KEPT: A Second Chance Fairy Tale (27 page)

My heart beats heavily, knowing I had explained how Gabe died and didn’t sense the least bit of the same reaction from Michael.

“He didn’t love her,” she starts again. I assume by the tone she’s using to talk about his ex-wife, neither did she. “Her name was Victoria. Before the wreck, she’d been having an affair.”

If it’s possible, my heart just wept.

“No,” I deny.

“She was leaving Michael for good. When he found out about it, they had a fight. She left the next day and took Caleb with her.”

Caleb
.

The name sinks between us, the sad and lost image of a boy looking just like his dad hits, and I swallow hard to blink back the tears for Michael’s loss.

“Corbin knows about it. So does Lillie.”

I think back to advice Lillie gave me in regards to handling Michael. How he comes to terms with things his own way and on his own time. I understand that better now, having survived the sudden loss of my husband.

“He told me he was married,” I utter, relieved he at least told me something. “Last night.”

The look on her face registers surprise.

“He likes you,” she tells me. “I know my brother. Since he lost Caleb, he’s never brought a woman over to meet his family.”

“Oh,” I jump in. “I’m not a woman…like that.”

“No?” she questions, lifting her eyebrows. “‘Cause I’m almost certain you are.”

My eyes scan my lap as Denise stays quiet, letting me process the news of Michael and his lost son. Recalling the image of him sitting on the floor and playing with his niece, the memory of last night’s dream strikes again and I picture Gabe doing the same with Dillon but he never had the chance.

I lost Gabe, but not my entire family. I couldn’t imagine the pain Michael suffered through in losing his. It must have all but killed him.

A relentless pull has me scooting away and lifting the covers from my legs. The pounding of my heart, so heavy with ache, surges through me as I start to panic.

“I need to go,” I say once I’m standing. “I need to talk to him.”

“Lucy…”

“I’m so sorry,” I tell her, heading toward the door. “I’ll make it up to Grace. I promise. But I need to go now.”

“Lucy,” she calls out once I’ve made it into the hall.

I ignore her attempts to stop me and continue into the dark kitchen. I place my hand to my forehead in quick thought.

I don’t have a ride.

“Lucy?” Deni calls for me again, now standing at my back. “You forgetting something?”

She’s holding a set of keys in her hand. They dangle from her finger by their silver ring as she stands in front of me, smirking.

“I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t know the way to the hotel.”

“Give me your phone,” she demands, holding out her hand.

I do as she says. To fill time, I aimlessly look around the room. A beat-up old sweatshirt hangs on the back of the living room chair. At first, I assume it’s hers, so I grab it. It’s not until I catch the familiar scent of Michael that I realize I’m wrong. My watery eyes close, feeling him here, even though he’s not.

“You’d look ridiculous in that,” she breaks into my thoughts as she laughs and continues punching numbers into the phone. “Here,” she insists, handing me back my cell. “I’ve plugged in the address to the hotel. Are you okay to drive?”

“Yeah,” I tell her with a nod, then make my way to the door.

“Lucy?” she calls out, hopefully for the last time. “Easy, okay? Michael doesn’t share things with people for his own reasons. You need to be careful with him.”

I nod again, not saying anything more.

The ride to the hotel isn’t uneventful. The rain starts to come down again, but the traffic isn’t awful. However, I am rethinking not getting dressed because my bare legs are covered in goosebumps. It’s colder now than it was even in the rain earlier today.

She was leaving Michael for good. When he found out about it, they had a fight. She left the next day and took Caleb with her.

“Jesus Christ,” I say to the car and lay my head back against the headrest. “What am I doing?”

I know exactly what I
think
I’m doing. I just don’t know if I have the courage to really do it.

Michael

T
HE POUNDING AT MY DOOR
is so loud, it interrupts Corbin as he attempts to finish his thought. After sitting quietly for a second, he asks, “What the fuck is that?”

“No idea,” I reply, standing from the desk and moving to look into the peephole, finding Lucy standing alone in the hall.

“Mike?” he questions after I say nothing more. “What is it?”

“Jesus Christ, she’s soaking wet,” I tell myself, but I’ve said it loud enough that he catches it.

“Is Lucy there? You said she was staying with Grace at your mom’s.”

“She’s supposed to be,” I confirm as I lean the phone on my shoulder, moving to unlock and open the door. “Something’s wrong.”

“Isn’t it after eleven…”

I don’t hear the last of his question because at the same time I open the door, Lucy looks up, clearly seeing what I was in the middle of, and
again
swipes the phone from my ear. This time, she doesn’t talk to Corbin or take a message. She flips the face of the phone toward her, uses her finger to disconnect the call, and tosses it across the room. Thankfully, it lands on the bed where she slept last night.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I hear myself question in surprise, but it comes out with impatience.

Lucy doesn’t respond, but only walks further inside, causing me to have to turn in place. Her open palm hits her forehead in apparent frustration before she tells me, “I’m not staying at your mother’s.”

“Well, I gathered that. What’s going on?”

I wish she’d just say what she’s thinking first. It’d be a fuck of a lot easier. Her cheeks are red and she looks lost, but not in a way that gives me unease. More than anything, she appears flustered.

“Lucy, look at me.”

Her gaze refuses to meet mine as she starts to seemingly talk to herself. “God, what in the world am I doing?”

The state of her confusion begins to fluster me. When I left her at my mom’s tonight, she was calm. Now she’s anything but.

Lucy walks to me and peers up once she’s close. The soft look in her eyes, the flush in her cheeks, and the way her mouth parts is evidence she’s about to do something I’m unsure she’s ready for.

But also something I’ve come to realize I am.

“I want to try something,” she whispers.

These are the same words she murmured in the darkness of her porch. I had refused her then. I won’t do that again.

“Lucy,” I quietly voice, attempting to keep control, but it’s useless. I can’t change my body’s reaction when she’s standing so fucking close. More to the point, though, I wouldn’t want to.

“No,” she objects. “Just…wait.”

Her hands touch my chest, making the connection physical. As they make their way across my shoulders, I watch them for as long as I can to avoid her eyes. When her soft fingertips run through my hair, I’m forced to close mine. The sensation of her touch steels my spine as I accept the warmth it offers.

Enough
.

Without giving this more thought, my arms reach out and roughly pull her to me. I hear the catch in her breath once she feels my reaction. My entire body aches for her.

“I won’t walk away this time, Lucy.”

The woman standing in front of me, once a stranger for all intents and purposes, has pushed her way into my life without even knowing it. She has the power to undo me, to break apart every facet of strength I’ve tried aimlessly to hold onto. And, given the chance to be here like this, I’d let her.

“No,” she replies, kissing the underside of my jaw with deliberate intent. “You won’t.”

My blood chases the lust through my veins as a settling calm takes over, using the vivid images of Lucy beneath me to its advantage. She’s offering herself to me. She’s going to let me
take
this.

For a brief moment, I cycle through every reason I thought I should ever deny this. My reasons are, in a sense, trivial; however, the result in knowing her, as I’m about to, will far outweigh any possible consequence I can muster.

The goodness in her has changed me.

I’m different.

No matter how much I’ve tried to deny it in the past, I’m alive again.

“Okay, Lucy,” I state my acceptance.

As my hand touches the back of her head, every emotional connection to another person I never thought I’d feel again comes racing to the surface. With the other hand at her back, my arm holds her hostage, bracing her body against mine. My hips thrust forward with guttural need.

Without ever losing eye contact, I reach down and search for the hem of her dampened shirt. Lifting it over her head, I don’t bother masking the low growl which comes from the back of my throat as I admire her creamy skin. My fingers grasp the flesh of her waist tightly, desperately wanting more and aggressively moving in to get it.

“Take me to bed,” she breathlessly utters.

As she says it, Lucy’s hands make their way to my jeans. She releases me, then drives her hand inside to grab my cock. Her fingers glide up and down the shaft as she moans her desire into my neck. If I don’t stop her, this will be over far more quickly than I want it to be.

“Enough.”

Her head rears back and she blinks at my interruption. Her face flushes and she immediately lets me go. And she does it with a look I know so well. It’s the same look I recognize right before she becomes so challenging.

“Lucy,” I growl in warning.

Pulling her wrist from my hand, Lucy takes another step back. The loss of her is unwanted. After her hands reach her hips, she uses one quick motion to remove her shorts. Still keeping her eyes on me, Lucy reaches back and unclips her bra. Slowly, achingly so, she removes that completely, too.

God, the woman standing in front of me is flawless.

How could I have missed this?

From the moment Lucy entered my office, using her fierce tongue to sling insults, she handled me as she thought I needed. It wasn’t always with care and compassion, either. I’m not sure how I deserve to be standing here looking into the passionate eyes of the woman I’ve had a hand in keeping all these years, yet never made the effort to truly see.

“Stunning,” I say to myself, lacking of any other word to describe her.

Her heavy, aching, and aroused breasts prove her reaction is the same as mine. As I use only my eyes to touch her, she remains speechless and unmoving. Once she’s had enough of my uncontrolled stare, Lucy walks closer. Her hands reach for my shirt at the sides and, lifting it up and off, she gently discards it where her own lies on the floor.

I sense nervousness as she clears her throat when her eyes focus directly on my cock standing at full attention.

Caressing her cheek, I use my thumb to touch her jaw, forcing her head up to look at me.

“There are a thousand things I’ve thought about doing to you,” I whisper, watching her take in a visible breath. “Every day, there are more.”

She swallows hard, her body straining to keep itself together.

With absolute regret, I tell her, “I don’t carry protection, Lucy.”

Her smile is small. When she answers, I’m not sure how it’s possible, but I feel her voice as if it’s touching my cock. “I’m protected.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Don’t ruin the mood,” she comments smartly.

Don’t ruin me.

Pushing my body against hers, I take her mouth and walk her backward until her legs hit the bed. Once there, Lucy lays back and welcomes my body when it covers hers. Her thighs part and immediately wrap around my waist.

Looking down, our eyes lock and hers go soft. The gasp of surprise right before my body invades hers causes me to pause before entering her completely. It takes all my will to stop my hips from pushing forward. When she pulls in an almost painfully ragged breath, I then realize it must have been some time since Lucy’s been touched by a man.

And, fuck me, it only serves to spur me on.

“Michael,” she exhales, her fingers grasping my shoulders before she bites her bottom lip.

“Hold on to me, Lucy,” I encourage.

Reaching beneath her, I wrap my hands over her shoulders, then bury her face in my neck, waiting one torturous moment after another for the slow burn of her pending release to hit. I give her all my weight, securing her beneath me, hoping to soon feel her let herself go.

“Give it to me,” I instruct, picking up momentum and moving in and out in a relentless pace. “Let it go.”

Finally, her body accepting every bit of mine, Lucy’s breathing becomes labored. When she tries to move her hips, she can’t. In this position, she has no choice other than to submit and let me have my way.

Her voice is stressed as she breathes into my neck before gasping, “I can’t… It’s too much…”

Then I fucking feel it
.

As if a gate’s been unlocked, Lucy’s body thrashes with wild abandon as her loud moan of release stings my ear, urging me on, pushing me forward, and begging without words to take what’s now mine.