Authors: Lauren Dane
Rick looked distinctly uncomfortable as did Tom but neither man said anything.
Maggie just sat there for a moment as she pushed the pain away and gathered her strength and self respect. Inhaling deeply she looked her mother straight on. “If that’s how you feel, Mother. Have a nice evening.”
“Wait just a darned minute, Cece Wright!” Polly stood up and came over to Maggie, putting a hand on her shoulder. Kyle held her hand on the other side.
“Yes, Polly? I suppose you’re going to butt in?”
“You can keep your snotty comments to yourself. Maggie’s coming to dinner with our family on Thanksgiving, where she’s loved and appreciated. Christmas, too. If you refuse to see what an exceptional daughter you have, well, you know, I’ve always wanted a daughter, what with four boys and all. You should be ashamed of yourself.” Maggie could feel the Chases build a protective wall around her.
Shane stood on the other side of Polly, Matt on the other side of Kyle.
Edward and Marc were on the other side of the table but had stood as well.
“Margaret should recognize her betters. She needs to accept that her sister is prettier and more successful than she is and stop being so bitter about it,” Cecelia snapped.
Maggie had had enough. She stood up. “Mother, you don’t know anything about it. I am
not
bitter that Jane Marie is pretty! I don’t know why you keep saying that, it simply isn’t true. But pretty isn’t everything!
You treated me, my whole life like nothing else mattered but pretty. Well what about when pretty goes away? What about when pretty only is on the surface? What about when she’s like you? Pretty on the outside but cold and heartless on the inside?
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“I told myself that if I could just do well in school that you’d appreciate me. That if I behaved and never got in trouble you’d love me, but it never happened. When I was nine and you told me that you wished you’d never had me because I left you with a C-section scar, I tried to tell myself that you didn’t mean it that way but you did. And I understand that now. I accept you for the monster you are, Mother.” Kyle looked at his family and they all bore the horrified look he had.
This woman told her child she wished she’d never had her, because of a scar? She’d just told her child in front of others that she wasn’t as good as her sister because she wasn’t as pretty?
“How dare you talk to Mom like that!” Jane Marie spat out. “You’re jealous of us both. Jealous of what we have!”
“This is so ridiculous I wish I could laugh. Janie, I’m not jealous of you. I am happy you are lovely and have a nice husband and a good life.
I won’t, however, let you or anyone else make me feel inferior anymore.
I’m done with being the family scapegoat. You all enjoy your night and Thanksgiving dinner.”
Janie grabbed Maggie’s arm then and towered over her. “You think you can hold a man like Kyle Chase just by opening your legs for him? I was a virgin on my wedding night. Too bad you can’t say the same thing.” The ugly words came out in a hiss.
Maggie looked at her sister, shock clear on her face. And then she narrowed her eyes. Kyle knew what was coming so he sat back and waited.
“How dare you say that to me, Jane Marie? You of all people. You sure you want to go down that road? Rick isn’t the only one of us who knows that’s a lie,” she said in a voice so quiet and low that it made the hair on Kyle’s arms stand up.
“How dare you say that! I was a virgin. You are just, again, jealous that you can’t get a man to marry you or even to date you without putting out.”
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Maggie sighed. “Okay then, why don’t we give old Charles a call, shall we? You remember him right? My old grad school advisor who was also my boyfriend? You know, the man who rucked your precious pleated Anne Klein skirt up around your waist and fucked you on my couch while you thought I was out on a walk? Don’t sell your bullshit about being a virgin to me, Jane Marie. I saw your legs wide open,
to my
boyfriend,
so I know the truth.” Jane Marie paled. “You…you, saw? You knew and never said anything?”
“What could I have said, Janie? How could I have conveyed how betrayed I felt? I mean, my whole life people told me how much prettier you were, I convinced myself that you were. That I couldn’t hold a man if you were after him too. I know a lot better these days. I’m a different person now.”
“What is she talking about?” Rick asked.
“Now all of you go on and have a nice evening. I’ve said all I needed to say and I feel ever so much better. Just think, now you can have the family you always wanted, Cecelia. Since you already pretend I don’t exist, it shouldn’t be hard.”
Maggie turned her back and sat back down between Kyle and Polly, who both hugged her tightly.
“Don’t come crawling back when he dumps you,” Cecelia spat out and they all moved off.
“Oh good lord. Who needs a drink?” Edward drawled.
Maggie raised a hand and he took it and kissed it. “You got it, baby girl. One stiff bourbon. Be back in two shakes.” Shane sat down as did Marc. Liv, Dee and Arthur, who had heard the whole thing, came over as well. Liv and Dee pushed in and each hugged her tightly. Polly looked over them at Kyle and her eyes were shining with unshed tears.
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“Good for you, Maggie. You should have said all of that a long time ago. I’m proud of you. By the way, how could you not tell me that Janie slept with your boyfriend?” Liv said.
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Not for a while. I can’t or I’ll lose it and I don’t want to. More and more people are showing up and I just can’t face being the focus of yet another town drama.”
“I’m sorry, sweetie,” Liv sat down in an empty chair, conveniently next to Matt. Dee and Arthur sat across from them on Marc’s other side.
“Here you go, sugar.” Edward put the bourbon in her hand and she downed it in three big gulps. His eyes widened for a moment and he laughed and put the one he got for himself in her hand as he exchanged it for the empty glass.
“I think you and I need a dance, Red,” Kyle said.
She stood up, knocked back the second bourbon and sat the glass down, looking back over her shoulder at Edward. “Thanks. I feel much better now.” He winked at her and watched as his son took her out to the dance floor, wrapping himself around her protectively.
“Our boy is falling in love with that little spitfire,” he said to his wife, who’d come to sit next to him.
“Yes, I think so too. It’s nice. She’s special. I can’t believe her family.
My goodness, how awful to tell a child you didn’t want her. To compare her to the other child and say she’s lacking.” Kyle looked down at Maggie and felt a protectiveness he’d never felt toward anyone other than his family. He felt possessive and full of admiration for the woman in his arms. “Baby, I’m sorry about all of that.” Maggie was snuggled into his body and she just shook her head, not wanting to talk. When the slow number ended he led her back to the table where luckily everyone had moved on to another topic.
“You hungry, Red? Wait, stupid question. You want me to grab you a plate?” Kyle teased.
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“No, I’ll come with. You’ll steal my food if I don’t guard it,” she said.
“Never come between Red and her food,” he told his family.
Despite the beginning of the evening, the rest of it was quite enjoyable. Maggie danced with every male Chase including hers, at least twice. She laughed with her friends and ate at least three platefuls of food. She saw Kyle talking to the DJ and then come back toward her, looking like the cat that ate the cream.
“What are you up to, Kyle Maurice Chase?”
“You know my darkest secret now.” He gave a quick look toward his mother. “My great grandfather was named Maurice. I narrowly escaped it as a first name.”
She chuckled and then cocked her head as a slow number came on.
One that she and Kyle had danced to at the Honky Tonk and later, had made love to. “Raining on Sunday” by Keith Urban.
“I’m beginning to think of this as our song. Care to dance with me, Red?”
She nodded and he led her out to the floor, pulling her snug against him. With a satisfied sigh, he kissed the top of her head before laying his cheek there.
Back at her house he drew her up the stairs to her room. “Let me love you, Maggie. Let me show you how special and beautiful you are,” he murmured.
“I’m yours, Kyle.”
He grinned. “I’m a lucky man.” He picked her up, gently putting her on the bathroom counter.
Watching her in the mirror he reached around to unzip the back of her dress. She shrugged out of the top of it while he pulled the rest of it
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off. Her nearly bare ass sat against the cool counter, her nipples tightened in her sheer bra.
“You look good, Red.” He popped the catch on the front of the bra and her breasts came free. He chuckled. “Now you look even better.” She grinned at him, looking into his face. “What is it about being nearly naked when you’re fully dressed that turns me on so much?”
“That’s a coincidence. It turns me on, too.” One handed, he pulled his pants open and his cock sprang free.
A gasp broke from her lips as he pulled her ass to the edge of the counter and she caught a glimpse of the flutter of colorful silk as he tossed her panties over his shoulder. The crinkle of the condom wrapper made her body tighten in response.
His fingertips brushed through the folds of her pussy, making sure she was ready. “God damn, so wet. Always so wet and ready for me.”
“Yes. Oh god, pleasepleaseplease, I need you, Kyle.”
“Yes, Red. On the way.” The fingers at her hip dug into her skin as he entered her hard, in one thrust. “Yesssss,” he hissed softly.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and turned her head, watching them in the mirrors. Saw a woman she didn’t recognize, small and sexy as a fully clothed man fucked into her. Watched that woman arch to take him in deeper. Listened to her pleas and orders.
“So beautiful. You’re so damned beautiful, Red. Look at yourself. See what I see every time I make love to you.” He met her eyes in the mirror.
“Sexy. Those long legs wrapped around me. Your eyes, hazy with pleasure. Lips, shiny wet.” He leaned in and nipped her bottom lip between his teeth, causing her to gasp. “I love the way your breasts move when I’m inside you. Love the way your pussy is so tight that it hugs my cock. You have no idea how hot you are deep inside. It drives me crazy.
Sometimes during the day I’ll be working and it’ll come over me suddenly—the sense memory of your pussy, clutching me, fluttering around my cock like it’s doing right now, just before you come.”
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He wet his fingers in her mouth and reached between them to find her clit, swollen and slick. “I want your orgasm, Red. Show me how gorgeous you are when you come.”
Her eyes blurred as her breath caught. Endorphins flooded her as she came, eyes still locked with his in the mirror.
“Oh, yes. That’s the way.” He groaned as his own climax shot from the balls of his feet straight into her body in wave after wave until he could no longer stand. They stumbled back into the bedroom together, collapsing on the bed.
She fell asleep fairly soon and he covered her with a blanket before getting up to take his clothes off. He watched the easy in and out of her breath and wanted to kick the crap out of anyone who hurt her or made her feel lacking in any way.
The next morning they made time for breakfast together before each left for the day.
“Your mother invited me to your family dinner tonight, Kyle,” Maggie said as she put a mug of coffee in front of him.
“Good. I’ll see you at six then.” He flashed that sexy smile.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to barge in or anything. And I…well, I don’t want you to get tired of me, seeing me every day.”
“Red.” He hooked an arm around her waist, pulling her to his lap. “I am not going to get tired of you. I like seeing you with my family, they like you. I enjoy being with you. We talked about this. I thought you were okay with it.”
“I thought I was. Are
you
sure? There’s an awful lot of drama in my life these days. It annoys me, it must really annoy you.” He sighed. “Sugar, I know how much of a number your mother did on you but you have to stop letting her influence you. Believe me, if I want
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some space I’ll say so. But I want to be with you. Do you want to be with me?”
Silently, she nodded her head. Afraid to say anything because if she did, she knew she’d blurt out that she loved him.
“That settles it then. I’ll see you at six tonight.” That night, she stopped by the grocery store to buy pecans and corn syrup for the pecan pies she was going to make for Thanksgiving and some lemons for the tartlets she wanted to try. On her way out she saw Alex Parsons come in and fear gnawed at her. He watched her warily and when it was clear she was leaving, he went back toward the dairy section.
She ran home and put away her groceries and changed, putting her hair back with a loose clip. Once she’d arrived at the Chase’s, Marc came out as he saw she was walking up the front steps. “Thought I’d grab my hug and some sugar out here. Kyle’s crazy jealous.” He gave her a kiss on the temple as he chuckled.
Grinning, she shook her head at his cheek. Once inside, Kyle saw her and got up to give her a hello kiss. “I saw that brother of mine out there, I suppose he accosted you.”
“A girl doesn’t tell tales,” she said before going into the kitchen to say hello to Polly where she helped set out the food on the dining room table.
“Boys! Dinner is ready,” Polly called out and they all came in rapidly.
Edward held out Polly’s chair and Kyle held out Maggie’s. He settled in next to her and within minutes, plates were filled and people had eaten enough to take the edge off and begin talking.
“I saw Alex today,” Maggie said quietly.
Shane looked up at her with serious eyes. “Where?”
“At the market. I was leaving. He was coming in. He waited to see which way I’d go and then went in the opposite direction. I hope that means he’s going to obey the court order.”