Hell Bent (Rock Bottom #1) (18 page)

Pushing to my feet, I pull her up with me and wrap my arms around her. I never thought I would miss holding someone while I was on tour. Hell, I never missed Charlie while I was gone. I never spent the day checking my phone because I was worried, and I never wanted to skip out on working so I could spend time with her. With Izzy, I do. It’s an every day, every second, type of thing.

Fuck, I’m a chick with a dick.

Standing on her toes, she runs her fingers through my hair, gripping the back of my head so she can pull me down to kiss me. Her tongue slips between my lips, making me growl and grip her tighter against me. Quickly glancing around without letting the kiss stall out, I notice that Willow is no longer out here. I grip her ass, walking her backward toward her room. As I lay her back on the bed, she breaks the kiss to yawn.

“You look exhausted.”

Sighing, she scoots back on the bed, and I follow, settling next to her. She rests her head on my chest and yawns again. “Haven’t slept well since the break-in.”

“Heard anything more from the police? Do they know who it was?”

“Mhm, they know. Our neighbors saw who it was and came forward later that day.” When she goes silent, I know I’m not going to like the rest of her answer. “It was Charlie.”

Motherfucker.
 

“Charlie, as in my ex-wife, Charlie?”

Rolling over, she does everything she can to avoid me looking at her face, but the tears hitting my arm give her away. The fact that she’s crying, no matter what the reason is, puts my anger in check.

“Izzy,” I murmur, running my hand down her arm until I can slip it around her stomach and hold her tight. “Why are you crying?”

“Because.” She sniffles. “I’m pregnant, my house got broken into, and I don’t feel safe anymore. How can I bring a baby into a place that I don’t feel safe in?”

“You’re not going back there,” I insist.

“No shit,” she says softly. I almost laugh when the words slip past her lips—almost. I still find it hilarious when she swears. Looking at her, I just don’t see her swearing up a storm, but she does sometimes.

“I’m not gonna let anything happen to you guys.”

“Don’t make me promises you can’t keep, Bennett.”

“I would never.”

“Where are we going?” I groan, huffing as I scratch under the edge of the blindfold. When Bennett handed it to me, telling me to put it on, I looked at him like he was crazy. If I was being honest with him, after all the stress of the past few weeks, the last thing I wanted was to be blindfolded and driven to who the hell knows where. I didn’t say anything, though. I simply rolled my eyes and tied it around my head. He led me to his truck, helped me in, and refused to give me any hint as to where we were going.

“Woman, will you just sit over there and relax. You’re gonna love it, I promise. I don’t do bad surprises.”

“I don’t
like
surprises,” I grumble, making him laugh.

“This one you will.” 

Bennett’s voice is light and filled with humor for the first time since I told him that it was his ex-wife that broke into my house. That was over two weeks ago.

Finally, he makes one final turn and pulls to a stop. Helping me out, he slips his arm around my back and leads me forward a few steps.

I feel his fingers on the knot of the blindfold and his lips against my ear. “I love you, Izzy, and if this pisses you off, I’m sorry, but I don’t care, and it’s yours no matter what.”

His words put me on edge as he undoes the knot; as the blindfold falls away, I keep my eyes closed.

“Are you going to look?”

“I’m scared.”

He chuckles. “Why?”

“Because you’ve never been sorry or cared if you pissed me off by getting me something before.”

“Well, this is a bit bigger than a candy bar.”

Taking a deep breath, I force myself to open my eyes, but the second I see what is in front of me, all the air is sucked back out of my lungs.

“Welcome home,” he says proudly.

“How did you? When did you? What the hell, Bennett!”

Wrapping his arms around me from behind, he holds a set of keys in front of me, the keys I’m assuming open the door to the house in front of us.

"The other night when I couldn’t sleep, Willow and I got to talking about just about everything, and at the end, I asked her about finding a place so you guys could get back to normal. She told me you had been looking since you found out you were pregnant and that this was the house you kept coming back to.”

I stare in awe at the two-story, stone house in front of us. I’ve looked at every picture, I’ve read every specification written, and I’ve thought about calling the realtor every day for the past few months, but I didn’t. I’m not sure why, maybe because it would make this more real, but no matter what I’ve seen or read, nothing compares to seeing it in person.

I’ve almost forgotten Bennett is standing behind me until he speaks again. “I know we’ve only been together for a few months, but I’ve never felt like this about
anyone
. I want to know you’re safe when I’m away, and I want to come home to you in our own house. I want to come home with you
here
.”

When I don’t say anything—mainly because I can’t get my voice to work—Bennett steps around me. He grabs my hand and tugs me toward the house.

“When did you do this?” I finally manage to ask as we step inside.

“We’ve been working on it for a little over a week.”

“We?”

“Me and Willow.”

“Willow…” For the first time since he took the blindfold off, I realize that if I move in here with Bennett, I’ll no longer be living with her. Since the day we met we’ve been connected at the hip. As if sensing my hesitation, he pulls me through the house. I glance around as we walk, taking in the light-oak floors, the two-story, stone mantle. The kitchen is filled with marble counters and a double oven that I can’t wait to use. Sliding open the glass doors, we step out onto the deck, and he pulls me to the railing. I stare out over the lake, almost missing the fact that he’s pointing to the small guest house sitting on the edge of the water.

“You didn’t think I’d leave her behind, did you?”

As he finishes talking, Willow steps up beside us on the deck, surprising me with a huge smile on her face. She looks at me before turning her attention to Bennett and they have some sort of a silent conversation for a minute. When Bennett leans in, kissing my neck, I tighten my grip on his arms. He knows about what happened to Willow now, and he knows how much we mean to each other, but I never expected him to invite her along if he asked me to move in with him. Although, I never expected him to ask me to move in with him at all.

“Are you sure?”

Turning me around in his arms, Bennett pulls Willow against his side. “We each have our own house, our own space. But this way I know that when I’m on the road, you’re both safe and together.”

I lift onto my toes, but Willow grabs me before I have a chance to kiss him. She fake-gags and tugs me away.

“No time for that. Places to go, things to see, a Willow to love.”

As she pulls me back through the house and up the stairs, I try to catch a glimpse of everything I can. She seems determined to get me to one place. The more I see of the house, the more excited I get, and I can’t wipe the smile off my face. I hate it when people buy me things because I can afford them myself, but I can’t be mad at Bennett for this. I’ve been looking at this house for months and couldn’t call the realtor because I thought too much would change in my life. 

Stopping at the end of the hall, I expect Willow to open the door straight in front of us that would lead into the master bedroom, but she doesn’t. She points to the door on my right, almost vibrating with excitement.

“Open it. Open it.
Open
it.”

Behind me, Bennett laughs when he hears the excitement in Willow’s voice. I tilt my head in question, asking if I should open it and he nods. I reach for the knob, letting my hand linger as I take a deep breath before pushing it open.

The light-gray walls are covered in music notes and every attempt to curb my emotions is gone. I step into the room, spinning slowly so I can take everything in. They’ve taken random equipment and turned them into things I need for the baby. An old amp is set up to be used as a changing table with open sided drums filled with diapers hanging above it. Used guitars, both mine and Bennett’s, hang from the wall. The chair next to the crib is the same chair that my dad used when I was a baby, and when I actually look at the music notes painted on the wall, I notice that they are the notes to a song he sung me to sleep with.

I’m speechless, completely in awe, and I can’t make my voice work. I noticed that every room we passed had at least one piece of furniture in it, but this is the only room that is completely done.

“Do you like it?” Willow asks, her excitement suddenly turns to nervousness.

I open my mouth to speak, but nothing happens, so I turn and meet her eyes and nod. I want to thank her, to ask her all kinds of questions about how they did everything without me noticing, but I settle for hugging her.

“Good,” she whispers, pulling me tighter. “I’d have to kill you if you didn’t. As soon as you pick a name, I’ll finish up in here.” Letting go, she steps toward the door, telling us that she’s going to go unpack and leave us alone.

Willow steps past me, leaving Izzy and me alone in the baby’s room. This is the first time I’ve seen it completely done, and I can’t believe how well it came out. When Willow asked if she could do the room for us, I thought she might paint it and put in the crib. I never expected anything like this.

I wait for Izzy to come to me, letting her have her space and get used to the room despite how much I want to go to her and show her around the rest of the house. It feels like forever before she finally turns around and looks at me, the excitement evident on her face. Moving closer, she winds her arms around my neck, and I take the opportunity to run my hands down her back and grip her ass.

“Have I told you lately how much I love you?” she whispers against my lips. I don’t answer her because I’m too focused on the way her breath is hitting my face. Her lips are soft against mine, and for the first time in as long as I can remember, they are bare. There is no lipstick to smear as I kiss her roughly. She thrusts her tongue between my lips, whimpering softly when I stroke my fingers along the length of her neck. “You’re amazing.”

Grabbing her hand, I tug her out of the baby’s room because I know if I don’t get her out of there I’m going to fuck her on the floor, and I don’t want to taint the poor kid’s room. I let her lead me from room to room, laughing when she gets excited over everything new that she sees, but something about the kitchen keeps drawing her back. 

Letting go of my hand, she runs her fingers across the marble counter. Splaying herself out across it, she bends and rests her cheek against the surface. Letting her have her moment, I turn and look out over the lake.
This
view with
this
woman is something I could get used to. 

“I love this kitchen. I love this house.” Slipping her arms around me, Izzy slides her hands up across my chest, resting her chin on my shoulder. “I love
you
.”