Chapter 31: Chapter 31

NICOLE

GOOD GLASS OF wine, a bold pair of lacy thongs creeping up my ass and a comfy night gown made me feel…I don’t know formidable?

Would you believe that?

The kids were already in bed, and Callan well tonight wasn’t about Callan.

He was in the army or Marines whatever he called it and I’m a hundred percent sure they survived a whole lot of weather conditions like drought or hypothermia. A little draft in the garage wouldn’t kill him.

Yet here I was trying to watch another thrilling episode of TOO HOT TO HANDLE, swirling red wine in my mouth and trying to convince myself I didn’t feel a pang of guilt invade my chest.

What if he died in there? Okay. I was being overdramatic and I hated myself for even caring this much.

He wasn’t even sorry when I got home. I had half expected him to cook dinner as a way of apologizing or flowers? God, he didn’t have to go through the hassle of buying me flowers we had a garden full of them, he could have just picked them for me and lied he bought them.

The more I thought about it, the more upset I was. And the more upset I was, the more wine I poured myself convincing my pathetic self that the half-dressed men on my tv were way hotter than Callan fucking Asher.

“Oh at least Cam’s hot”, I laughed lightly.

I would shamelessly settle for Cam any fucking day. Still past my thirties and I found bad boys hot. I mean the eyes, the hair…Callan.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Nicole”, I stood up rubbing my forehead stressfully, “you are stronger than this. You can resist him. You’ve lived without him for six years!”

Six years of misery that’s what and now that he was here, I couldn’t…dang it…I couldn’t bear the thought of being away from him.

I was in the middle of another ‘I’m too obsessed with Callan mania’ when the sound of the telephone echoed in the room.

Can’t say I didn’t jump a little or tighten the robes of my night gown tighter. My throat parched as I neared the phone at the end of the couch.

This was why I needed Callan in the house. He knew what to do in situations like these. What if I picked a call from the wrong person? Said something…God what if it was…

No. it was time to put all the fears away. Lucas was being handled. Berkely had promised me and my kids that that man would never be anywhere near us.

The phone rang louder, I bit my nail staring at the machine holding said phone.

Trembling, really feeling that lacy thong now uncomfortable and the wine and cheese slosh dangerously in my stomach, my hand landed on the phone and I pulled the damn thing against my ear answering the call.

Rule number one about taking calls, never speak first.

Callan’s voice resonated in my head and I didn’t say squat waiting for the fucker at the end of the line to speak.

“Buddy, yes yes don’t go all commando on me, I have some friends in town hall who can get anyone’s home telephone number in the spur of the moment. Listen that thing we talked about, being the alphas of our homes? It’s time we got our inner spark so what do you say me, you, Billy and a couple of guys from the neighborhood go camping?”

Alphas of their homes? What fuckery was that?

“Um. You are?”

He had mentioned Billy aka William Duncan which was a hint he was some guy Callan met at the barbeque.

Plus, he sounded familiar. God like the gross man with the bad moustache and a beat-up toupee at Abigail’s house who went on and on about how he preferred chicken to beef.

Tina’s husband if I wasn’t wrong.

He didn’t waste time chortling like I had said a joke before his voice soared through the phone, “Aah you must be Nicole, Callan’s wife. We met at Abigail’s little get together. Remember me?”

“No”, I said bluntly.

“Well, I can’t expect you to given the fact that you hovered around your sons all night. I can’t blame you either, Tina is like that with the kids as she should be. Be a darling and get Callan for me. Tell him it’s Frank”

He pissed me off.

Add in his sexist comment that clearly implied women were supposed to take care of children because it was their job and I sucked up enough courage not to tell him off.

“My husband is not a big fan of the woods” or people like you, I wanted to add, “Goodnight Frank”

I hung up the damn thing.

I barely had enough to breathe when I noticed the goliath of a man moving to the staircase.

He hadn’t seen me or maybe he had and he was trying to avoid me.

I placed the phone back to its resting place, straightening invisible crisps on my thigh length gown before I called him.

“Callan”, I spoke sounding like one of those cats at night that meowed groggily.

He stopped on his tracks turning around and only then did I spot the lightning Mc queen shirt and the spiderman shirt on his arms.

Jr and Connor slept on both sides of his shoulder.

“I thought they were already off to bed”, I whispered walking towards Callan who didn’t seem like he was carrying two human beings like they were mere feathers.

Patting Connor’s head slightly, I gazed up at those dark eyes that were already on me as if trying to read what I was thinking.

“They were worried about me. Can you believe that?”

He asked with slight pride.

A soft smile graced his lips and I found myself smiling too.

They went to see him? In the fucking garage? Jr included? I was still mad at him but that was cute.

“You are a great person and a great dad of course they were worried”

Like I was worried.

“Were you worried?” he asked with that velvety voice that had all my nerves at end.

“Callan—”

“Don’t answer that. Who were you talking to?”

“What?”

“The phone was in your hands when I walked by. Your left brow is slightly arched something that happens when you are fucking pissed. Who was it?”

“That…that— “, my left brow didn’t furrow when I was mad, did it? “It was Frank, we met him at Abigail’s. he wanted to invite you to go camping with a few guys from town. Well, I said no obviously, you don’t like people or men like him—”

“It’s not a bad idea”

“You can’t be serious”, I angrily whispered.

“You are working for the mayor and things seem to be going great”

“So, you are going to go fucking camping because I accepted Leo’s job?”

“We wanted to blend in…Jesus Christ, I still think Leo is a limp fucking dick but you wanted normal and this is me trying to be normal”

“By going out with a bunch of men who call themselves alphas? That’s not fucking normal!”

If the kids were asleep then they surely weren’t now as they both stirred in Callan’s arms. We both stared at them with petrified looks.

No words crossed between us as he climbed the stairs and I followed him behind.

Once we were both in Jr and Connor’s rooms, I kissed them good night with Callan shutting the door slightly.

“Oh no you don’t”, Callan whispered and before I figured out what it was, he was doing behind me, my face landed against the wall with a light thud.

He stood behind me caging me against his chest and the wall.

“Talk to me. Fuck I can’t keep saying the wrong things in front of you because believe it or not, it fucking messes with my mind when you are angry with me. Tell me what to do and I’ll fucking do it, Nicole. Otherwise, don’t do this to me, I want to be here. With them, with you”

His words washed over me and went straight to my core. I picked the wrong night to wear a thong because here in the dark with him pressing against me, I could feel his stone hard manhood press my butt, God my legs could move and my mind turned into mush.

“Talk to me. Tell me what you want—”

“That’s the thing”, my voice surprised me by managing to crawl its way up my dry throat, “I don’t want to make decisions for you. I don’t want you to want something because I’m forcing you to want it”

Case scenario, I didn’t want him to want this because I was sending him signals that I was as horny as a cat on heat.

His body pressed further into mine and I felt his hand push my nightgown to the side. Crawling up my leg, clawing his fingers against my inner thighs, I bit my lip leaning into him.

“Are we still talking about camping?”

His lips lightly treaded against my earlobe.

“Do you still fucking think I don’t want you, Nicole? That you are forcing me to want you?”

He asked, I didn’t have the strength to answer him as his hand rode up my thigh stopping right in front of my center. Then as if studying what I had underneath, his finger lightly brushed the lacy material of my thong.

“Lace? You are killing me here, Montenegro”

He pushed the material to the side, running his thick fingers against my folds and by now, I was too delirious to say anything coherent.

His finger hot and torturing lingered against my wet entrance and I leaned further into his chest anxiously anticipating the feel of his thick fingers working themselves in and out of me as he mumbled crude words that had me soaking wet.

“I want you so bad, the only thing dominating my mind this fucking second is how it’ll feel like sinking into your heat again. Feeling your pussy wrap around my dick with that God damn vise grip but tell me how can you assure me this won’t end like last time? I’m placing my heart on the platter here and I don’t want to end up being the one that gets butchered. Again”

Regaining the last of my senses, I mustered courage to push him off me and he stepped back without a fight.

I can’t lie the feel of his touch frittering away dug a hole in my heart but with a brave face I turned around,

“You are right, I have nothing to assure you that I won’t do what I did last time which is why I think you should go camping…with Frank”

His face full of hurt, he took a step closer and I lifted my hand in midair,

“No, you are right, we need to be normal. Camping is normal”

Tears clogged my throat but I remained brave. Maybe we were never meant to be anyway.

I loved him and he…he was afraid of loving me. Of giving his heart to me because I was the bitch that kept his sons away and that stung.

“Nicole-“

“I think you should go back to the garage”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thanks for going through the chapter, please leave a review if you can and also comment when you have time.

For the next chapter and I’ve been thinking about it a lot, I will now bring in some action. Something to shake things up.

A suspect working for Lucas?

Someone getting shot?

Stay tuned for more.