Charlie

by Eden Elsworth

  “I keep telling you they can’t hurt you, honey,” she said as she ushered the startled arachnid out of the open window.

  Paul chuckled. “He doesn’t take after you with that then?”

  Turning to grin at him, she replied, “No, he’s more like you were.”

  “Oh, Charlie, I have missed your teasing so damn much,” he told her softly. He had missed everything about her. It was only now they were back together that he realised just how empty his life had been without her.

  “I know you,” the little boy said shyly. “Mummy’s got a picture of you.”

  Paul looked at Charlie in surprise. “Have you?”

  She nodded, colouring slightly. What would he think if he knew she had gone to spy on his mother?

  “Your name is Paul,” the youngster went on artlessly. “Like mine?”

  Blinking in shock, Paul stared at Charlie. Now it was out, she wasn’t sure what he would make of having another man’s child named after him. All she could do was nod.

  For a moment, Paul didn’t know what to think, then he saw how vulnerable Charlie suddenly looked. He might not know what to think about her son’s name, but he knew that deep down, Charlie had never been as strong as she has always made people think.

  She crossed the small room to stand in front of him, hesitantly taking his hand. “I named him after you,” she said in small voice.

  Paul knew in that instant she really was his Charlie, She always had been and she always would be. He drew her in close and held her head to his chest. She was everything he could ever want. When she put her arms around his waist and clung to him, she took his breath away.

  Lowering his head, he took her lips in a kiss that made her knees go weak, her heart pound.

  “Charlie, I love you,” he whispered on her lips. “Always. There’s only ever been you.”

  “I love you too,” she responded softly, tears of joy blurring her vision.

  The younger Paul looked on in confusion. He had never seen his mother look at a man like that. He had never seen her kiss a man.

  A bang on the door, made Charlie jump.

  “Charlotte!” her mother yelled through the door.

  Paul knew immediately Charlie was still scared of her mother. Although she had always hidden it behind defiance, it had always been there to see in her bright blue eyes.

  Pulling away from him, Charlie was shocked when Paul turned and ran to the door, throwing it open.

  “What the hell do you want?” he shouted at her mother. There had been so many times he had wanted to shout at her when he was younger.

  Lisa was confused. Who was this man?

  “I want to see my daughter!”

  “Tough shit! You’re never going to see her again.” Paul slammed the door shut and turned to see Charlie creeping nervously from the sitting room. With anyone else, he would worry he had overstepped the mark, but not with Charlie.

  Lisa started to bang on the door, shouting abuse at her daughter. Paul had heard it all too many times before.

  “Go and pack,” he told Charlie. “You’re leaving here tonight.”

  “I don’t have anywhere to go.”

  “Of course you do. You always did. I’m taking you home, Charlie.”

  “Are you asking me to live with you? We haven’t even seen each other in years!”

  He stepped closer and took her hands, looking into her bright blue eyes. “Charlie, I’m not asking you to just live with me. I’m asking you in a round about way to marry me. There’s never going to be another woman I want as much as you. I need you in my life, Charlie. I always have needed you.”

  Stunned, Charlie didn’t even hear what was going on outside her home. She looked deep into the brown eyes that seemed as if they had to be in her earliest memories. She knew Paul as well as she knew herself. He had always been the other half of herself. They understood each other instinctively.

  She nodded.

  “Good.” He kissed her softly on the forehead. “Will you go and pack?”

  She nodded again.

  As Charlie went to sort out what she would need to take with her for herself and her son, Paul turned to look at the door. Before they could go anywhere, he had to get rid of Lisa.

  He opened the door. “What will get rid of you?”

  Taken off guard, Lisa fell silent, then she looked more calculating. “A hundred pounds?” she mooted.

  Paul dragged out his wallet and looked inside. “I’ve got thirty. If you want more, you’ll have to come back tomorrow night.”

  He knew damn well he and Charlie wouldn’t be anywhere near the place the following night. He handed over the thirty pounds and the vile woman turned to leave.

  “Do I know you?” she asked, looking back over her shoulder.

  “No. Now fuck off.”

  Once she was gone, Paul got his phone out. He had a lot to sort out and not much time to do it in. “Tom, I need a huge favour. Get as many of the lads together as you can, find as many cars as possible, and come meet at this address.” He quickly reeled it off from an envelope he found on the counter in the kitchen. “What’s happening? I’ve found Charlie and I’m bringing her home tonight.”

  TEN

  Lifting Charlie in his arms, Paul kissed her softly. “How are you feeling, Mrs Smollet?” he asked.

  Charlie grinned at him. “Fantastic!”

  The last six months had been like a dream. Paul had given the tenants of his house their notice to move out, and as soon as they had, the couple had set about redecorating. At the same time, they had got their wedding organized, and moved Paul Junior, as he was now known, to the village school.

  With the help of his friends, he had got Charlie out of her flat and into his mother’s house long before Lisa had returned. The last thing they had heard about her was that she had been to court for trying to break into Charlie’s old flat.

  Carrying his new wife over the threshold of their home, Paul kicked the door shut behind him and took her all the way up to their bedroom.

  “You’re not too tired, are you?” he enquired, his hand resting on her belly.

  “I’m pregnant, not dying,” she chuckled. “And I’m certainly not too tired to give you the sort of wedding night you’ll never forget.”

  Laying on the bed beside her, Paul leaned in to kiss her lips. “Do you think I would ever forget our wedding night?”

  “Not if I have anything to do with it.”

  “I don’t know if I’ve told you this today, but you look beautiful.”

  Charlie flushed in pleasure.

  “Mind you, you used to look beautiful to me when you had bits of tree in your hair,” he added with a chuckle.

  “You look pretty damn good too. But I think you’d look better out of that suit.”

  “Do you really? Well, in that case . . .”

  Getting off the bed, Paul slowly pulled his tie loose and tossed it aside. He slipped off his jacket and let it fall to the floor. He unbuttoned his shirt, pushed it back off his shoulders, and then cussed when he realised he had forgotten to take out the cufflinks.

  Giggling, Charlie went to help him.

  “That didn’t exactly go to plan,” he complained.

  “Hey, it worked for me,” she told him. Taking his hand, she raised the skirt of her gown, and guided his fingers to her folds.

  “No knickers, huh?” he asked with a grin. “Methinks you had something planned, Mrs Smollet.”

  “Oh yeah!” Charlie turned for him to unzip her dress and stepped free of it, completely naked. Dropping to her knees in front of her new husband, she opened his fly, drew his stiffening cock out, and wrapped her lips around it.

  “Oh God!” Paul groaned.

  There might have been a few women in his life before he had found Charlie again, but they all paled into insignificance once he had her.

  His hand rested on the back of her head. Much as wanted her to go on, he wanted to be inside her properly. This was their first time as a mar
ried couple, and it had to be exactly right.

  Shedding the last of his clothes, Paul lifted Charlie onto the bed and held himself over her. He looked into her eyes, bluer than a summer sky, and knew she was the only woman he would ever love.

  Charlie lifted her hand to his face, overwhelmed for a moment by that fact she had married the one man she had always wanted. Along with her son, Paul was the centre of the universe. In seven months, a new baby would be joining their idyllic life.

  At the wedding, Charlie’s father had made an emotional speech about the man his daughter was marrying, how Paul had always stuck by her when they were young, how he had proved his loyalty to her constantly, and how happy his daughter looked. As she and Paul had only told her father about the baby a few days ago, Steve had choked up completely when he got to announce the pregnancy to all the guests. The only other people who had known before that moment were Paul’s parents.

  “I love you, Paul,” Charlie whispered, her throat suddenly choked with tears. She felt as if every dream she had never dared to have had come true.

  “I love you too, Charlie,” he replied.

  Moving between her legs, he eased inside her. Just as it had the first time they had made love, the feel of Paul filling her overwhelmed Charlie’s senses. In those moments, he was the only person who existed in the whole universe. Nothing else but the feeling of him buried inside her mattered.

  Pushing up on his arms, Paul watched her as he moved slowly. He loved watching the way Charlie responded to sex. She was so obviously lost in the moment.

  “Beautiful,” he murmured.

  Her back arched and she clawed at his back, making him groan loudly. His wife was no tame creature in bed. She was wild as a tiger. Their first night together had been the most amazing of his life up until then. There had been so many amazing nights since, and she still constantly amazed him.

  Unable to resist the lure of her body any longer, Paul drove deep inside her again and again. It took a lot of control to stop himself coming before her, but he managed it, spilling his seed into her as she pulsed around his cock.

  Pulling him down to rest on her, Charlie smoothed her fingertips over his back, feeling the raised lines of her scratches on his skin. She loved these first moments after, when all either of them could do was feel the small aftershocks of their orgasms rippling through their bodies.

  Closing her eyes and combing her fingers in his hair, Charlie thought back to that afternoon so long ago when they had first kissed in the tree at the end of the lane. She never could have imagined with everything that had happened after that she would end up married to the one with whom she had shared her first kiss.

  Moving off her before he got too heavy, Paul held his wife close, reveling in the scent of himself all over her. He felt his life would now begin in earnest.

  He had married the woman of his dreams; the love of his life; his goddess of the forest.

  Other titles by Eden Elsworth

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  When she finally meets one of the men who might be her father, Chloe’s world is rocked by the man’s nephew.

  Reserved and secretive, Martin Reavey attracts her like no other man ever has before. Though shy, he has something that ignites an undeniable passion in Chloe. But Martin is a man with a secret. Once every few weeks, he disappears for a several days.

  Rejecting her fiancé, Chloe is determined to uncover whatever it is that keeps taking Martin away. Is it another woman, or is there a lot more to Martin Reavey than meets the eye?

  Warrior Rising

  Of all the species in the Real World, elves and faeras are the least compatible. Their cultures have nothing in common; only a mutual hatred binds them.

  Fiercely protective of his family, Brock Fortescue imposes exile from all his own kind as a punishment for a murder no one knows he committed. Stuck in Dorset, he feels completely isolated. Then a young woman comes into his life and shakes it to its foundations.

  Vanessa Elwood, half-elf and innocent, finds herself unable to forget Brock, despite her mother’s attempts to separate them. But Vanessa doesn’t know how much she needs the faera male. Her entire existence has been planned from the moment she was conceived, and the happy future she sees for herself is suddenly snatched away.

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  The Time of Despair

  Dragged from their home, Natalie, her husband Alex and her mate Scott seek sanctuary at the new faera court.

  Chloe and Martin Reavey battle to survive against those they love most as the humans turn on everyone around them.

  The Lady of Elf, Vanessa, and the King’s Warrior, Brock, uproot their family and travel across a country turned savagely vicious.

  As the time of prophesy dawns, all the creatures of the Real World join forces to face an enemy more dangerous than any of them have faced before.

  The Real World

  In a world changed beyond recognition, the survivors are beginning to build new lives.

  Nicola Ashbrook lived through the end of the world. Now she sets out in search of food. What she finds is a country populated by creatures she never knew existed. But the real threat could come from the humans who made it through the madness.

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  When their safe haven is threatened, they set out across a country full of new perils.

  Cubari Romanus coming soon!

  The Rowena Engle Series

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  Lumbered with a hot angel with designs on her womb, she has to find and nullify the spirit plaguing her new client, deal with revelations about who her father is, and shake off her addiction to her best friend with benefits, Stephen.

  Can she do all that and still stay sane?

  Spawn of Satan

  Rowena’s life isn’t getting any easier…

  She’s found out who her father is, got herself stuck with an angel, and now she’s got a demon out for her blood. Oh, and then there’s all the siblings she never knew she had.

  As her life gets increasingly weird, she finds herself surrounded by sexy men. It should be a dream come true.