Speeding
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Speeding Ch. 04 free porn video
After brunch, the family hung around Ryder and Madelyn’s house until the actual party. Run by Donovan Patterson and his sister Kiley, Donovan’s Dell was an Ashford institution. Reid leaned against the bar nursing a beer as he watched Cass and Kendall make the rounds, charming the entire town as they did. He was still at loose ends after accepting he was truly in love with Kendall, unsure of the next step. When he was a teenager, he had been in love and rushed to the alter. Rushing seemed the speed at which he and Kendall did everything, but he wasn’t about to rush into marriage again. As he let the thought roll around in his brain, Kendall caught him with her aquamarine eyes from across the room. Damn, she was beautiful. Holding her gaze, he let himself think about how easy it was to show her how he felt.
Kendall felt like Reid had her in a tractor beam. He looked like he wanted to eat her alive and her temperature went up almost instantly. She felt her body prepare for him and nearly moaned. A look across a room full of over a hundred people, and she was ready to jump him. For a moment she wondered if that would ever change, then quickly decided it wouldn’t. She couldn’t imagine not wanting to strip him down and eat him up.
‘Looks like someone’s having eye sex,’ Cass laughed as she poked Kendall in the ribs.
Tearing her focus from Reid, Kendall addressed her new friend. She felt like she should pat down her dress to insure it wasn’t on fire. ‘Um, yeah.’
‘It’s okay, Reece pulled me into the bathroom earlier,’ Cass confessed with a conspiratorial smile. ‘God, I love a good fuck against a wall,’ she added in a breathy whisper.
‘You’re not the only one.’ She wished Reid would sweep her away to anywhere dark and quiet. Her panties were sopping wet and there were at least two or three hours left of festivities. Consigning herself to the torture, she continued to mingle.
Sidling up to his middle brother, Reid asked, ‘So, what’s the story with Skylar Hart?’
Taken aback, Ryder glared at him. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘Just that your wife nearly tore my spine out when I told her we were staying at Ashford Hills, and the fact that the pretty little brunette nearly tripped on her tongue when she asked about you last night.’
‘It’s nothing.’
‘Not buying it. What’d you do?’
‘Fine. I dated her in college.’
‘Still don’t see the spine-tearing.’
Resigned, Ryder explained, ‘Sky was hot and liked things…a little kinky. Our relationship was purely a physical one.’ At Reid’s knowing look, he continued, ‘She was experimenting with pretty much everything. Senior year, she talked me into a three-way with one of her friends.’
‘Wow.’
Ryder nodded. ‘Yeah. She brought her friend Leslie with her, a stacked little blonde. It was incredible to watch them together.’ He paused, staring into space for a moment. ‘It was the hottest thing I’d ever seen.’
‘Wow.’ It seemed that was the only word in his vocabulary at the moment. He gestured with his beer bottle for his brother to continue.
‘I have to admit it was amazing. I was fucking Sky as she was eating Leslie when Mad showed up unannounced.’
‘Oh shit.’
Ryder looked at the floor. ‘Yeah. She stood in the doorway a long time, then walked away.’
‘What did she expect you to do?’
‘At the time I didn’t care.’ He paused, brushing imaginary lint from his jeans. ‘She didn’t talk to me for almost a month. When she finally answered my calls, she acted like nothing had happened and I let her.’
‘For how long?’
‘When we finally talked about it, oh, after we were married, she told me she had just broken up with her boyfriend and needed me.’ He made a face. ‘I was otherwise occupied.’
‘But why hold it against Skylar? It’s been seven years.’
Ryder grimaced. ‘Sky came back to town about a year ago when her uncle died. She’d been in New York and didn’t know Mad and I had opened a restaurant after college.’ He paused. ‘Mad and I weren’t involved yet.’
A lightbulb went off. ‘And you slept with her.’
‘Just because I was in love with Madelyn didn’t mean I thought we’d ever make it work. She was dating a guy pretty seriously at the time too,’ Ryder defended.
‘Scott?’
‘Right. So, when Sky showed up on my doorstep, I didn’t turn her down.’
‘You weren’t dating Skylar when Madelyn finally made her move, were you?’ Reid asked, not sure he wanted the answer.
Ryder was quiet for a moment. ‘Technically?’
He shrugged. ‘Whatever.’
‘We were never serious.’
‘But you had slept with her recently.’ It wasn’t a question.
‘About a week before.’
‘Geez, Ryder.’
‘Right, like I was going to forgo Madelyn, my Madelyn, because I was casually fucking someone else?’
‘How did you explain that to the beautiful, kinky Skylar?’ No wonder the woman was awkward last night.
‘I didn’t have to.’ At Reid’s look of disbelief he explained, ‘she came to me. Told me she was happy for me and Mad, that we belonged together.’
‘But why does Maddy-May feel threatened?’
‘I don’t know. I would never turn my back on her.’
‘But?’
‘I think she’s afraid I want someone more on the edge.’ He shook his head, ‘It’s not a competition. I don’t want anyone else. She’s perfect.’
‘I don’t think it’s me that needs to hear that. She gave me absolute hell and all I’m doing is staying at the inn.’ He laughed. ‘Oh, yeah, and happy birthday.’
‘Thanks.’ He stared at his brother for a moment. ‘She knows I love her more than anything in the world, right? I married her because I can’t imagine my life without her, even for a minute.’
‘Old age has made you sappy, bro.’
‘Like you don’t feel the same way about Kendall.’
‘You’ve got me there,’ he admitted with a salute of his bottle.
~*~
The trip home was thankfully uneventful and Kendall found that although Jo missed her at work for those couple days, nothing had happened to bring business to a screeching halt. She settled back into her routine, working with Arthur Finnigan to find something for Lois and Ernie Brunswick for his new girlfriend.
Two weeks after the trip to Ashford, she was alone in the store. Joanne had to cut out early to attend her daughter’s play at the elementary school and Taylor had a date with Kevin Trenton. Aylesford was a small town and the police station was less than a block away, so she wasn’t worried about being alone for the last part of the day.
She was counting the cash drawer when a jittery late customer walked in, heading straight to the bridal case.
‘So, what’s the occasion?’ Kendall asked the nervous looking man.
‘It’s time to declare my love. So, here I am.’
Smiling, Kendall prodded for more information. ‘How long have you two been together?’
He still looked nervous as hell, and she really wanted to set him at ease. ‘I’m Kendall, I’ve been with my boyfriend about six months myself. We actually live together.’
‘Oh, I’ve seen you with your boyfriend,’ the nervous client remarked, making Kendall’s head spin. He pointed to a handmade platinum ring featuring a large round diamond, ‘How much is this one?’
Still reeling from his comment, Kendall reached into the case. ‘This is handmade in platinum by Taylor herself. The center stone is a three point oh five carat round brilliant cut, E in color and SI1 in clarity.’ At his blank stare, she explained, ‘Diamonds are graded on a color scale beginning at D, so this diamond is as ‘white’ as they get. The clarity grade is Slightly Included- it will show inclusions beneath the microscope, but not to the eye. The mounting also features another three-quarters of a carat of pave’ set diamonds.’
‘How much?’ He was twitching, and she was afraid he’d fall over at any minute.
‘This particular ring is $57,000.’
‘Fuck.’
Now she was really knocked for a loop. She could curse with the best of them, but geez. ‘If you like this style, we can always find or make something that is better suited to your budget.’
‘Do you like it, scrumptious?’ he asked as he leaned across the counter.
‘Kendall,’ she corrected as she took a step back. ‘I love all of Taylor’s designs.’
‘I think I’d like something else,’ he replied, a predatory gleam in his eye as he rounded the end of the case.
Oh, shit. Oh, shitty, shit, shit. She froze in sheer panic before her mind clicked in gear. The silent alarm! She started across the sales floor to hit it when she was tackled.
Kendall’s head hit the hardwood floor with a thud, causing her eyes to water. Her wrists were pinned on either side of her head, her pelvis trapped between his thighs. She struggled fiercely, causing her skirt to shimmy up as her shirt came untucked and slid up her belly. Dammit if she’d make this any easier for him. He was heavy and holding her down while pulling her shirt open and pushing her skirt up. Oh God. Thrashing in earnest, all she managed to do was lose a shoe and rip her skirt. She screamed at the top her lungs, hoping there was a client headed in, or Ernie would be outside his bakery next door.
He pawed her blouse while he tore at her panties as she screamed until she was hoarse. No one was coming to her rescue and she couldn’t break free. ‘Let me go!’ she yelled as she felt his grip loosen on her wrists. He was twisting to unzip his pants. Seeing an opening, she jerked as hard as she could to the left, rolling to her side and scrambling from his grasp. She kicked out, hitting him in the knee and slowing him down. If she could just get to the panic button behind the center case. It was the longest ten feet she’d ever seen.
He wasn’t going to let her get away, but she had to try. Half crawling, she felt his hand clamp around her ankle. Five more feet. She only needed five more feet. Kicking hard, she crawled as fast as she could. Just as she reached out for the button, she was tackled again, his arm coming down on her elbow, sending a sharp pain shooting to her shoulder and causing nausea to rise. She didn’t know if she’d managed to engage the silent alarm, but as her head was once again knocked into the hardwood, she knew she’d done all she could before the world went dark.
~*~
She blinked, then blinked again. Oh, God. She was dead. No, she couldn’t be dead. Her head wouldn’t be throbbing if she were dead.
‘Baby?’ His voice was scratchy and quiet, but it was Reid.
‘Reid? I can’t see.’
‘You have a concussion and a large gash on your temple. They had to stitch you up and dress the wound.’ He paused a long moment, his hand ghosting over her chin. ‘I should have protected you.’
‘I want to see you. Move this bandage.’
He did as she asked. When he finally came into view, his uniform was rumpled and he looked like he’d been awake for days. ‘I hit the button,’ she whispered.
He nodded. ‘Thank God.’
‘Did he?’
‘No,’ he rasped. ‘He didn’t get the chance.’ He stepped away before he crushed her to him. ‘I… When we responded to the call, I was so afraid something had happened to you. When we came in and he was on top of you…’ He ran his hand through his hair, ‘God, I thought you were dead, baby.’ He blew out a breath, shook his head. ‘I snapped. Chris and Jason had to pull me off of him.’ He took another step away, raked his hand through his hair again. ‘I broke his jaw.’ He made a disgusted sound. ‘It wasn’t enough. To see you like that. God.’
‘I knew if I could just hit that button, you would come for me.’ She tossed her good hand toward him, trying to grab him. ‘You saved me. I knew you would.’
He made another self-deprecating sound as he came back to her, taking her good hand in both of his, ‘I shouldn’t have let you go to work. We knew you’d be by yourself. I should have kept you safe.’
She shook her head, wincing against the pain as she did. ‘Aylesford is a safe town. There was no reason to think I’d be jumped at work. Don’t most people try and rob a jewelry store, not assault the help?’
He pulled away, pacing the tiny room. ‘How can you joke about this? I’m supposed to keep you safe. How are you supposed to love me if I can’t keep you safe?’
‘I don’t love you because you keep me safe, Reid. I love you because I love you.’
What should have been a beautiful moment of telling Reid how she really felt was interrupted by her brother coming through the door.
Kyle ran to her side, perching on the edge of the bedside chair as he placed his hand on her shoulder. ‘Kendall, how do you get yourself in these situations?’
Before she could respond, Reid broke in, ‘She was assaulted, and you’re blaming her?’ He stalked over to Kyle, tossing the hand from Kendall’s shoulder. ‘I thought she was dead when I got there and nearly went crazy,’ he stepped away to keep himself from hitting Kyle before continuing, ‘and the first words out of your mouth are to ask how she got into this situation?’
Kyle stood and faced Reid. ‘She wouldn’t have been there if she’d worked for me. I haven’t seen her in almost two months, and then I hear she’s in the hospital. What was I supposed to think?’
‘You were supposed to act like you care,’ Kendall answered. ‘You were supposed to act like you were worried about me. You were not supposed to assume I got myself into a bad situation.’
‘You were in a bad situation.’ He pointed at Reid. ‘He should have protected you.’
Damn, her head hurt. ‘Look, Kyle. Reid is a cop, a good one at that, but he’s not psychic. How the hell was he supposed to know what was going to happen?’
Surprised to agree with the her pompous asshole of a brother, Reid answered her, ‘I should have protected you. I could’ve lost you.’
‘You should quit working with Taylor and come work for me,’ Kyle told her, completely ignoring Reid.
‘What the hell would that accomplish? Then there would only be the two of them at the store again and Taylor wouldn’t be able to create nearly as much as she had before.’ She shook her head, instantly regretting the movement. ‘I love my job with Taylor.’
‘Baby, are you sure you can go back?’ Reid asked.
‘At this exact moment, no.’ Seeing the concerned look on his face, she asked, ‘You breaking his jaw isn’t going to let him go free, is it?’
Ever the lawyer, Kyle jumped in, ‘You broke his jaw?’
Fists balled in his pockets, Reid spoke through clenched teeth, ‘I thought he’d killed Kendall. I should’ve killed him.’ Would’ve killed him if cooler heads hadn’t prevailed. If Chris and Jason hadn’t pulled him off the perp when they did, he’d be sitting in his own cell right now.
~*~
‘Are you sure about this, baby?’ Reid and Kendall were sitting in his truck at 8:50am. Kendall had decided to go back to work, and he wasn’t happy about it.
She nodded her head as she answered, ‘No.’
‘You don’t have to go in.’ He had another two weeks of administrative leave, so he had nowhere he needed to be.
She was resolute. ‘Yes I do. Just because something bad happened here doesn’t mean I can’t go back. Aylesford is a good community. They’ll rally around us and come in to buy, I’m sure of it.’
He hoped she was right- Taylor had only opened the store a little over two years ago after finishing her schooling. He’d hate to see her have to close up shop so soon after being recognized as an up and coming designer. Still, he didn’t want to Kendall to leave his sight. ‘Why don’t I come with you? I’ve got nothing else to do and it might make us both feel better.’
She smiled. ‘Why don’t you? That’s perfect.’
Reid accompanied Kendall to work for the next couple weeks as he finished his forced vacation. Chief Lindstrom understood Reid’s need to break the perp- Jud Kitteridge- into tiny pieces, but couldn’t condone the behavior. Even wi
thout coming in, he’d kept abreast of the case. Chris and Jason told him Kitteridge had been at Rosalita’s the night of his and Kendall’s first date. In the confession, he told the two officers that he had watched Reid and Kendall make out in the restaurant and had followed them to the parking lot and watched their frenzied coupling. Kitteridge had fixated on Kendall, watching her all these months from Mick’s hardware store across the street. Her being alone that night had spurred him into action, and it scared the shit out of Reid. Kendall had been in danger their entire relationship and he hadn’t had the first clue. If he couldn’t keep her safe for six months, what business did he have thinking about forever?
Kendall looked over at Reid sitting at the point of sale computer and looking thoroughly bored. No, not bored. Perplexed, maybe?
‘What’s eating you?’ It was just the two of them on the floor as Joanne had run over to Ernie’s for lunch and Taylor was at a designer’s meet and greet in New York. She had been reluctant to go until Reid assured her he would stay with Kendall.
‘What? Oh, nothing,’ came Reid’s overly nonchalant reply.
She didn’t believe him for a second. ‘No. Something’s got you upset and I want to know what it is,’ she demanded.
He stood up, crossed to her. Sliding his hand into her hair, he tilted her head up and placed a soft kiss on her lips. ‘I love you, Kendall. I love you and I don’t know how to keep you safe.’
She pinned him with a glare. ‘Cut the Alpha male crap right now, Reid Dalton Caufield. I love you, too. You’re sitting there worried about keeping me safe when you’re the one who could be shot at or run over or any number of things. So I had a crazy man decide he wanted me. And what happened? I fought like a wildcat and you saved me. You threw him across a room and beat the shit out of the guy. Have you ever thought about what I could do if something happened to you?’ She poked him in the chest as his eyes widened. ‘That’s right. Absolutely nothing. If I’m lucky, Chief Lindstrom would call me when you’re in the hospital. So, stop. I worry about you, you worry about me. That’s love, Reid.’
He hadn’t thought about it that way. ‘You feel safe with me?’
‘Of course I do, you stupid idiot. You’ll never let anything happen to me. I know that.’
‘Not if I can help it, baby,’ he assured her as she stepped into his open arms.
~*~
There wasn’t a trial. Kitteridge had been caught in the act and confessed and the ADA, James Easton, hadn’t pushed for charges against Reid. Easton felt Reid hadn’t used unnecessary force, or so he said. Reid knew he had, and didn’t care. Kitteridge’s jaw would be wired shut for six weeks and he’d be locked up for at least two years. If you asked Reid, Kitteridge should be dead. Too bad they didn’t ask him.
‘Missed you, boy.’ Chief Lindstrom welcomed Reid back to work with a one-armed hug.
‘Good to be back, sir.’ Reid meant it, too. If Kitteridge had gone unnoticed, how many others were out there?
He was welcomed back by Chris and Jason as well as the other four officers in the department. Aylesford was a relatively small town and he had never before felt they were understaffed. Now he wondered if the eight of them were enough. He nearly laughed at his thought. Eight is enough. Ha.
‘Just call her, bro.’ Jason Monroe said as he slid into the chair on the other side of Reid’s desk. ‘You know you want to.’
‘You’re thoroughly pussy-whipped. Never thought I’d see the day,’ added Chris Delmonico.
‘Just wait. One day it’ll be you two staring at your phone, too. I know she’s fine, but I never thought she wouldn’t be that day either.’ He grimaced. ‘I didn’t know she was in danger. It never even occurred to me for one second. What kind of detective does that make me?’
‘Geez, man. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Kitteridge didn’t even have a parking ticket until he jumped your girl,’ Chris answered.
‘Besides, there was no evidence of stalking. He worked at Mick’s Hardware and watched her through the window. No notes, no phone calls, nothing,’ Jason assured him.
‘So, I’m not just an idiot who took his town and his woman for granted?’
‘No doubt you’re an idiot. You’re in love with a woman.’ Chris had nothing but bad luck with women and didn’t try and pretend otherwise.
Geraldine
- 28.03.2022
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