BUCKED Box Set: A Bull Rider Western Romance (65 page)

Even though I was entirely positive that
this wasn’t any other day. My two-year relationship with Zachary was over, but
I had finally reached a point of no return with my relationship with Shawn.

Today was the day after the night I had
waited for the majority of my life and it felt great!

There was no guilt and there was no anger.
There wasn’t even a sliver of regret. All I wanted was Shawn. The only person
that I wanted to be with at the moment was Shawn.

I felt that instead of making us even more
estranged, for the first time, the two of us had done something that had
actually brought us closer together, and it felt amazing. I couldn’t wait to do
it again, but first, I knew that I had to figure out what I was going to do to
get rid of this paranoia.

I didn’t text anyone, even though I had
about twenty texts from Zachary; most of them were left unread as well as
completely unwanted while I got ready for my day.

All I wanted to do was check in with Shawn
and see what was going on, but I was a little afraid. The strange feeling that
something big was about to happen kept echoing in my mind and there was a part
of me that did not want this feeling to end any sooner than I feared it
inevitably would.

 
I
just tried to relax and soon enough, I heard a car pull up in the driveway.

Oh
good…
I thought, feeling a smile cross my face,
they’re home.
I sighed with relief,
proud of myself that I had made it that far without calling anyone or in any
way trying to relieve the pressure that I felt about what was going on today. I
didn’t quite understand it, but I knew that I didn’t need to. I was going to be
able to just relax as soon as they got inside and I was able to talk to them.

However, in one final act to prove there
was nothing that they should be suspicious of, I didn’t bother to go to the
door. I hadn’t met anyone at the door in a long time. If I started now, it
would be strange. So, I stayed at the kitchen table, eating my breakfast and
wondering if the strangeness that I felt was all in my head.

As
a matter of fact,
I thought, narrowing my eyes as I tried
my best to pinpoint why the strange sensation was happening,
both Mom and my step-dad were acting weird
all week.

I quickly concluded that must be why I was
thinking that their absence this morning, before I got up, was a little odd.

“Valerie!” I heard my mother call as she
walked in the house and I felt my stomach twist, even though there was nothing
wrong with and certainly nothing to fear from the way she spoke.

“I’m in here, Mom!” I called, scooting off
the stool that I was sitting on. I made my way toward her, finally feeling as
though it would be appropriate.

“Oh good!” she exclaimed when she saw me.
“You’re dressed.”

“Yeah, I got up a little while ago.”

My mother smiled brightly and I figured
that unless they were really happy with the fact that Shawn and I had gotten
together, they probably didn’t know.

Yet, there was still a creepy sense about
the whole situation that I refused to ignore. So, finally, I broke down and
asked, “Is everything okay?”

“Perfect,” she answered. “Wait until Paul
comes inside.”

I squinted my eyes at her. “Okay…” and
felt another bubble of fear, anticipation and perhaps, excitement churn in the
pit of my stomach. I felt strange. If they were upset, then they were sure
being pretty disarming about it. However, I just resolved to stare at my mother
and keep my guard up slightly, while my mother waited, somewhat impatiently for
her husband to come inside.

When Paul finally did arrive, he was
smiling brightly too.

My mother began when he came over to her
and put his arm around her. “So, we know that it’s not your birthday quite yet,
but we wanted it to be a surprise.”

Confused, I looked from Paul to my mother,
who were both excited and reeking of the strange sensation that I had felt
since I woke up.

I smiled. “Thank you,” but realized then
that they did not appear to be holding anything, until my mother brought out a
very small box from her purse. I wondered if it was jewelry, since that was
what it resembled.

The white box had a red bow on it and after
fluffing it up, my mother gave it to me.

“Happy birthday!”

Carefully, I took the box. My birthday
wasn’t until the middle of the week and with everything that had gone on over
the course of the past twenty-four hours, I hadn’t even thought about it. And I
normally love my birthday.

I smiled down at it and realized that my
hand was shaking slightly. Ignoring the feeling, I pulled the top off of the
box and stared, confused at first, down at a pair of car keys.

When it clicked, however, I screamed. “Oh
my God!” I took the keys out and dropped the box on the ground as I jumped up
and down. “Oh my God! Oh my God!”

My mother and Paul laughed.

“Those are just the keys…” Paul chuckled.
“I wonder what she’s going to do when she sees the whole car.”

Realizing that he was right, I raced
outside into the driveway and saw a red convertible sitting in the driveway
that had never been there before. I couldn’t believe it.

“Oh my God!” I screamed, just before a
shriek expelled from me and I ran toward the car. When I finally made it over
to the door, I fumbled with the opener until I heard the locks click. I pulled
open the door and hopped inside.

Throughout my entire life, both my mother
and my stepfather had insisted that we were going to have to buy our first
cars. They had proved it with Shawn and so I had never even thought to
entertain the possibility; but now, here it was.

Unless this was all some big joke, I
couldn’t believe what was happening. The inside was leather and from the looks
of it, flawless. My heart was beating a million miles a second.

“Do you like it?” my mother asked.

“Oh my God!” I screamed, “I love it!”

I then got out of the car and made my way
toward each of them, giving them a hug and telling them, “Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you!”

This was, without a doubt, the best
birthday gift that I had ever received. It was beautiful and perfect…and it was
all mine!

“Where are you going to go first?” my
mother asked. “There’s a full tank of gas, you can go almost anywhere.” She
smiled.

I was so excited that I couldn’t even curb
my words and so, I just blurted out, “I’m going over to see Shawn. He is going
to love this!” I made my way back into the car.

I started it up and squealed with
excitement as I felt the engine roar to life under me.

“Have fun!” I heard my mother yell as I
backed out of the driveway. I yelled, “Thank you!” again and waved before I put
my foot solidly on the gas for the very first time and I was off.
 

Chapter
22

Shawn

Early the next morning, I heard someone
banging on my door. It was Saturday morning, but seriously, can’t a guy get
some sleep around here?

At first, I had hoped that my mother would
answer the door, but then I remembered that my mother had spent almost a week
straight at her new boyfriend’s house, leaving me alone to fend for myself.

I hated it, but what other choice did I
have? I certainly couldn’t go home to my dad’s house, especially not after what
had happened the night before.

While I finished waking up, I smiled at
the thought of Valerie and what we had done.

It was a long time coming and it was
magnificent. I couldn’t believe the excitement that I had found in that moment.
Everything was perfect. All I wanted now was to be with her.

Hey…Maybe
it is her!
“Hang on a minute!” As I staggered around the house,
I couldn’t help but think that the only saving grace of this situation was the
fact that Dalilah had not caught on that my mother was literally never home, or
she would have moved in by now.

Before I could even make it to the door, I
heard another knock and I was fairly certain, unless something was wrong, that
this was not Valerie. She was far more considerate than that, especially this
early.

Oh
God…
I thought with a sudden sense of panic;
What
if something is wrong?
I quickened my pace and made it to the door. When I
opened it, to my displeasure, I saw Dalilah standing there.

“Good morning!” she answered pleasantly
and walked past me into the house. “It took you long enough.”

“Are you okay?” I asked, rubbing my eyes
and staring around, trying to get my bounds. I was certainly not a morning
person and this, I wouldn’t even call morning. “It’s like…five in the morning.
Is something wrong?”

She shook her head. “No, I just missed
you.”

I nodded. “Okay…Well, do you want to come
back to bed with me?”

She thought for a moment and shrugged.
“Sure, I guess. If you want to waste a perfectly good morning.”

I knew that I should feel something.
Perhaps I should be guilty for what I did last night, but I didn’t feel
anything like that. In fact, I was happy. For the first time in a really long
time, all I felt when I thought about what had transpired between Valerie and I
the night before was excitement, the promise of future happiness and the
strong, unyielding desire to do it again as soon as possible.

“Yes,” I answered. “I really do. Come on.”

I don’t even remember making it back to
the bedroom before I had fallen asleep again.

Yet, I definitely remember being woken up
a few hours later.

“What the hell is this?” I heard Dalilah
scream.

“What the hell is what?” I asked, still
incredibly groggy. I shook my head and looked at her, as my eyes started to
focus. When my eyes could finally see right, I was struck with horror as I saw
that Dalilah was holding Valerie’s underwear.
Oh God,
I thought as my heart immediately began to pound in my
chest. “What? I don’t know…Women’s underwear?” I stammered, trying my best in
my sleep-induced stupor to sound as innocent as possible.

She barked a laugh. “These are not just
any woman’s underwear. They belong to a specific person…and that person is not
me!” she screamed.

“Are they my mom’s? She isn’t the
most…conservative type.”

“Not unless she is undressing in your
room,” Dalilah exclaimed as I watched her face grow red with anger.

“What?” I demanded, “Maybe they fell out
of the laundry? I don’t know…”

“That’s an awful lot of excuses for
someone without a guilty conscious,” she answered, before I saw her eyes glow
with a horrifying red as her face grew an even angrier shade. She pounced on me
and pushed the underwear in my face.

I could have easily pushed her off, but I
didn’t want to take a chance of hurting her, so I just backed up carefully.
“Dalilah, what the hell?”

“Whose are they?” she yelled.

“I don’t know!” I screamed back, tearing
the underwear away from my face. “Get off me!”
 

“No! Tell me who it is, or I will find out
myself and when I do, I will break her face so badly that you won’t even want
to fuck her anymore.”

Now, I was angry. I certainly cared more
for Valerie than I did for Dalilah and the thought of her having to deal with Dalilah’s
wrath, especially because of me was more than I could bear. I felt a surge of
rage plow through me as I knocked Dalilah aside and stood up. “Don’t you dare,
you bitch.”

She stopped short and stared at me for a
long time. Her full lips cracked into a demented smile as she answered, “Oh. I
see,” in a scary, calm and complacent tone. “You’re with her.” She inhaled
deeply before she breathed back out a low and menacing growl. “These are
hers…It all makes sense now.”

I felt my nostrils flair with anger as I
hissed, “It doesn’t need to make sense to you, just get out!”

Once again, she barked a conniving,
humorous laugh. “So, let me get this straight. You not only cheated on me, but
you cheated on me with your stepsister?”

“Leave it alone, Dalilah,” I answered,
breathing heavily as I felt a sensation of worry cascade through my body. I
shuddered as I added a careful and honest, “Please…just leave. You can say
whatever you want about me and why we broke up. Just don’t bring her into
this.”

“I’ll tell people you beat me,” she
threatened.

“Fine,” I answered solidly, even though I
knew that she was just as capable of going through with her word as she was
capable of trying to hurt Valerie.

“I’ll tell people you raped me,” Dalilah
hissed, glowering at me.

“What do you want, Dalilah?” I demanded,
tired of playing her games. It was right then and there that I realized just
how evil she was and how much I needed to get away from her.