The Love She Craves: Selling Her Soul to Declan (39 page)

Judge Mason pounded his gavel loudly. “Ms. Carmichael, you will not speak unless you are spoken to. Is that clear?”

Declan could see she wanted to argue that she was only defending her mother’s honor, but to her the prospect of angering the man who could rule against her overwhelmed her protest.

“Yes, sir.”

Declan rankled when she called the judge ‘sir’. He was her
sir
and he absolutely didn’t want to hear her calling another man by his title.

After giving Nyxie a few moments to digest her censure, the judge turned back to Declan. “You’ve been dating a week. Who says it will last?”

Irritation crossed Declan’s face. “Who says any relationship will last, Judge Mason? I have agreed to rent Nyxie a four-bedroom home for three years, all bills paid. If we do part ways, she would only be responsible for groceries and other day-to-day expenses for the remainder of the three years. Hopefully, by then, she’ll be qualified for a better job and Cody will be fifteen, certainly old enough in anyone’s eyes to babysit until Nyxie gets home from work.”

“Your Honor,” the female lawyer said from the gallery. “This is all irrelevant. My clients are willing to take custody of their grandson. I’ve got their petition right here,” she said lifting papers in the direction of the bailiff.

“Your Honor,” Nyxie said rising to her feet. “I beg you, please, don’t give my brother to them. They are not good people. Neither is my mother’s mother,” she said pointing at the other woman. “My mother was fourteen when she got pregnant. That woman threatened to have my fifteen-year-old father thrown in jail for statutory rape if he didn’t marry her. They were teenagers. They had no business getting married. And then both sets of parents abandoned them.”

“That slut, Mandy, intentionally trapped our boy so she could get at our money. We weren’t going to support that.”

Penelope pointed her finger at the Carmichaels. “Your boy should’ve kept his dick in his pants. You weren’t going to make him take responsibility. I paid their first month’s rent and deposit and your son didn’t even say thank you.”

The judge began pounding on the gavel. “Order, order. Sit down everyone. This is ridiculous,” the judge shouted over the noise.

One by one every person in the room sat down and stopped talking.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of history and ill-will. The next person who speaks out of turn will be found in contempt. Mr. Vaughn—I have your petitions. Let us deal first with the girls and then with the boy.”

“Yes, Your Honor. Lotus and Reina are the daughters of Onyx’s sister. She is a drug addict and abandoned the girls with her sister last year. We located Melinda in the county jail a few days ago. She has legally signed over guardianship to Onyx, Your Honor; we are here to have the courts acknowledge her right to pursue regaining full and legal custody.”

“Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. And their father or fathers?”

“We don’t know who either girl’s father is.”

Martin Carmichael harrumphed drawing Judge Mason’s attention. He frowned, but told Junior to continue without censuring the man.

“This was only intended to be a hearing to determine Miss Carmichael’s right to the children, but if CPS is determined to place them today, they should be placed in the only stable and loving home they’ve ever known.”

“I will hear both sides, but unless I hear compelling arguments, I see no reason to make a judgment on custody until the home studies are completed.”

“Thank you, Your Honor,” Junior Vaughn said. “About Cody Carmichael, we would ask that emergency guardianship ad litem be granted to Ms. Carmichael immediately. He is currently in the hospital and we believe his medical decisions should be placed in Ms. Carmichael’s hands and taken from the state. The state has shown a lack of interest in his care and is blindly allowing the doctors to make any and all medical decisions without due consideration of his welfare. The state does not know his past and is making decisions about his care uninformed and with total disregard for his previous medical history.”

“Your Honor, if I may,” the lawyer for Martin and Olivia Carmichael said
rising to her feet. The judge frowned at her, but allowed her to continue. “My clients are seeking custody of Cody Carmichael. They are more capable to see to his needs both financially and in life experience than a high school dropout.”

Nyxie rose to her feet. “You may be better educated than me, but Declan can explain anything I don’t understand. Furthermore, you know nothing of his medical history. If you did, you’d know Cody is not your grandson. Cody has blonde hair and blue eyes and Mama loved to throw it in Daddy’s face that he was not Cody’s father.”

The judge began pounding the gavel a few words into her outburst, but she didn’t stop until she was finished. “I’m sorry, Your Honor. I just don’t understand how these people have any claim on my brother. Did they ever change his diaper when he was a baby? No, Melinda and I did. We changed him more than our folks. And when we ran out of diapers, it was Melinda and me who wrapped him in towels and wash the towels by hand. And when Mama disappeared and I was the only one trying to put food in our bellies, where were they? I was fourteen and the only person who helped me is Declan Stryker. And yes, I dropped out of school on my sixteenth birthday because I needed to work to feed my brother because our lazy drunken father could not be bothered to get a job. I’m sorry I didn’t know how to get welfare or food stamps. I’ve lived in Chimera Flats my whole life and if there is a welfare office there, I’ve never caught wind of it. Trust me, I would have loved to sit around on my ass collecting welfare and watching the kids, but that wasn’t an option. I’ve only loved or been loved by four people in this world and three of them are in this room and the other is fighting for his life in UMC.”

“Your Honor,” Declan said standing up. “If it’ll sway your opinion on this matter, I will happily married Onyx Carmichael.”

“No!” Junior Vaughn shouted jumping to his feet.

The judge smashed his gavel again. “Ladies and gentlemen, this just became interesting,” Judge Mason said leaning back in his leather chair with an unfathomable grin. “You would marry her if it meant getting her kids back. In the state of Texas, there’s a seventy-two hour waiting period, but as a judge, I actually have the power to waive that.”

“Your Honor, I object to this,” Junior Vaughn said his voice slightly higher than his normal authoritative courtroom voice. He cleared his throat. “You are creating a conflict of interest for me. Dr. Stryker has been my client since he was in high school.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, counselor. Why does a teenager need a lawyer?”

“He inherited money from his grandparents’ estate. I administered the funds until he reached his majority. I cannot allow my client to get married without a prenuptial agreement nor can I continue to represent Ms. Carmichael if a prenup is on the table.”

“I don’t need a prenuptial agreement with Nyxie,” Declan said.

“Yes, you do.”

The vehemence in the lawyer’s tone made the judge take notice. “How much are we talking here?” he asked.

“High six, low seven.”

“High six figures, low seven figures?” the judge asked for clarification.

“No, Your Honor, depending on the markets, I could be worth anywhere from six and a half million to seven and a quarter million, give or take.”

The judge’s eyebrow shot up. “Oh.”

“And more coming in every quarter,” the lawyer added.

The judge turned his attention to Nyxie. “You’ve been awfully quiet in all this.”

“You haven’t said if you’ll award full legal custody of my kids to me if I marry Declan. If you don’t agree first, I’m sure Declan will rescind the offer.”

“Young lady, this is a neglect case not an abuse case, and after hearing the facts, I’m not sure the juveniles should have been removed from your home in the first place. CPS would have served you better by providing you with resources to get food stamps, HUD housing and day care to lighten the number of hours you worked. I can hear in your voice your devotion to
your
children and I think marriage to a man who can do for you all the things the state can would allow me to make an immediate judgment in your favor.”

The woman from CPS stood up and interrupted. “Your honor, we can’t just hand these children over. We have rules and procedures we must follow.”

The judge sneered at the caseworker. “I am well aware of your rigamarole and protocols. If they get married today, I’ll give you ten days to complete everything.”

He turned back to Nyxie with his eyebrows lifted expectantly.

“May I speak with Declan alone for a few minutes?”

“Sure, use my chambers. Bailiff, show Ms. Carmichael and Dr. Stryker to my chambers.”

Nyxie turned to the lawyer. “Get the people in your office to work on the prenup. I’ll sign whatever you want if it gets my kids back. I don’t love him for his money. Can you work on that quickly?”

The lawyer’s face lit up.

Declan leaned over the railing. “We don’t need a prenup.”

The bailiff led them to a nicely appointed office, with polished wooden bookshelves filled with law boo
ks, leather chairs and a cherry wood desk with a computer on top.

Declan turned the latch on the door. “Take off your panties.”

She locked eyes with Declan as she reached under her skirt and dragged her panties down her legs, hopping to keep her balance as they hung up on one of her shoes. She dropped it on the floor.

When she erected herself, he had his pants open and his cock in his hand, slowly stroking it. He stepped forward. “Pull up your skirt.” Nyxie lifted the hem of her skirt. She placed the edge between her teeth and reached her arms behind his neck, lifting one knee around his hip. He fed the length of his cock into her hot sweet darkness before lifting her other leg around him.

Nyxie allowed the hem to fall from her teeth as he pressed her against the door, slowly pumping himself in and out of her. He moved his hands to her tender ass and squeezed.

“God, I’m deliciously sore,” she said quietly not knowing if the bailiff waited on the other side of the door.

“I bet,” he laughed.

“Even as a little kid, long before I touched myself, I would press on my bruises because I was fascinated by the way it felt.”

He pulled out until only the tip remained, kneaded her ass and shoved his dick up to his balls inside her. “You know I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“I’m your sub. I wouldn’t say no to anything you asked that mattered.”

“You know when I put that veil on your head and took your virginity, I married you emotionally.”

She rotated her hips, feeling the fullness and making him moan. “And the moment I realized submitting to you made all the bad things in my life vanish, I knew you were more than a husband could ever be. You were my Dom.”

He moved faster within her making her body quiver as she fought the building tension, trying not to come before he allowed it.

“Come now, baby,” he whispered in her ear. “It’s your last orgasm as a single woman—your last orgasm as a Carmichael.”

Her eyes closed and she threw her head back. Wave after wave of silent ecstasy flooded her like a giant tsunami, devastating her, drowning her. And when she thought the wave had ebbed back to sea, it slammed into her again leaving her body helplessly under water as the weight crushed her. Then suddenly, her head was above water. She felt languid and spend.

The camera shutter on his phone clicked bringing her back to the present. His body trembled as he came and she watched, watched every moment from beginning to end understanding why he had taken the picture. If it wouldn’t have distracted him, she might have taken the phone from him and snapped his picture.

“I love you,” he said. “Let’s get back in there and get married.”

Note from Author

Dear Readers,

Hope you enjoyed Nyxie and Declan’s story. I would be interested to hear what you thought. Would you like to read more of these characters?
Even if you just want to point out a couple of typos I missed, I’d like to hear it. (Just try to be nice if you hated it.) You can write me at Nyxie’s email address…[email protected]

Gemma