Chapter 29

29

Abrielle

Butterflies.

In my stomach. In my heart. In my head.

Tickling throughout my entire body.

I swear I feel fluttering where the baby is too.

Maybe this isn't exactly a traditional situation or one someone would dream of.

For me, this is…

He's cared about me since he met me?

He was such an awful human then.

He still is now… but I can handle it. I can handle him.

Obviously…

I touch my stomach.

Colver cleans up the broken glass off the floor and then looks around at the ceiling. I tell him my idea for the stringed lighting. Something that looks familiar and casual to people. Then I can turn on specific lights for parts of the gallery.

Yes, it's a ton of custom wiring, but I want this place to pop.

I've already had a licensed electrician handle all that wiring.

Behind the counter - the one where Colver went down on me and Jess saw - there are a bunch of switches that I already have labeled.

"So you want to string this back and forth?" Colver asks.

"That would be great."

"Let me make a call," he says.

I watch him walk outside, already on his phone.

I catch myself swallowing hard and touching my belly.

As I stare intently, it rushes at me all the way back to those first moments meeting Colver. To those first days. Weeks. Both of us knowing things weren't going to work out with our parents. My mother wanted money and attention. Colver's father wanted someone else.

I didn't like the idea of losing Colver all those years ago.

I guess in a way now I have him forever.

And once again Colver is helping me. Saving me.

Hanging up some string lights may not be the most dangerous thing in the world - at least for him. But he does care.

He did care back then too.

I knew it then.

It was just both of us couldn't say it…

(I know I swore none of the jumping back to the past but this story is important.)

So right now, everything is falling apart.

Mom showed her paranoid bitch side and stole Jack's phone.

Something to note - Jack has several phones.

There's a work phone. A personal phone. He has a few ‘fuck phones'… at least that's what I call them. Those are phones he uses to meet and hook up with other women.

Some of the women are really young too. I'm talking like twenty years old.

To me, he's just some gross dude with money.

The second Mom sees a picture of someone Jack is sleeping with, she goes into full destructive mode. Comparing herself, hating herself, wanting to drink herself into oblivion.

The only reason we haven't left the house is because of how big it is.

Mom stays in her own section.

I mind my own business on the first floor, trying to stay busy painting.

It's also getting old having Colver bust into my bedroom to sneak a girl through the glass doors.

Part of me thinks he does this to tease me. He always looks at me when he walks someone through my bedroom. He smirks too. Like he's saying, ‘don't you wish this was you?'…

The worst part is that I kind of wish it was me.

I mean, whatever, okay?

His father and my mother were never really a thing. The marriage certificate says otherwise, but be real, TV shows have seasons that last way longer than this marriage will.

My next worry is where we're going to end up living.

Moving again. Me packing up my one bag. Trying to figure out what artwork to take and what to leave behind.

I figure whatever I do have to leave behind, Colver will have a great time setting them on fire.

That's just the kind of jerk he is.

My time of living in a mansion is coming quickly to a close, as expected.

I decide I'm going out with a bang.

Colver has been talking about some party for a few days now, working on plans of who he's going to meet and all that. This guy is such a crude human that he has plans to take a girl to the party. Then bail on her for another girl. Then leave that one behind for a third one that he's going to take back home.

He's gross.

I hate him so much.

Oh, and if I could hate him an ounce more, he stole my favorite large paintbrush.

Want to know what he replaced it with?

A… sex toy…

A… a dildo.

That's right.

Imagine me sitting there, getting ready to paint, and I reach into my bag for my large paintbrush, right where it always is. And I pull out this very large, engorged, bright blue… dildo…

I screamed and shook the thing for some reason, all the while Colver stood outside the glass doors, watching.

I fucking hate Colver Caspian.

Which is why I'm following him to this party.

I decide to just be there. Be in the way. Just be present to piss him off.

Maybe it'll throw him off his game and I can save some girls a night of being used and forgotten.

Basically, I just want to fuck up his night. Leave my mark for a minute. Get back at him a little.

And then I'll be out of his life for good.

Mom and I will find some shit hole of an apartment to live in until she falls in love again. Colver can go on with his rich life and fool around with pretty girls and play hockey, then become rich and famous.

Simple as that…

(What I didn't know at that time was that… that very night Colver would be saving my life…)

Sorry to hit the brakes on memory lane but Colver is back in the gallery.

"Guys are on the way," he says. "And I ordered more of these lights. They'll be here within the hour."

"Whoa," I say. "Wait a second…"

Colver closes in on me.

I can't believe how much his evil stare turns me on.

To the point that my inner thighs tremble and my panties… wet again.

Being near Colver has me needing to pack ten pairs of panties a day.

It's not fair.

Yet I can't help myself.

"If I leave here you're going to climb up on that ladder again," he says to me. "I know it. You're too worried and stubborn to listen. So I'm going to have the guys put the lights up for you."

"A bunch of hockey players…"

"It's an off day," he says. "I'm not allowed to see them for any official game reason."

"You miss your friends," I tease.

Colver quickly slides a hand to the back of my neck, taking a very commanding grasp.

My panties are no longer wet. They're soaked. Uncomfortably soaked now.

"I don't have friends, kitten," Colver whispers. "Friends come with favors and problems. I have teammates. Brothers on the ice. That's it. They're showing up for me, for you, and for our baby."

I love when he gets annoyed and flustered like this.

Whether Colver likes it or not, I'm starting to figure him out. What makes him tick. What pisses him off ( that one is easy - everything ). But I know some truths about him. About his heart. Him admitting he cares about me.

Even his hand on the back of my neck – he's applying the perfect amount of pressure to make my panties drip but not too much to hurt me.

Commanding and controlling but never too far.

Ever.

Strong, tough and mean and… loving .

A breath escapes between my lips as I feel my cheeks gently becoming warm.

Colver leans down and brushes his lips to mine.

His free hand touches my stomach.

"I'm going to take care of you, kitten. In all the ways needed and wanted. So go get some coffee or some kind of sugary baked good and park your pregnant ass in a chair or on the counter and do nothing."

That actually sounds like heaven.

But there's no way in the world I'm going to admit Colver is right.

"I have to see this," Jess says.

She has extra help at her coffee place so she gets two coffees and six of her famous cinnamon donuts and we walk to the gallery.

I can see her already licking her lips.

"Are you a hockey fan?" I ask.

"No. Not at all. But I'm sure these men are huge. Right?"

"You've seen Colver," I say.

"Oh, I've seen Colver," Jess says with a smirk. "Between your legs…"

"Stop it!" I yell. "We said we'd never talk about it again!"

Jess laughs.

I open the door to the gallery and the place is bustling.

Six hockey players all working together. For me. To help me. To get my gallery set up.

Or maybe this is just an asshole move by Colver. To get the gallery open so I can sell some stuff and pay him back the hundred grand he paid Simon.

"Am I drooling right now?" Jess whispers to me.

"Not from the lips on your face," I whisper back.

Jess looks at me, jaw dropped.

"I think I'm a hockey fan now."

"Drink your coffee and go back to the business you own. Okay?"

"Nope. I'm staying here all day now."

One of the guys walks right up to me and eyes me. Devours me.

"I won't comment," he says.

"About what?" I ask.

"The pregnancy. Am I allowed to say you look pregnant?"

Someone whistles. "Dax! Back away from her!"

Dax looks at Jess.

"I'm not pregnant," she says.

"Do you want to be?" Dax offers.

I'm sorry but I snort at that stupid comment.

Jess gasps.

"Get over here and hold these fucking lights!"

Colver puts down a hammer and comes toward Jess and me.

"Nice to see you again, Jess," Colver says.

"Nice to see you without your tongue between Abrielle's legs," she says.

"It's my favorite place to be," Colver throws right back at her.

"Obviously," Jess says.

My face is eight shades of red by now.

"Jess wants to know which one she can take home," I say. "And I don't mean a painting."

"Hockey players are the worst to deal with," Colver says.

"But they're great in bed," I say. "At least from my experience."

"Wow, you two are something else," Jess says. "Really trying to play it so casual still?"

"Sorry about Dax," Colver says, ignoring Jess's comment, even though it's now stuck in my head. "He's… whatever."

"Who was the one yelling at him?" Jess whispers.

"That's Faust," Colver says. "Miserable guy. Angry all the time. He makes me look happy." Colver starts to point. "Then we have Turner, Rhett, and Ben."

"They're not friends," I say to Jess. "Just teammates."

"Oh. Right." Jess rolls her eyes.

Colver leans down and brushes his lips to my ear. "Are you really trying to fucking tease me in front of your friend and my hockey team? I will take you into the back of this gallery and lick your cunt clean and leave you screaming my name for everyone out here to listen to."

"Is that a threat?" I ask.

"Fuck, kitten. What the hell am I doing here with you?"

"Caring about me," I say.

I turn my head and we're almost touching nose to nose.

"There's the boss, ask her," one of the guys calls out.

"That's you," Colver says.

I have to move away from Colver.

Rhett is holding up a string of lights.

Ben is pointing at me. "Which direction? Back and forth? All around?"

"I want to keep it nice," I say. "Make them a little droopy too. It's all for effect."

Dax sets up another ladder and gets another strand of lights.

Colver goes to help, climbing the ladder, Dax feeding him the lights to hang up.

"I can't believe this," Jess says. "Think about this, Abrielle. This is the power of your pussy."

"Jess," I growl.

"It is," she says. "Your pussy is making this whole thing happen. These guys are only here because Colver definitely demanded it. And he demanded it because he likes to play between your legs. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. I did see it happen…"

"You're never going to let it go, are you?"

"Catching my new best friend getting her pussy licked by a gigantic, sexy hockey player? Never."

… my new best friend…

That's the part of that sentence that sticks out to me and makes me feel good.

I reach for the bag of cinnamon donuts and stuff one into my mouth whole.

I chomp.

I look at Colver's ass in his jeans as he stands on the ladder.

His t-shirt pulls up just enough to show some skin.

My jaw quivers and my body aches.

"Hey," Jess whispers. "You're the one drooling now."

I nod in agreement.