Chapter 3
REX
What the fuck was that?
I need to control myself better. Hailey isn’t in the right state of mind. She wouldn’t be thinking and saying these things if she were. And what kind of monster am I for playing along with it? Feeding on her vulnerability for my own benefit.
But I can’t stop myself. She’s become my everything. She’s the first thing I think about when I wake up, and the last thought to cross my mind before I drift off to sleep. Hailey Kimble has consumed me whole, so, there’s no wonder why I can’t keep myself in check.
And you might be thinking that some light flirting isn’t all that bad. You’d be wrong.
It’s a fucking gateway to the promised land. Starting with some compliments and cheesy lines here and there, soon enough we’ll be talking about how I want to drown in her soaking cunt. What a way to go out. Any man would be lucky to have the opportunity.
After our hasty escape from the restaurant, I drive Hailey straight home. Two drinks is hardly enough to get a party started, but I won’t be able to behave myself if I have anymore.
Her place is the typical American dream house. White walls, double story house, surrounded by a white picket fence, manicured green garden with a sprinkling of colorful flowers around the front. No gate in front makes pulling onto the brick driveway easy.
I stop in front of the garage and before I can even switch my car off, Hailey sighs deeply.
Fuck. I must be the biggest asshole on the planet. Putting my wants above her needs when she’s in such a bad way. Time to start thinking with my head instead of my cock if I want this to be anything more than a terrible mistake on the day she buried her dad.
I switch off the car and reach for the door handle but Hailey throws her hand over mine to stop me from opening it. Turning to face her, I see tears welling in her eyes. She’s on the verge of breaking, and my heart’s in the very same position.
“What’s wrong?” I reach out and cup her cheek, brushing away a tear that hasn’t fallen yet.
“Can we sit here for a while?” She asks, voice quivering and blue puppy dog eyes staring straight into mine. “I don’t think I’m ready to go back in there yet.”
“Of course,” I slip an arm around her shoulder to pull her into a gentle hug, inadvertently getting a lungful of her coconut scented hair. God, she’s fucking perfect. “We’ll stay here as long as you need to.”
We sit in silence at first before Hailey flicks on my radio and Tom Waits starts blaring out.
“Thank you for today, Rex. I needed it,” she whispers. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t here.”
“I’ll always be here for you, Hailey. You don’t have to worry about that.” It was true before Josef gave me his letter, too. She’s as much my family as my own damned father, and if the future holds what I want it to, that will be made true with a ring on her finger.
“Even when I’m a mess?” She forces out a chuckle, but it sounds more like a whimper.
“Especially then.”
She nods appreciatively, and rests her head on my chest. We fall back to silence for a bit, listening to the radio and staring at the big house ahead of us.
“Y’know, it’s funny,” she speaks again, and I can hear that this time I’m meant to listen and not interrupt.
No jokes, no figuring out solutions, she just needs someone to hear what she’s saying.
“All week I’ve been a mess. Sitting alone in my room, crying my eyes out, and praying that he’d somehow magically walk through the door again.
Call my name and say he brought tacos for dinner.
Hell, even shout at me for the most meaningless thing …
” She sniffles and buries her face against my pectoral.
“I didn’t feel that way today. For the first time since it happened, you took my mind off things.
I almost forgot it was real until we got back here. ”
“I’m glad I could help.” This isn’t my domain. I’m not a soothsayer.
I’m the guy back at the restaurant. Cold, calculated, violent. It got beaten into me during my first few weeks of military training and stuck ever since. But I want to be better for her. Dig deep and find the guy who can be a pillar when she needs something to lean on.
Not every war can be won with your fists.
“I don’t want to go back in there, Rex.”
“But it’s your home.” I stroke the back of her head. Her soft hair against my fingertips makes every muscle in my body scream for more. Another touch, slipping lower to feel skin, a kiss … fucking anything.
“I can’t face it alone.” She shakes her head against me.
Don’t do it, Rex. Don’t say it.
“Want me to spend the night? Might make things a little easier if you have someone around?”
Her head snaps up to me, eyes burning bright. “Would you?”
“Like I said, Kitten,” to hell with it. Why run and hide from my feelings when it’s what we both want? And just because I’m staying a night, doesn’t mean anything has to happen. We can lie on the couch, watch movies and pretend life is normal for a while. “I’ll always be here for you.”
We head inside, Hailey leading with a new pep in her step. The front door opens to a hall way with a staircase on the lefthand side. To the right, the living room. A closed door on the left was a downstairs bedroom Josef converted into his office. And at the end of the hall is the kitchen.
Hailey makes her way straight to the living room and flicks the TV on. My guess is it’s become habit to drown out the silence. Just some noise so her place doesn’t feel so empty.
“Can I get you something to drink?” I stop in the doorway and lean against the frame.
“Sure. I’ll have a glass of wine, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.” I step back. “Red or white?”
“Hmm,” she flicks through the channels. “Let’s go with red.”
I head into the kitchen, but before I grab the drinks I take a moment to observe it. Mostly looking for signs that Hailey’s been taking care of herself while she’s been alone. Grieving.
To my surprise, there’s a stack of dishes in the basin, with a pan on the stove that cooked this morning’s breakfast.
I’ve never been happier to see a mess in my life.
Grabbing a beer from the fridge and cracking open a fresh bottle of red, I take the drinks back to Hailey. She’s lying on the sofa, watching the intro to some movie I’ve never heard of.
“It’s a romance, a rom-com,” she says. “Hope you don’t mind?”
“Not one bit.” I fall next to Hailey and get comfortable on the sofa.
Around twenty minutes into the movie, Hailey kicks her legs over my lap. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have minded it. But she’s hovering dangerously close to my rock-hard spear, and I’m not sure there’s any way to talk myself out of it, if she happened to brush against it.
“Listen, Hailey, I should apologize.” I decide to speak, hoping making things a little more serious will keep her from moving. Or better yet, cool me down.
“For what?” She turns her eyes to me. “Those guys deserved what they got. You don’t have to say sorry about that.”
“It’s not them I’m sorry for.” Nah, those pricks deserve a lot worse than what I gave ‘em. But I’ve dealt with enough death for one day. “I shouldn’t talk to you that way. Fun as it is, I don’t want you regretting your decisions.”
“I don’t regret my decisions,” she says. “None of them.”
Well, that backfired. Instead of settling the throb, this made it so much worse.
“And something tells me you feel the same way.” Her eyes twinkle devilishly, telling me all I need to know. If I were a blushing man, I’d be doing it now.
“It’s that obvious?”
She nods, slowly. Teasingly. “It’s not exactly easy to miss.”
Looking down at my pants, I see what she means. The front’s practically a tepee, bobbing and bouncing every time my cock flexes inadvertently.
“But you don’t have to be embarrassed, Rex,” she says.
“I’m not.” And that’s the problem.
“Then how about you let me help you with it?” Her eyes widen as she says those words, as her mouth drops so low in astonishment that I’m surprised it hasn’t dislocated from her jaw.
Even she wasn’t expecting that one.
Hailey drags her legs off my lap, slowly brushing my girth with the back of her foot as she goes. Giggling as she does it tells me it was intentional. She kicks her feet off the couch, adjusting her body until she’s on all fours next to me.
“What are you doing?” I ask, crunching my hands into fists to stop them from grabbing her.
She doesn’t know how close she is to being flung over the coffee table, stripped bare, and having her tight little cunt destroyed.
Then again, she wouldn’t be poking the bear if she didn’t know.
Her fingers walk across my thigh, stepping ever closer to my erection.
I watch as it nears, no more fight left in me to stop this.
I’ve tried being the bigger person, fending off my base instincts, but at the end of it all, I’m still a man.
And she’s a woman. A beautiful fucking woman that’s plagued my every waking thought for the last two years.
Hailey leans in close to my ear, slipping her free hand around my neck. She sticks her tongue out and it strikes my ear, delivering a wave of electric pleasure tickling every nerve ending in my body.
“Exactly what you want me to,” she answers, and without warning, pulls my neck in her direction.
Our lips lock in an instant. A gentle peck to start, testing the waters and seeing how I react.
But I can’t stop the floodgates from opening now.
Cupping Hailey’s cheeks in both my hands, I turn feral as I devour her plump lips.
Our tongues meet somewhere in the middle, gnashing and gnawing against one another in their own pleasure-fueled dance.
All the while, her hand finds its way over my manhood. Brushing it through my trousers with her fingertips. Getting a feel for the instrument of her pleasure.
Somehow, my mind snaps out of the haze of heat and lust, right as my hand starts travelling down her body.
“Hailey, stop.” My protest is weak and wispy, but I have to put my foot down. It isn’t the right time for this.
If she feels the same way once the dust has settled and her grieving is over, then we can explore this new interest. But as much as I want to let the monster take control, I’ll never be able to live with myself if it caused a rift between us.
“What’s wrong? Am I doing something wrong?” She asks, fingertips half-wrapped around my trousered cock.
God, I could cum just from this touch alone.
“No,” I free her face from my grip and lean back to put some distance between us. Sighing hard, I continue. “You’re doing everything right. That’s the problem.”
“Then I don’t understand why you want me to stop.” Sadness floods her puppy dog eyes as she looks up at me.
“Because you’re not in the right headspace. It wouldn’t be righ—”
“I want it. You want it. I don’t see the problem,” she interrupts.
“I should pull you over my lap and spank you for back chatting me,” I narrow my eyes to show some sort of authority.
Hailey’s, on the other hand, start twinkling with mischievous delight. “Then do it, Daddy.” She leans right up against my ear again. “Teach your little girl a lesson. Punish me.”
Daddy? Little girl?
Those words set off a chemical explosion in my head. Pleasure, desire, a twisted need to do exactly what I said and watch her pale ass turn several shades darker.
I reach out and grab her behind the neck, holding her in place for a moment. I stare deep into her eyes, searching for any sign of why I should stop. But it won’t come from her, not right now.
So I yank her towards my lips and kiss her again, hard and fast, before pulling away.
“That’s the end of it, Hailey,” I use my stern voice. The one reserved for delivering orders to my team at work. The one that demands finality.
But deep down I know this isn’t anywhere close to the end.
Because the two of us …
We’re just getting started.