Locked (14 page)

“I am not leaving!” Reece’s feisty side takes over. “You do not tell me what to do. I’ve been taking care of myself my whole life. I don’t need anyone’s permission to do anything.”

“Get. Your. Clothes. On. Now.” Mark vexes.

Say something. He’s going to take her away from you, asshole.

“Mark, I know this looks bad. And I’m not going to lie to you and say there is nothing going on between Reece and me. But I’m taking things really slow…painfully slow with your daughter. And I’d like your permission to keep seeing her,” I make my plea.

“Caydon, she’s naked. Try again,” Mark quips.

Reece rolls her eyes, “Caydon, be quiet. I don’t need to explain myself to my dad.”

Both Mark and I look at Reece and at the same time, we tell her to ‘Shut up.’ Her mouth hangs open a little. I’ll make it up to her later.

“I swear to you that I’m not going to hurt her.” I mean it. I’m not. I got this.

Mark pinches his nose, looks to the floor and then to me. He lets out a sarcastic laugh. “Yeah, well, you are going to have to convince me. You and Hannah just broke up…what…like two weeks ago? I’m having a little trouble processing this, Caydon.”

“Do you think I’m using Reece? Because I assure you that I don’t need to use any girl,” I huff out.

“I’m right here,” Reece chimes in.

I glance to where Reece is sitting. She is still wrapped up in the blanket. I’m sure she is uncomfortable in this state. “Baby, go to my room and get dressed.”

She shakes her head in agreement. I watch her gather her clothes and walk toward my room.

“Oh, you listen to him?” Mark calls after her. Reece scrunches her face and casts a dirty look over her shoulder as she walks away.

I point to the chair in the corner of the room. “Do you want to sit down?” I wouldn’t dare ask him to sit on the couch.

Quietly, he saunters to the other side of the room and plops down in the chair. I sit down on the couch where I made Reece come twice. Damn, I wish I could turn off the pictures in my head of her naked.

Man up.

“I’m not using her. There’s a history between us,” I begin to explain.

“A history? Funny…I don’t remember you being a part of our lives until I started dating your mom. Is that what this is about?” Mark still has his guard up.

I’m doing my best to keep my cool. “I don’t give a shit about who my mom dates. I stopped caring when I was thirteen. Give me a little more credit than that.” My leg starts to shake unwillingly. “I tried staying away from her. I did.”

I observe Mark. He’s thinking. “She’s my little girl, Caydon. I wasn’t a very good father. I should’ve fought her mom harder. I should have protected her. It’s my job, Caydon…to protect her.”

I’m not a father. I don’t know what it’s like to have a kid. I can only imagine the helplessness Mark must have felt when Reece’s mom took her from him. I’m also a little jealous. My dad never even came to the hospital to see what I looked like when I was born. He didn’t fight for me. Period.

“You don’t need to protect her from me.”

“I need to protect her from everyone,” Mark admits with a bit of regret in his voice.

“You and I are on the same team. Would you rather her date a stranger?”

Mark smirks. “I’d rather her date no one.”

I laugh. “What are you going to do? Lock her up?”

“It’s not a bad idea.”

I’m tired of the back and forth bantering. “Mark, do I have your blessing to date your daughter?”

“If I told you no, would you walk away?”

“Not a chance.”

“Good answer.” Mark gets up from the couch. “I still don’t like what I walked in on. Slow down.”

“I’m taking it slow. I swear,” I insist.

“Not slow enough. Just ask your mom and me about going slow. Go a lot slower than we did.”

I snicker. “I get it.”

Reece enters the living room and stands between her dad and me. “Did you kiss and make up?”

Smart-ass.

Her dad kisses her on the forehead. “Be careful, Reece’s Pieces. I love you.” Mark chokes something down in his throat.

“Where you going?” she asks with concern.

“To punch a bag. I need to hit something.” Mark glares at me. I know he is going to picture my face on that bag.

Be thankful it’s the bag and not you.

“Okay.” Reece walks her dad to the door. “I love you, Dad. Everything is going to be okay.”

Mark quickly nods. One last time, he frowns in my direction. “Caydon, I’ll see you tomorrow morning for our workout.”

Awesome.

Reece closes the door after her dad walks out. Leaning against the door, she pretends that she is banging her head against it. “Most. Embarrassing. Moment. Everrrr!” Reece does her best interpretation of a valley girl.
She does that a lot. Joke, I mean. It seems like she does this when situations become awkward or tense. I wrap my arms around her waist and kiss her until we’re both breathless. I touch my nose to hers. “You know that you don’t have to do that with me.”

Reece cocks her eyebrow. “What?”

“Joke when you are nervous.”

“I don’t”

“Yeah, you do.”

She sighs. “It’s a habit.”

“Habits can be broken.”

Hurt shows on her face. “You don’t like when I joke?”

I think it is pretty funny sometimes. I just want her to be real with me. “I like it. It’s just when you are nervous or scared, I want to know.”

I want to know everything about you.

The corners of her mouth curl into a weak smile. “Okay.”

My eyes dart to her mouth. I want to kiss her. She realizes where my focus is and her breath catches. “Can I kiss you again?” I whisper.

“You don’t need to ask, Caydon. I’m yours now.”

Oh holy hell.

I’m a goner.

* * *

I’m with Caydon. It feels really good to say that.
I’m with Caydon.

At first my dad gave me a hard time about spending some nights at Caydon’s house. When he wouldn’t let up, I decided to give him too much information so he would leave me alone. Basically, I told him in so many words that my virginity was still intact. Once he swallowed that little bit of information, he relaxed a little bit.

Caydon also does his part by keeping up his boxing workouts with my dad. It gives them time together to get to know each other. Caydon’s mom is more than thrilled. I’m the girl she never had. When Caydon and my dad are at the gym, I go shopping or to the salon with Caydon’s mom.

I just finished my finals and I’m on winter break. Now, I can concentrate on finding a gift for Caydon. It’s our first Christmas together and we’ve only been dating a short time. I have no clue on what to give him. His mom says that he would be happy with anything I give him. But I want to give him something he doesn’t have.

I think he is struggling with the same problem. A few days ago, he asked me if I were to only receive one gift for Christmas what would it be. I told him the truth. Snow.

When I lived in Florida, white Christmas’s never happened. Christmas never really felt festive. Then again, my mom was usually drunk by ten o’clock in the morning. I would end up having a tense dinner with my grandparents. By the end of the night, my mom was usually vomiting all over herself and I was cleaning the carpet. Christmas sucked.

This is the first year without my mom. As selfish as it may be, I want to feel the spirit of Christmas. I want a traditional holiday with my family and Caydon. And if it is not too much to ask…I want snow.

I check the forecast every day. Nope. No snow. What a bummer.

It is the day before Christmas Eve. I’ve been in and out of every single store that you can imagine looking for my last gift. Caydon’s gift.

Defeated, I walk out of a store that had absolutely nothing Caydon would want. My cell phone belts out “Love Hurts” by Incubus. It is a song Caydon picked for himself. “Hi,” I answer.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“Looking for a last minute gift for my boyfriend. You are really hard to shop for,” I admit.

I hear him sigh on the other end. “Reece, you could wrap yourself in only a red bow. That would be the perfect gift.”

“When you think of me, am I always naked?” I make fun of him.

“In my fantasy you are wearing the bow. That’s not naked.”

“If you say so.”

“I do. Anyway, I didn’t call you to talk about you being naked. I called because I want you to come over tonight. But you can’t come until eight o’clock.” He is being very evasive.

“I come over every night. Why can’t I come earlier?”

I hear him exhale in exasperation. “Because, I’m giving you your gift tonight and it won’t be done until then.”

“You didn’t tell me we were exchanging gifts tonight!” I panic.

“Reece, we are with our parents for the next two days. This is our night to celebrate. I don’t want or need anything other than you. Get your ass over here at eight o’clock.” He hangs up on me.

Damn him. If he had told me earlier, I would have had his gift already. I rack my brain for any clue Caydon has given me.

Finally, I rush to the store that can help me with my problem. He better appreciate this.

* * *

I arrive at Caydon’s apartment on time. When I reach his floor, he is standing outside in the hallway. The guy takes my breath away. His dark hair is hanging lower on his neckline. His jeans hang off of his hips even though he has a black studded belt running through the loops. The black t-shirt he is wearing clings to the muscles on his arms. The workouts are definitely worth it.

If this were what my gift was, I’d be a happy girl. I only need him.

He appears to be nervous as hell. When our eyes meet, he smiles. “You’re right on time.” His arms pull me into an embrace and he grazes my lips with his. I want more than that. My hands bring his face to mine and I fiercely kiss him. When I finally let go, we’re both gasping for air.

“Hey, I thought I was the one giving gifts,” he teases. “That kiss was amazing.”

“Well, I wanted to give you a hint of what I got you. Consider that kiss your teaser.”

Caydon is still holding onto my waist. “I go first. You have to close your eyes.”

“What? Why?”

“Just do it. You can be such a pain in the ass,” he cursed, grabbing my hand, and pulling me toward the door.

Caydon’s eyes sparkle with excitement. I can tell that he put much effort into this present. I just hope he likes the present I plan on giving him.

I close my eyes and clutch onto his arm. I take a deep breath. “Okay, I’m ready.”

Hand in hand, Caydon guides me through his front door. I feel the swooshing air of the door being closed behind me. Caydon is now behind me with his arms wrapped around my waist. His chin is on my shoulder. Leaning in, he whispers in my ear, “Merry Christmas, Reece. Open your eyes.”

My eyes blink open. The vision in front of me is like a dream. I’m so overwhelmed with emotion that someone would go to the trouble of doing something like this for me that I start to cry. My hand flies to my mouth to stifle my cry. But my knees give out from under me and I’m now kneeling.

“Baby, you okay?” Caydon is concerned. He holds onto me by dropping to the ground and kneeling behind me.

“Caydon, it’s beautiful.”. He didn’t miss a beat. He thought of absolutely everything.

We are kneeling in a created layer of fake, piled snow that not only adorns the floor but all of the tables, ledges and windowsills. There seems to be like a million white candles in vases that are decorated with false frost on the outside of the glass. Anything that does not have snow on it is decorated with icicle ornaments. Paper snowflakes hang from the ceiling. It looks as though he sprayed his windows to look like there is frost on them as well. To add to the impact, Caydon used white, silver, and blue balloons scattered around the fake snow mixed with glitter. The part that I love the most is the twinkling, white lights strung through the ceiling beams.

“Your Christmas wish was for it to snow. Believe me, I prayed to the snow gods for a miracle. As you can imagine, they are very busy in other parts of the country right now. So I had to take matters into my own hands. I give you Reece’s Winter Wonderland.” Caydon helps me from the ground. I take his hand in mine. He meets my eyes. “Do you like it?”

My eyes are glued to his. Is he kidding me? No one has ever put much thought into what I’ve wanted. No one. Caydon listened to me. He heard my wish and went through hell to make it happen. “This is the best Christmas I have ever had.” And it is.

There is excitement behind Caydon’s eyes. “Good. But there’s more.”

“More?”

“Hell, yeah. You didn’t think I forgot the most important part, did you?” He scurries into his kitchen and brings out a tray. On the tray is hot chocolate with marshmallows.

“How did you do all of this?” I ask in amazement.

He sighs. “I wish I could say that I did this all on my own. But I didn’t. My mom, your dad, Maria, and Shorty all helped me make this happen for you. They wanted you to have your White Christmas. Believe me when I say I wanted to do this on Christmas day. It’s just I wanted you to enjoy it without having to run to your dad’s for dinner.” He puts the tray down on a pile of snow and pulls me into his chest. “I have you all to myself until tomorrow night.”

There are tears in my eyes. “Thank you,” I whisper.

“You deserve more.” Eyes burning, I explore his eyes for more meaning. “I wish I could give you anything you want.”

I cup his face and slide my hand behind his neck. “You have given me so much already. I’m happy, Caydon. Really happy.”

Then I concentrate on his lips. Slowly, I move in closer and grab his bottom lip with my teeth. Caydon clutches me tighter. I feel his breath on my lips but he doesn’t kiss me. Instead, he lightly grazes his lips over mine, teasing me. His lips move to my ear and repeat the same action. “Tell me all of your dreams,” he murmurs in my ear, “so I can make them come true.”

My heart stops beating. I can’t think. All I want to do is consume Caydon…make him part of me. My mouth lunges for his. He sucks in as much breath as he can. Good. He’s going to need it because my mouth is not moving from his. It’s not enough. I need more. “I need you.”