Country Love (9 page)

Paden loved how warm his semen felt on her skin
, and although she was initially surprised by him ejaculating on her, she found it oddly very sexy. As CJ went into her bathroom to get a towel, she circled her finger around in the slick fluid and felt completely satisfied from their intimacy. Crawling up beside her on the bed, CJ took the towel and cleaned her off while softly kissing her on her cheek.

Feeling a rush of love toward him, Paden asked softly, “Will you stay with me tonight? I don’t want you to go.”

CJ was completely touched and realized he didn’t want to go home, either. Helping her to scoot under the covers, CJ replied, “I will be delighted to, Madame. Move that sexy body over and make room for me, ’cause I’m coming in!”

Giggling, Paden slid over as he turned off the light and crawled in. Curling up next to him with her head on his shoulder, it only took a few minutes until she was fast asleep.

Chapter Twelve

Over the next few months Paden and CJ saw each other as much as they could when The Café Cowboys weren’t on the road. Their record company, Alias Records, was booking more and more gigs for the band and they were starting to travel farther distances. Although Paden missed him when he was gone, she was really happy that the band was getting more notoriety and making really good money.

Every time CJ got back from being on the road, he was always lit up like a Christmas tree and she could tell that although it was tough being away for stretches at a time, he loved every minute of it. Every chance that Paden could, when distance allowed, she would go to his shows and spend the night at his hotel. This wasn’t very often because Paden had to work every other Saturday and she couldn’t do her shift and get to a gig unless it was fairly close to Nashville. Fortunately her music director, Bob Stanton
, was still playing CJ’s CD,
Ramblin’ Road
, and she always loved it when one of his songs came up during her on-air shift. It made her feel close to him somehow, and some nights when she was feeling a bit lonely, she’d play it and instantly start to feel better. Every time Paden got a listener request to play something off his CD, she would feel a shot of pride and always tell CJ about it.

Right before leaving on this current tour, The Café Cowboys had cut a brand new CD called
Right As Rain
and Paden knew that in order to promote this new CD, the band was going to be on the road even more. The record company had given her radio station the first copy and she was thrilled that her station would get to debut it. She loved all of the songs on it and was grateful when Bob Stanton asked for her feedback on which song to lead with.

Secretly, Paden had begun to wonder if something was wrong with Bob. Their relationship had always been professional
, but lately she had been getting a weird vibe when she was in his office. Every so often she would catch him staring at her while she was listening to songs with him, but she just chalked it up as her imagination and put it out of her mind. When Russ Farrell had conducted her annual review a few months back, he had asked what her long term goal was at the station. She told him that one day if Bob moved on or retired, that she’d love the music director job. Russ was glad to hear that Paden wasn’t interested in leaving the station and he was grateful that Bob was grooming her for this position, or so he thought.

CJ was thrilled that the new CD had just been released. He and his band had worked really hard on it and the effort had paid off. Now they were going to have to promote it and that was going to take more hard work and travel. The only downside to his job was that he missed Paden every time he had to go on the road.

He had fallen head over heels for her and always looked forward to coming home to her. This particular tour they were on was the first time he had been gone for three weeks. The record company had them scheduled first in Atlanta, Georgia then to Columbia, South Carolina, then on to Charlotte, North Carolina before heading back to Nashville.

When the phone in his hotel room woke him up early on Saturday morning, the last day of the tour, and Danny said that the club had to cancel that night
’s show due to plumbing problems, CJ threw all of his things in his bag, jumped in his truck, and headed back to Nashville to surprise Paden. He wasn’t supposed to be home until Sunday and he delighted at the idea of coming home a day early. He knew she was working today at the radio station, but he figured he’d get into Nashville sometime during her shift and he’d go right to the station to surprise her.

***

Bob Stanton never looked forward to the weekend. Between his kids running around and demanding all of his attention and his wife constantly nagging him to do things around the house, Bob was frustrated and annoyed. Miranda barely spoke with him, and when she did, it was always to tell him to do something or bitch at him about something. The kids seemed to always be out of control and rarely listened to him or their mother. As far as Bob was concerned, Miranda was the problem regarding the kids because she was a full-time mom and should have better control over them. She almost always let them get their way, and as far as he was concerned, they were spoiled brats.

It was only 11
a.m. this particular Saturday morning and he was already so pissed off at what was going on around the house that he slammed out the door and headed to his favorite bar called The Corner Ale House. Drink after drink, Bob got more and more depressed about his age, physical appearance, and crappy home life. As more and more liquor seeped into his blood stream, the darker he got and the more unhappy he became. He felt unloved, underappreciated, and trapped. But after two hours of drinking Jack Daniels, the unhappiness could no longer clear through the fog in his head as he just stared into his drink, feeling nothing. Around one o’clock, the bartender turned on the radio and Bob didn’t even register that they were playing his radio station until he heard her voice…the voice of the woman he knew he could never have. Suddenly, Bob decided in his drunken haze that damn it, he deserved at least one good thing in his life, and he was going to take it. Paying his tab, Bob stumbled out of the bar and headed for the radio station.

***

Although Paden didn’t like a six day work week, she liked doing her Saturday shift the best because no one was at the station but her. Occasionally an engineer would pop in and out briefly, but most times she was the only one there and it was calming and peaceful. This Saturday she was particularly grateful to be working because she was so excited that CJ would be home tomorrow and she needed something to do to make the time pass quicker. It was a little before 1:30 and she only had another hour and a half to go until her shift was up. As she sat previewing the next few songs that were coming up to be played, Paden heard the studio door open up behind her and was immediately on guard since she wasn’t expecting anyone at the station. Whipping her head around, she breathed a sigh of relief seeing that it was just Bob. After saying a casual hello, she turned her attention back to the computer.

When a few moments passed and he didn’t say anything, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up
but she couldn’t understand why. Turning around to face him, she saw that he hadn’t moved and was just staring at her.

“Is everything
okay, Bob?” Paden asked. “You don’t usually come to the station on Saturdays.” The minute Bob took a step toward her, she knew instantly that something was terribly wrong. Seeing him walking off balance and stumbling made her really nervous.

Slurring his speech
, Bob said, “Nothing’s wrong, Paden. Just wanted to come by and say hi to my favorite announcer, that’s all.” Reaching her chair, Bob kept talking almost unintelligibly. “That’s okay with you now, isn’t it? I just wanna watch you work.”

It was at that very moment
that Paden caught the overwhelming stench of liquor and knew he was downright drunk. Not knowing what to do, she said while pointing to the chair on the other side of the console, “Perhaps you better sit down, Bob.” She hoped that maybe if he sat down, he would pass out and fall asleep.

I
nstead of moving to the other chair, Bob pushed his body up against her chair and reached out and started stroking her hair. Bob asked, “Now why would I want to sit all the way over there, when you’re right here?”

Paden was suddenly terrified. She was all alone at the station with an extremely drunk man that was starting to touch her and quickly becoming lecherous. Needing to put space between them, Paden swiveled her chair away from him and jumped to a standing position with the chair between them.

Holding up her hand, Paden said as strongly as she could, despite how vulnerable she felt, “Bob, I think you need to go home. I’ve got to finish my shift. I’m sure you understand.” It was then when she heard him start to laugh in an evil way and she knew something bad was going to happen. Within a fraction of a second, Bob pushed the chair away from between them and catapulted toward her. As she jumped away from him, she screamed, “Get out of here, Bob. Go home now!”

Lurching toward her again, Bob said, “Come here
, little baby. I’ve been wanting a piece of you for a long, long time. I think it’s high time I get some of that pretty little ass.”

Paden couldn’t believe what she was hearing and what was happening. There wasn’t a so
ul around to hear her scream or to help her, and Bob was bearing down on her despite how drunk he was and unsteady on his feet. As she tried to run across the room to get out of the studio, he lunged at her and they both fell to the floor with Bob right on top of her. The stench of his breath made her stomach turn, and she couldn’t move out from under him because he was so fat and heavy.

All she could do was scream, “Stop it
, Bob, get off me!”

Bob was a man on a mission and he ignored her pleas. He was going to get what he felt he deserved. Reaching for her blouse, he tore it off her despite her efforts to stop him. He was too strong
, and as hard as she tried to fend him off, it was to no avail.

When she screamed again, Bob slapped her across the face
, saying in a disgusting tone of voice, “I hear you screaming, but I know you like this.”

Tears started rolling down her face as he roughly pushed her bra up
to get access to her breasts.

Grabbing her wrists in his hands, he held her so tightly that it hurt as he just sat on top of her
, staring at her breasts and keeping her trapped on the floor beneath him. Bringing his face down to hers, he mumbled, “I’ve got something now that you’re really gonna like.” Holding her wrists with one hand, he reached down to her jeans and started to undo them. All Paden could do was scream, “Stop, Stop, don’t do this.”

***

It had been a long ride from Charlotte, North Carolina back to Nashville, but CJ wanted to see Paden so badly that he didn’t even stop for lunch. As he got into the listening area of her radio station, he listened to her while fantasizing about what he was going to do to her tonight. Finally reaching the station, he pulled into the parking lot and saw her car, along with one other. He had remembered her telling him that none of the staff usually went to the station on weekends except the announcers, so he wondered briefly who else was there. It was too soon for the announcer who followed her shift to be there. Not giving it another thought, CJ walked into the lobby of the station, and with a big smile on his face, headed down the hall to the on-air studio where he knew she would be.

All of a sudden, he heard terrible screaming coming from the studio. And not just screaming, but Paden screaming.

CJ went into overdrive and barreled the last few yards down the hall and crashed through the studio door. CJ was enraged. Within seconds, he was standing over the man who was attempting to rape Paden. He pulled him off her like he was as light as a fly and threw him up against the wall. As Paden scurried out of the way and tried to put herself back together, she saw CJ punch Bob in the face and put him in a strangle hold.

Once
Bob was defenseless, he looked over his shoulder briefly at Paden with utter worry in his eyes. “Paden, are you okay? Did this bastard hurt you?”

Paden was shaking as she tried to put her shirt back on and could only mutter between her tears, “Yes, I’m
okay.”

CJ knew that she wasn’t even close to being
okay, but he knew she understood the meaning of being “okay”. If the guy had raped her, CJ would have probably killed him.

Throwing Bob face down on the floor, CJ took off his belt and within seconds hogtied the son of a bitch so he couldn’t move. Bob was so drunk it was easy for CJ to manipulate his arms and legs. Pulling his cell phone out of his jeans pocket, CJ called 911 first. Then with that call completed, he folded Paden into his embrace and gently rubbed her hair while she cried and shook in his arms. CJ had never been so angry in his life and it had taken a great deal of self control to not beat the living shit out of the guy.

Remembering that she was in control of the radio station, she had to pull away from CJ and get the next few songs and commercials ready to go. She also had to call Russ Farrell because the police were coming. Russ would need to know what happened and Paden knew that station management would need to be there when the police arrived. The minute Russ hung up from talking with Paden he called Rusty Mann, the announcer who followed Paden’s shift, and asked him to come in early so Paden could get off the air.

It seemed to Paden that everyone converged at the station all at the same time. The police came first
, and as Paden began to describe what happened, Russ and Rusty weren’t far behind. Moving the conversation out of the studio so Rusty could get to work, they finished the questioning in the conference room.

Understanding that it was CJ who hogtied Bob made the officers smile and lightly chuckle while saying they had never come on a scene before where the perpetrator was hogtied with a belt. In fact, they were quite complimentary to CJ for all of his efforts, not to mention
his great timing.