BUCKED Box Set: A Bull Rider Western Romance (66 page)

I had only started dating her so that I
could have someone, since Valerie had Zachary. I felt it would be good for me
to have someone, completely unlike my best friend. I had tried to get over
Valerie by pouring all of the emotion that I had into my relationship with
Dalilah, but now, I realized that I was completely wrong in doing so. I would
have to deal with the consequences.

“Stay with me,” she answered simply. “Dump
that whore and promise never to leave me.” Dalilah’s wicked grin grew now as
she explained, “Between what I have on you, that really did happen and what I
am willing to say, I have enough to not only humiliate you both, but I could
probably even get you jailed. Please…Just…Run away with me and this could
easily become a bad dream, from which you will awake as soon as you say yes.”

She began to move toward me on her hands and
knees, with a seducing look in her eye. She ran her tongue over her plump,
pouting lips and when she stopped, mere inches from me, she raised herself up
and began to pull the strap of her tank top off of her shoulder.

For a few moments, I honestly thought
about it. I wasn’t the least bit turned on. In fact, I was horrified, but
seeing as how I would be protecting Valerie and getting away from people who
didn’t care about me at all to begin with, this didn’t exactly seem like such a
bad plan.

However, I thought of Valerie and how
badly I actually wanted to be with her. Perhaps that was selfish, but I just
couldn’t go through with it. I had to be with her, at least one more time, if
not for the rest of my life.

“No,” I answered unwaveringly and bent
down so that I was glaring hatefully into Dalilah’s eyes. “I have no interest
in being with you anymore. If you don’t want me to call the police and tell
them everything that you said you were going to do to me and to Valerie, in
addition to breaking into my house, you need to leave. Oh and don’t you even
think about laying a hand on Valerie. Don’t even look at her,” I hissed. “Or
you will see a side to me that I guarantee you aren’t going to like.”

With that, I saw her eyes narrow
hatefully. She doubled up her fist and slammed it against my jaw. It knocked me
back and might have even knocked a tooth loose.

“Get out!” I screamed when I recovered
from staggering backwards; however, when I looked up again, I realized that
Dalilah was already gone.

Chapter
23

Valerie

I had the music turned up loud and I was
rocking out freely to the radio when I pulled into the driveway that led to
Shawn’s mother’s house.

Of course, her car was nowhere to be seen.
Go figure…
I thought, but it was just
as well. I didn’t need anything to ruin my good mood.

I made my way up the stairs and knocked on
the door. I knew never to bother Shawn before ten, but it was almost eleven now
and considering the news that I had to share with him, I was pretty certain he
would be alright with me showing up.

I knocked on the door and bounced on my
heels as I waited for him to open it. However, when he did, nothing about his
appearance looked right to me. His hair was all messy and he looked beaten and
angry.

He was also covering his cheek with an
icepack and I wondered what had happened to him, but before I could say
anything, he screamed, “What the hell do you want?” Then, as though he had just
realized who it was, he stopped short. “Oh…it’s you.” He heaved a sigh from the
depths of his chest and moved away from the door for me to come in.

I felt my heart begin to beat fast as I
rushed to him and carefully placed my hands on his shoulders.

“What happened?” I asked, feeling fear
course through me. Shawn was not the kind of man who would ever get into a fight.
I had always thought that if backed into a corner, he would do all right, but I
had never truly given much thought to him fighting. He just wasn’t that person
and therefore, the sight of him having been hit, at least once very well was
all the more disturbing.

“Dalilah…” he hissed as he broke away from
me and shut the door. He moved over to the couch and flopped down.

“Oh God…” I said. “Let me see…” I moved
closer to him and sat down. I carefully took his hand and the icepack away from
his jaw and noticed that it was bruised and inflamed.

“This wasn’t just a slap…was it?” I felt
slightly guilty now for slapping Zachary, but I was sure I had not done near as
much damage.

He shook his head. “No. Go ahead and
laugh. I got beat up by a girl.” He rolled his eyes.

“Why did she hit you? Did you have a
fight?” I asked, for some reason seriously oblivious to the obvious.

“I guess you could say that,” Shawn
answered and smiled. “But on the bright side, I’m single and taking
applications.”

I gave him a teasing glare before it
clicked. “Wait…did she find out?”

He winced, but I don’t think it had
anything to do with the pain in his jaw. “Yeah…She did, but it’s okay. I made
sure that she wouldn’t bother you.”

At this, I became extremely concerned.
“Shawn, what is that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged. “If it’s all the same to you,
I would rather not talk about it.”

“But…if she is going to do something to
you…”

“She’s not! Her bark is bigger than her
bite…” he grumbled.

I pointedly observed his jaw and answered,
“Well, that’s still a pretty damn big bite.”

“Yeah…” He grew slightly angry as he added
in a testy voice, “I said I don’t want to talk about it! Just drop it, okay?”

I thought for a moment, worried about him,
simply because I had no doubt of what Dalilah was capable of. She was crazy and
probably bipolar. She was manipulative and had a warped sense of reality. She
stopped at nothing to get what she wanted, which was never a good thing. All
she ever thought about or cared about was herself and now, poor Shawn was
caught up in the middle of it.

However, before I could respond, he said,
“So, what brings you here? I’m sure it had nothing to do with listening to me
complain about my ex-girlfriend and her amazingly accurate and painful right
hook.” He chuckled.

“No, but if I had known…” I answered, now
feeling guilty for having such a wonderful, unexpected morning, while he
suffered. I looked around and demanded, “So, where was your
mother
while all of this was going on?”

“Out,” he answered as his eyes lowered
halfway into a look of contempt and disdain. He shook his head. “But I told
you, Val, I don’t want to talk about me anymore. What’s up with you?”

“Well…” I answered, feeling my cheeks
redden slightly with embarrassment. “I got an early birthday present.”

“Oh yeah?” he answered, trying to sound
cheerful, even though I was sure that he was still in a lot of pain. Still, I
appreciated the effort.

“I came to show you.”

“Well, where is it?” he asked, after
making a point to look around.

“Umm…” I answered slowly, “It’s…”

He stopped me right there, with his eyes
growing wide. “No…Really? A car?”

I nodded, unable to ignore the way the
butterflies of excitement felt rustling around in my stomach. “Do you want to
see it?”

“Yeah! Of course I want to see it!” he
exclaimed as he got up and put the ice pack on the table in front of him. He
smiled, but for a moment, I could have sworn it was forced. “Let’s go!”

I wanted to feel differently. I wanted to
be humble, considering our parents completely ignored his countless birthday and
Christmas requests for not only a car, but also, just help with a car, and the
terrible morning he was having. I couldn’t imagine that hearing about and
seeing my new car would make any of that easier to handle.

However, as we made our way out, he either
feigned or was legitimately excited to see it; he hugged me tight. “This is
awesome! You have to take me out! Come on! Let’s go!”

I looked over at him and saw the familiar
sparkle of excitement that I remembered from growing up with him.

I had not seen this sparkle in his eye in
a very long time and I was sure, since he likely didn’t even realize that he
was doing it, that he couldn’t be faking this. For a moment, I saw the old
Shawn, the friend that I had grown up with for all of those years.

This gave me a jolt of even more
excitement.

“Yes!” I said. “I would love to! Where do
you want to go?”

“Let’s go to breakfast. I’m starving!” He
smiled at me and I just shook my head. For once, this really was the old Shawn.

I
should have worked harder to break him and Dalilah up before,
I thought as Shawn kissed me briefly, before running back into the house to get
changed.

I hadn’t expected this and it stopped me
in my tracks. The taste of him was still readily familiar on my lips from last
night, but the fresh sensation was absolutely delightful. I couldn’t believe
that I was feeling this way about him and us.

Everything was so new and so pleasant.
When I was with him, especially with my new car and sense of having a truly
unending supply of possibilities, I couldn’t wait to see what came next.

During breakfast, after testing out the
car, we laughed and enjoyed our newfound relationship. In public, we were not
really affectionate, because we didn’t want to get caught; but we both still
knew what was going on, which was strange, but rewarding.

Instead of constantly wondering what was
going on with what the other felt, we actually knew and felt the same way. It
was a glorious experience, but extremely different than anything I had ever
felt before.

However, even though he seemed pretty much
back to his old self, I did notice that he kept bringing up the car. At first,
it was in a pleasant way, but eventually, it didn’t seem so pleasant.

Shawn was just kidding, of course, but
every time he said something, I wondered what he was really thinking.

Still, considering the highs and lows that
had brought us to this moment, I considered that perhaps he had a right to
insert a few jibes here and there. I did have a brand new convertible and all
he received this morning was a sucker-punch to the face; and breakfast, because
I felt like he needed it after the morning he had. Therefore, I didn’t think
much about his comments.

Then, finally, he said, “You know, I’m
just kidding with you. I know that the car has nothing to do with you and I am
very happy for you. It runs great and it is absolutely gorgeous. I just can’t
help getting my two cents in every once and awhile.”

I shrugged. “Give me your two cents to
your heart’s content. I’m just happy about having the car.”

“As you should be. That’s awesome,” He
sighed and I knew there was more to that comment, but he had chosen not to say
it.

In a way, even though I tried to
understand and was genuine in the understanding that I found, I was glad.

Chapter
24

Shawn

Breakfast was fun. In a lot of ways, it
was just like old times. It was great! I was able to hang out with Valerie
without worrying about stupid Dalilah breathing down my neck and worrying about
what hell she was going to give me when I saw her next.

I was worried about what she was going to
do, but I had meant what I said. If she messed with Valerie, she wasn’t going
to like my response.

As far as Valerie’s car was concerned, I
knew that I was slightly jealous, but that was nothing all that new. Everyone
knew that and I felt like I had good reason to be.

Like I had told Valerie in the diner, it
had nothing to do with her. I was happy for her. If her mother was not married
to my father, I would have absolutely nothing to say or think about the car,
except for my happiness for her. But I wished my father had shown me even a
fraction of the love, support and enthusiasm that he showed Valerie.

Since he could give her things and
encourage her to do well, I knew he was capable of it, so I didn’t think I was
as jealous as I was angry at the impossibility of ever being treated fairly by
either of my parents. My mother simply didn’t care about me and my father
always seemed disappointed in. me.

Yet, in light of my new situation, I was
beginning to think that staying with my father was going to be the lesser of
two evils. At least there, I had two people that I knew cared about me.

Then again, if I moved back home, where
would Valerie and I go to get away?

This decision was a process. I knew that,
but the fact that the thoughts were even crossing my mind made me seriously
contemplate the conversation that we had on the way back to my mother’s house.

“So…” Valerie said cautiously, “How is it
living with your mom?”

I laughed and answered honestly,
“Terrible!” Then, I looked at her and answered, “Although living alone isn’t so
bad, except when there is only alcohol left in the fridge. That sucks a
little.”