All for Maddie (28 page)

“What is this, Alex?” I asked, pulling my hand from his.

“This is my simulation room. Wait, you’ll see,” he assured
me, smiling like a kid in a candy store. He left me, opening the door to his
control room. I gasped when the walls and ceiling came to life. I was literally
standing in the middle of the rain forest. I had never seen anything so real in
my life. I looked at him through the glass, when a warm mist brazed my skin. I
felt the humidity just like it was really happening.

Alex laughed when I ducked. I swear the bird was going to
hit me right in the head. “Alex, this is amazing. You did all this?” I was in
shock. I thought I was impressed with what he did at home, this was
unbelievable.

“I did. Sit down,” he ordered, joining me and nodding to the
middle of the room.

He sat beside me, holding some sort of modern tablet.
“Buckle up,” he warned. He was in heaven. I could tell he loved what he did.
Shock wasn’t even close to what I was feeling.

We both buckled our seatbelts and I wondered why. The room
was moving, not us, or so I thought anyway. The simulation chairs lifted until
we were off the ground. It was out of this world. All of a sudden it felt like
we were flying in and out, through the trees. You could even feel the wind
blowing your hair. It was amazing. I’m sure I was wearing the biggest grin
ever, holding on to the bar in front of me. It truly did look and feel like we were
flying though a tropical rain forest. Alex laughed when I squealed from the
dinosaur that came out of nowhere.

We rode the ride for fifteen minutes never seeing the same
part of the forest twice. “You have to show this to Maddie,” I said as he
lowered us back to the floor.

“Maddie has been here a few times. Where do you think I took
her to the zoo at?”

I snapped my head, quickly toward him. “You didn’t take her
to a real zoo?” I asked shocked.

“Uh-uh. This is where we come to the zoo. I’ve tried to get
you to come along. You never would.”

“That’s because I hated you,” I softly spoke, realizing
something scary as hell for me.

“And now?” he asked with a hopeful expression.

“I love you,” I shyly admitted.

He leaned in and kissed me. We made out sitting in the
simulator seats for what seemed like forever. “Take me to the zoo,” I panted,
pulling away. I had to.

“Do you want to walk through the zoo or ride?” he asked,
doing something on the tablet again.

“We can walk?” I asked. This room was ridiculous.

“Get out,” he smiled. He took my hand and walked me to the
side of the wall. I sucked in air when the whole room was transformed to the
most amazing zoo in the world. I shrieked and stepped back when an elephant ran
right up to us. It felt like he was going to squish us. Alex laughed as I
stumbled a bit when the floor started to move, causing us to have to walk. We
were literally walking through the zoo. I felt horrible for being such a prude
and missing this with my daughter. I could just imagine the excitement on her
face.

We spent over an hour walking through the zoo, seeing every
animal imaginable. When Alex changed the scenery to an aquarium the room was transformed
into the bluest water with exotic fish that swam right up to us, and even
turtles. He stopped our moving sidewalk, tuned his tablet a little, manifesting
a soft piano tune and the sound of the ocean.

I wrapped my arms around his neck when he dropped his tablet
to the seat in the middle. “I’m very impressed with what you do,” I admitted.
I’d been living under the same roof with this man for almost a year and had no
idea.

He kissed me, and I parted my lips for him, wanting him to
really kiss me. He did. I took a step back and removed my shirt. “Can we make
love in this aquarium?” I asked, flipping my hair in a flirtatious manner. 

He didn’t answer, picking up his tablet again. I laughed
when a swarm of fish fled to the center of the room to watch. “Take your
clothes off,” he requested.

“You take my clothes off,” I protested. He smiled although I
could tell he was having a hard time with the whole needing to be in control
issue.

He walked over to me and spun my back to his front, a little
forcefully I dropped my head to his chest when I felt him unbutton my jeans and
slide his hand between the elastic of my panties, straight to my throbbing wet
sex.

“You know you fight me on everything?” he asked as his
fingers did crazy things to me.

“Hmm mmm,” I moaned as his other hand grazed my stomach trailing
toward my breasts. Teasing me through the satin material first and then sliding
it to the side, I moaned again, feeling him twist and tug lightly on my nipple.
I could feel his hardness grinding into my back. Reaching around I tried to
stroke it through his slacks. He grabbed my hand, holding them both to my
stomach, not letting me touch him. What the hell? I swear the man thought he
had to be in control of everything.

I felt the build of an orgasm rather quickly, until I
laughed anyway.

“You’re hurting my ego. Why are you laughing?” Alex asked,
paying closer attention to my throbbing nub.

“I swear that fish just mouthed to me that I was easy,” I
confessed. That was what his mouth said. I read his lips.

Alex snickered. “He didn’t call you easy. He’s breathing.”

“Fish don’t breath,” I moaned, closing my eyes again.

“They sort of do. They’re forcing water through their gills
to get O
₂
out of the water.”

I ignored him. I wasn’t in any position to care about marine
biology at the time.

“Ahhh, Alex,” I whimpered feeling
it
surface.

“Come to me, baby,” he whispered in my hair as he slid my
jeans over my hips and down my legs, wanting me to step out of them. He lifted
my leg with one hand while the other one tantalized my aching clitoris. As soon
as I called out, letting go, he thrust his fingers deep inside me, manifesting
another moan. I needed to sit down, lay down, something, my legs felt like
Jell-O.

Alex let me go and walked over to the seats sitting in the
middle of the room. I watched him take his erect cock in his hand and stroke
himself, leaning against the seat as he nodded for me to come to him. He pulled
me up holding my hips and easily slid into my wetness. Of course I moaned
rather loudly again. Alex rocked me back and forth on his cock briefly. I knew
why he turned me, trading me places. He couldn’t get enough force or speed,
holding me up.

Damn, I didn’t want to be there either. I didn’t want to
concentrate on keeping my legs wrapped securely around him. I wanted to relax
and feel him, all of him. He must have sensed that I wasn’t into it the way he
was. He stopped.

“What?” he asked.

“I don’t like this,” I admitted.

“You don’t like this?”

“Uh-uh, lay me down,” I coaxed.

He smiled and picked up his room controller
and
carried me back to the side of the wall. He stumbled a little, almost losing
his balance and dropping me. We both laughed as he laid me down. I looked up to
the fish aquarium as we moved around the room, laying on the escalating walk.
I’m not sure how many times we circled the room, not many I’m sure. At first, I
still had a hard time concentrating on him thrusting in and out of me. Not
because he didn’t feel amazing. My eyes couldn’t stay off the beautiful images
of exotic fish and sea life.

“Close your eyes, damnit,” Alex ordered. He was close and
wanted to make sure I was right there with him. I snickered a little and closed
my eyes, trying to forget the fact that we were moving inside of a magnificent
aquarium.

Alex finally thrust deep into me sending us both over the
edge. We panted, breathing the same breaths as we came down from our highs and
back to reality.

“What if you want another baby?” Alex said, looking down at
me. My eyes were still closed. I was still enjoying the moment, I didn’t want
to come back yet.

“What?” I asked, opening my eyes.

“I can’t give you another baby.”

“I know that.”

“But, you’re so young. What if you want another baby?”

“Alex, I’m not going to want another baby.” He was thinking
about us in the future. Alex and I were an
us
. Who would have thought?

“But what if you do? What if I’m never enough for you?”

“You’re not enough for me. You are the biggest, controlling
ass I’ve ever met in my life, but for whatever reason, I have gone and fallen
in love with your egotistical, self-centered ass. And I am sure I don’t want
any more babies. There is no way I could handle two Maddies.”

He smiled at my response. “We have the best little girl in
the entire world.”

“We have the biggest bratty little girl in the entire
world,” I countered.

“Yeah, we kind of do, but I sure do love her, and I love
you, Whitley.”

“Hmm, yeah, I kind of love you too.”

Things might have started out crazy. No, crazy wasn’t even
close to how things started out with Alex and me. It was absurd, but I was
never happier in my life. I loved our little family. I loved the time that we
spent together. I loved his family and Regan who was the only one on the planet
that knew it all, every last one of my deep dark secrets.

I finally stopped missing home so much. I didn’t want to go
there unless Alex was with me, which he was every time. He still pissed me off
on a regular basis, mostly because of his controlling ways, and doing things
without asking me first. We argued about it, but I’m not really sure why. It
didn’t help, he still did it, and I never won.

“Eat your breakfast, Maddie. Aunt Regan will be here to get
you in a few minutes.”

“Grrrr, why do you do that? Why is Regan coming for Maddie?”
I complained. He could at least run it by me. Damnit, I hated when he did that.

“I wanna play with Twenton,” Maddie informed me like I was
stupid or something.

“Calm down,” Alex demanded, kissing my hair from behind the
barstool. “The zoo is coming today,” he whispered.

“Oh, well, you still could let me in on what is going on
once in a while.”

“I would have. He just called.”

I was fine with that, except for the fact that he was a
liar. I slept with him. I woke up with him. I fucked him in the shower. He was
not on the phone at all that morning, not until that second when he answered
it.

I listened to his conversation, talking about work,
something about a 3-D commercial with some perfume and a model. I was annoyed
with him again when he dropped his phone and ordered me with a whisper and a
nod to get Maddie dressed. I didn’t need him to tell me how to take care of my
daughter. I’d done it by myself for three years.

“Come on, Maddie, let’s get out of this cold kitchen,” I
said, glaring right at him. He laughed. The bastard laughed.

Maddie and I lay across her bed discussing her birthday
party once she was dressed.

“Twenton is going to come too,” she assured me. She loved
her cousin. She’d rather play with older than her Trenton than her own preschool
friends. Of course Trenton was awesome with her and let her act like her boss
and control everything about what they did.

“Maddie, where is your little ballerina?” I asked, noticing
the pink glass figurine missing from her shelf.

“I broked it,” she informed me.

“Where is it?” I asked. Alex never told me she broke the
little music box, not that, that surprised me.

“I hide it.”

I laughed. “Madelyn Rae Bradshaw,” I scolded.

“Madiwin Way Wesson, that my name,” she corrected. Yeah, I
had no say in that either.

“Where is it?” I asked, sitting up.

“I show you,” she said, sliding off the bed.

I followed her to the second drawer of her desk where her
crayons were kept.

“It under there,” she said, pointing to a whole drawer full
of toilet paper. I squeezed my lips together trying to be stern and not laugh.

I moved the toilet paper to discover the little ballerina in
at least five different pieces. “You should have come and told Mommy. You could
have gotten cut,” I chastised, taking the toilet paper and the pieces from the
drawer.

“Me would get in twouble,” she assured me.

Alex threw her into the air, causing her to scream. She
quickly squirmed out of his arms when she heard Regan call from the living
room.

 Pulling me into his arms, Alex kissed me. “Stop being a bitch,”
he demanded with half a grin. I didn’t find him a bit funny. I found him
annoying and it pissed me off.

“You did not just call me a bitch,” I fished, trying to pull
away from him. He wouldn’t let me.

“No, I did not. I was insinuating that you’re acting like
one. I hate this time of month. I can’t do anything to please you.”

“It is that time, isn’t it?” I remembered, knowing that by
the end of the day, I would have my monthly unwanted visitor.

“It is.”

“Okay, you win. I’m a little grumpy.”

“Well, stop it. I’ve got to go to work for a while. I’ll be
home by four. I’ll stop and pick up Maddie. Want me to bring anything special
home for supper?”

“No, I want to come with you,” I said, not wanting to stay
in the too big house alone.

“You can’t. We have a lot of animals arriving today.”

“Oh, yeah,” I remembered.

I was annoyed again later on when I started looking at
Maddie’s birthday party plans. I wanted to go buy the decorations, pick out the
cake, and the theme. Alex already took care of all of it. He hired a crew to
handle it all. I loved the zoo theme and the costumed animals that would be
there. I hated the fact that I didn’t get to organize any of it.

It took the toy store almost three hours to put the zoo
together. I couldn’t believe it. She was going to love it. It took up half her
room, but it was outlandish. There were boxes and boxes of animals. I didn’t
let them place the animals. I wanted Maddie to do that. I was going to wrap
them and let her have the pleasure of doing that. I couldn’t wait, I felt a
little giddy thinking about it. She was going to be ecstatic.

The two men were finished by one and I decided to run by the
little gyro joint over on Maple. Alex loved those things, me not so much, they
were too spicy, but I was hungry. I planned on taking him a gyro and making him
stop for lunch, and maybe even apologize for being such a bitch all morning.

I did my hair, makeup, and dressed in new sexy little short
outfit that he hadn’t seen yet. Maybe we would visit some erotic island or
something before I was out of commission for a few days.

I should have known. He was always one step ahead of me. I
knew his car. Nobody else had a car around there like his. He made sure of
that. His white sports car was parked right along the curb. I started to pull
over and park behind him when I saw him exit….
with a female
.

I turned left instead, parking in a handicap parking spot
across the road at the bank. I knew I was being stupid, probably just my PMS
getting the best of me. She was more than likely the model that he was working
with for the commercial, innocent, I was sure. He was perhaps just being a nice
guy and took her to lunch after their session.

She was no doubt a model. My new sexy little short outfit
didn’t do justice to hers and her legs. Oh my god. They went clear to the sky.
I hated girls who wore six inch stilettos with shorts, maybe because I couldn’t
wear them at all, not if I wanted to stay away from broken bones anyway.

I suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore. My appetite vanished when
I witnessed him throw his head back in a full blown laugh at something she said,
and then her arms flung around his neck. Stupid girl. Stupid, stupid girl. I
let that son of a bitch get to me. I let myself think we were in love, we were
a family. Stupid girl. I tried to put the car in reverse and leave. I couldn’t
stop watching. Maybe it wasn’t what it seemed at all. Maybe it was.

Alex opened the passenger side door. She kissed him. She
fucking kissed him and he let her right before she slid into his car. He walked
around to his side, tossing his keys into the air with a big happy smile. I
watched him pull out into traffic, wanting to follow him but didn’t. I didn’t
need to see anymore. And once again, I was the fool.

I sent Alex a text, letting him know that I was getting
Maddie, and we’d be home later.

Where are you going?

Just going shopping for a bit and maybe out to eat.

Give me an hour and I’ll go with you.

I kind of just want to spend some time with her alone.

PMS?

Yeah!

I didn’t reply after receiving the last one telling me that
he loved me.

I could hear the girls playing in the back yard and walked
around the house. They were playing in a water sprinkler with Regan sitting on
the patio watching, with a drink of course.

“Hey, want a drink?” she asked, seeing me.

“Nah, I’m good. Come on Maddie, let’s go,” I called.

“No, me have a play wif Twenton. I stay all night.”

“No, come on baby. We’re going to go shopping,” I tried.

“Noooooo,” she whined, continuing to scream and yell when
the floppy daisy made its way to her, squirting cold water all over her.

“Sit down, Whit. What’s going on?” Regan asked.

I took a deep breath and sat with her. I did want a drink. I
wanted lots of drinks. “I just watched your brother kiss another girl, a
beautiful girl,” I added, picking up her fruity drink.

“I don’t believe you. He’s so in love with you it’s
pathetic.”

“I know what I saw. He was kissing her, Regan. I’m such a
fucking idiot. What the hell is wrong with me?”

“There is nothing wrong with you, Whit. I’m sure it was
nothing. Did you talk to him about it?”

“No, what would I even say?”

“You ask him what the ffff
—
what
the heck he is doing.” Regan demanded, pulling the rein on her language.

“No, I’m just going to wait. I ruined Christmas for Maddie.
I’m not going to ruin her birthday too.”

“I kind of already told her she could stay,” Regan admitted.
“We were going to take them for pizza and a movie later.”

“You’re as bad as your brother.” I accused.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You guys just make decisions without even consulting with
me. I hate that.”

“What is wrong with you today? Is it that time of month?”

“UGH! Yes, but still.”

Regan laughed. “Let me keep Maddie, and you go home and talk
to my brother and tell him to stop being an idiot.”

“I have a feeling you wouldn’t be so calm about it if it was
Vince who you saw kissing another woman.”

“No, I would cut his nuts off. Now go home and cut Alex’s
nuts off.”

I didn’t go home. I went to the bar. I was planning on going
home, but somehow my car seemed to automatically turn down Turner Road. I
ordered some food first, knowing I couldn’t drink anything without some food in
my stomach and then sat alone at the bar, drinking one drink after another. I
wasn’t rude to my biker friends that I hadn’t seen in a while, but they caught
on pretty quick, knowing I wanted to be alone.

“You doing okay?” My friend Rex who had tried to help me
before, the last time I ran away.

I smiled over at him, slumped on the bar. “Yeah, I’m okay,
Rex.”

“You should quit. You’ve had enough? Need a ride home?”

“Nah, I’m going to drive that expensive car right out there,
try sideswipe me a couple guardrails on the way home,” I replied with a bit of
a slur that I noticed myself. I hadn’t noticed the bartender on his phone nor
did I notice the fifty calls from Alex. I silenced my phone, refusing to look
at it or the profuse amount of texts that he sent.

“I’ll see ya around okay, Rex,” I said, sliding of my stool.
Whoa, I was drunk.

“Ahh, come on. Where you going? Drink one more with me,” Rex
coaxed.

“Okay,” I easily replied, plopping back to the stool. I
didn’t care. I had nowhere to go. I didn’t mind drinking there all night.

I didn’t even get my last drink that I argued had no alcohol
in it. Rex tasted it, making an awful face.

“That thing has plenty of alcohol in it,” he lied. I started
to argue back when I heard Alex.

“Thanks for calling, guys,” he offered.

“We didn’t call you. We called Regan,” Rex assured him,
giving him a once over.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked not trying to
hide my anger at all.

“I’m taking you home. Come on.” He tried taking my elbow. I
jerked away from him and stumbled my way to my feet.

“Don’t you fucking touch me. Don’t you ever fucking touch me
again. You got that, ALEX!” I yelled his name.

“Whitley. What the hell is going on here? What’s wrong?”

“Wrong? Nothing is wrong with me. There has never been
anything wrong with me. It’s you. You’re the one that has something wrong.
You’re the one that needs fucking medication, not me. The only thing wrong with
me is you. I want you the fuck out of my life.”

“Let’s go,” he ordered.

“Don’t fucking put your hands on me.” I warned with a
crooked finger.

“Then walk your ass out that door and get in the car,” he
countered, getting angry.

“I’m not going anywhere with you. I hate you. Why don’t you
go fuck your little model again? I’m sure she’d love that. You’re really,
really good in bed, Alex. I’m sure she’d love to see you again.”

“GO! Right this second before I throw you over my shoulder
and carry your ass out.”

I walked toward the door, not because I was afraid of Alex.
I needed air. I was suddenly sick. I did let him hold onto my arm as I
descended the four steps, making it to the side of the building just in time.
God, I was never getting drunk again. I hated alcohol.

I rode all the way home with my arms crossed and my forehead
on the cool glass. We were two blocks from the house and I was willing my
stomach to hang on two more minutes. It didn’t listen and in all honesty, I
didn’t care. I opened my legs and heaved right to the floor of Alex’s one in
1000 sports car.

“Goddamnit, Whitley,” Alex yelled. I laughed.

“You deserve that, Alex. You deserve a lot of shit,” I
retaliated, wiping my mouth with my shirt.

Alex didn’t reply. I was starting to piss him off….
good
.

“I’m not sleeping in your bed. I’m never sleeping in your
bed again,” I assured him as he opened my door, helping me to my feet from the
low riding car.

Alex never tried to talk to me at all that night. He was as
angry as I was. He never tried to stop me when I went to my downstairs room and
fell across the bed. He never came in, demanding that I get in the shower or
take off my shoes like he normally would have. Maybe he was tired of me too.
Maybe he did want to move on to the hot little model. I needed a shower. I
could smell puke in my hair and my mind was jumping from the seriousness of
Alex and me to stupid little things like that.