Fall On Me (9 page)

I knew for a fact that Lee wouldn't
rather
talk to Jimmy. She was petrified of the creep. Broke
out in a cold sweat when his name was brought up in conversation.
My guess was the girl would rather erase both of her parents, or at
least avoid them if she could. "Kyle, you need to calm your shit.
It's her choice. You can't force her to want what you want."

"I love her," he shot back. "She's my woman.
I'm supposed to take care of her. That's my fucking job,
Derek."

"Yeah, Kyle, you're supposed to take care of
her, not control her," I snapped. "Dude, you seriously need to cool
off, and back off. You pulled this crap with her before and look
where it got you. You need to give that girl space and stop
breathing down her damn neck. It's not healthy for either of
you."

"She nearly died," he hissed running his
hands through his hair. "I'm never going to let her out of my sight
again."

"So, what, you're gonna give up working so
you can watch her twenty-four seven?" I said sarcastically. "Or
hire a nanny to watch your fiancée?"

"You don't get…" he paused for a second
before smirking. "You looking for a new job, Der?"

Oh Jesus…

"It's your funeral," I muttered, too tired to
bother trying to reason with him. He'd do whatever the hell he
wanted to do, whether I warned him or not. Might as well save my
breath. "Keep pushing her and all you'll be left with is the dust
from her shoes as she runs out on you..."

"Derek," Kyle snapped in an agitated tone as
he swung around to face me. "Don’t say shit like that," he said as
he shuddered. "Don't even think it…" His phone started to ring and
I sighed in relief. I wasn't getting into this with him. I was
exhausted and Kyle had enough energy to argue for a decade.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he
pressed a button and held it to his ear. "Marcus, everything okay?"
I watched as Kyle's face turned red, then white, then red again as
he listened intently to whatever was being said on the other line.
"She's back now?" he whispered. "She's okay?" His whole frame
shuddered as he nodded his head. "Thanks, man. I'm on my way." He
ended the call and stood motionless with his eyes closed and his
hands balled into fists at his sides.

"Everything okay?" I asked cautiously. He
wasn't moving. I wasn't sure if he was even breathing. "Kyle?" I
asked again. "Is everything okay?"

"One day," he hissed out through clenched
teeth. His eyes flew open and he glared at me in barely contained
rage. "All I want, Derek," he roared as he stalked past me into the
hallway. "Is one day." Swinging the front door open, he turned and
glared at me. "One fucking day where the people I love listen to me
and do what I goddamn say. Is that too much to ask for?"

****

Kyle

She was going to be the death of me. If she
didn't start listening to me soon, I was going to lose my shit. One
argument. One goddamn disagreement and what did she do?

Run.

She was the victim of a shooting. A
shooting
. She didn't need to be going any damn place on her
own. I knew she didn't like being ordered around. I was being hard
on her, but I was worried. I was more than worried, I was terrified
something was going to happen to her. To Lee, I looked like a
control freak, and maybe I was, but everything I did was for
her.

To keep her safe.

To keep her
alive
.

I sat in my car until the sky darkened and I
was certain I was calm enough to deal with her.
Vulnerable,
vulnerable, vulnerable,
I chanted the word to myself in the
elevator on my way up to our suite, in a bid to keep my cool.
Taking a few deep breaths, I slipped inside and checked on Hope,
who was sleeping soundly, before making my way into our bedroom.
The sound of water running filled my ears and I opened the door of
the bathroom and stepped inside. My panic started to recede the
moment I set eyes on her standing under the steady flow of water
coming from the showerhead–naked.

Her eyes met mine and I watched as she sighed
deeply before continuing to lather her hair with shampoo. "If
you've come for a fight, Kyle, you'll have to wait."

"You left without telling me," I said in a
tone much calmer than I thought I was capable of. "You didn't tell
anyone where you were going, Lee. Do you have any idea how worried
I was when Marcus called me?" I closed my eyes and forced away all
the horrible what ifs and notions that were swimming around in my
brain. "
Anything
could have happened to you."

"You cornered me this morning," she countered
in an equally quiet tone. "You push and push, Kyle. I have a
breaking point. I have my own views on the world–on my
mother
. You can't force your opinions on me and expect me to
lie down to you just because you think yours is the right way."

"Where were you?" I asked quietly even though
I knew full well where she'd been.

"With Cam," she replied softly, confirming
what I'd already guessed.

Shaking my head, I shrugged my clothes off
and went to her. "Jesus, Lee," I hissed the second I stepped into
the shower. "Have you no feeling in your body?" I asked as I hopped
around, trying to dodge the spray until my body grew accustomed to
it. "The water is scalding."

"I like it hot," she murmured as tipped her
head back to rinse her hair. "It helps with the stiffness."

I couldn't agree more with her. I was as
stiff as a board from just watching her, but her words sobered my
arousal. "You're sore today?" I asked in a gruff tone. The fight I
had in me earlier was fading fast. Now, all I wanted to do was hold
her. Lock her away. Keep her safe…

"Yeah," she whispered as she massaged her
hands through her hair and my chest ached. Her one word omission
cut me deep. "I pushed myself too far today," she admitted quietly.
"I feel like an old lady…I'm exhausted just trying to stand
up."

Stepping behind her, I suffered the oven-hot
temperature of the water as I gently brushed her hands aside and
started to rinse her hair. "You never listen to me," I whispered.
Brushing her hair to one side, I dropped my head and placed a kiss
on her shoulder before lowering my hands to rest on her hips. She
sagged against me, allowing me to take her weight for her. "You
need to start listening to me."

"I do listen to you, Kyle," she replied
softly. "But that doesn't mean that I have to agree with you or do
what you say all the time."

"I'm trying to keep you safe," I growled.
"I'm not sorry for that, Lee."

"I'm capable of making up my mind about my
own mother," she shot back. "And I'm not sorry for that either,
Kyle."

"Do you still…are we okay?" I asked, feeling
like a needy asshole for craving reassurance, but her response
freaked me out.

She turned around and looked up at me with
those big gray eyes. "I'm really mad at you," she said, her eyes
wide, her voice weary. "But I'm really in love with you, too." Her
lips tipped upwards in what looked like a reluctant smile. "So, I
guess the love overrules the anger."

"So, where do we go from here?" I asked,
feeling at a total loss as to where this was going. We weren't
agreeing, but we weren't fighting either. It was…weird as fuck.
"How come you're not screaming and shouting at me?"

Lee laughed–
fucking loved that
sound
–stretched her hand up and turned off the water. She
stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel before answering me.
"It's my new technique when dealing with your antics," she mused as
she wrapped a towel around her body and another around her hair. "I
call it being a grown up."

The weight on my shoulders and pressure
around my chest lightened the moment she smiled at me.
We were
okay…
"Antics?" I teased as I stepped out and prowled towards
her. The night could be salvaged…

****

Lee

I was finding it really hard to hold onto my
anger with Kyle prowling towards me–stark naked–with that playful
glint in his eyes. "Antics?" he purred as he grabbed my waist and
pulled me flush against him. "I thought you liked my antics?" His
face dipped to my neck, his lips snaked out, trailing hot kisses
from my collarbone to my jaw. "Don't be mad at me," he whispered
between kisses. "I just wanna fix everything for you."

I groaned loudly–a combination of arousal
and despair. "Kyle…I don't want to have a relationship with her.
You need to stop…"

"Stop this?" he purred as his hands slipped
between the openings of my towel and began a gentle onslaught on my
breasts.
Stroking, kneading, tweaking…
"Or stop this?" He
trailed his fingers down my stomach until he had me cupped in his
palm with his finger pushing inside…

"I can't talk to you…when you…we need
to…sort this…" My words trailed off and I grabbed his shoulders in
a bid to keep my balance. He was wrecking me. I had so many
emotions coursing through me and he was annihilating every one of
them with his fingers and lips. "You're…cunning," I managed to
choke out before his mouth found mine, cutting off whatever the
hell it was I was trying to say, and to be honest, I couldn't
remember, nor did I care. His hands cupped my butt, lifting me
easily, and I was lost.

"Let's call a truce for tonight," he
whispered as his hands slid up my back and dragged my towel away so
that we were skin to skin. "Are you too sore?" he murmured softly
as he walked forward, with me wrapped around his waist, until I
felt the cool, moist wall-tiles against my back.

I shook my head, panting when I felt his
erection probing my entrance. My body had obtained a new lease of
life…His hands on me made everything tingle, and the energy sources
inside of me were replenishing at an alarming rate. Kyle smirked
before slowly sinking inside me, so deep it felt like he was
penetrating my womb. "I'm still mad," I gasped as I rocked against
his thrust.

Holding me captive with his hips, he rested
his arms on either side of my face, his fingers stroking the hair
on the top of my head. "Lee," he moaned as he looked into my eyes
with the rawest of passion pooling in his. "I've had a really bad
day." He rolled his hips and whispered, "I don't wanna fight, baby.
I wanna fuck." He kissed me softly and I was gone... A traitor to
my own entreaty.

****

"Do you think we fight more than we're
supposed to?" I asked Kyle as we settled into bed. I grabbed my
gorilla–who Kyle had aptly named
King Kong
–out of his hands
before he had a chance to throw him off the bed, and held him
tightly to my chest.

"Can't we throw him out?" Kyle grumbled as
he flicked off the light and climbed into bed. "It's like a
constant reminder of how stupid I was."

"No, we can't," I cackled as I tucked him
behind my back before moving over to snuggle into Kyle. "I love
him."

"You have read what's on his chest, right?"
he asked, his voice full of self-loathing. "'You blow my mind.'
Jesus…"

"Consider me sentimental, but you are the
first person who bought me a stuffed-animal," I told him. It was
the truth and it meant a hell of a lot to me. "So, I don't care
what's written on his chest, I love him. I'm keeping him."

"Lee…"

"Kyle…" I countered. "Let it go. King Kong
is staying."

"Fine. Keep the damn monkey," he huffed as
he turned onto his side and pulled me into his arms. Leaning his
arm over my body, he grabbed King Kong from where he was tucked
behind my back and threw him off the bed. "But not in our bed," he
added smugly. Resting his hand on the curve of my hip, he smirked.
"And back to your earlier question, 'do I think we fight more than
we're supposed to?'" He raised his hand and tucked my hair behind
my ear before resting it once again on my hip. "I don't know," he
answered with a grin. "What's the recommended daily allowance?"

"I'm serious," I said, nudging his leg with
my toe. "I just don't know how normal it is to argue as much as we
do."

He snorted and ducked his head for a kiss
before pulling back and fixing me with a crooked smile. "We fight
because you're fucking crazy sometimes."

I stiffened, my earlier anger returning with
a vengeance. "You're the one who's…"

"Relax, princess," he said softly. "We fight
because we care. I'd be worried if we didn't."

"It's exhausting, isn’t it?" I
whispered.

Kyle frowned at me. "What is?"

"Finding a common line," I admitted.
"Knowing when to argue, when to back off…trying to figure out what
exactly is worth fighting about, what's worth fighting for…?"

"You're worth fighting for," he murmured.
Turning me over, he shifted his body so that the front of his body
was aligned with the back of mine. "That's all I need to know.
That's my common line." Kissing my shoulder, he wrapped a strong,
comforting arm around me before yawning. "Now, go to sleep,
princess."

"Kyle?" I whispered a few minutes later.

"Yeah?" His tone was gruff–sleepy.

"I'm sorry for calling you Jerry
Springer…You're nothing like him."

He chuckled and squeezed me tighter. "Turn
your brain off, woman."

****

Chapter 6

Flying
objects

Kyle

"Are you okay?" She wasn't and I was stupid
to even ask that question. Lee just shoved me off her in the middle
of sex and ran like a lunatic into the bathroom. This was a first
for us…She usually didn't run when I had my dick inside her. I
scratched my head in confusion because I honestly didn't have a
clue what I'd done. "Did I hurt you?"

"No, you didn't," I heard her call out in a
high pitched tone from behind the bathroom door. "I'm fine. Just go
to work, okay?"