Honeymoon from Hell I
Haley and Jason
by
R.L. Mathewson
A Smashword’s Edition
Other titles by R.L. Mathewson:
The Pyte/Sentinel Series:
Tall, Dark & Lonely
Without Regret
Tall, Dark & Heartless
Tall, Silent & Lethal
The Hollywood Hearts Series:
A Humble Heart
A Reclusive Heart
The Neighbor from Hell Series:
Playing for Keeps
Perfection
Checkmate
Truce: The Historic Neighbor from Hell
The Game Plan
The Neighbor from Hell Collection I
Double Dare
Double Feature: The Game Plan/Double Dare
The EMS Series:
Sudden Response
The Cursed Hearts Series:
Black Heart
Misc. Titles:
The 2014 Chronicle Collection
Nonfiction Titles:
How to Write, Publish and All That Good Stuff…
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events described in
this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Edited by R.L. Mathewson, Jessica Atchison, Jodi Negri, and Jennelyn Carrion
Cover designed by Rochelle McGrath
Honeymoon from Hell I © Rerum Industries, Inc. 2015 All rights Reserved.
e-book ISBN:
9781311915870
This book like every book that I have ever written or will ever write is dedicated to
my children, Kayley and Shane, who have been with me on this journey from day one.
Thank you for purchasing this book.
Sign up for my newsletter and receive the latest news about the Neighbor
from Hell Series as well as my other series at:
Dear Reader,
I’d like to start off by saying thank you for all your support and kind words over the
years. It’s because of you that I am able to do be there and take care of my children by
doing what I love. So, on behalf on my children, I wanted to say thank you.
Now, moving onto to this mini-series. I never planned on writing the Honeymoon from
Hell series. It started off as a Chronicle or two on my website, which is how I continue
giving life to the characters that I’ve created and fallen in love with. When I wrote a
teaser about Jason and Haley’s honeymoon I was hooked and immediately wanted to
write the whole story out as well as the honeymoons for the rest of the Bradfords, but
I wasn’t sure how it would turn out or if it was even something that you would be
interested in reading about.
Well, while I was trying to decide what to do I wrote the Chronicle to let you see how
Haley broke the news of their impending family to Jason. After that I really couldn’t
stop thinking about this series, but time was a factor.
So, I decided that I would write the series and release it in December 2015 after I was
able to get out the books that I promised you. At the same time iBooks was doing
what iBooks does best, helping self-published authors like myself get a chance to show
readers what they could do. iBooks helped me out, gave me my real break and
honored me with the first title of Breakout Author, so I decided to make my already
busy schedule even busier and write this series early so that I could say thank you to
iBooks for everything that they did to me and release this mini-series early through
them.
Some readers are upset about the wait, and I am sorry about that, but I wouldn’t be
who I am if I didn’t step up and show my appreciation and gratitude to those who
have helped me and my children when we needed help. With or without this early
release through iBooks, this series would not have been released at Amazon.com or
anywhere else before December because of my workload, so please don’t feel slighted,
because that was not my intention.
Now, as for this HFH, you will notice that the prologue is one of the last chapters of
Playing for Keeps. That was done so that you wouldn’t need to go back and re-read the
end of the book to figure out where we left off. It also leaves you with the choice to
skip it and move on to the rest of the story.
Both Chronicles that you were introduced to for the HFH series are in this novelette.
They were treated as sneak peeks on my website and now you can see how they come
together.
With that being said….
I hope you enjoy the Honeymoon from Hell mini-series.
Yours,
R.L. Mathewson
Prologue
(A Little Recap for those of you who may have forgotten where we left off)
“Stop!” Jason begged.
Haley finished pulling his belt loose, unbuttoned his pants, and had his zipper down
before he could say it again. She sat back, leaving his pants open and revealing the
large bulge now hidden only by his gray boxer briefs.
“Okay,” she said soothingly. Jason sucked in a deep breath and visibly relaxed.
She knew that she was pushing him, but she had no choice. Jason was being so damn
stubborn and wouldn’t listen to her. She mentally tsked him as she stood up. If only
he’d stuck around two weeks ago, he’d know exactly how much she wanted him and
how sorry she was that she’d hurt him.
There was no doubt in her mind that she’d hurt him and she hated herself so much for
it. Months ago when she’d welcomed Jason into her life she’d been so foolish to think
that she was done with categorizing people into safe little groups to protect herself. All
she’d managed to do was hurt both of them and push Jason away.
When she’d told herself there could never be anything more with Jason she’d been so
foolish. She’d been so frightened to let herself truly love him and hope for a future
that she’d told herself was impossible. She’d been so damn selfish and because of that
she’d hurt the man she loved.
Now he was hurting and trying his best to take care of her by protecting her. As much
as it warmed her heart that he’d do anything to make her happy, even suffer, she was
actually pretty pissed. His stubbornness was only delaying the inevitable. She’d break
out the fists of fury to knock some sense into him, but she didn’t want to hurt him.
So that left only one thing.......
Biting back a smile, she stood up and leaned back against the kitchen table. She’d
never done anything so bold in her life, but this was for Jason. It didn’t hurt that he
was handcuffed and couldn’t stop her.
“Are you sure you want me to stop?” she asked coyly.
“Yes,” he hissed, still panting.
“Hmmm, then perhaps we should just talk?” she suggested as she stepped out of her
high heels.
Jason’s eyes narrowed on the action as he absently nodded.
“I think we should forget about being friends, Haley, and go our separate ways,” he
said, looking up, but not quite meeting her eyes. “Once my house sells, I’m moving
away for good.”
“That’s really not going to work for me,” Haley said, reaching up and slowly
unbuttoning her silk blouse.
“That’s too damn bad, Haley! I’m moving. You need to move on,” he snapped, clearly
trying not to watch as she revealed a black lacy bra.
“Have you moved on?” she casually asked, gently shrugging out of her shirt.
“Yes,” he said without any hesitation.
“I see,” Haley said, biting back a smile, as his eyes practically devoured her.
She reached back and released the fastenings on her skirt and watched as Jason
followed the skirt as it hit the floor, hesitating at the matching black panties. Haley
stepped out of the skirt and kicked it aside before leaning back against the table.
“So,” she said, tracing the top of her bra with the tip of her finger, “you’re over me?”
“Yes.”
“I guess this means you want me to get dressed and leave,” she said, having absolutely
no intention of leaving until he was hers.
He hesitated, making her smile. “Yes.”
“That’s a damn shame,” Haley said, reaching up between her breasts and undoing the
front clasp. She held the cups together as she studied him. He couldn’t seem to stop
shifting in his chair or take his eyes off her.
“What is?” Jason asked distractedly.
“Well, what if I don’t want it to be over?” she asked, slowly peeling away each cup,
revealing tight hard nipples.
Jason cursed softly as she let the bra drop to the floor. “You don’t care,” she started to
ask as she spread her legs to give him a better view of what waited for him, “if
another man touches me?”
She watched a large muscle in his clenched jaw twitch while she absently ran the tips
of her fingers of one hand over her breast and down her stomach.
“No, I don’t,” he bit out coldly.
“Really?” she asked, turning so that she could lean over the table and grab the
Tupperware bowl she’d brought with her. She looked over her shoulder and bit back a
smile when she caught Jason licking his lips hungrily as his eyes ran over her bottom.
“I guess then I should tell you that Mark, the new biology teacher, asked me out
tomorrow night. Dinner at his house,” she said offhandedly, popping the top of the
container as she watched his reaction.
His eyes snapped up to hers and she couldn’t help but notice all the muscles in his
neck and chest going taut.
“It’s none of my business,” he ground out.
She picked up the bowl, turned, and knelt in front of him.
“What the hell are you doing?” he asked, shifting nervously.
Haley pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as she placed the bowl on the floor. She
reached over and pulled his boxer briefs down, releasing his rather angry looking
erection. She resisted the urge to run her fingers down it.
“There, that looks more comfortable,” she murmured as she picked up the bowl again.
“Oh God.....is that buttercream frosting?” Jason asked in a strangled voice
“Mmmhmm,” she said, dipping her finger in the buttercream and making a show of
licking it off. “Mmmm.” She dipped her finger in the delicious frosting again. “I believe
I owe you,” she said, reaching up and smearing the frosting over one of his nipples.
He hissed in a breath when she leaned over and licked it off. “The deal was that I
licked an entire bowl off of you,” Jason said between clenched teeth.
“But this is so much more fun,” Haley said, scooping up more frosting. She gave him a
sly smile as she reached over and smeared the frosting over the underside of his hard
cock. “A lot more fun.”
*-*-*-*
Jason groaned long and loud at the first swipe of her tongue. Christ, it was a lot more
fun than he’d imagined. Granted, it would be a lot more fun to lick it off her breasts
and off her round little bottom. He watched as Haley traced her tongue over his cock,
slowly licking off the buttercream frosting.
He should stop this. It wasn’t right to lead her to believe that he’d stick around, but
when she took the large head into her mouth and sucked hard, he couldn’t do anything
more than moan and pant.
She took her time licking him clean, clearly enjoying herself. Finally when she’d licked
off all the frosting, she released his cock with a loud
pop. With a soft grip, she ran her
hand down his length.
“You’d be fine with me doing this for another man?” she asked.
His breaths came quicker as he imagined his little grasshopper doing this for anyone
else. He couldn’t deal with it. He knew he’d fucking kill any man that so much as
touched her never mind this.
Fuck it.
She was his.
He didn’t care if she didn’t love him the way that he loved her. It didn’t matter. He’d
more than make up for it. He’d spoil the hell out of her and keep her in orgasmic bliss
so that she wouldn’t realize that she was settling.
“No one else touches you, Haley. No. One.”
“What about you?” she asked shyly, rising to her feet.
“Only me,” he promised as she shimmied out of her panties. She grabbed something
off the kitchen table and walked around him. He heard the
clickof the handcuffs as
she released each hand and foot.
When she was done, she tossed the key on the table and walked out of the room
towards his bedroom. Jason wasted no time in pulling his pants and underwear off the
rest of the way. He walked into his room and nearly sighed with relief when he
spotted his little grasshopper waiting for him on his bed.
He walked over and climbed onto the bed. Without a word he picked up her left leg
and pressed a soft kiss to her calf before setting it back down to the side. He did the
same for the other leg, exposing heaven on earth. He leaned over and pressed a kiss
against her swollen wet lips, earning an enticing moan.
“Just so we’re clear,” he said, running the tip of his tongue between her slit, “you’re
marrying me.”
“Just so we’re clear, I decidedthattwo weeks ago,” she said, earning a pained chuckle
from him. “I’m in love with you, Jason,” she said softly, running her fingers through
his hair.
He raised his eyes to watch her. “You’re not in love with me,” he somehow managed to
say. He knew that she didn’t love him the way that he loved her, but it felt like a
physical blow to have to say it out loud.
“Ow!” Jason hissed. “What the hell was that for?” he demanded.
Haley sighed heavily as she released the lock of hair she’d just yanked and gently
rubbed the sore spot she’d created.
“How can you say that I don’t love you?”
“Easily!” he snapped, moving away from her and sitting back on his haunches.
Haley quickly got to her knees and glared up at him. Well, as best as she could since
she’d taken her glasses off. She poked him in the chest, hard.
“Listen to me, buddy! I am head over heels in love with you and if you think that
you’re going to pull another snit and get out of marrying me then you’re crazy!”
He shifted closer. “I’m pulling another snit?” he practically roared. “I’m not the one
who started all of this bullshit!” He grabbed her by the back of her neck and held her
as he leaned down closer. “But I can damn well promise that I’m going to be the one to
fix it.”
“What the hell does that mean?” she asked, mimicking his hold on her as she drew
him closer.
“It means, my little grasshopper,” he said, releasing her neck abruptly so that he could
reach down and grab her by the back of her thighs. With a quick flick of his wrists he
sent her falling back onto the bed.
Before she could scramble away he was kneeling between her legs with his still
painfully hard erection in hand and running it between her pouty wet lips the way he
knew drove her crazy. She squirmed against him almost desperately.
“It means that I’m not taking a chance on you changing your mind. You’re marrying
me this weekend and that’s final!” he snarled, licking his lips as Haley rubbed her wet
pussy over the underside of his cock.
Her answering smile stole his breath away. She looked so damn beautiful. He knew
he’d fucked up his proposal, but that didn’t really faze him since he had a tendency to
fuck this kind of thing up. Besides, he wasn’t going to ask her to marry him. That
would have been fucking stupid since it would have given her a chance to say no. She
was marrying him no matter what. It really was the only way to keep her safe, he
decided as she rolled her hips and took the tip of his cock inside of her.
“Are you going to make love to me, or do I have to break out the fists of fury?” she
asked, moaning.
He leaned over and covered her body with his. “Definitely going to make love to you,”
he said against her neck as he rolled his hips, feeding her his cock. He took her mouth
in a hungry kiss, tangling his tongue with hers as he gently thrust inside her, inch by
inch. She was still so damn tight and felt so fucking good wrapped around him.
“I...I...oh God!” Haley moaned loudly.
“What do you want, baby?” Jason asked, pulling his cock out almost all the way before
sliding back in, slowly. He groaned at the sensation of a thousand hot wet little
tongues licking his cock.
“I love you!” she cried out as he ground himself against her. He pressed a kiss to her
shoulder as he continued to grind himself against her. “I love you, too,” he said,
turning his head to look down at her. “More than anything.”
She fisted his hair and yanked his mouth down to hers. He reached between them and
slid his thumb between her slit and over her swollen clit. Haley cried out into his
mouth as he quickened his pace and rubbed the nub harder and faster.
“Oh fuck,” he ground out as she clamped down tightly around him and squeezed
unmercifully, leaving him gasping for breath and pounding into her without any
finesse or reason. He was barely aware of her nails digging into his ass or her little
blunt teeth biting into his shoulder as she screamed her release. His release came on
him so damn hard and fast that he couldn’t hold back his roar of ecstasy as Haley
squeezed him dry.
He collapsed against her, careful to keep most of his weight off her and to the side. He
pressed a kiss to her damp shoulder.
“Just so you know,” she said, panting just as hard as he was, “the next time you try to
leave me. I’m going to kick your ass.”
Jason had to bury his face against her shoulder to stop himself from laughing out
loud. She was just so damn cute.
“Stop laughing at me! I’m a threat, damn it!”
Jason pressed a gentle kiss to her lips.
“No, you’re my sweet little grasshopper.”
Chapter 1
Oh, she’d played him well, he thought with a pleased smile as he leaned down and
kissed her cheek, which promptly earned him a swat and a whimper.
“Please…just let me die…” she muttered pathetically as she rolled over onto her side
with a whimper and curled up into a ball, letting him know that his work was finally
done.
“Shhh, just go to sleep, sweetheart,” he murmured soothingly as he tucked her in.
“I would if you kept that insanely large cock between your legs to yourself!”
“Aw, but he likes you,” he said, chuckling as he watched her reach back and swat at
him…and miss.
“I hate him!”
“You fucking adore him,” he said, smiling as he fixed the covers on her now that she’d
stopped trying to beat the shit out of him.
“Hate,” she grumbled as she reached up, grabbed her pillow and yanked it over her
head in an attempt to block him out.
For several minutes he simply sat there, making sure that she was asleep. When he
heard her softly snore, he carefully got off the bed, grabbed his cellphone and backed
up until he reached the door where he stood for another minute, watching her.
God, she was so beautiful, so kind, funny and sweet and obviously temporarily insane.
It was something that he was just going to have to take advantage of before she came
to her senses and realized that she could easily do so much better than him.
*-*-*-*
“Good morning, my little grasshopper,” Jason said, sounding really cheerful for
someone who’d stayed up all night showing her new and interesting ways to scream
his name.
“What’s going on?” she asked, rubbing her hands down her face as she shifted in her
seat and-
“Why are we in a car?” she asked, dropping her hands in her lap as she looked out her
window, turning her head to watch as a large green blob rushed past them.
“Here,” he said, pressing her glasses in her hand.
Without looking away from all the colorful blobs rushing past her window, she quickly
unfolded her glasses and put them on. “Where are we going?” she asked, pushing her
glasses back up her nose as she watched what she now realized were highway signs
rushing past them.
“To run an errand,” he said, smiling as he reached over and took her hand in his.
“And you need to break the laws of physics in order to do it?” she asked, swallowing
nervously as she watched that little hand on the speedometer move past ninety miles
per hour.
“Absolutely,” he said with that sexy smile that she loved so much. It had the power to
momentarily distract her and had her licking her suddenly dry lips.
That is until she saw the large green sign announcing that they were only fifty miles
from the New Hampshire border. Her stomach coiled with dread as she looked at
Jason only to find him grinning like he’d just won the lottery.
She considered asking him if he was kidnapping her again, but with a slight shake of
her head, she settled back more comfortably in her seat and decided to wait and see
where he was going with this.
*-*-*-*
“Please tell me that’s not City Hall,” Haley said, swallowing nervously as she pushed
her glasses back up her cute little nose.
Jason sighed heavily as he shut the truck off and pocketed the keys. “I would, but I
don’t think lying is really the best way to start a marriage.”
“M-marriage? What the hell are you talking about?” she demanded, sounding a tad
hysterical as he opened his door.
He paused with the door halfway open as he considered her. What he saw had him
releasing a long-suffering sigh and reaching for her. With a startled gasp, she tried to
back up against her car door and move out of his reach, but it was really a sad
attempt. In seconds, he had her out of the truck and thrown over his shoulder.
“Jason, maybe we should talk about this,” she said, gripping the back of his shirt
tightly as he carried her towards City Hall.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” he said, opening the door and holding it for a large
group of old women.
“There really is!”
“And why is that?” he asked around a yawn.
“Because you’re kidnapping me again!” she snapped, for some reason sounding kind of
angry.
“I’m not kidnapping you,” he felt obligated to point out.
“Then what would you call it?” she demanded, wiggling in his arms.
“We’re getting married,” he said, stepping in line for the City Clerk’s window.
There was a brief moment of silence before she said, “Please tell me that you’re
kidding.”
“I would never joke around about getting married, my little grasshopper. Bradfords
take this shit seriously.”
“Oh my God! I can’t marry you like this!” she shrieked, sounding a bit hysterical and
drawing the attention of the group of women standing off to the right, watching them
warily.
“You’re not going to marry me?” he asked hollowly, making sure to let his bottom lip
quiver just enough for the benefit of their audience.
“I just think that maybe we should think about-”
“You were just using me?”
“What? No! I wasn’t using you! I-”
“You had your dirty, filthy way with me and now, what? You’re done with me? Just
like that? Like I was nothing but a whore?”
*-*-*-*
“No! That’s not how-”
“After the dirty, disgusting things that you made me do, you’re not going to marry
me?” he demanded, sounding outraged.
“That’s not what I-” she started to say, but the bastard wouldn’t let her finish a
sentence!
He also refused to let her go. With a huff, she gripped the back of his jeans and
pushed herself up to tell him to let her go when she saw the group of women watching
them, shaking their heads in disgust.
“You promised that you’d marry me!” he said, sounding a bit hysterical.
“I-”
“What am I supposed to tell my mother?”
“Well, I-”
“What?”
“If you could just calm down, I’m sure that we could discuss this like two rational-”
“How could you use me like that?How?”
Sighing, she released her hold on his jeans and let herself drop against his back,
because clearly there was no talking to this man. When he realized that they couldn’t
get married today, he’d calm down and start acting like the rational man that she
loved.
Okay, so he’d hopefully just turn back into the man that she loved since the whole
rational part was kind of hopeless. He was a Bradford after all. Any minute now this
little fiasco would be over and they could go home, get some rest, have something to
eat and discuss this.
“Next,” the City Clerk said, letting her know that this whole thing was almost over.
Chapter 2
“How,” Haley started to ask only to pause so that she could take a deep breath and
count to ten before she continued, “did you get your hands on my birth certificate?”
“I have my resources,” he murmured absently, glancing down at his watch as he
carried her into the empty courtroom.
She sighed heavily against his back. “Grandma gave it to you, didn’t she?”
“She may have helped a little,” he admitted, wondering what was taking so long.
“Maybe we should go home and talk about this?” she calmly suggested.
There was nothing to talk about, but since it would kill some time until his plan could
come together, it sounded like a good idea. “We can talk here,” he pointed out,
deciding that putting her down on her feet probably wasn’t a good idea. At least, not
until after he’d heard what she had to say.
He felt her sigh against his back again just as he’d registered the feel of her nibble
little fingers toying with one of his belt loops. “I can’t marry you today.”
“Well, this marriage license says otherwise,” he said, absently running his hand over
the back of her legs as he looked around the courtroom, making note of all the possible
exits.
There were too many of them.
“You blackmailed me into signing that!”
He shrugged, smiling when she released a little grunt as the move jostled her a bit. “I
did what I had to do,” he said with absolutely no shame as he walked over to the first
bank of windows and peered out the large window overlooking the front lawn,
watching for any signs of a taxi or public transportation that could aide his little
grasshopper in her escape if he fucked this up.
“You wouldn’t let me use the bathroom until I signed it!” she said, grabbing hold of the
back of his pants as she tried to push herself up only to give up a few seconds later
and return to toying with his belt loop with an annoyed little sigh.
“You have no one to blame but yourself for that one. No one told you to drink all that
water and soda,” he absently pointed out as his eyes narrowed to slits on the taxi
parking in front of the courthouse.
“Are you kidding me? You’ve been pushing liquid on me since the moment that I woke
up!”
“You looked thirsty,” he murmured absently as he pulled his phone out of his back
pocket and sent another text message.
“That’s because you jacked the heat up in your truck, you manipulative bastard! It
was either drink everything that you shoved at me or die of heat exhaustion!”
He sighed heavily. “Are you going to keep throwing the past in my face?”
“Keep throwing the past in your face…” she repeated back, sounding a tad hysterical.
“It happened an hour ago!”
“More than enough time to let it go and move on,” he murmured, wondering if he
should try to get her to drink a few more bottles of water just in case she managed to
escape. It was probably wrong to use her small bladder against her, but he’d do
whatever it took to ensure that she was legally required to put up with his bullshit
whenever he fucked up, which according to his father and Uncles, would be often.
“I should have kicked your ass when I had the chance,” she said, sounding completely
serious, which of course left him biting back a chuckle as he reached up and gently
rubbed her bottom.
“You’ll get plenty of chances to kick my ass after this,” he reminded her as he walked
back to the double doors at the back of the room and peeked his head out into the hall
to find the Bible Study group still standing there, waiting to make sure that Haley
made an honest man out of him.
“True,” she agreed with a heavy sigh, making his lips twitch.
She was just so damn cute.
“What are looking for?”
“Nothing,” he lied, looking down at his phone and silently cursing his family to hell
and back. They should have been here ten minutes ago.
“Then why are you stalking around the room like a caged animal?” she asked.
“I thought you wanted to discuss this?” he reminded her, hoping to distract her.
When she didn’t say anything after a minute, he reached up to pull her off his
shoulder, afraid that she might have passed out from staying in that position for so
long, but just as he gripped her hips, she said, “I don’t think we should rush into this.”
*-*-*-*
“Get the hell off me!” she snapped as she wiggled to free her legs, but the large
bastard sitting across them refused to budge.
“Shhhh,” Jason whispered as he gave her ass another one of those patronizing rubs
that was going to get his ass kicked. “I’m on the phone with Grandma.”
“Oh thank God,” she murmured as she reached back and wiggled her fingers in
demand. “Give me the phone.”
“She’s not going anywhere,” Jason explained as he continued to rub her ass.
Frustrated beyond belief, she shifted until she was on her elbows and could glare back
at the large bastard sitting on her. “Let me go, Jason,” she bit out, not even bothering
to beg her Grandmother for help since she already knew where her grandmother’s
loyalty now stood.
“That’s really not going to work for me,” he said absently, as he shifted to get more
comfortable, which she took as her cue to try to wiggle her way to freedom.
She managed to shift forward an inch only to growl in frustration when he used his
hold on her ass to pull her back. “Let me go!”
“Shh, still talking,” he whispered loudly, giving her ass another rub, which she really
seemed to hate.
She turned around and dropped her face in her hands, needing a moment to calm
down while she listened to Jason promise her Grandmother that everything was going
according to plan and that he’d call her after the deed was done. When she heard him
end the call, she took another deep, calming breath, something that she seemed to do
a lot around him, and tried one last time to talk some sense into him.
“Jason, we don’t need to do this today. We could-”
“We’re doing this today,” he said, humming happily as he continued to rub her ass.
“But-”
“We’re getting married today,” he said firmly before adding, “Stop wrecking my
special day!”
With a sigh, she shook her head and muttered, “I give up.”
“That’s probably for the best, my little grasshopper,” he murmured as she resigned
herself to wait for the Justice of the Peace to show up and talk some sense into Jason.
She didn’t want him rushing into this only to regret it later. She loved him and
wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, but not until she was sure that’s what
he wanted as well and she didn’t count this impulsive move as any indication that he
was ready to spend the rest of his life with her.
“What time will Grandma be here?” she mumbled against her folded arms, hoping
that she could catch a ride back home with her Grandmother since Jason would
probably be pouting over the fact that she made him wait to get married.
“She’s not coming,” he announced, making her frown, because this was her
Grandmother, the person that she loved more than anything in this world, besides
Jason that is, and she should be here for this.
“What do you mean she’s not coming?” she demanded as she pushed herself back up on
her elbows just as a tall man with graying black hair walked in the room.
“It would only delay this,” Jason said, getting to his feet.
“Finally,” she muttered as she shifted into a sitting position and-
“Oh, come on!” she groaned when Jason swept her up in his arms. “Put me down!”
“Not yet,” Jason said, shifting her in his arms as he carried her towards the front of
the courtroom.
“I’m not kidding, Jason!”
He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. “You’re marrying me today and
that’s final.”
She opened her mouth to demand her freedom when she caught sight of the panicked
expression on the other man’s face. He looked down at the paper in his hands, looked
back up at Jason only to look back down at the paper again, swallow and mumble,
“Bradford.”
She watched in horrified fascination as he dropped the paper, turned right back
around and ran towards the door he’d just come through when Jared stepped inside
the courtroom, blocking his path. The terrified man gasped, turned around and ran
towards the back of the courtroom where ten more Bradfords suddenly appeared,
blocking his path as more of them filed into the room, taking up positions in front of
the windows and doors.
It was then that she realized that she wasn’t leaving until she’d said, “I do.”
*-*-*-*
“I’m in my safe place. I’m in my safe place,”the Justice of the Peace mumbled around
soft sobs from where he sat, huddled in the corner, rocking himself gently back and
forth as he kept his hands firmly locked over his ears and his eyes squeezed shut.
“I’m
in my safe place…”
Biting back a yawn, Jason shifted his attention away from the man having some sort
of meltdown to his lovely wife, who was currently trying to fight her way past a group
of his cousins and uncles in an attempt to kick his ass.
“I’m only going to hurt him a little,” she said, desperately trying to push past his
Uncle Ethan before adding, “I promise!”
Deciding that she just needed a few minutes to come to terms with the overwhelming
sense of joy that she was obviously struggling to accept, he returned his attention to
the display of brochures by the door. There were quite a few places that would be ideal
for a honeymoon, bed and breakfasts, romantic inns, nature walks, cottages on the
beach, resorts, but none of them were good enough for his wife.
“Don’t do it,” his father said, stepping up next to him to stare down at the brochure
display.
“Do what?” he absently asked as he picked up a brochure on cave exploration.
“You know what,” his father said, reaching over to tap a brochure back in place.
“You’ll regret it,” his Uncle Ethan said, joining them.
“You really will,” his Uncle Seth said as he walked over and leaned a shoulder against
the wall, “trust me.”
“The curse is bullshit,” Jason pointed out as he returned the brochures on caves and
picked one up for an outlet shopping mall.
“Really?” his father drawled, sounding amused, “Then what would you call the fucked
up time that your mother and I had on our honeymoon?”
“Bad luck,” he said, wondering if Haley would be interested in getting matching
tattoos this week before quickly dismissing it, knowing her well enough to know that
she’d probably get that bastard Derek Jeter’s name tattooed on her ass. Since that
just wasn’t going to work for him, he moved on.
“So every Bradford that ever attempted to take his wife on a honeymoon within the
first year of marriage in the last two hundred years and barely made it out alive was
just having bad luck?” Uncle Ethan asked, sounding more amused than insulted.
“Yes,” he said with absolutely no hesitation, because if there was one thing that he
knew, it was when someone in his family was trying to bullshit him.
Uncle Seth pursed his lips up thoughtfully as he considered that. “Is that what you
really think?”
“Absolutely,” he said with a heavy sigh as he moved onto a brochure pushing the
wonders of bird watching.
“Don’t do this, Jason,” his father said softly.
“She deserves a honeymoon,” he simply said, dismissing the idea of being trapped in a
plastic tent with ten thousand butterflies and grabbing a brochure for mineral hunting
instead.
“Then give her one, but not yet. Wait until after your first anniversary and take her
somewhere special,” his father whispered urgently. “The moment that you announce
to her that you’re taking her on a honeymoon all hell will break loose, things will get
fucked up quickly and you’ll be lucky to make it out of this thing alive.”
“What do you expect me to do now? Take her home, get up early in the morning and
go to work like nothing’s changed?” he asked, wondering why his father was trying to
lay this bullshit on him.
“Yes,” his father said with absolutely no hesitation.
“I can’t do that,” he said, shaking his head as he frowned down at the selection of
brochures in front of him.
“Why not?”
Shifting his gaze to the colorful brochure at the bottom of the rack, he murmured,
“Because my sweet, beautiful, adoring wife deserves a honeymoon where she can
express her undying love and gratitude to me for making her the happiest woman on
earth.”
“I’ll put the chair down if you promise to hold him down for me so that I can beat the
shit out of him!” he heard his adoring wife promise the men in his family struggling to
stop her from killing him. “I really don’t think that’s too much to ask!”
God, he loved her, he thought with a smile as he picked up the promising brochure.
“What if I offered to bake you a pan of brownies?” Haley asked, sounding thoughtful
seconds before he suddenly found himself tackled to the floor and about a dozen large
hands scrambling to hold him down while the woman that he loved more than
anything attempted to teach him a lesson that had him laughing his ass off until she
gave up and stormed off in a huff, blaming all the large bastards holding him down for
the ineffectual beating and promising that one day soon, she’d get him for this.
Since he knew that she was secretly pleased that he’d given her the honor of becoming
his wife and allowing her the opportunity to love and adore him for the rest of her life,
he decided to overlook her promises to pulverize his body with her mighty fists of fury
the next time he slept and focused his attention on the brochure that had landed a few
feet away thanks to his wife’s vicious attack and grinned.
He’d finally found the perfect honeymoon for his sweet Haley.
Chapter 3
“You can’t still be mad.”
“And yet I am,” Haley said, toeing off her shoes as she pulled her shirt off and
dropped it on the floor only to pick it up seconds later and toss it onto the back of the
chair in the corner with a pathetic little whimper that let him know just how tired his
new wife really was.
“Would it help if I said that I’m sorry?” Jason asked, pulling his shirt off and
tossing it on the chair as well.
“Probably not since I know that you’d be lying,” she said, sighing heavily even as
she was clearly trying to bite back a pleased smile.
“You can’t stay mad at me forever, my little grasshopper,” Jason pointed out,
struggling to bite back a yawn as he stepped out of his boxers and tossed them aside.
“You just keep telling yourself that,” Haley mumbled as she started to remove
her bra and panties only to give up after a few seconds and crawl in bed, looking
exhausted.
“I missed this,” he said, climbing in behind her. He wrapped his arm around her
and pulled her closer until they were spooning. “I missed you,” he murmured, pressing
a kiss against her shoulder, savoring her scent and the feel of her body against his.
She released a little sigh of pleasure as she pushed back, snuggling closer to him
as he closed his eyes, happy to finally have her back in his arms. Within seconds, he
felt her start to relax in his arms.
“Are you tired?” Jason asked, biting back a smile as he kissed her shoulder.
“What?” she muttered sleepily.
He chuckled as he pressed another kiss to her shoulder. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Sleepy,” she whined pathetically.
“Go to sleep, baby,” he whispered, chuckling when she released a little frustrated
growl and abruptly turned in his arms to bury her face against his chest.
With a sigh, he pulled back just enough so that he could take her glasses off,
which earned another one of those growls that had him smiling, and placed them
carefully on the hotel room’s side table. As soon as his hand was free, he wrapped his
arm back around his wife and pressed a kiss against the top of her head.
His wife.
Christ, he couldn’t believe that he was actually married. Up until he’d fallen for
Haley he’d honestly never thought that he’d end up love sick like so many of the
bastards in his family, but once he’d kissed her…
He was done for.
He’d wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, the need becoming more
urgent with every passing day until he’d thought he’d die if he didn’t make her his.
Then she’d broken his heart, destroyed it completely, leaving him hollow. When he’d
left he’d felt like he was in hell.
He hadn’t been able to sleep, eat or do much of anything except think about her.
Every day had been harder than the last. Most of the time he hadn’t been sure how
he’d find the willpower to keep moving, to keep taking that next breath, but somehow
he had. By the time he’d come back he’d realized something very important, he could
live without Haley.
The problem was that he didn’t want to, but if making her happy meant living in
hell then he’d been prepared to do it. He’d been prepared to sell his house, to find a
new job and move away so that he would never have to see her again so that she could
move on as well. When she’d handcuffed him to the chair last night and he’d been
forced to think about her with another guy, he’d lost it. At that point he’d been willing
to move heaven and hell to have her. That desperation had led him to do whatever it
took to make that happen.
And now she was
his.
Smiling, he leaned back just far enough so that he could gently brush his lips
against hers, not wanting to wake her, but needing to kiss her goodnight. After
brushing his lips against hers one last time, he moved back only to have Haley release
a sexy little moan in her sleep that had him leaning in for another kiss.
This time when he tried to move away, Haley reached up and threaded her
fingers through his hair. She kept him right where he was as she returned his kiss,
slowly at first. It was sweet a kiss, a perfect kiss so he didn’t rush it, didn’t want to.
He continued the kiss, slowly devouring her lips, waiting for the moment when her
lips parted and when they did, he deepened the kiss, taking it slow and pouring every
ounce of love that he felt for her into it.
She moaned softly as she met him stroke for stroke. He raised himself up, never
breaking the kiss and moved over her, holding himself up on one arm as he reached
down between them and placed his hand between her legs. He cupped her, groaning
when he felt her panties becoming wet and gently rubbed his hand over her a few
times before he hooked his fingers in the waist of her panties and pulled them down.
Haley released the hold that she had on his hair. She reached down and helped
him by pushing her panties down until she could kick them off. Still not breaking
their kiss, she sat up, forcing him to sit back so that he could help her with her bra.
As soon as it was off, she was laying back down, her arms around his shoulders,
taking him with her.
He settled himself between her legs. They both moaned loudly when his erection
pressed against her wet slit. He shifted until he was putting all of his weight on his
right arm so that he could reach up with his left hand and cup her breast, gently
squeezing it as he ran his thumb over her nipple. He continued to tease her hard
nipple as he rolled his hips, forcing his cock to lay deeper between her slit until the
underside was pressed up against her swollen clit.
She gasped into his mouth, her nails digging into his back as he pressed down
harder against her, applying as much pressure as he could without hurting her.
“That feels so good,” Haley said with a sexy little groan.
“You like that?” he asked, his voice growing husky as she became wetter, soaking
the underside of his cock and sending a shiver of pleasure through his body.
“I’d like it even more if I was on top,” she whispered against his lips with a smile
that he easily returned as he complied, rolling over onto his back and taking his wife
with him.
As she settled more comfortably on top of him, he continued to gently massage
her breast as his other hand reached up for her neglected breast and gave it the same
attention, working his thumb over her nipple until it was just as hard as the other
one. Haley placed her hand down on the mattress beside his head, shifting her weight
onto one arm while she moved her other hand between them and wrapped it around
his erection. She gave it a brief squeeze that had him gently sucking her tongue in
appreciation before she moved her hand in a smooth stroke up until she was cupping
only the tip in her hand.
“Fuck,” he gasped loudly as she tightened her hold around the tip, her hips
rolling forward, causing his cock to become enveloped between her wet slit.
She smiled against his lips, clearly enjoying the hold she had over him and he let
her have it. He stayed still, fighting the need to put her back against the mattress and
fuck her until she screamed his name and squeezed every last drop from him. If she
had been any other woman, he would have done just that, got what he wanted and
left, but this wasn’t just any woman.
This was his little grasshopper, the love of his life, his soul, his life…..
His wife.
“I love you, Haley,” he said, sliding his hands up her chest so that he could cup
her face in his hands, his thumbs gently caressing her cheeks as he brushed his lips
against hers. “I love you so damn much.”
He felt her smile against his lips, felt her lips tremble as the first tear rolled
down her cheek. He brushed the tear away with his thumb as he kissed her.
“I love you, too,” she whispered back, releasing her hold on him and kissed him
for a minute before she shifted her hips, rolling them forward and then pushing back
until the tip of his erection pressed up against her core.
Slowly, she pushed back, taking him inside her inch by excruciating inch until he
thought he’d die. Finally after what felt like hours, she was fully seated on top of him.
Just when he thought that she’d move and put him out of his misery, she pulled back
just far enough so that she could look at him, her hair falling down around them.
She worried her bottom lip as she squinted down at him.
“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked, running the pad of his thumb over her bottom
lip.
“You know this is forever, don’t you?”
Chuckling, he used his hold on her to pull her down for a kiss.
“It damn well better be.”
Chapter 4
“Are you planning on sharing?”
“No,” she simply said, smiling as she shifted on her stomach so that she could prop
herself back up on her elbows. She made a show of reaching into the bag of peanut
butter cups that Jason had run out to buy for her early this morning when she’d
complained that she was hungry and selected one of the delicious morsels.
“Greedy little thing,” Jason said, chuckling approvingly as he dropped his towel and
crawled onto the bed so that he was lying on his stomach next to her.
“I learned from the best,” she teased, unwrapping the peanut butter cup in her hand
and popped it in her mouth.
“What are we watching?” he asked, resting his chin on his folded arms.
“The Goonies,” she said, shifting on the edge of the bed so that she could reach down
and pick up her bottle of orange juice.
“Good movie,” he said, shifting so that he could press a kiss against her bare shoulder.
“Mmmhmmm,” she murmured, licking her lips as a delicious tremor worked its way
down to her toes.
He shifted closer to her, pressing more of those teasing little kisses on her shoulder
and back. “Do you want to go grab something to eat?” he asked, kissing the spot
where her neck and shoulder met, making her bite back a moan.
She glanced at the cable box near the television and sighed. It was a little after ten,
which meant that it was almost time to return to reality. She wished that she could
spend more time with Jason, reacquainting herself with his body and enjoying the fact
that he was all hers now, but unfortunately for them, they had to go to work
tomorrow.
“Do you want to stop at the pizza that place we spotted on the way up here?” she
asked, enjoying one more kiss against her shoulder before she reluctantly climbed off
the bed and headed towards the bathroom.
“Maybe next weekend,” Jason said around what sounded like a mouthful of her peanut
butter cups.
“What’s going on next weekend?” she asked with a frown as she grabbed her clothes,
wondering why they needed to come back this way next weekend.
“We’re going home,” he said, coming up behind her and tossed the empty bag in the
small trashcan beneath the sink.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, grabbing the hotel issued toothbrush and
toothpaste.
He stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back against
him. “Our honeymoon’s not over yet, sweetheart,” he said, turning his head so that he
could kiss the side of her neck.
“Honeymoon?” she asked, biting back a smile until she realized that a honeymoon
wasn’t a possibility, at least not yet.
Getting time off right now was not a possiblity, not when they’d just started the
school year. They might be able to manage to call in sick tomorrow, but they’d just
end up spending most of the day on the road, fighting rush hour traffic to get home. If
they were going to take tomorrow off, she’d rather go home now so that they could
spend all day in bed. That was something at least, she thought with a little sigh as she
turned her head and met Jason’s lips.
“We could plan something for Christmas,” she said, really liking the idea of curling up
with him in front of a roaring fire in a cabin somewhere deep in the woods.
“We’re not putting this off,” he said, brushing his lips against hers.
“We have to go to work tomorrow,” she reminded him as she started to brush her
teeth.
“No, we don’t,” he said, pulling on his boxers.
“If we want to keep our jobs we do,” she grumbled, wishing that she could say the hell
with it and stay in bed with Jason for the next month or two, but they couldn’t.
“We’re on leave until next Monday,” Jason announced with a shrug as he pulled on his
pants.
She froze, mid-brush. “I’m sorry. What’s this now?” she asked, pulling the toothbrush
out of her mouth, sure that she’d misheard him. There was no way that he’d said what
she’d thought she’d heard.
“I called yesterday and arranged for us to get a week off,” he said, taking the
toothbrush from her.
“But it’s the beginning of the year,” she pointed out, almost too afraid to ask how he’d
pulled it off when the front office was notorious for refusing to grant time off unless
there was a death certificate involved.
“I explained it to them that it was in their best interest to let me to take my wife on a
real honeymoon,” he simply said as he rinsed her toothbrush off, put toothpaste on it
and brushed his teeth.
“And they were fine with that?” she asked as she pulled on her panties and bra,
knowing that there had to be more to it than that.
“I didn’t give them a choice,” he said, rinsing the toothbrush off and applying more
toothpaste to it before handing it to her.
“Thanks,” she mumbled absently, taking the toothbrush from him and began brushing
her teeth with a heavy sigh, knowing that if she had been the one to call to ask for
time off that they would have said no and probably asked her to come in an hour early
to handle bus duty.
Damn residual pushover tendencies, she inwardly grumbled with a pout.
*-*-*-*
“Tell me!” Haley cried, practically bouncing in her seat.
“No!” he said, chuckling when she shot him a pout, probably hoping that it would work
on him, but she was forgetting that he was a Bradford and had mastered the pout by
the age of three.
“I hate you,” she muttered, slumping in her seat with her arms folded over her chest
as she glared out her window, pointedly ignoring him and making him shake his head
in amusement.
She was just so damn cute for an amateur.
“Would it make you feel better if I gave you a hint?” he asked, deciding to pass the
time by screwing with her head for his own amusement.
Still glaring off at nothing, she shrugged and said, “Maybe.”
“That’s too bad,” he said, chuckling when she turned to glare at him.
“Bastard,” she muttered, and with a huff, pointedly looking away once again.
“Are you planning on ignoring me the whole time?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes!”
“And why is that?” he asked, reaching over and turned on the satellite radio to Haley’s
favorite stations, The Highway. Although she enjoyed pretty much every genre of
music with a few exceptions, she seemed to really enjoy modern country music. Before
they’d started dating, he would have cringed from just hearing the words, country
music, but that had quickly changed after the first time she’d commandeered his
radio.
“Because I hate you,” she said with a haughty little sniff that had him smiling.
So. Fucking. Cute.
He reached over and placed his hand on her thigh, loving the way that she shifted
closer even as she continued to mope. As he drove down the busy highway he
contemplated stopping for food to prolong the torture, but after a minute he decided
against it. He couldn’t wait to see her face when she realized where he was taking her
for their honeymoon.
It was going to be perfect, absolutely fucking perfect, he thought, knowing without a
doubt that he was about to prove his family’s bullshit theory on honeymoons was just
that, bullshit.
Chapter 5
“Let me go!”
“No,” Jason said, chuckling while he kept his arm wrapped tightly around her waist as
she struggled to free herself.
“Please!” she begged, trying to shove his hands away so that she could make a run for
it, but the large bastard that was supposed to love and adore her refused to let her go.
“After we check in,” he promised with a chuckle as he leaned down and kissed the top
of her head.
With an over-the-top sigh, because she knew fighting him right now would be
pointless, mostly because he’d stolen her wallet to keep her from running off, she gave
up. “Fine,” she said with another heavy sigh as she walked back to the front desk
where the attractive brunette who’d been eying Jason since they’d walked in was
waiting to finish checking them in.
“I’m sorry about that,” Jason said with the same charming smile that he usually used
on her to get her to make him pancakes late at night when all she wanted to do was
curl up on the couch with him and watch mindless reality television.
“It’s no problem,” the brunette said, giving him a flirtatious smile as she typed away
on her keyboard. “What was the name on the reservation?”
“Bradford,” Jason said, pulling out his wallet.
“Thank you,” the brunette murmured with an appreciative smile as she accepted
Jason’s driver’s license.
“You’re welcome,” Jason said absently as he reached back and returned his wallet to
his back pocket just as Haley decided to try her hand at pickpocketing.
Glancing around the large lobby to make sure that no one was watching, she shifted
closer to Jason. When he smiled down at her, she returned the smile, making sure to
look appropriately innocent. His smile turned into a slight frown as his eyes narrowed
suspiciously on her.
“What’s-”
“Mr. Bradford, I have the king suite with whirlpool tub with the park view ready for
you,” the brunette said with another smile that managed to drag Jason’s attention
away from her attempts at thievery.
“No, I’m sorry. There seems to be a mistake. I reserved a room with a queen bed,” he
explained as Haley shifted a little bit closer to him.
“Let me see what I can find out,” the brunette said, typing once again as Haley
glanced around the lobby one more time to make sure that no one was watching. After
one last glance to find Jason frowning at the desk clerk, she shifted closer and-
“Please tell me that you’re not seriously trying to pick my pocket,” Jason said, sighing
heavily as he reached back and helped pull her hand free where it may have become
stuck when she reached inside his pocket and tried to steal his wallet.
“No, of course not,” she said with a smile that she hoped was convincing, but judging
by the way his lips twitched with amusement he probably wasn’t buying it.
“Sad, just sad,” he said with a chuckle as he leaned down and quickly brushed his lips
against hers. “Be patient, my little grasshopper.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” she grumbled, knowing that she was pouting and not
really caring, not when he was keeping her from a carnival lover’s dream come true.
“Your reservation was upgraded by your Grandmother last night,” the front desk clerk
announced, drawing Jason’s attention away from Haley’s pickpocketing ways.
“What?” Jason asked, looking stunned.
“Typical,” Haley mumbled with a bemused shake of her head.
“Mrs. Blaine called last night and requested that your room be upgraded to a suite,”
the clerk explained as Haley once again discretely reached over to-
“God, this is just getting sadder and sadder by the minute,” Jason said, sighing
heavily as he took her hand into his and entwined their fingers before he returned his
attention to the clerk. “How much is the suite?” he asked, reaching up with his free
hand and rubbed the back of his neck as he waited for the blow.
“Four hundred and fifty-nine dollars a night for seven nights. That with taxes and
room fees brings the total to just under thirty-five hundred dollars,” she announced
with a polite smile as Jason made a choking noise that she’d made a time or two over
the years thanks to her Grandmother.
“Thirty-five hundred dollars?” Jason repeated, looking a little ill.
“Yes,” came the answer with a blinding smile.
“Shit,” Jason whispered softly, so softly that she almost missed it, but she didn’t miss
the way that he released her hand and reached back for his wallet or the fact that he
pulled out his credit card, willing to put himself in debt to give her the perfect
honeymoon.
“Is the room that my husband originally reserved still available?” Haley asked,
deciding to ignore the stunned expression on the desk clerk’s face when she said
husband since she was pretty sure that she’d be seeing that expression a lot and
probably should get used to it.
“Haley, it’s fine,” Jason said, handing over the credit card to the woman, who
appeared even more confused by the gesture than the fact that Jason had married
someone like Haley.
“The suite is already paid for,” the desk clerk said with a bemused frown.
“By who?” Jason asked with a frown as Haley sighed, wondering when Grandma
would learn.
“Mrs. Blaine paid for the room as well as provided a credit to cover room service and
incidentals.”
“What are you talking about?” Jason asked, looking even more confused, which meant
that when he’d called Grandma last night to give her a status report that he’d never
expected Grandma to swoop in and take over.
Poor man….he’d learn.
“That woman is sneaky,” Haley muttered with a sigh as she gestured for Jason to put
his credit card away, because she knew that her grandmother had found a way around
her rules.
Again.
“I’m paying her back,” Jason bit out through clenched teeth, not sounding all that
happy about this, which only made her love him more.
Most of the guys that she knew would have simply smiled as they put their wallet
back, more than happy to have her Grandmother pay their way, but not Jason. Nope,
definitely not Jason, she decided absently as she took in the furious expression on his
face. She was also glad that Grandma wasn’t here at the moment, because she was
pretty sure that cane of hers wouldn’t protect her from Jason.
“There’s a note on the reservation, Mr. Bradford. Mrs. Blaine said that this is her
wedding gift to you and if either one of you so much as complains then she’s going to
beat you senseless with her cane,” the desk clerk read aloud with a pleasant smile
that had Jason sighing in defeat.
“Fine,” he said, not sounding particularly happy about it.
“There’s also a note here about your luggage,” she added, making them both frown.
“We don’t have any luggage,” Jason pointed out as he returned his credit card to his
wallet.
“Your luggage was delivered to your room this morning compliments of Mrs. Blaine. I
believe she had her assistant pack your bags and had them delivered shorty after your
grandmother changed your reservations,” the clerk explained, placing two keycards on
the counter in front of them. “Is there anything else that I can help you with?”
“No, we’re fine,” Jason said, looking a little lost as he picked up the keycards and
shoved them in his pocket.
“Good,” Haley said with a firm nod as she gestured towards the front door. “Now we
can move onto more important matters.”
With that, she moved to take a step towards the front door only to find herself scooped
up in Jason’s arms.
“Oh, come on!” she said, trying to get out of his arms, but the big bastard refused to
let her go.
“We’re going upstairs,” he stated calmly as he carried her across the foyer to the
elevators.
“We can go upstairs later,” she pointed out as she continued to struggle to get free.
“No, we’re doing this right,” he said firmly as he pressed the call button for the
seventh floor.
“Going there is the right thing to do!” she explained, wondering why he was fighting
her on this.
“No.”
“But-”
“No!”
“But, they’re going to close in a few hours!” she desperately pointed out as she tried to
crawl over his shoulder just as he stepped into the elevator.
“They’ll be open tomorrow,” he calmly explained as the elevator doors closed slowly
behind them.
“But there’s still several hours of fun left in the day!”
“I said no, woman!” he said, adjusting her so that she was thrown over his shoulder
and unable to dive to freedom.
“But-”
“I said no! So stop trying to ruin my fucking special night!” he snapped with typical
Bradford drama.
Rolling her eyes, because she knew there was no use wasting her breath trying to talk
sense into her irrational husband, she slumped over his shoulder and relaxed, waiting
for the perfect moment to escape his clutches.
Chapter 6
“Are you hungry?”
There was a slight pause before Haley whispered, “No.”
“Do you want to take a bath?” he asked, gesturing towards the whirlpool tub in the
corner of the large suite that was theirs for the next week.
She sighed, long and heavy as she continued to stand there, with her face pressed
against the window along with her hands as she stared off towards the bright lights
that marked the large Ferris wheel spinning in the distance. “No,” she mumbled,
making his lips twitch.
“We can go tomorrow,” he reminded her as he walked around the large suite, absently
noting the prices on the mini bar stocked with liquor and overpriced nuts.
“I know.”
“Do you want to watch a movie?” he asked, absently gesturing towards the large flat
screen television mounted on the wall.
“No,” she sighed softly as she continued to stand there, staring at the colorful lights.
“What do you want to do?” he asked, smiling when any other man would probably be
pissed that his new wife was more interested in pressing her cute little nose against a
window, staring off longingly at a theme park instead of spending time with him.
“Nothin’,” she said with another one of those sighs that had him chuckling as he shook
his head, giving up. This was why he loved this woman after all….
She was like no other woman that he’d ever known and she was
his.
“Why don’t we go for a walk and I’ll let you buy me some fried dough,” he suggested,
grabbing one of the keycards off the bureau and headed for the door, deciding that
there was no better time like the present to prove that his father’s theory was typical
Bradford bullshit passed down from generation to generation with the sole purpose of
fucking with each other’s heads.
“Okay!” Haley said excitedly as she ran past him, grabbed the door and threw it open.
Resigning himself to a long night of chasing after his wife, he followed after her,
closing the door behind him and wondering if Haley was going to end up being the
first Bradford wife in the history of his family to earn a ban.
*-*-*-*
“Haley-”
“No!”
“Haley, let go!” Jason said, clearly struggling not to laugh as she fought for her rights
as a vertically challenged person.
“I’m tall enough!” she argued, tightening her hold on the barrier that stood between
her and the ultimate rollercoaster ride.
“Sweetheart,” Jason said, adjusting his grip on her as the ride attendant shifted
nervously even as he gestured for the rest of the line to move through the gate,
“you’re half an inch too short for this ride.”
“I was slouching!”
“All ten times that you demanded a re-measure?” he asked with a mocking tone that
she really didn’t appreciate, not right now when she was being discriminated against.
“I’m tall, damnit!” she snapped as she tightened her grip on the barrier.
“Sure you are,” Jason said, readjusting his hold on her.
“I’m going on that ride!” she bit out, more determined than ever to-
“Oh, come on!” she snapped when Jason finally managed to pull her off the barrier
and carry her away from the ride that she’d waited forty-seven minutes in line to go
on.
“There’s no line for the Ferris wheel,” he calmly pointed out while she struggled to
free herself and go claim her rightful spot in the front of the line for the ride that
pretty much guaranteed that she wouldn’t be able to eat another bite tonight without
praying for death.
“I don’t want to go on the Ferris wheel,” she said with a sniff and a pout.
“Do you want another caramel apple?” he asked, placing her on her feet, apparently
believing that he could catch her if she decided to make another run for it.
“No, no I do not wish for another caramel apple, sir,” she said, pointedly looking away
from the man that had already betrayed their wedding vows even as she allowed him
to hold her hand.
“Would you like to play some of the games?” he asked, using her weakness against
her.
She nibbled on her bottom lip as she looked around, noting all the games surrounding
them, boasting large prizes that she could definitely see herself snuggling, and
nodded. “We could do that.”
*-*-*-*
“I’m so tired,” Haley mumbled with a slight whimper as she climbed on the big bed,
kicking her shoes off as she went.
“Me too,” he said, dropping all the loot that he’d won for her on the floor by their
suitcases.
“That was so much fun,” she said with a sleepy smile as she curled up on her side and
closed her eyes.
“I’m glad that you had fun,” he said, pleased beyond words that he’d been able to give
Haley the perfect day.
“I can’t wait for tomorrow,” she said, her sleepy little smile turning impish, letting
him know that she was still determined to get on that damn rollercoaster. Not that
he’d expected her to give up.
He hadn’t.
Besides, he knew how to keep her distracted, he thought as he grabbed his car keys.
“I’m going to run to the store. Do you need anything?”
She shook her head as she snuggled her pillow. “I’m good.”
“I’ll be back soon,” he said, watching her for a moment, still unable to believe his good
luck.
“Mmmkay,” she muttered, looking as though she was ready to fall into a coma.
Somehow resisting the urge to go over to the bed and take her in his arms, he opened
the door and forced himself to walk away with the reminder that she’d be there
waiting for him when he returned.
*-*-*-*
She counted to twenty before she opened her eyes, squinted as she reached over and
grabbed her glasses. Once she had them on she stared at the door for another minute,
making sure that he wasn’t coming back before she jumped out of bed and rushed over
to the large window. Careful to remain hidden behind the thick beige curtain, she
peeked out the window and watched as Jason walked over to his truck and climbed in.
She watched him for another minute, making sure that he was actually leaving before
she released the curtain and hurried over to the bag that her grandmother had packed
for her. Biting her lip, she searched through her clothes, shoving aside pants, shirts
and panties until she found what she was looking for.
She pulled the gift box out, the one she’d bought months ago but could never find the
courage to wear and set it aside before she returned her attention to her suitcase and
pulled out a heavy bag. Once that was done, she grabbed her body wash, makeup,
lotion, perfume and the box and headed for the bathroom. Ten minutes later she was
shaved, tweezed, pampered and wearing the pink lacy number that she’d bought on a
whim.
Okay, so even now she was nervous about wearing this, but she didn’t have much of a
choice in the matter. It was either wear this or her Yankees panties and tee shirt set
and although Jason loved the Yankees, she doubted that particular set of clothing
would convey the right message tonight. She was determined to have a romantic
night with her husband and she was going to do whatever it took to make it happen,
even wear the pink teddy that looked like it belonged on a Playboy bunny.
Not sure how long he was going to be, she grabbed the bag and quickly set to work,
placing candles around the room, plugging her iPhone into the stereo, setting the
mood with a little music, and started the long process of filling the Jacuzzi tub with
hot water. Standing, she looked around the room to see if she’d missed anything when
she caught sight of herself in the mirror and groaned.
Her glasses were anything but sexy and tonight she definitely wanted to look sexy for
her husband. With an excited smile, she walked over to the bureau, shutting the
lights off along the way to set just the right mood, and placed her glasses on the edge
of the bureau. Excitement cursed through her as she made her way to the bed and-
Tripped over her suitcase.
Chapter 7
“But-”
“No.”
“But, what if we-”
“No,” he said firmly, trying not to smile, knowing that it would just set off another
glaring fit.
“You could carry me on your back,” she rushed to explain before he could cut her off.
“You wouldn’t even know that I was there!”
Sighing, he gently placed the bag of ice on her ankle and sat down on the bed next to
her. “No.”
“But-”
“You can’t leave this bed. The doctor told you that you had to stay off that foot for a
few days,” he reminded her, wondering how he was going to make this up to her. They
had five days left on their honeymoon, three of which Haley was confined to the bed
thanks to a twisted ankle.
A tickle of unease crept up his spine as he looked at her swollen ankle as his father’s
warning to wait a year before he took Haley on a honeymoon replayed in his head,
making him wonder if maybe there was some truth to the curse after all. But, just as
quickly he dismissed the notion. She’d taken her glasses off and tripped. That was all.
It was something that he’d seen her do countless times and something that she would
probably continue doing when they were old and grey.
Perhaps he should look into buying a lock to keep her glasses on her head…
“Look,” she said, leaning over and grabbed the ice pack off her ankle and tossed it
aside so that she could swing her legs over the side of the bed, “my ankle is fine.”
“You don’t say,” he said dryly as he sat back on the bed and waited.
“It feels great,” she said with a huge smile, no doubt hoping that it would be enough to
convince him that she was more than up for a day at the park.
It wasn’t, but he didn’t say anything. He just sat back and waited for it. With a little
triumphant smile, she stood up, took a step, gasped in pain, hopped around a bit as
she mumbled, “Ow, ouch, damn it, ouch!” before she finally returned to the bed,
calmly sat back, put her foot back on the pillow, placed the ice pack on her ankle,
sighed, and asked, “So, do you want to watch a movie?”
Chuckling, he grabbed the remote and handed it over to her.
*-*-*-*
“Haley?”
“Hmmm?” she murmured, struggling to keep her eyes open.
“Are you hungry?” Jason asked as she felt him gently place another ice pack against
her throbbing ankle.
“No,” she mumbled, giving up on opening her eyes and just kept them closed. It was
either that or continue sitting there, bored out of her mind.
Today was probably the most boring day that she’d ever spent on a trip and sadly, she
was including all the trips that she’d been on with her parents, whose idea of the
perfect vacation was polo matches, fashion shows and cosmetic surgery. They’d spent
the last five hours sitting in bed, watching really bad television and eating while she
struggled against the urge to stare out the window at the bright lights calling her
name.
“Do you want me to run out and see if I can find you a book to read?”
She shook her head as she carefully turned on her side away from him, careful not to
dislodge the bag of ice resting against her foot. “I’m fine,” she mumbled, deciding that
sleeping through the next few days was probably the only way that she was going to
survive this.
“I’m sorry about this, sweetheart,” Jason said as he shifted on the bed and curled up
behind her.
“It’s not your fault,” she reminded him as she tried to decide between dreaming about
that rollercoaster ride that she would damn well be going on just as soon as her ankle
was better and all the carnival games that she was going to play…and win.
He sighed heavily as he wrapped his arm around her and carefully pulled her closer.
“I’m going to make this up to you,” he promised as he kissed the back of her head.
“It’s fine,” she said sleepily as she felt herself begin to drift off.
“This trip doesn’t have to be a total waste,” he said a few seconds later as he kissed
her neck.
“Hmmm?”
“Well, I was just thinking,” he said, pausing to gently pulled her shirt to the side so
that he could kiss the top of her bare shoulder, “that there might be a way to salvage
this honeymoon.”
Feeling her lips tug up into a smile, she asked offhandedly, “What did you have in
mind?”
He turned his head and kissed her neck. “This and that,” he said absently against her
neck as he ran the tips of his fingers down her side.
“Would this plan of yours involve leaving this bed?” she asked around a groan as he
moved his hand over her breast and gave it a gentle squeeze as he pressed that large
bulge between his legs against her bottom.
“That’s the beauty of this plan,” he whispered as he gently ground himself against her.
“If we do it right, we won’t have to leave the bed for the next four days.”
*-*-*-*
“Are you done yet?”
“No! Just keep your eyes closed,” he said, trying not to panic, but it was a quickly
losing battle.
Shit!
“Is everything okay?”
He glanced over his shoulder to make sure that Haley was still on the bed and
completely oblivious to just how badly he’d managed to fuck this up. When he spotted
her, lying there still wearing the blindfold he’d made for her and that sexy little
number that she’d been wearing last night when he’d found her hopping around the
hotel room and cursing her bag, he nearly sighed with relief.
“Everything’s fine,” he said soothingly as he returned his attention back to the Jacuzzi
tub only to release another string of curses when he realized that the bubbles were
now pouring over the top of the tub and onto the white marble tile floor below.
Shit!
Everything was fine. This was not the fucking curse, but just bad luck. They were just
having a bit of bad luck that was all,
he silently chanted to himself as he reached over
and once again fumbled with the controllers for the jets, but he couldn’t figure out
how to shut the damn things off. Not knowing what else to do, he reached over and
turned the water off, but that didn’t seem to help.
Shit!
Desperate to fix this before it ruined everything, he reached over the candles he’d
placed around the tub and grabbed the stack of folded towels housekeeping had left for
them. He tossed them on the floor to soak up the mess, which probably would have
helped if he hadn’t knocked several of the candles down in the process.
It probably also wouldn’t have hurt if he’d known that bubbles from the bubble bath
solution were flammable under the right circumstances, something he was thinking
about four hours later as he stood in the crowded parking lot, staring down at the
waterlogged, burnt remains of their suitcases that hotel security had dropped at his
feet a few minutes ago along with a polite request that they would perhaps be
comfortable staying somewhere else.
“It was a really sweet gesture,” Haley said as she sat on the hood of his truck, shifting
the blanket wrapped around her so that she could push her glasses back up her soot
covered nose.
He didn’t say anything, because there really was nothing to say.
He simply continued to stand there, staring down at their ruined bags as he waited for
the fire department to search what was left of their hotel room for his car keys so that
he could drive Haley home and put an end to their honeymoon from hell.
Chapter 8
“Oh God, will this nightmare never end?” Jason asked, banging his forehead against
the steering wheel as she sat there, chewing on her bottom lip as she tried to figure
out exactly where they were.
She reached for her phone only remembering too late that it had been a casualty of
the fire. She pushed her glasses back up her nose as she looked around the country
road that the detour signs had pointed them towards, idly wondering what the odds of
running into Big Foot were. As she glanced over her shoulder into the pitch-black
night, she had to admit that they were probably pretty good.
Then again, their chances of running into an ax murderer were probably high as well,
she realized as she discretely reached over and locked her door.
“Can you see if there’s a flashlight in the glove compartment?” he asked, giving her
the distraction that she needed.
“Sure,” she said, pasting a smile on her face that he probably couldn’t see as she
opened the glove compartment and felt her way around until she found what felt like
a flashlight. “Found it!”
“Does it work?”
“Yes!” she said, smiling as a beam of light suddenly cut through the dreary night only
to groan seconds later when the light flickered out, once again leaving them in
complete darkness. “Oh.”
“Shit,” he muttered with a sigh, making her wish that she could see his expression,
because she had a really bad feeling where this was heading.
“I’m going to go find a gas station or something and call for a pickup truck,
sweetheart. Stay here and lock the doors,” he announced, confirming her suspicions.
Yeah, that wasn’t happening.
As soon as she heard the telltale sounds of his car door opening, she was out of her
seat and scrambling after him, uncaring that she was only wearing a soot-stained
nightie and a blanket. Before he could shut his door, she was jumping out of the car
and-
“Ouch!” she gasped, hopping around on her good foot as she blindly reached out,
looking for something to grab onto, only to realize that somehow during the last thirty
seconds she’d managed to move away from the truck and her husband and was now
hopping around blindly in the mud without the security of her blanket.
“Haley?”
“I’m fine!” she promised him as she continued to blindly hop around, desperately
searching for something to grab hold of.
“Where are you?”
“Close by?” She hoped at least.
“I see,” he murmured and she really hoped that was the case, because she wasn’t sure
how much longer she could keep this up.
*-*-*-*
“Haley?” he said, squinting into the darkness.
“Over here!” she said in between “Ows” and “Owies.”
Raking his fingers through his hair in frustration, he took a step towards the direction
of the last “Owie,” only to stop and glare into the darkness when the sound of the
“Owie,” shifted to his right. He took a step in that direction only to come to a halt
when the “owies” abruptly changed direction once again.
“Uh, Haley?” he said, coming to a halt as the direction of her “owies” once again
changed. “Think you could stay still for a minute?”
“I’m trying!” she called out, sounding out of breath.
“What are you doing?” he asked, keeping her talking so that he could follow the sound
of her voice.
“Ummm, nothing?” she said with an odd squishing sound accompany her words.
He followed the sounds to his right and then to the left and back again until finally, he
had his arms wrapped around her. He pulled her close and pressed a kiss against her
forehead as he swept her off her feet and-
“Oh, shit!” he managed to get out just as the world fell away beneath his feet.
He managed to tighten his grip around Haley a split second before his feet went out
from under him. He hit the ground with a pained grunt, the air rushed out of his
lungs from the impact as he did his best to keep his hold around Haley. A pained
groan burst from his lips as he lay there in the dark, and apparently in a large puddle,
wondering how he’d managed to fuck this up so quickly and so thoroughly.
Granted, this trip had been a spur of the moment kind of thing, but he’d thought he’d
done a damn good job of giving Haley the perfect honeymoon given the circumstances.
Well, perfect for her. Haley was so damn easy going, so easy to please and he’d never
been happier about that than when he’d had to come up with a honeymoon at the last
minute. While most women would have been disappointed with a trip to an
amusement park for their honeymoon, Haley had loved it.
What had started off with a glance at a brochure for New Hampshire had somehow
ended with the two of them sprawled out in the mud at five in the morning in the
middle of nowhere with no fucking clue how to fix this. Their cellphones were fried,
they were wearing the only clothes they had and they didn’t have any blankets, food,
or a fucking clue where they were.
He’d officially just given his wife the most fucked up honeymoon in the history of the
Bradford family, and considering all the horror stories that he’d heard over the years
from his father, uncles and cousins, that was saying a lot. There really was no coming
out of this ahead, he realized, closing his eyes in defeat as he lay there, holding his
half-naked wife in a huge puddle in the middle of the night, wondering where he’d
gone wrong. If he worked for his father every weekend and picked up a few shifts
after work during the week, he should be able to save up enough money to take her on
a honeymoon that she would never forget.
Not that she was likely to forget this one anytime soon, he thought with a groan as
the skies suddenly opened back up, forcing him to get up before they drowned.
Keeping his arms firmly locked around his trembling wife, he carefully stood up and
headed in the direction that he hoped his truck was in because the last thing they
needed tonight was to get lost in the woods during a thunderstorm.
Five minutes and several failed attempts later, he finally managed to find his truck.
Grateful that something was finally going in his favor, he opened the door and
carefully helped his trembling wife inside, who was actually starting to scare him a
bit.
“Haley?” he said as he climbed in after her, trying not to panic when she didn’t
respond. “Baby, are you okay?” he asked, reaching for her only to curse and pull her
back in his arms when he felt her body violently trembling.
“I’m so sorry, Haley,” he mumbled as he ran his hands over her body, desperately
trying to soothe her. “I’m so sorry that I fucked this up. I’m so fucking sorry. I’ll make
this up to you one day, I promise. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go, sweetheart,
and we can forget this ever happened. We can go to Europe, on a cruise, to Mexico, we
can….,” he trailed off when he heard what sounded suspiciously like a snort of
amusement.
“Are you laughing at me?” he demanded, his eyes narrowing in the dark as the
ungrateful woman in his arms started to giggle uncontrollably.
“Yes!” she managed to get out on a gasp as she continued to laugh her adorable little
ass off while he sat there, rightfully seething.
How dare she laugh at him and the wonderful honeymoon that he’d worked his ass off
to give her?
Without another word, he picked up his ungrateful wife and placed her back on her
side before he folded his arms over his chest and pointedly looked away with a sniff,
not caring that she couldn’t see the move. After everything that he’d done to give her
the perfect honeymoon and this was how she repaid him?
“Jason?” his inconsiderate wife said around a snort of amusement.
“Go away.”
“I’m sorry!” she said, and he probably would have believed her if she hadn’t started
laughing again.
“That’s it. I want a divorce,” he said firmly, wondering just how hard it would be to
get their marriage annulled.
“Jason,” she said around a snort of amusement as she reached for him, but he pulled
away and shifted closer to the door, refusing to allow the vicious woman to fill his
head with patronizing apologies and caresses when they both knew that she didn’t
mean any of it.
“I believe we’ve said everything that needs to be said,” he said with a sniff as he once
again pulled away from her touch.
“Jason-”
“Save if for the judge.”
“But-”
“I’ll be damned if I stay in a loveless marriage!”
There was a slight pause before she said, “A loveless marriage,” in a tone that he did
not care for, not at all.
“I think it would be for the best if we didn’t say anything else.”
“I see,” she murmured thoughtfully as he sat there, wondering how he’d missed the
fact that he’d married such a heartless woman when he felt something wet dropped
onto his lap. Frowning, he reached down and picked up the soaked rag.
“What’s this?” he asked, trying to figure out why she was throwing things at him.
“My nightie,” she said, sounding bored as he sat there, letting her words sink in and
when they did, he slowly dropped the expensive wet rag on the floor of his truck with
a murmured, “So, you’re naked?”
“Completely.”
“The panties?” he asked, reaching back and grabbed a hold of the wet shirt clinging to
his back and slowly dragged it off.
“Drying on your dashboard.”
He toed off his waterlogged shoes as he unsnapped his jeans and shoved the soaked,
uncooperative material off along with his boxers. This time when he felt her reach for
him, he didn’t back away. When he felt her small hand land on his knee, he shifted at
an angle and groaned when he felt her talented lips wrap around the tip of his cock.
Licking his lips, he carefully threaded his fingers through her wet, tangled hair and
somehow resisted the urge to the shift his hips when he felt her mouth slowly slide
down his cock. With his other hand, he ran his hand over her back, making note of the
cool skin covered in goose bumps before he skimmed his hand over her perfectly
rounded ass and found what he was looking for.
“So fucking wet,” he growled approvingly as he slid a finger inside her.
“Do you still want a divorce?” she asked as she pulled her mouth free from his cock.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to talk to you without my lawyer present,” he explained
as he slowly slid his finger out of her only to slide it back in, earning a sexy little
moan that had him arching his hips.
“That’s probably a good idea,” she murmured in agreement as she opened her mouth
so that he could slide inside and lose his fucking mind.
Chapter 9
“Oh God…”
Breaths coming faster, she moved her mouth down the large, thick erection sliding
between her lips. She loved doing this for him, loved the feel of him sliding in her
mouth, the noises that he made as he started to lose control, but more than anything,
she loved it when he finally lost control.
“Baby, stop,” he pleaded even as he continued to roll his hips, sliding his cock inside
her mouth.
She gladly took it as she reached between his legs and gently cupped his balls in her
hand. She ran her hand over the cool silk skin, gently squeezing them as she allowed
her teeth to graze the underside of his cock, earning a loud pained groan that told her
everything that she needed to know.
He wasn’t going to last very much longer, which made this the perfect time to settle
something.
“You still want a divorce?” she asked, pulling out of reach so that the next time that
large cock glided towards her, she could trace the underside with her tongue.
“I believe we’ve already discussed this,” he said, sliding a second finger inside her.
“You know that I love you, right?” she whispered as she spread her legs a little wider
and pushed back against his hand as she kissed the tip of his cock.
“Yes,” he hissed in pleasure as she teased the thick, sensitive head with her tongue.
“Do you love me?” she asked on a gasp as she pushed back against his fingers.
“More than anything,” he promised and since all she cared about was him knowing
just how much she loved him, she returned her attention to the large erection
straining to get to her.
She took the large head back into her mouth and slowly sucked on it as she gave his
balls one last gentle squeeze. The sexy growl he released had her eyes flickering shut
in pleasure while she pushed back against his hand, faster and harder until she was
riding his hand, gasping and moaning as she greedily took him in her mouth.
“Oh, fuck,” Jason groaned, thrusting his fingers in her harder. “Baby, I’m not going to
last if you keep-”
“What the hell are you doing blocking my driveway?”
*-*-*-*
“Does your wife want to go warm up in the house?” Ed, the retired mechanic who
owned the house and woods that they were currently parked in front of, asked not
bothering to look up from the bolt that he was currently tightening.
Shifting his attention away from what Ed was doing to his engine, Jason looked
around the popped hood of his truck to find Haley, still curled up in the fetal position
lying across his bench seat. Sighing heavily, he shook his head. “No, I think she’s
good,” he said even as he had to wonder if she was ever going to be able to look him in
the eye again.
Then again, she had been caught giving him a blowjob by a seventy-year-old man
wielding a flashlight and a baseball bat, he reminded himself as he focused his
attention back to what Ed was doing. She’d probably never get over this, he realized,
sending a silent apology to his poor cock.
“She’ll get over it,” Ed said with a knowing smile and a chuckle as he released the
latch and let the hood drop shut. “Just give her some time.”
Jason chuckled as he picked up the large toolbox for Ed. “I could give her the rest of
our lives and there’s no way in hell that she’s ever going to be able to forget this trip.”
“That bad, huh?” Ed asked, taking the toolbox from Jason and tossed it in the back of
his truck.
“It’s definitely one for the record books,” Jason said, rubbing the back of his neck as he
slowly exhaled. “I should have known better.”
Ed cocked a brow in question. “I’m guessing there’s an interesting story behind that
comment.”
“You could say that,” he said absently, regretting not listening to his father and uncles
when they’d tried to warn him against taking Haley for a honeymoon before the year
mark was up, but he’d been so determined to do right by her that he’d simply
shrugged it off as more Bradford bullshit meant to fuck with his head.
“I’m not sure what your plans are now, but if you want to try and salvage this
honeymoon of yours, there’s this little bed and breakfast not too far from here that
just might do the trick,” Ed said with a pointed look towards the truck where Haley
was probably praying for a hole to open up and swallow her whole.
“I don’t think there’s any chance of salvaging this honeymoon,” he finally admitted to
himself, giving up any hope of making this right for the woman who deserved better
and settled on praying that he was able to get her home before anything else could go
wrong.
*-*-*-*
“Do you want me to drive?” she asked, worrying her bottom lip as she watched Jason
struggling not to lose it.
“No.”
“Are you sure?” she asked just as the very angry police office returned with Jason’s
Driver’s license, registration and what appeared to be that speeding ticket that he’d
threatened Jason with when he’d pulled them over.
“Yes,” he bit out as he accepted the items from the police officer intent on sending him
one last glare before he walked away.
Not really sure how to deal with Jason when he was like this, because she’d honestly
never seen him quite like this before, she settled on nodding and pulling the damp,
mud-caked, torn blanket tightly around herself and shifted her attention back to her
window and her earlier thoughts. Maybe she should bake him a cake or ten? she
wondered, already knowing that wouldn’t be enough to fix this.
God, why did she have to take off her glasses? Why couldn’t she have just left them on
and accepted the fact that she wasn’t sexy? She should have just brushed her hair,
threw on a little blush, a little lop gloss and the Yankees panty set and made the best
of it.
Now thanks to her aspirations to become a Victoria Secret model, their honeymoon
was ruined, their luggage was destroyed, they’d spent the night on the side of the road
where they were caught doing…
things, got into one fender bender, managed to get
three speeding tickets, a cracked window, and they were heading home in a truck that
she wasn’t really sure was going to make it. He’d worked so hard to give her the
perfect honeymoon and she’d ruined it.
“I’m sorry, Jason,” she whispered, wondering how she was going to make this up to
him.
When he didn’t say anything, she decided that it was probably for the best. Their
honeymoon was already ruined and there was no sense in adding a fight to make
things worse. Sighing, she drew her knees up to her chest and settled on staring out
the window, counting down the minutes until she could take a hot shower, climb in
bed with Jason and put this whole thing behind them.
“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Jason said right around the time the
familiar weird chuffing and clanking noise started up again. “This cannot be fucking
happening.”
Since she had a pretty good idea what was happening thanks to the incident this
morning, she decided to keep her mouth shut while Jason slammed his fists against
the dashboard.
“Son of a bitch!”
Yeah, definitely a good time to keep her mouth shut, she decided as she pushed her
glasses back up her nose. At least they were only a few blocks away from home, she
thought with a sigh of relief as she adjusted the filthy blanket that she was going to
throw away just as soon as they got home, around her.
Without a word, and to be honest, at this point she wasn’t really expecting him to say
anything to her, he popped the hood and climbed out of the truck, slamming the door
shut behind him and making her wonder if she should walk the short distance home
and make him something to eat.
“Fucking unbelievable!” he shouted, making her sigh as she resigned herself to an
interesting walk home.
Chapter 10
“What the hell are you doing?” he asked, trying to make sense out of what he was
seeing.
“I’m walking home,” she said with a pained groan as she gave up on trying to put her
foot down and settled on hugging the large oak tree in front of the Jacobson’s house
instead.
“I see,” he murmured thoughtfully as he glanced back over his shoulder at his truck,
which was less than ten feet away, and then back at his wife as she struggled to hold
her blanket up while she held onto the tree for dear life.
When she just stood there, trying to…
Well, he had no idea what the hell she was trying to do, he realized as he rubbed his
hands down his face and accepted the loss of his truck. If it had happened any other
day, at any other time, he would have bitched and moaned about it, but he had no
room to complain, not after he’d been warned. They’d told him about the curse when
he was a child, but even to a child their dire warnings had sounded like bullshit.
When his father and a few of his uncles had taken him aside to plead with him to put
off their honeymoon for a year, he’d shrugged it off, not really listening to them, and
told them that he’d take his chances. Now he was paying for it…literally.
Deciding that now wasn’t the best time to think about the damage to the hotel that he
was going to have to pay for, the speeding tickets that were going to clean out his
checking account, the clothes that he was going to have to replace and the new truck
that he was most likely going to have to buy and couldn’t afford, he walked over to his
wife and picked her up.
“Umm, what are you doing?” she asked even as she wrapped her arm around his
shoulders.
“Bringing you home.”
“And you need to run in order to do this?” she asked, tightening her hold on him as she
licked her lips nervously.
“Yes,” he said, praying that he was able to get her home and end this honeymoon
before anything else could go wro-
“My glasses!” Haley cried when her glasses suddenly slipped off her face and fell. She
tried to grab them, but she only managed to hit them, sending them flying.
“Shit!” he snapped, slowing down so that he could-
Crunch.
“Fucking perfect,” he said, dropping his head back as he closed his eyes in defeat,
because honestly, he wasn’t sure how much more he could take.
“I-I don’t think they can be fixed,” Haley whispered softly.
“Can you see them?” he stupidly asked even though he already knew that she couldn’t
see a damn thing without them.
“Well, no, but that crunch didn’t exactly sound promising,” she murmured
thoughtfully as he forced himself to open his eyes and look down.
“Please tell me that you have another pair,” he muttered, feeling his stomach twist in
dread when he spotted the remains of her glasses scattered around his foot.
“I do,” she said, making him sigh with relief, because finally, something was going his
way. That is until she added, “But Grandma had them packed for me.”
“Great,” he said, deciding that it was time to move his ass and get her home so that he
could end this horrible nightmare, he started running again.
“Why are we running exactly?” she asked, grabbing onto his shirt and holding on
tightly as he ran as fast as he dared with her in his arms.
“The curse,” he reluctantly muttered right around the time that he heard that vicious
snarl breaking up the otherwise quiet morning.
*-*-*-*
“Ow!”
“Put me down,” she said, trying to worm her way out of his arms, but the stubborn
jerk refused to stop.
“No,” he bit out with a determined glint in his eyes that was a little disturbing.
“You’re limping,” she pointed out, again. Although, at this point she wasn’t sure that
limping fit anymore, not when it appeared as though he was now dragging his right
leg behind him.
“It’s fine,” he gritted out between a clenched jaw as he continued his excruciatingly
slow pace towards home.
“I can walk,” she argued, pretty sure that she could at least walk better than him at
this point.
“No, I’m taking you home,” he argued, which wasn’t exactly surprising.
Sighing, she shifted in his arms as they slowly turned the corner onto their street.
“Why don’t you put me down so that we can take a look at your leg?”
“I’m fine.”
Biting her bottom lip, she shifted so that she could squint over his shoulder. “I’m not a
hundred percent positive, but I’m pretty sure that you’re leaving behind a trail of
blood.”
“I’m taking you home,” he bit out, somehow managing to sound even more determined
and kind of freaking her out just a bit.
“Jason, that puppy could have really done some dam-”
“It wasn’t a puppy!” he snapped.
“It sounded like a puppy,” she said with a slight shrug.
“It wasn’t a puppy! It was a large, vicious man-eating dog and it could have killed me!”
“Umm, I think the kitten did the most damage,” she felt obligated to point out as they
slowly made their way past the house on the corner.
“It wasn’t a kitten!”
“But that’s what Mrs. Briars called it,” she pointed out helpfully.
There was a slight pause before he said, “She lied. It was fucking huge.”
“And the post office worker who stopped to pull the kitten off your leg and called it the
cutest kitten that he’d ever seen?” she asked, wondering why he had such a problem
accepting the fact that he’d survived a baby animal attack.
“Fucking delusional,” he practically snarled as he tightened his grip around her and
continued to hobble towards home, which brought up an interesting question.
“Umm, Jason?”
“Yeah?”
“Which house are we going to live in?”
After another slight pause he asked, “Is there food in your fridge?”
“It’s packed full,” she said, wondering what that had to do with anything.
“Then your house,” he said, making her lips twitch.
“I see,” she murmured thoughtfully as she laid her head against his chest. “Can I ask
you something?”
“It wasn’t a kitten!” he snapped defensively.
“Not that,” she said, rolling her eyes in exasperation, because really, this was just
getting sad. “I was wondering what you meant about a curse.”
“Oh.”
“Are you going to tell me about it?” she asked, squinting up at his handsome face.
“Are you going to laugh?” he asked after a slight hesitation.
“Of course not!” she said on an outraged gasp, insulted that he thought so little of her.
“I would never laugh at anything you told me.”
“Fine,” he said, sighing heavily before he admitted, “I think we’re cursed.”
Chapter 11
“I’m sorry!”
“We’re not speaking,” he reminded her as he focused on the long walkway in front of
them that would bring this nightmare to an end.
“I thought you were joking!”
“You can tell the judge that when I file for divorce,” he bit out, ignoring the way that
all those damn scratches stung as he forced himself to keep moving. Vicious little
bastards, he thought bitterly, half-thinking about going down to the pound and
adopting a puppy and kitten of his own just so that they could avenge him.
“Are we really back to this again?” she asked in a tone that he didn’t much care for.
“We never left.”
“Fine, then I get all your Yankees memorabilia in the divorce.”
“Fine, then I get to put a sex clause in our divorce settlement,” he said absently even
as he decided to add a cooking clause as well.
“A sex clause?” she asked, still sounding amused and giving him hope that the curse
was almost at an end.
“Mmmhmm, a sex clause,” he said with a firm nod as he stumbled his way up the
narrow walkway.
“And what exactly would be in this clause of yours?”
He paused to blink down at his beautiful wife. “Sex. Was I not clear about that?”
Her lips twitched as she cleared her throat, most likely to stop herself from laughing.
“And, uh, what exactly are the details of this clause?”
“You have to provide me with incredible sex twice in the morning, once after work and
three times at night,” he said, liking this idea the more that he thought about it.
Not that he was ever going to give her a divorce. He wasn’t fucking stupid after all.
She was the best thing that ever happened to him and he was too fucking greedy to
give that up.
“No bi-monthly BJ?” she asked, blinking innocently up at him.
“No,” he said, leaning down so that he could brush his lips against hers. “Those are
daily.”
“And how exactly are we going to fit a daily BJ into your schedule?” she asked in a
teasing whisper as she brushed her lips against his.
“Oh, I’d make the time,” he promised her with a wink as he came to a stop in front of
her house.
He nearly sighed with relief when his eyes locked on that front door. Finally, this
nightmare of a honeymoon was over. “Thank God,” he mumbled, shifting Haley in his
arms as he walked up the two steps that would save them and-
“Do you have the keys?” Haley asked, earning an unwarranted glare as he carefully
shifted her in his arms so that he could reach into his front pocket and-
Shoved his fingers through a large hole in his jeans where his front pocket should be.
“It’s never going to end,” he said on a resigned sigh as he tried to figure out what to do
with Haley while he searched for his keys. He considered placing her down on the
front step, but he didn’t like the idea of leaving her sitting on the front step in nothing
but a dirty, torn blanket.
He considered breaking one of her windows so that he could get in, but with his luck
he’d probably lose his arm in the process so he turned around and slowly headed
towards the backyard.
“So…this curse,” she reminded him as she reached up to push her glasses back up her
nose only to remember with an adorable frown that she wasn’t wearing her glasses
and let her hand drop away seconds later.
Slowly exhaling and wishing that he’d never mentioned it, he carefully carried her
around the house. “It’s not really a curse,” he explained as he tightened his hold
around her and carefully stepped over the white picket fence that marked her
property line.
“Then what is it?” Haley asked, shifting closer to him as he tried to balance all his
weight and hers on his good leg.
“Well,” he said, pausing so that he could pop the pool gate open with elbow, “it appears
that no Bradford can manage to give his wife a honeymoon without something
seriously fucked up happening.”
“I see,” she said quietly, looking thoughtful even as she squinted up at him.
“While most families tell ghost stories around the campfire, my family seems to get a
kick out of tormenting the next generation with dire warnings of things to come,” he
explained with a shrug as he carried her started to carry her over to the lounge chair
where he’d seriously fucked everything up only to think better of it and carry her over
to the pool.
“And what kind of stories would they tell you exactly?” she asked as he carefully knelt
down and placed her on the edge of the pool, moving quickly to grab the blanket out of
the way.
“Put your feet in the water,” he murmured as he guided her injured foot into the cool
water.
Closing her eyes with a pleased little smile, she said, “That feels better. Thank you,
Jason.”
Smiling and feeling better than he had since that smoke alarm at the hotel had gone
off the night before, he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. “You’re
welcome, sweetheart.”
“The stories?” she reminded him with a soft chuckle.
Brushing his lips against hers one last time, he leaned back with a smile simply
because he couldn’t be around her and not smile. Christ, there was just something
about her…
“Right,” he said, shoving his fingers through his hair and realizing that it had been
way too long since he’d had a chance to see his barber. “I’d always thought the stories
were just more bullshit to screw with our heads, but as it turned out they were dead
on,” he admitted on a sigh. “I should have waited a year to bring you on a
honeymoon.”
“Why a year?” she asked with a curious frown as she gently moved her feet through
the water.
“Every Bradford that waited a year to take his bride on a honeymoon has always been
able to give his wife the perfect trip, but every Bradford that took his wife on their
honeymoon before the year mark has always wished that he’d waited.”
“I see,” Haley murmured thoughtfully as she gazed away from him to squint down at
the water as she worried her bottom lip.
“And what exactly do you see?” he asked, reaching over to pluck a leaf out of her
tangled hair.
“Nothing,” she said after a slight pause before adding, “Just that I don’t think that
your family is cursed.”
“Then what would you call the nightmare that we’ve been dealing with?” he asked,
spotting a tiny twig in her hair and decided to pluck that out as well.
“Bad luck,” she said with a careless shrug similar to the one that he’d always used
when someone in his family mentioned one of the stories meant to screw with his
head.
He chuckled. “You call what’s happened over the last few days bad luck?”
“Mmmhmm,” she said unconcerned as she squinted down at the pool where she was
tracing lazy circles in the water with her feet.
“And the rest of my family that suffered similar circumstances?” he asked, curious to
hear how she was going to argue a fact that he was only now starting to accept.
Instead of answering him, she asked, “Were the honeymoons planned or left to the
last minute?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” he asked with a frown.
“Everything. Now, are you going to answer my question?” she asked, shifting her
attention towards him as she gave him another one of those sweet smiles that he
loved.
“No, they weren’t planned.”
“I see,” she murmured, somehow still managing to look thoughtful as she squinted off
in the distance.
“What exactly do you see?” he asked, shifting into a sitting position so that he could
pull off his ruined sneakers and socks and toss them aside, deciding to join Haley and
see if the cool water would help soothe the muscle that he’d pulled when he’d tried to
dodge that vicious attack.
“Well, it sounds to me like it was probably more of a case of poor planning and bad
luck than a curse,” she explained with a shrug.
“Bad planning, huh?” he asked as he yanked his pants up to his calf. Wincing, he
carefully lowered his legs in the pool and nearly groaned with pleasure as the cool
water immediately went to work on his sore muscles.
“Mmhmm,” she murmured absently as she reached up and pulled the blanket loose
from around her chest.
“That’s your explanation for two hundred years worth of fucked up honeymoons?” he
asked as he watched her pull the blanket loose and push it down, making him lick his
lips hungrily. Even though he knew that none of the other neighbors had a clear view
of their backyards, he still looked to make that no one else could see his beautiful wife
strip naked.
“Well,” Haley began, dragging his attention back to her as she pushed the blanket off
her lap and carefully lowered herself in the pool, “if they’re anything like you, and I’m
guessing that they are, then they probably went a little overboard trying to give their
wives the perfect honeymoon and ended up taking on more than they could handle.”
“That’s it?” he asked, pulling off his shirt and tossed it aside.
“That’s it,” she easily agreed with a pleased smile as she lay back in the water and
closed her eyes, sighing with pleasure.
“And the ones that waited a year before they went on their honeymoons and ended up
having a great experience?” he asked as he pulled his legs out of the water and
snapped open his jeans.
“Their wives probably planned those trips,” she replied with a mischievous smile that
had him chuckling and shoving his pants off along with his boxers.
“Is that what you think?” he asked with a grin as he tossed his clothes aside and
joined her in the pool.
“Mmmhmmm, that’s what I think,” she said, sighing with pleasure as he wrapped his
arms around her and pulled her closer.
“And what would you have done differently?” he asked, licking his lips as she opened
her eyes so that she could wrap her arms and legs around him.
“Absolutely nothing.”
Chapter 12
“Nothing, huh?” Jason asked, sounding amused as he leaned in and kissed her.
“Nothing,” she agreed with a moan of pleasure as he slid one hand down her back and
cupped her bottom, pulling her closer to the large erection straining to get to her until
it was pressing against her stomach.
“Then how,” he paused so that he could slowly kiss his way down to her throat to find
that sensitive spot that he knew drove her crazy, “would a year have made a
difference?”
“Because I would have packed my own bag,” she announced with a sigh of pleasure as
his early morning whiskers teased her neck.
“And that would have changed the course of history?” he asked huskily as the hand on
her bottom shifted to the side and-
“Oh, God,”she groaned as he slipped a finger inside her.
“What would you have done differently?” he asked calmly as though he wasn’t
currently sliding his finger deep inside her at a rhythm guaranteed to have her
screaming his name and begging for more in a matter of minutes.
“I-I would have,” she paused to lick her suddenly dry lips as her eyes slid shut and her
head fell back as a moan worked its way free, “I never would have packed that
nightgown.”
He chuckled against her skin as he began moving them through the water while his
finger continued sliding inside her, teasing her and making her desperate for more.
“And that would have made all the difference, huh?” he asked as he raised her out of
the water and carefully set her down on the edge of the pool, allowing his finger one
last skillful thrust before he pulled his hand away.
“I never would have tripped over the bag, leaving you to come up with new and
interesting ways to entertain me while I was laid up in bed, unable to partake in the
best honeymoon any man could have given me, which forced you to come up with
another quick plan to salvage our honeymoon.”
“I hate to burst your bubble, sweetheart,” he said, placing his hands on her knees and
slid his hands down her thighs, gently pushing them apart so that he could stand
between them, “but whether you packed that nightie or not, I was still planning a
romantic night for the two of us. So, as you can see,” he said, pausing long enough so
that he could duck his head and flick her nipple with his tongue, “nothing you could
have done differently would have made a difference. I would have still gone through
with my plans, which would have ended with the fire, being asked to leave, getting
lost in the middle of nowhere and that vicious animal attack.”
“We never would have been stuck in that room if I hadn’t tripped over my own bag,
which of course meant the fire never would have destroyed our luggage, and we never
would have been forced to end our honeymoon or deal with everything that’s happened
since. Like I said, Jason, it was just poor planning,” she said, finishing her explanation
with a shrug while she placed her hands back on the warm pavement, dropped her
head back and settled in to hear the asinine argument that Jason was no doubt about
to give her in defense of his curse theory.
“Just bad planning, huh?” Jason murmured thoughtfully as she lay there, enjoying the
sun for probably the last time before the weather turned sour and days like these
were nothing more than a distant memory.
“Mmmmhmmm, poor planning,” she murmured, soaking up the sun.
“So, no matter what happened the last few days, it was just poor planning?” he asked,
sounding thoughtful as she tried to push the past few days out of her head and focus
on what remained, five uninterrupted days with Jason, a few more days of good
weather and no real reason to leave their bed if they didn’t want to.
She couldn’t think of a better way to end their honeymoon than spending the rest of it
with Jason, sleeping in until noon, making love by the pool and ending their nights,
naked, sated and knowing this was only the beginning.
“So, this honeymoon wasn’t a complete disaster then?” he asked, wrapping his arms
around her and pulled her back into the water where she immediately wrapped her
arms and legs around him and leaned in for a kiss.
“It’s perfect,” she assured him with a kiss that told him exactly what she had in mind
for the rest of the afternoon.
“And this curse?” he asked sounding oddly amused as he leaned back from her kiss
and turned them around.
“Is nothing more than a few old wives tales overplayed to scare future generations,”
she said firmly, wondering what it would take for him to see that this whole thing had
just been a series of bad mistakes, nothing more. Perhaps another bowl of
buttercream frosting would do the trick, she thought with a smile as she leaned in to
kiss her husband when she realized something very important.
They weren’t alone.
Swallowing past that suddenly large lump in her throat, she tightened her hold
around Jason, for some reason hoping that the move would make this easier, and
squinted over his shoulder at several khaki, pink and tan blobs.
“What exactly am I seeing?” she whispered as she squeezed her eyes shut tightly and
ducked as far as the water and Jason’s large body would allow without the risk of
drowning.
“Oh, you mean the group of people standing by the pool, openly staring at us?” he
asked in an offhand tone that was really going to earn him an appointment with her
fists of fury later.
“Yes!” she seethed with embarrassment. “Them! What are they doing?”
“Well,” he began with a bored sigh as he looked over his shoulder, “it appears that one
of them is trying to take pictures with his cellphone without his wife knowing about
it.”
“David!” came the horrified gasp, confirming Jason’s suspicions and making her bury
her face against his chest.
“And the rest?” she hated to ask, but she had to know.
“Appears that our real estate lady was wasting no time in showing both properties so
that I could buy you that old house on Oak to fix up while I tried to save up enough
money to build you your dream home.”
“Oh, I see,” she said, unable to stop the pleased smile that teased her lips or kiss his
chest to show him how much she loved him. He really was the sweetest man alive, she
decided even as she continued to use his large body as a shield from the onlookers who
for some reason were still standing there, staring at them.
“As for the rest of them, I can only guess that one of them was probably called to tow
the truck away, the police officer is probably here to fine us for abandoning the truck
by the side of the road, a few of the of the neighbors who didn’t feel like waiting on the
sidewalk decided to come get a closer look, a pizza delivery guy apparently decided to
follow the crowd, and your grandmother is sitting in her wheelchair, thrusting her
cane in the officer’s face who’d apparently made the mistake of making eye contact
with her.”
“Oh, I see,” she mumbled weakly, wondering what the odds were of her swimming to
the other side of the pool and jumping out and making a mad dash across the deck to
the safety of the double patio doors without being seen were.
Definitely not good, at least not unless by some miracle a pair of glasses were to
miraculously float past her, providing her with the ability to escape what was quickly
becoming one of the most mortifying moments in her life without making it worse by
running face first into a wall or something. Well, at least she could safely hide behind
Jason until everyone got bored and moved on, she decided because she refused to
acknowledge this little incident and give Jason’s asinine theory about this being some
sort of-
“Young lady, what the hell are you doing in that pool with him?” the terrifyingly
familiar voice demanded, adding just enough acid to his tone at the end there that
there was no mistaking who the speaker was or what he was really angry about.
“Please tell me that my father isn’t here,” she whispered with dread as she let her legs
fall free from Jason’s hips.
“I’m afraid that I can’t do that, my little grasshopper,” Jason said, softening his words
with a kiss to her temple.
“Then what can you tell me?” she asked with a pathetic whimper even as she shifted
to the side so that she could squint in the direction where she felt the murderous glare
concentrated on her.
“That your entire family finally showed up for a visit.”
Chapter13
“Do you want me to handle this?” his father asked from where he sat next to him on
the front stoop.
“You are not staying married to him!”they heard Haley’s father shout in response to
something Grandma said.
“No,” Jason said with a slight shake of his head as he grabbed the shirt his father held
out to him and quickly pulled it on. “I’ll handle this.”
“If it makes you feel any better, this curse is almost finished with you,” his father
said, giving him a reassuring smile as Jason stood up and straightened his clothes as
he did his best to ignore the audience that refused to leave.
“There’s no curse, Dad,” he explained before adding, “Besides, if there was one, it
would have ended the moment that I got Haley home.”
“That would have only prolonged the curse, son.”
“And you know this how?” Jason asked, seriously tempted to turn the hose on their
unwanted audience.
His father chuckled weakly as he rubbed his hands roughly down his face. “Just trust
me on this one. The curse won’t end until you put an end to this nightmare.”
“And how exactly am I supposed to do that?”
“How dare you embarrass your father by marrying the help!” Mrs. Blaine shouted,
adding her thoughts to the matter that up until now Jason had agreed to let Haley
handle.
“Claim your bride, son,” his father said, getting to his feet, “Claim your bride.”
“You’d do anything for attention, Haley! Anything!” one of his lovely sister-in-laws
cried as Jason let his father’s words sink in.
“I can’t believe you wrecked our vacation for this!”
“You’re so selfish, Haley!”
“You never think about anyone besides yourself!”
“Where are you going, Jason?” his father asked as he opened the door and headed
inside.
“To claim my wife,” he said, letting the door slam shut behind him. Other than pause
long enough to shoot him looks with varying degrees of disgust, her family continued
to scream at Haley, trying to talk some sense into her.
“What the hell is wrong with you marrying someone like him?” one of her sisters
demanded as she gestured towards him with a well-manicured hand. “I know that you
don’t have much going for you, but that doesn’t mean that you had to settle for a
loser, Haley!”
“He’s only after your money!”
“What the hell is wrong with you? Are you that desperate for attention that you’d be
willing to settle for a loser like-Ow!” Mr. Blaine bit off with a wince of pain that only
turned into a cringe when Grandma pulled her cane back and let him have it again
and again, and probably would have taken another swing at her son if Jason hadn’t
reached over and gently pulled the item away before she could do any serious damage.
“Mother,” Mr. Blaine bit out, glaring down at his mother from a safe distance across
the room, “this is for her own good.”
“This isn’t your choice,” Grandma said with a firm nod as she discretely reached over
and-
“No,” Jason said firmly, placing the cane well out of reach from Grandma and her
desperate need to beat the shit out of her family with the hopes that they could talk
this through, but Mr. Blaine seemed to have an agenda all his own.
“Take the girls home, sweetheart,” Mr. Blaine said with a forced smile as his attention
shifted to Jason and stayed there.
“I really think that we should handle this as a family,” Mrs. Blaine said in a stern tone
even as she gestured for her daughters to make their escape while they still could.
As the three women filed out of the room, not a single one of them glanced at Haley to
offer her their support. They simply escaped, leaving Mr. Blaine to handle something
they clearly deemed beneath them.
“Why don’t you go to your room as well?” Mr. Blaine suggested, but Haley stubbornly
sat there, shaking her head.
“No.”
“Haley,” Jason said with a soft smile, touched that she cared so much about him that
she was willing to sit there and endure more of her father’s bullshit for him,
“everything will be fine. I promise.”
“I’m not going,” she said more firmly as she looked up and met his gaze head on.
Knowing better than to argue with his wife, and already deciding that her fucked up
family wasn’t worth fighting about, he settled for sitting on the couch by his wife’s
side and taking her hand in his while they waited for her father to cut to the bullshit
and get this over with.
He didn’t keep them waiting long.
“Take this and leave my daughter alone,” Mr. Blaine said, pulling out a blank
envelope and handed it to Jason.
Keeping his gaze locked with Mr. Blaine’s, he opened the envelope and passed it to
Haley, who took it into her trembling hands.
“It’s a hundred grand,” Mr. Blaine announced when it became obvious that Haley
couldn’t make out the numbers on the check.
“I’m more than willing to double that if it means saving you from this mistake,
Haley.”
“I’m not interested in your money, Mr. Blaine,” Jason said, plucking the check out of
Haley’s hands and handed it back to Mr. Blaine, who only seemed angrier as he
pointedly stepped away, refusing to take the check.
“I’ll triple it.”
“For God’s sakes! If they need money, I’ll give it to them,” Grandma said with a huff
as she reached for her cane, but Jason wasn’t having that.
“Chris,” he said, keeping his gaze locked on Mr. Blaine’s, “please take Grandma home
and remind her that if she ever suggests giving us so much as a penny again, that I
will pull her over my knee and beat her with her cane.”
Instead of arguing, which he’d realized that she liked to do a lot by this point, Mrs.
Blaine simply smiled as her helper rolled her out of the house.
“I’m not interested in your money or your family connections, Mr. Blaine. I married
Haley because I love her and plan on making her happy. If that’s not good enough for
you, then I’m sorry, but there’s nothing that you could offer me that would make me
walk away from the best thing in my life,” he said, letting the check drop to the floor
when Mr. Blaine refused to take it back.
“It’s been a very long week, so if you don’t mind, I plan on grabbing a shower and
turning in early since I have a hell of a mess to clean up in the morning.”
With that, he leaned over and kissed the top of Haley’s head, praying that it wouldn’t
be the last time, and forced himself to walk away, knowing that he had to give her the
freedom to handle this situation. No matter how he felt about them, this was her
family and he would never do anything to come between them.
So, if having Haley in his life meant that he had to put up with boring dinner parties,
bullshit dinners and uncomfortable family gatherings, then that’s exactly what he
would do for her. He’d keep his mouth shut, show her parents the respect that his had
taught him and simply be there for her.
With that depressing future weighing heavily on his mind, he walked down the
hallway, took a shower and climbed onto her bed all while waiting for her to say or do
something that told him that she needed him. When nothing came after a few more
minutes, he closed his eyes and resigned himself to enduring more of her family’s
bullshit.
“He’s gone,” Haley whispered sadly as she joined him, curling up against him.
“Are you okay?” he asked, turning over onto his side so that he could take her in his
arms.
“I’m fine,” she said, focusing all of her attention on running the tips of her fingers
through the sparse hair covering his chest.
“I’ll go talk to him this week and try to fix this,” he promised her even as he had to
resign himself to the fact that he would have to do it without giving in to the urge to
beat the shit out of his new father-in-law.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Haley said with a careless shrug that he was buying.
“Oh,” he said, tucking a loose strand of her hair behind her ear, “and why’s that?”
“Because I’m pretty sure that my family just disowned me,” she said firmly seconds
before her body started to tremble against his and the soft sobs that she was trying to
hold back finally found an escape.
As he held her in his arms, his heart breaking right along with hers, he swore that he
would never let her suffer like this ever again.
“Jason?”
“Hmm,” he murmured, kissing her shoulder as he shifted so that she could curl up on
her side, facing away from him.
“Can you do me a favor?” she whispered even as she grabbed his hand and hugged it
to her chest.
“Anything,” he swore, knowing that he would do whatever it took to make this up to
her.
“Put an end to this honeymoon from hell, please.”
“Consider it over,” he swore with a small smile as he leaned over and kissed her
shoulder, more than happy to put this bullshit behind them and move on with their
lives.
“Jason?” she whispered as he closed his eyes, more than ready to put this day behind
him.
“Yeah?” he managed around a yawn.
“I-I don’t think it’s over yet.”
“Why do you say that?” he grumbled, struggling to open his eyes.
“Remember the kitty?”
“Yeah?”
“I can’t be sure, but I think he’s sitting on the edge of the bed and it looks like he’s
about to-”
*-*-*-*
“Son of a bitch!” she heard Jason snap as he stumbled wildly around the room and as
much as she would have loved to help him, she just couldn’t seem to stop laughing.
“S-stop fighting it,” she managed to get out as she was forced to reach out and grab
onto the edge of her bureau when her uncontrollable laughter and the cramp in her
side threatened to drop her on her ass where she would no doubt continue to laugh her
ass off at her husband as he struggled to free himself from the fluffy orange puff ball
latched onto his back.
“That’s it!” he snapped, sounding seriously pissed off, which given what they’d gone
through over the past couple of days, that was saying a lot.
Pressing a hand against her side as she struggled to catch her breath, she watched as
Jason’s blurry figure stormed across the room to the bathroom. A few seconds later
the sounds of the shower starting and a cat hissing in outrage filled the otherwise
quiet room. Before she could catch her breath or check to make sure that he was okay,
he was coming for her, picking her up and tossing her on the bed.
“W-what are you doing?” she managed to get out between giggles.
“Putting an end to this goddamn honeymoon,” he snarled as he ripped her panties
clean from her body.
“What are you-oh, my God!” she gasped as he buried his head between her thighs.
“The honeymoon is fucking over,” he bit out, sliding a finger inside her as she lay
there, struggling to understand what sex had to do with anything.
“You aremine,” he snarled possessively against her clit as he teased her to the point
that she really didn’t care that he was having some sort of psychotic episode, not as
long as he kept doing that thing with his tongue.
“Jason,” she found herself moaning his name as she threaded her fingers through his
hair, encouraging him to continue even as she sent the silent warning that she would
be forced to kill him with her bare hands if he so much as thought about stopping
what he was doing.
“So fucking sweet,” he growled against her skin, leisurely licking her out as she
continued to run her fingers through his hair, needing something to do while a
pleasurable buzz spread over her body, leaving her barely able to moan his name.
“I love you, Haley,” he whispered softly as he suddenly moved up her body.
She wrapped her arms around his damp shoulders, spread her legs and gasped when
he slid inside her. She pulled his face down and kissed him as he moved inside her
with firm, hard strokes, clearly determined to finish before something else could
happen and put a test to their sanity.
She wanted this, wanted him and she was determined to get it. She kissed him with
everything she had, gently suckling his tongue as his thrusts became harder, more
determined and before she realized what was happening, she was screaming his name
while he mumbled, “Thank God,” over and over again until exhaustion finally claimed
her and she felt herself drifting off with a smile that quickly turned to a chuckle when
she heard the unmistakable sounds of a kitten purring.
Three Months Later…….
“Did everyone study last night?” he asked, glancing up from his desk to catch
every student in his class nodding enthusiastically.
“So, you’re ready for a pop quiz?” he asked, biting back a smile as their eager
expressions turned horrified.
“Yes?” came the collective answer.
“Liars,” he said, chuckling as he stood up and went to the chalkboard.
“Why don’t we review everything to make sure that we’re all clear on the
material?” he suggested, shaking his head with a chuckle when he caught their
relieved sighs.
“Let’s start with the-”
“Excuse me,” Haley said, drawing his attention immediately to the back of his
classroom where she was poking her head in the room. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but
could I talk to you for a minute?”
“We were just about to have a review,” he said, glancing at the clock and noting
the time. There was only twenty minutes of class left and his students desperately
needed this review if they had any hopes of passing the pop quiz that he had planned
for tomorrow. “Can it wait until after class?” he asked, hating to put his wife off, but
he knew that Haley would understand. He also knew that she’d let him know if it was
something that couldn’t wait until later.
“Oh,” she said, pushing her glasses up her nose as she worried her bottom lip.
“Yes, of course. I’m sorry,” she said with one of those adorable little smiles that he
loved.
“I’ll see you in twenty minutes, sweetheart,” he said, ignoring the snickers from
a couple of jocks.
She nodded absently as she agreed, “Okay, twenty minutes.”
He went to pick up the chalk again, but paused when he noticed that she hadn’t
left, but instead now stood a little further in the classroom, worrying her hands in
front of her as she shifted anxiously.
“Is everything okay?” he asked, frowning when he realized that his wife was
nervous.
“Huh?” she asked, looking as though she’d forgotten that he was in the room.
“Yes, yes of course it is.”
“Okay,” he said softly with what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Then I’ll see
you in twenty minutes.”
“Twenty minutes,” she repeated with a firm nod even as she continued to worry
her hands together.
He reached for the chalk again only to pause when he once again noted that his
wife had moved further into the room. For a minute he watched her continue to wring
her hands together and worry her bottom lip.
“Are you sure that everything’s fine?” he asked, gesturing for his students to
turn around and face the front of the class.
Haley smiled, a real smile that instantly calmed him. “Yes, yes of course.”
“Good,” he said, starting to return his attention to the chalkboard when her next
words made him pause.
“It’s just that…..,” she started to say, only to let her words trail off.
“It’s just that, what?” he asked, moving to step around his desk and walk
towards her.
She shook her head and with another smile said, “It can wait until later.”
And with that, she finally turned around and headed for the door. Not really sure
what to make of her visit, but not really concerned, he turned around and-
“It’s just that I’m pregnant and I wanted to tell you.”
-tripped over his own feet and stumbled forward. He was forced to slap his hands
against the edge of the desk or fall flat on his ass as his mind raced to make sense of
what she’d just said.
“W-what?” he asked, not really sure that he’d heard her correctly.
“I just wanted to let you know that I was pregnant and to let you know that we
needed to stop at a store on the way home tonight and pick up some milk,” Haley said
brightly while the class stared at her in utter shock while Jason stood there,
struggling to catch his breath.
He felt himself nod, not really sure why he was doing it, but he felt that he
should be doing something.
“Alright,” Haley said, brightly, “I’ll see you after class!”
And with that, she finally left the room just as his legs gave out. He held onto
the desk for dear life, still struggling to comprehend the words that had come out of
his wife’s mouth.
Pregnant?
Haley was pregnant.
They were having a baby.
A baby, they were having a baby because Haley was pregnant.
He’d gotten Haley pregnant.
She was having his baby.
They were-
“Are you alright, Mr. Bradford?” someone asked, a boy or a girl, he wasn’t sure.
All he knew was that he was definitely not okay.
“D-do you need anything, Mr. Bradford?” someone else asked.
The response was instant, years of Bradford survival taking over in that moment
of crisis. “Food, I need food.”
Coming in July 2015
Trevor and Zoe’s Honeymoon…
About the Author
Writer, Facebook stalker, mother of two and hot cocoa addict, R.L. Mathewson lives
life to its fullest.
When she’s not chauffeuring her children to and from school or their various
activities, she runs a Lego Club for a bunch of chocolate addicted children, blasts
Sirius XM’s The Highway, writes, edits, cooks, cleans and oh yeah, she even watches
movies on Netflix.
It’s safe to say that she does it all…………..
Intrigued?
Of course you are.
If you would like to know more about this author, her latest books or information on
the latest methods to stalk people on Facebook, visit her site:
Or you can email her directly at,
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