I'll never stop."

  She nestles against my chest, her breathing slowing. "When you looked at me that night, I knew you felt my fear. I knew you'd save me."

  "I would have torn him apart with my bare hands to get you away from him."

  "You did."

  "You didn't belong in a place like that." I reach to grab her thigh, to press it against my stomach. "That's not who you are."

  "It's who you are," she whispers against my neck. "It's what you like."

  "No." I turn to look at her. "I fucked in public because it helped me get off. I will never need that with you."

  "Never?"

  "Never." I stare in her eyes. The eyes I looked in five years ago when I heard her silent pleas and the eyes I stared into when I fucked her for the first time. "I don't want to share you with anyone, Adley. I don't want anyone to see this." I run my hand over her thigh and up her bare back.

  "I'm enough for you."

  I love that it's a statement and not a fucking question. "You will always be everything I need."

  "Can I take you to bed?" She rolls off me and sits up. The light filtering in from outside frames her like a halo. "I want you to fall asleep in my arms."

  "Carry me there," I joke. "I'm so fucking wasted."

  "You have to stop drinking because I need a study partner."

  I bolt up into a sitting position. "You need a what?"

  "I was accepted into med school today." Her voice trembles. "Sydney called me when the letter arrived. I was on my way to work. I called Donovan and told him about my dream to be a cardiologist. He told me to go home and read the letter and if the news was good to take the day to celebrate."

  "Is that why you disappeared? I was trying to find you for hours."

  "I thought you were with your mom." She smooths her hand over my brow. "Your dad just died and I know she needs you. I didn't want to interrupt your time with her, so I finally went to see that new apartment my folks moved into three months ago. I've been thinking a lot about them the last few days."

  "What did they say about med school?"

  "I had every intention of telling you first but I wanted that to be in person."

  I smile at her. Of course, she'd want that. She wanted to hold onto that memory.

  "My dad started talking about how I needed to make a decision about going back to school to be a vet soon, so I pulled the letter out of my purse, and well, they were happy."

  "Happy?" I bark out a laugh." They were over the moon, weren't they?"

  "My dad was over the moon about med school." She presses her lips to mine. "My mom was over the moon that I'm in love."

  "That came up?"

  "That's what I went over to tell them." She takes a deep breath. "Time flew by, and when I finally looked at my phone in my purse, I saw all your missed calls and a few from Tilly. I tried calling you first, but you didn’t pick up so I called her and she told me about the clinic, and the jerk and you. That's when I realized that you knew that I was the girl from the club."

  Chapter 49

  Adley

  He's been asleep for hours. I helped him get to his feet when he said he needed to stand. He leaned on me while we walked to the bedroom. I got in bed with him and held him until he fell asleep and then I slipped out of his arms so I could clean the broken glass.

  "It's been one hell of a week." His voice is behind me. "If this is how it's always going to be with us, we need to renegotiate the no drinking policy."

  I turn to look at him. He's only wearing his boxer briefs. That's exactly how I left him.

  "Next week will be better." I pat the sofa next to me. "I'm going to take you up on your offer."

  I watch him stroll toward me. "The one where I asked you to marry me?"

  "I haven't heard that one yet." I stare at his face as he lowers himself next to me. "You made an offer when I was putting you to bed."

  "Was it to sit on my face? That offer lasts forever."

  I slap him on the shoulder. "I will take you up on that offer before I go to work."

  He looks out at the darkened sky. "Looks like it will be a multi-hour session."

  "You remember the offer, don't you?"

  He pats his lap. "Sit here with me."

  I scoot my panty-covered ass across the couch and settle on his lap, my legs straddling his. "Tell me you remember."

  "I wish I could remember that night." He presses his index finger to my lips. "I know you don't want to talk about it, but when you do, I'm here."

  "Thank you." I kiss the side of his finger. "It's crept back into my life because of the Hale's babe stuff, but I'm getting stronger. I think it's actually helped me to let go of the pain of that night."

  "How so?"

  "Whenever I thought back about it, I'd see that younger version of myself who was trying too hard to please her boyfriend. I was willing to sacrifice myself to make him happy. I'm not her anymore. I'm strong. I can handle it. It doesn't define who I am. I get to choose what defines me."

  "You're right." He runs his hands over my thighs. "You chose to try an experience. It wasn't what you wanted. That doesn't give anyone the right to say a word to you about it."

  "I've cried too many tears about it. I don't want to cry anymore."

  He looks down at the sofa. "You were crying about it the night we played Truth or Dare."

  I nod. "A man sent me a message online and asked if I'd ever been to the Skyn. He saw the picture of Trey and I at Nova, and he thought he recognized me."

  "You were at the club more than that one night, weren't you?"

  "A half dozen times," I admit." I was mostly in the main club dancing with my boyfriend at the time. He took me to the back rooms twice. The first time we watched other people. The second time is when you saw me there."

  "A face as beautiful as yours is hard to forget."

  "You forgot," I say softly.

  "The fire was the week before I saw you there." He's quiet for a moment. So am I. "That's not an excuse for not remembering you. It's definitely not an excuse for the rage I was feeling. I helped you because I had to. I saw the cry for your help in your eye, and there was no way in hell I could ignore it."

  I trail my fingertips down his cheek. "When I saw you in Vegas that night when you were offering Ellie a job, I recogn
ized you."

  The pad of his thumb runs over my bottom lip. "I'll never forgive myself for wasting these two years, but I'll do everything in my power to make the next seventy the best you've ever had."

  "Is that how long we'll be together?"

  "God willing." He kisses the corner of my mouth. "I'll spend every single one of those days showing you how much I love you."

  "Let's start now." I reach to unbutton the white shirt I'm wearing. It's his, of course. The smell of his skin surrounding me is the reason I put it on when I got out of bed.

  He flips me over the same way he did the night we played Truth or Dare.

  He hovers above me.

  "What will it be, Crew? Truth or Dare?"

  "Truth."

  I stare into his pale green eyes. "Will you love me forever?"

  "Forever and an extra day." He kisses me softly. "Truth or Dare, Ad?"

  "Dare."

  A ghost of a smile floats over his sinful mouth. "I dare you to take me up on my offer."

  "The one to move in with you?"

  He nods. "That one and all the others I'll make until the day I die."

  "I'm going to pack up my things tonight." I trace the pad of my thumb over his left brow. "I want to wake up next to you every morning."

  "At five a.m."

  "Those days are over." I laugh. "Last one, Crew. Truth or Dare?"

  "Dare," he answers without missing a beat. "Make it a good one."

  "I dare you to make me come."

  "You're joking." He rakes my body from head-to-toe. "Add something to that, like within a minute, or with my eyes closed, or with both hands tied behind my back or all of the above."

  "With just your kiss," I finish.

  "Dare accepted, Dr. York," he growls as he slides down my body. "You never said where the kisses could be."

  I arch my back when I feel his breath on my thigh. "You won."

  "You better fucking believe I won," he says as he pushes my panties aside to glide his tongue over my core. "I get to be loved by you. There's nothing better in this world than that."

  Epilogue

  Three Years Later

  Crew

  "Tell your mother what happened at school today." I cross my arms over my chest and stare at my daughter.

  Her lips pinch together. She looks at me before her gaze stops on Ad's face. "I told a boy that I didn't like his shoes."

  "Megan." I roll my eyes. "You know that's not what I meant."

  "I did tell a boy that, dad." She rolls her eyes right back at me. "He has a pair of those shoes that you had to stand in line to buy. Who needs that?"

  Adley grins as she looks up from her tablet. "No one needs that."

  "Exactly. Mom gets it."

  "Megan." I tap my foot on the floor of our new apartment. It's a three bedroom, two blocks from where Adley's parents live. We made the move when we decided to foster a child. Megan was eight then. Now, she's a ten-year-old with an attitude.

  I blame May for that. They're in the same class at school. They hang out on the weekends and one afternoon a week Nolan's folks take Megan and May to piano lessons.

  Meg loves helping out with baby Emmanuel. He's two-and-a-half now and one of the cutest kids I've ever met.

  We’re on the path to adoption. It's a long one, but to have this child as our daughter is worth it. After her mother died when she was three, her grandmother took over the parenting duties. Her death left Megan in the system.

  She was shuffled around for two years before she landed in our lives after our home study was complete.

  We're a tight trio now. Her love for us has made my wife and me a stronger couple.

  I married the love of my life three months after she moved in with me. Our wedding was small. My family was still mourning the loss of my dad, but our vow ceremony started us all on a path to being a more cohesive unit.

  It also started me on the road to sobriety. I haven't had a drop since I toasted my bride with a glass of champagne.

  I sold the clubs to Kade and cut back on my work at Matiz. I'm in the office from nine-to-five, four days a week and never a minute more.

  We spend the holidays out in Westhampton with Adley's folks and the Benton clan.

  I have a family now, and a wife who is committed to making her dreams come true.

  "What did you do, sweetie?" Ad smiles at Megan. "It can't be worse than all the trouble your dad used to get into."

  "When he was a kid?"

  Ad shrugs. "Then and last week. He'll always be a troublemaker."

  A laugh bubbles out of Megan. "I told the teacher that he was wrong about how the human heart works, but I didn't get in trouble for it."

  My wife puts down the tablet and walks over to where Meg and I are sitting. "Tell me more. How did he say it works?"

  Meg reaches for Ad's hands. "He said that it keeps us alive."

  Ad settles on the arm of the chair Meg is sitting in. "He's right about that."

  "He is, but then someone asked how a baby's heart grows when it's inside its mom."

  My beautiful wife pushes a strand of our daughter's red hair from her forehead. "What did the teacher say?"

  "He said the baby starts as a bunch of cells and those change into all the parts, like the heart. He said the baby has to be inside its mom for the heart to grow the right way."

  I fucking tear up because I know what's coming. I stare at the two most important people in my life, and I start to cry.

  "What you did say to that?"

  She rests her head on Adley's small baby bump. "I said that my mom is growing my brother's heart inside her belly now, but before I was born, mine grew inside of her heart, even though I was far away."

  Ad nods as she tears up. Her fingers touch the middle of her chest. "You're right. It grew right here."

  "Will Pauly know I'm his sister when he's born?"

  Paul Benton, my son, will arrive in a little over four months. He shares his name with my mom, who is already buying more baby clothes than he'll ever need.

  "Pauly will know it," I say. "He'll look at your face, and he'll say to himself, there she is. That’s the girl who will show me the ropes."

  "I'll never let anything bad happen to him." She strokes her fingers over Adley's stomach. "I'll teach him everything I know and every night before I go to sleep I'll tell him I love him."

  I'll do the same. I'll make sure my son and my daughter both know that I would hang the moon in the sky for them if I could.

  I got the woman of my dreams. I have the family I never thought was in my future and I'm living a life that will only get better from here.

  I look over at my wife. She's on her way to being a doctor. She's a mother and a daughter. She's also the best friend I'll ever have.

  I dared to dream this and now it's my reality. All I have to do now is enjoy every fucking minute of it.

  Preview of HUSH

  I have three hard and fast rules when it comes to one-night stands.

  Don't tell her your last name.

  Don't take her home with you.

  Don't knock her up.

  I'm screwed.

  Jane Smith was supposed to be a quick fling. I saw her as a brief escape from the never-ending drama that is my life as a surgeon in New York City.

  Now, she's pregnant and scared as hell.

  Oh, and apparently her real name is Chloe Newell.

  It's probably not the best time to tell her that I'm the guy who ruined her life two years ago.

  Author's Note: This romance contains a gorgeous doctor, an unexpected pregnancy and a past connection between the hero and heroine that could change everything. HUSH is part of the Just This Once Series. Each book features a different couple and the books are not connected so they can be read in any order.

  Chapter 1

  Evan

  "I'm not a coward. I am not a coward." A soft, smooth feminine voice catches me off guard.

  I turn toward it and grab a quick glimpse of what
looks like the world's most perfect ass in a pair of black lace panties. They vanish the second the woman in question stands upright again, the red umbrella in her hand mangled from the brutal wind.

  "You don't strike me as a coward, sweetheart." I raise my near-empty glass of bourbon in a mock toast because any person brave enough to venture out in December in a New York City blizzard dressed like it's the middle of July deserves a medal. This one earns bonus points for having an ass that can halt a snowstorm in its path.

  That may or may not be a fact, but the timing is sure as hell spot-on.

  The deluge of snow that has blanketed the city for the past five hours has stopped abruptly. That wasn't the case up until a minute ago when I was standing, alone, outside this hotel contemplating what my next move will be.

  Big picture stuff, not which-of-my-casual-hookups-should-I-call-tonight stuff.

  "Thanks, stranger." She smooths her hands over the short skirt of her frilly navy blue dress as she takes in the length of my six foot plus frame. "I'm not your sweetheart, though."

  Wheat blonde hair, hazel eyes, glossy full pink lips, and an attitude.

  Forget the big picture. My next move needs to involve this woman.

  My eyes don't leave her angelic face even though I want to trail my gaze and my mouth over every inch of her body. "Fair enough. Introduce yourself, and while you're at it, I'd love to meet your imaginary friend too."

  I can't resist the urge to look when her nipples furl into hard points beneath the airy fabric of her dress. As much as I want that reaction to be from the rich baritone of my voice, I suspect it's from the burst of wind that just picked up her skirt. There's a brief flash of sheer lace covering smooth skin before she yanks the hem of the skirt back in place.

  My evening just got a whole hell-of-a-lot better.

  "My imaginary friend?" She tucks a piece of her windswept hair behind her ear. My fist clenches in envy. I want those waves balled in my hand so tightly that the only noise she makes is one that tells me she wants my cock deeper.