Chapter 6

I walk in to Duggan's and sit beside John, while not saying a word. We sit in silence for a few minutes as he finishes his drink. "You know," I say as I run my hands through my hair, "I think that it is going to rain tonight." Not knowing where to start, I give him a subtle opening into a conversation.

"Why didn't you tell me you had a boyfriend instead of leading me on?" John asks, his eyes distant and cold as ice.

I immediately become defensive. "I don't have a boyfriend, I wasn't leading you on. I told you I was only interested in being friends. He is just a friend…as if it is any of your business."

"Sure as hell could have fooled me! The way you ran into his arms, looked to me like you and he are more than just friends." John said angrily. He rises from the bar stool and pays his bill and starts to walk away.

"John, I don't know what you want from me. I thought we were friends. I thought that…" John rushes towards me, grabs my face and his lips crash down on mine. I forget what I am trying to say. His kiss is so soft, yet demanding. I lose myself in his kiss, his embrace. "Why did I fight this?" I thought as he pulls away slightly.

"Bailey, you know what I want from you. I want to be more than friends. I asked you out three seconds after we met. I really like you a lot. What is it going to take to get you to agree to be with me?" John whispers. His breath fanning across my cheek sending sexy little shivers down my spine. I haven't felt like this in a long time.

"You could have just kissed me…" I sigh.

"Lets go somewhere more private." He pulls me towards the door without resistance from me. He has me completely under his spell.

We slip outside and the cold Alaskan wind hits me. Suddenly, I am alert and focusing better, I start to panic. "John, wait. I can't do this right now." I plead; the panic in my voice stops him immediately. "I am not ready for this right now. Please understand, I have been divorced for only three months. I am not in the right mindset to get involved with you right now. That is why I want to be strictly friends for the time being."

"Bailey, Hun, I won't do anything you aren't ready for. Trust me. I just want to straighten this mess out so we can move on."

"I know. Come to my house. It is quiet there and the girls are gone to a friend's house, so there won't be any interruptions. Promise me you will behave and just talk?

"I promise." He shrugs and walks to his truck. "I will follow you."

I walk in my house with John behind me and I immediately sense the change in atmosphere. Something is wrong and it shakes me to my bones. I walk in to the living room and see my ex-husband on a chair in the living area. I raise my hand for John to stop before my ex sees him. I square my shoulders and ask in a very low. Threatening tone, "What are you doing here? How did you get in to my house?"

Paul rises from the chair with a cold, mean look on his face. "I am here to talk to you. You took my girls thousands of miles away and won't let me talk to them and now you ask me why I am here? What the hell, Bailey! Do you think that you can just keep them from me?"

"You never cared about them, all you cared about was getting what you wanted out of life and to hell with us. I haven't been keeping them from you; they just haven't wanted to talk to you. Every time you call it's not me hanging up on you, it's them. I am going to call the police and tell them I have an intruder."

Paul's face wrinkles in anger. "The hell you are…" He rushes towards me and grabs me by the neck and slams me against the wall. I hit my head hard and I see stars. Before I black out, I see John grab Paul and throw against the kitchen counter and start throwing punches.

As we walk in the house, I see Bailey stiffen and appear to grow two inches taller. She raises her hand for me to stop and I oblige. Something about the way she reacted made me listen to her. She stops as she turns the corner to her living area and appears to grow an inch more. Her voice turns from sexy husky, to threatening and scary. Bailey asks some one, "What are you doing here? How did you get in my house?"

The next I remember is a few policemen pulling me off of her ex husband and cuffing me. Bailey is sitting up talking to the paramedics and a policeman. I am put in the back of a cruiser and am told to wait. What seems like an eternity passes and I am pulled out of the car and uncuffed. "You are free to go, John. Your friend and the neighbor who called told us everything." The policeman walked back to his car and left. Paul was hauled off to the hospital unconscious and cuffed to the stretcher.

I walk over to Bailey, who is visibly shaking and wrap my arms around her. She melts in my arms crying. "I have never been so scared." She cried into my shoulder. "He has never been violent with me."

"Seems like you handled yourself just fine, sweetheart. I wouldn't want to be an intruder in your house. You looked really scary confronting him." I chuckled.

Bailey laughed and pulled back. I wiped the tears from her face and she smiled. "The girls are gone for the night, you want to come in for a while?"

"I couldn't think of anything else I would rather do…"

I pulled him over to the couch and we both sat. "I want to thank you for rescuing me. No one has ever done that for me."

"Any time…" John whispers and cups my face in his hands.

I move to sit on his lap facing him and he kisses me tenderly. He breaks away long enough to ask, "Is this really what you want?'

I smile a seductive smile, and lean in to kiss his neck. "Of course it is."

His kisses turn urgent and his hands are everywhere, taking my shirt off and throwing it on the floor. I moan with the pleasure of feeling a working mans hands on my skin. It is the right kind of rough with a soft caress. His touch is driving me wild. I move my hips in a slow rocking movement, over his erection. He moans with need as he palms my breasts with his hands and licks my nipples. I am shaking with adrenaline and need when he picks me up and lays me down on my couch. I tug on his pants to pull down his pants as he is pulling on mine.

He enters me and I instantly orgasm. He stops and smiles down at me. "Damn Bailey, this is going to be fun."

For the rest of the day, there was not a surface we wouldn't try. We only stopped for bathroom breaks and to eat and drink. By nightfall, we were beyond exhaustion. We curled up together in my bed and slept.

I am dreaming again, I just know it..."I have to go to my daughter", I think as I slide behind the wheel of my Jeep. I need to get to her and fast. I look over to see my mom slide in the passenger seat and I slam the car into drive. I make my way to highway 6 and I am speeding as I am trying to get her before the flood takes the school. I know my husband and father have my other child and they are safe and waiting. Suddenly, I see the road beginning to flood ahead of me. I make the stupid decision to drive across and I immediately get swept away. I get out of the car thinking I could swim across to get to the piece of land off to the side. Then ice comes rushing down the street. "I can do this", I think to myself. I have been swimming my whole life; I was more than confident I could make it. My mom floated up beside me and I drag her with me. I don't realize that the ice is starting to swirl, and I am swimming in circles. I start going numb and I realize I am going nowhere. That is when I give up and die…

I wake up gasping for air and I realize I am in Alaska and with John, not back home with the ex. I roll over and see John with his hair sticking up everywhere and he snoring softly. I think to my self, "Not again, I can't slowly drown again…"