Bound (Bound Hearts #1) (24 page)

“It wasn’t just sex and of course it’s not. I want to spend my life with her!” My voice was raising with each word tumbling out of my mouth.

“Ah-there it is,” Joe said
, with a slow smile. “You want that future with her, then why the hell are you still here?”

“I can’t just drop everything and go to her. I have the house, the garage-

“Boy-I done sold my garage to somebody else.”

Whoa. That was a stab in the back if I ever felt one.

“Don’t look at me like I stabbed you in the back. I’m doing you a favor Courtland. You dropped everything for her ten years ago. Are you
really
gonna wait another ten before you realize the best thing in your life that you can call your very own, is just as hopeless and alone as you are right now? That even though your pasts can’t be rewritten, your futures are not yet set in stone? You want something, you fucking go for it boy. You really gonna let that pretty little lady decide she doesn’t deserve you? Deserve the best in this world?”

“Yeah, cause that’s what I am. The best in this world. With the upbringing I had?”

“Son, you rose above and beyond your upbringing and became a good man. A man any woman would be lucky to have. You might’ve been sixteen when you started working for me, but didn’t you learn how to take care of yourself? Learn how to keep others safe in the Marines? Me and Milly are proud to call you our son. Now, you go get that girl. We sure would like to see some grandbabies before we go.”

I knew my eyes were swelling up with tears and hearing Joe saying he was proud of me and what I did in my life, calling me his son, broke something in me.

I hung my head because even though I came to grips with my past, I must still feel like that little boy inside me needing someone to tell me I did good.

He came to me, bore his hands on my shoulders and said, “Courtland. You’re a good man. Don’t let her get away because she’s stubborn. That’s what these women of ours want us to do. Make that grand gesture. If you can see in her eyes, deep into the heart of her, and know in your gut that she’s it for you. That’s she’s the only one you can see your future with, then don’t let her take herself from you. She needs you
, just as you need her.”

Something clicked right then.

“She is stubborn.”

Chuckling, he moved away and walked to the d
oor. Picking up a duffel bag, he tossed it to me.

“What’s this?”

“Since learning our girl was a writer, Mildred went and bought every single one of her books. Let’s just say, it was a heady bunch of change. Our girl did good. I already called JR. He’s waiting outside for you. Go take that road trip son. Even if it’s a one way trip. If so, who knows, maybe the wife and I will move out there. I hear it’s an awfully beautiful state. You might just get lost there. We love you, Courtland. I don’t think we ever said it to you. But we do. Now, what in the blazes are you waiting for?”

Courtland

The drive was about nineteen hours to twenty hours because any tourist type attraction we saw, JR stopped. He never been out of Texas. As a farmer’s son, it was really Chet who went out of state for any farming conventions or legislations or whatever farmer’s did when they talked about rules and regulations. Although I didn’t think he wanted to do that. That’s probably why he switched professions. Thinking about it, he could probably find work out here in Georgia and we wouldn’t have to say good-bye. I sure as hell wasn’t leaving. Not even if she turned me away. Just maybe, he’d find someone to make him happy.

Chet and I switched driving once and when he took back over
, I dived into another Phoenix Houston novel. Damn. I thought that last one was erotic. I had no idea Adelaide knew anything about bondage or dominance or Jesus. Toys. That was an eye opener.

Never have I thought she could write like this. But it wasn’t just full of sex. There was mystery, thrills, and some of her heroes were even in the military. She must have researched these a lot to know about military life and about other countries.

I never thought I’d ever read a-looking at the back label-‘romantica’ novel. God. I stooped low. But in order to know my woman, I had to read what went through her head over the last ten years. The books I had in the duffel bag were waiting for me to open and read.

Come to find out, they were actually pretty interesting. There was action in most of them. Although I didn’t really care for the covers. I was proud of how well Adelaide did for herself but did she have to use men who look like the poster child of fake abs and tattoos?

“You know Courtland, mom’s read her books. Has been for quite some time and just didn’t know it. You know what she said before I came and got you? Ha. She said most of the heroes remind her of you. At least the covers.” JR started laughing and when he snatched the book I was currently reading, called ‘Bound to You’ and looked at the cover, he laughed even harder. “Yeah. Could be you. Ink, hard abs, gruff-like, not that I check you out, but this is too hilarious.”

“Fuck you man.” I laughed and thought about that
for a minute.

Was she really writing me in every book? Was this how she dreamed of me? A man who could rescue her from her past, save her present while giving her the highest of sexual satisfaction and then living happily ever after?

Fuck. Me. I laughed right along with JR. “You know what? I might be. Maybe she was dreaming about me her whole life, just as much as I dreamed of her.”

That quieted him down. He c
onsidered this before saying, “Courtland, you’re a brother to me. You’re my family, and so is Adelaide. You never told me about how bad your life was before I got you to start hanging out with me. And if you can’t, that’s cool. I don’t wanna hug or need you to tell me anything you don’t want to, and I respect that. If you told Adelaide? I’m happy for you. I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up, but I know when Adelaide started hanging with us, her eyes started to light up. She started coming out of the shell she kept herself in. You did that. You let her be her without all the shit surrounding her. She might be your miracle and hope for love everlasting, but you’re also her miracle. Never forget, always remember that.”

“Come on, Courtland! How could you be a mistake? You’re a miracle. My miracle.”

Son of a bitch. That girl loved me, she just didn’t know how to say it. I would show her how easy it was. I couldn’t wait to make her all mine.

‡

The small town just outside of Atlanta, in which she lived, was quaint and could be a picture of where she grew up. The house where we pulled up, had her SUV and a Cadillac in the drive, was two stories. It was in a nice, quiet neighborhood. The house looked actually very big, especially for two women. She mentioned her Grandfather passing away and willing the house to her.

Chet and I walked up
to the porch. It looked like a wraparound porch. Just like she always said she wanted. It looked new so maybe she added it on there recently. I didn’t know how much an author made, but it looks like she did really made it. Pursued her dreams and made them happen. I knew I was in those dreams of hers and she had me.

Chet leaned up against the porch railing when I knocked on the door. We heard feminine laughter when the sounds of lock
s clicking and an unfamiliar voice was saying, “If only it was a delivery of hot men instead of pizza.”

The doo
r opened and a red head peaked through the crack of the door. “Oh, shit! ADELAIDE! OMG! These delivery men are hot!” Hearing Adelaide’s laughter in the background got my attention. The red head looked between the two of us, before asking, “Hey, where’s our pizzas?”

Chet was standing straighter and staring at the red head like he was mesmerized. Oh
, boy.

“Sorry darlin’. Ain’t got one.”

“Oh. My. God. COURTLAND?” Adelaide shoved the red headed chick aside and burst through the door. “What are you doing here?”

“To tell you this-you love me and to tell you how stubborn you are for letting me go so easily.”

Her breathing hitched, and her eyes began to water.

“Oh. Is that all? You came all the way here for something like that?”

“Hell no woman.” Chet went on inside and closed the door so Adelaide and I had some privacy. “I came because I’ve loved you since we were hand cuffed in the back seat of a cop car. I dreamed of you and knew there wasn’t any other woman who could bind me so helplessly and completely. You and Chet are the only family I’ve ever had. You’re the first person I said I love you to and damn it all, you’re gonna be the last woman I say it to. You’re mine, Adelaide. I sure as hell ain’t gonna wait for you to think it over. Ten years is a long ass time to be separated from the woman you love. I can’t live another day without you. You turn me away? I will come back every day, breaking down your resistance. Even if it takes me the rest of my life telling you I love you, I will never leave you, never abandon you, always lift you up when you’re down, always be there for you, no matter what. I dropped everything to get to you ten years ago. I should’ve known then that everything I’ve ever wanted was right there in front of me. Just looking at me with deep blue eyes. Asking me to make her life better. To make it worth living. Well, baby. Here I am. I’m not leaving. No one can love you more than me but God himself Adelaide. I will treasure you all the days we are given on this earth, until I die. When that happens, I’ll be waiting for you at the gates of Heaven, because there ain’t no way I’m going to enjoy Paradise, without you by my side. I will make sure our children are loved, happy, healthy and safe. I will keep
you
safe. I didn’t get to before. I’m sor-

Adelaide jumped into my arms. Crying and holding onto me tight. “Don’t ever say you’re sorry! Don’t you know? You’re my-

“Miracle.” We said it at the same time and looking into her eyes, I didn’t see the pain anymore. My hands spread across her cheeks, my thumbs wiping the tears from her eyes.

“Adelaide, if you’re not ready to say it, it’s okay. I love you. Always. I will always love you to the ends of this world until we meet into the next.”

Her fingers brushed across my lips to still my words.

“I love you Courtland Eugene.”

“Ah hell. You don-did it now, woman of mine.”

I dipped her back
, low and with eyes sparkling with happiness and joy, I laid one on her. The first kiss to begin the rest of our lives.

Look for JR
and Susie’s story in Taken

Coming
2015

Two unlucky hearts will meet.

On the night he was proposing, Chet finds his girl in the arms of another man. He promises to never fall in love anytime soon. When he finds himself in Georgia and meets the sweet shop owner, he just can’t stay away. Or keep his hands off the fiery temptress stealing his heart.

Susan O’Malley only wanted a few things in life. Lose weight? Check. Own her own dessert shop? Check. Find a good strong man who wouldn’t sleep around behind her back? Still waiting. Then the sexy cowboy Chet Hunter shows up on her door step.

All italicized songs represent Courtland

Cop Car- Keith Urban

Follow Your Arrow- Kacey Musgraves

Halo-
Beyoncé

I Want It That Way- Backstreet Boys

Only God Could Love You More- Jerrod Neimann

Broken- Lifehouse

Invisible- Hunter Hayes

Missing You Now- Michael Bolton

Gotta Get Away- Anthony Galloway

Til M Last Day- Justin Moore

Haunted- Evanescence

Mirror- BarlowGirl

Cowboys and Angels- Dustin Lynch

Touch- Josh Abbott Band

Losing My Religion- R.E.M.

Come Wake Me Up- Rascal Flatts

Red- Taylor Swift

Need You Now- Plumb

For You- Staind

Walk On the Water- Britt Nicole

When You Say Nothing at All- Alison Krauss

Somebody’s Hero- Jamie O’Neal

Let It Go- Idina Menzel (Frozen Soundtrack)

I Can’t Love You Back- Easton Corbin

Settle for a Slow Down- Dierks Bentley

I Wanna Love You Forever- Jessica Simpson

Truly, Madly, Deeply- Savage Garden

Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend

Excerpt

Chapter 1

Dax

Fuck. About time this chick came. I was getting tired of pounding my dick into her. This bitch has been clingy all night at the club and I finally said fuck it and drove her back to her place. It didn’t take her long before she was taking off her clothes and fingering her pussy, trying to egg me on.

She fell asleep after I put it to her, I got up, went to the restroom, got rid of the double condom I wore-damn right double condom. I didn’t know this bitch from Eve, I was making sure nothing seeped into her cunt.-I know that’s crass, but that’s how I am. Been raised by a man who owns a strip club and a woman who took over when he kicked the bucket, made me not care what people thought about me and I learned a lot from the Jack’s that occupied the lounge.

I cleaned my dick, then walked back out into the bedroom. She was still out to the world so I located my clothes, donned them, and picked up my wallet and phone. (Made sure my green was inside, yeah, some chicks thought they’d get the slip on me but I learned that shit real quick and at an early age, never trust a dame you just took to bed.) Yup, everything was right, shoved them into my front pockets and left.

I hadn’t had a new girl in a while. A few weeks at least. I didn’t keep them long though. A few months maybe. Most of them didn’t like how commanding I was. I told them up front what I liked and how I liked it.

Right now, I didn’t want to have to deal with breaking in a new girl. Just a quick bang and beat it.

I was young and didn’t plan on marrying anyone anytime soon. No bitch was gonna hold me down. The way I grew up, with men leering at the strippers and around nothing but women in a gentlemen’s lounge, made me figure out what I didn’t want. At least half of those women were like the chicks I had just now. Clingy, needy, and desperate for a sugar daddy. I was no one’s sugar daddy.

During the day, I ran the books at Saints and Sinner’s Lounge, a Cabaret in Downtown Houston. My father, Mike, had it as a gentlemen’s club, where the women stripped and danced and you paid a hefty sum for membership. Now that Danny, yeah, she preferred it if I called her Danny instead of mother, (go figure), took over after he died, she wanted it to be more than just a strip club. So she paid a shit load to add another level, so memberships still were paid for the more exotic type shit on the top level where the girls who stripped, stripped and the personal lap dances and shit happened. The bottom level was the bar and cabaret, where the girls danced and put on a good show. We were a legit place and I meant to keep it that way. Mike had let shit slide sometimes and a few douche’s got out of hand with a few girls. E.I: Cops came, the club was fined, and the place lost some business. I didn’t necessarily want to work in this place, but what could I say I was kind of a momma’s boy in some respect. She didn’t ask me much for shit, but when she did, I didn’t have a problem with it. I just did it. One of them being the financial guru in S & S.

Some of the younger girls of the lounge would get there sometimes super early with the excuse of ‘extra routine practice’, but come on. Gimme a mother fuckin’ break. I hated doing the books in the office sometimes, so I took the ledger into the main room and took care of business. I hated offices. Stuffy closed in spaces. Danny’s office was big but she did a lot of sewing shit in there. Her and her bi seamstress Sebastian. Most times, all I heard was their jabbering. Every now and then they try to ask my opinion, but I honestly didn’t care about dancing girls. They were a dime a dozen in places like this. Stating the obvious much? Ha-ha-ha.

If I sat in the main room, sometimes some of the dancers would try and talk loud, trying to get my attention. Talking about girl shit and their bodies. Like I wanted anything to do with that. Every once in a while one would get brave, saunter up me, swaying her skinny ass hips, bouncing her fake ass big titties, lean down so said fake ones would almost be brushing up in my face before trying a lame come on line. Trust me, I shot that shit down real damn quick.

One thing about me, I fucking hate aggressive and pushy women. They get ideas on how they think they’re gonna tame a man into some metro-sexual guy, who will carry their purses, end up driving a Prius, get manicures, waxed, and have creamy lotiony hands, eat sushi, and shit. Fuck, someone please take my balls. I don’t need them. That day comes, when any of that happens to me? Take my fucking man card, I’m in line to get neutered and be feminized. I don’t want a lapdog but some women want to be the pants wearer in the relationship. That just don’t sit right with me. Maybe that’s why I go for the submissive type from the club I’m a member at, aptly named, The Club. It’s a lifestyle club, a BDSM culture that circulates the darker and sexually sensual. Women there knew what they are getting into and I never had a problem. Until lately.

Something just feels different. The women I have all seem the same. Their faces blend with the others and I can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong lately. I’m a healthy man of twenty-seven. Barely in my prime. I’m fit, and toned from working out seven days a week.
Stamina and endurance is not the problem. For sure. But lately, it just seems like I’m going through the same shit just on a different day. Over and over. It’s not like I’m having a midlife crisis. I pray I live to be an old man, and twenty seven is not the middle of my life. It’s just starting. So why do I feel so fucking peculiar?

Every chick feels the same, looks the same, and sounds the same. I loved my life and the way I lived it but I needed a change obviously. This shit just is not right.

Leaving no-name’s apartment, I made it down to my truck. Yeah. I owned a big black jacked up truck on 35’s. I was a tall man, six foot six inches, I needed a vehicle to accommodate that. Well I also have my sports car, a black Chevy Camaro, but I only drove that on special occasions.

Getting in my truck, I started it where Buckcherry blasted the speakers and it was still early, around ten. I decided to go get me a drink. I didn’t want to go back to The Club, I didn’t feel like getting harassed. I lived over in Pasadena, in a huge ass house in Baywen Oaks Village. I liked the city but I needed to be away from all that shit sometimes. This house way far enough away from Danny too. She wanted me to ‘get settled’. Even tried to get me to go out on dates, some of them being the girls at the lounge. I always turned them down. The ones that were my age, were married and/or had kids. The ones in their early twenties were man eating sugar babies. I know Danny had to have known that, but she’s convinced herself I need to stop sowing my oats and fill up that empty house. I rolled my eyes every time she mentioned that one.

It was a Friday night and I was on my way towards Pasadena when I saw the Chili’s Bar and Grill. Fuck it. I’m thirsty. Pulling up and getting out, the parking lot looked packed. All I wanted was a drink. A glass of Crown Royal should do me quite nicely.

I walked in, and luckily they had one spot open at the bar top. I sat down and waited to be serviced. There was a big guy taking care of someone where his register was and a curvy girl with long dark blonde hair was at their well making drinks and wiping everything down. I waited a few minutes and when the big guy didn’t acknowledge me, I was getting edgy.

“Hey. Blondie.”

The curvy girl manning the wells turned, and her big light green eyes caught on mine. I didn’t even see a flicker of interest light her eyes. Lesbian. Had to be. I knew I was a good looking man. The fact her eyes didn’t even sparkle just made me think she swung for patches instead of stalk.

“Hi, welcome to Chili’s, Al is your bartender, but he looks a little busy so I’ll get you started. What are you having this evening, would you like to start off with a Presidente Rita and maybe some Southwestern Eggrolls?”

“Ha. Nah. I’m good. I’ll take a double Crown straight. That’s it.”

The girl got a glass and put two fingers liquor and passed it to me.

“There you go, if you’re ordering just let Al know.” With that, the girl finished wiping down the well within a few minutes, told the big guy named Al something and he looked to me, lifted his head and then told the girl something.

She walked back to me, told me to have a good night and she walked out of sight. I finished the drink and was lifting my wallet from the pocket when I saw her walk from the back towards the door.

“Wait a sec.”

What the hell was I doing? I laid a twenty down, put my glass on top and walked over to the girl, who actually did as I said. I towered over her. Some reason, I rather liked that. The girls I usually took to my bed were tall, slender and mostly models types. This girl was all the opposite. I couldn’t tell her body with the black collared shirt with the chili’s symbol on it, although she was wearing form fitting jeans, I wasn’t about to ask her to turn around so I could check out her ass.

She waited patiently for me to say something. However, all my mouth seemed to do was imitate a damn fish. Open. Close. Open.

Get it fucking together Dixon. The girl just shook her head and turned, pushing her way through the door. Damn she had a nice firm round ass made for grabbing.

Ugh. I shook the lascivious thoughts from my mind and pushed through the door. She was climbing into an old fashioned truck that looked brand new. Damn. It was a nice truck. She must keep it in prime condition. Which I knew would cost a pretty penny. Damn, a little rich princess. Those were the worst kind of girls. Not what I want either. But then, why the hell she working in a restaurant? This intrigued me.

I caught her door in my hand, stilling it before she shut it closed.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to not say anything. I didn’t catch your name.”

“You didn’t.”

“Nice truck.”

“Ha. Yeah. Thanks. Is that the best you can do?”

“What?”

I knew I was totally fucking up this conversation.

“Ha-ha. Never mind. I need to be getting home.”

“Where’s home?”

That took her aback. Her eyes widened and then she started looking around nervously and reaching her hand into her small purse.

“Shit. That didn’t come out right. Don’t answer that question and please don’t pull out the pepper spray you so totally got a firm grip on. I’m an idiot. I just wanted to know your name.”

That’s when I saw her eyes get brighter and a smile splayed on her heart shaped face. It wasn’t an ugly face either. It was actually quite beautiful. It was dim in the restaurant and dark out here with her silhouette lit up only by her truck light.

“Want in one hand, shit in the other. Which do you think will fill faster?”

She sure had a mouth on her, than her face turned bright red and her hand flew over her mouth.

“Oh goodness, I am so sorry. That was totally inappropriate of me to say. I read this Maya Banks novel today and that line totally stuck with me. I thought to myself, I’m gonna use that the next time someone wants something from me. But I am sorry. You’re a total stranger,” then mumbled, ‘a hot stranger’, then said louder, “but that is no excuse to be rude like that.”

At least she thought I was hot. “It’s okay. It’s funny. Your name?”

She pushed herself inside her truck and put her keys in the ignition. “What’s yours?”

“Dax. My name is Dax Dixon.”

“Dax. That’s an unusual name. Never heard of that before.”

“It’s my middle name. It’s what everyone calls me by. I don’t really care for my first name.”

“What’s your first name?”

“Declan.”

What the fuck!? I never gave anyone my first name. The only people who knew my first name besides my parents were Sebastian and a few select friends. But they never called me by Declan or Dec. I was named after my grandfather on my father’s side. They were of Irish descent and my mother was so in love with Mike that she did as he asked and gave me Declan as a namesake.

“Declan. I like that. Well, I need to go.”

Caught up in my own thoughts, I didn’t see her shut the door and rev up the engine. I tapped on her window and she pumped the window winder down until it was half way down.

“I still didn’t get your name.”

“And you won’t.”

“Why ever not?”

“Why don’t you come earlier next Friday, I start my shift at six. If you want my name, come by then and we’ll chat for a minute. I’ll give it to you then. Maybe you need to earn it.”

Earn it? I wonder what she meant by that.

“What makes you think I won’t go back inside and ask for it?”

“Because. Just looking at you, it looks as if you need a challenge. Let it be a challenge. If you come, you’re genuine. If not, it’s no skin off my back. Bye Declan Dax.”

“Bye Blondie.”

“Don’t call me Blondie.”

Then she rolled up the window, backed up and drove away.

As I walked back to my truck, I couldn’t help but laugh. A vagina finally played me good. I did like a challenge.