by Emerson Rose
“I don’t like it.”
“What, me keeping tabs on her? I had to see what she was…”
“No, no, I don’t like that she hasn’t pursued it. Something big made her reach out and take a risk. Why would she just walk away?”
I sit up and sigh running my hand through my hair. “Darlin’, that’s what she does. She walks away. That’s what every woman in my life does, except you.”
I watch her pad across the room closing the distance between us. When she’s standing in front of me, she nudges my knees apart to stand between my legs. She rests her warm hands on my shoulders and fixes me with a serious look. “I will never abandon you, ever. If there were a way to prove it, like a detonating ankle bracelet that would explode and kill me if I tried to leave, I’d wear it forever. I love you. You’re a good man: loyal, good-hearted, and sexy.” She smiles when she says sexy.
“I’m not as good as you think. I don’t deserve you, but I’m selfish enough to take you anyway.”
“I’m glad you’re selfish then.”
“Speaking of selfish, your turn.”
“Okay, when I was thirteen years old I had an accident in the barn. I fell coming down a ladder, and there was a steel post sticking out of the ground. I’m not sure why it was there. I think maybe it was a place to tie up a dog. One of the ranch hands had an old dog that was blind, it always wandered off and got lost. Anyway, I fell on it and it went almost all the way through me.”
“Oh, honey, that’s terrible, shit, I’ll bet that hurt like hell.”
“It did after a while, but my head hurt more. I cut it in the fall. At first, I think I was in shock. I didn’t know why I couldn’t get up but after an hour or so it was excruciating.”
“An hour? Why didn’t anybody help you?”
“That’s the part I’m ashamed of, the reason I don’t tell people about it and why I don’t like to be reminded of it. I wasn’t alone. I was with a ranch hand. He was twenty-seven years old and I was fourteen. We were… well, you know.” She shrugs, and I pull her into my lap. She bows her head and fiddles with her fingernails while she finishes.
“He knew he would be in trouble with my daddy and the law if he got caught with me. Daddy saw how he looked at me, he sensed something was going on and he threatened to stab him with a pitchfork if he so much as laid a hand on me. So, he walked away and left me there. I begged him over and over to help me or at least call somebody, but he didn’t. He rode back to the main barn, packed all his stuff, and disappeared.”
“He fucking left you there? Alone and injured?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“I’m not sure. I know it was lunchtime when I fell. We snuck off to the abandoned barn when everyone came in from the fields to eat. I passed out from the pain and when I didn’t show up for dinner daddy got a search party together to look for me. I woke up in the hospital the next day. I had a couple of broken ribs, and they did emergency surgery to repair my bowels and stitch up my head. Daddy never asked me why I was out there, but I’m sure he put two and two together when Doug never showed up for work again.”
My fucking blood is boiling in my veins when she's finished. How do you see a young girl lying on the ground impaled by a steel rod and walk away? Talk about abandonment issues. Mine seem like nothing now compared to hers. If I ever find that bastard, I’ll hang him in the old oak tree out back by his dick.
“Thank you. I’m sure that was hard to relive, I appreciate you sharing with me. Now that I know, we don’t ever have to talk about it again, I promise.”
“Thanks.”
“So, now that we’ve had a deep heart-to-heart, how about we lighten up the mood with your surprise?”
“I’d like that.”
I stand her up and swat her perfect ass. “I love that ass.”
She shakes her head and takes my hand pulling me from the room. “Hold on. I’m leadin’, you don’t know where you’re going.”
“I’ll follow the hammering sounds.” I chuckle when she pulls me along to the first floor and down the hall toward my office.
She stops short when she realizes the sounds are coming from the library and spins around with wide eyes, “You’re not fucking with the library are you?”
“Stella, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you swear like that outside the bedroom.”
“That’s because Cannon is always within earshot.”
“I’m not complaining. I like it.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“No, nobody’s fucking with the library, babe. Come on.”
I lead her to the entrance to a living room across from my office that we never use. It’s got a fireplace and a beautiful view of the pool and the back yard, but there are only so many places you can spend time in a house this size.
I swing open the door and allow her to enter first. Two men on scaffolding stop hammering and turn to see who’s entering the room. “Hey, guys, I’m just gonna show Stella her new office, don’t mind us.”
“Office?” she says looking around the room dumbfounded. “What am I going to do in an office?”
“Study. You’ve been doing homework in bed on your laptop for weeks. Now you can come here and sit at your desk,” I gesture at a massive mahogany desk at the end of the room that used to be a living room. “Or you can relax on the couch by the fire in the winter on your chaise lounge. And as you can see, we’ve knocked out the wall between the library and this room so you’ll have easy access to anything you need. So, I guess I did fuck with the library but only to bring you closer to it. There’s also an area for Cannon to hang out and play if you need to get something done and I’m not home.” I point to the kid corner equipped with a table and chairs, tons of art supplies, age appropriate books, an easel, toys, a television with video game consoles, and even a mini kid recliner.
Her hands fly up to cover her mouth as she makes a 360º circle taking everything in. When she stops, her watery eyes are on me. “This is all for me?”
“Yeah, darlin’, it’s all yours. Now you have someplace to spread out and keep earning those A’s.” She started taking online classes a month ago, and she’s gotten nothing but perfect scores on all of her papers and tests so far. I told her to start out slow, but she insisted on taking a full schedule saying she’s already twelve years behind.
Her hand falls from her mouth, and she flings herself at me wrapping her legs around my waist. Her hands thread through my hair, and she presses her mouth to mine. This isn't your ordinary thank you so much kiss. This is a no-holds-barred, full-on passionate, take me back to bed and make love to me all day kiss.
I start for the door with one eye open so I don’t crash into anything, and she pulls her mouth from mine. “No, here, on my new desk,” she says in a husky fuck-me voice that makes my cock twitch in my jeans.
I holler up at the workers without taking my eyes off of Stella, “Hey, guys, give us some privacy, will ya?” The hammering stops, and I hear them climb down the scaffolding and shuffle out the door. When it clicks, I walk over and lock it in case my dad brings Cannon home early. Then I pad across the room in my bare feet and sit her on her new desk.
“Time?” I ask while stripping off her tank top. She looks around the room for a clock and calls out two-thirty like an announcer at the racetrack. I tug at her shorts, and she lifts her ass so I can slide them off. “We don’t have much time to christen your desk, but I think we can manage if we hurry.”
She wastes no time unbuttoning my old soft jeans and shoving them down. We’re both panting like animals grabbing at each other, kissing, nipping, and touching like it’s been months instead of minutes since we last had each other. I push her down on her back and spread her legs wide taking a few seconds to drag the tip of my stiff cock through her drenched pussy before thrusting it into her balls deep.
She gasps and clenches her teeth grabbing hold of the edge of the desk while I pound into her hard and fast. “We have abou
t five minutes before my dad brings Cannon home, I’m gonna make ‘em count.”
I love watching her breasts bounce up and down as I inch her up the desk.
“I’m coming…” she says through her teeth, and I stop holding back. I dig my fingers into her waist for leverage and speed up watching her come apart under me. When she’s almost through it, I slide my hands under her ass, tip her pelvis up and go in deep when I come so hard it brings stars to my eyes. Fuck yeah, this is my woman. She’s mine forever and always. I’m never letting her go, and she’s never gonna want to.
21
Skeletons in the closet
Stella
Spread out naked on my desk I can’t help but wonder how I’ll ever study here without getting turned on.
“Two-forty, get dressed.” Ash slaps my ass affectionately and yanks up his jeans.
I slip back into my shorts, and just as my tank top covers my scar, there’s a knock at my office door. My office, I never thought I’d have a need for an office. I don’t really, I can study anywhere, but I love that Ash wanted to give me my own space in his home.
“Who’s that?” I whisper hopping off the desk.
“My dad is very punctual.”
“Wow, how’d he know where to find us?”
“No clue.”
Great, just how I wanted to meet my future father-in-law, sweaty and post-coital. We cross the room hand in hand and Ash unlocks and opens the door.
A man wearing an expensive navy blue pin-striped suit with a striking red tie stands in the hall. He looks like an older version of Ash. Now that I know what my husband will look like in twenty-five years, I feel even luckier to belong to Mr. Ashton Pride.
“Adam, right on time, as usual,” Ash says as if he’s irritated with his father’s timeliness. I think it’s odd that he calls his dad by his first name but he did tell me that they weren’t close.
He looks from Ash to me and back at Ash with disapproval. “Playing house with the nanny, as usual.”
“Stop it. I told you Stella’s my girlfriend, don’t be a dick.”
“You’re paying her to look after my grandson, aren’t you?”
Technically, I am still getting paid to be the nanny, but only so I can have my own money. I don't like asking Ash for things when he's given me so much. We don’t use that terminology, though. It messes with Cannon’s head. And I agree with Ash. I don't like Adam’s tone it's totally dickish.
“I was helping her out, she was helping me out, that’s what couples do.”
“Sounds like you pay her to watch your son and sleep with you.”
Ash steps forward until he’s toe to toe with his father. “You’re walking on thin ice talking shit about my fiancé in my house.”
Adam’s eyebrows shoot up at the word fiancé. “Fiancé? Really, since when?” He leans around Ash to get a better look at me. “You must be very good,” he says, and I swear Ash growls.
“Since it’s none of your business.”
“What about Abigail?”
Ash’s face scrunches up in disgust, “What do you mean what about Abigail? That whore took off five years ago, why would you even bring her up?”
“Lower your voice, son, Cannon’s in your office coloring and you’re talking about his mother.”
“Don’t tell me what to do, and that woman was nothing more than a host body that incubated my son. She’s never spent one second of time with him and she never will.”
I reach out and touch Ash’s arm. He’s vibrating with anger. “Ash, calm down, you don’t want to scare Cannon.”
His enraged eyes swing to mine and I let go and step away from him “Take him upstairs,” he says through clenched teeth.
“Yes, dear, be a good nanny and take your charge upstairs so I can talk to my son.”
Ash snaps lurching forward to grab his father by the throat. He pushes him across the hall and up against the wall. “Ash, stop!”
Adam’s face turns bright red, but Ash ignores it until Cannon follows the commotion into the hall. “Daddy! Don’t hurt Papa!” he shrieks grabbing hold of Ash’s leg.
Ash looks down at Cannon, and I move in to pull him away from the impending bloodshed. “Cannon, honey, move out of the way.” I pull, but he refuses to let go of Ash’s leg.
Ash tightens his hand around his father’s throat and gives him a hard shove against the wall hard before releasing him to gather Cannon in his arms. “You need to leave now, and don’t come back. I don’t need you in my life. I don’t need your negativity, I won't let you insult the woman I love, and I will not let my son be used as a pawn in your election again.”
Adam’s hands are around his throat, he’s gasping for breath, and his eyes are wild like a cornered animal. I wrap my arms around both of them and cup Cannon’s cheek with my hand guiding his eyes away from his grandfather. “It’s going to be okay, buddy, grandpa and daddy are upset, why don’t you come with me upstairs?’
His little hands are gripping Ash’s T-shirt, but when he hears my voice, he releases him and reaches out to me. I gather him in my arms and without a word to either of them, I make my way down the hall to the foyer.
It’s a risk to leave them alone, but Adam and Ash are grown men, they can take care of themselves. Cannon cannot, and I won't let him witness any more ill will between his grandpa and his daddy.
“I’m scared, Tella.”
“It’s going to be okay, honey. Daddy and Papa were having an argument. Daddy lost his temper, but he’s okay now.” I hope.
“Is it bout my mommy?”
I skid to a stop in the foyer and look into his chocolate brown eyes. “What?”
“Is Daddy mad cuz Papa took me to my mommy today?”
Oh God no, no, no, no. He did not take Cannon to meet Abigail without Ash’s permission. If that’s where their argument is going, I need to get some backup, because it’s about to get real ugly real fast.
Ridge, I need to find Ridge.
“Um, honey, I don’t know. Let’s, uh, let’s get you up to your room so you can play your video games for a little while and rest before dinner.”
“You want me to play my game?” he asks in disbelief. I always make him read a book or do an art project before he’s allowed to play a video game. Today I need him totally zoned and focused on something in case a brawl breaks out downstairs.
“Yeah, just this once, though, then we can read before bed.” He frowns at first, and then he shrugs, “Okay.”
Upstairs on my way to Cannon’s bedroom, with him still wrapped around me like a monkey, I glance down into the living room off the foyer and see the top of a blonde head.
“No fucking way,” I whisper to myself.
Cannon gasps and rears back taking my face in his hands, “Tella, you said the F word!”
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, buddy. Sometimes I think a word in my head and it slips out of my mouth before I can catch it.”
“It’s okay. Daddy does that, too.” I smile and kiss him on the nose continuing to his bedroom at a faster pace. I want him safe in his chrome fortress before daddy’s F words start slipping out all over the place.
When he’s all set up with his Xbox One, LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens game, and a healthy snack from his chrome mini fridge, I step out into the hall and call Ridge.
“Ridge?”
“You need me to come sit with the kid or get rid of the blonde?”
Wow, I didn’t even have to ask, and he’s offering me options I hadn’t thought of yet. “I, um, I was going to ask you to stay with Cannon but, you can get rid of her?”
“I can do anything you want, Miss Stella. Boss made it pretty clear from day one that your every wish is his desire,” he says in his deep, commanding, sexy voice.
“He did?”
“Yes. Which will it be?”
I silently move through the house in my bare feet on my way back to the living room where Abigail is waiting. “I think maybe you should come and keep an eye on Cannon a
nd I’ll find out what the blonde wants.”
“Alright, I’ll be right up. And ma’am, the blonde is Cannon’s biological mother Abigail, thought you should be warned.”
“Yeah, I figured. Did you know she came here a couple of weeks ago asking to see Cannon?”
“Yes, ma’am, I did.”
When I reach the atrium that surrounds the foyer on the second floor, I take a step across the hall and look for her blonde bun. Yep, she’s still here. “Has she been here since then? Other than today, I mean.”
“No. She’s being monitored, though.”
“She is? By whom?”
“Ash has somebody on her.”
“Did his somebody know that Adam took Cannon to meet with Abigail today?”
Silence fills the line and then, “No, ma’am, he didn’t know that.”
I wonder if the person monitoring Abigail is Ridge. “Well, he did, and when Ash finds out I’m afraid of what might happen.”
“I’ll send Felicia to keep an eye on Cannon. I’m coming down there.” I can hear him moving, his shoes on the marble taking the stairs at a clipped rate.
“Where are you?” I’ve always wondered where Ridge disappears to when he isn’t doing things for Ash.
“I was in my office on the third floor when you called, but I’m halfway to the foyer now. Where’s Ash?”
“With Adam outside the library, last I saw.”
“You fucking did what?” Ash roars from the hall leading to the library.
Ridge hears, “Fuck, I’m almost there. Stay out of their way. This is going to get ugly.”
“Okay, Ridge, I’ve never heard him yell like that. Not gonna lie, I’m sorta scared.”
“Just stay out of the way.” The line goes dead, and I watch Ash drag his father into the foyer by the throat. His nose is bleeding badly, and his eyes are already blackening. Adam must have told him what he did.
“You don’t fucking take my son on pretenses so you can introduce him to that whore without my permission!” Ash pulls back his fist, and I hear a crack and a splat when it connects with Adam’s face again. Adam’s head lolls to one side, his eyes are glassy and unfocused, and his knees are buckling.
