No Choice (6 page)

“Promise,” I said almost pleadingly.

“I promise,” he whispered solemnly.

I held her all night. I was too afraid to let go, or she’d be gone. I didn’t take the painkillers because I didn’t want this moment blurred by the medication. When I woke up the pain was strong as hell, but not as bad as it’d been these last few days.

I was pretty much working from home since my accident, so I decided I might as well stay until her graduation. I wasn’t going to leave her alone with young men who clearly wanted her a lot. It still galled me that she was with someone else. I wondered if they’d been together before the party and were just coming out again as a couple. Either way, it really didn’t matter—she was mine. Nobody was going to take her from me.

Tonight, she’d have the ring to prove it. I’d just picked it up that afternoon of the accident. It was a four-carat solitaire diamond with a platinum band. When you looked at the ring, it looked like a normal huge rock, but it was the inscription that mattere
d
:
No choice, you’re stuck with me
.

She moaned as she pushed her ass into my morning wood, a new experience for me. I wasn’t the guy to stick around. I was too busy running my company, making a name for myself, to stay the night with them. Holding her had been a pleasure I planned to keep doing.

“Morning, my love.”

“You’re really here,” she whispered as she turned in my arms and smiled. Fuck, I couldn’t pass that up. I kissed her hard. I wished I could tackle her and bury myself in her.

“Soon,” I groaned to myself. “Fuck, babe. That’s the best wake-up I’ve ever gotten.”

“Me too,” she moaned.

“What’ve you got to do today?”

“Nothing, but I should really call Emmy. She’s probably really worried about me.”

“I talked to her while you were in the shower last night. I told her to call Van.”

“Really? I should still call her.” She scurried out of the bed without looking at me and grabbed her phone off the nightstand.

While she hid in the bathroom to talk to Emmy, I called Tim.

“Tim, is the ass from last night okay?”

“Tim, come back to bed!”
Tell me I didn’t just hear my baby sister calling her lover, my right hand man, back to bed.

“So how long have you been fucking my little sister,” I growled. Fury ran cold through me.

“Ummm…”

“Never mind. As of right now, you’re fired.” I hung up the phone. I don’t even know what I was more pissed about—the fact that the head of my security team, who was thirty-two, was fucking my nineteen-year-old sister, or the fact that he didn’t man up and come to me first. Hell, I didn’t know if my sister was a virgin before him, so I shouldn’t care, but I didn’t want to think about it.

I called my father asking for him to send one of his trusted guys to replace Tim.

“So you found out about Vanessa and Tim.”

“You know?”

“Yes, he came to me the day after your accident.”

“He didn’t say shit to me.”

“No matter how protective you are of her, I’m still her father. Plus, we didn’t know how you’d react, and you were recovering.”

“I would’ve handled it better if I didn’t find out by hearing her call him back to bed.”

“Did you have to tell me that?”

“Well, that’s how I found out.”

“Don’t fire him for nothing. He loves her, and she loves him.”

“If he plans to marry her, I’ll think about it,” I grumbled.

“So did you find your girl and make things better?”

I briefly went into the story. It still fucking bugged me that she moved on. So when she came out of the bathroom, I hung up with my father and asked her, “How long after you got that call did you start seeing that fuck again?”

“It’s bothering you. Good. Maybe next time you won’t lie to me or be around one of your ex skanks.”

“You didn’t answer me.”

“Last night was the first time I’d spoken to Jeff since he and I broke up a few months back. Before Emmy reminded me that I needed to live, I’d been wallowing too deeply in my own pain of you fucking
her
to think about fucking someone else,” she hissed before grabbing her dress and storming back in the bathroom.

She came out two minutes later after I tossed on a pair of boxers.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve. I didn’t cheat on you. I had to deal with that bitch reminding me that you’d been with her. I let it go because I knew that you’d been too injured to have cheated on me with her. Just know if I run into another one of your bust-downs, I might choke the hell out of her.”

“Are you done?”

“What?”

“You heard me. Are you done yelling at me?”

She huffed.

“You want to know why I’ve got the nerve? Because even though you dumped me, which you did by changing your number and not actually telling me, I didn’t go to anyone else. I wasn’t wrapped up in someone’s arms getting ready to go fuck. That’s why I have the nerve. I’m pissed because if I was a few minutes later, you’d have tossed me to the side for someone else. I was heartbroken too, you know. I didn’t know she contacted you. I just thought you were angry with me for not calling sooner. Then you go and change your fucking number, like that shit was going to stop me. It guts me because I didn’t want anyone else, yet you did.”

“I really didn’t, but I wanted to make the pain go away, and he actually cared for me.”

“Come here.” She came to me, and I tucked her into my body.

“Listen, I’m not going to let anyone come between us. Enough with this—we belong to each other. I love you, Natalie.”

“I love you too.” She rested her head on my chest. I was so happy that I didn’t notice the pain in my body from standing so long. With her, I felt stronger. I’d never needed a woman before, but with her I felt more vulnerable than I’d been at the mercy of an unstoppable speeding car. In that vulnerability, I forgot that she’d been destroyed by that bitch.

“Give me your mouth, babe. I want to kiss the love of my life.” She smiled with my words and lifted her face to mine. Our mouths had just met when there was a pounding on the door.

“Fuck, go away,” I shouted angrily.

“Cam! You open the door this instant,” my sister shouted from the other side, sounding just like my mom.

“Grr.” I tried to walk to the door, but the pain was getting worse, and I damn near buckled on the floor but caught myself by grabbing onto the chair. I was embarrassed, but my woman was tending to me in a second. “You didn’t take any medicine this morning?” she worriedly asked.

“I didn’t take any meds since before my flight, and the pain is getting to me. Babe, can you get the door for me?”

“Of course, then I’ll get your medicine.”

Seeing him slumped on the chair, I remembered that he’d almost been killed. My heart was pounding in fear. After getting him righted, I walked to the door and opened it to an angry Vanessa and the big behemoth.

“Vanessa, calm down. Whatever you need to yell at him will have to wait. He’s in pain.”

Vanessa’s rage calmed instantly, and she ran to him. “Damn it, Cam, they told you to take it easy. Have you used the cane? Of course you haven’t. You fight with guys when you’re broken. You don’t need a cane.”

I went into his luggage and grabbed the bathroom bag. I pulled out the pills and got him some water. “Here, Cam,” I said as I handed it to him. He took the pills and the water, and downed them in one gulp. Then he used his good arm to pull me into his lap.

“Oomph,” I moaned when I landed.

I tried to get off of him, but he wasn’t good with it. “Don’t move. I’m trying not to kill this bastard here,” he snarled, looking at Tim.

“Cam, get over it. I’m not a kid anymore.”

I looked confused, so Cameron filled me in. “Right before you came out of the bathroom, I found out that my employee is fucking my little sister. Frankly, I’ve had enough with surprises, so if you two could come back another time, that would be great.”

As stern as Cam sounded, I had a feeling these two weren’t going anywhere.

“Cam, please. Tim and I are happy. You’d be happy for us if I wasn’t your sister.”

“I wouldn’t give a shit if you weren’t my sister, but you are my sister. So, fuckhead, are you going to let my sister talk for you? I guess so because you’ve had a month to be a man and tell me the truth.”

“Look, I know that you’re pissed. If I had a sister, I’d be pissed too, but I love Vanessa. I would’ve told you as soon as it happened, but you were knocked out, and we were busy looking for the fuck who tampered with your brakes.”

“For someone who kept a secret from the woman you claimed to love, you’re being a bit of a hypocrite just because they kept a secret from you. I forgave you,” I said as I turned his face to mine and gave a pout. That shit I saw in movies and read in books really worked. He caved, relaxing the tension in his body, and I wanted to get up and do a happy dance.

“Cam, you need to understand that I’m not going anywhere. I’ve asked your sister to marry me, so you’d better get used to the idea,” Tim said as he stuck out his hand.

Before Cameron could even raise his own hand, I jumped out of his lap and squealed as I saw the rock on Vanessa’s hand. We squealed together, and the guys actually laughed at us. At least they were getting along for that. I was so happy. I guess when you were in love, everyone’s happiness was exciting. Had I learned of it yesterday, I would’ve walked away without a care and cried myself to sleep.

“Dude, I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you about us. I’m not trying to hide our relationship. We’re all worried about you, so we thought it was best not to say shit until you were better,” Tim said and stuck out this hand again.

Cameron shook his friend’s hand, but let him know he still wasn’t gravy yet. “I’m not happy, but at least you put a rock on her finger. It makes it a little better, but just wait until I’m better. Then we go in the ring.” Tim nodded in agreement.

Vanessa and I were so busy gabbing away that we didn’t notice the guys moved off to the window and were whispering until my stomach growled.

“Ooh, someone’s hungry. Bro, don’t you take care of your woman?”

“Baby, I’m sorry. Let’s get something to eat.” He hobbled to me, and it worried me that he was walking around.

“Should you be walking around so much?”

“Not much, but I should be using a crutch or a cane. I’ll be fine, especially after you give me a kiss.” I smiled brightly, puckered my lips, closed my eyes, and lifted my chin gleefully. He took my mouth like he was starving too. He wrapped his strong arm around my waist, pulling me against him and drenching my panties. Lord help me, when this man actually took me, I was in deep trouble.

“We’ll meet you down in the lobby in about ten minutes. I still need to get some clothes on. Pick a place, Van,” Cameron said before going to his luggage.

The other two walked out the door, and I felt the tension in the air.

“Nice try, sweetheart,” he growled. His look let me know I was in some shit.

She thought she was slick, but not slick enough. I actually felt guilty earlier when she called out my hypocrisy, but I felt the shift in her body and saw a slight smile on her face. My girl was no actress.

“Nice try?” she questioned, pretending to not understand my meaning. I slid on my pants, buttoning them slowly as I looked at her. I smirked as I watched her worry about what I was going to do.