Decline (Declan Reede: The Untold Story #1)

by Michelle Irwin

  I blinked at her, wondering where the fuck her anger had come from or how it had dissipated again so quickly.

  “Can I have a glass of water, please?” Alyssa asked.

  The flight attendant nodded. While she was gone, Alyssa reached into her bag. I heard the tell-tale sound of two blister packs popping. As soon as the attendant came back with a small plastic cup in her hand, Alyssa dropped the pills into her mouth and skulled the water. She turned her back to me and pressed her head against the window.

  “I’m sorry, Alyssa,” I murmured, even though I wasn’t sure I really needed to apologise. Her reaction seemed far too over the top for what should have been a meaningless conversation. Then again, her reactions to simple things had always left me a little confused. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

  Her body stiffened, and I thought I heard her sniff. She didn’t turn back to me or acknowledge my apology. I guessed the conversation was over. I closed my eyes and wondered what the hell her reaction was all about.

  “And you’re right. I never cared enough to ask.” I lifted my chin, pressing the back of my head against the headrest as a stifled sob sounded from beside me. Fuck her.

  Half an hour later, Alyssa was fast asleep. As she slept, she drifted closer to me and soon her head was resting against my shoulder. I was inundated with the scent that was unique to Alyssa—cinnamon and sugar. With a sigh, I gently coaxed her head back off me onto her chair. The sensation was just too much for me to handle. I needed space to roam, to pace, but the small aisles of the plane were far too narrow. Instead, I tipped my head back and stared at the vents above me. What did I do to deserve the fresh hell being delivered by Alyssa’s presence?

  Before long, her body was curled against me again, only this time I couldn’t find it in myself to move her. Her breathing was steady and she looked too peaceful. I couldn’t help but wonder what might have happened if I hadn’t left Brisbane. She murmured in her sleep, and the sound was enough to set me on edge. My body grew rigid beneath her and I held my breath. It was a hideous reminder of the last time I heard her talking in her sleep—the last time we were happy together.

  The night after our school formal, we’d given ourselves to one another.

  It had been a night of highs and lows, but in the end we’d overcome the difficulties of locked hotel rooms, embarrassing lamp breakages, and an up-do filled with booby traps to have one of the best nights of our lives. The moment we’d shared was better than I could have ever imagined—possibly better than any I’d had since if only because it was real. It was raw. With the memory in my head, and the weight of Alyssa’s body against me, my chest tightened. The ingrained reaction was exactly why I had run from her. That night as she’d slept, she’d murmured an acceptance to a marriage proposal. One I’d never even planned to make. It was just the push I’d needed to leave. A perfect reminder that she wanted me to settle down with her—a life filled with kids, weddings, and the death of my dreams.

  I glanced down at Alyssa’s sleeping form and wondered what might have happened if she hadn’t uttered those words. They’d been the catalyst for everything that happened after. I’d broken up with her shortly after she woke in the morning and then she’d run from the room in tears.

  That afternoon when I arrived back at my house Josh was waiting to beat me into a bloody pulp. Despite the concussion I’d suffered, the whole day was seared into my memory. It haunted me as I stared, unseeing, at the screen on the back of the headrest in front of me. Being with her would have cost me everything. She’d wanted to follow the path from uni, to marriage, to kids and had never believed that I could earn a living from racing.

  If things had gone differently, it was likely that I would have been trapped in a small-town life. I would have been forced to give up my dreams of racing in the ProV8 series.

  CHAPTER EIGHT: REVELATIONS

  ALYSSA ROLLED IN my arms, and muttered the names Phoebe and Flynn before a small frown furrowed her brow. With the weight of the memories in my mind, her closeness was too much. I lifted her off me and once more coaxed her back to her seat.

  I closed my eyes and leaned back against my own headrest. Fuck I was tired. Not just from the long night, but tired deep down in my soul. I’d experienced the sensation before, but it was usually easy to push aside. Now, the darkness around my heart seemed as thick as molasses and threatened to swallow me down into its depths. With a sigh, I let it take me.

  ALYSSA STALKED out of the hotel bedroom. In her hand, she held her bag and the remnants of her formal dress—torn apart in just one in a series of stupid moments the night before. Without another word, she pushed the hotel room door open and stormed out. With a frown, I watched as the door swung closed. Just before the click, I heard the elevator ding and everything caught up to me. We’d just broken up. Again. After what had been the best night in my life, I’d thrown it all away because of some words muttered in her sleep. Fuck!

  I threw open the hotel door and ran down the hall, arriving just as the elevator doors closed in front of her tear-streaked face.

  “Alyssa! Stop!” I flew forward out of my seat. My heart pounded in my chest and my mouth was dry. I was disorientated for a moment as I glanced up at the screen in front of me which showed an airplane closing in on a flashing circle.

  It was just a fucking dream.

  “Declan! What the fuck?”

  I froze. Alyssa’s voice was right beside me. When I turned to look at her, the events of the last week crept into my mind. I blinked a few times at Alyssa before realising that my scream had obviously startled her, and she’d spilt coffee down the front of her shirt.

  “Shit, sorry,” I whispered, pushing the call button for the cabin crew.

  I clambered out of my seat to allow Alyssa the room to wipe off her shirt. Despite the bundle of napkins she had in her hand, she wasn’t making any progress.

  “Oh, fuck it,” she said. “I’ll have to change. Can you just grab my bag down for me?”

  I nodded like an idiot and grabbed her bag before passing it to her. She dug around in it for half a second before producing another shirt. Before I realised what she was doing, she pulled her soiled shirt off and handed it to me. I should have turned away. I shouldn’t have stared, but shit, how the fuck was I supposed to look away?

  At least three seconds passed before she pulled her new one on. The delay had given me more than enough opportunity to scope out her bra and the silky white skin of her breasts spilling over the top. Beneath her left breast was a new tattoo, but I couldn’t make out what it was. Her belly-button ring, once a turquoise to match my eyes, was just a plain silver barbell now. Her boobs were fuller than I remembered them, and I itched to see whether her skin was as smooth and tasty as I remembered. The shirt she’d given me was still warm from the proximity to her body and I found myself gripping it tighter, unwilling to let anyone steal it from me. With a strength I didn’t even know I possessed, I resisted the strong urge I had to put it to my face and inhale. While she changed, I stood, no doubt looking like an idiot, gaping at her with her shirt bunched between my hands.

  She snatched the dirty shirt from me and then turned to the toilets to rinse it off. I could have sworn I saw a hint of a smirk on her lips. That’s when I realised she’d been awake while I was asleep. She’d been awake while I was dreaming.

  Fuck.

  She knew I was dreaming about her.

  Can this plane trip get any worse?

  I looked at the time. We were less than a half hour from Hong Kong. Not quite halfway to London, but nearing the end of the first leg. Thank Christ for that.

  I stood in the aisle until Alyssa came back to reclaim her seat. When she passed me, her smirk was unmistakable.

  “It looks like gratuitous drug use suits you,” I commented as I climbed back into my seat.

  She gave me a quizzical look.

  “Well, you look much happier now.”

  “Did it occur to you that I was happier because up until a few
moments ago you were unconscious?”

  Despite the urge to react to her words, I didn’t. Instead, I chuckled. “Ah, but I’m not unconscious now, and you’re still much happier.”

  She shrugged, but her smirk grew into a genuine smile—if only for one nanosecond. “We’ll see. I guess it depends on the quality of conversation that my neighbour on the next flight is willing to engage me in.”

  “Well, I’m steering clear of Browns Plains—that’s for sure.” I laughed and she joined in.

  “You were dreaming about me,” she accused, the smile dancing on her lips again—as if that thought gave her great pleasure.

  It was my turn to shrug again.

  “What was it about?”

  I closed my eyes and debated what to do. We’d finally started a somewhat pleasant conversation, joking around with each other the way we used to. I’d even started to hope that maybe we could have made it through the next ten hours without another argument. That would likely change if I dredged up the memory of our formal and of me breaking up with her. It was especially dangerous considering we were about to land and even though she’d indicated we’d be side by side for the next leg, I hadn’t confirmed it for myself. Maybe she’d just said that because she’d thought it would get a reaction from me.

  “Aren’t you going to tell me?” she asked.

  I opened my eyes and turned my head to face her. “I’m worried it will upset you.”

  She laughed. “You’re worried about how I might feel?” She sounded incredulous.

  “Don’t be so surprised. I’m not the prick the media thinks I am.”

  “Not always,” she mused. Her smile disappeared as she turned pensive. “But I’ve seen you do some pretty fucked-up things.”

  “You have.” She hadn’t seen the worst of it, but she’d seen enough.

  “Please tell me?” she pleaded quietly. Her bottom lip even stuck out in a cute little pout.

  I frowned. “I don’t—”

  “I have a right to know,” she argued when I didn’t respond appropriately enough for her.

  “How exactly do you figure?”

  “Well, apparently, I was the star attraction. I think that allows me certain privileges.”

  I debated again, before going with a half-truth. “It was about our high school formal.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “The formal? Or what happened after?”

  Shit. What did she hear? I stared at her in silence.

  “You know, Josh thought you’d raped me.” Her statement was a quiet, almost-whispered confession.

  I choked on the air as the statement left her lips. Pushing myself forward in my seat, I coughed as I struggled to comprehend what she’d said. The action caused a redoubling of the pain in my chest, and I coughed harder. “What?” I managed to utter between convulsions.

  “What else would you expect him to think? I turned up at home, early, alone, in tears, my feet sore from walking from the bus stop, my dress in tatters, and calling you an arsehole. He put two and two together and came up with rape. You have to believe me that I didn’t know about what he planned, or what he did to you, though. Not until after I found out why you weren’t in school that last week.” The sorrow in her eyes confirmed her words. She had no reason to make any of that up, not now after so long. It would gain her nothing.

  “Well, at least that explains his reaction,” I murmured when I got my breathing back under control. I’d always thought he was delivering a message from Alyssa—to tell me to back off because I didn’t want to follow her rules. I’d simply assumed he’d gone a bit over the top with the delivery as punishment for breaking his sister’s heart again. I’d never suspected that he thought I’d hurt her. The truth was, he’d probably gone easy on me. If I’d thought someone had raped Alyssa, there would be no almost about the hospital stay part. In fact, they’d be lucky if they didn’t find themselves in a morgue.

  “He copped a bit of a serve from me once I found out,” she said with a sad smile on her lips.

  “I really am sorry.” I buried my head in my hands as I considered what I was about to say—and how dangerous the words might be. “I mean about the freak-out I had that morning. I just, I don’t know. I felt trapped, I guess. It felt like we were barrelling along at a million miles an hour. I could already see myself as a grandfather sitting on a porch wondering what the hell happened to my life and when my chance to go racing would come.”

  She nodded, but her brow bent into a frown. “I know. I get it. I felt like that too sometimes. We were pretty . . . intense.” She chuckled darkly after the last word.

  We lapsed into silence, both deep in thought about what could have been. It made me remember the fucker at Queensland Raceway. I wanted to ask her about it, but didn’t want to admit that I had seen her there or the impact—literally—she’d had on my life since.

  “So is there anyone in your life now?” I asked, almost silently. I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted to hear the answer. Before she had the chance, an announcement was made that we’d be landing soon and instructed the cabin crew to prepare.

  After a moment, Alyssa said, “Not really.”

  It took me a moment to realise it was a response to my question. “What does ‘not really’ mean?”

  “It means . . . I don’t really want to talk about it.”

  “Okay.” Even though I was desperate to know, I didn’t want to press her and end our civility.

  “I’d ask you the same question,” she said, “but we both already know the answer to it.”

  I nodded; she had me there. The whole world knew that Declan Reede liked to screw random women in clubs thanks to Gossip Weekly. Not to mention the fact that I had declared, on numerous occasions, that there was no way I was going to settle down for anyone. That I didn’t need a woman in my life telling me what to do. By Alyssa’s side again, it was almost embarrassing to consider the various things I’d said over the years.

  “Declan, there’s something I do need to talk to you about—”

  She was interrupted by a crew member and after we were alone again, seemed more interested in packing her belongings into her handbag than continuing the conversation.

  After the plane had landed, I pulled both of our carry-on bags from the overhead cabinets while Alyssa collected her handbag. Grabbing her bag from me, she hastily shoved everything inside with no real rhyme or reason. Her hand hovered over the Gossip Weekly magazine in the pocket of the seat in front of us. For a moment, I was certain it would continue to haunt me for the rest of the trip, but eventually she moved her hand away and left it where it was.

  I packed my cap and sunnies away in my bag because I wouldn’t really need them in Hong Kong airport. ProV8 may have been big in Australia, but it hadn’t taken over the rest of the world yet. At least, it wasn’t popular enough to see me inundated with autograph hounds in a foreign city.

  Alyssa slung her bag over her shoulder and slid into the aisle in front of me.

  “I’ll see you in a few hours, I guess,” she said and the dismissal in her tone was clear.

  It certainly left me with no doubt where I stood—only worthy of being spoken to when there was no other choice. “Yeah. Sure.”

  I let a few other people go before making my way into the aisle. If she didn’t want me to be anywhere near her in the airport, that distance might as well start as early as possible.

  Once I was free of the gate, I thought about the things I needed to do in the five hours I had free. Having a shower was certainly on the agenda; I’d spent too long cramped up in the airplane seat and needed to clean. A decent coffee was also on the must-do list.

  Convincing myself not to look for Alyssa, I headed off to try to find a shower. Eventually, I found a lounge that offered food, showers, and a space to relax. Within fifteen minutes, I was under the steady stream, trying to wash away the tension that being near Alyssa had elicited within me. Unfortunately, there was only one way I knew would work for sure.

/>   Clasping my cock in my hand, I closed my eyes and let Alyssa in. The sight of the few genuine smiles she’d granted me on the trip, the smell of the coconut body wash she clearly still used, and the feeling of her warm body against mine as she’d slept. With her right there in my fantasies, fresher than ever before, I stroked along my length. Visions of the glimpses I’d been given of her new body danced through my mind. The tattoo, her new belly ring, the swell of her breasts. I groaned with need as my hand worked faster.

  Before long, I was tumbling over the edge into a painful bliss. My stomach clenched and released as my orgasm ripped through me, and I gritted my teeth as the agony in my side grew steadily with every spasm. Despite the pain, the relief that filled me was worth it. It’d been too long since I’d come, and it was a literal load off. Especially when I’d have to see Alyssa again before long.

  After drying and dressing in the other outfit I’d packed in my carry-on, I went in search of a coffee and something to eat.

  BY THE time I headed for the gate, it’d been almost four hours since I’d seen Alyssa. I’d considered going to the airline desk and asking if there was any chance I could get bumped to the next flight to London. When I was halfway there though, an ache, which had nothing to do with my ribs, invaded my chest. It was possible the next twelve-hour leg would be the catalyst for purging the memories of Alyssa—even if the first half of the journey hadn’t been.

  My gaze scanned the waiting passengers until they landed on the one person I wanted to see. Pretending not to notice that she was across from where I wanted to sit, I sauntered over to the row of chairs and took a seat. It was only after I was settled that I risked a glance up and acted as if I’d noticed her for the first time.

  “Alyssa.” I nodded and couldn’t help the tiny smirk that twisted my lips as I considered that less than two hours earlier, I’d gotten myself off with thoughts of the first part of our trip. It was like a dirty little secret only I knew, and that was so fucking hot.