by Joanna Blake
I reached for him, desperate to make him understand.
"I promised I wouldn't leave but this is too hard for me. Your- other girlfriends. I can't be around it, Drew. Please, just let me go. Rip it off. Like a bandaid."
He shook his head slowly and stood. His thick muscles were shimmering with sweat. He was so beautiful it almost hurt to look at him. But I did look.
After all, this might be the last time I saw him this way.
Naked as the day he was born.
He was perfect.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Drew
I stared at the naked angel in my bed. The naked, batshit crazy angel. I never would have thought in a million years of Kennedy as nuts.
But clearly she was.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
My voice was cold and quiet. I sounded much, much calmer than I actually felt. I was furious. She thought I was with other girls? Why? Did she want other guys or something? An open relationship?
Well, fuck that.
She was mine dammit!
"Kennedy. I want you to listen very, very carefully."
She stared up at me, her huge eyes even bigger. Those eyes were glistening with tears. She was hurting, whatever this was, she was hurting. I exhaled, feeling my anger soften a bit.
But only a little bit.
"I told you, I haven't been with anyone else since the night we met. The first time we ever said one word to each other at the auction. No one else. Not even a kiss. Not because I didn't have the chance. Because I didn't want to."
She blinked at me and said nothing. I ran my hands through my hair and leaned against the wall. Standing on one leg was hard work.
"Neddy- what's this about? Do you want to see other people?"
"No!"
I almost laughed at the speed with which she'd denied it. I believed her. She wasn't a liar. She'd proven that time and time again. She's bravely stood up to me and told the truth about Kyle, even when it hurt her.
Even if it had taken her a while to do it.
Yeah, I almost laughed. I was relieved to hear she didn't want anybody else. But I was still pissed off.
"Am I liar Kennedy?"
She stared at me, her little mouth opening and closing like a guppy. She shook her head miserably and murmured 'no.' I could see she was unhappy. But at least she'd stopped crying.
"I told you I haven't seen anyone else this whole time."
I grabbed the sheet and yanked it away. She covered herself with her hands as I got hold of her ankle and pulled her down to the foot of the bed.
"Hmmfff... and I haven't wanted to."
"I- don't know what to think Drew. You have a reputation. And my brothers-"
I started kissing her neck, positioning myself on the bed above her.
"Don't mention them to me. Especially not right now. They are the liars, Neddy."
I lifted my head from kissing her breasts. She looked dazed. I grinned.
"Not me."
I reached between her thighs and started playing with her gently. Too gently for her to get any real satisfaction. Immediately, she moaned and tried to press her hips up to meet my hand. I pulled it away to get her attention.
"Neddy."
She didn't say anything, just wiggled around on the bed like a sexy little fish.
"Do you believe me Neddy?"
"Hmmm?"
Now I did laugh. I pinched her bottom and she squealed, finally looking at me. I took a deep breath and asked her again.
"Do you believe me?"
Her eyes snapped open as I slid my finger inside her, using my thumb to circle her clit. "Oh!" I stopped, my finger and thumb pressing down on her.
"I- I believe you."
"Good."
I stood up and sucked my finger clean.
"I have to go. I'll see you later."
I kissed her hard and left her lying naked on the bed. As much as I wanted to replace my finger with something bigger, I had a very important errand to run.
I pulled out my phone and called the Chief.
Kennedy
I stared into space, rocking Kyle on the porch swing. Drew and I had had a terrible fight that afternoon. He'd kissed me, and then he'd left me, alone and naked in his bed.
Wanting him.
And not sure if he was coming back. Or when.
I chewed my lip, wondering what the hell had just happened. First of all, Drew never turned down sex. Second, he seemed angry. Then again he said he'd see me later.
None of it added up. I closed my eyes, pushing the swing back and forth. It was another warm Fall day. A beautiful day. I should be happy. Instead my mind was spinning in circles.
What was he up to?
Had we just broken up?
Had I accidentally gotten what I wished for???
Well, if I had, I didn't like it. Not one bit. He'd said he wasn't with anyone else. I stopped chewing my lip and sat up straighter. I realized that I truly believed him in my gut, even though my mind had been screaming not to.
He certainly was eager when we were together. Aggressive. Desperate even.
I smiled, thinking of how impatient he'd been when he could finally make love to me. Well, it hadn't been 'making love' exactly. But he had screwed my brains out right inside the door.
Yeah, Drew was definitely desperate for me this afternoon.
Would he be like that if he was with other girls? He wasn't a teenager. Could he really be that horny? Could anyone be?
The answer was no.
So now even my suspicious, distrustful mind was starting to agree with my gut. With what my heart so desperately wanted to believe. That Drew was mine and mine alone.
What had my Aunt always said?
Listen to your mind, follow your heart but trust your gut.
Well, maybe it was time to try that. I finally got my mind convinced. Now I just had to follow my heart.
And my heart wanted him.
But he was really, really mad at me right now.
I sighed and shook my head. I'd made a mess of things as usual. Maybe I should go and try to talk to him- I stood up and shifted Kyle on my hip.
That's when I heard it.
Music was playing. Not just music either. Something familiar... but out of place. I looked down and saw that Lowe was walking down the street towards Jamie's house. Not just Lowe, it was a bunch of people. And they were singing.
It was the strangest thing I'd ever seen in my life. And that wasn't the weirdest part. The weirdest part was where they were looking.
They were all looking at me.
And they weren't just singing... they were singing Christmas carols. I blinked and Kyle let out a wail. I loosened my grip, realizing I must have squeezed him too hard.
The crowd parted and I saw him.
Drew was here. He wasn't mad. He was smiling. But he wasn't singing. He was just giving me a sweet look, sort of expectant. But for what?
Hark the herald angels sing!
It wasn't Christmas. Not even close. But... I'd told Drew how much I loved singing Christmas carols in church. And he'd said how much he liked hearing me.
Was he bringing Christmas to me?
Drew was dressed up and smiling as he walked to the front of the crowd. His handsome face was so dear to me, it was like an arrow right to my heart. The crowd kept coming, spilling around the front steps and around the tree in the small front yard. A few people came up the steps as Drew stood at the foot of them.
"Kennedy Stewart! I'm in love with you. I have been since the first time I laid eyes on you."
He grinned.
"That's why I'm going to marry you!"
My mouth dropped open as Janine took the baby from my arms. I barely noticed. Was he... proposing?
No. That would require kneeling. Drew wasn't asking me. He was telling me.
As cute as the whole caroling spectacle was, I was not amused.
I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow. He grinned
at me like he knew what I was thinking. What I was waiting for.
Leave it to Drew to turn a marriage proposal into a three-ring circus and still not ask me properly!
And then he surprised me again. He did the last thing I expected. He walked up the stairs and got onto one knee. It wasn't easy to do with a cast either. I reached out to steady him and he grinned at me, his hair curling adorably across his forehead.
This wasn't really happening right now on my cousin's porch in the middle of the day.
Was this actually happening?
I stared in shock as Drew pulled out a ring. A delicate gold ring with a bright solitaire diamond. It sparkled in the late afternoon sun.
Oh yeah, this was definitely happening.
My heart was racing as I stared into his deep brown eyes. He was serious now. His arrogant smile was gone.
Suddenly, it was just me and him. Us. He wanted there to be an us.
For real.
For always.
The side of his mouth quirked up a bit as he cleared his throat.
"Kennedy Stewart. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
I was nodding yes before I even knew what I was doing. Yes, I would marry him. Yes, I would be his.
Yes.
"Yes!"
He slid the ring onto my finger. It fit perfectly. I saw Janine grinning at me. And the Chief. And all of Drew's fellow firefighters. His brothers. Jamie.
And... I stopped mid-turn.
My brother was here too.
I swallowed as Danny nodded to me and grinned, holding his thumb up. I lifted my hand and gave him the thumbs up too. Kyle squealed happily in his Aunt's arms.
This was by far, the happiest moment of my life.
Drew pulled me into his arms and kissed me.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Drew
"Got him boys!"
"Ow!"
I tried to shove the weight off me. I squinted up at a grinning Lowe. He'd landed over me where I was resting in one of the firehouse bunks. I was tired as hell. I'd been up all night, busy with Kennedy.
Screwing mostly.
But also changing diapers and rocking Kyle back to sleep.
Twice.
This daddy business was hard work.
But when I got him to fall back asleep in my arms, holy hell, I'd felt like I won the Goddamn lottery. It was like I was in a commercial. One about home security. Or planning for your future. Or Christmas.
It was so sweet, it was pretty much like a pile kittens wearing birthday hats sitting in a giant bowl of sugar.
Basically, the kid gave me a toothache.
His mom did too. I remembered how Kennedy looked when Kyle needed to be fed. All soft, sleepy curves, her silky hair mussed from rolling around with me. She'd opened the shirt she was wearing- my shirt- and Kyle had latched onto her boobies like a little leech.
I'd felt knocked over when I saw that. Pride and tenderness and something else indefinable had overwhelmed me from the way they looked together. Something instinctive and primal...
But mostly pride. My son had a healthy appreciation for his mother's luscious boobs. Like father, like son.
And right now, daddy was in trouble.
"Get his arms!"
"What the hell, Lowe?"
He grinned at me just before a black pillowcase came over my head. It smelled like detergent, making me sneeze. My arms were tied in front of me. My cast was finally off thank God, because otherwise I would have fallen on my ass. The pillowcase lifted up partway and I saw that all the guys were there, each and every one of them grinning like loons.
Well, almost.
The Chief was shaking his head as I called out for help.
"Sorry Casanova, shift's over. You're on your own."
Then everything went dark.
I felt them push me to my feet and help me down the stairs. Then we were in the cargo bay and out into the street. I let them get me into a vehicle, realizing that resistance was futile. The next thing I knew, we were moving. I blew air out of my nose to get the pillowcase from suffocating me.
"Guys. Take this thing off."
Snickering was the only sound, other than a few beer cans opening up. I cursed as we picked up speed. We were on the highway then. Maybe the bridge?
I used my bound hands to push the pillowcase far up enough to see. We were in a limo. I blinked. Everyone was dressed nice. Unusually nice for this bunch of slouches. Lowe grinned at me and held up a pressed shirt on a hanger.
"Time to get dressed."
I was finally untied and I pulled off my shirt, playing along.
"Okay, you win. Where are you guys taking me?"
They all grinned. Cooper winked at me, pretending he had giant boobs.
"Where do you think?"
I rolled my eyes.
"I am not going to a strip club guys. Sorry."
They all looked at each other. For a second I thought they were going to tie me up again. Then Lowe shrugged.
"Okay, plan B then. Steakhouse, then strip club."
"No way. Do you want Kennedy to kill me on our wedding night? Anyway, I don't want skanks rubbing up on me."
I shook my head. He smiled sheepishly.
"Club club?"
"Same problem. I don't feel like rubbing up on skanks there either."
Cooper grinned.
"Even if that's exactly what your bride to be is doing?"
I stopped buttoning my shirt and glared at Coop.
"Wait, Kennedy's having a party tonight too?"
"Oh, hell yeah."
Lowe poured me a shot of my favorite tequila and handed it over.
"I heard Jamie say something about dressing the bride up real sexy- could she be talking about sweet, innocent little Kennedy? I wonder what she could mean by that?"
I gave him the look of death.
"Lowe. Do you know where they are?"
He shrugged innocently. I may have saved his life more times than I could count. And he may have saved mine.
But at the moment, I wanted to throttle him.
I made that very clear when I jumped across the limo and grabbed his collar with both fists.
"Where are they?"
Lowe cleared his throat and tapped the window. The driver lowered the glass and Lowe gave him new directions to a club downtown. I growled, asking him what time they had gotten there. How long Kennedy had been surrounded by wolves. He didn't know.
But I knew that if Kennedy was at a club, she was surrounded by guys. I remembered how she'd looked the last time Jamie had dressed her up and groaned. That tiny skirt... the heels... the makeup... she had made my pure little beauty look like a girl in a music video.
A girl who was DTF. Even though I knew she wasn't, it wouldn't make a difference to any red-blooded man who laid eyes on her. They wouldn't just come sniffing around.
They would swarm her.
If anyone touched her, or scared her, I would kill them.
I curled my hands into fists and told the limo driver to hurry.
Kennedy
"No thank you, we don't want anything."
I tried to squeeze behind Jamie as yet another guy offered to buy us drinks. Jamie just shook her head.
"Or did you want one?"
She rolled her eyes.
"He wasn't asking me unfortunately."
I smiled weakly, wishing they would turn down the music or strobelights. The nightclub we were in was like a walking migraine factory. Plus, my stomach had been uneasy all day. I was becoming more and more certain I might throw up.
"I don't feel well Jamie."
She raised an eyebrow at me.
"What is it? Too many hot guys wanting to bump nasties with you? The overwhelming smell of aftershave?"
"Ew. No. I just- I feel nauseous."
"Drew is probably having a great time with all those strippers crawling all over him."
"What?"
I stared at Jamie, an uncomfortable feeling i
n my stomach. I'd felt it before so I knew what it was. Every time in high school I'd seen Drew with a girl hanging off of him. Even though I'd never even spoken to him. Back when I was just a little girl who he'd never said a word to. And every time since then that I'd thought he might be with someone else.
Jealousy.
It was jealousy, that's all. Hot and unrelenting. I hated the feeling.
But he'd promised me that I was the only one... and I believed him.
"Strippers? Are you sure? That doesn't sound like Drew."
She rolled her eyes at me.
"It wasn't his idea silly. It's tradition. The guys dragged him out. I think they kidnapped him."
I frowned. I didn't think Drew would be into that sort of thing. He could have any girl he wanted.
He wouldn't want to pay to have them sit in his lap.
Even if we weren't together, I knew he wouldn't like it. It was a point of pride. He also treated women as more than objects, no matter how horny he seemed to be.
And he was perpetually horny.
So he must have been dragged there. I couldn't blame him for it. Or hold it against him.
All the same, I didn't much like it. I told Jamie so and she rolled her eyes at me.
"Just relax. Lighten up. Have fun."
All the same I hesitated when the next guy asked me to dance. Jamie pushed me onto the dance floor before I could decide and that was it. I was fending off Mr. Octopus.
The guy was big. Buff and polished. Well-dressed with a close shave and a recent haircut. A gym rat from the looks of him. Not bad looking, I thought objectively. But the smell of his body spray was overpowering.
And so were his aggressively sexual dance moves.
I kept space between us by holding up my hands. Jamie was giving me the thumbs up as I tried to go through the motions and keep the guy from touching me at the same time.
It wasn't easy but I felt obligated to at least try to look like I was having fun. All the girls we'd grown up with were here. I didn't want to be a wet blanket.
I'd already been called a stick in the mud.
Twice.
My dance partner must have sensed my distraction. He grabbed my waist and pulled me against him. Instantly, he was grinding into me. I cringed when I felt his junk press against my stomach. He grinned at me, and started humping me as his hands slid down to cup my bottom.
