Emily didn’t really like the idea of someone else driving her car to her grandmother’s home besides herself, but she could tell that John didn’t want her going back alone.
“Okay.” Nodding her head to him, she walked with him over to the passenger side of his pick-up truck, and let him open the door for her before she climbed inside of it, and placed her bag containing her dress down in the floor between her legs.
* * *
“Where are your keys at, Emily?” John asked, gently. “I want to put them somewhere in your vehicle that my buddy can find them without alerting old boy here of where they are.”
His intention was to take her keys, and place them somewhere inside of the little red Pontiac where Johnathan wouldn’t be able to find so easily but that his friend, Dave, could be able to locate fairly easily enough.
“Here they are.” Emily replied, reaching into the front left pocket of her denim shorts, and pulling them out into the open. She looked to him with a hesitant expression as her hand extended in his direction with the keychain nestled in the palm of her hand. “Please put them somewhere that he is not going to find so easily. I don’t want anything to happen to my vehicle.”
Darling, you have nothing to worry about. I am going to make damn sure that this punk can’t find them even if he makes up from having been slammed down on the hood of his car with the same impact as if he had been driving it and someone hit him head on.
He hated for her to feel unsure about whether or not to place her keys in his grasp. There was no way that he would allow her ex-boyfriend to find her keys so easily that he would steal her vehicle even if he made it up from where his prone body was nestled on top of his own.
“I promise, sweetheart.”
John took her keys away from her, letting his fingertips grazing over the palm of her hand. The very small gesture sent chills running throughout his entire body, sending his hormones into overdrive. He glanced to her face at the same time, and his eyes noticed a similar emotion to take root there. Turning from her, a small grin started to form on his face as he moved in the direction of where her vehicle was parked.
Seems like tonight is going to hold some promise to it after all.
He had been wanting to find a way to get alone with Emily again after they had spent a brief moment in the loft together. In the past month, though, her grandmother had been keeping her in her own company, and not really give them a long enough moment together to really enjoy each other’s company properly.
Now…He was going to be able to have that chance at the party that Belle was throwing when he arrives there, and keeps all of the other young bucks coming to the event from her by making his arrival and stealing her attention from them.
Reaching her vehicle, John eased the driver side door open, and bent his tall frame inside of it. He glanced over the inside of the vehicle for the perfect spot to hide the keys before he caught a glimpse of the glove compartment.
Perfect.
His free hand flipped it down, and allowed the other one to place the keys inside of it before he moved out of the Pontiac. John reached into the front pocket of his pants, and pulled out his cellphone. Deciding against calling his friend, he let his fingers instead text him a message, informing him of the car, the situation, and where the keys were in order for him to bring it up to Belle’s home at the time of the party.
“You…You are going to pay for this, pal!”
Having just sent his text message to his dear friend, a deep chuckle escaped from John’s mouth at the sound of Emily’s former boyfriend groaning out his discontent with him from where he was still sprawled out and in an extreme amount of pain. He moved over to where he was and looked down at him with his intense eyes shortly before starting to speak to him in a coy tone.
“Why do you believe that I am going to pay for something that I enjoyed doing immensely?”
“I will make sure of it that I keep any chance of you getting close to my Emily out of your grasp.” Johnathan showed no fear to him as he spoke despite the very obvious pain he was under at that moment. “There is no way in hell that I am going to let her become yours.”
He bent his head down in the direction of the stalker, and flashed a dark, possessive expression in his direction shortly before he made a statement to him in a similar tone, showing off the intensity he possessed deep inside.
“Emily Withers…is already mine.”
Chapter Six
While John was outside of the pick-up truck, Emily remained sitting on the passenger side seat with her gaze looking down in the direction of her hand, the very one that his fingertips had grazed across in a way that had brought all of her thoughts to a screeching halt, and every single muscle tightening up with a fire of unbridled passion and desire coursing through all of them.
What is wrong with me? Why can’t I function normally at the moment? Is his touch so strong that the mere brushing of the very tips of his fingers against my skin causes me to lose the ability to think for myself, and turn into a lump of clay for him to mold?
She found the new thoughts in her mind to be plaguing her, and causing her to feel even more confused than she already was. Finding them to be confusing her more than helping her only heightened her concern.
The faint sound of John’s heavy boots crunching some of the gravels outside of his vehicle snapped her out of her current train of thought, as well as the trance with her palm. Lifting her head, Emily gazed towards the front window of the truck, and discovered him to be moving to the driver side door of it.
Almost all at once, her confusion caused her to go on edge with not nervousness or anxiety…but with a sexual need to feel his powerful, warm hands all over her body.
Calm down, Emily. You have to soothe these urges away before he climbs inside, and really makes them soar high to the heavens.
Emily drew in a breath of air, and released it, slowly, as she watched him open up the door on the opposite side of where her body was, and eased his tall, muscular physique onto the same, long seat in the truck that she was on at that moment in time.
“I have taken care of everything, Emily.” John said, calmly. His left hand pulled the door closed behind him with enough force that it made a loud thudding sound. Turning his attention onto her, completely, he continued to speak to her in the same tone he had used with his deep voice. “My buddy, Dave, will be down here to get your car, and take it on up to your grandmother’s home.”
“I am glad to hear that the problem has been solved, John.” Emily replied, doing her best to keep her secret emotions in check, and not coming to the surface. “How long will it take your friend to get here, and take the vehicle to Granny Belle’s home?”
“Not long at all as long as he is fully awake, near his phone, and not doing anything right now.”
“Does he live in town or out in the countryside like my grandmother does?”
“His home is less than three blocks from here.”
Her feelings of worry and concern started disappearing once she got the answer from him that her ears needed to hear. Knowing that his friend was close by and would be able to drop her Pontiac off before anything could happen to it made everything else so much better.
She watched him slip his key into the ignition, and turn it over. Her ears listened to the roar of the engine for a moment before she moved her gaze in the direction of the front window.
Nestled about twenty feet away on the now damaged sports car’s hood, Johnathan had moved only an inch but was clearly still in a large amount of pain.
Emily managed to only have a faint smile on her face at the visual even though she was wanting to laugh out loud. Seeing the man that had caused her so much pain in the past few months in a state of his own suffering made her feel very content at the moment.
Emily blinked her eyes out of the gaze with the front glass due to John quickly backing them up. She glanced to him for only a few seconds before her body registered the truck flying down the stretch of road
in front of them in the direction of Belle’s ranch.
* * *
John kept a firm yet gentle grasp on the steering wheel in his hands, wishing to make sure he had complete control of the situation in case he needed to make a quick turn or ease the truck onto a side road. He seemed to be prepared for everything that could and would possibly be brought his way.
Well…Almost everything. There was one thing and one thing only that he was not properly prepared for.
Emily Withers.
No amount of training or mental, as well as physical, preparation could get him ready for a woman as captivating and fiery as she was. There didn’t exist another woman in the world that matched up to her or brought him the kind of excitement she did in the littlest of ways.
Leaving the city of Oleander behind, John pulled them onto a gravel covered road, and started to drive at a much slower pace than the one he had went at upon pulling away from the dress store with her nestled beside him. He gazed back to her, and found the tension that had been there to be gone, causing a smile to dance across the strong features of his face, faintly.
“I am sorry for driving like a mad man for a moment there, darling.” He apologized, wishing her to know that the speed he had been going at was a mistake and that he didn’t plan on it. “I suppose that I let the heat of the moment get to me, and cause me to drive a bit faster than I was wanting to go at initially.”
“I-I am okay, John.” Emily replied, attempting to mask her true emotions that were brewing deep inside of her body. “The sudden change in speed only surprised me a bit is all.”
That is a poor excuse for a lie, Emily, and you know it! I know that is not the sincere truth by just looking at your facial features, and listening to the sound in your own voice.
John wanted badly to call her out on what she had just said to him, bringing to light that she had in fact told him a white lie. However, he chose against it, deciding instead to go with it and letting her say what she wanted if it made her feel like she was reassuring him of what was going on.
“Very well, Emily.”
“Are you planning on coming to the dance tonight, John?”
“As a matter of fact…I am coming to the party tonight.”
“Do you have a date?”
“No…but there is a certain little filly that I have had my eye on for a month now that I have been wanting to get close to.”
“Is this someone that I know?”
He turned his eyes in her direction and cast a playful smirk towards her from where he was shortly before his voice slipped out.
“It is someone you know very well.”
A soft chuckle escaped from his mouth as he pulled them up in front of Belle’s home, but quickly stopped when he found his boss to be on the porch, waiting on them both. The way her expression looked on her face from having seen him pulling up with Emily beside him sent his emotions and thoughts into a whirlwind.
Well…Now it’s the time for a whole other ballgame to begin now. It has went from combating and winning against her ex-boyfriend to now combating against her grandmother, as well as my own boss.
John knew that this day would ultimately happen but assumed there would be more time for him to prepare for it.
Bringing the pick-up to a gentle stop, he shifted it into park, and turned it off in a set of fluid motions that culminated in removing his body from the inside of the vehicle, and taking a few steps towards the direction of the porch where Belle was waiting with her arms at her sides and her eyes fixated on him and only him.
Chapter Seven
“You want to explain to me what is going on?”
Emily’s body froze on the spot when she got out of the truck after hearing the very tone from her grandmother that would always send her running for cover. She managed to look over to the front of the house, and discovered her to be directing the question in John’s direction, not hers.
“Ms. Withers,” John answered, removing his hat from the top of his head and holding it in front of himself out of respect for her, “there is a very good reason for why it took me a little while to bring the beverages back-“
“I am not worried about the booze, John.” Belle interrupted him but never took her eyes off of him, or lower the intensity in her eyes, as well as her voice. “I am referring to my grand-daughter riding in your truck when she left in her own vehicle.”
This whole confrontation was about her being in the same truck with John. She knew that her granny might have been confused about her coming home in his truck with him. However, she didn’t plan on her being on edge and near mad at finding her with him.
Fearing for John’s sake, Emily moved around the front of the truck with the bag containing the dress for the dance in her right hand. She reached where they both were, and spoke up before John could.
“Grandmother,” she said, “he was in town getting alcohol across from the shop I was in buying my dress when he noticed Johnathan Warrens to be spying on me through the front window of the store when he was fixing to leave with the alcohol in the bed of the pick-up.”
The very second that she mentioned her ex-boyfriend’s name to her, Emily watched her granny’s eyes narrow at her out of frustration and unbridled rage. Her body tightened up on the spot from the very way that she was looking at her, closely turning her to stone by the stare alone.
“You mean that the same little punk who treated you like shit, and left bruises on you is back in my town?!”
“Y-Yes, Granny Belle…”
Emily didn’t have to look over in John’s direction. She felt the intensity pouring out of his stare in her direction upon her grandmother revealing to him a small portion of what Johnathan had done to her.
“What happened in town, Emily?”
“Well, I was paying for the dress when I found John in a confrontation outside with him. I waited for the cashier to give me the dress before I hurried outside. Johnathan was berating him, and building up his anger by issuing empty threats to him about being better for me, and that he could give me things that he can’t afford to.”
“How did it end?”
“Well…It ended with…John slamming him down onto the hood of his own sports car with enough force that it left him unable to move, and give us enough time to get away from him and the store.”
She noticed her grandmother’s face to be relaxing the anger and frustration from it, and starting to let an expression of enjoyment dance across it instead while a chuckle escaped out into her contented and pleased voice for a brief moment.
“That’s my boy! I knew that he would take care of business, and keep you safe from the likes of that little city-slicker prick…but that still doesn’t explain why you rode in his truck here instead of driving yourself in your own car.”
* * *
“I can explain that, Belle.”
John decided that he had been quiet long enough, and it was time for him to make his own statement to her.
“Belle,” he said, “I brought your grand-daughter home in my truck because I didn’t want her driving alone after what happened, and that the car was parked on the other side of where I left Johnathan sprawled out on his own vehicle.”
“If you threw him down on top of his vehicle, as my grandchild has stated,” Belle replied, “you wouldn’t have to worry about him coming after her.”
His boss was correct on that. He had left Johnathan unable to move at all, and he wouldn’t have been able to follow her with the amount of pain that he had been placed in.
However, the reason behind all of this was a very simple one: He needed to feel Emily close to him, and had gotten tired of the lack of the spent alone with her. John wanted those few moments of privacy between them, and knew driving separate wasn’t an option.
“Belle…I drove her here myself…because I wanted to spend more time with Emily, and talk with her since we haven’t been able to do so in the past month she has been here.”
“Would it be wrong of me t
o assume that you have feelings for my grand-daughter, and that you brought her here instead of just following her…because you have a strong fondness for her?”
Damn it…Belle is right once again. How does she do it? How can she look into someone’s mind like she does, and figure them out in just a few short moments?
“You would not be wrong with that assumption, Belle. That is the truth…I do have feelings and a fondness for your grand-child, and it was because of those two things that I decided to have a friend bring her car here at your party tonight so I could spend some much needed time with her.”
John decided to not beat around the bush with her on the subject. He wanted her to know that he cared for Emily, and that he wasn’t afraid to fully admit it to her.
He watched Belle’s eyes start to light up at what he had stated shortly before his ears picked up on a brief sound of happiness in her voice in the form of a giggle shortly before she spoke up.
“Finally…I was thinking you would never come out and tell me, John.”
“E-Excuse me?”
“John, I have been aware of your attraction for Emily for a long time now…and I was starting to think that you would never come out into the open about it.”
His body language revealed the intense amount of shock and confusion that was wreaking havoc in his bod. She had known this whole time that he cared for her grand-daughter, and she had been waiting for him to come out with it.
While his mind was trying to process what was going on, John watched Belle making her way down the steps of the porch in her direction as she continued on with speaking to both Emily and him.
“Now…John, let’s take these crates on around to the back of the house where the party is being set up, and, Emily…You can head on up, and start to work on getting yourself ready for it since the party will be starting in just a little while.”
Texas Size Passion (A Cowboy's Heart Book 2) Page 3
