Time Stands Still (Forever and Ever #51) Read online

  “Don’t be.” His hand moved to my thigh where he gripped it gently. “So…you got everything you wanted out of the dinner?”

  I nodded. “It’ll be surreal to walk by a department store and see my sculpture in the window. Or to give my artwork to local auctions and see people actually bid on them. I really think it’ll change my career for the better. At the moment I’m just a freelance artist without any support. But this will advertise my work.”

  Arsen moved his hand to my cheek, his thumb resting on the corner of my mouth. “I’m happy for you. You deserve every good thing that comes your way.”

  I smiled at his tenderness, loving the way he looked at me. If we stayed this way forever, I would be happy for a lifetime. “Thank you—for everything.”

  “What are you thanking me for?” he whispered.

  I couldn’t say everything that I felt because there wasn’t enough time in the day. There weren’t words with appropriate meanings to explain how I felt. All I could do was show him my heart. “For making me so happy.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Conrad

  I walked in the door and hung my jacket on the coat rack. I yanked my tie off as quickly as possible and flung it on top of the jacket. I didn’t care for wearing a suit but knew it was necessary for my job. “Baby, I’m home.”

  Lexie came downstairs dressed for the Oscars. She wore a pink dress with pearls and high heels. Her hair was done in perfect curls and her makeup was pristine.

  I did a double take.

  She wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a kiss at the door.

  My arms circled her waist and I squeezed her gently. “You look…yeah.”

  “Con, I’m so bored. You don’t even know.”

  “Well, if this is how you look when you’re bored I think it’s great.”

  She chuckled and a strand of hair fell in front of her face. “I’ve cleaned the house, taken Apollo on two walks, made some cookies…then ran out of stuff to do. I guess I’m not used to not having a job.”

  She better get used to it. “Where’s Macy?”

  “She met with a friend who might have a job opportunity.”

  “Good for her.” She could move out of our apartment so Lexie and I could have our alone time again. “She’s been gone all day?”

  “Yeah. Just Apollo and I.”

  “So…is she gonna be gone for a while…?” I grabbed her hips and guided her backgrounds toward the hallway.

  She smiled when she caught my drift. “She won’t be home until after dinner.”

  “Perfect.” I unzipped the back of her dress as I kept walking, her heels echoing on the floor. “Keep the shoes on.” I guided her into our bedroom then pushed the dress off her shoulders. My fingers unclasped her strapless bra and I pushed her onto the bed.

  She lay on her back, her tight stomach slender with the small abdominal muscles she possessed. Her rib cage led to beautiful and perky breasts. Her hair spread out across the mattress, making her look like my teenage fantasy.

  I lifted her hips toward the ceiling and pulled her black thong off. Once she was naked and ready for me I dropped my clothes and prepared to enter her. I skipped the foreplay because I was too impatient to slow down. I dragged her hips toward me and inserted myself completely inside her.

  So wet.

  “Did you get started without me?” I moved into her slowly, my hips rocking into her.

  “No, Con. You just turn me on fast.”

  Good answer.

  I increased my pace and got lost in the woman I loved. My fingers dug into her hips as I reached the back of her channel. It was nice to get laid right after work just the way I used to.

  Now I hated Macy a little bit.

  The front door opened and closed from the opposite side of the pent house. “I’m home.” Macy’s voice carried to my ears.

  Lexie sighed in irritation, her nails digging into my wrists.

  Now that I was inside her I wasn’t stopping for anything. “Shh…” I lifted her hips off the bed so the headboard wouldn’t thud against the wall.

  She laid her legs against my chest, her feet resting on my shoulders. “You know I’m loud when I come, Con. She can deal with it.”

  My cock twitched inside her and I paused because it felt so good. Once I stilled my resolve I started to move again.

  And I enjoyed every inch of her.

  ***

  Macy didn’t make a comment when we walked back into the living room. Normally, she’d make a snide remark directed at Lexie but this time she held her tongue. She really was putting effort into keeping the peace.

  “Any luck on the job search?” The second Lexie sat down Apollo took the seat beside her.

  I stood there and stared down at my dog, annoyed he took the only spot beside Lexie.

  He stared back at me with no intention of moving.

  I rolled my eyes and sat on the other couch—alone.

  Apollo rested his chin on Lexie’s knee and closed his eyes.

  Lexie immediately stroked his fur, not seeming to care that she was curled up with a dog instead of me—her fiancé.

  “Ugh.” Macy ate from the bowl of popcorn in her lap. “The job that was available sucked and had shitty pay. I’m not settling for something like that. I’ll keep looking.”

  The longer she looked, the longer she had to stay here. “Would you be interested in working at PIXEL?”

  Lexie looked up at the offer.

  “And do what?” Macy asked. “I don’t know anything about software. And I’m not going to be a janitor.”

  “There a lot of different types of jobs there,” I said. “I started in accounting years ago. There are secretary positions, filing positions…a lot of things.”

  “I’m pretty desperate at this point so I’m all ears.” She kept eating her popcorn.

  “I know there’s a secretary position in our linguistics department. It’s full-time with benefits with a nice salary.”

  “How much?” Macy asked.

  I told her the number.

  “Really?” Macy blurted. “For a secretary position?”

  “We treat our employees like people, not numbers.” It was something my grandfather and father taught me. Judge a man by how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.

  “Dude, I’d love that job,” Macy said. “I’d be the best damn secretary the world has ever seen.”

  I chuckled. “I like your enthusiasm. I’ll straighten out the details tomorrow.”

  “Will I be working on your floor?” she asked.

  “No. The fifth floor.” I’d probably never seen her.

  Lexie didn’t object once so I assumed she was okay with it.

  “Thanks so much, Conrad,” Macy said. “I’m eager to get out of here. I know you guys miss your privacy.” She was thoughtful and considerate, the polar opposite of what she used to be.

  “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you did,” I said.

  “But we’d like it if you moved on,” Lexie said quickly. “You know, because we’re engaged.”

  Macy didn’t take offense to that statement like she normally would. “What’s up with the wedding plans?”

  “We haven’t talked about it much.” It’d been a few weeks since the dust settled but we hadn’t revisited the conversation. Since we weren’t having a big wedding there was nothing to plan. All we had to do was get on a plane then say our vows when we stood on the beach.

  “But it’s still Hawaii?” Macy asked.

  “Definitely,” Lexie said. “Something small and pretty. I don’t want a Preston wedding.”

  “A Preston wedding?” Macy asked.

  “My sister had six hundred people at her wedding,” I explained. “It was quite the show.”

  “Damn,” Macy said. “I don’t even know that many people.”

  “It’ll be quiet and romantic,” Lexie said. “And we won’t need to leave for our honeymoon because we’ll already be on it.”

  �
��What are you guys waiting for?” Macy asked.

  I locked eyes with Lexie before I turned back to her sister. “Waiting a little longer for everything to return to normal. Sean isn’t back at work yet. Once he’s on his feet again we’ll start making plans.”

  “I’m so excited,” Macy said. “It’ll be beautiful. Can you imagine the Hawaiian sunset in the background while the breeze moves through your hair? And you’ll look so beautiful, Lexie.”

  Lexie couldn’t hide the surprise n her face. Her sister never gave her compliments. “Thanks…”

  ***

  “Con.” Lexie finished brushing her hair before she pulled my t-shirt over her head. Her back was to me as she got ready for bed.

  “Hmm?” I set my alarm on my phone before I rested my head on the pillow. Apollo preferred to sleep with Macy now, not that I minded. He was enormous and took up most of the bed. Not to mention, he always wormed his way between Lexie and I.

  Now he couldn’t keep us apart.

  “Did you say something to John?” She turned around and watched my face, waiting for a reaction.

  My heart skipped a beat at the insinuation. The only way she would know about that was if John spoke to her. And if that were the case, I’d have to rip his face off. I specifically told him to stay away from her. “John?” I played dumb without actually lying.

  She crawled on the bed until she was sitting beside me. “He called me today and apologized. It was pretty out of the blue.”

  Maybe I wouldn’t kick his ass after all.

  “And I think you had something to do with that.” She stared down at me with a hard expression. “Did you?”

  Now she put me right on the spot. “If you think I’m going to marry you and not do everything in my power to protect you, then you don’t know me very well.” I stared at the ceiling and avoided her look.

  “Con, I told you not to do anything.”

  “Well, too bad.” I sat up and met her gaze. “Nobody fucks with my woman and gets away with it. I didn’t hurt the guy so you can’t hold it against me.”

  “He said you choked him until he almost passed out.”

  I didn’t feel an ounce of remorse. “Okay…I didn’t hurt him that bad.”

  “You can’t do stuff like that, Con. You have too much to lose.”

  “You’re the most important thing in the world, Lexie. You come before everything else.”

  Her eyes softened. “That’s sweet, Con. But I don’t want you to get into trouble over this. I quit my job and I’ll never see him again. There’s no harm done.”

  “No harm done?” I asked coldly. “He harassed you.”

  “And it’s over,” she reminded me. “I handled the situation and left. I could have stayed and put up with it but I didn’t. I’m a smart girl who can take care of herself. I don’t need you fighting my battles for me.”

  “Too bad. That’s what you’re getting.” If I turned my cheek and looked the other way I wouldn’t be able to call myself a man. My job was to protect her and make her feel safe. Like a bear, I chased off other predators and marked my territory. The future Mrs. Conrad Preston didn’t take shit from anyone—and I didn’t either. “I’m glad he apologized to you.”

  “Me too,” she said quietly. “But I feel like he was coerced.”

  “I never asked him to do that.”

  “Maybe he was afraid of what would happen if he didn’t.”

  Then I did my job.

  She ran her hand up my chest then rubbed my shoulder. “It’s sweet that you protect me. But you don’t need to worry about me.”

  “I’ll always protect you, baby. And you’ll always protect me.” She’d risked her life for me before. And I would always do the same for her. We were a team. After everything we’d been through we were stronger than ever before. Only two people truly in love could make it this far.”

  She moved closer to me then straddled my hips. Once she was in my lap she circled her arms around my neck and rubbed her nose against mine. “Apollo isn’t here tonight…”

  “No, he’s not.” My hands moved to her ass under the t-shirt. “We have the bed to ourselves.”

  “What should we do with it?” She ran her fingers through my hair before she grinded her hips against me, rubbing my steadily growing hard on with her clitoris.

  “Maybe we should go to bed,” I teased.

  “I’m not tired. Are you?”

  My cock was at full mast and eager to be inside her. When she took the lead and showed this kind of confidence, I went crazy for her. She was the sexiest woman I’d ever been with, and the idea of only being with her for the rest of my life didn’t scare me.

  In fact, I was excited.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Cayson

  “I don’t understand any of this.” Skye stood beside me on the doorstep with Cedric in her arms. I carried her bag as well as Cedric’s diaper bag. We’d normally be home watching TV on the couch but I had different plans tonight. “You guys used to this when you were sixteen. We’re adults now.”

  “There’s no harm in it.”

  “But there’s no good in it either.”

  “Oh, come on. I know he’ll love it.”

  Skye didn’t drop her attitude, which was unlike her. She never protested against anything I wanted to do.

  “Baby, what’s wrong?” I didn’t knock on the door because we needed to finish this conversation first.

  “Nothing. I just think it’s childish.”

  “No, you don’t,” I said. “Now tell me the truth.”

  She cradled Cedric’s head with her hand. “I just…I’m scared to sleep without you.”

  I should have figured that out on my own. “You’ll be fine, Skye. You won’t be by yourself.”

  “It’s just too soon.”

  “Hey, listen to me.” I grabbed both of her shoulders. “What happened was terrible and terrifying. But it’s over. Your dad is right. We can’t live our lives in fear. We can’t let them win.”

  The fight slowly faded from her eyes. “I know but maybe it’s too soon.”

  “Skye, I know you can do this. Trinity will be here, and I’m sure Abe will be here too. Conrad is just a few floors down. You’re never really by yourself.”

  She nodded in agreement.

  “Tomorrow you’ll feel stronger knowing that you did it. I would never leave you if I thought there was any possibility of something happening. That’s something you can trust.”

  That was an argument she couldn’t beat. “You’re right, Cayson. I need to get over it and move on.”

  I pressed a kiss to her forehead before I kissed Cedric. “We’re okay?”

  She nodded.

  I knocked on the door and waited for Slade to answer it.

  He did a moment later. “Hey, what brings you guys here? We have a ton of leftover cake. You guys like chocolate, right?”

  The thing I liked most about our relationship was stopping by without a reason. He could come to our house whenever he wanted without a head’s up and it wouldn’t matter.

  “No thanks for me.” I patted my stomach. “Not a cheat day.”

  Slade rolled his eyes. “Shut the hell up. What about you, Skye?”

  “No thanks,” she answered. “It messes up my breast milk.”

  “Oh gotcha,” Slade said. “Come in.” He grabbed one of the bags from my hand and placed it by the door. “How’s War Chief?”

  “He’s good,” Skye said as she stared at him fondly. “Pretty exhausted. Had a long day with Grandpa.”

  Slade took Cedric from her hands and rocked him back and forth. “Hey, War Chief. Wants new with you?”

  He stared at Slade blankly before he gave an unexpected giggle.

  “You think I’m funny, little man?” He walked into the living room then spoke down the hallway. “Trin, Skye and Cayson are here.”

  “They are!” Trinity’s excited voice filtered to our ears. “I’ll be there in a second.”

  Slade
came back to us and handed Cedric back to Skye. “So what should we do tonight? Scrabble?”

  “Actually, I had something else in mind.” I set Skye’s bag on the ground. “You and me are spending the night in Wal-Mart. We’re gonna build a fort just like old times.”

  Slade’s smiled dropped, and a look of shock replaced it. “Shut the front door, man.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “We’re gonna camp out? No fucking way.”

  “Yes way.”

  “Yes!” He threw his fist into the air. “This gonna be so good. We’ll record the whole thing and post it on YouTube. We’ve never been caught before and we have to keep up the tradition.”

  Even though Skye thought it was stupid, she didn’t say anything. “Just don’t break any rules or get into trouble. Be respectful of their things.”

  “That’s a given,” Slade said. “We always return everything back to where we had it. So, you guys are coming along too? We’ve never had chicks in the fort before.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

  “Actually, I was hoping Skye could stay with Trinity.” I didn’t need to explain that Skye didn’t want to be alone. Slade knew everything that was going on in our personal lives. And I doubted Trinity wanted to be alone either.

  “Yeah, of course.” Slade thumped his forehead with is palm. “Should have assumed.”

  Trinity came out wearing a loose dress with tights underneath. She was the biggest she’d ever been, her stomach distended with the little person inside. “Hey. What a nice surprise.” She hugged both of us before she kissed Cedric.

  “Slade and Cayson are building a fort inside Wal-Mart,” Skye explained.

  Trinity gave her a blank expression.

  Skye shook her head. “I don’t get it either. But I thought I’d stay here with you—Cedric too.”

  “Yeah, of course.” She turned to Slade. “So…what are you doing?”

  “Remember when Cayson and I used to camp out overnight at Wal-Mart?” Slade asked. “We’d build a fort in the paper towel aisle and try not to get caught. Then we would leave in the morning.”

  She gave him the same blank look. “Slade, you’re a rock star. Why would you want to do that? Why don’t the two of you take a trip to Atlantic City or something?”