Thrill Ride Page 13

  “You didn’t want me to die,” he repeats. “And you wouldn’t shoot me yesterday when you had the chance. Why?”

  “No!” I exclaim. “You said the last question was the last question!”

  “Why, Libby?”

  Blowing out a breath, I finally admit the truth to him. “Because I cared about you. There. Happy now? Give me the fucking phone.”

  I’m shocked when he actually lifts his hips and pulls the device out of the front pocket of the jeans he put on this morning. After he unlocks the phone with his thumb, he offers it to me. I try to take it, but he keeps a tight grip on it. “Don’t give them any information about where you are or who you’re with.”

  “Fine,” I agree, and try to pull it away again.

  “I mean it, Libby. I have eyes on Abigail.”

  I gasp in disbelief at how low he would stoop. “You wouldn’t hurt her! She’s your blood!”

  “I wouldn’t?” he asks. “You willing to risk her life on that assumption? My own father tried to fuck me over, remember?”

  “I hate you,” I tell him, and he finally releases the phone. Before he can change his mind, I dial our house number and put the phone to my ear, listening to it ring once, then twice.

  “Hello?”

  I exhale in relief when my mother answers the phone. That means Carter isn’t home. If I had to talk to him, he would have asked too many questions and I can’t lie to him.

  “Hello?” she asks again.

  “Mom, it’s me,” I say.

  “Libby? Where the hell are you? Why didn’t you tell me you were going to run before I left for the church? Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?”

  “I’m sorry,” I tell her. “Is Abigail okay? Can I talk to her?”

  “It took us hours to get her to sleep last night!” she says, making the first tear race down my cheek not only because I hate knowing she was upset, but also because she said “us.” I knew Carter would be there last night.

  “I’m sorry,” I say again. “Please give Abby the phone so I can tell her I’ll see her soon.”

  Hendrix nods his head, agreeing with that statement. He better not be lying either. I’ll go along with this kidnapping shit for a few days, until I can convince him to give up and go back to his life, wherever he’s been living for three years.

  “Are you really okay, Libby?” my mother asks, her voice full of concern. “When are you coming home?”

  “Soon,” I repeat. “And I’m fine. I just needed to get away for a few days and clear my head,” I lie. “Where…where’s Carter?”

  “He thinks you’re missing! The poor man wouldn’t believe that you would up and leave him at the altar, and he said he didn’t send the limo! He’s been trying to get the police to put out a missing person alert for you.”

  “Tell him that’s not necessary. And that I’m so sorry.”

  “I don’t think an apology is going to be enough to make this right, Libby,” my mother tells me, making me cringe. It doesn’t help that it also reminds me of how I said the same thing to Hendrix.

  She’s right. Carter will never forgive me for this.

  So now, I’m responsible for losing the one person who has always been there for me and Abigail when we needed him, and that’s so unfair to her.

  Which is why it’s nearly impossible for me to talk to my daughter, to tell her that Mommy loves her and will see her soon.

  Hendrix

  Jesus fucking Christ.

  Seeing and hearing Libby sob while trying to talk to her daughter, our daughter, nearly breaks me. Right then and there, I almost grab her up, throw her in the car, and take her back to Charlotte.

  But no.

  This is all just a temporary separation. And I’ll get a chance to get to know my daughter soon, once her mother and I are back on the same page. And in the same bed every night…

  When I can’t take another second, I tap the invisible watch on my wrist, indicating that Libby needs to wrap up the call.

  She says her final goodbyes to Abigail in her sweet, motherly voice, and then a flat one to her own mother before ending the call. Instead of handing it back to me, she just stares down at it and cries loudly, boohooing and everything.

  I reach over to take the device from her before she tries to call the asshole, and she lets me. Then I wrap my arms around her, needing to hold her while she cries.

  Of course, she tries to fight me off at first, but I keep an unrelenting grip on her until she finally gives up, slumping against me.

  “He’ll never…never forgive me,” she sobs.

  “I know,” I reply.

  “You hurt me…and I can’t forgive you,” she says.

  “I know. And I’m sorry.”

  “It took…took me years to get over what you…what you did.”

  “It’s only been a few years,” I point out, trying not to let her words cut me any deeper.

  “And I only just got over you!” she admits.

  “No, you didn’t,” I tell her. “Admit it, Libby. You still care about me and you couldn’t stop even though you tried.”

  She pushes me away, so I finally relent and let her go.

  “Just take me home! Please!”

  “No.”

  “Then what do you want from me?” Libby asks.

  “I want to be with you. I want you to come with me, like we planned three years ago.”

  “Hendrix, you know I can’t do that. Abigail…”

  “Abigail would come too.”

  “No,” Libby says with an adamant shake of her head. “You are not going anywhere near her. She deserves better than for you to swoop into her life and then disappear!”

  “Who said anything about me leaving?”

  “You left me before,” she points out. “How do I know you won’t do it again?”

  “Because I’ve spent every second of the last three years missing you! I went crazy going through those weeks we were together, over and over again in my head, trying to figure out if any of it was real for you or just part of the set up,” I tell her. “That’s why I came back. I had to find out for sure, Libby. If you tell me that you never gave a shit about me, I’ll take you back right now. It’ll kill me to walk away from you and my daughter, but I’ll do it.”

  Grabbing her chin to make her look at me, I continue. “But if you tell me you cared about me, then I promise that I will never walk away from you again. So, what’s it going to be, Libby?”

  Chapter 27

  Libby

  “But if you tell me you cared about me, then I promise that I will never walk away from you again. So, what’s it going to be, Libby?”

  I’m such an idiot because god, I want to believe him.

  And I could lie and tell him I don’t care about him, but he would know I’m lying.

  I do love Carter. He’s my best friend. But I’ve never been in love with him or felt the same way he feels about me. I’ll never fall for anyone like I did for Hendrix.

  Instead of coming right out and admitting all of that to the smug bastard, I simply tell him, “I wasn’t supposed to do more than kiss you.”

  “What?” he asks. “Just answer my question, Libby—”

  “And I definitely shouldn’t have slept with you,” I add softly.

  “I don’t want to know what you should or shouldn’t have done!” he exclaims. “Did you care about me or not?”

  “I risked everything for you, so what do you think, Hendrix?” I ask him.

  Instead of responding with words, the asshole just blinks his dark, soulful eyes at me…right before he kisses me.

  Maybe if it had been like the brutal, punishing kiss that he forced on me yesterday when I was pinned to the window, I would have protested. But it’s not.

  His kiss is soft, slow, and sweet with his hand cupping the side of my head, not demanding anything from me but asking, begging, me to kiss him back.

  So I do, even though I shouldn’t.

  Hendrix is going
to hurt me again. It’s inevitable despite all of his promises.

  And knowing that, I still surrender to him.

  Fighting the pull I feel when I’m with him is impossible.

  “Don’t make me regret this,” I warn Hendrix when he starts tugging my pajama top up and over my head.

  Grasping my face between both of his hands, he says, “You can’t regret making love to the man you’re going to spend the rest of your life with. Or feel even an ounce of guilt for not being able to love a man who was kind to you. Let him go, Libby. I want all of you here with me.”

  “Okay,” I agree, because I’m already there. As much as I want to remain angry at him for abandoning me all those years ago, I can’t. Hendrix is it for me – always has been, always will be, even if it means hurting my best friend.

  “Okay,” he repeats as he presses his lips to mine. “Okay,” he says again before his mouth moves down my neck, sucking and nipping at my skin while his hands reach around to undo my bra. Once that’s gone, he kisses his way down my stomach to remove my pajama bottoms and panties. His mouth is oh so close to where I’m desperate for it, but instead of giving it to me, he looks at me with a grin and gets to his feet.

  “Come on,” Hendrix says, picking me up so my legs can wrap around his waist and my arms loop around his neck. “I’m taking you to bed and keeping you there until the sun comes up tomorrow.”

  “What about food and water?” I ask with a grin as he carries me into the bedroom.

  “We’ll manage,” he says when he lowers me to the mattress and follows me down, pressing his hard body and wonderful weight down on top of me.

  Hendrix and I both try to pull each other impossibly closer, unable to join our bodies fast enough. Our kiss turns hot and frantic as I go to work undoing his pants, needing him inside of me more than I need oxygen.

  When I finally push his bottoms down far enough for the blunt head of his cock to line up with my entrance, I nearly cry out in relief.

  “Damn, you feel good. Better than I remembered,” Hendrix groans. “Just the tip and then I’m putting on a condom.”

  A condom? Right. The thought of using protection didn’t even cross my mind, which is stupid considering our track record.

  “I love Abigail,” I tell him as he pushes forward a few teasing inches. “From the second I found out, I loved her. I was just sad that you wouldn’t be there…”

  “I’m here. I’m here now,” Hendrix says as he sits back on his knees and fumbles with his displaced pants to retrieve a condom. “I won’t leave you again, and I swear I won’t take any chances like that again either.”

  “Good,” I reply with a smile as I watch him roll the latex down his shaft and give it a few tugs.

  Slowly, Hendrix lowers his body back down on top of mine, spending a few moments sucking on my nipple before his lips return to mine.

  With a flex of his hips, he enters me.

  “I need you so fucking much,” he says urgently against my lips as our bodies begin to move together, him giving, me taking, the two of us becoming one. Despite everything, all of our differences and our struggle to get to this point, we fit together perfectly, like we were never apart.

  Still, after we both find pleasure in each other’s body, I press my palms on Hendrix’s back, holding him to me, unable to let him go just yet. He buries his face in my neck, breathing heavily at first.

  “Was it that good before?” I ask him.

  “No. I mean, don’t get me wrong. It was amazing before, but that was…” Hendrix says when he lifts his head to look down at me.

  “Absolutely earth-shattering?” I finish.

  “Yeah, that,” he responds with a smile. A few more seconds of silence pass as his dark eyes seem to pierce right through to my soul before he says, “Better than… Never mind, forget it.”

  “Yeah,” I agree, reaching up to run my fingers through his hair, knowing he was asking about sex between me and Carter.

  “How about we see if it’s just as good the second time, or if that time was a fluke?” he asks, rolling us over so he’s on his back with me on top of him, making me giggle.

  “Deal,” I agree with a grin, unsure if I could ever get enough of him.

  Hendrix

  I wanted Libby to ride me so I could just look at her.

  God, she’s so fucking beautiful, with her blonde hair messy from our first time and her cheeks flushed with passion. Then there’s the rest of her gorgeous body that I want to touch and lick all at the same time. But for now, I’m content to lie under her with my palms clutching her hips, just watching her as she moves on me.

  I love her so damn much that I would do anything for her, give anything to make her happy.

  And I do think I can give her and Abigail the life they deserve, or I’ll die trying.

  “Nope, definitely not a fluke,” Libby says when she falls forward on top of me after our second round is just as amazing as the first. “Even better that time.”

  “Yeah, it was,” I agree. “I missed this, making love to you, but I missed you more.”

  “How long has it been since you were with someone…” She trails off.

  “It’s been three long years,” I admit. “How about for you? A few days?”

  I feel the shake of her head on my chest. “Years for me too.”

  “You’re full of shit,” I remark, lifting her face because I don’t believe her. “Carter…”

  “Carter and I slept together once…a few weeks after Abigail was born.”

  “You’ve only been with him once? How is that possible? Why would he want to marry you if you won’t fuck him?”

  “I was going through postpartum depression and I thought being with him would help me forget about you,” she explains. “I cried the whole time, which must have scared him away because he didn’t even ask to try again. I guess he thought that once we were married, I would be able to give myself to him without any tears.”

  “Would you have?” I ask. “Fucked him without tears?”

  “I don’t know. Probably. Eventually.”

  “He’s an incredibly patient man. And a stupid one,” I mutter.

  “He loves me. And Abigail.”

  “Do you really love him?” I ask.

  “Yes, but I’m not in love with him. I wanted to fall for him. I tried really hard to love him the way he loves me, for myself and for Abigail.”

  “Do you love me the way I love you?”

  “I wish I didn’t,” she responds. “It would’ve saved me a lot of heartache.”

  I press a soft, brief kiss to her lips. “I love you, Libby. Stop fighting me.”

  “Make love to me again,” she says, and her wish is my command.

  Chapter 28

  Libby

  I tense up when Hendrix’s fingertips glide back and forth over the raised scars on my lower belly as we lie in bed recovering from our third round of amazing sex.

  “Don’t,” I say, reaching to move his hand up higher on my stomach.

  “Why not?” he asks. “I want to see and touch all of you.”

  “Not there, not my stretch marks.”

  “You didn’t have them before.”

  “No, I didn’t,” I agree. “They’re from growing a nine-pound baby faster than my body could keep up.”

  “I wish I could’ve seen you pregnant,” Hendrix says, leaning over to place a kiss on the scars.

  “You would have, if you hadn’t left me,” I point out.

  “I had just found out that every moment with you was a lie—”

  “Not every moment,” I correct.

  “Most of them were a lie, and I didn’t think I could trust you to come with us and not to give us up right away, or even weeks later if I pissed you off…”

  “I wouldn’t have.”

  “How could I be certain of that at the time? You lied to me, Libby. You made a fool of me. I couldn’t trust you and risk not only my own freedom, but Sawyer and Van’s too.”

/>   “Are they doing okay?” I ask him. “Sawyer and Van?”

  “Yeah,” he replies with a sigh. “They’re happy. Morocco is a beautiful place with plenty of beautiful tourists to keep them busy.”

  “Morocco?” I say in surprise. “That’s where you went?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “And you don’t mind telling me that now?”

  “I’m trying to trust you this time around. And convince you to do the same.”

  “You left me without a word for almost three years. Why didn’t you come back sooner?” I ask.

  Exhaling as he takes my hand and intertwines our fingers on my stomach, Hendrix says, “My mother died when I was eighteen and my father went to prison, so for the next ten years, he never missed a chance to tell me not to ever get serious with a woman because she would end up ratting me out, robbing me, or dead because of me.”

  “So it took you three years to realize you could trust me?” I ask.

  “No, I didn’t stay away just because I wasn’t sure if I could trust you, Libby. I didn’t want to be the one who hurt you if shit ended badly.”

  “You thought you were protecting me?” I say. “Then why come back now?”

  “Because I found out you were marrying Carter and I couldn’t let you do that if there was even a small chance that you still cared about me.”

  “How? How did you find out?” I ask.

  “I set up an internet alert for any articles with your name in them. Your engagement announcement came up about six months ago.”

  “Oh.”

  “Despite your initial protests, are you glad I came back?” he questions, raising our joined hands to place a kiss on my knuckles.

  “Yes,” I reply. “I thought you would sooner. I had a stupid fantasy that you would come back, see my pregnant belly, and we would be a happy family.”

  “That’s what I want,” Hendrix says. “Tell me you want to be with me like this every day and every night, with Abigail in our own little slice of paradise.”