Chapter 5
Trying not to overwhelm her, Waylon let his gorilla reach out and touch her gently. He’d never had a relationship with his other half like his brothers. They said they controlled him. But Waylon’s gorilla seemed to know when he was in his place that he was in control. He could ask him to be easy, but usually, he did what he wanted.
“Do you have a name for him?” No one had ever asked him that before, and he was surprised that she understood that they were two different people. After telling her what he called himself, she laughed. “I guess that he feels like he could be called anything that he liked, but that’s perfect. Hello Brutis. My name is Londyn Dixon.”
“Tell her that I know her name.” Waylon laughed when his beast sounded like a petulant child. “I’m not a child either.”
“I can understand him.” They both looked at Londyn, and he thought that his beast was more surprised than he was. “You’re very handsome, aren’t you? And bigger than I thought you’d be.”
“I am his beast. I care for him when he needs it.” The voice in his head was strong, and it occurred to him that he didn’t know what language he was speaking in, nor for that matter if he was talking a language that only he could understand with Londyn and his beast.
“Why do you call him that? Or yourself? Why do you call yourself beast when you seem like any other gorilla, with the exception of size, something that sounds so terrifying?” It was Burtis who answered her. “I guess I can see that. If people think that you refer to him as that then they’ll think twice about attacking. Have you hurt anyone in order to protect Waylon?”
“I have only harmed those that think to harm him.” She seemed to be satisfied with that answer. As she walked around him, touching his great other half, he began to look around to see what other things he might have missed being a man . “Our mate is very strong, isn’t she? And smart.”
“I believe that she’s both of those things, yes. She’s looking for a job. I worry about that because I can’t be with her all the time. I fear that she’ll be hurt while I’m too far away to come and help her.” Brutis laughed and told him that he shouldn’t fear that she couldn’t protect herself. “Do you think that she’ll be able to defend herself all the time? Against all odds?”
“Nay. What I think is that she won’t allow herself to get into a situation that is that far over her boundaries. She is very self-aware. Just look at how she is looking at us and also the surrounding area. She will not allow any of us to be harmed if she can help it. Also, I believe that she will be a good mother to your children. Protective, of course, but she will teach them to be strong and smart as well.” Now that it was pointed out to him, he could see that she wasn’t just looking at his other half, but just as he’d been told, she was keeping track of her surroundings. It was just one more thing to love about her.
They hung out in the yard for another hour. When Brutis laid down on the soft grass, she curled up into his body and fell asleep. Brutis and he both thought that they could live with her right there for the rest of their long lives. It was comforting to them both that she trusted them completely.
When she woke up, he’d been trying to move out from under her when he got a leg cramp. She looked up at him. With her smile, brightening up the world it seemed looking at him, Waylon realized that he loved her more than he did yesterday and would love her all the more tomorrow.
It wasn’t a surprise to him that she was sleeping a great deal of the time. They were up most of the night making love and enjoying being together. Just this morning, he’d joined her in the shower to have a nice little romp in the water, and both of them had to stagger their way to the bed again for a quick nap. If they kept this up, they were going to be worn to a nubbin. Whatever the hell that was. Just thinking about her had him hard. And when he shifted back to himself, his human side, he was thrilled that she was as hungry as he was in needing some dinner.
They’d been so busy with other things going on, he was gearing up for the holidays in the hardware store with extras coming in, and she was busy establishing herself as an attorney who worked solely for the family.
He and Berny, his employee, were working to get most of the truck put away when the younger man came to find him. They were nearly finished with it but still had some of the end of summer things to put on clearance. The herbs that he’d sold this summer had been a big hit, and he was going to do that again next year. Maybe bring in a few trees to help with the refurbishing of the trees that had been damaged when the summer storms came through earlier in the year.
“Mr. Waylon? I was wondering if you have the Thanksgiving schedule fixed up yet. I know it’s a few months away but my mom is biting at the bit in trying to gather all of us up for the holiday. I have five brothers and three sisters and most of them have their own families. I’d rather work, to be honest, but my mom would have a fit if I had to.” He told him that he could have off any day that he needed to be with his family. “Gee, thanks. I’ll tell her.”
Waylon found himself laughing throughout the day when he thought about how Berny had seemed to be dejected about Thanksgiving with his family. It got him to thinking about his own plans for this year now that he had a mate. He checked his pocket again for the ring that he’d gotten her yesterday and had it sized so that he could pick it up today. He was as excited about giving it to her as Berney wasn’t about his own family plans.
“I have a question for you. More like a favor, I guess.” He smiled when Cullen spoke to him. “I have to go out of town for a few days. Can I count on you to keep up with the people working on the house that I’m having renovated for Logan? He said that he needs his own space, and I do as well. I’m not used to having people around sharing my space all the time.”
“Who’s doing the renovations?” He told him that Amy’s company was. “Good. Yes, I’d love to help you out with that. Are you looking for a house of your own right now? I mean, your mate has to be out there.”
There was silence then. Not sure if he hurt his brother or not, he was ready to tell him how sorry he was when he spoke again. Whatever he expected him to say, he was positive that him telling him that he’d rather not have a mate because of the things that he’d done was not it.
“I don’t believe that she’ll care, Cullen.” He told him that he would. “I also don’t think that it works like that. When she comes to you, and I’m sure that she will, she’ll be able to be a part of you that you never expected.”
“What if I’m too much for her. I know that I am to myself all the time. The nightmares are enough to make me wake up in a cold sweat. And I don’t know if I do or not, but I think that I scream myself awake when I have them. No one is going to put up with that in someone who is supposed to be loving and kind to me. I’m not very loveable in the event you never saw that.” For some reason, that made him laugh. “I really have no idea why you’d think that was funny, but I’m going to let it go for now. I have to go out tonight, and I should be back sometime on Wednesday. That’s three days from now. Don’t tell Mom and Dad that I’m going out, please?”
“I can’t lie to them any more than you could.” He asked him to avoid them then. “That might be difficult as well. When they get it out of me, what is it you want me to say? I need to have some information.”
“I’m going to be on duty.” That was all he said, and while it wasn’t enough, he figured that he wasn’t going to get any more from his little brother. “I hate that I have to do this, but it’s important to a great many people. I’ve made you the power of attorney, by the way if something should happen to me. I know that we’re all immortal, but there are still things that could happen that would make it so that I’d not want to be around.”
“You’re scaring me a bit, Cullen. What is it that you’re doing so that if I see it on the news, I’m not going to jump to conclusions.” He said it would never be on the news as it was going to be an in and out situation. “I don’t like this. I’m sure you don’t either but I really don’t like that you’re going in to work when you’re supposed to be recuperating at home.”
“I don’t like it either, but I’m the only one that can take care of this. Don’t call Jamie either. The very fact that he called me in is going to piss off a great many people in this family. Also, I wanted to tell you something that I don’t say often enough. I love you, Waylon. All of you guys. And while everyone thinks that I’m closest to Dallas, you’re the one that I have the most faith in to get things done for me.”
He felt his eyes fill with tears and had to wipe them twice before he could speak again. It was too late then; Cullen had closed the connection and now he was left wondering what he’d do if something were to happen to him.
Cullen had always been the baby in the family, but after he was about sixteen, he began taking on roles that made him seem so much wiser than his years. He always had a job. And when he was working, he did the best that he could for whatever he was working on. A good work ethic wasn’t just something that he did. Cullen lived by it.
All of them had good work ethics. Even though they hadn’t been born rich, he thought that had a great deal to do with it. They all worked for a living, too. Money, his grandda told him, didn’t grow on trees, and they were some of the lucky ones in that they didn’t have to worry about money but that they should anyway. They all lived by that rule.
After Berny left for the day, he decided that he’d had enough fun for one day and was just closing up when someone, a fairly young couple, walked into the store. He didn’t know them and figured that they were from out of town when the girl came up to the counter looking at him like he’d done her wrong or something.
“Are you the one that has my son?” He knew immediately who they were but didn’t say anything to her question. “I want him back. My parents are making it hard on me to see my boyfriend, and I want to just move out. I heard that you can get more food stamps if you have a baby. So bring him here, and I won’t have to press charges against you for kidnapping. You told me to give him up, and I didn’t want to.”
Waylon reached out to his entire family and let them know what was going on. It was Dallas who said he was the closet, and he said he’d be there in a few minutes. The girl asked him if he was stupid or something.
“Not as stupid as you seem to be.” The man, really just a boy it looked like to him that hadn’t had to change razors in all the time he’d been shaving. There was very little peach fuzz on his face that was covered in zits. “I don’t have any idea who you are. Or, for that matter, what it is you’re talking about. What baby do you think I have?”
“Mine. You are stupid, aren’t you? Bring him here so that I can take him to the welfare office. They’ll even give me an apartment that I can live in for free.” Not wanting to antagonize her any more than she already was, he kept an eye on the boy/man. “Well? When do I get him?”
When the little bell sounded, he was never so happy to see anyone as he was at that moment. Dallas went to the back of the store where the boy was and struck up a conversation with him. Dealing with the girl as best he could, he told her that he didn’t have any children and that he’d only just found someone that he wanted to marry. And that if she wasn’t going to buy anything, she really should be on her way.
“I’ve called the police.” Relief so profound raced over his skin. “You’re doing fine. Just keep her talking, and remember, you’re immortal, and there are cameras pointing directly at the two of you. It’s all going to be just fine.”
“Sure, you’re standing back there with the quiet one.” He told him that he was the one that was armed. “Christ. I didn’t need to know that.”
Daisy, he thought that was her name, was going on and on about what she was going to get for free once he brought her the baby. Even if she were to shoot him full of holes, he didn’t believe for a moment that anyone would give her any child. Not even a doll. She was off her rocker. The slap to his face had him snarling at her, and she finally took a step back and shut her mouth.
“Listen, kid. You come in here spouting off shit that I have nothing to do with. But I do know that you legally gave up your child. Hell, any idiot could see that was the only smart thing you’ve ever done for her.” He was trying to trip her up, and it worked.
“It’s a girl? I guess I don’t care so long as I have her back with me. I have shit to do. So when are you going to—” She turned when the bell rang. Then looked at him like he’d offended her in some way. “You couldn’t have called the cops. What the hell are they doing here?”
“You assaulted me.” Rollin asked her to come outside, and she, of course, refused. When he told her that she was going to be arrested for trespassing, she turned and glared at him. Waylon just laughed. “Get her out of here, and yes, I’ll press charges for her hitting me. Not to mention accusing me of taking her child. Which, by the way, she hasn’t any idea what it is.”
Once they were gone, Dallas came up to the counter with young David, his name only just then coming to him. Wondering what was going on, he laid the gun he had on the countertop and said that he’d never have shot him. That he didn’t want the kid to come back as he was better off without Daisy.
“Smart man.” He nodded and was taken away in the second cruiser. “What are your plans when this is all over?”
“Run away. She’s been making me do stuff for her since we were kids in second grade. I need to get away from her before she makes me end up in prison.” Dallas told Rollin that he was going to take care that David was in good hands and took him outside to the front of the store.
He didn’t have any doubt that by the end of their conversation that David would have enough money to get out of town and have a job lined up for him when he got there.
After closing up and going to the station house, he did the necessary paperwork to have her out of his hair and went home. There were more important things to do there than anything that he might have had going on at work.
~*~
Not having any idea how to initiate sex, Londyn decided to just meet him at the door and be done with it. That did sound better when she was only thinking about sex, to her. They’d been making love all night long for the past two weeks, and she wanted to have sex, then fall into a deep sleep and not wake up until her body was really rested. Of course, she did that after sex in the middle of the night as well as in the morning, but she was needy now and didn’t want to wait on him.
She decided that she was thinking of this all wrong and wanted to just forget it. To think that she wanted to have sex so that she could be relaxed enough to sleep. Her mind was all fuzzy with stupid thoughts today. Not to mention, she had the worst kind of headache she’d ever had, too.
When he came into the door, she could tell that he was stressed out as well. Telling herself to think about this as a sign that he was just as stressed out as well, she let go of her plans to seduce him. As soon as they were alone in the living room, her sitting next to him, he got down in front of her and pulled out a little box. Her heart started pounding the moment that he smiled at her.
“Will you marry me?” He laughed with her. “I could get all sappy about it, but I don’t think you’re that kind of woman. I’ve discovered that I don’t want to go on living like we are and would very much like to have you legally bound to me. Just in case you meet someone else.”
“That has been my thinking all along.” Waylon tickled her. “Don’t. You’ll make me pee myself. But go on, be non-sappy when you ask me to marry you. By the way, I’m going to say yes. I don’t want you to change your mind and say fuck it after you asked me already.”
“I love you so much, Londyn. I want to have children with you. I want to be the first thing you think of in the morning and the last at night. You are my all, and if you left me, I don’t know what I’d do with myself.” She told him she loved him too and would never leave him. “I’m so happy to hear that.”
Once he slipped the ring on her finger, she got a good look at it. He told her that the stones were blue diamonds surrounding a purple amethyst. The wide band had their names on the inside of it, and it was polished to a high gleam. When it sparkled over the walls in the room, she had a thought that a Christmas tree was going to be best looking in this room by the window. So it could shine and shine around the room as well.
Kissing him, she made her way down to his ear lobe. She found it incredibly warming to have him suckle at hers and wanted to see if it did the same for him. At his low growl, she moved along his throat.
Londyn bit his skin as gently as she could and felt the pounding of his pulse as she licked over the engorged vein. His hands slid up under her skirt, and she felt him slide his fingers deep into her. That was just what she needed. Him right here for her.
Reaching between them, she cupped his cock. Christ, she wanted him right fucking now and lifted her head to tell him. But he pulled away, and she nearly fell back over onto the couch. Things went from them just kissing over their engagement to fast and dirty sex, again, something that she dearly needed.
Leaning back, Waylon tore at his pants, and she watched as he freed his cock. When she reached for him and wrapped her hands around him, he groaned. Before she could taste him, he picked her up by her ass again and took them to the floor. Her breath caught when she felt him riding her through her clothing.
“I need to be in you.” She nodded as he pulled her skirt up over her hips. “Christ, I’ve never wanted you this badly before. It’s like I’ve never had you before, and I need to claim you again.”
He tore her panties from her and moved to her entrance. When he hesitated, she pulled him down to her mouth and kissed him. As soon as he slammed into her, she pressed her mouth over his left nipple and suckled as hard as she could while playing with the tight nipple at his chest.
Pain seared through her, and she cried out against his throat. It wasn’t painful, not like the first time they’d had sex, but it was still an intrusion that she wasn’t prepared for just then. When he started to lift off her, she wrapped her legs around him and felt his cock jerk inside of her.
Waylon moved slowly now. The pain of his large thick cock was now being replaced by the most incredible pleasure. She knew what was building, knew that her own release was close, and she sealed the wound she’d not realized that she’d made on his nipple by licking over it with her tongue and moaning when he pinched her nipple through her bra and blouse.
“Come for me. I want…no Christ, I need for you to come.” He tore the buttons opened and shifted her bra down over her breast as he sank his teeth into her nipple. Even as he fucked her, he reached down and tilted her ass upward, and she came apart.
The climax took her breath away, and she would swear forever that her heart stopped beating for a long few seconds while she adjusted to this new high with him. Christ, she felt like she could go to the moon and back on the pleasure of it all.
Crying out, he lifted his head. His command for her to come again brought her to climax, and his body stiffened above her as he joined her. She pulled him down and sank her canines into his pounding pulse as he filled her.
Londyn felt his second climax even as his first finished. Lifting her head from his throat, she pulled off her bra and fed it to him, wondering as she did what she was doing. Then his mouth took her, and she cried out again, a climax that rolled over her like a warm summer storm.
He stiffened above her, and all she could think about was his beast and how much they indeed looked alike. Acted like each other as well. She could see him then. His beast, just enough of him that she knew that the two of them would always protect her, but most of all, they would love her no matter what.
Waylon dropped down atop her, but not with all his weight. Turning at the last moment, he rolled to his back, taking her with him. His cock, semi-hard, she could feel it still inside of her. And every time that it twitched, even just a little, she felt herself have just one more climax. Her body was worn down, out for the count, and she never wanted to move again.
When she woke up, not only was she in bed, but she was alone in it. Moving her hand to his pillow to see how long he’d been gone. It was still warm and she noticed that the bathroom light was on from beneath the door. When he stepped out, turning off the light immediately, she opened up the covers, and he got in beside her. After the warm bed, he was too chilly to be snuggling up against her, but she loved him, so she allowed it.
“I nearly dropped you several times while carrying you up here. You’re not at all heavy, but I was weak-kneed and needed a nap.” She thanked him for not just putting her on the steps and leaving her. “Yeah, the staff would have been freaked out, I think.”
They both laughed, and he put his cold feet on her leg. “That’s not nice. What am I going to do with you when it’s winter outside? Toss you out of the bed? I should make you wear socks to bed.”
“I can’t. I have nightmares.” He was finally beginning to warm up, and she felt better. After a few more minutes, she was nearly asleep again when he spoke in the darkness. “Daisy has been cited for trespassing at the store, as I told you. She’s pissed off now that she’s unable to get in touch with David too. His parents disowned him. Did I tell you that?”
“I don’t understand people like that. What do they expect to do now? He’s barely nineteen, I heard somewhere. I guess, too, though it’s good that he’s getting away from Daisy. She sounds like a fruit.” He laughed when she laid back down. “You said that Dallas helped him get away. I’m assuming that he knows something about the boy more than you do.”
“He said that his desire was to go to college but he didn’t think that he could ever afford it. And he was really upset that Daisy had him by the hook about the baby. He’s not even sure that it’s his.” She asked if he wanted anything to do with it. Even now. “No. He thinks that the child will be better off where he is and out of their lives. Dallas has set him up with a job and a couple that he’ll be living with. They’ll keep him towing the line, and he should be all right.” She hoped so.
The next time she woke up, the sun was high in the sky, and the bed on Waylon’s side was cold. Getting up, she noticed that the shower was dry and figured that he’d been up and gone for a while. Taking her time in the shower, new sore places on her body, she was dressed and downstairs when she looked at her phone.
“Oh shit.” It was nearly one in the afternoon. She’d never slept that late in her life. Glad that she was going to be getting some work done despite her getting going so late, Londyn asked for burgers on the grill tonight with some French fries. She was going to test out that saying that she couldn’t gain any weight married to Waylon. Right now she thought she could eat her weight through a large bag of chips and dip.
Getting in her new car, one that she’d picked up just yesterday, she made her way to the store. It wasn’t much of one, and she knew that she’d have to go to a bigger one in Coshocton, but for now, she could pick up some salad fixings for dinner as well as some much-needed fruit. Her love of anything fresh was all she craved anymore, and she hoped that she could get some baby carrots to much on. Otherwise, she really was going to be as big as a house, no matter what the saying said.
After getting everything she needed at the store, she was headed out again when she saw Falkner kneeling down on the ground with a little girl crying. Picking up her purse, forever with a first aid kit on her, she asked if he needed any help. After a quick smile at her, he told her what was going on.
“Besty here thought that she could climb the tree higher than her brother could. Paul is fourteen to her eight. I told her the next time she wanted to climb a tree, make sure that it was close to home. That way, if she fell out of it, her mommy could find her. As it is now, her mother called the police when her daughter came up missing. She’s on her way here now.
The woman came to a screeching halt where they were on the sidewalk. She leapt out of the car before it was turned off and had to retrace her steps to do that. She was terrified, and it showed all over her face. After helping get the little one to the car, she asked Falkner if he wanted to get a quick drink with her, and he said he’d never turn down a date with a beautiful woman.
Sitting at one of the many picnic tables around the Dari Twist, the two of them talked about the weather and anything else they wanted. She loved this family more and more by spending just a little bit of time with them. It was great having a family.