Rapture 2: a BWWM, Alpha Male Romance

by Perri Forrest

  “What!”

  “Yeah. Gia Olivette was my name…new identity,” she nodded, sadly. “He erased all traces of me, Hunter. For twenty-seven years I’ve lived as that person. My house is in that name, my car is in that name, and my company has been under that name. People in my circle in Denver know me by that name.”

  “And just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, they just did.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think you ever really knew just how much he was capable of. But I’m sure you got a healthy glimpse of it with everything that took place recently with your daughter.”

  I could feel my temples pulsating, and my anger creeping once again. I’d tried so hard to channel the anger since he was gone now. I didn’t want to continue thinking of him in a negative light whenever his name crossed my mind or fell out of the mouth of someone else. But it seemed inevitable.

  “Okay. Listen, I don’t really want to talk about him,” I informed her. “Not as it relates to my daughter. I have her in my life now, and that’s all that matters. And as far as meeting her, we can try to get some dates together because she and her mother are in the process of moving back to the Bay Area. At this point, we’ve worked on a weekend here and there, and definitely major holidays. So, she’ll be here for Christmas for sure. I’ll see to it that you meet her soon, though. Even if we have to travel to you in Colorado.”

  When we pulled up to Chaos, my mother looked around at all the cars, at the building, and her eyes widened. “Where are we, Rush? This place is huge!”

  “This is my nightclub slash sports bar. The club isn’t opened until Friday night, but the sports bar is open now. I figured we could come and hang out for a bit. We could get you one of those adult beverages that you turned down last night,” I said, smiling at her.

  “Aww, drinks…” she pouted. “Why didn’t you bring Alika with us?” she pried. “Are the two of you fighting? Come to think of it I haven’t seen her since earlier at breakfast.”

  I shrugged my shoulders lightly. I really didn’t want to get into Alika’s and my issue with her—especially since we were arguing about her. Even if it weren’t about her, I probably still wouldn’t discuss it openly. What she and I went through wasn’t anybody else’s business; not even my mother’s. Alika and I would deal with it on our own.

  “We’re okay. She just wanted to give you and me a little time together while you’re here,” I lied.

  “But I really want to get to know her too, son. You love her, right?”

  “Yep, I do,” I responded. “I’m in love with her.”

  “I can tell,” she said, as we walked inside the front door to Chaos.

  Once we were inside, the music was a little loud for us to continue on with serious conversation, so I led my mother to one of the bar seats and I took the seat next to her.

  “What do you want to drink?” I leaned in and asked her.

  “I think I’ll try one of the peach margaritas, and a basket of fries! I know the smell anywhere!” she exclaimed, excitedly.

  I relayed her order to Pinky, who was tending bar, and then commenced to introductions of nearby staff. Before long, my mother was engaged in multiple conversations with a few of the customers. It felt weird as hell being around her in a bar setting. Life sure had a way of fucking with a person. Lose some family and you gain more. In a perfect world, there wouldn’t have been any losses at all, but shit, the way my life flowed, anything was fucking bound to happen. I was learning to accept that shit and roll with the punches.

  Once my mother’s order was delivered to her, and she was being entertained by two other women seated on the other side of her, I decided to take a trip around to speak to some of my patrons. My mind was heavily on Alika. I wanted to call her, but since I knew she was still cooling off, I decided to send her a text instead.

  Me: Thinking about you. I love you. Let’s talk soon. This here is not us…

  I double checked really quickly to see if my mother was good then proceeded around the place to shake a few hands and engage in a little bit of small talk. That’s when I ended up running into Mike. Ever since we’d had that issue a while back with the prostitutes and shit like that, he had been on guard, and we were good on that front.

  “I saw you come in a little bit ago. How’s it going?”

  “Shit is cool, man,” I responded, patting him on his back. “How about you?”

  “All good. Lovin’ my job. I got a new lady in my life,” he confided. “Couldn’t be better.”

  “I’m glad to hear that, dude. Like for real. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to make things more comfortable for you. You, Kent, and Roland keep shit right for me, and I can’t thank you enough.”

  “Aww, man. Happy to do it. Hell, if I wouldn’t have started working here, I wouldn’t have met my girl,” he blushed.

  “Uh-oh!” I said, lightly punching against his shoulder. “That’s good to hear. Love is in the air!”

  “Yeah, man. Kinda sorta. Tryin’ to get that Alika-Rush kinda love, but I see y’all up in here with other peeps, so what’s up with that?”

  The laughter and the smile that came with it immediately left my face. I was confused as fuck, and Mike saw it.

  “What do you mean?”

  He ran his hand across his tapered curls, then smoothed down his mustache, revealing an uncomfortable grin. “I thought the woman you came in with—”

  “Nah, that’s my mother. But you said something about Alika being here with other peeps. What the fuck does that mean?”

  “Aww, man, Rush. I’m not tryin’ to be in the middle of you guys’ shit.”

  “Hey Rush, how’s it going?” a voice behind me asked. I spun around to see Kenneth Joseph, my father’s head of security. “I didn’t want to interrupt. I was on my way out and just wanted to give you my deepest condolences. I didn’t get to say much to you at the funeral.”

  “Thanks, Kenneth. Same to you. I know you and he were pretty close.”

  “Yeah, thanks. He’ll be missed. I’ll let you get on with your evening. See you around,” he said, patting me on the back.

  I immediately turned my attention back to address Mike. “You’re worried about being in the middle, Mike. That’s a joke, right? You see my woman come into my bar with another guy, and you’re worried about being in the middle when you should be worried about loyalty to your boss and your job? That’s confusing as fuck.” I stared him down for a few long seconds before telling him to, “Just point me in her direction.”

  THIRTY-ONE

  Rush

  When I approached the booth back near the lounge, Nikki was the first person that I spotted. She sat on one side of the booth, Alika on the other, and there was some preppy-looking guy sitting next to Nikki, with his hand around her lower waist. I was relieved that Alika was by herself, but pissed at the same time. She hadn’t told me that she was even leaving the house, and that shit wasn’t cool. She turned my way and spotted me before I even made it to where they were. Nikki turned around too, and immediately appeared to look uncomfortable.

  “Hey Rush…” she greeted, uncomfortably, as soon as I was in front of them. “This is my friend, Aaron.”

  But I wasn’t interested in introductions. “Alika, what are you doing here?”

  “What does it look like, Rush? I’m hanging out with friends. Where’s your mother?” she spat, slightly buzzed from the sound of her voice.

  I held my hand out to her. “Come on,” I told her motioning with my head. “Let’s go.”

  “I’m not ready to go yet. I’m hanging out a little longer. Maybe I’ll see you in the morning at breakfast or something.”

  “Alika—” Nikki started.

  “Hey, what’s going on here?” an unfamiliar voice asked from behind me.

  When I turned around, I was met with a dark-haired dude. He was about my height, and just as preppy as the one sitting next to Nikki. He was wearing some geeked-out sweater vest with a long-sleeved button down beneath,
and some Levi jeans. Cornball. I almost laughed out loud. Nikki hurriedly abandoned her nerd, and scooted from outside the booth. She took a position standing next to me to address the guy.

  “This is Alika’s boyfriend, Rush.”

  “Ohhh, is that who this is? How’s it going, man? You’ve got a beautiful woman there. Lucky you showed up. I was just about to make my move.”

  I didn’t know if this idiot was playing or not, but I was hoping that he was just gonna be done after his stupid ass comment and be on his way to another part of the bar to enjoy himself while he could. But it seemed that wasn’t to be.

  “Alika, let’s go,” I repeated, extending my hand for her to grab it. “We’re gonna head—”

  “It doesn’t really look like she wants to leave,” the intruder stated.

  I bit down on my bottom lip. My main focus was Alika, but at the same time I was nanoseconds off of preppy boy’s ass.

  “Rob, leave them to their business,” Nikki urged. “Tell him to back off, Aaron.”

  Too much time had already passed for the Rob person to not have gotten the message, and I was really starting to become more and more agitated. Not just with Alika’s obvious refusal to do what I had asked her to, but with this person thinking he could butt into my business.

  “Nikki, you really want to help your friend, you’ll go get Mike to escort him out because if I put hands on him, I won’t stop putting hands on him,” I warned, now face to face with the guy and looking him eye to eye. I didn’t realize that geeks came in size bold.

  “All I was sayin’ was that Miss Alika here seemed to be enjoying herself with her friend, Nikki and now you come and—”

  I actually heard the cracking noise before I drew my fist back a second time. It was loud even for me, and that’s probably because I really didn’t mean to hit him. At least not that hard. He stumbled backwards stunned, as a rush of blood began to pour from his nose.

  I fanned my fingers against my palm inviting him to get his ass whooped. “Come on, motherfucker! What’s a little blood, geek squad? Come finish talking that shit, so I can lay you and your fucking sweater on the floor!”

  “Rush!” Alika yelled. “Stop it!”

  At the same time, preppy boy’s friend had finally gotten up from his seat and was seemingly coming to his friend’s defense, but I was ready for him too until Nikki jumped in the middle. “Rush, no!”

  The chaos had grabbed the attention of a few folks who were engaged in games of pool, and before long Mike was upon us.

  “Sucker punches, huh?! Sucker punches! That’s what you got!” the dude yelled, which only fueled my anger more.

  “It’s not a sucker punch if you see me coming!” I said, squaring up, and giving him a chance to do the same. “Still wanna talk shit? I’ll give you a head start! Come on, preppy boy!”

  But I soon saw that his bark was louder than his bite. “Get him the fuck outta here, Mike. And take his friend with him. Nikki you can go too,” I said, glaring at her.

  As I watched the trio being escorted out by Mike and another guy, I turned my attention back to Alika, who was staring darts through me. I shook out my fist out, and grabbed one of the napkins from the table to wipe dude’s blood from my knuckles.

  “Are you happy that you just beat up a guy? Did that make you feel better?”

  “Stop with the goddamn dramatics, Alika. What the fuck are you doing here…? With them?”

  “I wasn’t with them, Rush. I met Nikki here. I came to have a little bit of fun and leave you to get acquainted with your mother.”

  “You should really stop with this bullshit, Alika. You really should. I know I owe you an apology for how I said things earlier, and I planned to give you that. But handling it this way was unnecessary. I never expected this behavior from you and I don’t like it.”

  “And I don’t like you being naïve.”

  “There ain’t a naïve bone in my body,” I spat.

  “Bullshit. These women come and turn your entire fuckin’ head and you just roll with it. You beat the shit out of the dude who said a few words to you, but these women: your mother and your baby’s mother, their words you soak up without questioning! And the minute I do, you lash out with hateful comments about me not being a mother or not having someone relive traumatic events. I got it, Rush. I understood completely what you were saying. I don’t have a mother so I can’t understand and issue the compassion that I should. And traumatic events…? Well, you had to save me from one, right? I wondered when that would come back up. You let this bitch come back after nine years and place full blame on your father and your sister for her keeping a child from you! Nine fuckin’ years! She had space and plenty of opportunity to introduce your baby to you before her fuckin’ brother’s reveal! If she really wanted you to know your daughter, it would’ve happened. Why didn’t she because she wanted the money more than she wanted a father for her child!”

  “Alika,” I said, through clenched teeth, but without anger attached. “Let’s go home and talk.”

  “And then there’s your mother,” she continued. “Nothing was so bad that she couldn’t find you before all of this. Nothing! I don’t give a fuck whether I’m a mother or not, Rush!” She began to sob through her words, and as much as I wanted to reach out to her, I knew that it was the last thing she wanted right then. “Nothing would keep me from my child!”

  “She’s right, Rush…” I heard my mother’s voice say.

  THIRTY-TWO

  Alika

  It was damn near four in the morning when we all finished talking and were headed to our respective parts of the house for bed. So much had happened since we’d left Chaos, and it was like sitting in a deposition with all the information that poured from Siobhan. I couldn’t believe that Rush’s father had actually allowed Rush to believe that his mother had abandoned him. I could only imagine that as a child having that as your reality and then having to endure being the least favorite by the remaining parent, had to be defeating. It was no wonder he was so angry. It never affected me negatively when Rush didn’t rush to introduce me to his father. I did wonder why it was that I hadn’t met him, but I never dwelled on it. But now hearing all that I’d heard about him and seeing just how ruthless this person was, I could understand why the introduction never took place. The elder Cambridge and I certainly wouldn’t have clicked.

  As far as Siobhan went, I stood my ground with her about how I felt. She in turn, let us both know what she hadn’t told Rush earlier—that she actually did show up to his high school graduation. She told him that she’d sat away where no one could see her, and cried during the entire ceremony, and on the plane ride back to Denver. She told him how she hosted gatherings in his honor in the form of dinner parties, and getaways with her friends, but that her friends had no idea what these celebrations were about. She’d been celebrating her son. She celebrated his twenty-first birthday, when he was accepted to college, when he was drafted, and when his team made it to the World Series each time.

  During the conversation, she had fallen into sadness when telling Rush: “And had I known that you had become a father…that would have been the ultimate celebration.”

  She offered me all that she had told Rush, and my heart broke for her…into a thousand pieces. After hearts had poured out, and many sniffles had been shared between us women, I had gained a new appreciation for Siobhan. The two of us had even found ourselves engaged in a prolonged embrace. My heart went out to her. She really did love her son, and I was happy that she’d gotten the chance to tell him before it was too late. At the end of the day, I only wanted to make sure that Rush was okay. He had been through enough, and all of these people coming into his life out of the blue, causing him to get off balance didn’t sit well with me. I guess it all just boiled down to me wanting to protect him with just as much fire as he protected me with.

  After we had taken an early morning shower and were lying in bed talking, Rush and I made sure the air was clear between us too. W
e had agreed early in our relationship to never go to bed mad with each other and last night I’d been geared up to do just that.

  “You are hot as hell. And I know I’m not the first to tell you that, but I damn sure better be the last to tell you…this close up,” I warned with my face buried in his chest, as I held onto him tightly.

  I didn’t want to let him go and I was all the way caught up in how warm his body felt against mine as the scent of his Mistral Citrus Oak soap filled my nostrils.

  “Let me know if I’m squeezing you too tight. Okay?”

  “Oh, baby…don’t ever worry about squeezing me too tight. You’re right where you’re supposed to be.”

  “Perfect,” I responded, lifting up to kiss Rush on the cheek, then snuggling back in the curve of his arm.

  “You don’t even know how turned on I was hearing you speak your mind earlier, and stand up for what you thought was right. You were like a lioness guarding her kingdom.”

  “More like guarding my king,” I responded.

  “Shit. That’s even better. All I know is that even slightly tipsy, you’re sexy as fuck, Alika Collins. I just can’t even get enough of you. That’s some dangerous shit right there. Because for the first time in my life, I feel like I can’t live without someone. That means you’re mine. Like, in every damn sense of the word. If the threat of not having you even presents itself there’s gonna be problems. Not for you. I’d never hurt you in any way. But if that threat is an individual. So God help their soul.

  “Here,” he said, raising my chin. “Give me those lips so I can get a good one before I doze off.”

  “Rush, you gotta stop it.”

  “What?” he smiled.

  “You know that I know that a kiss is not all you want. And even if it was, we never know how to stop at just that.”