As I sat there holding my trembling wife, I wondered if Laura had something to do with Ben. My original thought was that my mother had sent Laura to fuck stuff up, but now I wasn’t so sure. If this Ben character was tracking Hailey down and knew enough about her life to threaten us by name, then maybe he had come into contact with Laura and decided to use her as a pawn.
I didn’t know what the hell was going on with that situation anymore, but Ben now trumped the thing with Laura.
This needed to get handled, and it needed to get handled quickly.
Chapter 22
Hailey
“Just calm down. Everything’s going to be okay.”
As I lay in Bryan’s arms, I felt the rest of the boulders I’d been carrying crash to the ground. I felt helpless and insecure. I felt bloated and guilty. But most of all, I felt terrible for keeping this from Bryan and for creating this situation. The worst was that I’d made him feel like this was a facet of my personality that would eventually destroy us.
But he was right. It would if I didn’t find a way to get it under control.
“From now on, Hailey, you can’t keep things like this from me. I understand that we are our own people, but you are carrying very precious cargo. And you’re precious to me in your own right. This is serious, and the fact that you kept it from me tells me a lot of things like the fact that you don’t trust me.”
“I do trust you,” I said breathlessly. “I was trying to protect you.”
“Then stop. Because you’re doing a shit job of it.”
A breathless chuckle left my lips as Bryan placed a kiss on my forehead.
“I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect you. We have to go to the police, but I know that makes you uncomfortable for many reasons. I’ll come up with something. I’ll make sure you don’t have to sell John’s paintings.”
“I don’t know how you’re going to do that,” I said.
“Trust me, Hailey. Now that you’ve told me what’s going on, trust that I can get this under control.”
“It shouldn’t be your problem in the first place.”
His finger crooked underneath my chin and pulled my gaze up to his. I found myself lost in his eyes, in their concern and in their fiery need to protect. His arms wrapped around me and lowered my back to the bed as we continued to start into one another’s eyes.
I spread my legs for him as he dipped in between them, his fingers tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
“I love you, Hailey. You are the mother of my child and the best wife a man could ask for. Any problem you encounter is mine, just like any problem I encounter is yours,” I said.
“I don’t know how to fix this anymore,” I whispered.
“It’s no longer yours to fix. It’s mine. You’ve done enough. You’ve been strong enough. Now let me solve this for us so we can start our life together in peace.”
He cupped my cheek as I raised my lips to his. They were warm and soft. Inviting and comforting. I felt a sense of peace rush over me as my arms threaded around his neck, pulling him closer to me. I needed to feel him. I needed him to blanket me. I needed to feel normal and beautiful and wanted and loved.
I needed to lose myself in him.
His tongue begged for entrance as it swiped over my lips. I opened my body to him, his hands roaming along my curves. Our tongues battled for dominance as my hands raked down his back, clawing at his shirt so I could get it over his head.
Our bodies were harmonizing with one another. I rolled him over and straddled his lap, peeling my clothes from my body. His hands roamed over my stomach and thighs, my waist and my breasts. He cupped them, squeezing their aching peaks before he leaned up and kissed me again. He rolled me over onto my back as his hands slid down my body, grasping the material of my skirt and pulling it down my legs. I heard his jeans fall to the carpet as his lips descended onto my ankle, his mouth kissing all the way up my body to meet my lips again.
“I could never cheat on you,” Bryan said. “Cheat on this. You’re everything to me. Everything I’ve ever wanted. You’re my life and my source of strength. The reason I get up in the morning with a smile on my face. No woman has ever made me feel the way you do, and no woman ever will.”
I felt his girth pulsing at my entrance. I felt my arousal dripping down the cracks of my body. I rose my hips up to encompass him, drawing a groan from his lips as my body devoured him. I shook with want, aching to be touched and caressed and kissed. I crashed my lips up into his again as he sank to his hilt, and then I ran my toes up the backs of his legs.
“Fuck, you feel so good,” Bryan said.
“Make love to me, Bryan McBride.”
He slowly slid out, coating his thickness in my juices. I trembled with every movement he made as my hands ran up and down his back. I took in the peaks and valleys of his rippling muscles, their strength working for my pleasure as he began to thrust into me. I fell to the bed and moaned as his lips descended to my breasts. He nibbled and bit and marked my body as I whimpered and shook underneath him. Electricity surged through my veins as he picked up the pace, knocking against my body. I could feel his hand grabbing onto my thigh, hiking my leg further up his body.
“More, Bryan. Give me more. Please.”
He threw my leg over his shoulder and pulled me to the edge of the bed. His pounding was relentless, and it left me without any breath. My body was bursting with flames as my jaw unhinged in silent pleasure, my clit brushing against his body with every thrust he made. He bent my leg toward my body, and I felt his lips on mine, so I forced my eyes open to look at him.
So I could lose myself in him, and so I could remind myself of the beauty of what we shared.
He rolled me over and lifted my hips as my cheek pressed into the bed. His girth slid back into my body, coaxing moans from my throat. I could feel my ass jiggling for him with every thrust he took, his hands meandering over my curves while I perched on the edge of the bed. The mattress was shaking, and my body was lurching. I could feel my breasts rasping along the bed as they tingled with sensuous electricity. There was no way Bryan could cheat on me. There was no way he would ever be the type of man to compromise what we had. He loved me too much and made me feel too good to seek something out elsewhere.
I could hear his pleasure dripping from his lips as he slammed into me. I could feel the way his hands gripped my hips as his girth pulsed against my walls. My eyes rolled into the back of my head when I felt my climax wash over me, and it rendered me speechless as my body shook.
“I feel you. Hailey, I feel ... you. Shit.”
My body pulled Bryan deeper into me, and I groaned with my orgasm. I fisted the sheets on the bed as my body fluttered around his cock. My legs grew weak, my arms shaking. My breasts were flailing as the love of my life continued to pound into me. He wrapped his arms around me and tossed himself onto the bed, rolling me onto my side as he stayed sheathed within the confines of my body.
Bryan’s hands cupped my breasts, pulling me back to press against his chest.
His lips peppered my shoulder with kisses as my arm reached back for his hair. I cocked my head off to the side and captured his lips, feeling him growing bigger within my body. I lifted my leg and hooked it back around him, parting myself for him as his hand slid down my body.
He captured my lips with his as his hands parted my folds.
“I love you,” I said breathlessly. “I love you so, mmm, much.”
He slowly moved, inching his way out of me before he slammed back in. I whimpered into his lips as his mouth swallowed my sounds. His hips slammed into mine, jiggling my ass as his fingertips worked my swollen clit. I could feel my body coating him with my arousal, dripping for him as his muscles contracted and expanded against my skin.
His fingers pulled at my aching nipple as his other hand worked between my legs. I shivered against his body as his cock continued to sink into me. I rolled my hips back into him, setting a furious pace as we writhed against one another. I could feel his sweat dampening my skin as droplets formed on the back of my neck. His lips were everywhere. My neck. My shoulder. My back. My arms. Any part of me he could touch with them, he did. Murmuring how beautiful I was. Murmuring how much he loved me.
Murmuring how I was the only woman for him.
I felt his hips stuttering as his fingers pressed deeply into me. I pressed back into him as far as I could go as his body grew taut. His teeth bit down into my shoulder, sinking in deeply as I groaned into the room. Stars burst behind my eyes as my toes curled, my hand raking against his scalp to pull him even closer to me.
“Yes, Bryan. Shit. Oh, fuck. I’m so sorry. I’m sor-sorry.”
I couldn’t catch my breath. My body was vibrating with pleasure, and my pussy was pouring juices on the bed. My breasts were peaking with want, and goosebumps were ricocheting along my body. Bryan rutted against me, short bursts of thrusting as he poured himself deeper into my body. I could feel every pulse as my walls fluttered around him, drawing him the closest I’d ever felt him in all of our relationship.
We relaxed against the bed, heaving for air as the smell of our sex swirled around our heads.
Bryan stayed between my legs until he began to shrivel. His arms pulled me close, moving me away from the wet spots we had created together. He nuzzled into my neck as I opened my body for him, lacing our fingers together and bringing his hands to my lips to kiss. My heart was thudding hard against my sternum. Tears were rising to my eyes. I had no idea how I could ever accuse this beautiful man of cheating on me, but I knew what I had to do now.