Beyond The Checkered Flag by J.D. Wylde Read Free Book Online Page B

“Does this mean I’m part of your team?”
    “It means you’re the most important part of me ,” he
solemnly told her.
    Her heart melted. “Thank you.”
    “My pleasure. Or it would have been my pleasure,” he
playfully teased as he tugged the shirt over her head. And she was quite sure
he was making up for not getting laid by taking his sweet ol’ time smoothing
the soft cotton down over her chest.
    “You done?” she teased, swatting at his hands.
    “I guess as done as I’m gonna get.”
    She turned to catch her reflection in the mirror. The bright
red tee shirt hugged her small curves. His car’s number thirty-five was embroidered
across her breasts like false advertising of her bra size. Her hand rested
between her small breasts. Her self-consciousness at their petite size had her once
again wishing for things she didn’t have. Just like when she’d been a kid.  
    He wrapped his arms around her as he stood behind her. “I
think your breasts are perfect,” he softly told hear, reading her mind. “Just
like you,” he added, pressing a gentle kiss to her temple. “You are perfect,
you know.”
    She dipped her head, suddenly shy. Only Bobby Wayne had ever
thought her perfect.
    “And you make me very happy.”
    “Well, in that case, Mister Forsythe,” Lauren turned in his
arms and slowly unsnapped his shirt. She tugged it from his jeans, pushing it
off his broad shoulders and down his arms, before letting it drop to the floor.
“I do believe you’re going to get that pleasure you’ve been wanting so badly,”
she added, reaching for his belt buckle.  
    * * *
    “We need to do that more often,” Bobby Wayne told her a while
later as he tucked his shirt back into his jeans.
    She totally agreed, pulling her own tee shirt over her head.
    He ran his hands through his hair while she scrambled to drag
her disheveled curls into a pony tail. “Sex with you does a number on my makeup
and my hair,” she whined. “I look—”
    “—Like a woman who just had a hell of a good time rockin’ her
man’s world.”
    “A mess – that’s what I was thinking.” She fussed with
another attempt at a pony tail. “I look—”
    “Beautiful? Happy?” He paused in buttoning the fly on his
jeans. The lightness of his teasing words belied the uncertainty shadowing his
eyes.
    And Lauren stopped her whining; somehow knowing she was
standing at the edge of something… wonderful. Something she’d wanted all her
life. Something this man was ready to give her, if she’d just stick it out. She
inhaled a long, slow, steadying breath as she waited for the doubt to push her
toward the front door. But there was nothing but… happiness . And
contentment. She was where she was supposed to be. She was with who she was
supposed to be with.
    She stepped closer. Tenderly touched the side of his handsome
face. “I am happy,” she softly told him before pressing a gentle kiss to his
mouth. “I’m very happy.”
    “Good.” He breathed deep. Hauled her close. Hugged her hard
and kissed her thoroughly. He dropped a Forsythe racing baseball cap on her
head and tugged her haphazard pony tail through the opening in the back. “So
what do you say we go buy us a bed to celebrate?”
    * * *
    The beautiful antique bed was delivered three days ago. Set
up and christened in the newly remodeled master bedroom upstairs. The missing
Civil-War-era dresser Bobby had bought her when they’d been married had been miraculously
resurrected and returned to its rightful place.
    In a way Lauren had been returned to her rightful place, too.
She was happy here, in this house, with Bobby Wayne. The kind of happy that
went beyond good sex, to that of two hearts that knew love and now beat as one.
She hadn’t turned on a radio, or a television, and except for the clandestine
outing when they’d gone out to buy the bed, she had no contact with the outside
world.
    Reality would eventually intrude on their happiness, but for
now…  
    “You’re