The Love He Craves (The Love She Craves: Selling Her Soul to Declan Book 2) (4 page)

“Shut up. Men don’t say that to each other.”

Declan laughed. “Sorry, Coach. I’m in love. I guess I lost my head.”

“It wears off, kid. Don’t do anything stupid—especially not with her.”

“I gotta go,” he said, and pushed the display to end the call.

Nyxie laughed. “Oh, my God. That was wrong in so many ways.”

“Oh, baby there are a hundred ways to say
fuck you
to your parents. That may be my favorite one so far.” He set the phone side. “Put your arms around my neck.”

When she complied, he shifted their positions so they were upright, with Nyxie straddling his lap. He pulled her as tightly against his body as he could and buried his face in the slender column of her neck.

Nyxie startled and tensed at the unexpected contact to the vulnerable area. “Yellow,” she whispered into his ear, forcing herself not to pull back.

He turned his face away from her throat and began kissing her shoulder, his rhythm never interrupted. “I love you, Nyxie,” he said. “I didn’t know love could feel like this.”

His body shuddered as he came. “I’m never letting you go.”

Chapter 4

“Do you want to drive?” Declan asked as they approached her Lexus.

“No, sir,” she said. “My mind is too preoccupied. Are you okay to drive? Did you get any sleep at all?”

Declan had been called back to work only minutes after they had made love the night before. “An hour here, thirty minutes there.”

“When do you go back to work?”

“I have 24 hours off.” He opened her door and held her elbow as she climbed in.

“You know you really don’t have to hold the door and help me in, especially now that we’re an old married couple,” she said, reaching for her seatbelt.

“We aren’t going to start renegotiating things we’ve already agreed upon, just because we’re married.”

“You’re the boss,” she said with a slight flirtation in her voice.

He gave her a quick kiss and a little grin that showed he liked her response. She wondered how he’d feel about her treating him as her Dom in front of his parents. Nyxie sensed the previous time she’d met his mother, that the woman didn’t like Declan opening the car door or having suggested which shirt she wore. It would really annoy the woman if she called him
sir
and kept her head lowered.

“What time are your parents coming over?”

“Seven. Does that give you enough time to fix something?”

“What? You didn’t tell me you wanted me to cook.” Her voice’s timbre rose, revealing her new stress level.

He laughed at the panic he had caused her. “Calm down. Sonia left something in the fridge. I wouldn’t do that to you. Hell, I saw the things you usually eat, so I made the assumption you don’t know how to cook.”

“I can follow a recipe.” She couldn’t keep the pout out of her voice.

“Well, you don’t need to don your chef hat today. Everything is already prepared; we just have to pop the chicken enchiladas in the oven, and take the plastic wrap off the salad. Have you ever eaten cornbread salad?”

One side of her lip curled up in a small snarl. “I’ve never even heard of it before.”

“Neither have I, but Sonia said it’s good and goes well with the enchiladas.”

Nyxie put her hands under her legs and rocked her body back and forth. “I don’t really have much of an appetite.”

“Did you eat a large snack this afternoon?”

“I haven’t been hungry all day.” More accurately, the prospect of sharing a meal with his parents had made her lose her appetite. She had been trying, with no luck, to think up a way to get out of it.

“If you’ve hardly eaten all day, you’re hungry. I expect you to eat.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Yes, sir.”

They drove in silence most of the way home. Declan was exhausted, and Nyxie couldn’t release her anxiety over the prospect of being near his parents.

“Sir, would you pick out what you want me to wear?”

“That’s the third time you’ve called me
sir
in a matter of a few minutes.”

“You like it when I call you
sir
.”

Anything he was about to respond, went unspoken when he saw a car parked in front of his house.

“Is that your mom and dad?” she asked, certain his parents would love nothing better than to come over early to catch her unprepared. Once Dorothea learned they were married, would she show up unexpectedly, hoping to find their house in disarray?

“There’s a state seal on that car. It must be CPS to conduct your home study.”

“Now?”

“Apparently so.”

“Fuck me.”

Declan chuckled as he reached over to give her hand a reassuring squeeze, but seeing her hands under her thighs, he rubbed the back of his fingers on her forearm. “It’s going to be fine, Nyxie. Tell her you’re still moving in. Sonia put all your purchases in your side of the townhouse. You may have to wade through them if there’s something specific she wants to see. I really don’t know how this works.”

Nyxie lifted her hand, held it in front of her, and watched as it trembled. In seconds, it was back under her leg. “I’m nervous.”

Rather than park in the garage, Declan pulled up behind the CPS worker. “You have nothing to be afraid of. The judge is on your side. If there is anything wrong, we’ll fix it. Don’t volunteer information about your old place. If Sonia hasn’t been to the grocery store yet, bring her over to my place and show her my fridge—after all we are married.”

Declan stepped out of the car, and without thinking to wait on him, Nyxie did too. He frowned at her, but said nothing, knowing she hadn’t done it to defy him. Rosita Gomez got out of her car as soon as she saw them. He greeted the caseworker with an outstretched hand and a friendly smile.

“I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”

“I caught your housekeeper earlier. She told me you wouldn’t be home until this evening so I came back.”

“Come on in. We’re planning on tearing down a wall, or at least putting in doors to make this one big house instead of two separate townhouses.”

Rosita opened her notebook and began writing. “And where will everyone be staying during the construction?” she asked. She looked over the rim of her reading glasses with a raised eyebrow.

Declan looked taken aback by her tone. “I have vacation time coming up. So we’ll have the work done while we’re away.”

“How long is this going to take?” Nyxie asked. “My husband’s parents are coming over for dinner and we need to get ready.”

“Nyxie, don’t worry about that. Look, if you don’t need me, I’ll go take my shower now, so at least one of us will be dressed when they get here. Do you have your keys?”

Nyxie nodded and led the woman up the walk to the front door of the B-side. “I’m still getting moved in,” she said, expecting the apartment to be overrun with bags of merchandise. To her surprise, everything looked homey and neat thanks to the housekeeper. Sonia had purchased houseplants, decorative pillows, and even a lightweight throw blanket to warm up the living room. Apparently, Sonia had put away all of the things she purchased.

The woman barely glanced at the room as she moved into the kitchen, went straight to the sink and opened the cabinet underneath. “You need to lock up your household cleaners.”

“The youngest one is eight. She knows better than to consume anything like that,” she said defensively.

“Older kids can use chemicals to get high. They need to be locked up.”

“Yes, ma’am. I didn’t think about that. Do you have some paper so I can write this down?”

“I’ll give you a copy of my report. Do you have a fire extinguisher?”

~*~

Declan sat in his living room, reading the report, when his parents pulled up. The chicken enchiladas were in the oven, filling the room with the most delicious aroma; the table was set, and Nyxie was in the bedroom getting ready. He met them at the door before they could ring the bell.

Coach looked as miserable as Declan knew Nyxie felt. His arm surrounded a box with Declan’s old Nintendo and games. Declan took the box from him as he entered, and set it on the floor next to the door.

“Your girlfriend isn’t here yet?” Dorothea asked, hugging him, then handing him a bottle of wine she carried.

“We had an unexpected visitor when we got home. Nyxie’s upstairs getting dressed. She should be down in a few minutes.”

“Declan, you have not let that girl move in with you already, have you? You could have just sent us a text to let us know; you didn’t have to invite us to dinner.”

Declan laughed, but it sounded forced. “She’s been staying here since her brother’s accident. Nyxie never learned to drive, and I can’t spend my time off driving her back-and-forth to Chimera Flats. The day you met her, I had taken her home to get her clothes. But you’re right about one thing, we did invite you to dinner to break some news.”

“She’s probably pregnant,” Roy muttered, leaning closer to his wife as his arms crossed over his chest.

The comment came as no surprise to Declan. He knew his father well enough to know he was just grousing the way he always did when his mother nagged him into doing something he didn’t want to do. “Are you in a hurry to become a grandpa, Coach?”

“Declan, honey, if that girl is telling you she’s pregnant, it’s probably not even yours. Have you even been dating long enough for her to miss her period?”

He made a show of rolling his eyes and shaking his head. “She’s not pregnant.” The timer for the enchiladas buzzed in the kitchen before he could say that it would be okay with him if she did become pregnant. “Mom, if you’ll pull that out of the oven, I’ll run up and hurry Nyxie along.”

As was his habit, Declan took the stairs two at a time to the third floor, and found Nyxie sitting on the little bench in front of the bed. In her hand, she held his grandmother’s rings. He had placed them beside the dress he had picked out. It was the same flowered dress, with the conservative retro cut that she had worn to court.

“They’re here.”

Nyxie nodded and rose to her feet. “You don’t think either of your parents will physically attack me, do you?”

He chuckled and smiled sympathetically at her. “No, baby, they wouldn’t do that.”

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “I can’t believe we failed the home inspection.”

“It’s okay. We’ll buy a hundred fire extinguishers if we need to, and get the water turned on. God, I just forgot that I had turned it off last winter when I drained the pipes. I bet my dad will be happy to show me how to turn down the thermostat on my water heater. It’ll make him happy to think he knows something I don’t.”

He removed his handkerchief from his pocket and dried her tears. “You need to stop crying or I’m going to have to lift your skirt and fuck you before we go down,” he said, giving her a small peck. “There’s nothing on that list that we can’t have fixed in 24 hours.”

She sniffled. “I know. Everything hitting me at one time is overwhelming. I just keep thinking all this shit being thrown at me, has to end soon, but it just keeps coming. I’m just so thankful for your help.” She wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly. “I love you, Declan.”

“I love you too. Come on.”

~*~

Despite their interlaced hands, Nyxie lagged a step behind as they descended the steps.

“Ah, there you are. It’s good to see you again, Nyxie,” Dorothea said

politely.

“Thank you. I just hope we can start fresh. All of us,” she said, casting an uncertain glance at his father.

“Yes, I agree. I hope Declan told you how sorry I am for what I said.”

“I know you wouldn’t have said it, if you knew it was my brother that boy ran over.”

“What did you say?” Coach asked his wife.

Dorothea looked annoyed that he would ask. No doubt she thought it was a stupid thing to say aloud, and repeating it for his benefit would serve no purpose.

“Something along the lines of, ‘It’s better for him to die, than for his family to wipe the ass of a drooling invalid for life.’”

“I think I was more upset over the prospect that Cody might be like that, than anything. It really never occurred to me that if he lived, he might not have a full recovery.”

Dorothea smiled sympathetically at her. “How is your brother’s recovery coming along?”

“He’s awake. Talking some. Not drooling. He has pretty good use of his right hand, so I’m thinking he’ll probably be able to wipe his own ass.” Nyxie smiled impishly at the woman, hoping she would see she really had let the comment go, if she could make jokes about it.

His mother smiled back hesitantly.

“Shall we eat?” Declan said suddenly. As soon as his parents had turned to go into the dining room, he gave Nyxie a hard look that told her he was less than pleased with her comment.

“Yes, let’s. It smells delicious. Is this your recipe, Nyxie?”

“No, ma’am. Declan’s housekeeper cooked the meal.”

Nyxie moved into the kitchen and began putting ice in the glasses for the tea, while Declan put the food on the table.

“I brought wine,” Dorothea said. “Do you have stemware, Declan?”

“There are glasses in the cabinet by the fridge, but Nyxie and I won’t be having any. Nyxie doesn’t drink and I’m not allowed to drink for twenty-four hours before surgery. I’m glad you brought it because I didn’t even think to have Sonia pick some up for y’all.”

Declan grabbed his corkscrew out of a drawer and handed it to his father, then caught Nyxie before she could leave the kitchen.

“You’re not offended by people drinking in front of you, are you?” he asked in whispered tones.

She shook her head, despite the anxiety she felt. It was only one bottle, surely that wouldn’t be enough to get them so drunk they would get violent when they found out Declan had married her.

Nyxie carried two of the tea glasses to the formal dining room, and Declan carried the other two. The table had been set with two place settings on each side and no one sitting at the ends, so it would feel more intimate. Or maybe it was so the three of them would not fight over who would sit at the head of the table.