She couldn’t think of a better way to end their honeymoon than spending the rest of it with Jason, sleeping in until noon, making love by the pool and ending their nights, naked, sated and knowing this was only the beginning.
“So, this honeymoon wasn’t a complete disaster then?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her and pulled her back into the water where she immediately wrapped her arms and legs around him and leaned in for a kiss.
“It’s perfect,” she assured him with a kiss that told him exactly what she had in mind for the rest of the afternoon.
“And this curse?” he asked sounding oddly amused as he leaned back from her kiss and turned them around.
“Is nothing more than a few old wives tales overplayed to scare future generations,” she said firmly, wondering what it would take for him to see that this whole thing had just been a series of bad mistakes, nothing more. Perhaps another bowl of buttercream frosting would do the trick, she thought with a smile as she leaned in to kiss her husband when she realized something very important.
They weren’t alone.
Swallowing past that suddenly large lump in her throat, she tightened her hold around Jason, for some reason hoping that the move would make this easier, and squinted over his shoulder at several khaki, pink and tan blobs.
“What exactly am I seeing?” she whispered as she squeezed her eyes shut tightly and ducked as far as the water and Jason’s large body would allow without the risk of drowning.
“Oh, you mean the group of people standing by the pool, openly staring at us?” he asked in an offhand tone that was really going to earn him an appointment with her fists of fury later.
“Yes!” she seethed with embarrassment. “Them! What are they doing?”
“Well,” he began with a bored sigh as he looked over his shoulder, “it appears that one of them is trying to take pictures with his cellphone without his wife knowing about it.”
“David!” came the horrified gasp, confirming Jason’s suspicions and making her bury her face against his chest.
“And the rest?” she hated to ask, but she had to know.
“Appears that our real estate lady was wasting no time in showing both properties so that I could buy you that old house on Oak to fix up while I tried to save up enough money to build you your dream home.”
“Oh, I see,” she said, unable to stop the pleased smile that teased her lips or kiss his chest to show him how much she loved him. He really was the sweetest man alive, she decided even as she continued to use his large body as a shield from the onlookers who for some reason were still standing there, staring at them.
“As for the rest of them, I can only guess that one of them was probably called to tow the truck away, the police officer is probably here to fine us for abandoning the truck by the side of the road, a few of the of the neighbors who didn’t feel like waiting on the sidewalk decided to come get a closer look, a pizza delivery guy apparently decided to follow the crowd, and your grandmother is sitting in her wheelchair, thrusting her cane in the officer’s face who’d apparently made the mistake of making eye contact with her.”
“Oh, I see,” she mumbled weakly, wondering what the odds were of her swimming to the other side of the pool and jumping out and making a mad dash across the deck to the safety of the double patio doors without being seen were.
Definitely not good, at least not unless by some miracle a pair of glasses were to miraculously float past her, providing her with the ability to escape what was quickly becoming one of the most mortifying moments in her life without making it worse by running face first into a wall or something. Well, at least she could safely hide behind Jason until everyone got bored and moved on, she decided because she refused to acknowledge this little incident and give Jason’s asinine theory about this being some sort of-
“Young lady, what the hell are you doing in that pool with him?” the terrifyingly familiar voice demanded, adding just enough acid to his tone at the end there that there was no mistaking who the speaker was or what he was really angry about.
“Please tell me that my father isn’t here,” she whispered with dread as she let her legs fall free from Jason’s hips.
“I’m afraid that I can’t do that, my little grasshopper,” Jason said, softening his words with a kiss to her temple.
“Then what can you tell me?” she asked with a pathetic whimper even as she shifted to the side so that she could squint in the direction where she felt the murderous glare concentrated on her.
“That your entire family finally showed up for a visit.”
Chapter13
“Do you want me to handle this?” his father asked from where he sat next to him on the front stoop.
“You are not staying married to him!” they heard Haley’s father shout in response to something Grandma said.
“No,” Jason said with a slight shake of his head as he grabbed the shirt his father held out to him and quickly pulled it on. “I’ll handle this.”
“If it makes you feel any better, this curse is almost finished with you,” his father said, giving him a reassuring smile as Jason stood up and straightened his clothes as he did his best to ignore the audience that refused to leave.
“There’s no curse, Dad,” he explained before adding, “Besides, if there was one, it would have ended the moment that I got Haley home.”
“That would have only prolonged the curse, son.”
“And you know this how?” Jason asked, seriously tempted to turn the hose on their unwanted audience.
His father chuckled weakly as he rubbed his hands roughly down his face. “Just trust me on this one. The curse won’t end until you put an end to this nightmare.”
“And how exactly am I supposed to do that?”
“How dare you embarrass your father by marrying the help!” Mrs. Blaine shouted, adding her thoughts to the matter that up until now Jason had agreed to let Haley handle.
“Claim your bride, son,” his father said, getting to his feet, “Claim your bride.”
“You’d do anything for attention, Haley! Anything!” one of his lovely sister-in-laws cried as Jason let his father’s words sink in.
“I can’t believe you wrecked our vacation for this!”
“You’re so selfish, Haley!”
“You never think about anyone besides yourself!”
“Where are you going, Jason?” his father asked as he opened the door and headed inside.
“To claim my wife,” he said, letting the door slam shut behind him. Other than pause long enough to shoot him looks with varying degrees of disgust, her family continued to scream at Haley, trying to talk some sense into her.
“What the hell is wrong with you marrying someone like him?” one of her sisters demanded as she gestured towards him with a well-manicured hand. “I know that you don’t have much going for you, but that doesn’t mean that you had to settle for a loser, Haley!”
“He’s only after your money!”
“What the hell is wrong with you? Are you that desperate for attention that you’d be willing to settle for a loser like-Ow!” Mr. Blaine bit off with a wince of pain that only turned into a cringe when Grandma pulled her cane back and let him have it again and again, and probably would have taken another swing at her son if Jason hadn’t reached over and gently pulled the item away before she could do any serious damage.
“Mother,” Mr. Blaine bit out, glaring down at his mother from a safe distance across the room, “this is for her own good.”
“This isn’t your choice,” Grandma said with a firm nod as she discretely reached over and-
“No,” Jason said firmly, placing the cane well out of reach from Grandma and her desperate need to beat the shit out of her family with the hopes that they could talk this through, but Mr. Blaine seemed to have an agenda all his own.
“Take the girls home, sweetheart,” Mr. Blaine said with a forced smile as his attention shifted to Jason and stayed there.
“I really think that we should handle this as a family,” Mrs. Blaine said in a stern tone even as she gestured for her daughters to make their escape while they still could.
As the three women filed out of the room, not a single one of them glanced at Haley to offer her their support. They simply escaped, leaving Mr. Blaine to handle something they clearly deemed beneath them.
“Why don’t you go to your room as well?” Mr. Blaine suggested, but Haley stubbornly sat there, shaking her head.
“No.”
“Haley,” Jason said with a soft smile, touched that she cared so much about him that she was willing to sit there and endure more of her father’s bullshit for him, “everything will be fine. I promise.”
“I’m not going,” she said more firmly as she looked up and met his gaze head on.
Knowing better than to argue with his wife, and already deciding that her fucked up family wasn’t worth fighting about, he settled for sitting on the couch by his wife’s side and taking her hand in his while they waited for her father to cut to the bullshit and get this over with.
He didn’t keep them waiting long.
“Take this and leave my daughter alone,” Mr. Blaine said, pulling out a blank envelope and handed it to Jason.
Keeping his gaze locked with Mr. Blaine’s, he opened the envelope and passed it to Haley, who took it into her trembling hands.
“It’s a hundred grand,” Mr. Blaine announced when it became obvious that Haley couldn’t make out the numbers on the check.
“I’m more than willing to double that if it means saving you from this mistake, Haley.”
“I’m not interested in your money, Mr. Blaine,” Jason said, plucking the check out of Haley’s hands and handed it back to Mr. Blaine, who only seemed angrier as he pointedly stepped away, refusing to take the check.
“I’ll triple it.”
“For God’s sakes! If they need money, I’ll give it to them,” Grandma said with a huff as she reached for her cane, but Jason wasn’t having that.
“Chris,” he said, keeping his gaze locked on Mr. Blaine’s, “please take Grandma home and remind her that if she ever suggests giving us so much as a penny again, that I will pull her over my knee and beat her with her cane.”
Instead of arguing, which he’d realized that she liked to do a lot by this point, Mrs. Blaine simply smiled as her helper rolled her out of the house.
“I’m not interested in your money or your family connections, Mr. Blaine. I married Haley because I love her and plan on making her happy. If that’s not good enough for you, then I’m sorry, but there’s nothing that you could offer me that would make me walk away from the best thing in my life,” he said, letting the check drop to the floor when Mr. Blaine refused to take it back.
“It’s been a very long week, so if you don’t mind, I plan on grabbing a shower and turning in early since I have a hell of a mess to clean up in the morning.”
With that, he leaned over and kissed the top of Haley’s head, praying that it wouldn’t be the last time, and forced himself to walk away, knowing that he had to give her the freedom to handle this situation. No matter how he felt about them, this was her family and he would never do anything to come between them.
So, if having Haley in his life meant that he had to put up with boring dinner parties, bullshit dinners and uncomfortable family gatherings, then that’s exactly what he would do for her. He’d keep his mouth shut, show her parents the respect that his had taught him and simply be there for her.
With that depressing future weighing heavily on his mind, he walked down the hallway, took a shower and climbed onto her bed all while waiting for her to say or do something that told him that she needed him. When nothing came after a few more minutes, he closed his eyes and resigned himself to enduring more of her family’s bullshit.
“He’s gone,” Haley whispered sadly as she joined him, curling up against him.
“Are you okay?” he asked, turning over onto his side so that he could take her in his arms.
“I’m fine,” she said, focusing all of her attention on running the tips of her fingers through the sparse hair covering his chest.
“I’ll go talk to him this week and try to fix this,” he promised her even as he had to resign himself to the fact that he would have to do it without giving in to the urge to beat the shit out of his new father-in-law.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Haley said with a careless shrug that he was buying.
“Oh,” he said, tucking a loose strand of her hair behind her ear, “and why’s that?”
“Because I’m pretty sure that my family just disowned me,” she said firmly seconds before her body started to tremble against his and the soft sobs that she was trying to hold back finally found an escape.
As he held her in his arms, his heart breaking right along with hers, he swore that he would never let her suffer like this ever again.
“Jason?”
“Hmm,” he murmured, kissing her shoulder as he shifted so that she could curl up on her side, facing away from him.
“Can you do me a favor?” she whispered even as she grabbed his hand and hugged it to her chest.
“Anything,” he swore, knowing that he would do whatever it took to make this up to her.
“Put an end to this honeymoon from hell, please.”
“Consider it over,” he swore with a small smile as he leaned over and kissed her shoulder, more than happy to put this bullshit behind them and move on with their lives.
“Jason?” she whispered as he closed his eyes, more than ready to put this day behind him.
“Yeah?” he managed around a yawn.
“I-I don’t think it’s over yet.”
“Why do you say that?” he grumbled, struggling to open his eyes.
“Remember the kitty?”
“Yeah?”
“I can’t be sure, but I think he’s sitting on the edge of the bed and it looks like he’s about to-”
*-*-*-*
“Son of a bitch!” she heard Jason snap as he stumbled wildly around the room and as much as she would have loved to help him, she just couldn’t seem to stop laughing.
“S-stop fighting it,” she managed to get out as she was forced to reach out and grab onto the edge of her bureau when her uncontrollable laughter and the cramp in her side threatened to drop her on her ass where she would no doubt continue to laugh her ass off at her husband as he struggled to free himself from the fluffy orange puff ball latched onto his back.
“That’s it!” he snapped, sounding seriously pissed off, which given what they’d gone through over the past couple of days, that was saying a lot.
Pressing a hand against her side as she struggled to catch her breath, she watched as Jason’s blurry figure stormed across the room to the bathroom. A few seconds later the sounds of the shower starting and a cat hissing in outrage filled the otherwise quiet room. Before she could catch her breath or check to make sure that he was okay, he was coming for her, picking her up and tossing her on the bed.
“W-what are you doing?” she managed to get out between giggles.
“Putting an end to this goddamn honeymoon,” he snarled as he ripped her panties clean from her body.
“What are you-oh, my God!” she gasped as he buried his head between her thighs.
“The honeymoon is fucking over,” he bit out, sliding a finger inside her as she lay there, struggling to understand what sex had to do with anything.
“You are mine,” he snarled possessively against her clit as he teased her to the point that she really didn’t care that he was having some sort of psychotic episode, not as long as he kept doing that thing with his tongue.
“Jason,” she found herself moaning his name as she threaded her fingers through his hair, encouraging him to continue even as she sent the silent warning that she would be forced to kill him with her bare hands if he so much as thought about stopping what he was doing.
“So fucking sweet,” he growled against her skin, leisurely licking her out as she continued to run her fingers through his hair, needing something to do while a pleasurable buzz spread over her body, leaving her barely able to moan his name.
“I love you, Haley,” he whispered softly as he suddenly moved up her body.
She wrapped her arms around his damp shoulders, spread her legs and gasped when he slid inside her. She pulled his face down and kissed him as he moved inside her with firm, hard strokes, clearly