Riding Red (13 page)

I
drove
by her house a dozen times, and I couldn’t see a car in the driveway. I went everywhere I could think of. I decide to drive by her house again. I won't stop searching until I find her, even if it means I do it forever. When I see Janet’s and Phil’s cars out front, I tear into the driveway. I jump out and bust through the front door, shouting her name. I just have to see her. I don’t think I’ve gone this long without her since this all began.

I rush through the kitchen and see Janet standing there, her eyes wide with shock and worry. I must look like a mess, but I feel like I’ve gone crazy. I round the corner, and see Phil leaning against the door frame.

“She’s upstairs.”

His tone of voice is calm and knowing. I need to tell him. “Phil—”

“I know. I’ve known for some time, but I wanted you to man up and tell me.”

“I’m sorry about the way this happened, but I’m not sorry I love her. I don’t know why or how, but she’s the one. She’s it for me.”

He looks at me and searches my eyes, for what, I don’t know. But he must see what he needs, because he nods his head. “I won’t lie and tell you this is easy for me. She’s my baby girl, she’ll always be my baby girl, but I know she won’t find better.” He reaches his hand out to mine and I take his, thankful for his approval.

“What just happened?” Janet says behind me, and I see Phil smile sweetly.

“I’ll explain later, honey.”

“Get out.” Megan’s voice from behind Phil makes me snap to attention.

“Baby, listen. You’ve got to let me explain.”

“I heard everything. I thought I was special. I thought I was different. But you and that woman, you…you were going to marry her.”

A frustrating rage fills my veins and I want to scream. I take a deep breath and try to explain this as swiftly as possible. I need to take her hurt away. I can see she’s torn up about this, and I never intended for this to happen.

“That woman, Delilah, she and I went on one date together five years ago. Five years ago. I was traveling a lot with the team then, but even still I knew she was trouble and ended it after that one dinner. She went crazy, Megan. She went to the press, said we were engaged, said she was pregnant with my baby…I never even touched her.”

Megan crosses her arms defensively, still looking at me in disbelief.

“I swear to God, Megan. It’s the truth. It’s probably still online somewhere. I had to get a restraining order, and I sued her. We settled out of court and she swore never to bother me again.”

“Oh God, Delilah is back?” I hear Janet say behind me. Janet and Phil were my rocks back then, helping get me through that mess. I felt like such a dick taking her to court, but they both kept reminding me that she needed serious help.

“I called the cops and they took her to the hospital. From what they said, she’d been under her sister's care, but had a recent relapse when her boyfriend broke up with her. Guess she was just making the rounds.”

Megan looks back and forth between her parents, and I can see hope in her eyes. “Dad, is this true?”

“Yes. She was really unstable, and I was able to get a psychologist friend of mine to look over the case,” he says, confirming everything I said.

“Honey, if I had known that was the problem, I could have told you the whole story. My God, you and Chris? When did this happen?” Janet sounds utterly shocked.

Megan blushes profusely, and looks at me through her lashes.

“Come on, Janet, let’s give them a chance to talk.”

Phil pulls her from the room as she keeps asking questions. “How did you…” I hear her saying over her shoulder as they walk out.

“So you didn’t want babies with her?” she asks, looking down at her feet. I hate that she thought I wanted with someone else what I only want with her.

“No.”

Megan takes a tentative step towards me, and I stand my ground, not wanting to scare her off. I’m sure I look crazy. I felt crazy when she left me today. The thought of her running from me was like a hot blade to my heart. She’s it for me. If she doesn't want me, I'll live out a miserable existence. Or I'll have to buy a secluded island, kidnap her, and keep her there.

“And you never wanted to marry her?” she asks, looking up at me through her eyelashes.

“No,” I fire back instantly.

“You didn’t love her?”

She takes another small step forward, and I can feel my heart beating out of my chest.

“I’ve loved one woman in my life, and that’s you, Megan. I love you.”

She rushes the rest of the way and I catch her, wrapping my arms around her.

“I love you too, Chris.”

“Let’s go home, baby.”

I feel her nod against my neck, and I close my eyes. Finally my world is whole again.

“
H
afy Bifby
.”

“What was that?”

Chris moves his mouth away from my pussy, licking his lips. “I said ‘happy birthday.’” I giggle as he dives back between my legs, licking and sucking his way to my orgasm.

I stretch my arms over my head, spreading my legs wider. This isn’t a bad way to start my twenty-eighth year. I grip his hair in my hands, grinding against his face, never getting tired of the way he feels on my body.

We’ve been through so much, and getting to this moment was hard fought, but goddamn, was it worth it.

Surprisingly, my parents were thrilled that Chris and I were together, and we didn’t realize it at the time, but having that support meant all the difference. I opted out of my last year of high school and graduated early. Chris and I didn’t go public until it was official, but the backlash was awful. He coached the high school to a state championship with an undefeated season and still they wanted him out. The school board created a new contract for him to sign that was just bullshit to push him out of the door. He didn’t need the money or the attention, so he just went quietly, not making a scene. My heart broke for him, because all he ever wanted to do was to be involved in football, even if it was coaching.

After a year of sulking about it, I suggested he get involved in a local ‘big brother’ football camp. Ever since then, he’s found his purpose again. He’s been there eight years, and loves seeing the boys grow and develop.

I was pretty much treated the same way I was before senior year of high school, like the awkward girl no one knew what to do with. But I was used to it, so it was no skin off my nose. I got pregnant the minute Chris got inside me, giving birth to our son, Chris Junior, nine months later. After that, we had our daughter Fae, and then our other daughter Mara. My pregnancy with Mara was difficult, so after that, we decided it was time to close the baby chapter. Our family is happy and healthy, and that’s all I ever wanted.

“Fuck, baby, I can’t wait. I need to get inside you.”

“It’s my birthday! Don’t I get a say?”

“After this, I need to take the edge off.” Chris scoots up the bed, thrusting inside me, hard and fast. “Goddamn, eating that pussy gets me so fucking hard.”

He reaches between us, rubbing my clit, and then leans down to kiss me, letting me taste myself. The flavor of my need combined with his hard cock fucking me tests my limits. Chris pulls back, putting a hand over my mouth as I shout my release. I feel myself squirt on his cock, drenching him in my cum.

“Fuck.” He buries his face in my neck, biting me there while he empties inside me. The feeling of his warm cum flooding me makes me twitch and sparks off another, smaller orgasm.

“Mom! Grandma is here to take me to soccer practice!” I hear Fae yell from the bottom of the stairs.

“Tonight the kids are going to your parents’,” Chris says as he licks my nipple, sucking it into his mouth.

“What are we going to do with an empty house and all this time on our hands?” I giggle as I rub his hairy chest. God, he’s forty and just getting sexier with every year that passes.

“I’m sure we can think of something.”

“How about you put on that Darth Vader mask I got you and you punish me for being a rebel?”

He gets a wicked look in his eye and nods his head. “I think I’d enjoy showing you my Lightsaber.”

We fall into giggling pile as we roll around in our happily ever after.

“
W
hat the fuck
are you doing here, Cherry?” Carter growls and stands up from a metal chair.

I’ve never seen this look on him before. Well, not directed at me anyway. What should I expect though? The man is in prison and has been for four years, and still has another four to go.

I haven’t seen him since that night. The night I can’t remember. The reason I’m here.

“Did you get my letters?” I ask, ignoring his question. I sent hundreds over the years and never once did he respond.

“Yeah, I got them,” he fires back.

“But…you never...” My words trail off as the force of what he’s saying hits me. He got my letters; he just didn’t care enough to write back. The first ones started off asking what had happened, because I had so many questions. All I have is this giant blank spot in my mind driving me insane. One second I have a perfect life and the next I wake up in the hospital covered in bruises, with my mother missing, along with my bodyguard. Poof! No more Mom and no more Carter. For some reason, the loss of Carter hurt the most. After that my once-loving father turned cold. Others might have called my father cold before on account of his dealings with the dirtier elements of society, but I never thought he was…until now.

“Ever think there was a reason I didn’t respond? I threw them out. I don’t want you here.” Carter has always been blunt and to the point but he was never intentionally cruel, and never with me. He had been my bodyguard for six months before that night. I couldn’t turn around without tripping over him. Anytime I was allowed to the leave house, he was at my side like a shadow.

Shifting uncomfortably, I take him in. He’s huge. I remember him as always being big, but now he seems massive. His six foot four frame looks like it’s been chiseled from stone and could bust the seams of his prison uniform. I don’t recall him having so many tattoos either, but now every inch of exposed skin is covered in them, peeking up around the neck of his uniform. I also don’t recall ever wanting to lick them as I do now.

Slowly moving my eyes back to his face, I see his jaw is hard from clenching it. His eyes lock on mine, so green they almost look like colored contact lenses. Those blazing emeralds snap away and do a head-to-toe sweep of my body. My breath catches in my throat at the look he gives me. It was hard and deadly before, but now it appears hungry and consuming. He makes me feel naked, completely stripped.

In three long strides he’s in front of me, lifting me into his arms. Caught completely off guard, I gasp. He wraps his free hand in my long hair and pulls my head back, claiming my mouth. My fingers grab the fabric of his shirt and try to pull him closer. I feel like my whole body has just come alive. My body is overcome with all the passion and fervor I’ve felt all these years, but I don’t exactly have any experience to guide me. I’m twenty and I’ve never been kissed. But this doesn’t feel like any kiss I’ve ever imagined. It feels like he’s devouring my body with his mouth, his teeth, his tongue. It feels like Carter is ravishing my soul.

Going to an all-girls’ school kept me sheltered. I even took all my college classes online after I graduated. The only dick that was ever near me was hired by my father. His men were either deadly scared of him or had too much respect for him to touch me—probably a little of both.

I follow Carter’s lead and return his kiss. I’ve wanted this for years. Before he was taken away, I used to try to get his attention and shamelessly flirt with him. I think I was terrible at it because never once did he touch me. I never cared that he was ten years older than I was. I wanted him. I even had this silly idea that if I waited for him, he could be mine. That’s why I wrote him those stupid letters that he clearly didn’t give a shit about. Feeling my anger rush back at the reminder, I go to push at his chest, but we’re ripped apart suddenly. A guard has me in his arms and my feet are still off the floor. It takes three other guards to wrestle Carter down onto one of the tables.

His hands grip the side of the table, his white knuckles betraying his iron grip. “Fuck, Cherry, never thought I was the jealous type,” he says, his voice rough with a touch of fury and possession. “Until you.” His glare moves to the guard holding me. “Now get your fucking hands off her.”

I’m stunned by his words. He’s pinned to a table by three guards and he’s giving orders? I guess some things never change.

“Get. Them. The. Fuck. Off,” Carter barks again as he starts to rise from his position, even as the guards try to push him down.

“This is my prison, Carter. You may get some leeway because of who you are, but there are cameras in here,” the guard holding me says as he places me back down on the floor.

“I just came for answers,” I whisper, hoping he doesn’t catch on to my lie. I want answers, but I want him more.

“I got no answers for you here. I don’t want to see your little ass in this place again, Cherry.” ‘Cherry’, the name used to make me smile. Now it’s starting to piss me off.

“Says the man who just had his tongue down my throat,” I shoot back, feeling my anger boil over. Hell, I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t want him to know I care, but how can he not after receiving all those stupid letters? Letters that had started off as questions but slowly turned into a diary. I sent him my every thought. But, as time went on, they morphed into love letters to him. Maybe he doesn’t know what they contained. Maybe he threw them out before reading them. I’m grasping at straws. He may not know it, but he is all I have left.

After my mother disappeared, my father turned as cold as she had been. I had always been a silly child who just got in my mother’s way. She was too busy going to events and maintaining an image to devote any time or attention to me. I can still remember her offhand comments about my weight and frenzied red hair. I just always seemed to be in her way—a disappointing nuisance. Now my father can barely look at me. Does my father love me? Yes, I believe so. Family is everything to him. But does he show it? Can I feel it? Not anymore. Now I’m put away on a shelf, having to sneak away to come here.

“I haven’t felt a woman’s body in years, can’t blame a man for taking opportunities as they arise,” he says cockily as the guards slowly let him up. He drops down into a metal chair. He seems completely unfazed by what has just happened. I guess that was all it was to him—a man needing a fix. He didn’t possess my mouth, my soul for those few moments because he needed to touch me. No one touches me.

“I see I don’t have anyone now. Looks like I can go,” I say flatly, all emotion leaching from my voice. Hell, if no one else wants to show me any tenderness, why should I give any?

“Good. Get gone,” he snarls through clenched teeth, but I see his eyes soften for an instant before being replaced by his usual stoniness. Or maybe I’m trying to convince myself and it was never there.

Pulling the picture I have from my pocket, I let it drop to the floor and I take one last look at the man I’ve been thinking about every night for the past four years. I don’t want the reminder of him anymore if he doesn’t want me.

I’m done living in a world that seems to feel nothing while I feel everything.

I have the quarter million I took from Daddy’s safe before I gave the guards the slip. I’m starting my life over, a life with no more holes in it, a life where I can find people who want to feel with me.

I turn to make my way to leave. Behind me I hear Carter rise from his chair, the metal scratching across the concrete floor. Opening the door to leave, I toss my final words over my shoulder. “Don’t you worry, Carter. No one will be seeing me around anymore.” The door slams behind me and I hear all hell break loose on the other side.

I square my shoulders and keep on walking. I only have one feeling in my heart now.

Freedom.

A
vailable Now
!