Page 71 of Where Love Lies

I’m placed on a stretcher and shoved into the back of an ambulance, the light so bright I have to close my eyes. My body is jostled, causing me to reopen my eyes, and Rhodes is slid in next to me, someone squeezing a pump that’s attached to his face to help him breathe.

The top of our hands touch, the skin warm and layered with soot. The sirens blare as we careen around corners, and the stretchers shake back and forth. Suddenly, my hand is grasped by someone. Peeking one eye open, I find Rhodes holding it. He’s worried about me as I am him. Squeezing it back, I can’t help but wonder if the connection we feel bred from where love lies. Two hurt individuals who were molded into different people because of the deceit they were fooled into loving. Coming together as two broken souls, I can’t help but think we might have a shot at being together.

THE END

Epilogue

Two Months Later

Sitting on the stained wooden porch of Rhodes’ house, I chew on my nail and stare at the house I lived in just two months ago. It’s now a charred disaster; everything eaten from the fire, nothing to be saved. Except my mother’s ashes, the urn withstood the heat. After we lost the place and had nowhere to go but a hotel, Rhodes told us to come stay at his place until we found somewhere else to live. I want to stay around here, so I’m waiting for another place to open up close by.

“There you are, I thought you were outback messing with the flowers,” Rhodes says, walking out the front door, shirtless in only low-slung jeans. Sitting next to me, he hands me a cup of iced tea and stares at the place where he almost died. His wounds are still healing and are a constant reminder what could have happened that night.

“I wish they would clear the lot already,” I mumble, tired of looking at it and remembering.

“They had to investigate, which took longer after they found Cam’s body in the crawl space,” he reminds me and I cringe. I can still hear the Fire Chief hollering they found another body. The shock and trauma constantly ringing in my ears. The firefighters couldn’t pull Heston from the fire; he was basically melted to the living room floor, so when the structure was finally declared safe, they let the investigators in to take his body. He never had a place in Charlotte, he lived with his mother. He never had a real estate career, he went to see his mother on days he supposedly worked. It was all one big lie. Looking at my old place I can’t help but think of the movieCarrie,where if I walk across the rubble, Heston’s hand will drive through the ground and grab me. Forcing myself to look away from it, I glance at Owen and Flynn’s house. They’ve been gone this week, visiting with a little girl looking to be adopted. I hope they get to bring her home; it’d be nice to have a little one running around. Owen claims he knew all along that Heston was pretending to be someone else. I love him.

After Cam’s funeral, Paige went into a deep depression, where I had no choice but to put her in therapy. She’s better now and I haven’t had any more incidents with her and Layla. I hope it stays that way.

“I’m going to go inside,” I mutter, standing up. Walking into the house, the smell of wood and leather fill the house. Rhodes’ large brown leather sectional in the living room, and his wooden farm door dinner table the first thing to see when you walk in.

“I’m going to take a shower before Paige gets home from school,” I tell him, and he nods. That tension that has been pulled so tight between us is ready to snap at any moment. We haven’t had sex, but it’s gotten close. I think he’s waiting for me to be ready, and I just want to make sure I’m fully in before fully giving myself to another man. Using the hall bathroom, I turn the shower on and set my bath caddy on the sink. Biting my nail, I look at the pink and white box still in the package. I haven’t had a period in two months. Undressing, I sit on the toilet, the lid cold against my skin and pee on the stick. I instantly look at it and only see one line faintly coming in. Looks negative. Thank God. I don’t know how I’d feel about having Heston’s child. The seed of a demon kicking me from the inside is too much to think about. There was something definitely wrong with him and the idea that his DNA would be in something I created is scary.

Stepping into the shower, the hot water caresses my skin, wetting my hair. Closing my eyes, I lift my hands and scratch at my scalp, making sure not to touch where my cut was. I was able to take the stitches out, but it’s still so tender there.

Steam rises, fogging the glass of the shower. With the sound of the door opening, I freeze.

“Paige?”

The shower door is pulled open and Rhodes stares directly as me.

“I’ll only get in if you want me to,” he says, his body only in a towel. My body pulses, need growing in my core.

Biting my bottom lip, I take a step forward and pull him inside with me. Hot water splashes on us, our mouths connecting as our hands explore one another. He’s hard where it counts and soft where I need it. My fingers slip up and down his tattoos, my skin contrasting amongst his golden.

Grabbing me by the hips, he lifts me and presses me up against the wall, the tip of his cock fat and thick, I hold my breath as he presses into me. Closing my eyes, I focus on it stretching and filling me, and it feels so damn good. With his face in the crook of my neck and my legs wrapped around his waist, he thrusts in and out of me. This is something that has been building between us for quite some time, the temptation making it that much sweeter. Resting my chin on his head, I feel his hand grab my breast, his mouth enveloping my nipple, sending a burst of pleasure through me. I moan, rocking my hips faster. Needing to hold onto something before we both slip and fall, he slaps his hand against the wall and continues to drive into me. He grunts, the low growl a turn-on.

“I’m coming,” I tell him, and he takes advantage. He thrusts harder, grabbing my ass cheeks hard. Stars burst behind my eyes as ecstasy takes over my entire body.

His body tenses, and he comes seconds after me. Standing in the shower, both of us trying to catch our breath, we stand under the waterhead that is slowly turning cold.

Grabbing my face, he leans his forehead against mine.

“That was better than I could have imagined,” he mutters, rivulets of water dripping from his lips. I kiss him, feeling so much closer to him now.

Turning the water off, I open the door and grab my towel and dry off. Stepping out, he takes the towel he was wearing and starts drying his body off. Walking around him, my eyes fall to the test where there are two bright pink lines. I freeze, heart pounding, not from what I just did in the shower with Rhodes, but rather out of fear of what this test is telling me.

Noticing me staring, he looks down at the sink and stills.

I open my mouth to say something, but I’m speechless.

“Shit,” he whispers, picking it up to look at it better.

“No, no!” I yell, thinking about a little Heston living inside me.

Moss-colored eyes look at me, his hand setting down the test. “This is okay,” he states, but all I can do is shake my head.

He glances at the test in thought and then back up to me.

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