03
Zeb quickly drove them to his house and for the remaining hours of the night he had made love to her. He had been so gentle with her in the beginning knowing that it was her first time. He had taken her to new heights, pleasuring her body in ways that she could have never imagined. She experienced one mind numbing orgasm after the other until she felt completely sated and boneless, eventually drifting off to sleep in the safe haven of his arms.
The early morning rays of sunlight had eventually awakened her. Before she fully opened her eyes Elizabeth reached for Zeb but instead of finding the strong body that assaulted her senses the night before, all she found were cold, empty sheets. Her eyes snapped open and Elizabeth jumped up only then coming to the realization that Zeb Crooker was, in fact, gone.
After their wonderful night together Elizabeth wanted, no needed, to see him one last time before he left town. Frantic, she called her friend Erica to come and pick her up and take her to the airport. All she planned to do was see him off. They did just spend the night together and what a wonderful night it had been. One more time she told herself smiling as she ran through the entry doors of the airport and then she would have the memories of the last 24 hours to hold her until he returned.
After asking a ton of questions she quickly learned that he was departing at Gate 11. She put her feet to the ground and rushed through the airport, praying she wasn’t too late. It wasn’t until she turned that last corner that she realized what a complete fool she had been.
Zeb was standing there at Gate 11 alright. He was standing there and a blond was wrapped around him while he gave her his own version of a tonsillectomy.
Elizabeth’s face fell as reality crashed into her. She held back the powerful sting of threatening tears and turned around. The painful truth was that she had been nothing more than another notch on Zeb Crooker’s belt. It wasn’t until she got back home that the tears really began to fall.
Just when she didn’t think things could get any worse, four weeks later Elizabeth found out that she was pregnant. She was in no way ready to be a mom. She knew that and after struggling with her options, she finally decided to give up her baby boy for adoption. She didn’t have a job and she couldn’t provide for him. At least this way she knew that her son would have the many things that she would have never been able to give him.
Elizabeth never told anyone about her one night stand with Zeb Crooker. When she refused to name the father of her baby, the town had turned against her. They called her a slut and a whore and told her she needed to go on Maury and do one of those ‘who’s my baby daddy’ shows. Elizabeth heard the rumors, put up with them and ignored them. She refused to spend the rest of her life wallowing in her own despair from listening to the local town gossip.
She was a whole lot stronger now and a whole lot more sensible than the naive 18-year-old girl that Zeb had left behind. She finished nursing school and now was the head nurse at Macon’s only hospital. She was proud of her achievement and refused to let her past rain down on her now.
Elizabeth glared at the one man that single handedly was the sole reason of her rude awakening to adulthood. He was arrogantly smirking at her and right now, she would love nothing more than to throw something at him.
Preferably something big and something hard that would hurt ; hurt him really bad and cause him all kinds of pain.
Zeb started to inch his way towards her completely oblivious to the riotous feelings that Elizabeth was experiencing towards him. The blood in her veins was boiling and her body was frozen stiff from all of the anger and hatred that she felt for this one man because of the way that he left her and went so easily into another woman’s arms.
“Lizzie ? Baby ? You haven’t changed a bit.” He licked his bottom lip and held out his arms expectantly to her. “Can I get a hug from one of Macon’s most beautiful ladies ?”
With strength that she hadn’t realized she possessed Elizabeth stood up to meet him with a scowl on her face as big as Texas. What in the hell would make him think that she would ever let him touch her again ?
“Screw you Zeb Crooker.” Elizabeth haughtily placed her hands on her hips and roughly brushed her shoulder right on by him, ignoring the hell out of the infamous Zeb Crooker. She wasn’t about to let herself go back down that same old road again because she knew that if she did, this time she just might have to kill him.