Chapter 4 of 5
Something was different. Wade wasn't exactly sure what it was, but something had definitely changed since the last time he came calling on Annabeth. She had been the one to text him this time, asking if he had a mind to come by after his shift. He had responded pretty soon after, letting her know he would be there in a half hour.
He had arrived on her doorstep not ten minutes ago, her pulling him inside, already in nothing but lingerie, clearly more than ready to get down to business, and yet, while he was giving the situation his all, she seemed a little off her game. Kind of quiet and sad maybe. There was no way he could ignore it, no way he couldn't ask her about it.
"Hey, what's goin' on?" he asked, pulling back to get a better look at her, eyes searching her face. "You feelin' okay?"
"Sure, I'm fine," she told him, but the smile she wore was as fake as any he ever saw her wear - lying just wasn't like Annabeth at all. "Why wouldn't I be fine?"
Wade shook his head and shifted away from her, lying on his side with his head propped on his hand. Something was wrong, he just knew it. Unfortunately, he wasn't sure what that something was and Annabeth seemed bound and determined not to tell him about it. At least, not unless he prodded at the problem some more, apparently.
"Well, sweetheart, call me crazy, but your heart doesn't really seem to be in this," he told her, gesturing between them with his free hand, "in spite of the fact that you asked me over and seemed more than ready for action when I first walked in," he noted, eyes travelling down her body without shame. "You know, if you changed your mind and want me to leave, I can go, no harm, no foul. In fact, if you're wanting to end this little arrangement we have-"
"No!" AB said so fast and so loud, she actually genuinely startled him, at the same time scrambling to sit herself up as she went on to explain. "Wade, no, I don't want that. I really don't," she insisted, hands covering her face in the very next moment, before she pushed her fingers back through her hair. "I am so sorry."
She sounded strangely defeated in the way she apologised to him, which was weird in and of itself. Still, Wade had to admit, if only inside his own head, that he was oddly relieved to hear her say she didn't want to end things. Not that he couldn't get his kicks elsewhere, if he had a mind to, but there was something about Annabeth and what they had started sharing here together. Wade just wasn't ready for it to be over yet.
"Okay, so the truth is... it's Lemon," Annabeth started to explain. "I told her. About Jake, and then, about us and what we've been doing. She was more than a little shocked and... and very judgey about the whole thing. I don't know, I probably shouldn't have told her in the first place. I'm so sorry that I did."
Wade shook his head. "I'm sorry for you if she was weird with you about it, but for myself, I don't care," he assured her, his hand on hers, squeezing comfortingly. "Sweetheart, you can tell the whole damn world if you have a mind to. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I only kept this whole thing to myself for you. Keep your reputation and all."
"Thank you for that, but you know, I'm starting to wonder... why do I have anything to be ashamed of either? Jake left me. I didn't cheat, he did. My marriage is null and void before God, if not yet on paper, and it soon will be on paper too, let me tell you. I am determined on that."
"Well, good for you, sweetheart," Wade told her without pause.
That won him a winning smile from Annabeth, an expression he was more than glad to see, especially after all her upset a minute ago. This whole thing had started with her being sad, a situation Wade had been more than happy to rectify. She sure did seem a lot more cheerful since they began seeing each other, and truth to say, he found himself smiling an awful lot in the past while too. Not just when they saw each other and spent a whole lot of time in bed, but when she text or called him, when they saw each other at the Rammer Jammer or in the street and such. Even when he was alone and just recalling something Annabeth said or did, or simply the way she would look at him sometimes.
She was funny and smart and sexy as hell. Wade couldn't find one quality in her that he didn't like. For all her weeping over that heel Jake Nass a while back, he couldn't imagine her doing so now. She was a tower of strength whenever that asshole's name happened to come up. Plus, she told Lemon Breeland about this whole affair and didn't seem willing to stand for her telling her it was wrong. In all kinds of ways, Annabeth impressed Wade to no end and he planned on telling her so.
Shifting closer, he put his hand to the back of her neck and pulled her close, kissing her firmly on the lips.
"You know, what?" he asked her right after, so close still that their noses were practically touching. "I think you're a whole lot stronger than you think you are, Annabeth Thibodaux. I actually think you're all kinds of amazing, truth be told."
Though she continued to smile, there were tears welling in her eyes and a hint of blush in her cheeks at the sound of his completely honest compliment. Then suddenly she was kissing him, throwing her body full force into his own, making it plain she was fully invested in them getting down to just exactly what they had originally intended now. Wade had no reason to want to argue at all, so he didn't.
"No, no. Not this morning," said Annabeth, grabbing a hold of Wade's shirt when they hit the bottom of the stairs and he tried to head for the back door. "I have decided that I am done hiding," she said definitely, literally dragging him to the front door instead.
"Uh, AB, are you sure...?" he began to ask, but Annabeth already had the door open, stepping out onto the porch and encouraging Wade to go out there with her.
He looked surprised, which only made Annabeth more determined in her plan. She had come to like surprising folks, shocking them even. For the longest time, she assumed that Wade Kinsella, of all people, was completely unshockable, but she had fast learned that was not the case. Some of the things she was up for trying in the bedroom seemed to astound him as much as please him, but this? This was something else entirely.
"You are fast becoming as brazen as I am, sweetheart," he told her, wearing that devastating smile that never failed to make her knees go weak - Annabeth loved that smile.
"You better believe it," she told him, her arms reaching up around his neck the moment he was close enough.
"Come on now, you gotta be sure this is what you want," said Wade, side-eyeing the view from the porch, almost as if he expected the whole town to be standing there, like a captive audience for a stage play. "Now, I meant what I said before. This secret with us, I have been keeping that only for your sake. I have nothing to be ashamed of."
"Well, I don't either," she said determinedly. "Let the whole town talk if they want to. I do not care anymore."
She tilted her chin and spoke plain enough, so he couldn't doubt she meant every word. He ought to realise there was very real determination in her, admittedly bolstered up by Wade himself telling her how strong he truly believed her to be.
"You do know you have never been sexier than you are right now, right?" he told her, not even giving her a chance to breathe never mind process before he kissed her long and hard on the mouth.
There was no part of Annabeth that wanted to argue or protest at all. Nobody kissed like Wade Kinsella could, and she knew for a fact, as most women did, that it wasn't all front. He could deliver on the promises that kind of kiss made and if he didn't stop soon, she was pretty sure she was going to have to drag him back inside and make them both late for work. Just when she was sure her knees were going to buckle and her eyes were going to completely roll up inside her head, he let her go.
"I figure if the neighbours are gonna talk, ought to give them somethin' really worth the trouble," Wade told her, eyes glittering with fun.
"I think you more than achieved that," said Annabeth breathlessly. "So, I'll see you again soon?"
"Yes, you will," he promised, arms finally sliding away from her body as he turned to go.
Annabeth put her hands on the porch rail and leaned heavily against it, sure she didn't have it in her to go back inside just yet. She really didn't trust her legs at all and her head was truly spinning, but in the best way.
Watching Wade walk away down the street, hands in his pockets and whistling a happy tune, she couldn't help but grin. That was her man. Okay, so not in any kind of official way. They weren't married, not even dating actually, but it was her bed he spent the night in, not for the first time. Not for the last either, she hoped.
When he was out of sight, her gaze shifted to the neighbours' houses, the curtains seeming to twitch at more than one window. If anything, that made Annabeth want to smile all the more.
"Yes, let the neighbours talk," she said to herself, turning around to head back inside. "Say what you will, folks," she dared them loudly, though probably not quite loud enough for anyone to hear. "Y'all are only jealous!" she declared, closing the door behind her.
The reaction was not at all what Annabeth had been expecting. Though she tried not to care if anybody judged her for carrying on with Wade Kinsella, she still expected that they would do it all the same. Though there was some whispering that she suspected contained less than complimentary things about her behaviour, for the most part, the people around her seemed happy for her, and even a little jealous, as she suspected some might be.
After all, Wade Kinsella was quite the catch. Sure, he had been with a lot of women, but he was usually the love 'em and leave 'em type, and everybody knew it. Annabeth had some sort of semi-permanent arrangement with a man that most couldn't hold on to even when they tried. That wasn't nothing.
"I mean, I am still so shocked about Jake," said Crickett, shaking her head, "but Wade Kinsella? Annabeth Nass, I am so impressed!"
"Agreed," said Tara Jane. "I mean, I know several ladies that have been, shall we say, led astray for a night or two, but nobody ever had a real live affair with the stud before."
"Certainly not a Belle, in any case," Elodie said pointedly. "You all recall he was married to Tansy Truitt for some time."
"Well, yes, dear, but that hardly counts," Tara Jane insisted. "I did say several ladies.'"
Annabeth wasn't sure what to make of the reaction from her sister-Belles. All she did know was, as the conversation continued, with much talk of Wade's many previous conquests, she started to feel a little queasy. It was so stupid, because she knew as well as anyone that Wade had a reputation and that there was a good reason for that. He had a lot of sex, that was no surprise to anyone, but in the last few weeks, she had started to just not think about that. To not consider how long a line of other females had shared a bed with Wade before her.
It stuck in her mind and she couldn't seem to shift it, to the point where she actively avoided seeing Wade for a couple of days. Even though she was missing him so bad by the time he text and asked if she wanted him to come over that night that she just had to say yes, she still couldn't quiet the voice in her head, prodding at her about how she was just another name on a real long list. That list was probably growing longer even now.
"Wade?" she said, looking over at him on the other side of her bed.
"Hmm?" he murmured, half-asleep after another 'vigorous workout'.
"I just was wondering... You know how you get these crazy questions in your head and you just can't shift them until you get the answer? It's kind of one of those."
Wade opened one eye and peered at her. "What kinda question?"
"Well, I was just thinking about the first time, you know, that you slept over," she said, strangely delicately for a woman currently naked in bed, aching and tingling in all the best ways from the activities she just enjoyed with the very man she was talking to. "Uh, I told you then that, before you, I only ever slept with one man, so I was wondering..."
"You wanna know how many men I slept with?" he asked, smirking terribly, "'Cause, baby, I don't know what kinda fantasies you got goin' on in your head, but I'm strictly a sleepin' with women type o' guy."
"Oh, no, no, no," Annabeth said fast, shaking her head. "I wasn't... Not that there's anything wrong with people that do, I'm just not... Um, what I mean is," she started over, putting a hand to her face for a moment as she got her bearings, "I was just wondering, before me, exactly how many women were there?"
"Wow," said Wade, sitting up a little and running a hand down his face. "I gotta admit, I never exactly kept score or whatever. More than the average, I guess."
"Uh-huh." Annabeth nodded, unsure what other answer she really could have expected.
"That bother you?" he checked. "Because, let's be honest, AB, you knew what kinda life I led before we ever-"
"Oh, no, I'm not suggesting I didn't know you had your share of female company, or even more than your share, probably," she said, smiling more out of embarrassment than anything else now. "It was just a question, not important."
"You sure on that?" Wade checked, seeming to search her face for a truthful answer.
Annabeth faced him head on and nodded. "I'm sure. The past is the past, doesn't need to bother anybody. I guess it's only the present that really matters," she considered. "So, maybe my question should've been, how many are there right now? I mean, besides me."
She wasn't even looking at him when she said it, though she wasn't sure what was making her so shy all of a sudden. When she felt the bed shift, Annabeth actually worried that Wade was getting out to leave, offended or affronted in some way by her question. Instead, she suddenly found him kneeling close by her, his hand reaching out to push the hair from her face as he met her eyes.
"Right now, there is just you, sweetheart," he promised her, truthful as anything he had ever said, she was sure on that. "Come on now, insatiable as you are, I couldn't handle any more," he insisted, making her laugh as her hand came up to cover his own that still lingered at her cheek.
"You know, if you wanted to... I mean, we could cool things down a little, if you wanted to, sort of, look elsewhere?"
She wasn't sure why she was saying such a thing. The very last thing she wanted was for Wade to give her up now, but somehow, she needed to give him the choice, even if she was pretty sure he would rather give up on her than his wandering ways.
"Are you kidding me?" he asked her, completely serious, apparently as he leaned in real close. "AB, I am perfectly happy with what I have right now, okay?"
"Okay," she agreed, nodding her head, right before he kissed her, laying her down to prove to her all over again just exactly how happy he was to be with only her right now.