Bound (Bound Hearts #1) (19 page)

Courtland: FUCKING HELL!

Me: Are you blushing now?

Courtland: You little sexy witch. Pay back huh?

Laughing
at finally getting the drop on him, I couldn’t help, but be happy I got him back.

Me: Total payback. Results?

Courtland: Honestly?

Me: Always
.


Courtland: I read it to everybody here.

Holy
. Shit. I couldn’t even payback right!

Courtland: Are you blushing Addy?

Me: Bastard.

Courtland: Yes, but I’m your bastard.

Me: So mean.

Courtland: JK. Like I would let the guys read how wet my girl’s pussy is for me. But you did really make my dick hard. You are totally making it up to me tomorrow minx.

Me: My pleasure.

I suddenly couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

Courtland

Thursday was finally here. I wanted to make everything perfect for tonight. My plan was ingenious. Romantic and I knew would make her swoon, and hopefully fall just as hard as I did, in love. The way she teased me while I was at work yesterday and couldn’t do a damn anything about it, made me itching to go to her and spank her little ass.

I loved it. She could rile me up like wildfire. If I tried telling her to speak those words out loud face to face, I knew she’d chicken out. Texting is very different than up front and personal. I knew exactly how she’d react to a frontal assault. When I talked dirty to her, she had a full on body blush and it was fucking beautiful just watching her light up.

Some people might think it’s crazy how fast I’ve fallen for her. The truth being no matter what phase of bitterness I was in, I never stopped loving her. It’s not like I’ve ever told anyone I loved them. I loved JR like a brother, but I didn’t come outright and tell him. He just knew.

I knew I was going to tell her I loved her. Tonight. I talked to Joe last night about letting me skip today. I think he knew I was going to make a grand gesture. He smiled and told me to take care of business. I planned to.

I told him my plans and he said that was a fine thing to do, to show her how much I love her. I knew I wouldn’t get to see her tomorrow, she had the signing and after-party, in which I was gonna try and get her to let me go with her, but if not I knew I’d see her Saturday. Today was going to be the day I declared my love for her. I knew she felt something for me. Ten years didn’t stop a friendship. Although Tuesday when we went to the beach and she accused me of abandoning her, I had no idea how to feel about that. Should I rethink about showing her the letter? I knew I would never willingly abandon her. She meant everything to me. Still does. I didn’t want to borrow trouble and make her want to leave before I got to tell her anything.

Fuck it. I’m not gonna dwell on that shit anymore. Tonight was about showing her how much I cared. How much I love and cherish her. I still want forever with her. I don’t want to waste any more time being without her. I’ll do whatever it takes to show her I won’t ever abandon her.

First thing in the morning, I went to the Disney Store in the Galleria, got one of those Mickey Mouse presentation screens. It was one of those blow up things that you could watch movies outside. I got the movie Frozen to go with it and then flowers.

But not just any flowers. Roses. Her favorite of all flowers. I knew they were a favorite of a lot of women, but I remember the one time she did open up to me, she told me about the rose garden her mother grew. When she was a little
girl that was the only thing her mother ever showed her how to take care of. Other than that, her mother never really cared a whit about her. Adelaide tended to that garden as if they were her own babies. Said it was the only place no one bothered her. Not even her father.

∞

One time when I had taken her home from hanging out at the garage, she confessed to me about her love of writing and told me she usually went out there to write. She had asked JR for a low to the ground lawn chair and she could
sit behind between the rose bushes and write to her heart’s desire. She had even showed me the notebook she wrote in. I was surprised she wrote in a notebook that had cartoon kitty cats on the front. The one time I teased her by snatching the notebook from her, faking as if I was going to read it, she burst into tears, sobbing, asking for it back. Those tears ripped at my heart. I gave it back to her, and pulled her into my arms telling her I was sorry, that I would never invade her privacy like that. She had whispered ‘I know. Sorry I cried, it’s just really personal stuff.’ We were in the cab of my Chevy and there wasn’t much room but I maneuvered her until she was across my lap. ‘Addy, don’t cry baby. I hate to see tears falling from your beautiful eyes. But just to let you know, I can handle the deep dark personal things. If you ever want to tell me.’ She didn’t respond, but just cuddled up into me. I think right then, I started figuring out that I felt more for her than just simple friendship. She fit to me perfectly and I never wanted to see her cry. My chest tightened and I felt almost uncomfortable in my own skin.

∞

She had loved the fragrance too. I planned to give her a night she’ll never forget. Hopefully
, they were still her favorite. I knew she loved them before. The lady at the counter asked me who it was for.

“Anyone special?”

“Yes.”

“Well. Each color represents different things.”

“Uh…”

The older woman chuckled. I didn’t know if she was laughing at me and I narrowed my eyes. “I’m not laughing at you dear. Is it for a girl?”

“Yes.”

“You love her?”

“Hell, yes.”

“Let’s go over the colors and meanings. Red, of course means love, beauty, also courage and respect, sincere love, and passion. Dark red and deep burgundy both mean unconscious beauty. White means purity, innocence, silence, secrecy, reverence, humility.
Also an “I am worthy of you” type notion and of course Heavenly. The pink rose symbolizes grace, happiness, admiration, gentleness. Also, dark pink means Appreciation and gratitude. The lighter shade of pink is sympathy, gentleness, joy and sweetness. Yellow shows joy, friendship, delight, a promise of a new beginning, ‘remember me’ and in some cases it could mean jealousy. The yellow with the red tip means friendship and falling in love. Orange means desire, fascination, and enthusiasm. Coral too, Lavender is love at first sight, and enchantment. Blue means the unattainable and impossible. Now, a single rose of any color means having the utmost devotion to someone. Two roses entwined says ‘Marry me’,” she looked at me with question. I kept a straight face, because, yes eventually I will marry her.

“I don’t need that just yet.”

“Okay, well half dozen symbolizes a need to be loved or cherished. Eleven assures the receiver they are truly and deeply loved. And well thirteen means secret admirer, but I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that. Which ones would you like?”

“Red, dark red, white, pink, light pink, yellow, yellow with red tips, definitely oranges and coral, lavender, blue.”

“Oh my, that’s a lot. Single or-

“Do you have two dozen of each and maybe six of the blue?”

“Yes, it’ll take a while to get it together, but I should have them ready in about an hour? Is that alright?”

“That’s perfect, gives me enough time to get home and set up everything.”

“Sounds like you have the perfect date planned.”

“Yes.”

“I hope she knows how lucky she is, not many men put effort into making their girls feel like they are the only thing they see nowadays.”

“She
is
the only thing I see.”

With that
, I walked out and headed home. The florist thankfully was in-town and it let me get home and start airing up the Mickey Mouse movie projector thing and that would take all the time I needed to set the mood for out here. Yesterday after work, I went to SEARS and bought a lounger that sits two people and with a push of the foot, start rocking back and forth slowly. I figured it was perfect to watch the movie in. I set out an ice cooler for wine on one side and I took out my lawn lights and surround the chairs in a semi-circle, so while we’re watching the movie, it’ll create a nice glow around us. I had to get going to go pick her up, but I could just picture leading her back here and we could relax, eat and watch the movie. It’s supposed to be about seventy tonight, so it shouldn’t get too hot out. Everything was set out and ready, so I headed back to the florists.

We loaded up all the flowers in the back cab of the truck and I headed home. I knew how I wanted her to see them. I would go in the house a few minutes before her and wait at the end of the trail, in my bedroom. I’d leave a note in every room. I could picture it in my head, she’d find her way to the bedroom, where we would make love. I’d tell her how much I loved her. I would tell her my secrets so if she wanted to tell me hers, she could. I’d be wide
open to her. She had to feel something for me. I just know she did. I only pray that she gives me a chance.

Adelaide

Thursday was day one of book signing and I did pretty well in selling a few books and I met a ton of fans. I loved seeing the readers who love every book or want to just talk about the characters. I especially love when reader’s who’ve never heard of me, sat down and told me to sell them my book. I never was great at marketing, but I think I did a good job and when I left for the day, I made new author friends, new reader friends and new fans. It was a wonderful day and I wasn’t going to let anything spoil this day. And I was seeing Courtland tonight.

After teasing him yesterday, I began thinking to myself about my fears and how I never let a guy get too close to me. Well, tonight, I was changing that. I let him go down on me and I would really love to try giving him pleasure back. I knew he was, is and never will be
, anything like Geoff. Courtland had been such an intricate part of my life, and I wanted to give him as much pleasure, as he gave me. Although, when he really looked in my eyes, he just
knew
exactly how I was feeling. He never let it show if my sadness bothered him, but the one thing he made sure never happened, was me crying. He only made me cry once in our friendship and that ended with me in his lap, telling me how sorry he was and he’d never hurt me or allow anyone to put tears in my eyes. He didn’t know that I cried every night I went to bed in that house. Not that he’d ever know, either.

I was learning new things about myself this week though. I wanted to please him in that way. I would put that fear behind me. I would conquer it and make it my bitch. I knew I was overthinking a lot about
it. I had been stressing this whole week. Every time Courtland and I had sex, it just seemed like it was becoming more than just that. Even Tuesday when we got back to the hotel and he only got me off, it seemed like it was
more
. The fact that he didn’t even try to have sex with me, even though we were in a little alcove and could be easily seen if someone walked closely by, he didn’t even hint at me. Like he said, ‘it was all about me’.

Our fight at the beach-sigh. The fight we had about me not being willing to open up to him, made me feel like total shit. I saw the anger and disappointment
, but most of all I saw the hurt. I knew he wanted me to open up to him and just let him bare the heavy weight I kept locked inside. I was growing to feel more for him than I should. That I’d ever felt for anyone. My heart would race at the thought of him. Pounding, palpitating, heart beats that fluttered all over.

Chicken.

That’s what I was plain and simple. Chicken. I was afraid he’d think I was defiled and ugly if he knew. If anyone knew. When Geoff promised he’d ruin me if I ever told someone, I really had wanted to rebel and tell Courtland. JR. Uncle Chet. Someone.

Did I really deserve what he did to me? I wasn’t his daughter and my mother got pregnant with me by having premarital sex. He did take pity on us when he married my mother. He did give us a home. It was a strict household
, but it did give us a roof over our heads. Mother had once told me that she told her parents she was pregnant. She said they told her if she thought she would come home with a pregnant belly and no man she should just stay where she was. That summer, she married Geoff and apparently never looked back.

I knew that was bullshit.
Now
. Gram and Gramps were sad my mother never came home. I still don’t know who my father is. Gram and Gramps didn’t know she was pregnant by another man and Mother never told me. Maybe that was another thing I needed to know before I left here. I needed her to tell me who my birth father was. I mean, would the guy want to know me? God knows, he probably already has a family. Probably a happy family. Did I want to interrupt their lives like that? I really did want to know though. Even if I just saw his face. Yeah. That would be good enough. Yeah, or just accidently bump into him or something. Hopefully he still lived in Georgia.

Anyways. I really think I’m ready to stomp one fear out of the way. I knew what his penis looked like and he wasn’t hairy or gruff down there. No tattoos around it to make me think about
that
. I also wanted to try out that barbell. I wanted to be able to drive him nuts.

He came to pick me up by seven and it was around eight when we got to the house. All I could see when we were parked was how dark it was except a glow coming from the back yard. Strange.

I got out of the truck and started making my way to the back with the food in my hands. I never went up to his front door. It felt out of place to do since I never did to begin with. At first when he lived in the efficiency unit, I went to the back so no one would accuse me of going to a guy’s house all alone. Then, it just became tradition for me. It was an intimate way of seeing him that no one else did. He had sat in his kitchen a lot and the back door was in it so I’d see him as soon as I opened the door.

The closer I got to the backyard, the glow became brighter and colorful. Then as I stepped more
to the back, my heart stopped. Whoa. There was a big screen, Mickey Mouse shaped, and the previews for Frozen were being shown. There were lights surrounding a little sofa type lawn chair, an ice bucket with wine on one side and Courtland making his way behind me.

I couldn’t help but whisper, “Wow.”

He must have heard me though because he stopped behind me, taking the food and drinks from me in one hand and shifted the other to the small of my back and herded me to the chair.

“You totally went all out. This is amazing.”

“I want this night to be one you never forget.”

“Nothing compares.”

“Good.”

We got comfortable in the seat and he must have had the movie on
Disney’s fastplay
, because we were just digging into our food when the opening of Frozen started. I wondered what made him go through all this trouble. I mean, we could’ve just sat in the living room and watched it. This was really sweet and thoughtful of him. The night wasn’t hot and humid like it usually was. I wore a green sundress and flops. (And no, I didn’t go out and buy it because it matched his eyes perfectly. Well, maybe…Okay yes, I bought it for that reason. And easy to peel off.) I wanted tonight to be special and I wanted to wear something that every time I wore it after this, would always remind me of the night I let go of my fears and be brave. It was a great confidence booster.

During the whole movie, Courtland never made a move on me. I sat in the crook of his shoulder and mostly he just massaged my arm and shoulder and sometimes twirled a finger in my hair. It didn’t bother me anymore if he touched my hair. It was always a soft and gentle touch. Sometimes playful
, but he never tried pulling it. My skin was tingling and I really wanted to just hop on his lap and really begin our night. I noticed the bulge he was packing and I was ready to pounce when the final credits started rolling and he shifted me away and said he was going to the bathroom real quick.

I nodded and wondered why he didn’t make a move
towards me. It was really making me nervous about the whole getting over my fears thing. Making me second guess what tonight would be about, was not helping.

So I waited. After five minutes of him not showing up yet, I was thinking maybe the food didn’t agree with him. But then another ten minutes passed and I was getting aggravated.

What the hell was going on? Did he want me to leave? Well, I wasn’t’ leaving here until I got an orgasm. He promised me retribution for teasing him and I so wanted him to pay me back in kind. Like multiple orgasms pay back.

So I marched up onto the back porch and noticed a note taped on the screen door.

Remember when we first met? Enter to know just how much you mean to me.

Oooo-kay. I remembered when we first met. It was at Uncle Chet’s for a weekend meal. His piercing green gaze followed me everywhere. Almost like an annoying bug
, but then when I looked him in his eyes, our gaze held and it felt like he was seeing inside to my soul. Which thinking about it now, makes me curious to see, just how much I meant to him.

H
olding the note in one hand, I opened the back door to the smell of roses. The fragrance was strong, but didn’t drown me out. The room was dark and when I flipped on the light, white rose petals were scattered across the floor, and a few blue petals. On the island was one white and one blue rose in a vase with another note attached to it.

Your sweet innocence was impossible for me to grasp, so I looked upon yours to seek my salvation. P.s. keep following the path.

I felt the tears begin to swell in my eyes.

I didn’t want to step on the petals and crush them with my flops so I took them off and continued, stepping over the petals. The next room, the dining area, was lit with a single candle and I flipped the switch to see yellow, and red tipped yellow petals strewed over the table, floors and led in the living room. A few blue petals mingled in between and I wondered what they meant. But on the table was two roses, one yellow and one red tipped. The note attached said-

A new beginning then, and a dream for another new beginning awaits. A friendship lasting throughout every hardship. Lean on me, beautiful. I’ll never fail the impossible with you by my side.

He was really starting to get to me with these notes. They were really beautiful and captivating. I took those roses, and followed the yellow path into the living room. This time, there was enough candles burning to see wall to wall pink and light pink petals and a few blue ones. Everywhere. He really knew how much I loved roses. This was beautiful. I went to the coffee table and picked up the two pink entwined roses and lifted the note.

Your gentleness settles my roughness as your sweetness softens my soul. P.s. The best is yet to come.

I came to the stairway w
here lavender rose petals laid on the steps, again with a few blue ones scattered. A lone shelf that hosted a single candle also held a lavender rose and note.

I am forever enchanted by you and everything you do. Everything I’ve ever known began to change and made me dream things I thought were unattainable to achieve.

My heart was beginning to race with trepidation and excitement all at the same time. I took the flower with the others and climbed the steps into the hallway, leading to where I knew he’d be waiting. The pathway was littered with orange and coral flowers. I knew they represented desire. I was getting closer to what I wanted the most.

The light was turned low and in the middle of the pathway was a large fat candle with the two flowers and a note.

Everything about you is desirable and I’ll always be fascinated in all you are. Your passion ignites a burning desire inside me that only you can produce.

And when I got to his bed
room door, it was closed with one red and one dark red rose taped on the door along with another note.

Eleven roses you have collected, that shows you just how much I feel for you. You were, are and will always be beautiful. Never doubt how I feel about you. Then, now and always. I’ll treasure every waking moment with you. Whether it’s given or stolen
, and I’ll dream of you and always know this is where I was meant to be. P.s. Come to me Adelaide. Let me show you exactly how it’s meant to be.

I took the tokens and walked into the room. Bright red and dark red rose petals covered everything. It looked like a rose explosion. My heart was pounding in my ears and candles were lit in various places in his room. In the corner I saw movement and he stepped
away from the wall and sauntered in all his beautiful glory to me. He was the beautiful one. He knew just what to make my heart thunder and my body come alive.

We took each other’s clothes off slowly, I knew we were both memorizing every little detail we could. The love we made was exactly that. Slow, sweet, and entrancing as I looked into his eyes and I saw what I
was beginning to feel. What I dreaded to feel. Love. My heart was beginning to burst with the emotion and I was so scared of feeling that way. It became intense as he drove inside me slowly, but methodically. He brought my hands to the sides of my head and entwined our fingers. Tightening when he pushed in to the hilt and I squeezed my inner muscles every time, getting that much closer to release. He didn’t go at a faster tempo, just kept up with steady and hard strokes. He didn’t say anything and I couldn’t either. Too scared to own up to the feelings that were bubbling and rising to the fore. He just stared intently in my eyes. Conveying what I wanted the most to hear, but dreaded too.

“Courtland. God, this feels so amazing.”

“Come for me, Adelaide. I love how you squeeze around my cock, sucking it inside you. Let go, babe. Give me your sweet release.”

He thrust just a little harder and the force of his piercing
, hit my g-spot. Of all the men I’ve had sex with, Courtland is the only one that has hit that spot. Repeatedly. I don’t know if it’s the barbell but it only took a few more hard thrusts and I was coming. Calling out his name. He groaned, panting out my name as he came and landed on top of me. He was a heavy weight, but a welcome one. I loved his warmth encasing me and protecting me. After a few long languid minutes though, it was getting difficult to breathe. Courtland was a big man. Tall and his crushing weight was warming, but I needed to breathe.