Torn: Kory & Aimee (Oak Springs Book 5)

by Lucy Rinaldi

  Kory and Greg are litigators. Very good ones. I know that Kory is good at his job because I have spent the past six years trying to divorce him with no success. The asshole always refuses to divorce me. I know he does it because it's his way of holding onto me, but I'm done. I am so fucking done it's unreal.

  Pulling myself together, I take myself back to my table. Tim is gone.

  Yeah, thanks for letting me know, Tim!

  The table is clear and ready for the next customers. Where the hell did he go? Callan, one of the waiters here, tells me that Tim left just before Kory. Which only tells me that Kory warned him off me. Not that I'm bothered if I have any more dates with Tim or not, but he was a nice man and I feel like shit for treating him the way I did tonight, walking away from him just because Kory demanded it. Plus, Kory had no right to chase him off!

  Making my way out of the bar and toward my car someone grabs my elbow and pulls me into the alleyway between Callie's Bakery and the Art Gallery. Of course, I'm scared, but not all that much because I know who has hold of me. And as he pins me to the wall, his mouth attacking mine, I give into him.

  Stupid?

  Yup. I am so fucking stupid where Kory is concerned. But I love him. To this day, I love him so much it hurts. I guess I'm sadistic because nothing he ever does to me is enough for me to walk away forever.

  In lots of ways, I like that he won't grant the divorce. If he doesn't it means he's still mine in some ways. Even if he does screw half of Seattle while I stay in this little town alone until the next time he passes through.

  His hands are under my shirt edging toward my breasts and I moan into his mouth. “Kory...” I whine like a child. I can't take it when he does this to me.

  “Don't fight this, baby. Don't fight me.” I want to, boy, do I want to fight him, but I just can't. “You belong to me. You have always belonged to me.”

  “You don't want me,” I groan around his kisses to my neck. I'm finding it really hard to speak. “You have all those other girls in Seattle.”

  “There are no other girls, Aimee. There never has been. It's only ever been you.”

  He's lying. Of course, he is. But I'm so wound up and horny that I don't care right now. It has been six months of celibacy for Christ's sake. And who in their right mind would pass up sex with their super hot, Godlike husband?

  I pull at his belt around his waist, wanting desperately to free his beautiful cock. “You wanna do this right here?” There's humor in his voice. It makes me smile.

  “Yes. Please, Kory, I need you.”

  One thing I do love about him is the fact I never have to ask him twice. My pants and panties are soon around my ankles. He turns me around, my face pressed against the wall and his fingers searching for my opening. I exhale loudly at the invasion into my tight channel. His lips slide over my shoulder, and I want him so desperately.

  I lean back, my forehead against his left cheek, my right hand on his right cheek. I just need to feel him any way I can. “Kory, please.”

  “Please, what?” He chuckles against me. I hate it when he mocks me.

  “Fuck me. Please, fuck me.”

  And I know you won't use a condom because you think I'm on the pill, but I'm not, and I won't even tell you that fact.

  And why won't I tell him? Because he's my husband and he owes me something after all this time and everything he's done. The least he can do is give me the baby I so desperately want.

  “Anything you say, beautiful.” I hear his zipper sliding down and my heart pounds in anticipation.

  “Oh...” Oh god, it feels so good. So, so good to have him inside of me again after months without him. I'll regret this tomorrow, but right now, I want my husband to fuck me into next week.

  Tomorrow I'll hate him.

  Tomorrow I'll ignore him.

  Tomorrow I'll pretend like none of this happened. Like we never happened. Until I find out I'm with child. His child. And then I'll have no choice but to speak to him.

  But I'll worry about that tomorrow.

  He pumps his hips into me, harder he fucks me. His cock is so big and thick, yet I feel him swelling even more inside of me. He's so deep and I can feel him stroking my inner walls perfectly. Kory and I have never been very conventional when it comes to sex. He likes to be in charge and he likes to make damn sure I never forget it. He takes me anywhere he feels like, whenever he feels like it. The way he takes me is possessive, domineering, a branding of ownership. And I love it all. And it's like that every time with us.

  And as he holds me against him here in the open, fucking me like a rabid animal, I feel whole again. Whole in a way I only feel when he's inside of me.

  My inner muscles contract around his girth, so hard and fast I can't hold off my orgasm. I don't even want to. And so I don't, I let go, and it's nail clenching. He holds me tight around my stomach, holding me against him as he comes hard and fast into me, so hard I feel his seed hit my womb with force.

  Yes, that's exactly what I want.

  Do I worry about him giving me a sexually transmitted disease? No. I know Kory would never take me like this if there was even a slight chance he'd infect me with anything.

  He kisses my temple then pulls out of me. I can feel his seed falling down my thigh. And as disgusting as it is, I pull up my pants and right my clothing without wiping. I'll shower as soon as I get home.

  I stand with my back against the wall, my thighs pressed together, hoping to keep as much of his seed inside of me as I can, and he's looking at me with a smirk on his face. He thinks he's won. I know him inside and out and he has that look he gets in his eye when he's gotten his own way.

  I'll let him think that he's won. That he's getting his way. But in reality, he's not. This was the last time we'll be together like this. It has to be. I can't live like this anymore.

  The secret wife?

  Why the hell would I let this go on so long?

  I must like the torture.

  If I'm lucky, I'm pregnant. If I'm not... Well, then I'll think of something else. But this has to end now.

  “You see how easy it is?” He leans into me and strokes his thumb across my jaw. “You see how easy it is for me to get you right where I want you, Aimee?” I grit my teeth. How dare he?! But he's right, it is easy for him to get me right where he wants me and I hate it. “You're my wife. You will always be my wife.”

  “No, I won't. One day, you'll have to give me the divorce, Kory. I won't live like this forever. I'm tired of hiding the fact we were married. I have to live in this town with our families. I'm the one facing them every day and keeping your secrets. Do you honestly think I like this?” I motion my hand back and forth between us.

  “Then let's tell them.”

  “I've heard it all before, Kory.” There's no malice or spit in my voice, it's just fact.

  “I mean it, Aimee. I'm not leaving here without you this time.”

  “This is my home, Kory. I will never leave. Just stop all of this. You and I both know it's just another one of your games. You play me until you leave and then I'm nothing to you all over again. And I'm the one left here wondering why I'm not good enough for you.”

  “What do I have to do to prove to you that I'm serious about us, Aimee?”

  “Nothing.” I push him away from me. “All of this is six years too late. Just go back to Seattle. Back to your nice life filled with hot woman and even hotter parties and leave me alone.”

  He grabs my wrist as I turn to walk away from him. I suck in a deep breath. I'm tired and I want to go home. I need a shower and my bed.

  “There are no other women, Aimz. I have never lied to you about that. I've been a selfish prick, but I had my reasons for keeping you at arm's length.”

  “I don't care about your reasons, Kory. I honestly don't care. You ruined everything I ever knew to be true about love. You took my heart and you crushed it. And you come back here now and again, take what you want from me because you believe it your right as my husband,
and then you leave me all over again. I just cannot do it anymore. Please just let me go.”

  “I will never let you go, Aimee. Never. Don't you understand? I need you. I want you to come home to me.” I pull my arm from his grip and shake my head. It's just too late. Why can't he understand that?

  “I'm telling my parents about us!” He yells after me as I walk away from him. I stop dead in my tracks for a second. I look up to the sky, breathe deeply and walk away. He's said all of this before and it never happens. He lies to me to keep me hooked on him. It won't happen this time.

  I'm done...

  Two

  Kory

  “My little boy!”

  God, she's always like this. Anybody would think I never came home. I've only been gone six months for Chrissakes.

  “Mom, seriously.” Finally, I manage to pry her off me. I wouldn't mind all the hugs and kisses if I was that kind of guy. But I'm thirty-three years old, why on this earth would I want my mother slobbering all over me?

  Okay, slobbering might be a little far, but still.

  My mother is the local high school principle, my father the town sheriff. I have a younger brother, Greg, who's two years my junior, and won't be here today. He decided to stay in Seattle, too busy with work to follow me down here. More like he didn't want to leave his wife and little boy, Dean. Becoming a father has really changed him for the better.

  Then I have four little sisters. Callie, twenty-eight. Lora, twenty-six. Della, twenty-five. And Roya, twenty-two.

  Roya was once named Abigail, she was kidnapped as a baby from our garden while my mother was inside getting juice for my sisters. Last year, Roya turned up here having tracked us down. I knew who she was the second I laid eyes on her. She hadn't even spoken and I just knew. It floored me, I couldn't believe how much she looked like me. The two of us are blonde like our mother. Callie, Lora, Della, and Greg are dark haired like our father. It has always been said that Roya is my mirror image. She really does look like me, we all look alike, but she looks more like me than the others.

  Roya decided to keep her name, but she made a point of letting us know she'd use the name Abigail as her middle name. Which, of course, pleased our mother, who sometimes forgets and still calls Roya, Abi. Not that Roya minds.

  My baby sister is the very proud mother of a five-year-old little boy, Jaxson. He's gorgeous and amazing. His father, Bryton, is the brother of Callie's best friends husband, Chase. Crazy how things work out.

  Bryton had never even met Jaxson until Roya turned up here to find us. She wasn't looking for Bryton, she didn't even know Chase had moved here or that Bryton would be here visiting. But he was and little Jaxson got his daddy back and Roya found us.

  She had a very hard life with the woman who took her from us when she was thirteen months old. But she's home now and I have taken every precaution to make sure nothing happens to her ever again.

  Della is married to my father's deputy, Freddy Estella. He's a good man who loves my sister more than life itself. Della also has two children. A little girl, Ruth, a year old. She also gave birth to another little girl a month ago – yeah, she's crazy like my mother and had her kids close together – Becca. Both babies are the image of my sister.

  Then there's Lora also married with two children, a little boy, TJ, two and a half years old. Named after his father Tommy, and Troy, six months old.

  And, of course, there's Callie. Callie went through hell a few years ago. Literal hell. She was attacked in the worst way and left unable to have a child. Her sister-in-law, Paige, a nurse, helped her adopt two little orphans who were brought into her hospital. Max and Robyn are twins, five years of age, beautiful kids.

  As special as it was that my sister became a mother to them, just a few short weeks after they came to live with her, a miracle happened. Callie found out she was pregnant. After everything she went through, after everything she was told afterward, God smiled down on her and granted her biggest wish. Baby Donavan was born two years ago, healthy, kicking and screaming. Perfect little boy.

  The joy on my sister's face was the look we'd all longed to see for many years. Hudson was right by her side, where he'd promised to be. He'd hurt her enough in the past, I'd never allow him to do anything to hurt her again. I'd kill him. Literally. He gave me his word, and he's kept it.

  “Kory!” Another assault by the women in this family. Roya is hanging off my neck like a baby spider monkey wrapped around its mother. But my God, do I love her.

  “Roya.” I kiss her head and wait for the rest of them to attack me. Not that it takes long.

  After the “hellos” are out of the way, I sit with my family as they chat happily about their families and what they've all been up to while I've been gone. Della and Freddy are thinking of renovating the house they live in across town. Lora and Tommy are off to Paris for two weeks with TJ next month for their wedding anniversary. Roya and Bryton are settling into newly married life. Callie and Hudson are planning on opening a photography studio because of Hudson's talent with a camera.

  Hudson, or better known as Sonny, was Callie's high school sweetheart. He left her here alone three weeks before their wedding and stayed away for five long years. A little like me with Aimee. But he came home and proved he loved her even with the scars she acquired from her attack. They'll be celebrating their second wedding anniversary this Christmas.

  Knowing they managed to work through their problems and come out of it all on the other side gives me hope that I can win Aimee around. It's coming up for our sixth wedding anniversary and it's taken me until now to realize that I was wrong for walking away from her. I was wrong for keeping her hooked on me, keeping her dangling where our relationship was concerned. Hell, I was wrong for marrying her in the first place. It was so fucking selfish of me.

  I had no right to promise her the world when I knew deep down that I couldn't give her what I was offering back then. And it's taken me until now to realize just how much I do love her. Hell, I can't breathe without her. I don't know how I've lasted this long.

  I have a shit load of groveling to do before she forgives me, I know that. But I won't give up. She needs to get used to that fact. She's mine and I don't give up what's mine. Ever!

  “So, why don't you tell us what you're doing here?” My mother is ever the principle. She's stern but I know she doesn't mean to be.

  I guess me turning up here this afternoon unannounced is a little shocking to them all. I called my mother minutes before arriving on her doorstep and asked her to get the girls around here ASAP. Of course, she managed it. She's good like that. Although I don't know how she managed to get them to drop everything to get here on time but she did.

  There's something I need to tell them all. It's time. I wanted my father here for this, but he's working and can't get out of it. His job has always been important to him. I guess my mother can fill him in later.

  I know Aimee thought I was all talk last night, but I meant what I said, I am not leaving here without her, no matter what. And if telling my family about us is the only way to make her understand that I'm serious, then so be it. I know I should have told them six years ago, but I didn't. I have my reasons, but my mother doesn't need to know them right now.

  “I came here because there's something I need you all to know.”

  “Oh?”

  “It's about a woman.” My mother's eyes light up in delight. I haven't spoken about a woman or dates with one in six years. That's because there's been no one else since the day I married Aimee. Even though she doesn't believe me.

  “Your girlfriend?” Della asks with a smirk while nudging Roya. Both of them giggling like little girls.

  “My wife.”

  “What?!” Comes the screeches of every single one of them including my mother.

  One... Two... Three...

  “Kory, are being serious right now?”

  “Yes, Mother, I am.”

  “You got married without telling any of us? Why would you do
that, Kory?”

  I don't know why she asked it's not like she's going to give me the chance to answer her. I'll just sit here until she's got this freakout out of her system. Yelling, crying, you name it she gives it. I don't know why she tries to guilt me, it never works.

  Of course, I tell her it was nothing personal and that it just happened. That I loved the girl and I couldn't wait to marry her, and we married quickly because that's how much we wanted to be together. More crying, more guilt tripping.

  “I think it's romantic.” I smile at Callie. Of all the people in the world to think what I did was romantic, it would be her. “I mean, you never thought he'd get married, Mom.”

  “When did it happen?” Lora asks.

  “That's the thing,” I rub my hand over my mouth and stand up. I can't be sitting on my mother's couch, I feel like a damn giant on a tiny stool. Being as tall and built as I am, tends to have that effect. “I've been married for quite some time now.”

  “How much time?”

  I wince a little. I'm usually a straight to the point kind of guy. But my mother has a way of making even me cringe. “Six years.” Jaws on the floor, eyes wide open, shock all around. Yes, that's what all five women look like right now.

  “What the hell, Kory!?”

  “Look, Mom,” I smile, trying to lighten the mood. I know this is hard for her, but shit, anybody would think I kill her damn dog and skinned it the way she's looking at me. “I know this has come as a shock to you, but...”

  “Why on this earth have you kept this from us for so long? Are you ashamed of her or something?”

  “I have never and will never be ashamed of her. I kept it to myself because I'm a selfish prick, and I was working on a case that could have put her in danger.” Not a lie. “So I made her keep us a secret. Like I said, I'm a selfish prick.” My mother stiffens. She hates the way I use that kind of language. But seriously, I'm a grown man! “Her family don't know about us either if that makes it any better.”

  “Jesus, Kory! Like that makes this any better. Is it any wonder mom's in shock?”