“Bet.” Willow’s lip raises in disgust. “My brother would murder you.”
That’s the damn truth. Wyatt is very protective of the women in his life, which currently, is only Willow and her mom. The fling he had with the furniture store owner is long since over, which is why he threw this party tonight, looking to score with any available piece of ass.
“You two look like a couple of sour pusses in here.” Jude takes the bottle of tequila out of my hands, slamming a huge gulp before setting it back down. “Later, losers.”
“He’s the only loser here.” Willow grumbles, pulling out her phone and scrolling through her messages. “Plus, we don’t look like sourpusses. We look fucking awesome. Here, let’s take a pic.”
I smile for the camera, putting my fingers behind her head in bunny ears right before she clicks it.
“Oh, that’s right.” She beams, glancing back at me for just a second. “You’re instafamous now, aren’t you?”
“Whatever that means, maybe.” I chuckle. “I’m not down with that kind of lingo.”
“Don’t worry.” She laughs, before helping herself to some of Jude’s tequila. “I tagged you in it. You’re welcome for making an appearance on my page.”
My head feels like a huge weight is sitting on it as I struggle to lift my head from my pillow. The sunlight streaming through my window only makes my head hurt worse.
I’m never drinking tequila again. Fuck you Jude, for even bringing it. My alarm continues to blare next to me, and coupling that with my phone ringing nonstop, I’m pretty sure that my day is going to be total shit. At least, I’m going to feel like shit. Today is supposed to be a good day. It’s the day that Amy and the kids finally get to move into the house.
Leave it to my stupid ass to finally decide to go balls to the wall with a bottle of tequila the day before I have to help one woman and ten kids move. Great fucking move, dickhead. I manage to swing my legs around, still holding my head in my hands when my phone begins to ring again. I slam my fist against my alarm clock, finally silencing the piercing beep, and slide the bar to open my phone.
“Hello?” My voice feels like gravel, ricocheting off of my bone dry throat.
“Jesus H Christ, ass hat. I’ve been standing at your front door for twenty minutes now. Can you please get your sorry ass down here and open it?”
My sister sounds annoyed, and I’m just confused. I’m not sure whether I was expecting her or not.
“I’m guessing you don’t remember our conversation last night.” Thank you, sis, for clearing that one up. “Because your words were so slurred that I could hardly understand you. Either way, I’m here. So, come and let me in.”
The room spins so badly that I have to stop every few feet, sucking in air and hoping to God that I don’t puke, but I finally make it down the stairs and to the front door. Anna grunts at me in disgust.
“You’re a mess.” She moves past me, not bothering to wait for me to open the door any wider. “And you stink. You better shower quick, because we’re supposed to be at Amy’s in less than an hour.”
My stomach turns, and right before I lose whatever is left in my stomach right in my foyer, I scurry to the closest bathroom, where I swear up and down that I will never drink like that again.
“So?” Anna finally throws her arms up, as we head across town to Amy’s. “Spill it. Why’d you get so hammered last night?”
“Because I felt like it?” What is she, my mom? I got trashed because I’m a grown ass man who can do whatever the fuck I want, thank you very much. Anna just rolls her eyes.
“Right. Because that’s so you.”
She’s right, it’s not me, and given the way I feel today, I remember exactly why I don’t do shit like that.
“I’ve just got a lot of shit on my mind right now that I’d rather not think about.”
“Ah.” She nods. “So, you figured that you’d just drink away your problems.”
Basically.
But the last thing that I want to do right now is get into any of that. I’m already barely hanging on by a thread, so the less that I talk today, the better. Tomorrow, after I get a good night’s sleep and my body detoxes from the hell that I put it through last night, I’ll be more inclined to let Anna dig into my head. Right now, not so much.
“She’s cute.” Anna holds her phone up for me to see. I smile at the picture of Willow and I that I had forgotten she took last night.
“Yeah, she is. She’s Wyatt’s little sister though. So, she’s off limits.”
“Well that’s good. Because she’s cute and all, but she’s not Mia cute.”
I grip the steering wheel, my headache coming back in full force. “I don’t want to talk about her.”
“There it is.” Anna smiles smugly and settles herself against the seat.
“There’s what?” I’m growling for no damn reason, but, whatever. Anna could care less how angry she makes me. It’s basically in her job description. Little sister equals button pusher.
“The reason that you got hammered. I couldn’t figure out if this was a Kam and Kat induced drunken state, or a Mia. Now I know, you’re upset over Mia.”
“Nails on a chalkboard, Anna. That’s what your voice is right now. Nails on a fucking…”
“You’re welcome.” She winks at me. “Now shut up and drive. You’re giving me a headache.”
“Oh.” Amy opens the door and bites her lower lip. “You look like shit.”
Anna agrees, and I just groan. I’m seriously sick to death of the women in my life right now.
“Tequila.” Anna voice is matter of fact. “He got drunk to try to get over Mia.”
“Jesus, liquid lips.” I glare at her. “Anything else you care to share?”
She rolls her eyes towards the ceiling, contemplating my question. Before she can say anything else, I hold up my hand. “Forget that I asked. Can we please just get started?”
Since the moving truck isn’t here yet, I move like a slug towards the brand new sectional in the main living room that was delivered last week. I fall onto it, hating myself and my decisions, and close my eyes, hoping and praying that the pounding in my head will stop.
20
Mia
I debate turning my car back on and peeling out of the driveway when I pull in, and spot Adrian’s Land Rover parked in front of the moving truck. A wave of panic hits me, making me regret agreeing to be here today. This is going to be bad. It’s going to be so bad.
“Nope.” Sophia snatches the keys out of my hand, just before I manage to get them back into the ignition. “You are not running from this. You agreed to come and help, and I agreed to come with you. You can stand to be around him for a few hours, Mia. You created this mess anyways. Now you have to suck it up and deal with it.”
“For the record.” I glare at her. “You helped me create this mess. If you had just let me eat my lie, I would have never met him, and I would have never…”
“Which is why I’m here with you today.” Sophia levels her eyes with mine. “You’re right, my plan is how you met him…”
“And ended up in jail with community service hours.” I grumble, but Sophia holds up her hand, silently shushing me.
“Yes, and yes. But I didn’t force you to sleep with the guy. You did that, all on your own. I will take the blame for my part in this, but Mia, you are the one that took it to the next level. You can’t blame me for that.”
She’s right, I can’t, but dammit, I want to. I want to blame someone-anyone, really. Because accepting the blame is accepting defeat. And I fucking hate it.
I’ve been hurt in the past, that much is obvious. But nothing seems to compare to the hurt that I feel over losing Adrian. Yes, I’m the one who cut things off between us, but let’s face it-it was going to end soon anyways. I just nipped it in the bud before I opened my mouth and told him that I broke the most important rule that we had.
I fell in love with him.
It was stupid, and I know
it. I knew from the get-go that I was never going to be that one for him. He told me that-and yet I went ahead and fell for him anyways. It’s better off this way, that much I know. Now he can go back to holding his dead ex in his heart, and continue spreading his dick around, to all of the available women who want a turn on it.
Case in point, the stupid bitch who made an appearance last night on his Instagram.
“You can do this, Mia. You don’t even have to talk to him, even though, I really think that you should. What if he’s feeling the same way that you are? What if he misses you…”?
“He doesn’t.” I interrupt. “And I’m not saying anything to him. I’m just going to ignore him. But seriously, Soph. We’re moving quick, ok? The less time we have to spend here, the better.” Which honestly, makes me feel like a crappy person. I really like Amy and would have no problem spending the whole day here, helping her get settled. But when you figure Adrian into the equation, well…that changes things.
I take a deep breath, straightening my imaginary crown, and climb out of my car. I can do this. I managed to suffer through my entire high school reunion, all alone, next to Brett and Michael Ann. I can do anything, right?
Wrong. As I step inside of the house and catch a glimpse of Adrian laying on the couch, I feel like the wind is sucked right out of me.
Lightening, please strike me now.
Amy opens the door before I even am able to knock. She stares up at me, blinks a few times, and then wraps me into a huge hug. “Mia.” She squeezes me tightly. “Oh honey, I almost didn’t recognize you with your hair like it is. It’s beautiful.” She rushes on. “Thank you so much for coming to help today. I really appreciate it.” Her hug is tight and warm, which makes me feel a little bit better. Still though-how good can I actually feel? The man who unknowingly crushed my heart is less than ten feet away from me, and with his arm raised over his head, and his abs on display, he looks too damn good. Damn him.
My attention shifts, and I catch sight of Anna, moving around the corner and towards me. For a second, I freeze. I don’t know how she will react to me being here, but turns out, she hugs me tightly too.
“Oh, girl.” She stands back, studying me. “Your hair looks amazing. Did you do it yourself?”
I shake my head and tell her all about how one of my stylists did it for me. I can do my own hair but going from red back to blond is a big job, and I really needed someone else to do it for me, so that my impatience wouldn’t kick in and leave me with orange hair.
“This is my natural color. I had fun as a red head, but I’m ready to be me again.” Ha. What a joke. I’m so far from being me lately that I don’t even think I’m doing a good job of faking it at this point. Sophia smirks because she knows that too. I introduce Sophia to Amy and Anna, and since she already knows Adrian and he’s sawing logs in the other room, I don’t bother with that introduction. The movers are busy bringing boxes inside of the house, but Amy needs help unpacking everything. So, I choose the kitchen, since it has the most boxes already delivered, and plus, it’s on the opposite end of the house, far away from the sleeping heartbreaker.
Unfortunately, just as I start to move towards the kitchen, Anna moves towards Adrian, kicking him hard once and telling him to get up off of his lazy ass. In case I’ve failed to mention it before, his little sister is the shit.
She’s my most favorite Malone.
“This kitchen is seriously so gorgeous.” Sophia stands back to admire her work in the pantry, and then looks over to me, where I’m up on a chair, placing dishes into the cupboards. I agree immediately with her. This house turned out beautiful. The kitchen is huge, with a large island in the center, big enough for all ten kids to sit around it. There are exactly ten stools tucked underneath it. Everything in here was done with those kids in mind.
The countertops are a light grey marble with black and white specs, the cabinets are tall and white, and the backsplash is a smoky blue subway tile. It’s basically my dream kitchen, in a nutshell.
“For sure.” I place the last dish from my box into the cabinet, and then step down, dusting off my hands and getting ready to dig into yet another box when a flash of grey catches my eye. A punch to the gut couldn’t have knocked the wind out of me any faster, than seeing Adrian breeze into the kitchen, looking devastatingly handsome in white t-shirt and grey sweatpants.
What is it about a man in grey sweatpants? It’s just so damn sexy. Not that he needs any help in that department, or anything.
“Hey Soph.” He acknowledges my friend with a smile, before flashing a cocky smirk at me. “Mia.” He just nods his head at me. I want to flip him off. I want to smack him to force that cocky grin off of his face. But I don’t. In fact, I say nothing. I just stand there, completely frozen and feeling like a fool. He walks to the refrigerator with ease, pulling it open and grabbing out a bottle of water. But then, he does the worst thing possible. He stretches, tall and long, which makes his t shirt rise above his abs, leaving that drool worthy eight pack on full display.
I hate myself for staring. Seriously, I do. But even though he’s a cocky, arrogant ass, I can’t seem to pull my eyes away. He catches me staring, which only makes him smugger. I grip the plate in my hand tightly, before finally, managing to turn around, and climb back up on the chair. My knees shake, but it has nothing to do with the height. It has everything to do with the stupid man who seems to make me weak.
“Ugh. Gross.” Anna barrels around the corner and into the kitchen, smacking Adrian’s bare stomach hard as she moves past him towards the fridge. “Pull your shirt down. Nobody needs to see all that.”
“People pay big money to see that.” Adrian retorts, to which I roll my eyes. “Actually, people do all kinds of shit to see it. They make up stories, they tell big fat lies, they throw their self-esteem away for it. You’d be surprised at just how low people will go to get a piece of this.”
My entire body stills. I hear Sophia suck in air from inside of the pantry, and I don’t even need to look at her to know that she too realizes that Adrian is talking about me.
He’s trying to poke the bear, this much I know. And while I’d love to say that I just calmly ignored him until he walked away, that isn’t the truth. That kind of thing isn’t in my DNA. My head snaps in his direction, and I force an indifferent look to flood my face, even though his words hurt a little more than they should.
“Yeah, but they don’t stick around for more than a piece, right? Probably because after they get that piece, they find out that it wasn’t really all that it was cracked up to be.” I flip my hair, and level my eyes with his. I watch as his eyes flash, and his fist tightens at his side. Anna’s eyes are wide, as she looks between the two of us. Shits about to get real.
“Stop telling stories, sweetheart. You took to my dick like crack to a crackhead. I could hardly keep you off of me.”
“Adrian!” Anna smacks him, sending a furious look in his direction. He all but ignores her though, because his stare is directed at me.
“Only because you made me.” I’m now off of my stool and standing directly in front of him. Anna has since stepped to the side, and Sophia is out of the pantry, ready to jump in at a moment’s notice. My best friend is the shit.
“Make you? You were begging for it.” His laugh makes me just about lose my mind. “You know you wanted it. Hell, you still probably want it.”
“Don’t flatter yourself.” I match his laughter, even though I’m not finding anything funny about any of this. “I’ve got a real man now. It’s amazing how much better that makes it.”
“Real man?” His eyes flash. “Stop kidding yourself. You don’t have him. You probably never did. Where’s he at right now, anyways? Michael Ann’s?”
The sound of the palm of my hand slapping him across the face echoes across the room. I don’t even realize that I’m doing it until it’s already done.
But I’m not sorry. Not even a little bit. Fuck Adrian Malone, and everything he stands for. I’m
so done with missing him.
21
Adrian
Anna hasn’t spoken a word to me in hours. She hasn’t really had to-her looks have spoken volumes. After Mia’s and my little incident, she stormed off, leaving me to have to finish up the kitchen on top of all of the other rooms in the house that needed to get done. I wanted Amy to be as pissed off at her as I am, but turns out, Mia’s community service hours are done, so she was there just out of the goodness of her heart.
If there is any goodness, that is. I huff to myself, staring out of the window as anger rolls off of my body. How dare her hit me? What a nutcase.
“Want to stop and grab some food?” I turn to my sister, who completely ignores me, and just turns the volume on the stereo up higher.
“I’ll take that as a no.” I mutter. Still nothing.
She continues to drive towards my house, and then once we arrive, she takes the driveway on two wheels, then slams on the brakes.
“Jesus, Anna!” I growl at her, which again, she completely ignores. She climbs out of the car, slamming the door hard enough behind her that I’m surprised when the glass doesn’t shatter. I’m out of the car and moving fast right behind her. “Are you on your period or something?”
She continues to stomp towards my front door, angrily punching the code into the lock and then storming into my house. She nearly slams the door on me, but luckily, my reflexes are still damn good. I catch it right before it amputates my arm.
“What is your problem?” I’m not in the mood for any of this today. I’m still in a shit mood after seeing Mia and getting slapped, so dealing with my sister right now is not high on my to do list. Her arms cross, and her eyes flash, as she stares into my soul as only, she can.
“Do you seriously have to ask that right now, Adrian?” Uh, yeah, obviously.
Rule Play (Saints of Love Book 1) Page 16
