Declare (Declan Reede: The Untold Story #4) (8 page)

CHAPTER SEVEN: YAS, DEAR

I ROLLED OVER, trying to let sleep claim me. As if she were there, and aware how badly I needed to rest, Alyssa’s voice called to me from the void, tempting me into the darkness to join her.

“Hey, you,” her words carried to me, and I turned to greet her. It’d been too long since I’d looked at her face, too many days I’d spent away from her.

My eyes practically bugged out of my head at the sight that met me. She stood beside a car, which barely earned a second glance despite how hot it was. From my cursory inspection, I could tell it was a red 1969 Chevelle with full chrome accessories, but that didn’t matter. It was a shit-hot car, but had nothing on the chick in front of it.

The saliva left my mouth as I watched her move. A vivid purple halter-neck bikini top held her breasts front and centre. The round curve of her cleavage was on display, begging me for attention. She twisted her hips slightly and the micro-mini skirt she wore rode up just a little, revealing the bottom of her arse cheeks and the lace of the boy-leg shorts wrapped around them. A pair of black thigh-high come-fuck-me boots encased her feet and most of her legs, hinting at the shapely calves within. A messy bun on the top of her head and aviator sunnies completed the look.

She was hot.

Fucking hot.

Melt my dick before I got it anywhere near her hot.

It was all I could do to root myself to the spot so that I didn’t bend her over the hood of the car and fuck her stupid. I grew painfully hard at the sight of her. The slightest touch would have been more than enough to set me off.

I grinned goofily at her. “Hey, yourself.”

She hitched her leg up onto the car’s chrome bumper. Usually, I would have freaked at a car being disrespected in such a way, but I was too distracted by the way the lace of her boy-leg panties hugged her thigh. I licked my lips hungrily as I imagined my hand trailing under the lace.

“You wanna ride?” she asked, her voice dripping with innuendo as her fingers traced along her thigh.

I nodded silently.

“Well, come inside then,” she said, dancing her fingers over the material that covered her pussy before moving her deft fingers lower to the top of her boot, causing her waist to bend and more of her arse to be revealed.

I gulped and stepped closer to her. I took my time in examining the small patch of skin showing at the top of her legs. It may have been small, but it hinted at things that sent my body racing. I shivered with pleasure as I slid my hand along the outside of her thigh and pushed it up under her skirt. I hooked my finger into her panties and slowly peeled them off without removing any other item of clothing. I hoped she understood that, given the chance, I would fuck her all night long with those sexy-arse boots on. I pushed her forward over the bonnet of the car, her micro-mini unable to cover her arse or pussy any longer. I ran my fingers over the curve of her cheeks and lightly slapped one, earning a soft moan in response.

Alyssa stayed in the position I had placed her in while I stepped back to admire the view. The combination of fuck-hot car and even hotter chick had my boner raging and begging for attention. I closed my eyes and slid the zipper of my pants down. I wrapped my hands around my cock and pulled it free before pushing my hips forward. I ran my hand along my length, anxious to drive it into her.

I squirmed in the seat in anticipation.

A frown crossed my brow.
Seat? What the fuck?

Something was wrong.

Panic rose in me, choking me until all thoughts of Alyssa were gone as I clawed at my throat to shake loose the lump that stopped me from breathing. Gulping down on oxygen, I tried to work out what happened. I was sitting, but I’d been standing seconds before. The movement wasn’t possible, and yet it had happened. I opened my eyes and they met Alyssa’s.

She was staring at me through the windshield of the car with a smile on her lips. A low moan escaped her as I met her gaze. Seconds later, her eyes rolled up in pleasure and she grunted as her pelvis pushed against the car, causing the whole thing to shake.

“More,” she whispered. “Oh, God, yes.”

I was almost unable to turn away from the look of pleasure on her face, but when I did I saw Hunter snarling at me from behind her as he rocked to the rhythm of her body. His hands clutched her hips tightly as he pounded into her relentlessly.

“No!” I screamed.

“Yes!” Alyssa cried in unison.

I tried to get out of the car, but I couldn’t. I tugged on the door handle repeatedly. My heart beat like a drum, louder and louder. As it sped up, so did the rocking of the car. I clawed at the lock to break free, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Right there, oh, baby,” Alyssa moaned. “Oh, fuck, yes. Oh, God.”

I pulled at the door lock urgently. “No, Alyssa, don’t . . .” I cried, body-slamming the door in a vain effort to get free.

“Alyssa!” I cried, sitting bolt upright.

Holy shit.
I panted as the efforts of my nightmare left me breathless. I sighed and collapsed back onto the bed, relieved that it had just been a dream. When I rolled over to pull Alyssa in to me, to remind myself that she was mine, she wasn’t there. My heart pounded faster again as I rolled to the other side of the bed, wondering where she was.

When I was unable to find her or even a trace of her existence, I couldn’t breathe. I patted her side of the bed, but it was cold. Her smell didn’t linger on the pillow the way I had come to expect.

Was everything that had happened just a dream? Would I find myself back in the arms of a different woman each night, seeking solace that I would never find? Nightmares and dreams were an ever-present part of my life back then, but I’d mostly escaped them since being with Alyssa; although I didn’t know that my insomnia would ever fully abate.

Oh, God, had I even been with her? I silently begged God, or whoever would listen, to not let it all be a dream. I needed her. I couldn’t live in a world where I didn’t have her.

Stumbling out of the bed, I hip-checked an unfamiliar dresser. A loud clinking sound disturbed me. God, was I in some stranger’s house even now? I shook my head to try to clear the fatigue, and struggled to remember where I was. There were two empty Jack bottles resting on top of the dresser. Things weren’t looking good for me. Two bottles was pushing the limit—even for me. Although part of me reasoned that my head wasn’t aching as badly as it would have had I drunk that much on my own.

I fumbled along the wall to find a light switch. As soon as my fingers touched the smooth panel, I flicked the lights on. The room burst into sudden brightness. The generic, un-lived-in feel startled me at first. Then I sighed as memories of where I was came flooding back.

Sagging with relief, I walked over to the window and looked out at the Yas nightscape. Fuck, I missed Alyssa. I’d only been in Abu Dhabi for a couple of days, but it was too long. I remembered that my crew, as well as Morgan and Eden, had come to my room last night to attack our duty-free supplies for a post first-race celebratory drink.

We’d only had a few each in the end. Enough to leave me buzzed and disorientated, but not enough to warrant an apology to Alyssa.

I sat on the end of the bed, trying to calculate the time difference. It was early Sunday morning in Abu Dhabi, so I guessed it would be sometime during the day on Sunday in Brisbane. The exact time didn’t really matter though; what mattered was that I was an arse. Because Saturday was Alyssa’s graduation. Which meant I’d been in a foreign country, most likely drinking with my work buddies, while my future wife had walked across the stage to get her diploma. I sucked. I’d failed as a husband before I even became one.

Needing to talk to her, I picked up the phone to dial her mother’s number in Brisbane. I knew there was a risk I’d get Curtis or Josh, but I didn’t really care. I just needed to talk to Alyssa—especially after the nightmare I’d had. If they didn’t help me do that, they could go fuck themselves.

“Hello?”

I breathed a sigh of relief when she was the one to answer.

“Hi,” I said sheepishly. I wasn’t sure if she’d be upset with me now that she’d actually gone through her graduation ceremony without me.

“Declan!” I could hear the genuine smile in her voice and it helped calm some of the worry I had felt.

“How’d it go?” I asked.

“Congratulations,” she said at the same time.

We both chuckled nervously.

“You first,” I said.

“It was good. I think Phoebe got a little bored though. Mum ended up taking her out of the room to get her to quiet down.”

My guilt ratcheted up another half-dozen notches. I should have been there for her. I should have been the one trying to calm Phoebe down. I couldn’t help the thought that if I’d been there I would have miraculously settled Phoebe, and we both could have watched as the most important person in our lives crossed the stage.

“I’m so—”

“Don’t apologise, Dec, I understand. And from the looks of it, you kicked some butt out there.”

I smiled at her attempt to cheer me up. “Anyone else could have done it.”

“Your team placed first and fourth. That’s great by anyone’s standard.”

I shrugged. It had been worth celebrating the night before, but faced with what I’d missed, it seemed irrelevant. “First, second would have been better. Besides, it’s not like I had any real control over it.”

She sighed. “Isn’t it a team effort? If you hadn’t completed the pit stops as quickly as you did, Hunter would never have won.”

“Well, isn’t that fantastic,” I muttered. “I can change a fucking wheel faster than anyone else. Yay, me.”

She laughed. “Are you going to be this moody after every race?”

“Probably,” I contended. “But more at the moment, because I feel like a jackass for missing your graduation just so I could change a few fucking tyres.”

“We’ve been over that, and you know that I understand. Besides, from what I’ve been told, there’s plenty of video of it. You’ll be able to watch me falling flat on my face again and again.”

I couldn’t help chuckling before I bit my lip to stop myself. “You didn’t.”

She laughed loudly. “Oh, I most certainly did. Much to Flynn’s amusement. I didn’t hear the end of it all night.”

“Flynn was there?” I don’t know why, but that piece of information surprised me and pissed me off just a little too. Even though things had been on decent terms when we’d left Brisbane, the fact that Alyssa hadn’t mentioned anything to me made me wonder whether I had cause for concern. Had she confided in him the disappointment that she didn’t feel she could show me?

“Of course. You didn’t think he was going to miss it after spending so much time studying, did you?”

My gut twisted tightly on itself. Once a-fucking-gain, Flynn had been there when I couldn’t. I just growled something noncommittal in response.

She stifled a laugh. “Are you jealous?”

“No!” I snapped too quickly.

“Dec, it was his graduation too, you dill. Even though he started before me, he studied part-time for a while, so he ended up finishing the same time as I did.”

“Really?”

“Yes. God, you worry about the strangest things sometimes.” She laughed for a second, but then her voice turned serious. “I miss you.”

I clutched the phone as I stood and leaned against the window, looking at the sky. Somewhere, many kilometres away, Alyssa was under the same sky. The thought comforted me a little. “I miss you too. So fucking much.”

“There’s only a little over a week left now. It won’t be too bad,” Alyssa said, but she sounded about as convinced about it as I was.

Due to there being only five days between the Abu Dhabi and Bahrain races, Danny had decided it was better for the team to stay overseas. He had booked out some workshop space and had shipped over more than enough materials and equipment to make all the necessary repairs to rebuild before Bahrain. Unfortunately, it meant that I would be away from home for at least another eight days—despite the way Alyssa had tried to spin it to sound like it was shorter than that. It also meant that I had to be in close quarters with Hunter not only for our usual working hours, but practically 24/7.

Fuck. My. Life.
 

“It’s fucking torture,” I admitted. “I’ve barely been sleeping.”

As if my words reminded her of the time difference, she asked, “What time is it there?”

“Fuck knows,” I said. I didn’t want to admit the actual time, because I knew she’d kick me off the phone and back into bed.

“Should you still be asleep?” she asked.

“Probably,” I admitted. “But I can’t sleep. I need you.”

“You’ve managed without me before.”

“Barely,” I whispered. If only she knew just how hard I had to work to keep her out of my mind, to get through even one day without her. I couldn’t expect her to ever really understand though. It was only after I’d stopped trying to do it that
I
had realised it.

“So, what’s on the agenda for you for today?” she asked, clearly trying to change direction.