Love In the Red Zone (Connecticut Kings Book 1) (51 page)

I shook my head, licking my lips, still unable to catch my breath. “No. Did you see the shows, read the news online, get wind of the blogs?”

“No,” he answered firmly. “But Elle called and told me.” Trent got quiet for a second. “I’m sorry,” he offered softly with so much regret laced in his voice.

“Trent, I can’t do this. They’ve invaded not just my privacy, but my baby’s, too! All of this to find out who I am to you? They think I’m a gold-digging lover!”

“Elle is processing a statement now, setting the record straight about you being my fian
cé
e. It’ll be
the
announcement of our engagement.” He sounded pensive, and that concerned me, too. He wasn’t getting it.

“Trent! Kyree told me today that one of his teacher assistants asked him who is the man who picks him up from school sometimes. This is bigger than your celebrity. This is about my child’s life. That’s harrassme—”

“Wai
t…
Did you just say a teacher asked him that?”

“Yes!”

“Transfer him first thing Monday morning!”

“Trent—”

“No, I told you to do it back in the summer. The school StentRo’s son goes to is private and knows how to handle people with this lifestyle. Transfer him first thing Monday morning!” he repeated, losing it.

I gulped in a heap of air. Being the dramatic one of the two, I didn’t need the both of us up in arms at the same time. I took shallow breaths to control my emotions, unable to think about what would happen in the next three days before I could even make it to Monday.

“I’m sorry,” he came back with a softer timbre. “I’m just trying to do this up here and transition you into my new life, Jade. I can’t have you backing out on me.” My heart still pounded as I tried absorbing the comfort he attempted. “Let’s talk about something else,” he tried with an emotional tearing in his deep baritone. “How did the meeting with N.B.P. go? You ready to sign?”

“No.” I shook my head, a new round of anxiety building in my chest. I was now panicking at an extreme rate, one I’d never experienced before and it made me feel like I was exploding. The image of me half-dressed on that yacht had sketched itself in my brain. The memories of how I felt from those invasive questions the company asked. “I’m not signing.”

“Why, Jade?” the animation in his vocals had returned. “You wanted this. Doing this will kill those stupid ass thoughts of you using me! You’re talente
d…
an artist on many levels! Don’t miss this opportunity because of vultures we don’t even know, trying to paint a picture of our world. Don’t do this, Jade! Even if you don’t wanna sign with them, we can look into you doing this independently. I’ll back you. You can’t sit on your goals, baby. You gotta go—”

“
Don’t tell me about my goddamn goals!
” I yelled at the top of my lungs so hard, it hurt. “I’m so sick of people pushing me to do something or another: my mother has done it all my life! Yeah, I detoured and made a series of bad decisions! I didn’t even know what I truly wanted to do for most of my life, but I know what I want now. I’ve decided and I won’t let anyone judge me or make me feel unambitious, foolish, or misguided for it!”

“
Wha
—okay.” I could hear Trent swallow, his approach timid.  “What’s your plan, baby?” 

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried for deeper and longer breaths, not feeling as courageous as I’d let on. “I want to support my family. I want to be a home for my family. Establish myself as a haven for comfort, support, and nurturing. I want to manage and balance those in my household. I want to be a safe place for when the world gets nasty and throws repeated blows. I’m here to protect, rebuild, and defend. Maybe my need to be that will change after Kyree reaches a certain age when he has more independence or whe
n…
” I hesitated, not wanting to come across as the aggressive manipulator, trying to force myself into his future, but this was something I’d given great thought to since accepting his ring, “…you retire. And I get it if you don’t want me so available to you. I understand that I’ve been pretty aggressive, clawing my way into your bed and then fighting for equal attention once your career resumed. I get it.

“But I’ve never felt so sure about anything in my life. I can try for a lucrative career in a few years, when and if needed. But right now, I have a lot at stake and need to nurture what I have. I had a child, young, out of wedlock. I have to work extra hard to push this boy to success. And then I have you, who comes across as more emotionally stable than I am, but I see your insecurities.”

I took a break to prepare for my next admission.

“I reached out to Ezra on my way back from Atlanta. When this all hit me—what I want to do—I needed to bounce it off of someone who knew you. He said a lot of things that hit home. Your insecurity is your inability to trust. That lack of trust comes from never having been nurtured or emotionally tended to. No one ever gave you the security you needed to be confident in yourself to feel worthy of anyone’s time. Well, you’re worth mine, Trent.” Hot tears sprang from me sharing this vulnerable side of me. “I know you’re a grown man and have gotten by all these years, bu
t…
If you’ll have me, I find you worthy enough of pushing like I’ll be pushing my own child.”

I sighed frustrated, rolled my eyes. “I know it sounds so 1949-
ish
. And again, I can understand if that’s not what you saw in a wife or if you wanted—”

“Jade.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be home on Sunday morning. Have someone keep Ky for a couple of days. We’re taking a trip.”

My face wrinkled. That was the last thing I expected him to say. I felt a rebuttal for clarification was needed, but my gut told me otherwise. He’d just told me to transfer Kyree on Monday. Now, it was sounding like we wouldn’t even be in town on Sunday. But then I could understand his jump in emotions. I’d just been freaking out about us not working and then went into vomiting the ‘dear diary’ of my soul to him. That was just Trent and me: led by passion and not always good sense.

“
O
-oka
y…
”

I worked over her, in her like a machine. My hips twisted and lifted to bring her to that special place where she detonated and screamed my name. One hand on my ass and the other on my back, her nails dug into my skin, exciting me all over. Her joints started to tighten, she held me as close as she could, clawing onto me to keep me near. The moment I felt her gushy walls squeeze around me while contracting, I knew she was there.

“Mmmmmm…” she moaned. Then she dug her heels into the mattress and slammed her pussy into me. I switched angles with my drives and started pounding her hard and fast. “Trent…
iiiiin
!”

She was coming and the skin on my entire body lifted with goosebumps all over. I kept plunging into her as she threw it to me. The sight of her tits bouncing, her nipples rock hard made me wild. I kept working her, kept pumping into her until she let me go and fell onto the bed with her arms stretched above her head. This is what I lived for. Sex had turned into some therapeutic shit with Jade. When we started out, I thought she was the beast, always wanting it. Now, I couldn’t live without it. I couldn’t live without any part of her.

“Can I leave it in?” I whispered, out of breath, spine curled over her, face damp and buried in her breasts.

“Wait…” she breathed, I could feel her head lifting from her neck. “Did you come already?” she cried, all dramatic. I nodded over her chest. “How do you do that, Trent? Like, really?” She slammed her head back onto the mattress. “When?”

“A long time ago,” I didn’t feel like talking, I could lay with my dick lodged in her all day, soft and hard.

But I had to move.

“Trent, that’s impossible. If I didn’t feel you running out of me after sex, I would think you’re lying and I can’t get you off,” her tone turned irritated.

“What time is it?” I mumbled.

I felt her patting the mattress for a phone: hers or mine.

“It’s almost six. Why? We’re not leaving until tomorrow morning, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, but I’m in a time crunch here. I need to ask you something and based on your answer, I gotta take you somewhere at 6:30.” I was mad comfortable and didn’t feel like moving, but knowing what I had set up, would get me to moving fast.

If Jade is dow
n
…

“Trent, speak English and not Boobish, please,” she gruffed.

I used my tongue to trace the outline of her wide nipple for my pleasure and not hers. I was fucking lovesick over this wild girl. Paranoid about losing her over some bullshit that shouldn’t even matter to us. After I hung up the phone with her on Friday night, I realized the more aggressive the media pushed us, I had to get more aggressive with Jade to keep her near. My thoughts turned crazy, but felt right.

“We leave in the morning.” I took a break from tasting her again to answer.

We flew into Macen Beach last night in enough time to catch the sunset. The weather was mild for the end of November. The wind blew briskly, but without that cold bite. I didn’t have much time, and had to be back in Connecticut by tomorrow afternoon for practice. I had to beg for this time away. 

“Well!” She giggled, trying to push me away by my shoulders as my tongue trailed up her chest. “What do you have to ask me? To cook? You brought me down here and expect me to labor.”

She was being sarcastic, but I knew if I asked, Jade would do anything. She liked taking care of me, which is what brought me down here.

“Let’s get in the shower first.” I pulled out of her and lifted her petite body off the bed. “I need you clean for this.”

“Trent, you’re scaring me. You need me clean to ask me something?”

I placed her down on the shower floor and turned on the water. Then I jogged out of the room for her hair clip, because Jade hated getting her weave wet. I didn’t want the blame for it. She pinned her hair and let me wash her from shoulders to toes without any objection. My chest pounded as I moved quickly, washing myself afterward. We were rinsed and drying off in no time and I led her back to the bed.

“What are you looking for?” she asked from behind while I went to the closet. We were staying at the same house Jade rented for Shank’s funeral. We both agreed to loving this place and coming back some day. Well, this was that time and today would hopefully be the most special for me and her. “Oh, my god!” she breathed as I padded closer to her holding a long white dress with straps.

“I wanna see you in this.”

“Does it come with bra and panties, too?” she joked, unable to look away from it.

“Ummmm…” I scratched the back of my head with my free hand. “You don’t need any for this. In fact, if you answer correctly, you won’t need any at all until we leave the plane tomorrow.”

“Trent, you’re talking weird.” Her ambers turned away, troubled.

“Look, girl.” I moved closer. “Just put this on and I’ll get on with it. Here. Stand up.”

I pulled her from the bed and snatched the towel off. Jade lifted her arms in the air and let me slide the dress down on her delicious frame. She straightened it once it was past her hips. Then she shifted her big boobs into the breast area.

“Damn…” I breathed.

Her head lifted just enough for her eyes to scan my face. “Stop it, Trent! I can’t help this,” she hissed.

“And I’m so glad you can’t.” I went to my suitcase and threw on boxers, shorts, and t-shirt while she fingered through her curly hair. “Okay. Time to go.” I went for her hand to tug her behind me.

“Wait! Where are we going? And why are you shaking like this?” Jade’s face was wrinkled with panic. I
was
nervous as hell. So shook, I’d forgotten to ask her. “And your hands are misty. What’s going on?”

I took a deep breath before running my sweaty palm over my face. My eyes went to the floor. I was crashing.

“We’re going to get married.”

“Married?” her voice grew notches.

“Yeah.”

“But you said you had a question for me. I’m so confused. You already asked me to marry you last month. See.” Using all the sarcasm it seemed she could in the petrifying moment for me, Jade wiggled her left finger, showing her rock.

“I know.” I bit my lip, taking in a deep breath. “But I don’t want to wait until next year any more. I wanna do it now.”

“Now?” Her hands went to her hips, eyes roamed around the room. “Are we having a “Concussion” moment here? Where? How?”

“Outside on the beach with you and me is how. Now, you gonna make me beg or what?”

Jade’s neck popped back; she shifted leaving one hand on her hip. “You gonna ask me first or what, yo?” she mocked me.               

That cuteness eased my nerves just slightly. I dropped down to one knee and reached for her hand. “Jade Renee Matthews, would you do me the honor of being my wife, starting tonight?”

I saw Jade swallow at my straight-faced expression. She nodded her head real fast and real hard as she sucked in her bottom lip. I exhaled hard, my head falling over my shoulders.
Thank you, God
. Then I stood.

“C’mon.” I grabbed her soft little hand again and tugged gently. “We’re late.”

The walk down the stairs and out the back door leading to the beach seemed to have taken forever. The stroll, hand in hand, through the sand against the setting sun and flying wind felt like an eternity, too. When I saw Ezra standing a few feet away from the water, wearing a blazer, collarless shirt and linen pants rolled up at the knee, something in me broke. And so did the tears. It was another moment when I questioned God.

How?

Why?

How did I get to this moment where I was beasting to marry this woman who pushed her way into my head and heart after I let her into my home? Why did I deserve to be the man who would protect and guide her son? How, after all the strife I’d been through, did I get another chance to soar in the career I felt I would die without? Why had He stuck by my side after I’d resigned my mind to believe I was going to die while locked up and out of the game?

I felt silken fingers on my face. I glanced down and saw Jade wiping my face. Tears spilling from her eyes and her shoulders trembling. Ezra wasn’t alone. He’d brought his wife down as the witness. She held their baby against her chest in some carrying contraption strapped to her. Little Lisa-Mare’s feet dangling from it, didn’t help me straighten myself up, not one bit. Ezra’s daughter wasn’t even two months old yet, but when I called him the night after hanging up with Jade and begged him to do this on a whim, he said just four words.  

“I’ll clear my schedule.”

I chartered a flight for their convenience, arranged for a quick turnaround so they could get back to their lives. My next call was to Elle for small details. I really tried not to be a bother to her, but she’s so swift and efficient with it, I knew whatever I asked would get done. Plus, she needed to know how to handle the inquiries from the media. She actually picked out the dress and booked the same house Jade did down here, where we said our final goodbye to my uncle. Now I needed to be sure this wasn’t all in vain. Would Jade go through with this?

“Now?” she asked, her bottom lip shaking.

“Right now,” I confirmed, sniffling. “I want you right now. It won’t be the last time we do this—I know Ky ain’t here. But I need to make you mine, so you don’t—” my throat closed up on me and I couldn’t speak. I threw my eyes out over the water before turning back to her. “I don’t want you slipping away, Jade.”

“I’m not,” she whispered against the breeze.

I tipped my head toward Ezra and his lady and goaded, “Then prove it.”

Jade’s eyes fell. They danced around the floor of the beach. She took a deep breath, I caught in the lifting of her shoulders.

She blurted, “Okay. Come on,” before busting out with another cry.

She squeezed my hand as she turned toward Ezra and Lex. I looked over to him and he made a gesture, asking if we were good. I nodded. Jade’s ass had better been good. She made sure to show she wanted me for months before I was able to let her in, and now that she was, I couldn’t live without her.