Page 92 of Adoring Delaney

Carter shoved his face in my neck and sucked so hard I figured he’d left a mark. He gave me a quick nip with his teeth before his mouth was next to my ear.

“Mark this, Laney. You’re gonna marry me. You know it, I know it, everybody fuckin’ knows it. I’ll wear you down. I’ll ask a million times. Don’t care how long it takes. But you will be my wife.”

“I know.”

He groaned against my skin and his body trembled. “Take it, Laney, and get there.”

“I’m there, honey, don’t stop.”

“Delaney!” he roared, and I screwed my eyes shut as the most magnificent orgasm I’d ever experienced rushed through me. “I love you so goddamned much, baby.”

I came awake and the room was pitch black.

Carter had now asked me to marry him eight times. Eight times he’d rocked my world. Eight times he’d made my dreams come true.

He was right, I knew I was going to marry him.

One day I’d say yes, but until then I was enjoying him asking.

I fell back asleep with my head on Carter’s chest, his hand on my naked hip, and a smile on my lips.

One day.

27

The last couple of days had been crazy.

Nick had given a copy of the profile he’d worked up to Ethan’s captain and had passed the report around to the rest of us. Clearly his team concurred with Nick’s initial thought. Delaney had provided a list of four names of people who had been mad with her.

I’d been surprised she’d come up with that many. Everyone liked her. Not only was she simply downright likeable she was also generous and gave of herself and her time to anyone who needed it. She tutored her current and former students for free. Both after school and at the library on the weekends. She donated to every fundraiser the school put on.

She cheered her students on and counseled them when they needed it. There was a lot to like.

The four names: two students, one parent, and the basketball coach were all part of the same incident. And all of them were equally pissed at her. The two students had failed a project which had lowered their grade in her class, lowering their overall GPA, and making them ineligible to play sports. It was basketball season, the team had gone to regionals and had a shot at taking State. Those dreams were dashed when the two best players had to sit the bench.

The student athletes were furious, one parent threatened to do what he could to have her fired, and the coach flat out called her a bitch and blamed her for not padding the kids’ grades so they could play.

None of the four fit Nick’s profile of the unsub.

I’d added Steve Deaton and Natalie Whitefield. I didn’t tell Delaney I’d added their names. I doubted she’d care too much about Natalie but she’d be furious about Steve. I didn’t give the first fuck she thought the asswipe was nice. She didn’t understand there were people that only showed you what they wanted you to see. And a man who had been asking out a woman for two years, finally gets a taste of what he’s been fantasizing about only to have it taken, could turn on a dime. Nice or not, that kind of rejection was a hit to his ego and pride.

That woman being Delaney, beautiful, sexy as hell, sweet, funny, smart. That hit would be a hundred times worse. So I didn’t give a shit she’d be mad, I wanted Steve’s life combed through.

Natalie was a given. Not only did she creep Laney out, she’d lied. There was no Natalie Whitefield matching her age and description. Not in any database I searched and that included the Department of Motor Vehicles in all fifty states. When I ran the phone number she’d given Delaney, it was a burner, untraceable. Only thing I got from that was it was purchased at a Stop and Go in Georgia. No help there.

Delaney’s house was being monitored twenty-four seven and there’d been nothing. Jasper and I had personally combed over the footage. No cars passing by multiple times, no one sitting outside her place watching, no one approaching the house. We had nothing.

The only thing left to do was be vigilant and wait.

Unfortunately I wasn’t known for my patience and had never been keen sitting on my thumbs doing nothing. Irritation was building and I was getting antsy. I wanted this shit over.

And Delaney had enough going on she didn’t need some fuckwad fucking with us. As the days had slipped by, she was putting on a brave face. We’d gone on another date, this time to dinner and a movie. Some chick flick she’d picked about a book club and within the first five minutes I’d felt my balls start to shrivel and by the end my dick was protesting and demanding explosions and mayhem to confirm my manhood.

Through all of this I smiled and held her close while she giggled and watched the movie.

Hearing the sound of her laughter and knowing she was happy was the only thing that had made it perfect.

She was also dealing with the fallout of telling her parents, mine, and her sisters about the baby. Each of the women called her approximately fifteen times a day. During most of these calls it was Laney making sure they were okay, and not the other way around. Silver lining was, even though she’d always known they loved her, there was no missing it now. They loved her, they were worried, and they wanted her close. Even if it was over the phone.

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