Wounded Love (G Street Chronicles Presents From Love to Loathe Series) (22 page)

We woke to Michael tugging at D’Artagnan’s arm.

“Get up, get up,” he whined.

“We’re up, Michael,” I said, stretching.

“It’s a bunch of people outside on the desert.”

“It’s the beach, and we’re going out there, too,” D’Artagnan told him.

There were three full baths in the beach house, so everyone who could walk had their own bathroom. Babe got in the shower with me, and she loved the water running from the showerhead. She laughed and giggled the whole time.

We went down to the beach, and D’Artagnan took Michael into the water with him. I was so grateful for him. I don’t know how I thought I was going to be able to handle them both by myself. All we did that weekend was play on the beach and eat out. We had a blast and the kids loved the beach. Babe loved the water and Michael loved being buried in the sand. We ate The Crab Shack, Lighthouse Pizza, Fannies on the Beach, The Sugar Shack, and Jitterbug. On the drive back, Michael hugged his jar of sand and seashells until he fell asleep. None of us wanted to leave, but we had to go back to our routine lives.

We got back to Atlanta Sunday night; both of the kids were sound asleep. D’Artagnan and I weren’t able to go deeper or finish any of our personal conversations this weekend. The kids kept us busy, and we didn’t have another moment of privacy. I got out of the passenger side, heading over to the driver’s side in D’Artagnan’s hotel parking lot. He caught me during the transfer and pulled me into a very passionate kiss.

“I’m staying here another week. I need to make sure we picked the right crew for you.”

I smiled at him, and he walked away rolling his bag toward the lobby door of the hotel.

Chapter 11

The Wedding

T
he next morning when I arrived at the office, D’Artagnan was already in the conference room with his laptop out. I said hello and walked straight to my office. He came in right behind me, shut the office door, and pressed me up against the door. His lips were on me at once, and I didn’t even try to stop him. I liked kissing D’Artagnan, and no one was in the office so we took advantage of that. About five minutes into our tongue-wrestling match and his violent reaction of him releasing himself into my hands, we heard the front door ding. I grabbed my container of wet wipes, and we did our best of cleaning and sanitizing our hands. We pulled ourselves together, and he left my office.

A bit later at our morning meeting, I took the floor in our last ten minutes.

“After a long and gruesome week, I’ve come to the decision about our crew. We will be welcoming Theory, Oliver, Dmitri, and Thurgood. They will start next Monday, and we are very pleased with our decision. We also decided to add another part-time position. This person will be in the training field and then will eventually move up to having their own territory. As you all know, we will soon branch out to the rest of the southern states, and we will need all hands on deck. We have decided that Lokey is the best choice for the training position, and Thurgood will take over our security/assistant position.”

Lokey’s face was blank, and then she began to cry. “Cricket, you’ve changed my life completely, and I want to thank you.”

I hugged her, and then we all collected our things and began processing the new hires’ paperwork. Around lunchtime, Lokey came to ask everyone what we wanted to eat. We agreed on sandwiches, and Lokey went down the street to a sandwich shop. I went into the conference room to speak with D’Artagnan about possibly using one of the large storage closets for Lokey’s office. He was on the phone arguing with someone, and I stepped back quietly when I heard D’Artagnan tell the caller, “She’s not ready for all of that yet.”

I backed out of the conference room as quiet as I possibly could. I wondered who he was talking to and who he was talking about. I went back into my office and asked maintenance to come and check out the storage unit. The crew suggested we add two more light fixtures and said the space was fine for an office; then they told me that they would have everything out of the closet by the end of the day.

Lokey came back with lunch, and we all met up in the conference room. Our conversation was light during lunch, but D’Artagnan just seemed so distracted. After everyone settled into their offices after lunch, I went back into the conference room to speak with into D’Artagnan.

“What’s wrong?”

He looked up and waved for me to shut the door. I gave us some privacy and took a seat in front of him. “I have to go to my sister’s wedding the week after next,” he said.

I sat there waiting for the bomb to explode because he acted as though something was terribly wrong. I knew it had to be more than just his baby sister getting married.

“I have to bring a plus one and the only plus one I want to take is you.”

“Okay, so what’s the problem?”

“You would have to go with me as my date.”

“Okay.”

“And people would ask us a dozen questions about our relationship.”

“D’Artagnan, do you want me to go with you or not?”

He smiled and nodded.

“In two weeks?”

He nodded again and I nodded right back.

The new crew started that next Monday, and we let them hit the ground running. D’Artagnan and I didn’t receive a single panicked phone call from the new folks. They all picked up fast on the dos and don’ts.

D’Artagnan and I left on a Thursday night for New York. His little sister Echo was getting married at some ritzy place called Gotham Hall. Everyone stayed at the Chatwal Hotel. D’Artagnan had insisted on us staying in one room, and I didn’t fight him on it. We arrived near midnight on Thursday and went straight to the hotel and crashed.

The next morning, we met his family for brunch. As soon as we walked in, I spotted David and Evelyn Crain, D’Artagnan’s parents. They were a sight. Both of them were tall as the heavens. D’Artagnan looked just like his father, and Echo, who came in shortly after we did, looked just like her mother. I wasn’t sure what nationality D’Artagnan was, but they all shared that same caramel skin.

“Cricket, it is a pleasure to finally meet you,” Mr. Crain told me. “D’Artagnan speaks of nothing but you,” Mrs. Crain smiled.

“It’s very nice to meet you both,” I said with a smile. Mrs. Crain pulled me along with her, and I met every one of D’Artagnan’s uncles, aunts, cousins, and two of his ex-girlfriends who were sizing me up. He had already told me that his sister was friends with all of his exes, so I was somewhat prepared for this. I noticed very quickly that D’Artagnan had no type what so ever. He apparently was all over the place in what he liked; from Goth to Model.

Brunch was about to be served, and I needed to use the ladies’ room. Echo, who now clung to me like glue, came with me. D’Artagnan’s baby sister was gorgeous. She had long, jet-black, soft hair and thick eye brows. She had three dimples, one on both cheeks and one completed her heart-shaped chin. When we stepped out of the ladies’ room, I noticed a man staring at us, and he beckoned for me to come to him. He looked familiar, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

“I’ll be right in there. Save me a seat,” I told Echo. She nodded and grinned at me, gliding back into the dining room. As I got closer to the man, I started to recognize him. A true demon from my horrid past had appeared.

“Malcolm?”

“Hey, Kat.”

I turned around to see if D’Artagnan or any of his family were coming near us. The coast looked clear; I smiled back at Malcolm.

“I never thought I’d never see you again and here you go. Damn, Kat, you look good as hell. Where you been hiding yourself, girl?

“Oh, I’ve been here and there.”

“So are you working right now?”

“No.”

“I haven’t seen you since Miami, and I could really use some
me
time.”

“Sorry, Malcolm, I’m in a different line of work now,” I explained with a stilly smile.

“Shit, I sure do hate to hear that. Girl, that mouth of yours put a spell on me,” he laughed.

Someone cleared his voice behind us, and then a warm hand intertwined with mine.

“Excuse me,” I said to Malcolm and turned to face D’Artagnan, who was now glaring at Malcolm.

“Malcolm.” D’Artagnan nodded.

“D’Artagnan, is this you?” Malcolm asked him referring to me.

“Yes,” D’Artagnan answered with a grimace.

“Well, congratulations are in order for snatching the most beautiful creature at this gathering.”

I tugged at D’Artagnan’s arm and we both turned and started walking back toward the ballroom.

“Kat, don’t be a stranger now,” Malcolm called after me.

D’Artagnan stiffened and slid his arm out of mine. I reached out, but he pulled away from me. D’Artagnan turned to face back toward Malcolm.

“Malcolm, I just told you she was mine. Why you trying to start shit?”

“I’m not, nephew. I was only letting Kat know how much I truly missed her company.”

This was unfuckingbelievable. How in the world did I get myself in these clusterfucks? Malcolm was D’Artagnan’ uncle? Now I could almost see the resemblance. I tugged at D’Artagnan’s arm again, and he glared at me until I released him. I backed away, turned, and walked back into the ballroom. I went to our table and sat down.

Echo watched me and mouthed, “Where’s D’Artagnan?”

I smiled and mouthed back, “Bathroom.”

She smiled, nodded, and went back to giving her fiancé all of her attention.

D’Artagnan came back to the table a few minutes later. He didn’t say a word to me, so I said nothing to him. After brunch, we all ended up at the Craines private club, the women played tennis and the men golfed. Then that evening, we all attended the rehearsal dinner. D’Artagnan showed up at the rehearsal dinner, two sheets to the wind. He kept his distance from me and that made me feel awkward and out of place. He stayed silent on the ride back to the hotel. He was making me feel extremely uncomfortable. There was no telling what Malcolm had told him.

Malcolm was really fucked up, and he always had me doing some crazy shit. Malcolm had a very severe case of foot fetish, and I can remember waking up numerous times with my feet bound and covered with some kind of ice cream topping. His favorite was to pretend like my feet were Ice Cream Sundaes. Malcolm loved anal, as well as fisting.

After a full day and evening of drinking and reminiscing with D’Artagnan’s family and friends, we were exhausted. We got back to the hotel and went straight up to our room. D’Artagnan opened the door and held the door open for me. I walked through the door, setting my clutch on the small table under the mirror. D’Artagnan gripped my arm and yanked me back to him.

“Why won’t you fuck me?” he slid his wet tongue down the side of my neck. D’Artagnan was drunker than before; I could smell all the alcohol on his breath and he was almost sloppy with it. He pressed up against me, pushing me back toward the wall. The room was dark, and the only light I could see was coming from the bottom of the door. “I’m so fuckin’ good to you Cricket. I want to eat ever part of you up,” he slurred. “I would never treat you like Jyme did, and I can’t even imagine what my fucked up uncle did to you.”

D’Artagnan was right, I owed him big time, and he hadn’t been anything but good to me. The only way I knew how to pay him back was the one thing he wanted. I could fuck his brains out. That was the one thing I was an expert in. I rubbed the side of D’Artagnan’s face. I did have love for him, and he was good to my daughter and me. I could be happy with him and I knew he loved me unconditionally. I fought my body and let my mind take over now. He could have my mind despite what my body was telling me. I’d done this a hundred times before; just go somewhere else in my head. He deserved that from me.

“You’re right. How do you want it? Do you want me to suck it first?” I asked him, dropping to my knees. I unzipped his pants and fished for his Python.

“What?”

I found what I was searching for, wrapped my hand around his dick, and bent into him, preparing myself for the sucking of my life. D’Artagnan was at full salute, and I was ready to do this. I wanted to make D’Artagnan happy and I knew this would. I owed him after everything he’d done for me; I could do this. I was nothing; and he wanted me, so I would give myself to him. No one else would ever love me like he did. He pulled me up right before I could get started.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He said nothing to me. He yanked my dress up and ripped my panties off. I opened my legs wide grabbing at his dick. I wished D’Artagnan was Jyme and I pretended he was whispering,
I love you
in my ear. I felt my eyes water, and I tried to blink back the tears. The one thing Chyna told me about Juicy was not to let someone in who I didn’t love. I loved D’Artagnan, but not the same way I loved Jyme. In the end I was always the one getting hurt. So this was my opportunity to use my talent to make someone I loved happy. I have to let go of Jyme because as much as I love him, he will never love me back like he did before. I just had to get use to that.

D’Artagnan didn’t move a muscle, and that worried me. I turned around and pressed my bare ass against him. “Or do you just want to take me up the ass?”