Chapter 29 – Lilah
Chapter Twenty-Nine
LILAH
I slip out of bed, trying not to wake Emmett, who has been glued to my side since last night when he came back. He even tried to get out of riding with Lucy until I put my foot down and said I was going with or without him. I thought it was a good idea then, but the longer we were out there, the more I looked around and saw things.
Of course, nothing was there, and it was just my head playing tricks on me, but I was on edge the whole night, especially when Emmett had to explain the alarm to Lucy. I wanted to grab my bags and get the fuck out of here. Except I had nowhere to go, or better yet, I didn’t want anyone else getting tangled in the web that was my life.
Who would have thought, after everything Derek had already put me through, he would be doing this now? Not me, that’s for sure. I was a thousand percent sure I was just a memory to him.
Tiptoeing to the side of the bed, I grab my panties that somehow got tossed there in the middle of the night and then my phone. Turning the door handle in my hand, I try to get out without waking Emmett. I pull open the door and then look over my shoulder at him sleeping in the middle of the bed, on his back. One hand is on his chest, the other hand is beside him where I was just sleeping a couple of minutes ago. My head tells me to get out of here at the same time my heart tells me to go back to him.
Walking out of the bedroom, I close the door softly behind me before making my way to my bedroom. I look over and see it’s just a little after five. I turn off my alarm before heading into the bathroom and getting dressed.
I slip on a pair of jeans I washed and folded last night before putting on a sports bra and then a Mustang Creek T-shirt. I’m slipping on my boots when I hear footsteps coming toward the front door. “What the fuck are you doing?” Emmett asks, standing there in just a pair of boxers.
“I couldn’t sleep,” I admit, “so I’m going to go ride Juliet.” I stand, tucking my cell phone in my back pocket.
“You shouldn’t be out there alone,” he warns.
“Charlie called last night and said the people he spoke to said Derek had just left town.” I smile at him, trying to calm my heart rate down.
“He said he wasn’t in town now, but he has been in and out.” Of course he would remember it word for word.
“Well, he’s not now, so it’s safe for me to take a ride. I’m not going to go far, just the path we did last night.”
“You have your phone on you, right?” he asks, and I take it out of my back pocket. “And you are still sharing your location with me?” I nod. Last night, I shared it with both him and Charlie and they also put a tracker on my truck.
“I’ll see you at work,” I tell him, and he comes close to me, grabbing my hip, pulling me to him. His lips softly brush mine. “Tell Lucy to have a nice day,” I say before I walk out the door and head to the barn.
The sun is just coming up by the time I’m walking out with Juliet by my side. I stick one foot in the stirrup before I mount her. “Let’s go, girlie.” I nudge her side with my boot, and she gallops toward the wooded area. Now that I’m not with Lucy, I start to pick up speed. I tuck myself down a bit to make her go even faster. The wind blows in my face as the trees fly by, my mind clear of everything that has been going on, exactly what I need this morning. I’m not even paying attention to anything, and when Juliet suddenly halts, I don’t have a chance to grab her reins in my hand tightly before I am thrown off the horse. Landing on my side, I let out a “oof” when my head hits the damp ground.
A high-pitched squeal comes out of Juliet, and I roll to the side to avoid her stepping on me when she walks back. “Juliet,” I call her name as I get on my hands and knees and feel the burn coming from my right arm. I ignore it before standing on my feet and walking over to her. Dusting off the dirt from my jeans, I see the cakes of mud that are all over the front of them. “Juliet.” I hold out my hand for her to come to me. With her head down and unsure, she walks over to me and sniffs my hand. “Let’s get back home, yeah?”
Mounting her again, I lean forward and rub her neck. “Slow and easy, yeah?” I assure her as she walks forward, looking down at the ground, stopping for a second before her neck comes up and she walks forward. It takes double the time to get back to the barn, and when I’m in the fenced arena, I let a little sigh out. I look at my arm, finally seeing the friction burn on the side of the arm I fell on.
Bobby is there in the barn when I get there and walk in. He looks over smiling, and then his smile is gone when he sees me. “What happened to you?” He rushes over to me.
“Something spooked her.” I look at Juliet. “I wasn’t paying attention, and she threw me off.”
“You need to get that cleaned up.” He motions with his chin to my arm. “I’ll take her and get her situated.”
“Thanks,” I say, handing him her reins before walking away, trying to limp through the pain in my side. Walking into the barn and heading straight to the bathroom, I turn on the water in the sink.
I open the mirrored medicine cabinet and grab the first-aid kit, shutting it and seeing the side of my face also has some dirt on it. I’m about to wet my hands when the door flies open. “What the fuck happened?” Emmett stands there with fury all over his face. Behind him is Lucy with a more scared look.
“Nothing.” I try to play it off. “I think there was a rabbit, and we all know she hates rabbits.”
He grabs the first-aid kit from me. “Did you fall?” Lucy asks softly.
“I wasn’t paying attention”—I try not to scare her—“and I moved to the right, and she moved to the left, and I tumbled.” I smile at her. “But I’m all good.”
“You don’t look all good,” she observes, and I can’t help but snort.
Emmett wets some gauze with water before he cleans my arm, and I try not to wince. He then disinfects the scratches before he places some ointment on them and then looks up at me, and I can see the anger from his look. “That should be good,” he says, his teeth clenched. “Can you do your face? I have to get Lucy to school, and then I’ll come back and get you.”
“You don’t have to,” I say, and he ignores me and looks down at Lucy.
“Let’s go,” he urges her.
“Have a good day,” I say, and she smiles shyly at me before following her father out.
I clean my face and walk back into the house, changing my pants before I walk out, and he’s arriving. He rounds the truck, and his glare is right at me. “No more fucking rides in the morning.” He looks like his body is about to blow up like the Hulk. “You want to ride, you do it in the fucking fenced arena when people are working.”
“I’m fine,” I assure him. “I’ve fallen before.”
“I said what I said,” he hisses. “Now get your ass in the truck.”
I fold my arms over my chest when he doesn’t wait for me to answer. Instead, he storms to the truck and gets in. I can see Bobby looking over, and not willing to give them more to talk about, I stomp over to the truck and get in. We don’t say anything to each other as we make the two-minute drive.
I get out of the truck before he turns it off, and Charlie waits for me. “How mad is he?”
“Don’t know, don’t care.” I walk right past him. “It was an accident.”
“Lilah,” he calls my name softly, “he’s going through a lot right now.”
“Well, he’s not the only one,” I say over my shoulder. I walk past Sammy, who takes one look at me and then my arm, and his eyes almost bulge out of his head. “Don’t,” I snap, and he holds up his hands. “Sorry, I’m fine,” I tell him. “Just fine.”
“Got it.” It looks like he’s about to say something else when he turns his head, and I see Emmett storming into the barn. “Later,” he says, turning and running for cover probably.
I don’t give him another second of my time before heading to the office. I spend all day long working, and when I have to go into the barn, I wait for someone to come into my office before sending the papers back.
Only when Emmett comes into my office at four thirty do I realize Lucy isn’t back from school yet. “You ready to go?”
“Where is Lucy?” I ask.
“She and Saige are having a sleepover at Brock’s place. It happened this morning when I dropped her off. She’ll be back tomorrow morning after breakfast.” He leans on the top of my desk. “I was thinking we could go out tonight. The guys are all going to Thatcher’s.”
“Um,” I hesitate, not sure what is going on.
“We’ll eat dinner, and then we can go.” He looks over at the side. “Or we can go out and eat and then hit the bar.”
“Um.” That is all I can say.
“Actually, let’s do that,” he adds as if this is a two-sided conversation.
I turn off my computer as I walk side by side with him to his truck. When we get back to his house, he unlocks the door and disarms the alarm before heading toward his bedroom. “Did you want to shower together?”
“No.” I shake my head, still pissed at him for acting like a jackass this morning. I walk toward the bedroom, but I feel his arm around my waist, pulling my back to his front. “Let me go.”
“No.” That’s all he says before he kisses my neck. “I was worried”—his voice is soft—“and I thought you were hurt.”
“I wasn’t.” I look to the side, seeing his face buried in my neck.
“You were, and I hated seeing it.” I swallow down the lump in my throat and feel the weight of his words fill me. “Now, let’s shower and go get something to eat. Then we can go get a drink, but I want to come home early since it’s just the two of us.”
“Okay,” I agree softly, “but it’ll go faster if I shower in one and you shower in the other.”
“Fine,” he concedes before heading to his shower. I walk back to the bedroom where my clothes are, grabbing a pair of panties and a bra before heading to the shower. I shower as fast as I can, putting more ointment on the burn before going to my bag and picking out the only dress I brought with me. The white eyelet ruffled dress goes into a V in the front, the sleeves are tight until the elbows, and then flare off a bit until the middle of my arm. The waist is tight before it goes almost A-line, with a ruffle hem at the bottom.
I walk back into the bathroom, combing through my hair before flipping my head upside down and shaking my hands through it. When I walk back into the living room, he’s waiting for me on the couch. He’s wearing another pair of jeans, with a black T-shirt, his feet in a clean pair of boots. “You look nice,” he compliments, getting up and coming to me. His hair looks like he just ran his hands through it, and I know that is exactly what he did. His hand grips my waist as he pulls me to him. “I like this.” His thumb rubs the little holes in the dress. “A lot.” He looks at me, smirking. “Going to like you out of it more.”
“We could stay home?” I raise my eyebrows, wanting nothing more than to stay with him inside this house, where I can touch him, where he can touch me, where it’s just the two of us.
“No.” He slips his hand in mine. “You got all dressed up.” He walks to the front door, turning off the alarm before arming it for us to be out of the house.
He doesn’t let go of my hand when we walk out, which is new. Even when we get to the bar and I get out, he walks to the back of the truck, meeting me there. “Do you want to eat at the bar?”
“We can,” I reply, expecting him to walk beside me, which he does, but his fingers graze mine a couple of times before he finally gives in and holds my hand. Our fingers intertwine with each other’s. My head spins when we walk in, and I see a couple of the people we work with here smile at us, and then their eyes fly to our hands.
I’m expecting him to drop my hand, but instead, he pulls me to the table where the guys are. “Hey,” he says, pulling out an empty chair and finally letting go of my hand so I can sit down. Then he goes to the empty chair beside me. “You guys eating or just drinking?” he asks, as if it’s the most natural thing for us to arrive together, holding hands. He reaches out to grab the two menus that are on the table.
“How’re you feeling?” Sammy finally asks me, and I look up at him, the beer in his hand on his way to his mouth. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I reply, clearing my throat when it sounds like a frog is sitting in it.
“You want a burger?” Emmett says from beside me, not taking his eyes off the menu.
“That sounds good,” I say as the server comes to the table and takes a couple of the orders. I turn to Sammy to talk to him while Emmett turns to talk to Bobby on the other side of him, his arm going around my chair.
“Do you know why she got spooked?” Sammy asks me, and with everything going on, I’m tongue-tied. “Probably a bird,” he says. “I went to check her after, and she was quiet.”
“I’m going to go and check on her later,” I tell him as the food comes to the table.
We eat side by side. The talk at the table is all of us together now and no little side chats. I laugh at a story Sammy tells about unloading a couple of the new horses, and one of them kicked him in the nuts, and he saw stars. The whole table laughs at the animated way he is telling the story, and when I lean back in the chair, Emmett leans over and whispers in my ear, “Are you ready to go?” I look over at him, a smile on my face, and I just nod.
He pushes away from the table. “Okay, boys, we’re out.” Bobby’s head goes to the side, and his eyes go wide. “Ready?” He looks down at me, and I avoid looking at anyone as I push my chair away from the table.
“See you guys on Monday,” I say, smiling at them as a couple of them share a look with each other when Emmett reaches out and slips his hand in mine.
When we are outside, I turn and look at him. “Everyone saw you holding my hand.”
“Yeah.” That’s all he says as we walk to the truck.
“Um, yeah,” I add, “there is already gossip going around because I’m living with you.”
“There is gossip when I yell at you also,” he replies, not even fazed over what I’m saying. “There is always gossip.” He stops by the passenger side of the truck. “Does it bother you?”
“A bit,” I admit to him. “Doesn’t it bother you?”
“Not even a little.” His head goes to the side, and the last thing I see is his smile before his mouth is on mine. “There,” he finally says when he steps back, “that should give them more to talk about.”
I shake my head and get into the truck, not able to stop the smile from filling my face. We drive back to his house, neither of us saying anything.
He walks up the steps behind me, the soft breeze making my dress move around my legs. I open the door and turn off the alarm before he walks in after me. He closes the door behind him, locking it, and then arms the alarm. I have just enough time to kick off my boots before he turns from the alarm panel toward me, grabbing me and pulling me to him. His mouth crashes down on mine, and his tongue slides into my mouth as he moves us toward his room. The whole house is dark, without a light on, until we get to his bedroom and the soft lights from the side lamps are on.
We make our way to the front of the bed before he turns me in his arms. My back is to his chest as he pushes the hair from the right side of my neck before bending to kiss me softly. One of his arms wraps around my waist, the other going to cup my tit. His hand slides into the front of the dress, under the lace bra. My nipple pebbles while it waits for his touch. He moans while the hand holding my waist grips the side of the dress, raising it up as he pulls it over my head. Leaving me in my bra and panties, he tosses my dress to the side as his hands now come up to cup both breasts. He moves the cups of my bra to the side, my breast aching for his touch as he continues to kiss my neck before turning me around to face him and bending to take a nipple into his mouth. I close my eyes as he moves from one nipple to the other, my hand coming up to play with his hair until he moves his head down to my stomach, trailing little kisses all the way down until he’s on his knees. He kisses right above my panty line before his hands come to my hips, and he pulls them down. I lift one foot and then the other, stepping out of them as he takes one leg and throws it over his shoulder before he licks through my slit. I put my hands on his shoulders as I try not to buckle as he licks me. His wet mouth devours me. “Emmett,” I pant out his name as his fingers join his tongue, pushing me over the edge. The sound of my heavy breathing fills the room. He waits until my orgasm is done before he gets up, and his mouth crashes down on mine.
My hands move to his belt as our tongues dance together, undoing it and then working on his button. He lets go of my mouth as his forehead presses on mine, his eyes closing when I unzip his pants and slide my hands into his boxers, gripping his cock in my hand. “Baby.”
I move to my knees in front of him, pulling his boxers and jeans down over his hips. I grip the base of his cock as I lick the tip of it, taking it into my mouth. I let the head of it go as the tip of my tongue licks all the way down to his balls. I take one of his balls into my mouth, and his head falls back. “Death of me,” he mumbles, and I look up at him as I take the other one in my mouth. I trail my tongue up the other side of his cock toward the tip, taking him back into my mouth. My hand grips the base of his cock, and I work him with my mouth and my hand. He grips the sides of my head as he fucks my mouth. “I really don’t want to lose your mouth,” he grits out, “but I need to sink into your pussy before I lose my mind.”
I twirl my tongue around him. “I’d like that a lot.”
“Good.” He steps out of my reach. “Now get on the bed and wait for me.” I move toward the bed, taking off my bra and tossing it to the side as he takes off his jeans and boots.
I get on the bed, right in the middle, my back on the pillows as he comes on the bed. I sit up, waiting for him. His mouth is on mine as soon as he gets close enough. I’m lost in his kiss, in his touch. “Lie back,” he urges, and then he grips his cock in his hand while I do what I’m told. It feels like hours before he rubs his cock through my folds, but it’s mere seconds before he sinks into me.
“Fuck, it always feels like the first time with you,” he groans as he pulls out until the tip of his cock is almost out of me. “Watch how your pussy takes me,” he instructs, looking at how we are joined. He pulls out slowly and then slides back in. Each time feels better than the last time. “Your pussy was made for my cock,” he hisses as I move my hips up to meet his. I lift my head to kiss his mouth, my hand rubbing up the arm that is holding him up beside me. He isn’t fucking me, no, he’s taking his time. He’s claiming me. He’s making sure I never forget this moment. His nose rubs with mine.
“Fuck, baby,” he whispers before he takes my mouth again. His cock fucks me like I’ve never been fucked before. But I don’t think this is fucking. There is no way this is fucking. It’s more. It’s as if he’s taking a piece of me. I look into his eyes, secretly telling him that little by little I belong to him. “Yeah,” he says, as if he can read my thoughts. My hand comes up to hold his face. “I’m going to come,” he warns, and I’m already there. “I need you to give it to me,” he says, his hips thrusting faster, “and then I need you to take what I give you.”
My hand comes up to his face. “Always.” That’s the only thing I say before I come all over his cock. The pressure is so much my back arches, and I let go with him following me off the cliff.