by Teri Kay
At that same moment, Roxy came charging in and started to lick Cristina’s feet. I about died laughing watching her freak out at the toe licking pit bull. “What the fudge?” she screamed. That made me laugh even harder. But it also reminded me that I still had Ryann’s dog. I needed to take Roxy back, but I still wanted to get my head on straight.
“Huge favor, sis. Will you please take Roxy back to Ryann this morning? I really want to say and do the right thing here and I don’t think I can do that if I'm alone with her.”
“Really? Okay. I'm not going to question you, but figure this out, Nathan, for both your sakes,” she said, sounding disappointed.
I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what to do next. I loved Ryann, and now even though it was in the midst of a fight, I knew she loved me too. I knew I didn’t want to walk away, but the hurt ran deep. I knew that she spent the night with G, but she told me she didn’t have sex with him. But those damn pictures; Ryann was in his bed, in his shirt, kissing his mouth. Break or not, it pissed me off. I understood she needed someone that night after the ordeal with Lucas...but fuck!
I hated that I was avoiding Ryann. There was no other way to admit it except that I was scared as fuck. I wasn't sure what would happen if I found out she was lying to me. Would I be able to forgive her? But worse, what if she was telling me the truth. Would she ever be able to forgive me?
I went to the club on Tuesday night to talk to Rose. I knew it should be Ryann that I was talking to, but for some reason I was more willing to try to get something out of her best friend. Figuring it was her night off, I was surprised to see Ryann's Challenger in the parking lot. I could hear her voice as I made my way to Damon’s office. As I drew closer, I couldn’t help but eavesdrop.
“Damon, I resigned from my teaching job yesterday. With all the pictures of me on the internet, I took the precaution of quitting before they could fire me. But now I don’t have a job. Is it possible that I could stay on? At least until I find something else?” Ryann asked.
“Of course, Ryann. You have a place here as long as you need it. But how does Nathan feel about all of this?” Damon asked her.
“He doesn’t know. He hasn’t spoken to me since he saw the pictures on that Instagram page Rose made me,” she explained. I could hear the hurt in her voice.
“Don’t waste your time on that asshat! You know I’m single right?” Damon laughed.
“On that note, I’m gonna go talk to Rose,” she laughed with him as she got up and walked out. I darted into one of the hallways so she didn’t see me.
As soon as she was out of the back room, I made my way into Damon’s office. “So how much of that did you hear?” he asked me.
“More than I needed to. Dude, you’re single?”
“Fucker, I saw you come in on the security monitor. I knew you were listening the entire time. But, man, that girl is hurting and you need to fix it,” Damon told me. Damn, I’m getting lectured by everybody.
“I know. I’m working on it. I came here to talk to Rose, and instead found Ryann talking to you.”
“Why Rose? Why not Ryann?” he asked.
“Because I'm fucking scared of what she’s going to say to me. I don’t want to lose her, Damon.”
“Well, then you better get your ass out to the bar,” he warned as he rotated the security monitor to face me. At the bar G was sitting with Ryann, his hand on her knee. Instant anger rushed through my entire body. I practically threw the chair as I stood up to confront them both.
“Don’t do anything stupid, nuts,” Damon called after me as I stormed out of his office.
Feeling like I'd made it across the club in record time, I knew Damon was behind me. He alerted Ryann and G. Charging toward them, I saw the expressions on their faces change when I approached them. If Ryann was trying to hide something this was not the place to do it.
“Nathan, what are you doing here?” Ryann asked.
“I’d ask you that same question, but obviously I know the answer,” I snidely remarked gesturing to the hand still resting on her knee.
“Whatever. I came here to talk to Rose, and Rich happened to be on the other side of the bar asking how to get ahold of me since the Vaughn Haley page was the only contact he had for me,” Ryann yelled. Shit, was that true? Ryann hadn’t given him any contact information.
“Oh, it’s Rich now, huh?” I quipped. What the fuck was that? I was just too pissed off in that moment to say anything else.
Rose rolled her eyes. “Yes, this is Rich. You’re Nathan, and she’s Ryann. Will the three of you go figure this shit out and leave me the hell out of it!” she yelled at us.
Ryann jumped off the bar stool and grabbed my hand. “Come on. Let’s walk out back,” she said. She nodded at Rich to follow us.
Silently, the three of us walked through the backroom and into the parking lot. I lowered the tailgate on my truck giving Ryann and I a place to sit, which left Rich standing there staring at us both.
“Rich, please tell Nathan that nothing happened between us that night,” Ryann began.
“Ryann, I can’t do that. That’s what I was trying to tell you inside before we were interrupted,” Rich said looking directly at her. “Something did happen that night. For me anyways.” What the hell was this guy saying?
“What?” Ryann blurted out.
“I started to feel something for you that night. The fact that you wouldn’t have sex with me just because I play in the NFL was such a turn on. And I respected you so much more for that,” Rich told her. Did this porchdick forget I was here?
“Rich, it had nothing to do with you being a football player or not. I didn’t sleep with you because I am in love with Nathan. Split up that night or not, I wasn’t going to do that to him,” Ryann explained. Now I felt like the porchdick.
Ryann turned and looked at me. “Nathan, that night I needed comforting. Rich was there. We kissed. That’s it. Lonely, mad, drunk, confused…no excuse. But I told you the truth.” She turned to Rich and asked, “Why did you post the pictures of us in bed?”
“Because it was the only way to find you,” Rich answered. “Ryann, I will respect you and Nathan. I'm not the kind of guy to get in the middle of something. But remember, I'm always here for you, baby girl.” With that, Rich shook my hand, hugged Ryann, turned around and walked off.
Turning my body to face her, I could see the tears running down Ryann's cheeks. I gently cupped her face, and brushed the tears away. “Please don’t cry, beautiful. I'm so sorry I didn’t trust in you. In us.”
“I told you, Nathan that I wouldn’t lie to you,” Ryann continued to cry. “And then you fucking send your sister to bring my dog home!”
“I was scared, Ryann. Nothing about this situation is familiar to me. I love you so much. It would have devastated me to be right. And knowing now that I was wrong, I'm terrified that you'll never forgive me.” She crawled up into my lap and threw her arms around my neck. Please let her forgive me.
“I’m scared too,” she whispered.
“Why did you resign from teaching? You know I have enough money to make those pictures go away,” I told her. I hated flaunting my money, but I'd do anything to protect those I love.
“It’s not about the pictures anymore. If the pictures don’t out me, Lucas will.” She pulled out her cell phone and showed me all the text messages from Lucas over the weekend. “If I resigned before he could take any of this to the school board then I might save my teaching credential.”
My fists clenched tighter and tighter as I read through the messages Lucas had been sending her. How dare he say any of those things to her? I was going to make sure the asshole got what’s coming to him.
“Nathan, stop. This is on me, not him,” Ryann told me. I didn’t care what she said, I would protect what was mine. “Nathan, just take me home please,” she requested.
“My house or your house?” I asked her.
“It doesn’t matter. Home is where you are,” Ryann beamed
as she held on to me tighter.
The next morning, I awoke to that damn dog licking my toes again. Ryann was already outside drinking her morning coffee on the patio, reading something on her Kindle again. Those book boyfriends set some pretty high expectations for guys.
Walking up behind her, I kissed the top of her head. “Good morning, beautiful.”
“Mmmm…good morning, handsome,” she moaned back. “Coffee’s on the counter.”
“Last night was hella crazy, huh?” Ryann asked as I sat down on at the patio table with her.
“Yeah, just a little,” narrowing my eyes at my hated word.
“Wanna talk about it?” she asked me.
“Ryann, do you really want to work at The Cave full time?”
“Of course not, Nathan, but what other choice do I have?”
“Move in with me,” I boldly stated.
“What?” she asked, shocked by the question.
I grabbed Ryann’s hand and pulled her into my lap. “Butterfly, you are mine. I want you to be my girlfriend until you're ready to be my wife. I don’t want to share you with other guys at the club anymore. I know you're an independent woman, but let me take care of you until you all of this is figured out. Do this for me, please,” I was almost begging her.
“Yes,” was the only word she said and the only word I needed to hear. I cupped Ryann’s face in my hands and kissed those pouty lips that had been calling my name all morning.
“If you could do anything in this world, what would you want to do?” I asked her.
“Honestly, be a mother, Nathan.”
“Then let’s make that happen.”
One year later
I watched my husband splash around in the pool with our twins and my step-daughter. Never in a million years did I picture my life where it is today. Last summer my life was falling apart around me, and now I saw all my dreams coming true in front of me. Nathan and I married six months ago. It may have seemed quick, but when you know it's real thing, why wait? When Nathan told he would make me a mother I wasn’t sure what to expect. The possibility of having another miscarriage scared the hell out of me. My heart filled with so much love when he started talking about adoption. And when the agency told us about the twins, we knew our family would be complete.
After moving in with Nathan, I quit working at The Cave. But I did some of the group and feature dances on the weekend, because I enjoyed it. However, Nathan insisted that there were no more lap dances for anyone but him. I actually took a job working at Ms. Jewel’s Dance Studio a few nights a week, teaching pole dancing classes. Nathan told me I didn’t have to work, but I wanted to keep some of my independence. I depended on Lucas too much and would never put myself in that position again.
Even though I repeatedly told Nathan to leave the situation with Lucas alone, he didn’t. He kept saying something about needing to protect those that he loved. I tried explaining to him that Lucas couldn’t hurt me anymore. Despite having to leave a job I loved, I knew better things were in my future. But Nathan was insistent. Lucas was marrying one of his seniors from the previous year. She was nineteen, but still not okay. To him the only thing important was making babies, and she was ready to that for him. What I didn’t know was that Lucas was set to inherit a large sum of money upon the birth of his first child. We'd always lived a pretty modest life, so I had no idea that his grandmother was filthy rich; the will stated that the child must be Lucas’s biological child.
One Saturday afternoon, Rose and I noticed Mrs. McKennan sitting across from us while out having lunch. I kept noticing her flashing me the dirtiest looks. For the life of me, I had no idea what I had done to have her treat me this way, but I was sure as hell going to find out.
I excused myself from Rose before she could stop me and calmly walked over and confronted Lucas’s mother. “Can I ask you why you keep giving me all these horrible looks from across the room?”
“How dare you? After what you did to Lucas. Walking out on him like that,” she huffed at me.
“You’re not serious, are you, LuAnn? I didn’t walk out on Lucas. After the doctors told me I couldn’t have children, he walked out on me. What were his words? Oh yes, he changed his mind.”
A shocked LuAnn McKennan asked me to sit with her. I explained to her what had happened and the reasons Lucas gave when he suddenly served me with divorce papers. Apparently, the lie he had told everyone was that I was cheating on him. Lucas was never supposed to know about the inheritance, but he accidently overheard his aunt and mother speaking about it one day. And from that moment, LuAnn said the only thing that mattered to Lucas was finding the perfect mother for his children.
What Lucas didn’t know was that LuAnn was sole executor to her mother’s will, and with that she was granted the ability to redistribute the money as she saw fit. She said she'd been looking for any reason to not give the money to Lucas and his nineteen-year-old bride, who was apparently already pregnant. After finding out what Lucas had done to me, LuAnn decided to divide the half million dollars that was set aside for Lucas’s family to all of his cousins. She apologized profusely for what her son did, but I knew I couldn’t hold that against her. She wished me luck and told me we should have lunch some time and that she will always think of me as a daughter.
I left her table doing a silent, little happy dance inside. I never wanted to wish ill will on anyone, but Lucas sure as hell had that coming.
Not long after, Nathan and I were married in front of our friends and family on a private estate in Hawaii. That night, I thought my life would never be more prefect. Until the day the agency presented us with a unique situation. They had a set of three-year-old twins, a boy and girl. Their mother had died shortly after they were born, and the father was sick and could no longer care for his children. The agency was looking for someone to take the children together as soon as possible. Nathan and I were there the next day.
“Hello! Earth to Ryann! Are you somewhere in there?” Rose shouted as she pretty much pushed me off my chair.
“Hey! Watch it,” I laughed with her. “Sorry. Lost in thought. Looking at my beautiful family.”
“You know, I'm still waiting on my thank you,” she said sarcastically.
“For what?” I asked.
“Really? If it wasn’t for me convincing you to work at The Cave then you would be living back in California with your mother and her nudist boyfriend.” I cringed at her comment. “Instead you have fallen into this beautiful life with your three adorable children.” Ella decided to come and live with us for a year while Jordyn spent some time traveling with her new husband. Ella didn’t talk very highly of him.
“Well, thank you, Rose. You're my best friend and each day I'm grateful for the life you have given me. I would have never found true happiness without you. There. Good enough?” I smiled at her.
“Sarcastic bitch,” she said as she tried to give me a dirty look without laughing.
Turning our attention back to the pool, we saw Jeremy do a cannonball into the water, right in front of us. We tried to be pissed off at him, but the cool water felt too good on our sweaty bodies. Neither one of us could turn away from watching our husbands playing with our kids. The smiles and the laughter coming from our two men was sexy. Watching Jeremy toss around Ali and Ella, had me ogling just a bit. His arms were huge. As I glanced over, I saw Rose watching Nathan play with the twins. Hmmm…this could be interesting.
“Damn we're some lucky girls, aren’t we, Ryann?”
“Yes, we are, Rose. Yes, we are.”
THE END
Reckless Behavior
Prologue
Rose
5 years ago
“You ready sweets?” Jeremy asks as we drive up to Amouret'te.
“Not going to lie, I am nervous. But I am so fucking ready to see everything that Travis and Ari told us about. Are they still supposed to be meeting us here?”
“They’re already here.”
As my husband walks a
round his truck to help me down (being the southern gentleman that he is, I am never allowed to open my own door), I take my last deep breath.
With each step took we take, I grip Jeremy’s hand a bit harder. “Rose, we only do what you are comfortable with. We stop when you say stop.”
“Thank you. I’m good.”
Jeremy guides us directly to the main bar where we meet up with our friends. In a previous conversation, we decided a tour of Amouret'te would be best if we split up. Even though Travis and his wife Ari have only been in Las Vegas six months, we’ve known them since high school back in Santa Cruz. Travis and I briefly dated before Jeremy moved to California from Nashville, but we were more fun than serious.
“You ready sexy?” Travis asks me taking my hand and pulling my away from his husband and his wife.
“Yeah,” I shyly respond.
“Once you get over the nervousness and let yourself go, swinging can be an amazing experience.”
I nod. A few weeks ago, while out for drinks, Ari let it slip that her and Travis were looking for a new swingers club since moving here to Vegas. Needless to say, Jeremy and I were shocked, and intrigued. It’s something that we have talked about but weren’t sure how to get into.
Travis never let go of my hand as we walk through the various rooms. There is a room for any “type” of swinging you are into. Yeah, I had no idea that were so many levels to being a swinger, but there are. There’s much more to it than swapping partners.
“This room is for people who like to be watched. Let’s go in,” Travis explains to me. In the middle of the room is a gorgeously large circular bed, covered in flowing silk sheets. There are bench seats lining all of the walls for the voyeurs. Travis finds a dark corner for us and pulls me down on his lap. Instantly my body tenses. No other man besides my husband has touched me in over 8 years. “Relax, Rose. Jeremy explained your rules to me before we got here. He also told me to get you warmed up for the private room we reserved for later. And besides, it’s not like I’ve never touched you before.” I slowly started to breathe again, and let my body relax into his.
