Keeping Her (The Lexington Series Book 2) (11 page)

He fed me strawberries and opened
another bottle of champagne. There was chocolate and cheesecake also. I ate
until I felt like I was going to explode. When I was done I relaxed all my
weight against Landon and just let him hold me. The night was quiet and still
and we were all alone. I looked up at him. “Thanks Landon. Tonight was
perfect.” I whispered.

He smiled and placed a soft kiss on
my nose. “I’d do anything for you baby.” I snuggled deeper into him. He grabbed
my chin and tipped my head back so that he could meet my eyes. “I mean it.”

He gave me a soft kiss then grabbed
my left arm. He toyed with the bracelet on my wrist then trailed his hands down
to mine. He started playing with my fingers and I felt something metal on my
finger. I frowned and looked down to see him slipping a ring on me. I gasped
and looked up at him. “Landon what are you doing?” I asked him in a shaky
voice.

“Putting on your engagement ring.” He
told me matter of factly.

I frowned. “This is not the way this
works. You’re supposed to ask, and when you do I’m going to say no. we’re not
ready for this.” I told him.

He smiled. “That’s why I didn’t ask
you Lucy. I’m not giving you a chance to say no anyway I already asked your
father.”

“You did what?!” I nearly screamed.

“I asked your father. I didn’t
stutter Lucy.” He told me.

I scowled. “And what did he say?” I
asked.

“No.”

“No?” I asked him confused.

He shrugged. “I asked him, he said
no.”

This is making no sense at all. “So
you just did it anyway? Why ask?”

He shrugs again. “I asked him because
it was the right thing to do. He told me no but knew I was going to do it
anyway. He gave me the same argument as you just did and I told him I’m not
going to force you to jump the broom today. Eventually he relented because he
knew that you are going to get married some day and I’m the only person you can
marry.”

I sighed. “Landon you can’t just
decide
that we’re engaged. Whatever happened to proposing and giving a person an
option? I’m not ok with this.”

“Lucy. I’m not going to force you to
do something like that. But I don’t want you getting into your head and trying
to use ridiculous logic and thinking about what’s conventional to dictate your
decision. Now I’m asking you, but when you answer I want you to answer with
your heart. Tell me what you feel not what you think. Now Lucy, will you marry
me… someday? Will you wear my ring baby?” he asked me.

I stared into his eyes and I could
see nothing but love. I felt it in my heart and I did what he said. I let the
thoughts of what if and my fears and let my heart choose. I knew I wanted him
forever. I
needed
him forever, and this ring is a promise of forever. I
smiled at him and nodded. “Yes Landon. Not today or tomorrow so don’t pull any
bullshit on me later… but someday yes.” I told him. He gave me a bright genuine
smile and kissed me. It wasn’t urgent or sexual but it was full of emotions. We
stayed there for a little while longer before heading home. Nick was waiting in
the kitchen.

“So…?” he prompted before the door
was even closed.

“She said yes!” Landon squealed
imitating a girl. I laughed because this is a side of him he doesn’t really
show. Sure he’s playful but not nearly as silly as Nick.

Nick jumped up and down. “Yayy! Now
show me the ring. Let me see it!” he exclaimed and ran over to me snatching my
hand. I rolled my eyes as he inspected it. He frowned and turned to Landon.
“Sure you could’ve afforded something larger. You know that would’ve covered at
least 3 fingers.” He shook his head. “There’s still so much to teach you. Don’t
be surprised when she leaves you for a larger rock.” Landon punched him in the
arm and snatched my hand leading me to the stairs.

“You’ve had your fun Lucy. It’s my
turn now babe.” He told me and threw me over his shoulder.

I laughed loud. “What are you talking
about?” I asked him.

“Its sexy time” he whispered and took
me to our room.

Nick

I went back into my room and called
Mel to give her the news. While I was happy for Landon and Lucy it also made me
pretty sad. It was getting harder and harder for Mel and I, and a small part of
me can’t deny that I’m jealous of them. They get to see each other on a regular
basis and they’re so close. They’re fucking getting married. It’s both
distracting and depressing to have her but not really have her. Truth is
there’s been some strain in our relationship. I can’t put my finger on it but
sometimes it feels like she’s not on the same page as I am. Something is up
with her and I don’t know what it is. I’ve wanted to ask, but I’m afraid of
what the answer would be.

Her face filled the screen on the
third ring. “Hey Nick.”

“Hey babe. What you up to?” I asked.

“Homework of course. It’s insane the
amount of work that I have to get done. I feel like I barely have time to
think.” She told me. I took a look at her, a good look at her and I could see
the exhaustion in her face.

“It’s worth it babe. You’ll be fine.”
I encouraged her and she gave me a small smile. “By the way, Landon proposed to
Lucy today.” I told her. Her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open. I
cracked up laughing. “Close your mouth before you catch flies.”

“They’re engaged? That’s insane. I
mean if you would’ve asked me if this was even possible a few years ago I
would’ve said fuck no. It’s shocking, but I’m not surprised if that makes any
sense. WOW.” She scowled. “Why the hell didn’t she call me?” she asked angrily.

I laughed. “Well they were on a
romantic
date and all. Then when they got in a few minutes ago I heard something about
sexy time so I doubt you’ll be hearing from her anytime soon.”

She scrunched up her face. “That’s my
best friend and I love the girl but there are some things I just don’t need to
know. Thanks for that Nick.” She laughed.

I studied her face as her smile
widened and her eyes sparkled and I sighed. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I just miss you.”

Her face became sad and…
guilty
.
It instantly put me on alert. I knew something wasn’t right and here it is.
That feeling of dread I’ve been feeling and hiding. “I know Nick. I miss you
too… it’s just like we don’t have any time for each other. We talk like 5
minutes a week… what are we doing? I feel like this distance is just making us
more miserable. The more time that passes I love and hate our relationship
more. It’s like fate is teasing me. It’s driving me absolutely nuts. Do you
think we’re doing the right thing? Or are we making things worse?” she asked
with tears lining her eyes.

“I know what you mean. What is it
that you want Mel? It sounds like you’ve already made a choice.” I told her
reluctantly.

She sighed and the first tear fell.
“Nick, I don’t want to end us. I really don’t but I think it would be better
for the both of us.”

I felt my heart constrict and I let
out a shaky breath. “You want to breakup?” I asked even though I knew the
answer.

She shook her head. “No, but I’m
going to. It’s what’s best for both of us.”

I shook my head. “No it’s not. We can
make it work. I think it’s worth it. In the end when we’re done with all of
this we’ll have nothing but time left. I can endure a little sadness.”

“But I can’t. It hurts too much Nick.
I love you and I want to be with you but I just can’t take it anymore. The
wanting and longing is suffocating me.” She confessed.

I shook my head. “Now you tell me you
love me, when you’re leaving me. I fucking love you and you’re just leaving me
like this… is there someone else?” I asked.

Her lower lip wobbled but she didn’t
respond. It felt like someone stabbed me in the heart. “There’s someone else.”
I asked again but this time it was more of a statement.

“No… I mean yes. I mean…
maybe
.”
She fell all over her words. “I mean there are people here. I’m not dating
anyone or cheating on you but I think it’s better if we explore relationships
we can actually be a part of. Where we have a chance to actually be with people
we can spend time with and grow together.”

I felt my eyes sting, this shit hurt
like a bitch. “You know what Mel. I love you enough to give you what you want.”
I replied in defeat. I could see it in her eyes; she was sure of her decision
and there was no changing it.

“I still want to be friends Nick. I
don’t want to lose you. Maybe we’ll have a future…” she began but I cut her
off.

“I don’t want to be your fucking
friend Mel. I want to be
with
you. But I can’t. I don’t want you in my
life half ass. Go do what you need to and take care.” With that I clicked off
and buried my head into my pillow. I couldn’t believe she’d do this to us. I’m
never again going through this type of pain again… and I fucking trusted her.
It might sound bitter but no one is worth this feeling.

Landon

I was fucking tired. I kept Lucy up
all night and my last class was the longest one of my life. To top it off I
have football practice today and I wouldn’t be surprised if I got my ass
kicked. I walked into the locker room to get suited up when coach called me
over.

“What’s up coach?” I asked.

“Can I have a word with you in my
office for a minute?” he asked.

I looked at him warily. The look on
his face wasn’t good, but I haven’t done anything to fuck up. I went inside and
took a seat. He closed the door behind me and leaned against his desk. “Landon,
I’ve received information that you are currently taking steroids?” he stated
more as a question.

My eyebrows flew up. “What do you
mean? I’m not taking steroids. Who the hell said that?” I asked. I could feel
my anger rising. “I’ve never taken drugs before.”

He sighed. “Look, between the two of
us I don’t believe it. However as protocol I will need to suspend you pending
investigation. We will need to have you take a drug test to confirm the truth.
Once that’s done given you’re all clear you will be let back on the team
without any issues. The accusation will not be recorded to be used against you
since there’s no actual evidence.”

“Coach you can’t be serious?! I’m not
taking any types of drugs. You can test me right now.” I argued.

He nodded. “I get it Landon I do.
Unfortunately I am not able to do it right now nor can I. it will go through
the medical office. I can schedule an appointment for you sometime this week
hopefully and get this all sorted out. I’m really sorry Landon. Worst case is
you’ll miss one game but it’s not an important one.”

I sighed. “Really coach? You’re just
going to take someone’s word for it without any proof?”

He nodded. “I have to take every
allegation seriously. It’s the rules.”

I got up. “So I guess I’m excused
from practice today then?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yes, I’ll contact you
later today with an appointment. It’ll be fine Landon.” He told me and tapped
my shoulder.

I shook my head and left the office.
I grabbed my stuff and stormed out of the locker room ignoring my teammate’s
curious stares. Son of a bitch I am going to hurt someone. This is total
bullshit… steroids, really? I needed to blow off steam. I couldn’t go home
angry like this. I decided to go to the pizza joint on campus. I ordered a
slice and a soda and found an empty booth. The food just sat there untouched as
I thought about what just happened. I was totally zoned out when I heard a
chair scrape.

“Hey Landon, what’s going on man?” I
looked up to see Dylan sitting across from me.

“What do you want? You got a lot of
balls coming to me, you know that right?” I sneered at him.

“I don’t know what you mean.” He told
me with a smug smile.

My hands balled into fists. I felt my
temperature rising and the urge to knock him the fuck out was way too tempting.
“Did you fucking touch Lucy?” I asked him. This has been killing me. I know her
and knew she wouldn’t admit it to me if she thought I would get in trouble
unless I really pushed her. I let it go yesterday because I wanted her to have
a good day.

“I didn’t touch her. Why would I
touch her?” he asked feigning innocence.

Ok so the fucker wants to play with
me? “Dylan, you don’t know me. You don’t want to fucking know me. Take this as
your only warning. Lucy is mine and I’m not a person to fuck with. I don’t give
a fuck how you feel about me. That shit doesn’t faze me, but if you do
something stupid I will make you beg for mercy. You get me?” I asked standing
up.

He stood too. “Understood Landon,
there’s no problems man.” Just as I walked past him I heard him ask, “So how is
suspension?”

I spun around and looked at him with
a laugh. “Ah. I see. So this is war?”

He gave me a smug smile. “It would be
if my competition knew how to fight.”

I smiled back. “Game on bitch.” With
that I turned and left. This fucker wants to play? Then we can fucking play.
This little pussy doesn’t have a clue what he’s getting himself into.

I went home and found Nick in his
room. I knocked on the door and let myself in. “Yo Nick.”

“What’s going on… and why are you
super pissed? I can smell your tension.” Nick told me with a worried look.

I sighed. “That dick Dylan. First it
was the shit with Lucy and the son of a bitch is lucky I didn’t knock his
fucking head off. Then today I got suspended from the team because of an
anonymous tip that I was using steroids. I stopped at the pizza shop and that
douche approached me. He practically told me that he’s the one that reported
that shit. It’s time for payback.”

Nick nodded. “I’m down. I need to let
out some frustration myself.”

I gave him a hard look and I could
see some underlying sadness in him. I sat down next to him. “What’s going on
with you Nick?” I asked.

He ran a hand through his hair. “Mel
broke up with me. Some shit about finding relationships with people in the same
area. Truth be told I’m sure she already has someone in mind. Whatever I’m over
that shit, she can have whoever the fuck she wants. I’m done with her.” He told
me in frustration. I just nodded, it was a fresh wound and I don’t want to push
him. I made a note to circle back to this in a few days. He met my eyes and
gave me a smug smile. “So what do you have in mind? We haven’t had any action
in a long time.”

I rubbed my hands together. “Well he
does seem quite fond of that little car of his. Want to redecorate it?” I asked.

Nick smiled and we agreed to wait
until after midnight to go out. That way Lucy will be sleep and there will be a
slim chance of us getting caught. I exhausted Lucy out in bed until she passed
out then went to the living room until it was time to leave. We knew we were
both taking a huge risk here. With us being on the teams, this is enough to get
us kicked off of them permanently. Dylan hadn’t moved out of the football dorms
yet so I knew his car would be in that area. It was cold and deserted out which
was perfect. I’m just hoping he has a shitty alarm or none at all. It’s going
to put a real damper on my plan if it goes off and wakes up the entire campus.
It took us a while but we finally found his car. We took two of those heavy
thick ass curtain rods that Lucy bought with us. I went around to the driver’s
side to bust that window, so if an alarm goes off I can try to disable it. Sure
enough, an alarm sounded and I fit the upper half of my body through the
window. Thankfully Erica is into cars, so I learned a thing or two from her. I
had the alarm off within 30 seconds she would be so fucking proud right now.
Nick had already taken out both windows on the passenger side and the back
window. I knocked off the side view mirror and busted the back window on my
side. I pulled out my pocket knife and slashed the tires on my side. Nick was
putting all types of dents all over the car. I thought about him fucking with
Lucy and I reared back the rod and slammed it down into the front window hard
and the entire thing shattered in. I looked up at Nick to see he was slashing
the interior seats, so I wasn’t the only one that needed to release some pent
up aggression. I snapped my fingers and caught his attention to motion we
needed to get out of there. We had made a lot of noise while damaging the car
and I’m sure someone had to have heard by now. They probably already called the
cops. Thankfully we wore all black and hoods. Our faces weren’t visible even if
it were on camera. We learned a long time ago how to go unnoticed when we need
to fuck shit up. We taught Erica everything she knows. We had our wild day’s
way back when. This was like old times. We took off and went back home.

I climbed in bed with Lucy and kissed
her. She stirred, “Landon?” she said in a sleepy voice.

I smiled. “Yes baby. Wake up.” I felt
great about what I just done. I wish it was him and not his car but I would
have to take what I can for now. He needed to get the message that he needs to
think twice about fucking with me that I bite back. I know this thing wouldn’t
be over with just that but hopefully he at least keeps it between us. If he
comes next to my girl again no amount of begging from her is going to save him.
I’m going to fuck him up.

“No Landon, I’m sleepy.” She whined.

I began feathering kisses all over
her face. I needed her bad right now, sleep be damn. She can sleep another
time. “I need you Lucy, come here.” I whispered to her.

She stirred some more. I placed my
hand on her hip and trailed it up her side. She turned over to face me with a
moan. I leaned forward and suckled on her neck. I trailed kisses down her neck
until I reached her full breast. I licked her nipple and her hands came up to
my shoulders and rubbed lightly. I grabbed her left breast as I sucked on her
right one. Her body writhed underneath me. I ran my hand down her body to her
center and felt she was soaking. That was good because my dick was so hard it
hurt. I needed her too bad for foreplay. I slid off my boxers and entered her
in one swift movement. She made this kind of purring noise deep in her throat
that I loved and I grinded into her. She clamped down on me like her body was
trying to pull me in deeper so I obliged. I tried to go slow and she wrapped
her legs around me. I leaned down and kissed her.

“You know I love you baby?” I asked
her.

“Yes Landon” she whispered.

I couldn’t control myself anymore. It
was like that confession spurred me on. I hammered into her recklessly and her
voice grew louder. She kept saying my name on repeat and I could only go harder
and faster. I felt her come and her body shuddered but I needed more. I wrapped
my arms around her and pulled her flush against me. And I drove into her until
I felt the tingling in my spin and my balls tighten. I put a finger on her clit
and began a punishing motion. “Come for me baby.” I urged and bit down on her
neck. She came hard with a scream and that set me off. I came in her and it
felt like I just unloaded a truck inside of her. My body jerked from the
strength of it and I stayed inside her until the last spurt came out. I sighed
and placed a few small kisses to her lips. When she unraveled her legs from around
me I rolled over to the side. I pulled her against me and kissed her forehead.

“Night angel.” I whispered.

“Goodnight Landon.” She whispered
back.

The next morning I was walking to my
first class and I spotted a pissed off Dylan walking my way. I wanted to laugh
but I couldn’t, instead I pretended not to notice him. I continued walking and
he came to stop right in front of me. You could see the veins popping out of
his neck.

“That’s the best you got? You fuck up
my car?” he practically screamed.

I smiled and held my hands up in
defense. “I have no idea what you’re talking about man?” I was taunting him and
I noticed the attention he had drawn. Fighting was a no go, but if he provoked
it or threw the first swing… all bets were off. But that’s what I want, a
chance to bash his fucking teeth in.

He stepped closer to the point of
invading my space. “You fucking heard me. I know you’re the one that fucked my
car. Not man enough to admit it?”

I shrugged. “I still have no idea
what you’re talking about. If something happened to your car then I’d be more
careful about who I piss off.” As I walked past him I whispered, “Always time
to back down. This is a man’s game bitch.” I smiled to myself. It is so degrading
to a man to be called a bitch. That’s why I throw it at him every chance I get.