Chapter Forty-One

Chapter Forty-One

Hadley

I awoke to the credits rolling on the movie Lucy had picked out. I didn’t remember falling asleep, only the brief memory of the start of the movie then nothing. The first thing I noticed was how warm I was and also cramped. I was lying curled up to one of Elijah’s legs which took up the entire couch. How did that happen? I glanced up and saw that Lucy and Eli were lying on each of his sides. All three of them were asleep. Eli was spread out, arms in Elijah’s face, as he hung halfway off his chest and partially on his arm. Lucy was curled up to his side, butt hanging off the couch, mouth wide open.

It filled my heart completely. The fierce, undeniable loyalty and surge of protection I had for Elijah. We meant something to him. Just like he meant something to all of us. I was so tired of Lilly and Scott saying what a bad influence Elijah was on my kids.

He wasn’t. He was completely in tune with himself and gave no apologies for it. I hoped that when my kids were older, they strived to live their lives the way they wanted just like that. And when he loved, he did it completely.

I’d been feeling his heart with his actions months ago…

Slipping my tingly arm from beneath one of his legs, I climbed out from between them. I grabbed Lucy as gently as I could and carried her up to the bedroom she and Elijah had claimed for her. I turned on the nightlight as I left.

Elijah jolted forward when I pulled Eli from his chest. He already had that the-baby-is-moving sixth sense. His sleep-filled eyes were sexy as he took me in cradling Eli to my chest. I brought my finger to my lips so that he knew to be quiet. He rose slowly, cracking his neck as he followed me into his bedroom where I froze at the doorway. I saw that he bought a crib and put it up since the last time I’d been there.

He stepped in front of me and adjusted the blanket in the crib, so I could lay him down. The second I placed Eli down, I rounded on Elijah. He caught me by the waist, pressing me snug against his muscular chest.

Every time we stood close, touching or apart, I was left in awe with how much bigger he was compared to me. No wonder he was so imitating when I first saw him —his size, tattoos, and angry glare. But I had found comfort in his strength. Safety. A place to unravel and let go of my worries. Even when it was time to step away from the peace his arms brought me, he’d be there to take on my troubles with me.

“I hate the way I spoke to Lucy’s grandma in front of her, but she was being a bitch,” he said, breaking the silence first. His large, calloused palm smoothed over my chin and tipped my head upward. In the darkened room, his brown eyes were like black orbs. At that moment, they were equal furious and begging. Elijah’s furrowed brow told me he was still upset.

“I never told you before, but I don’t allow anyone to talk bad about Scott or his family with Lucy present. I don’t want to raise her to hate him just because my family doesn’t like him, but now I’m starting to wonder why I even tried. Scott is making Lucy not want to have anything to do with him without my help. I’m sorry for the way I shut you out. Lilly had me so embarrassed and hurt. When you ignored me at Walmart and yelled with her, it upset me even though part of me was deeply touched that you defended me.”

Elijah’s mouth pressed a hot kiss against the tip of my nose. It shouldn’t be sexy, but it was. His breath fanned my cheeks, and the soft, firm press of his lips ignited tingles through me. He tucked my hair behind my ear and whispered, “I’m sorry that I was so furious you thought I was ignoring you. I just couldn’t let that woman talk to you that way, and I was slightly ticked that you allowed it.” The harsh truth of his words heated my cheeks. “I want to ask you something, and I want you to be honest with me, baby.”

I shivered in his hold, forever loving that I was the someone he called baby. I was never going to get over it. Elephants were stomping around in my chest, trembling my heart with a brilliant stream of happiness. All from that one word.

“What is it?” I waited, anticipating fear from what he was going to say.

“The way Scott’s mom acted today is that how they’ve always treated you?”

My stomach fell to the floor, bile rose in my throat. I lowered my eyes and when I did, I could feel the tension coiling up in his body. The muscles in his arms flexed and rippled as they tightened around me. There was an incoherent, growl vibrating in his chest before he moved us further away from the crib and hissed. “I can never be okay with that shit, you hear me?” He tipped my chin upward again, making me meet his intense glare. “Never. You better hope that Scott never comes at you the way his mother did. I don’t care that he’s Lucy and Eli’s father, I’ll knock his fucking teeth in since he’s a man—”

“Elijah.”

He continued, “I’m serious. I’m fucking pissed that you of all people are spoken to that way. You’re an awesome mom and an amazing person. I know that. Those fuckers knowthat. You never take a moment to yourself. Your kids are always with you unless you’re at work. Hadley, you go above and beyond.” His hands rubbed my arms as tears fell.

I’d needed someone to tell me I was doing okay. It wasn’t easy to parent. There were some days you were scared you were failing miserably.

“It’s got to stop, baby, you can’t let them tear you down every time they see you.”

I shuddered, more tears and snot. “I know,” I croaked. “I’m tired of trying for them. Lucy doesn’t want to go, and I haven’t felt comfortable with the idea of her staying with them in months. I don’t care how much crap they give me, I’m done. Until she wants to go see them, I’m never making the effort for them again, but I’m scared.” My voice wavered. “So, so scared they might actually try to take them from me.”

“Everything’s gonna be okay,” he whispered gruffly. He wiped my nose with his fingers, unbothered that he was touching my snot as he used his shirt as a tissue, then he hugged me. “I know there’s no point in telling you not to worry because you will anyway, but believe me when I say you don’t have anything to stress about. You’re a great mom, and you’re completely stable with a job and an apartment.”

Eli grunted in the crib and we both froze, waiting to see if he awakened. When it was clear he was just grunting in his sleep, Elijah grabbed the baby monitor and led me toward his master bathroom. “Let’s go take a shower.” Once we were through the doorway, he flipped on the light switch and disappeared on me. I could hear him shutting the bedroom door in case Lucy woke up.

Anticipation made me shiver. Even my fingers were tingling with the need to touch him. I was completely enthralled with him as he stood in front of me and tugged off his shirt. His demons moved as his muscles and tendons flexed. He was so sexy, sometimes I thought he might be too much for me. It didn’t help that he was a jerk to ninety-nine percent of the population, I knew the kind of lingering looks he got from women. I noticed it every time we were out together.

He caught me staring, gaped mouth and all, and that smoldering grin took over his features. “Do I need to undress you too?” he asked while unzipping his jeans.

I snapped out of it. Blinking rapidly and shaking my head, I had a flustered moment of trying to take my shirt and jeans off all at once which earned me a chuckle from Elijah.

“Come here,” his voice was so soft and sweet like a purr, and I might as well have been a snowman. I took two tiny steps and melted into his arms.

“I’m going to get on your nerves a lot more in the years to come,” he said as he grabbed the bottom of my shirt and lifted it over my head. “You’re precious to me—you, Lucy, and Eli. I’ll never let you get treated poorly again even if I have to smack your ass a few times to build up some backbone in you.”

He squatted in front of me. I swallowed nervously and glanced down as he unbuttoned my pants and rolled them down my legs with my panties. He smirked at me and smacked my butt. I yelped and rubbed my stinging backside. Ow. He actually put some effort into that.

“I don’t think that will help anything since it’s my soft personality that needs deliverance,” I told him.

He took over rubbing my butt cheek as he stood. “Probably right, but it’s going to be fun all the same.” He smacked it again.

I winced. “Heyyy. That hurts.”

“Got a nice ring to it, though.”

I was trying very hard not to laugh, but it was impossible with him smiling.

“Now for the tits,” he went on, snaking a hand around and unclasping my bra. As soon as they sprang free, he groaned and scooped me up. “Fucking hell. You’re killing me.” Heat fanned my skin as his erection bobbed and slid up against me. The feel of him bare and without a condom caused my entire body to quiver. I wrapped my arms and legs around him and rubbed against him once, letting his erection slide between my lips and against my clit before he pulled me inside his shower. He closed the glass door as he stepped in with me.

I didn’t realize his showerhead was one of those that you could hold in your hand until he was taking it off and pulling it away from us as he adjusted the temperature. My nipples pebbled. The chill in the air and the desire coursing through me were both to blame. I admired the firmness of his backside and how every part of him was well-built.

He caught my gaze as he faced me. “Cold?” he asked as he lifted the showerhead and sprayed it down my chest. I moaned softly. The hot water was heaven. I tossed my head back and arched into the stream as it raced over my body.

“Never going to get tired of looking at you,” he murmured as he gripped the nape of my neck. My eyes opened just as his mouth tackled mine. He flicked his tongue against my lips, and it felt so sensual and divine that my legs wobbled. I parted my mouth, allowing him to conquer my lips, pacifying me in every erotic way possible. Pulling away, he instructed, “Lean up against the wall.”

I shivered as my back hit the cold wall. He loomed over me, placing the stream between us so that it ran down my breasts. Giving one of my boobs a soothing caress before he tugged on the nipple, he squatted down, face aligned with the space between my legs. My need was insistent and heart-pounding, fluttering masses of warmth and tingles. A desperate need to be filled.

Elijah pointed the showerhead toward my bellybutton, leaving a hot trail of water. With his free hand, he cupped my vagina, leisurely rubbing his thumb across my clit before he slipped a finger inside of me.

Oh, fudge. I moaned, spreading my legs apart. He saw me struggling and grabbed one of my legs at the knee and held it up. How did he expect me to manage with one foot on the floor? I was barely managing with two before he even started touching me.

Pumping his digit in and out of me a few times, I was in a slight haze when I saw him lower the showerhead down, down, down until he sprayed the water over my clit, and I jumped, but Elijah braced his arm over my hip and held me firm.

Oh, oh, oh… So much stimulation. My stomach clenched. It felt so good, but the pressure was so intense it gave me a tickling sensation that I wasn’t sure I could bear.

Leaning over, I pulled his hand away and sagged a little as the pressure left my clit.

“Too much, I think,” I whispered through several pants.

Brown eyes smothered me with their intensity. “I think you can handle it.”

I shook my head. “No… Oh!” I raised up, flattening my back against the wall as he sprayed the water over me again, this time adding his pumping finger.

My stomach fluttered, tightened, and flinched every time my clit was hit with the pressure. I can’t… I can’t…can’t. It was a web of pleasure and torture, the way the torrent brought a tantalizing tickle in its wake, then proceeded to unfurl a frenzy of heat that when it blossomed, I cried out, grabbing Elijah’s hand that was wrapped around the showerhead.

“Elijah!”

My entire body bucked and arched. I hunched over him, needing him to stop as the orgasm took control of me.

I whimpered as he finally relented, leaving me a quivering mess. His finger drove the last few seconds of my ecstasy to the very end as he moved the showerhead away from me.

He let my leg drop from the hook of his arm. “You’re so lovely, Hadley.” His voice was thick, full of lust and smoke waiting to be unleashed upon me. He stood, bringing me back against the wall. “You okay?” One hand idly rubbed my shoulder as he placed the showerhead where it belonged.

I shivered some more as he tilted my neck. Kiss. Kiss. Planting his lips across my skin. I sighed happily in my lust-enhanced state. “Want you inside me now,” I whispered throatily. I fluttered open my eyes as he stood to full height.

“Let me grab—”

He went to move, and I snatched his arms.

“I want to feel you completely.” My admittance made me nervous since he took in a deep, croaked breath as he neared, letting me coax him back to me. “I’ve been on birth control since my six-week checkup after having Eli.”

He pressed his forehead to mine, meeting my eyes with the most star-struck, passion-filled gaze I’d ever seen, and said, “I want that too… Fuck… I want that so much. I’ve never before…”

His words were lost as I leaned up and kissed him, softly, beautifully, so in sync the way our breath fell and rose together like our very job was to start where the other ended. He was shaking already by the time I sucked on his bottom lip just enough that it was playful, teasing, and intimate all in one. His huge length pressed against my belly as he hooked one of my legs over his hip, then the other, hoisting me up against the wall.

Shuddering breaths, bodies aligned… I saw my lover, and my future filled with all these epic adventures with him. I wanted him to know if he didn’t already. “I love you.”

“I’ve been in love with you. You’ve made me all domestic and shit.”

I snickered, quickly quietening as he nudged his erection against my opening. I never took my eyes from his as he slowly entered me, inch by perfect inch. I could feel every exquisite detail as he moved inside me—the way my inner walls clung to his mushroom-shaped tip, his thick pulsating girth as I stretched to accept him entirely. My mind was going haywire with the knowledge that we were as close as close could get—I didn’t want this type of intimacy from anyone else but him. A thundering inferno threatened to spill over if he went any deeper. He hissed and it turned into a groan.

“Hadley, I didn’t think you could feel any more perfect. I was wrong. So fucking wrong. You’re so tight and hot. Jesus, baby, you were made for me.” His dirty words imploded on the blooming heat I already felt, then he thrust a little deeper.

I spiraled, vaulted. My inner walls clenched around him as I arched, scattered, and submerged into the flames. “God bless…America! Ahhh…”

He kissed my opened mouth. “It ain’t gonna hurt you to say fuck or shit. No one’s listening but me right now.” He nipped my ear with his teeth, and I shivered. He slowly pulled out and thrust back in. I gasped. He gripped my hips and legs tighter. “You’re still milking my cock. Fuck! I’m not going to last.”

I understood perfectly. The third time he thrust into me, his piercing edged along my clit and I was coming unglued again. No wonder my body never stopped pulsating against him when he thrust me right into another orgasm. I gripped his hair, body slipping down the wall some as I arched and whimpered.

His grip on me slackened. He tightened his hold on me, lifting me up as he thrusted like a wild man, guiding my release into a crescendo. Elijah groaned, desperately seeking my lips as he kissed the ever-loving soul out of me before his release shot into me. Heat rose on my already hot cheeks. I could feel every sensual pound in his length, and the way he filled me in ways he never could with a condom.

We kissed and kissed even after our bodies stopped pulsing. He placed my wobbly legs on the floor, and his erection slipped out of me. His hard length was bobbing and pressing against my belly, ready again. The water was lukewarm, becoming cold when he pulled his lips away from mine. His cheeks were slightly flushed, his lips a deep cherry red, and his eyes soft and hazy as he stared down at me with so many emotions. All of them had something to do with him loving me.

He shut the water off, dried us off and did me once more on the bed underneath the blankets before we succumbed to sleep.

_____

Yesterday I was braver. My nerves were back with the morning sun.

It was okay though. Elijah sat on my parents’ porch swing with me as I dialed Scott’s number, his hand soothing circles over the top of my thigh, creating a sense of comfort and safety. Lucy and Eli were inside while I made the call.

Scott answered on the third ring. “I’m guessing you see how foolish you were yesterday?”

Forget my nerves. His bitter tone made my resolve tighten. “No, Scott. I actually have something to tell you.”

“And what’s that?”

“The only ones that have ever acted foolishly are you and your mother.”

“What the—”

“Don’t interrupt me,” I snapped. “I’m sick and tired of you and your family degrading me in front of Lucy. Do you have any idea how much that hurts her feelings? How much you guys make her cry? I’ve tried so hard to get along with you and your family since we’ve split up, offering to let you keep Lucy on the weekends and you never showed. She’s four, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t know you’re blowing her off.”

“Hadley!”

“No, you have no right to get upset. Lucy loves you, but she doesn’t even want to go see you lately, and I’m not going to make her. If you want to see her, I can meet you, but until she’s ready to spend the night again it’s not happening.”

“That’s fucking ridiculous. You’ve got her brainwashed is the problem.”

“If you and your mom can’t be civilized, then I guess we will have to go to court. They might make your lazy bu—ass get a job to pay child support.”

Elijah reared back and mouthed, “ass” before smiling, and I shook my head at him.

“Are you kidding me?” Scott yelled in my ear. “Did you just say ass? You never cuss. What’s gotten into you?”

“It’s me getting sick and tired of putting up with this kind of immaturity from you and your mom. If you guys are going to be awful, I can too.”

“You know I can’t get a job until I’m out of school—that’s too much work! You can’t ask me to pay child support when it’s your fault I never see them!”

It was like talking to a brick wall.

I sighed. “Funny, how you made me work while I went to college full-time and was pregnant.”

“Hadley!”

“Lucy loves you, and Eli doesn’t even know his father. If it weren’t for them… I want to be civil about this, but it’s up to you.”

He hung up.

All the tension from the phone call drained from my body, and I sagged into the bench. Elijah pulled me into his side. “You okay?” he asked softly.

“I’m fine.”

It didn’t take long for his shoulders to start moving. My eyes widened as I realized his entire chest vibrated. I sat up and saw him laughing. “What’s so funny?”

He cackled. “You said ass.”

My cheeks heated remembering. “You’re the one… Forget it.” I glared and crossed my arms, pushing my back against the bench and swinging us angrily.

“Yeah, but I didn’t realize how weird it would be.”

God bless America! He was still laughing.

“How is it weird?” I muttered.

“It sounds so foreign and cute coming out of your mouth, I couldn’t take you seriously. Don’t ever cuss at me when we’re arguing ’cause it will only make me laugh, and you’ll get madder than a wet hen.”

“Like now?”

He tossed his head back, literally red in the face as he lost his breath from chuckling. “Ass.”

He seemed so content. His eyes glistened, entire face lighting up when gazing at me. I did that to him. Made him jubilant.

I could do that for the rest of my life and never grow tired of the feeling bursting through my chest.

“You’re being one,” I bit out, trying not to smile.

“I love you, my little bad girl.” He pulled me back into him.

“I love you,” I said it moodily even though I was smiling into his pectoral muscles as he held me close.

“We got this though. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Not you, he said we.

I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him tightly.

“Strangely, I’m okay. I’m just sad for Lucy and Eli. I’m scared that Scott and his parents will keep going like this until it’s too late and neither of our kids wants anything to do with them.”

“If it happens, you’re not to blame.” Elijah sighed. “He and his family will be at a major loss if they miss out on those kids because of their pettiness, but I know they have an amazing mother, and she makes up for hundreds of moms and dads and…they have me.”

“You’re awesome, too.”

He smirked down at me. “I am, aren’t I?”

I rolled my eyes as Lucy threw open the screen door. “Elijah, Papaw said for you to come to him. He needs your help.”

Elijah stood. “Better go see.”

Once he disappeared through the door, I peered over at Lucy. “Is Papaw testing him with something?”

She shrugged. “He asks about Elijah a lot. Why?”

I smirked. “You’ll understand the day you bring home a boy.”

“Do I bring home one tomorrow after school?”

“No!”

She narrowed her eyes, followed by her little careless shrug. “I’m going to see what they’re doing.”

I trailed after her with a smile.

Life was great.