He placed her gently on the bed and stepped back. He undressed as she lay watching, finishing her pizza with her eyes glued to his body. Soon he was standing naked in front of her and her mouth watered for something other than pizza.
She rose to her knees and crawled to the end of the bed with a huge grin on her face. Tom stood there in all his naked glory, well aware of what the sight of his magnificent body did to her. The soft lighting of her bedroom cast shadows, making his pecs and his abdominals look like they’d been deep-carved by Michelangelo himself. The prominent wings of his hip bones were a protective funnel for his towering erection.
She could barely raise her eyes back to his face, but when she did, the love she saw was brighter than the world’s largest fireworks display.
Still on her knees, she leaned forward and pulled Tom’s hand until his thighs were flush against the bed, and then she kissed the flat, ripped muscles of his stomach. She loved how he shuddered under her touch. His smooth, satin skin beneath her lips was pure heaven.
As her lips trailed lower, a soft growl rumbled deep in Tom’s chest. Her tongue meandered across his lower belly, and she loved how his erection jerked. Her fingertips skipped up his strong thighs, and as she stared up at him, she saw his eyelids flicker closed as she finally took his shaft in her palm.
Tom’s ragged inhale stoked her arousal as she stroked him. Parting her lips, she extended her tongue and licked her way from his heavy sac all the way up the underside of his erection.
“Holy, shit,” he cried, before she saw his jaw clench and his eyes flare. He obviously liked it, so she did it again.
She teased him—slowly. Her tongue ran up his cock and then her lips hovered over the tip. Would she, wouldn’t she take him in her mouth? She almost laughed out loud when he hissed, “Pleaseeee,” from between clenched teeth. Taking pity on him, she smiled slyly and finally took him deep into her mouth.
Tom closed his eyes on a groan. She loved to tease and she withdrew right to his tip, her pink tongue swirling in the slit, making his toes curl and his sac tighten. Then she sucked him down again, her whole throat somehow enveloping his entire length. His hands rose to tangle in her hair, pulling the dark silk aside touching her face. She looked up to see how much he was enjoying her pleasuring him.
The rhythm started slowly, but soon he helped, moving his hips. When her palm slid round his cock, he let out a loud moan. She could do this all night just to hear him, watch him take his pleasure.
“I want to be inside you,” he panted as his cock popped from her lush mouth.
He pushed her slowly onto her back as he crawled up her body, helping her shed her sundress as he went. He used his teeth to remove her thong, and her body hummed with arousal. By the time he reached her beautiful breasts, she was braless. “Why the hurry? We have all night.”
She lay back and sighed, but lifted her hips in impatient offering. “I just want you so much.” With her words ringing in his ears he slid into her heat and began to love the woman who owned his heart.
Later as they lay cuddled together under the blanket, Tom brushed the hair from her face so he could kiss her. But as his hand found her skin all he felt was clammy heat. “You’re hot.”
She cuddled closer. “Thanks. But I think you’re the hottest.”
“No. I mean you’re hot. Are you feeling all right?”
She stretched beside him. “I feel fabulous, but I will admit I’m a bit tired.”
He stared at her and she looked a bit flushed, but after their lovemaking that was expected. “Shall I turn the air up?”
“No. Then I’ll just get cold during the night. I just need some sleep.”
Accepting her words, he kissed her forehead. “I’ll just go check on Connor.”
“Okay,” came a muffled response.
He grabbed his jeans and dragged them on, not bothering to do them up and made his way quietly to Connor’s room. His son’s night light was on, but Connor was fast asleep. He’d kicked his blanket off, so Tom covered him again and pressed a kiss to his cheek. His heart overflowed with love, and he couldn’t believe how lucky he was to have Kendra and Connor in his life.
He couldn’t wait to bring Connor to meet his Grandad tomorrow. He hoped these new relationships were not too overwhelming for the little boy. So much had changed in Connor’s life over the past weeks.
Finally, he pulled himself away from watching his son sleep. Tiredness pulled at him. He needed sleep before facing the hospital and all that might entail tomorrow.
He quietly got into bed, noting Kendra had fallen asleep. Tom reached across and switched off the bedside lights, plunging the room in to darkness. He curled his body behind her and it took him barely moments to slip into a deep, contented sleep.
Tom didn’t know what had woken him, but he bolted upright. Kendra wasn’t in bed and his heart raced—Connor. But then he noted the light in the bathroom was on and he walked over to see if she was all right.
He pushed the door wider only to see Kendra lying face down on the floor, the hand-wash container broken on the floor beside her. He raced to her side, his heart pounding. He felt her forehead with the back of his hand. She was burning up. With growing alarm he gently shook her, but she didn’t wake up. Scooping her into his arms, he placed her on the bed, panic setting in.
He raced down the hall to Jackie’s room and knocked. He thanked God that Jackie’s apartment was being repainted, so she’d moved in for a week or two.
She finally poked her head out and gasped in shock. Tom was naked. “Something's wrong with Kendra, she’s fainted and burning up,” he stated fiercely, not concerned at all by his state of undress.
Jackie hurriedly followed him back to the bedroom. She went straight to Kendra and tried to revive her, but Kendra wouldn’t stir.
“Should I call an ambulance?” Tom’s heart was thundering in his chest.
But Jackie had already picked up his phone and was dialing 911. Tom paced across the bedroom floor.
“Please put some clothes on,” said Jackie grimly. “You must let paramedics in and accompany her to the hospital. I’ll stay here with Connor.”
Tom nodded and dressed.
It seemed like hours but was merely 15 minutes before the responders arrived. They asked him questions, but he barely remembered answering them before they loaded her in the ambulance and he clambered inside with Kendra.
They were halfway to the hospital when he suddenly knew he had to make a call. He pressed Marcus’s number. “Pick up. Pick up for once in your sorry life—”
“It’s five in the fuckin’ morning, this better be good,” came a muffled curse over the phone.
“I know you’re out of town but something's wrong with Kendra. We’re on the way to UCLA Medical Center.”
“I didn’t go—last-minute thing. I’m on my way!” and the phone went dead.
Tom sat there, not knowing what to do. Helplessness swamped him. He remembered the last time he’d felt like this. It was when they pulled Marcus’s lifeless body from his mangled car.
And that incident had turned out fine in the end. He remembered to breathe.
Tom watched Kendra’s face for signs of her waking, but all he heard was the monitor and the noise of beeping.
At least that meant she was alive.
Chapter Twenty
Tom hated the smell of hospitals. The antiseptic scent filled his nostrils, and he choked on the sterile odor. Or was it his own fear he was choking on?
He paced impatiently up and down the waiting room. It had been almost two hours and if someone didn’t tell him something soon, he would lose his shit…. He blew out another long breath. No one would tell him anything. Not since Marcus had arrived. Tom wasn’t a relative or Kendra’s husband, so they excluded him, even though he loved Kendra more than life itself.
How ironic that his father was in this very hospital. He was supposed to meet with the transplant team today to go over his results. He hadn’t noticed the sm
ell nearly as much when he’d visited his father. But then he didn’t have so much at stake.
Suddenly the doors to the ward opened and Marcus appeared. He looked like he’d been hit by a car.
“How is she?”
Marcus scrubbed a hand over his face. “They’ve rehydrated her and she’s awake, but they’re keeping her in for tests. Her temperature is still up.”
“Do they have any idea what’s wrong with her?”
Marcus shook his head, “It could simply be a virus, or flu. They don’t know, but because of her medical history they are doing tests to be sure.”
“Can I see her?” asked Tom as he made to walk round him, but Marcus grabbed his arm.
“She doesn’t want to see you.”
Tom shook off Marcus’s hand. “You’re just saying that to keep us apart, but I’m not leaving her. I love her. Get out of my way.” He didn’t even notice he was yelling.
Marcus’s eyes filled with tears. “I know you do. I know about Connor. She just told me you’re his father. I’d like to beat the shit out of you but now is not the time.”
“So let me pass.”
“She doesn’t want to see you. I’m so sorry, but once she gets something in her head… you know how stubborn she is.”
“What are you trying to say?”
Marcus sighed, looking over Tom’s shoulder. “Go home. Be with Connor. He will wonder where his mother is and he could get scared. He needs his father.”
Tom couldn’t believe this. Fear weaved through his cells. Marcus wasn’t even mad about Connor. What was really wrong with Kendra? “Why? Why is she pushing me away?”
He watched Marcus swallow hard. “She’s got this fool idea in her head that her cancer is back and she doesn’t want to drag you through that—”
“Bullshit. That’s not her decision to make. What? Does she think I’ll leave her if the going gets rough? If her cancer is back, we’ll fight it together. I want to be there fighting for her all the way.”
Marcus glared and drew Tom away towards the exit. “It’s not you she’s protecting. It’s herself. Can’t you see? When she battled before, she didn’t have you or Connor to lose. Both of you are her world. She’s scared she’ll lose this next battle, if there is one, and it will be worse with you there because she knows what she’s leaving behind. If she pushes you both away, she thinks it will be easier for her to face her own mortality.”
“What about Connor? He’ll need to see her. We both need her.”
“She doesn’t want him here either. She doesn’t want her son to remember her sick. She wants you to take care of him.” Tom’s mouth dropped open. She didn’t want her son… “Go home, Tom. Go be with your son. He needs you now.”
Tom brushed the tears off his face. “I’ll be back. I’ll keep coming back until she sees me. Until she realizes I’m not leaving her alone. And I’ll have Connor with me.”
Marcus nodded. “Good. You fight for her. She needs you to make her fight too, if it is cancer. It may not be, but of course she’s thinking the worst. Especially as a friend’s cancer returned recently and it’s now terminal.”
At the word terminal, Tom’s blood turned icy in his veins. He smelled his own fear, but nothing would scare him away from her this time. It wasn’t like his mother. His mum chose to leave him. With cancer, no one had a choice. A cold malady seeped through him, and he suddenly wanted to be home holding Connor tight. He couldn’t lose Kendra, not now. “All those bloody wasted years,” he said. “I should have opened her emails.”
Marcus hugged him before stepping back. “I can’t believe I got it so wrong. All this time I worried you’d break her heart. I never for one minute imagined she’d break yours.” With that, he turned and walked back through the doors towards his sister and left Tom standing there like a helpless dick.
Yes, getting home to Connor was what he needed. But he’d be back. There was no way Tom would allow her to push him away. He looked at his watch. He had just enough time to get home, see Connor and shower, check on Jackie, before he had to be back here for his test results.
* * *
“Thought I’d find you here.”
Tom closed his eyes in dismay. “Fuck.”
“Well, I was about to when Marcus called me.”
With a groan, Tom lifted his head from where it lay on the bar top and watched Sully light up a cigarette. “Marcus?”
Sully took a long drag and turned away to exhale. “Yeah. He called me and told me about Kendra. Gosh, who’d have thought she’d get sick just to escape your sorry ass.”
Normally, a crack like that would’ve made Tom laugh, but not tonight. He’d tried to see Kendra when he came out of his meeting with the transplant team, but she still refused to see him. Stella was there, of course, and she told him that Kendra’s fever was still up and more tests were being run. The doctors just wanted to be thorough. Stella agreed she’d try to get Kendra to see him tonight.
“She will be fine. I know it.”
Sully nodded. “Of course she is, so what’s got you sitting at this bar?”
“I was a match for Dad.”
Sully frowned and looked around the little hole-in-the-wall dive known as Pitstop. “Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It would be, but the doctor said that Dad won’t survive the surgery. I’m too late, Sully. Why didn’t I listen to Sam?”
Sully sighed. “Because you’re pigheaded, just like most men. Me included. Listen, you can’t beat yourself up about this. No one told your old man to drink himself to death. The same goes for me. I lost my family to the bottle because I thought I was handling my drinking just fine. Same as your dad, and same as you.”
Sully paused before saying, “The difference is that you were smart enough to quit earlier than a lot of alcoholics.” He eyed the money Tom had out, sitting on the bar. “What’s picking up that bottle again, going to solve Tommy? Huh? Is it going to change your dad’s condition?”
Tom rubbed his eyes. “No.”
“Will it help Kendra or make this easier to get through?”
“No.”
“Right. Will it screw things up with Kendra and your boy?”
“Yes.” Tom sat straighter and stared wide-eyed at Sully. “Did Marcus tell you about Connor?”
Sully exhaled and laughed. “I can’t believe how stupid everyone else around the shop is. I mean that in a nice way, of course. How did Marcus not see it every time he looked at Connor? The boy is you out-and-out. He has Kendra’s hair color and nose, but that’s about it. How come you’ve told no one?”
“We were going to this weekend when we had you all over, but then Kendra got sick.”
“How is she?”
“I only know what Stella told me today. She still has a temp and they don’t know what it is. Kendra thinks her cancer is back.” Tom looked at the bottles that lined the wall behind the bar and fought back the thirst that had never been quenchable. Hard liquor had always been his weakness. “What if it is? And to top it all off, she’s pushing me away. I don’t deserve that.”
Sully snorted. “She’s scared. I’ve never seen her so happy, so I bet this is hard for her to face. To have such happiness and then maybe she’s going to lose it…”
“But I’m right here now,” Tom said. “I love her and I want to be with her. What if her cancer is back and she only has a short time left? I want to spend every moment with her even if I lose her.”
Sully smiled. “Have you told her that?”
“She won’t let me.”
“Let me give you some advice.”
Tom was curious about Sully’s conspiratorial attitude and leaned closer.
Sully asked, “You know what?”
“What?”
Sully motioned him even closer and Tom complied.
“DON’T FUCKIN TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER! BARGE IN THERE.”
Tom recoiled and almost fell off his barstool. His ears rang as he stared at Sully.
Sully pointed at him
. “If you love her fight for her. No one said love was easy. If it was, we’d all be loved up. All I know is that when you find that special someone you let nothing push or pull you apart. She loves you so much. She’s hurting and she’s scared. So go to her. Find a way. Make her listen and understand you’ll be there when things get scary. She doesn’t have to do everything on her own anymore.”
Tom slid back on the stool but didn’t get too close to Sully in case he started yelling again. He was right. Since her scare with cancer, Kendra always believed she had to do everything on her own. She’d protected him and Marcus by not revealing Connor’s father, and she’d refused to bow to her parent’s pressure. She’d done it all on her own.
Well, she wasn’t on her own now.
“Now, about your dad. That’s a bitch and a half, but it ain’t your fault, son.”
Tom shook his head. “I should’ve listened to Sam and reconciled with Dad as soon as I found out he was sick. Dad tried, but I wouldn’t listen and meet him half way.”
Sully grunted. “Hindsight is a bitch. Can’t blame yourself, just like I don’t blame my kids for not believing me. Josh and Lindsey are starting to trust me more, but not Will. He’s old enough to remember the worst of it. Just like you. It was easier for Sam to forgive your dad because he didn’t go through the stuff you did. You had every reason to not believe that Vincent had changed. He told you he would, but never did.”
Tom shrugged. “Then how come I feel so guilty? I could’ve saved him, Sully.”
“Coulda, woulda, shoulda. You’ll drive yourself crazy with that. Maybe your dad didn’t want to ask you to be tested because he felt too guilty. None of that matters now, Tom. What matters is how you spend the time you have left with Vincent? Are you going to sit around whining or are you going to make the most of it?”
Tom said nothing as he looked at all the booze just mere feet from him. Thinking about Kendra and Connor, Tom knew that if he was to have any chance at lasting happiness, he had to resist temptation. One drink would lead to two, and two would lead to five, and so on. Their faces rose in Tom’s mind and he couldn’t, wouldn’t put them through the same hell he’d endured as a kid. Kendra would then have the excuse she needed to push him away. He wouldn’t make that easy for her.
Reckless Curves: Bad Boy Autos (Drive Me Wild Book 1) Page 17
