Sweet Ride (38 page)

That’s when I know
he’s done with taking from me. No fucking more. His days are
finally coming to an end. Without hesitation, I raise my arm up and
take aim again. The shakes disappear once more as I watch D.W.’s
finger twitch on the trigger. I fire one shot and hit my target like
I always do. Game over, asshole!

Payton screams as his
body slumps to the floor. She rushes over to me, covered in his
blood, and throws herself into my embrace. The shakes come back big
time, and my legs give out. I was so fucking scared that I was going
to lose her. She falls with me to the floor, her hands holding onto
the sides of my face as she presses her lips over and over again, all
over my jaw, face and lips.

I grab her jaw with one
of my hands, stilling her movements. “I thought I’d lost you,
baby. I’ve never been so fucking scared in my life,” I murmur
against her soft lips. My face nuzzles into the crook of her neck,
and I breathe in her sweet coconut scent. God, I didn’t think I’d
ever get to have this again. This time I didn’t fail the woman I
love.

The men D.W. worked
with are all in jail awaiting trial for kidnapping and gun smuggling
charges. Evidence on the jump drive hidden in my car linked them to
California’s largest illegal weapons shipment. They’re looking at
twenty-five years to life in prison. The ATF and Jack’s team are
fighting tooth and nail to make sure that happens. I hope that they
never see daylight through free eyes again, but unfortunately, that
might not happen. The District Attorney thinks it’s a slam-dunk
case. Hopefully, I’ll be sleeping easy soon with the knowledge
they’re going to be serving a minimum of twenty-five years before
being eligible for parole. Those fuckers deserve every bit of torture
I’m sure they’ll receive in prison. It doesn’t hurt that my man
has a few contacts behind those walls and started a few nasty rumors.

Since the truth about
Jack’s father’s death and everything about D.W’s secret life
has come out into the open, his family has refused contact with the
De Lucas. His mother is absolutely devastated by their actions
because they’ve always been considered an extended part of their
family. He was the father Jack and his sisters never got to grow up
with. He helped heal the wounds of Mr. De Luca’s death, and to find
out he was part of the reason for it, well, it shattered Jack and his
family. For Donna and her daughters, to just stop all communication
hurts them immensely. In a way, I can see it being their way of
coping. The death of a husband and father is a lot to take in, and
the fact that Jack was the one who killed him doesn’t help matters.
I hope time will heal their wounds and they can repair the
relationship between themselves and the De Lucas.

Jack struggled with his
emotions after he shot and killed D.W. and was required to attend
some mandatory counseling sessions with the department’s
psychologist. The doctor determined that he wasn’t suffering from
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and was cleared to return to active
duty.

After having invested
almost a year of his life to the gun smuggling case, Jack took some
much needed time off and surprised me with a trip to Hawaii. We spent
two full weeks soaking up as much sun and each other as possible.

That was over a month
ago, and since then, I haven’t seen too much of my best friend.
Between our work schedules, her kiddies, and of course, our
possessive alpha males, we just haven’t been able to arrange the
time to see each other. Ella called me earlier this morning asking me
to meet her for a drink at Wilde Ride around two o’clock. I can’t
wait to see her again because I really need me some quality Ella
time.

Stepping out of my car
in the parking lot of their bar, I notice Ella’s ginormous truck
already in the parking lot. I casually walk up to the front entrance
and push the door open. Someone should’ve really prepared me for
the sight that I’m witnessing. It takes every bit of strength I
have to keep standing upright.

In the darkened bar
sits hundreds of candles in varying sizes on every imaginable
surface. The place is filled with all of the people I love. All of
mine and Jack’s friends and family are filling the room, looking at
me with happy eyes and wide smiles.
What the fuck’s going on
here?
Suddenly, my heart starts rapidly thudding in my chest, my
palms are sweaty, and butterflies are fluttering like crazy in my
stomach.

I glance around the
bar, looking for the one person I really want to see. Jack. He’s
nowhere to be seen. That is, until Ryder, Ella, and Jack’s sisters
shift to the side, revealing him. Jack’s sitting on a bar stool
with his guitar resting on his lap. He’s looking all kinds of sexy
right now—wearing his usual faded low-rise jeans, motorcycle boots,
and a snug white t-shirt. His hair’s got that whole
just-rolled-out-of-bed look that I love so much, and his eyes are
bright and happy. His mouth pulls at the corners into a sexy,
lopsided grin.
What the hell is he up to?

I watch, still in
shock, as he suddenly goes serious and starts strumming his guitar.
The melody he’s playing is so beautiful. Then he adds his amazing
voice by singing the song, “So Sweet” by Casey James. As Jack’s
low tone serenades me, I absorb the meaning in the lyrics. He’s
telling me through music that he fell in love the moment he saw me
and can’t imagine what life would be like without me. Goose bumps
spread all over my body.

Our gazes never stray
from each other throughout his whole performance—even after the
song has ended and he’s walking toward me. I just stand there,
transfixed and mesmerized by him.
Why is he kneeling? Is he doing
what I think he’s going to do? Yep. I’m definitely going to have
a heart attack now.
My trance is broken when I see him pulling a
ring out of his jeans pocket. Then he speaks, “I found love when I
was seventeen, but I lost it. Never thought I’d ever feel it again,
but then you came into my life, and the moment I saw you, I knew that
I found it again. Took us way too long to get our shit together, and
like I told you before, I’m done wasting time. I love you, Payton.
Will you marry me?”

Oh God, my heart’s
threatening to leap up out of my throat. I slowly close my eyes,
breaking contact with Jack’s loving gaze. Time seems to go by in
slow motion.

“Payton?” he
questions when I don’t answer immediately. Slowly re-opening my
eyes I see his eyebrows furrowed with worry. I pull a deep breath in
before giving him my answer.
Do not throw up, Payton!

“I love you too,
baby,” I breathe out, fighting back the tears that threaten to
spill. “But my answer’s no,” I say, with a tremble to my voice.
I’m trying my hardest to ignore the gasps surrounding me, and the
look of utter devastation on his handsome face.

The room’s dim, the
only light coming from half a dozen candles strewn around the place.
I close my eyes and inhale the aroma from the candles burning. The
scent of coconut filling my nostrils makes my whole body relax.
Finally, the day’s over, and I get to unwind the best way I know
how. We’ve only just made it through the hotel door, and we already
can’t keep our hands off each other. I begin the tedious task of
undoing the silk buttons one-by-one—my rugged hands clumsily
fiddling with each clasp. This is not a feat for the impatient.

“Just rip it off!”
I hear her impatient voice bark out from in front of me.

“Patience,
beautiful,” I whisper in response.

“Screw patience. Get
this fucking thing off!” she shouts.

“Someday our daughter
might want to use this for her own special day,” I reply to my
eager new bride.

“Aww, babe. If we
ever have a daughter, I’ll tell her there was a fire. The dress
couldn’t be saved. I’m seriously craving some wedding night
lovin’. Get me naked. Now,” she says through bared teeth.

With that, I grip the
back of the bodice on her sleeveless ivory wedding dress and pull
until the fabric shreds and buttons pop off, falling to the floor. My
bride is the picture of perfection, the bride to make all other
brides jealous. It may have taken ten months and three proposals to
finally get her to say yes and accept the love and life she deserves.
Seeing her walk down the aisle today, her eyes only on me, made me
tear up. Okay, I may have cried out of relief that it was actually
fucking happening.

After her rejection of
my proposal in Wilde Ride, I was shocked. I thought I had it in the
bag. She was mine, and I was hers. We were living together. Next
stages in the relationship would be marriage and babies. But my girl
seemed to have other plans. I knew she loved me so I wasn’t giving
up on us. I’d just had to try harder to convince her that we were
meant to be.

My next proposal was a
little cheesy. Yeah, I’ll admit it—total fucking cheese ball. One
afternoon when I knew she was driving into work, I got one of my cop
buddies to take me along in his patrol car. We parked in an alley and
waited for her to drive by on her usual route. And true to Payton
form, she flew past us, clearly going way over the speed limit. I let
it go then, but later that night she was punished and she loved every
second of it. We pulled up behind her, flashed the lights and sounded
the siren. She pulled over immediately. Some pedestrians stood on the
side of the road and a few cars pulled over to watch the scene
unfold. I marched over toward her with ring in hand, pulled her out
of her vehicle, knelt down and proposed for the second time. She
looked down at me smiling and once again dealt me the devastating
blow of rejecting me. I’m a persistent man and refused to give up.

Obviously, the third
attempt went much more smoothly and had my desired outcome. It was a
blistering hot day so I took her for a ride on my Harley to our spot.
We spent the whole day there talking, laughing, eating, swimming,
fishing, and of course, making love. After we both lay there
satisfied on the blanket under the tree, I twisted my body away from
her and found my jeans crumpled in a pile on the grass. I reached
over and pulled the antique silver filigree solitaire engagement ring
that my father gave to my mother out of the pocket. When I turned to
face her again, she was staring at me lovingly, a soft smile on her
perfect lips. I once again pledged my undying love to her and asked
her to be my wife. She told me that this is what she wanted. No grand
gestures, just the two of us. She finally answered with a “Hell
yes!” I pushed the ring onto her delicate finger, and then made
love to my beautiful fiancé. One more fantastic memory created
there.

Having finally gotten
Payton to accept my proposal, I wasted no time in organizing the
wedding. The last thing I needed was for her to have enough time to
rethink her answer. After calling Ryder to confirm that he and Ella
were free to attend, I booked four tickets on the next plane headed
to Las Vegas. Luckily, my family was more than happy to babysit for
them. They were a bit upset that we hadn’t told them ahead of time
that we were taking off for a long weekend. They’re going to be
super pissed when they find out the real reason for the trip. I
called the chapel and it must have been fate because the only package
they had available was
Twilight
inspired—“Wedding with
Edward.” Payton was going to enjoy this more than the Elvis option
I was hoping for. You should have heard her and Ella squealing about
it. Those two have some serious
Twilight
issues. With that, we
took off for the Elvis impersonator capital of the world.

Once we checked into
our honeymoon suite and settled everything away, Ella kidnapped
Payton, and they embarked on a day of wedding and bridesmaid dress
shopping. Oh, how sad I am that I missed out. Fuck that. Ryder
thankfully rescued me, and we hit the hotel bar for a makeshift
bachelor party, minus the strippers and body shots. I think Payton
would smack the shit out of me if that happened. But, then again, I
wouldn’t be too fucking happy if she was staring at naked dudes for
her bachelorette either.

When I tried to seduce
my fiancé and make love to her that night, Payton stopped me.
What
the fuck?
That’s never happened. She gave me some kind of
excuse about wanting to wait until our wedding night to make it
special. I went along with her wishes and kept my hands to myself,
literally.

The next evening Payton
and Ella took over our suite, and I high-tailed it for Ryder’s.
Seven long hours later, I was finally reunited with my beautiful
girl. It was a short and simple ceremony with just the two of us,
Ryder, Ella, and of course, Edward. We didn’t opt for the Bella
add-on, as much as Ella tried to change our minds. Fuck, it’s bad
enough a pathetic looking Edward would be in our wedding photos. How
was I going to explain that to the guys at work?

Payton looked both
stunning and sexy-as-fuck, especially when she tried to contain her
laughter as the ceremony progressed. The whole situation was really
fucking funny. After we made our promises to each other, we walked
over to the small dance floor and had our first dance as husband and
wife. Fittingly, the song of choice was “Flightless Bird” by
American Mouth, the song that Edward and Bella danced to at the end
of the movie. This chapel really goes out of their way to stay
authentic to the whole sparkly vampire theme. After holding my wife
close in my arms, swaying to our first song in our new life, I
decided it was my turn to whisk my wife away. I gave Ryder a knowing
nod, leaving him and Ella to their own devices. I’m sure they
didn’t waste too much time figuring out what to do. I swooped
Payton into my arms and carried her to our suite.

That brings me back to
the task at hand—undressing my sweet, sexy woman and showing her
just how much I look forward to spending the rest of my life with
her. I tenderly brush my lips against the exposed skin of her back:
so soft, so delicate. I kiss my way from the base of her neck to her
lower back. I hear a soft moan escape her lips. Oh, how I love every
fucking bit of this woman. Payton leans against the wall as I give
her dress a sharp tug, letting the fabric fall to her ankles.