The Unexpected Series (Unexpected #1-3) (67 page)

His speed increases and I’m thankful that this amazing torture is almost over. My body is spent with his newfound aggression.

“Again,” he commands.

~~

I
look like a mess. The curls I spent most of the morning fixing are tangled and mascara is smeared under my eyes. There is certain glow to me though. The glow of four orgasms. I was thankful that he stopped after the fourth. I think that I would’ve died if he tried to command another one out of me but that tops the sex we used to have...by far.

The bathroom door opens as I’m ripping the knots out of my hair with a comb. Braden walks in and wraps his hands around me, eyeing me in the mirror.

“Are you sure you are okay?” I ask trying not to hit him with the bristles as I untangle another knot.

“I am now.” He smiles, giving me the answer I was hoping for.

I take a long look at him for a few moments, and I grin. Today I see the man I fell in love with, the man who I trust. The man who used to treat me like a princess is coming back to me.

“Me too.” I say, earning myself a barrage of kisses along my neck. Turning in his arms I clasp my fingers around his neck. “Let me work through these knots and I’ll be right out...then maybe we can eat.”

A smile stretches across his face. “I’m pretty full now, but I could always go for seconds.” He winks, and it warms my body.

I’ve missed this.

I kiss the tip of his nose. “Maybe tomorrow, the buffet closed for the night.” I giggle.

He sighs exaggeratedly. “Okay, I guess I can settle for spaghetti.” He turns but not before he slaps my ass. “Oh, and I’m spending the night again. I’ll grab my stuff while you’re finishing up.”

He leaves me alone and I scrub my face and throw my hair up into a ponytail. After putting on some shorts and a tank top I head for the living room and the sight of my phone stops me.

I pick it up and open a new text, typing in the number that I didn’t want to memorize but that is now engrained into my head.

Me: You said I needed to tell you if you should stop or not.

I jump as my phone rings in my hand. I see the same number I just texted pop up and I look out of my glass doors towards the parking lot, spotting Braden talking to one of my many nosy neighbors.

I hesitantly hit accept on the screen.

“Hello,” I whisper not that Braden can hear me.

“I want to hear what you choose...not in a text.” Ryder’s sexy growl comes from the receiver.

My head falls forward. His voice is affecting me in ways that I hate and love at the same time. I glance back outside and see that Braden is now smiling. He’s handsome, educated, successful, and he has never given me any reason not to trust him. After tonight, I feel like our slump might be over.

I’ve decided. “I want you to stop.”

“Hads...” Ryder starts.

“No. You told me to choose. I chose. I want you to stop. I love Braden and I trust him. I want you to leave me alone.”

The door to my apartment slams shut, and I hit end on the screen.

Braden’s head tilts to the side in wonder. “Who was that?”

I look at the phone, deleting my text and dialed call within a few seconds. “Telemarketers,” I breathe out, dropping my phone onto the table, and hopefully keeping Ryder out of my life and as far away from Braden as possible.

“W
hat’s up your ass?” AJ asks sitting his lazy ass on my couch. I’ve just walked in after leaving Hadley’s office and he was already here.

Cracking open a beer, I lean back in my recliner and flip on my big screen TV. “Shut the hell up.”

He stands up and reaches over to slap me upside the back of my head. He may be my best friend but he can be annoying as fuck.

I don’t give a shit. I feel like I’m in shambles. The last day has rocked my world and not in the good way. All I want are answers. Or a chance. Or something. Anything from Hadley. The last thing I want is AJ to be hanging around but unfortunately he was already in my house when I got home from Hadley’s office.

I love this place. It’s the reason I moved back to my hometown. It is what I had in mind when I thought about settling down after screwing around for so long. I had a great job at the Elgin police department but I found this house and fell in love with it. The bonus is being closer to my sister and Mom. I know my mom misses me and my sister is always looking for help with the girls. The down side is that I have to start at the bottom at the new department.

Settling back into the couch, he takes a pull from his beer. “Are you still crying over that Hadley chick?”

I stop flipping through the channels to give him the “don’t fuck with me glare” but he’s immune to it. He’s seen it a time or two.

“Don’t look at me like that, Blake. I saw what happened last night and after hearing what happened at her office I think you should just leave that chick drama alone.” He stands up again because he couldn’t keep still to save his life and glances down at his phone. “Let’s get the hell out of here. It’s Friday and I want to get laid. Unless you’re putting out?”

I whip the remote at him and down the entire can of beer.

Why the hell not. I can’t just sit here at home and think about her like some pathetic loser. I’ll do it in a bar.

~~

I
’ve been here all of two hours and drank more than my weight in Heinekens.

“Screw her out of your system, bro!” AJ yells over the loud bar music. It’s pretty packed in here tonight but I barely see anyone around me. “There are hot pieces of ass everywhere!”

I finally look up and take notice of all the women here. It’s ladies night and they are all looking for some poor sucker to buy them all of their drinks.

I order another beer and try to block Hadley out of my thoughts but it’s no use. I flip between how fucking sexy she looked last night and today. How much her body has changed into a toned and tight woman and before I can think better of it I imagine her body underneath mine. On top of mine.

As the waitress drops the green bottle in front of me, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pull it out and see an incoming text that has to be from Hadley.

Unknown: You said I needed to tell you if you should stop or not.

It’s like she knew I was thinking about her. Caressing her in my thoughts. But whether she tells me to stop or to come over and take what I want, I need to hear her voice say it.

AJ calls out when I stand up without a word and walk outside. The summer heat instantly brings to sweat to my forehead or maybe it’s the fact that I’m going to hear her voice again.

When I dial her number it rings once and she answers quietly, “Hello.”

I don’t know what it is about her voice. The innocence in it makes my mouth dry, and I have to lick my lips so I can talk. “I want to hear what you choose...not in a text.”

It’s quiet on the other end, and I’m hoping it’s because she doesn’t know how to tell me she wants me.

When she finally speaks it makes my stomach drop. “I want you to stop.”

I look up to the Heavens hoping I can change her mind. I told her I would stop if she asked me to. I just don’t know if I can. “Hads...”

“No. You told me to choose. I chose. I want you to stop. I love Braden and I trust him. I want you to leave me alone.”

A beep sounds in my ear notifying me that the call has ended and I rest my back against the brick building. It’s like I’ve been shot. Her words come out so harsh...like she never loved me. Like she never trusted me.

I gave all of me to her. She knew things about me that no one else did. If anyone should have trust issues it should be me. The day I found out she left still haunts me. It’s like one minute you are whole and you know everything is going to go right for you for once and the next it’s ripped away from you leaving the imprint in your hands.

I drop my cell on my bed for the eighth time as I try to figure out why the hell Hadley won’t answer my calls. I’ve sent too many texts to count, and at this point I am starting to worry. It’s Sunday and the last time I saw her was Friday at the football game. I had big plans for us today.

I was going to pick her up and take her back to my house and confront my parents. I don’t give a shit if Hadley’s dad is married to my dad’s high school sweetheart or that they had been sneaking around behind my dad’s back for months.

Hadley looks just like her mother did back then and I almost sympathized with my dad for losing Mrs. Chase to someone else. I wouldn’t let that happen to me. Hadley will one day be my wife. I can guarantee that.

Deciding to stop being a damn chicken I run out of the house to my truck and drive the few minutes over to Hadley’s house. It practically sits on top of the other houses on her street and looks run down. I’ve never taken Hadley to my home. I’m almost embarrassed at how massive it is just for four people. I’m not a show off. I don’t flaunt money around like my parents do or my friends who also have well off Moms and Dads. Unlike them, I would never look down my nose at someone because they had less than I do. Money doesn’t buy you the kinds of things that are necessary in life...like love. And I fucking love Hadley and will spend every day proving to her how much...and after today everyone else will see it too, not that I care what they think.

I park along the street and walk up the short sidewalk to her front door. I rub my sweaty palms on my pants. This is the first time I’ve gone to her house without sneaking in the window. I ring the bell with no response. I find her bike in the driveway along with both of her parents’ cars. Annoyed, I press the bell again two more times and wait. Footsteps grow heavy as someone approaches and then opens the door.

Her dad stands there looking at me half smiling until he realizes who I am.

“What?” He scoffs glancing behind me.

I take a deep breath now nervous to ask for her and scared shitless for when we tell this man that I am dating his daughter. I can see from his eyes that he hates me just because of who my dad is. I don’t understand it though. He is the one who stole his best friend’s girlfriend.

I know my dad has made his life a living hell. I’ve overheard him talking with his numerous contacts about keeping his ex-best friend, Hadley’s dad, from promotions at work, promotions he deserved. At least that’s one good thing about feeling nonexistent in your home. No one hears you coming or going and you listen to things that weren’t meant for your ears.

“I’m looking for Hadley,” I manage to get out. My voice cracks, sounding like a prepubescent boy going through the change.

I feel as though I can see smoke coming from his ears. He snarls, his face morphing into what I can imagine a murderer looking like just before stabbing his victim. “So, YOU’RE the reason, huh?”

My chest vibrates at his booming voice. I think the entire neighborhood heard him.

“I’m sorry, sir. The reason for what?” My eyebrows scrunch together in confusion.

“AVA!” he screams behind him and Hadley’s mother almost instantaneously appears next to him. She looks outside the door, finding me, and her face drops. She’s pissed too.

“Go home, Ryder,” she tells me after her husband walks away. Slowly, she proceeds to close the door on me.

I put my hand up to keep it from shutting. “Where is Hadley?” I ask pleading. This doesn’t seem right. Something is very wrong.

Why do my lungs feel constricted?

“She’s gone. She won’t be coming back to that school. You need to leave now and don’t you dare step foot on this property again.”

Taking advantage of her hit to my gut, this time she is able to fully shut the door.

I sink to the ground and shake my head side to side in disbelief.

She can’t be gone.

But she was. That was the first of many failed attempts at finding Hadley. She left me and found some douche and now she has given all her love and trust to him.

I head back inside stopping at the bar to order three shots of tequila. Downing one of them I sit back at the table with AJ. He just stares at me as I numbly push the shot over to him. Our small glasses clink and we poor the liquid down our throats. He still says nothing as we sit but points his beer bottle in the direction behind me.

I look across the bar and my eyes are met with a hot blonde. She’s dressed fucking sexy in a tight blue tank top and jean skirt with a long black shirt over her outfit that has holes everywhere. She tops the look off with tall black boots that say “screw my brains out.”

She catches me staring at her and gives a little finger wave. I drunkenly wave back and raise my eyebrows. Her plump lips curve up into a smile and she nods towards the door.

Hadley’s words repeat over and over again in my head in her soft delicate voice.

I love Braden.

I trust him.

I love Braden.

“Sorry, AJ. I’m out of here.” I stand up and walk towards the hot goddess and realize how drunk I am when I trip a little bit.

She giggles and I shake my head in embarrassment.

“Hey!” she says when I reach her.

“Hey yourself.”

“You look sad.” She pouts and takes her index finger and glides it over my frown.

“I’m not sad. Just looking to forget,” I say sticking my tongue out and licking her finger.