Текст книги "Throttled"

Автор книги: Elizabeth Lee

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Текущая страница: 14 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

By the time Brett was out of recovery and we were able to see him, it was past ten so neither Nora nor I minded when Brett insisted that we go home for the night. I felt terrible leaving him, but according to him he planned on asking the nurse for a double dose of pain meds and sleeping until his leg was healed. The surgeon had talked to him briefly, but was saving the full conversation about rebuilding his knee until he was fully conscious and able to make a clear-headed decision. Getting back on a dirt bike and back in freestyle champion form was going to be an uphill battle.

“Please go home,” he’d said when he saw Nora struggling to keep her eyes open and me barely able to hold a conversation. The day had been emotionally draining, to say the least, but seeing Brett awake had made me feel a little bit better, and I knew that Nora was glad to be there with me even if she wasn’t saying much.

Georgia had left a little while earlier, but promised to stop by the next day. Brett hadn’t said much about what they talked about, but it looked like Georgia was shaken up when she left. That seemed to be the only thing that he was excited about, not to mention his mom and dad were going to fly in the next morning. Between Georgia and his mother I was sure he’d be well taken care of.

“I’ll stop back by in the morning,” I told him. “I’m real sorry this happened to you,” I apologized for what seemed like the hundredth time.

“It wasn’t your fault, RT.” He gave me a groggy, medically altered smile. “Probably a good thing it was me, anyway. You’re probably too much of a pussy to handle this kind of pain.”

“That’s real easy to say when you’re speed clicking that morphine, Sally,” I’d laughed.

Nora leaned over and kissed his cheek before we left, barely saying two words. I could see the guilt she was carrying. It was the same as mine. Brett was hurt because of Beau, and Beau was acting like a jackass because of Nora and me. Even if Brett seemed to not be placing blame, I think we were both pointing the finger at ourselves.

I’d meant it when I said I was going to make it my mission to ruin Beau. The second my guys figured out exactly what went wrong with that bike, it would be over for Gregurich. I had a pretty good idea of exactly what I wanted to do. I’d been thinking about it since before the accident actually, but I wanted to talk to Nora first.

I was pissed that she went to his shop by herself, but this whole team mentality thing she’d mentioned—about us being in this together and protecting each other, was pretty fucking fantastic. God, I loved her. I didn’t think it was possible to love her more, but then I heard her telling Gregurich off and if I hadn’t been so consumed with the desire to beat his head against the wall I probably would have bent her over that desk and showed her just how sexy it was that she had my back.

“We’re home, baby,” I said, waking her gently. She’d fallen asleep on the short drive back to my place. Because we were both exhausted and Georgia took her car home, I’d driven us in her car from the hospital.

“I can’t believe I fell asleep,” she mumbled. She looked so cute with her tired eyes squinting as the dome light turned on when we opened the doors.

“It’s been a long day.” We walked into up the front steps of the porch and I unlocked the door. I opened the door and swept her up into my arms, cradling her legs and her back. She looped her arms around my neck and rested her head on my chest. “How about that shower?”

“Sounds fantastic.”

After locking the door behind us and carrying her up the stairs, I sat her down on the bathroom counter and turned on the bathtub faucet and pulled the shower lever. As the water heated, I took my time kissing her lips and neck as I pulled her shirt over her head. She returned the favor as I stood between her legs.

Between Brett and Beau and everything else that we’d talked about that day, neither of us were particularly chatty. The feel of our skin against each other’s as hot water cascaded over us seemed to be good enough. It was something I’d never get tired of, that was for sure.

“I love you so fucking much,” I said as I backed her up against the shower wall. Every curve of her body was made for me. Was made for my hand and my mouth to touch and cherish. I’d thought I’d had every freckle, every scar, every inch of her memorized before, but with the second chance I was given with her, I was learning to appreciate everything a little bit more. I was noticing things I hadn’t in the past, like how if I kissed her right above the tiny mole on her chest, she would moan and thrust her tits forward into my body. And, if I ran the tip of my cock through her center, she’d find a way to open up for me. That night, she propped one foot up on the side of the tub and invited me to touch her.

“Please,” she said, when I didn’t immediately fill her. I wanted to, believe me, but in my haste to get her naked and in my arms, I’d forgotten to grab a condom from my room.

“I don’t have anything,” I said, replacing my dick with my fingers to satisfy her instead. She moaned instantly as I thrust two fingers inside of her. “We’ll have to wait.” I worked my thumb over her clit as the water continued to spray down on me. Her skin was pebbled from being out of the stream and into the cold air. I did my best to keep her warm, covering her body with mine as I continued to touch her.

“We don’t have to wait,” she insisted between labored breaths. “I want you. Now.”

“But—”

“I’m good,” she told me. “I’m on the pill.”

“You’re sure?” I asked, not wanting to let my excitement get the best of me. The idea of feeling her with nothing between us had my cock steely with possibility. I wanted to bury myself and fuck her until I couldn’t see straight. Which wouldn’t take long considering I knew just how tight and hot she’d be when I felt her with my bare skin.

“Yes,” she cried out, as I hooked my fingers forward, stroking her most sensitive spot. “God, yes.”

I grabbed her thigh and pulled her leg up around my waist and thrust into her, bracing one arm on the wall to make sure we didn’t slip. I took her mouth with mine and tried to balance my focus between her kiss and the feel of the walls of her pussy tightening around me. It was too much. She was too much.

“Jesus, Nora, this feels good,” I told her, resting my head against hers and circling my hips to go deeper. I’d willingly torture myself with the pleasure of her any day of the week.

“Don’t stop,” she begged. I didn’t want to, but if I didn’t slow down, it was going to be over for me before she was done.

“I have to,” I said, slowing my pace.

“No,” she said. “I want to feel you come. Keep going.” She latched her hand around my neck and pulled my face to hers. “Keep fucking me.”

The fire in her eyes and the words spilling from her lips before she’d kissed me was all the go ahead I needed. I drove into her hard and fast until I felt my restraint fade and I came harder than I ever had before. As soon as I finished, I dropped my forehead against hers.

“I’m sorry, baby.” The regret I felt for not bringing her to climax was instantaneous. “I tried to hold back. You just felt so damn good and then you told me to keep going. I couldn’t stop myself.”

“Don’t be sorry,” she said with a satisfied grin. “I wanted you to feel good. And, watching you is the next best thing.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” I told her as I switched our positions, placing her under the hot water. As she tilted her head back to wet her hair, I soaped up my hands and began washing her body. Lathering her skin was the least I could do. As I watched the water cascade over her skin and wash the bubbles away, I could already feel my cock pulsing for round two.

As soon as we were clean and dried off, I led her to the bedroom and quickly pulled the towels from our body. Climbing into bed with her, I dragged my tongue down her damp skin until I was positioned between her legs and able to lick through her center.

“Already?” she asked as she smiled at me.

“Not quite,” I told her, looking up into her eyes. “But I will be soon.” I flicked my tongue against her clit and watched as her head fell on to the pillow. “You’re crazy if you think I’m going to let you sleep before you’ve at least come twice.”

I made good on my promise. Once with my tongue and once as we made slow, passionate love before falling asleep in each other’s arms.

* * *

The sunlight shining into the room had woken me, and when I rolled over to look at the angelic woman sleeping peacefully next to me I didn’t mind one bit. Judging by the sun, it had to be before six. The sun was just starting to rise and it was still a little hazy out.

As much as I wanted to watch her sleep, I had something that I had to show her. The sunrise would only make it that much more memorable for her. All I wanted to do was fill her head with amazing memories and I had a feeling this one was going to be huge. Or at least I hoped it was going to be.

It was something I’d been thinking about for a while… something I should have done a long time ago. I started kissing the side of her neck until she began to stir.

“Mmmm...” She turned on her side to face me. “Good morning,” she purred.

“Good morning, gorgeous.” I kissed the tip of her nose and quickly jumped out of bed.

“Where are you going?” She sighed. “It’s barely light out.”

“I know.” I tossed her one of my t-shirts and a pair of sweats that I knew she would have to roll to keep on her waist. “Get dressed. I have something to show you.” I pulled on a pair of jeans and a shirt, and, begrudgingly, she followed me.

“We better be going to get breakfast,” she told me as I took her hand and led her downstairs and out the back door of the cabin.

“We can,” I pulled her hand to my lips, “but first I need you to come somewhere with me.”

“Fine,” she said dramatically, flashing a grin that said she was game for my little expedition. We walked down the back edge of the property, passed the track and to the top of one of the few hills. Her hand in mine and a thousand questions rolling off her tongue. The mystery was eating her from the inside out, which only made me smile that much more as I kept quiet. From the top, we could see out over the pond and if you squinted, we could see the construction of my parents’ house in the distance.

“All right,” I said, moving to stand in front of her. “Close your eyes.”

“Just tell me what we’re doing, Reid.”

“Just do it.” I laughed at her early morning crankiness. “I promise it will be worth it.”

Skeptically, I closed one eye waiting for him to just get on with it. What could he possibly have to show me that required an early morning hike?

“Both of them,” he insisted, placing his hands on my shoulders. When I did, I felt his full lips against mine. If he was looking to take our love making outside, there was a pretty good chance I’d comply if he kept kissing me the way he was. When he stopped, I knew the new fantasy in my head would have to wait. “Okay,” he said, tugging my shoulders a little so I would follow his direction. “A little more. Two more steps. Okay, stop.” I heard him sigh and I couldn’t tell if he was nervous or excited or a little bit of both.

“What are you doing?” I said, when I didn’t hear him say anything for what seemed like forever.

“I’m thinking, woman,” he said with a chuckle. “Give a guy a second to get his thoughts right.”

I was confused and excited, and a tiny part of me wondered if I was going to open my eyes and find him on one knee. If he’d planned on proposing first thing in the morning and I hadn’t even put on makeup I was going to seriously question his sanity. Not that I would even consider saying no. If he was crazy, I was crazy.

“Nora,” he said, his tone a bit more serious. I started to open my eyes. “Not yet. Just little bit longer.” He cleared his throat and the nervous anticipation I felt building in my chest had traveled to my throat. I tried to swallow it down as he continued. I trusted him and whatever harebrained scheme he was trying to pull off. “Nora. You know I love you?”

“Yes.”

“You know that I don’t ever want to be away from you?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve been thinking a lot lately, and I wanted to run something by you.”

“Okay...”

“I wanted to know what you would think about the two of us building a life together.”

“You know I want that.”

“I do, but what I mean is seriously taking a step that would make Halstead our home.”

“I think I understand.” I felt my head tilt as I tried to figure out what he meant. “But...”

“Open your eyes,” he said, as he walked around behind me. His arms circled my waist and he rested his head on my shoulder. “I mean, I literally want to build a home with you. Right here.”

Having my eyes closed so long, it took a second for them to adjust. As soon as they did, I was able to take in the scenery. The wide, grassy hillside overlooking the back half of the one hundred acres he’d purchased for his parents.

“Right where we are standing we could build a house,” he told me. He’d obviously thought a lot about this, and I could see exactly why he’d picked this location. His arms slipped from around me and he walked a few feet to my right. “Our kitchen. Where you cook fantastic meals, and I probably just make a mess.” He smiled, moving to the left. “A living room, where our friends and family come to hang out and where you force me to watch those terrible movies.” He paused, before grabbing my hand with his. “And, maybe one day it will be where we play with our kids and they force us to watch terrible cartoon dinosaurs and singing princesses.”

My anxiety quickly turned to admiration and hope and every other feeling that you get when you actually start to envision the future with the person you love. Tiny versions of Reid and me running around the very property where we’d grown up was something that I used to think about, especially when I was pregnant, but after the miscarriage and when he left I thought the possibility was gone. But now, seeing him here and hearing all of the big plans he had for us, my heart melted. Reid was the reason I could never see a future with anyone else. He was my future.

“And over here,” he said, pulling me to the left. “Our bedroom. Where we go to sleep and wake up with each other as much as possible, and where a whole lot of other fun stuff happens,” he said, waggling his eyebrows, which earned a chuckle from me. He tugged me closer to him and kissed me softly. “I know my job is less than ideal for building a life together, but if we actually have a home somewhere to call ours between the traveling and training, maybe it won’t be so bad.”

“I love it,” I said, practically jumping up to kiss him again. He locked his arms around me and held my body to his as I covered his lips and the rest of his face with peppered kisses. “I love you.”

“You mean it?”

“Yes! I want to build a life with you, and the fact that you want to have at least part of it here means the world to me.”

“I’d never want to take you away from your family,” he confessed. “Besides, my parents are going to be here too, and we might need some help with all the kids, you know?”

“We might,” I laughed. Yesterday, he’d hypothetically proposed a marriage, today, we were having a brood of hypothetical children. It was terrifyingly fantastic and I loved that he wanted to do it all with me.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what you went through back then,” he told me, his eyes dropping to my stomach for a brief moment. “I think you’re right about the timing not being right and how everything worked out the way it did for a reason. But now, it’s different. We can handle it. We can make this work and we can be parents if we want to be. We could... we can have whatever we want out of life.” His admission had left me speechless. I know I might have had concerns that he was a guy with Peter Pan Syndrome, a big kid who just liked to ride his motorcycle, but I could tell he was ready to grow up. He was ready for a life with me. I was ready for a life with him.

“That sounds amazing,” I finally said, my voice breaking through my anxiety. “I want all of that with you.” I paused. “How will all of this work with racing?”

“I’m not quite sure yet, but I know that I can train here as long as the weather allows. If I have to go back to Texas or wherever, we can go together. If you want. If not, you can stay here and design our home.”

“I like this plan, Reid Travers.”

“Good, because I love you, Nora Bennett.”

* * *

The week passed faster than I would have liked. Reid was set to leave for Texas in less than twenty-four hours and as much as I was looking forward to the life we were planning together, I was upset that I wasn’t going to see him every day. I’d planned on cooking dinner for him at my place tonight, but first we had to get the cabin ready for Brett.

“He’s really going to stay in Halstead?” I asked as Reid and I put clean sheets on the bed. Brett was taking the room that Hoyt had stayed in and we’d been working all morning to get it ready for him to come home from the hospital, even though I suspected he’d be sleeping downstairs on the couch more often than not. Even though his knee was repaired and he had already started physical therapy, I imagined stairs would be a pain.

“I guess so.” Reid shrugged. “Said he liked the doctors here,” he chuckled, “but I’m betting it has something more to do with a certain nursing student.” He was, of course, referring to my sister.

“She’s been by the hospital every day,” I said. “She keeps insisting that it’s purely friendship.” I shook my head. “I’m not buying it.”

“It’s hard to not fall in love with a Bennett girl.” He winked, as we tossed the pillows at the top of the bed, his words tugging at my heart strings.

“She needs someone to take care of,” I told him. “It’s kind of her thing. Now that I’ve got my life all straightened out, she’s going to channel her focus on him.”

“He needs it,” Reid said. “Brett can be a hard guy to love sometimes. He needs someone like your sister to keep him in line.”

“I don’t doubt she can keep him in line.” I sighed. “I just want her to be happy again. She hasn’t dated anyone since Jamie.” Reid offered up a sympathetic smile, and I could tell he was just as nervous about my sister getting involved with Brett as I was. He was a good guy, deep down, but he had a reputation. Not that either of us had any room to talk about what the right way to be with someone was. If my sister thought Brett was worth a chance then who were we to stand in her way.

“Time will tell, Shutterbug,” Reid said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me toward him. He pressed a kiss to my forehead as we walked down the hallway. “Maybe they will be exactly what each other needs.”

“Maybe.”

As soon as we were down stairs, Reid’s phone started to ring. He picked it up off the coffee table and looked up at me.

“It’s Mike,” he said. “The mechanic who took my bike after the accident.” Mike calling meant he knew what had happened with the bike. It meant that we would know if Beau was to blame. “Hey Mike,” Reid said when he answered. I waited anxiously as they talked, trying to read his face and decipher what was being said on the other end. Not being able to hear what Mike was saying was damn near killing me. “Really? That makes perfect sense.” He nodded his head. “You think?” His jaw clenched. “Son of a bitch.”

“What’s he saying?” I whispered, knowing that it was not good.

“Thanks again for taking a look at it,” he told him. “I’ll be in touch soon. I’ve got a new bike on its way.” Reid’s sponsors had re-ordered him a bike for the upcoming season. “Well,” he said when hung up. “We were right.”

“What did he do?” I asked. I think we both knew that Beau had messed with the bike, but the confirmation cemented it.

“Replaced the fuel lines,” he said. “Purposely made them too long so they would kink and cut off the flow. Dumbass used lines from his shop so it was easy to track. No one sells the kind he used within a hundred mile radius.”

“At least we know now,” I said, trying to stay calm. I could tell Reid wanted to rush out the door and find Beau. It wasn’t going to solve anything by Reid beating him up. Beau hadn’t called the cops the last time Reid punched him, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t this time. “What are you going to do?”

“Well, the thing is we can’t legally prove that it was Beau since the fuel lines aren’t marked, and I’m sure that he will come up with some alibi for where he was that night.” Reid sighed, before a determined look crossed his face. “I’m just going to have to give him a reason to leave town, I guess.”

“How?”

“I’m going to run him out of business.” He smirked. “Don’t you think people would rather buy a dirt bike from me?”

“I think they would,” I said with a nod, already seeing where he was going with this.

“In fact, I think I’m going to open a track and a shop. The only time that Beau has ever beaten me at anything was because I let him. He wants to play games, then I’ll show him why I always win,” he said with a determined look in his eye. He cracked his knuckles as a satisfied smile took over his lips. “I need to expand my business portfolio anyway,” he shrugged. “Can’t ride forever.” God he was adorable.