Fighting for Love (Second Chances #4)(57)
SHELBY TEXTED ME AT NINE o’clock and told me to head on over since Lexi wasn’t feeling good and needed to go home. By the time I got to her house and parked the truck, all was quiet and the lights were turned off. Both of the front doors were unlocked, so I walked inside and locked them behind me, not too happy that Shelby had the doors unlocked while she was alone in the house. The only light in the room were the candles Shelby had laid out on the kitchen counter and table.
“Angel, it’s not really smart to leave your doors unlocked at night. Anyone could come in.”
“You mean someone like you,” she murmured from the doorway to her room. “Don’t worry, I only unlocked them when I heard you pull up in your truck.”
The second my gaze found her, standing there in black see through lingerie, I wanted to carry her into the bedroom and wrap those long legs of hers around me. Smiling, she glanced down at my pants before lifting her gaze to mine. By the glassy look in her eyes and the empty bottle of wine on the counter I’d say she was feeling pretty good.
“Are you drunk?” I asked.
She laughed, but it was that deep, husky laugh of hers that she always used when we were in bed together. “Actually, I’m not, but I’m feeling good now that you’re here,” she said, rubbing up against me. She nodded toward the empty bottle of wine. “Lexi accidentally tipped over the bottle so most of it went down the drain. I did get two glasses of it though.”
Wrapping my arms around her waist, I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, and down her neck to her bare collarbone. “What did you girls do tonight?”
She moaned when I nipped the skin on her shoulder. “We ate some pizza and talked,” she replied breathlessly.
Sliding the strap off her shoulder, I pulled her lingerie down, exposing her left breast, and wrapped my lips around her nipple. In between sucks, I asked, “Is … that … it?”
“No,” she groaned, digging her nails into my biceps. “We took some goofy pictures together like we used to do back in the day. Do you want to see them?”
“Not yet, angel. I want to make love to you first. After that you can show me whatever you want.”
Lifting her under the legs, I carried her into the bedroom and gently placed her on the bed. It was my turn to show her a good time.
“SO WHERE ARE THESE PICTURES you took?” I asked. “I have to see what you girls consider to be fun.”
Standing naked in front of her dresser, she fumbled through her drawers and pulled out a little pink T-shirt and a pair of light yellow boyshort underwear. “You’ll have to upload them onto my laptop. I didn’t have a chance to do it because someone was awfully persistent on making love to me the moment he walked in the door,” she added teasingly.
She handed me her laptop and the memory card out of her camera before lying beside me on the bed, yawning. “I was seriously about to upload them right before I heard your truck come down the road. If you want to do it for me that’d be great. I can barely keep my eyes open.”
Pulling the covers over us, she snuggled into my side and put her hand on my chest. I shut off the lamp to my left, leaving the only light in the room coming from the laptop resting on my thighs. Shelby’s breathing slowed down almost instantly and it wasn’t long before her hand relaxed and slid off my chest.
Sliding the memory card into her computer, I pressed the button to have all of her pictures imported to her laptop. Since it was going to take a while for them to upload, I checked my emails and surfed around on the internet for a while. Curiosity, however, got the better of me. Searching through her picture files, I wanted to see if I could get a glimpse into her past, to see what she had been doing for the last ten years.
There were tons of pictures, mainly with Shelby, Jace, and Lexi. It was amazing how much she had changed over the years, but yet, her smile always stayed the same. Christmas was always fun with her family because every year they had huge parties with more food than you could ever imagine. I used to take Gabriella with me all the time because it was basically the only time she got to enjoy the holiday. I was prepared to see pictures with Shelby and other guys, but out of all the pictures of Shelby with someone by her side it was never anyone other than Jace. In a way I hated the guy because he’d had ten years with her that I lost. There wasn’t a time in her life when he wasn’t in it.
I had gone through almost all of the folders except the last two, which were labeled ‘Awards After Party’ and ‘Madelyn’ before the downloaded pictures were ready to be viewed. As soon as I clicked on the icon to display the images, my eyes went wide as the first picture popped up on the screen.
Am I seeing this right? I knew who Lexi was, but the girl beside her looked disturbingly familiar.
Not wanting to wake Shelby up, I quietly slipped out of bed and opened the dresser drawer that held the envelope of pictures; the pictures that were supposedly of me and all the women. Was it my mind playing tricks on me or did I actually see what I thought I did? Quickly going through the pictures, I was about to give up when at last I came to the one I was looking for.
There’s no f*cking way it’s her.
Surely, it couldn’t be, could it? The more I looked at the picture, the more I noticed the resemblance. She had the same blonde hair, the same colored eyes, and the same damn star tattoo on the side of her neck below her ear.