“I will make sure that you never regret giving me a chance.” She wanted to believe him, but she already regretted her decision. She didn’t want her screwed up past touching him. People in town were already whispering about her and how Jake left her for her sister. What would happen if this new lie Jake was feeding everyone hit town? What would people say about her now, thinking that she was bat shit crazy, trying to break up her sister and her ex-boyfriend?
And, more importantly, how long would it be before Drew believed Jake’s new story and started to doubt her, just like everyone else?
∞
Karlie was going to run again. Drew could see it in her eyes. His mind knew that he couldn’t stop her from going, but his heart said that he was going to damn well try. He just found her again, and he wanted forever with her. He was going to do everything in his power to keep her with him. For now, he had to come up with a new plan. His old plan of offering her a job at his shop and moving her into his house didn’t seem to be working out. He’d have to come up with something quickly, or he knew she’d bolt. Karlie wanted him to go on with his life without her, but she was his life now. She was his everything; he just needed to convince her of that.
He couldn’t stand the doubt on her face, the self-loathing that her sister, Jake, and then her father had instilled in her. He couldn’t understand how her father could believe an asshat like Jake. Jake was a liar. He had overheard Jake bragging about what he’d done to Karlie and Jenna to Drew’s brother, Ryan. When Ryan left, Drew could have sworn he was relieved that hedidn’t have to be Jake’s best man. Drew only stepped up because Ryan had felt bad about leaving Jake in the lurch so close to his wedding day. Drew knew Jake had hurt both Karlie and Jenna, but at the time, he just wanted to honor his promise to Ryan. Now, Jake’s bullshit was hurting the woman Drew loved, and he just couldn’t let that happen. Karlie thought that he believed Jake’s lies, but there wasn’t a chance in hell of that happening.
“Baby, I ran you a bath.” He found her lying on the bed, staring at nothing. She seemed so lost that he didn’t know what to do to reach her. “Baby, did you hear me? I ran you a bath. I thought we could take a bath, and then I’ll make us something to eat.” She weakly sat up and nodded. He noticed that she was still crying, and it just about gutted him. He wanted to bust some skulls together and tear shit up when she cried.
“Honey, please stop crying. We’ll work all of this out. I promise.” She nodded again and crawled into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her, carrying her into the bathroom. Drew gently undressed her and stripped himself. As he lowered them into the tub, she groaned. “Karlie? What’s wrong?” He started running his hands all over her.
“I’m okay, the hot water just feels really good. My body is a little sore today.” She looked up at him, feeling a little guilty.
“What hurts, baby? Did I hurt you when we—”
“No, God no.” She turned in his arms, framing his face with her hands. “No, you never hurt me, Drew. You have been so loving and gentle, and you’ve taken such good care of me. All I seem to give back to you is my problems. I feel so bad that you have had to deal with me and my family’s craziness. I mean, it started with my flat tire and kept on going from there. I even had the shit beat out of me, and you have been there for all of it. I just feel likeI came back into your life and turned it upside down.” She was waiting for him to say something. He felt like he needed to weigh his words carefully because he had too much riding on this.
“Well, that’s because you did turn my life upside down.” Now it was his turn to touch her. He leaned forward for a soft kiss. “You have turned my life completely upside down, but only in a good way. When we were in high school, I used to watch you, the way you were with Jake. I wanted you to be that way with me. I wanted you to look at me the same way that you looked at him. Now that I know what your relationship with him was like, the way he hurt you. God, I don’t want our relationship to be anything like yours was with that asshole. What we have, what we are going to have, is so much better. I just need you to give us a chance. I need you to stay. Don’t run. I can see it in your eyes that you want to bolt, and that scares me to death.” Karlie’s eyes widened at the truth of his words. How could she think he wouldn’t notice? Did she not realize that he noticed everything about her? “I don’t want you just for the weekend, baby. I already told you, you’re mine. I want you for always. I know that I can’t keep you here if you want to go. Just give me a chance. Give us a chance.” She looked down into the soapy water, lost. She seemed so confused about what to do. He needed to convince her, needed to remind her how good they were together.
“I’m worried about my sister and her baby. I’m worried that she could lose him right now, and I am not there for her. I am worried that even if Jenna and the baby are okay, Jake will hurt them, the way that he did me. And I’m hurt that my father wants me to leave town. I’m tired of trying, tired of fighting. My life in Atlanta wasn’t so bad; I need to get back to it. I need to leave my family in peace so that they can move on. I can’t choose who my sister is going to marry or raise my nephew with. And I can’tmake decisions for my parents, in whom they put their trust. I need to just go, so I stop screwing things up.” Drew felt like he was fighting a losing battle.
“I’ll make you a deal, you stay the night with me, and maybe we can go to see your sister tomorrow. Try one more time to talk some sense to her about Jake. Tell her the whole story, about how he abused you for years. Make her listen, Karlie. And, if it doesn’t work out, I’ll go back to Atlanta with you. Because letting you go isn’t an option, baby. I won’t let you go again.”
Karlie was shaking her head so hard that water was sloshing out of the tub. “You can’t just move your life to Atlanta for me. Let’s be honest, Drew, you and I have been a ‘we’ for all of two days. It’s been incredible, but I have a life in Atlanta, and you have a life and a successful business here. You can’t just follow me home. There’s nothing there for you.”
He gently raised her and straddled her over his cock. He seemed to constantly be hard around her, even when she pissed him off completely. She just wasn’t listening to him. She had made up her mind, and she didn’t want to listen to reason. So, he’d show her just how well they fit.
He kissed her so hard he was afraid of tearing her stitches. He only relaxed when he felt her kissing him back with as much passion. “Not here,” he whispered against her lips. He stood, with her legs still wrapped around him, and carried her, soaking wet, to his bed. They tumbled down together, and he rolled her underneath him. As he kissed his way down her body, she was writhing and squirming, so ready. He reached a hand down her legs, parting them. Drew ran his nose and mouth over her silky, wet opening. She moaned and tried to buck off the bed.
“Easy, baby. Don’t move or I’ll tie you down.” His smile felt wicked as he looked up at her. God, she was so hot—her eyes half-lidded with pleasure, her mouth swollen and parted, panting for him.
She smiled back down at him. “You would tie me up?”
“Yeah, honey, would you like that? Then I could eat your sweet pussy without you squirming all over the bed.” She moaned, and he laughed, putting his mouth back onto her sensitive folds. She began to squirm off the bed again, but he held her down, wrapping his arms around her ass, holding her pussy up to feast on it. She was so wet for him. He looked up to see her playing with her nipples, and he lost control. He ate her with a new fury, sending her over the edge. Drew pulled her down to his ready cock and slammed into her, not giving her any time to recover from her screaming orgasm. She gasped and started to move at his fast pace, keeping up with him. Yeah, they fit just fine. He set a brutal pace, taking everything she had to give. He needed to own her, possess her. He needed to show her that she was his. Karlie screamed his name as he sent her over the edge again, and triggered his own release. He collapsed over her, groaning out her name, kissing her, telling her how much he loved her.
They fell asleep like that, a tangled mess of arms and legs, him holding her, pinning her to the bed with him. Maybe a part of him was hoping that he could keep her there with him. But the other part of him worried that by morning, she’d be gone.
∞
Karlie woke before dawn and found herself tangled up with Drew, too hot and unable to move. During the night, she had woken up to find him awake and watching her like he didn’ttrust her to stay. She could tell that he knew she was leaving. She couldn’t stand the way he looked at her as if he was pleading with her to stay. She knew that what she was doing was for the best for everyone. This way, Drew could move on and have a life here, where he belonged. Her life was so complicated; she just couldn’t dump all of that onto Drew. All her family’s fighting had to stop for Jenna and the baby’s sake. Crying, Karlie slipped from Drew’s arms. When she finally untangled herself from him, she couldn’t look back. She didn’t want to think about what she was leaving. He wanted forever with her, but she couldn’t give him that without giving him all her craziness. She loved him too much to burden him with her problems. She gathered what few items she could without making too much noise.
“So, this is how it’s going to be?” he whispered from the bed she just left. She spun around to find Drew watching her, and he was pissed. “You’re just going to sneak out of my bed, out of my life?”
She nodded, not wanting to lie to him. “I think it’s for the best. I am going to make sure that my sister is okay, and then I am heading back to Atlanta.” She couldn’t look at him, at the disappointment and anger that filled his eyes. She couldn’t say goodbye. Damnit, why did he have to wake up and make this so much harder than it needed to be? Her heart was already ripping apart at the thought of losing him.
“And telling you that I love you, Karlie. I fucking love you. That means nothing?” he asked. She started to cry, but knew that she couldn’t stay. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone.
“I just can’t stay here anymore, and I can’t ask you to give up your life to move to Atlanta for me. We went over all this last night. Please just let me go.” Karlie had her back to him, her hand on the bedroom door. She was a coward, and facing him seemed impossible. Karlie heard him moving behind her andturned to find him close enough to touch. “I will never let you go, baby, so you can just forget about that. You are my life. Where you are, I want to be.” He bent to kiss the back of her neck, and she could feel his anger pouring off him. “Now, I am going to say this one more time. You go and do what you need to do. Check on your sister and the baby. When you get back here, we’ll figure out the rest. One way or another, Karlie, we will be together because letting you go isn’t an option.” Drew spun her around and kissed her again, this time on the lips, pressing his forehead to hers as if waiting for her agreement.
“Okay, I give up. You win. I will go see Jenna and then I will come back here.” She started for his bathroom, deciding that she might as well get fully dressed before heading over to her parents.
“Karlie, look at me and give me your word,” Drew demanded. She froze. She stood there for what felt like a few minutes and then turned to look at him. He was smiling at her—actually smiling. “Your word, baby.”
“I give you my word,” she conceded begrudgingly.
∞
